Health and Fitness

Yoga is a very perfect exercise for children. It helps to promote good health. In addition, it helps to overcome stress that accompanies children in the learning age. Here are some top ten tips that would be helpful in teaching yoga to kids.

1. To motivate the kid to learn yoga, you should initially teach the benefits of yoga before teaching the postures and be a role model to the child by practicing yoga regularly.

2. An important factor which is needed while teaching yoga postures for kids is to remain patient. If the child is very energetic, then make him to do the postures that demand energy rather than simple breathing exercises. Once the child calms, make him do breathing exercises. Do not let them strain too much; they may lose interest if they are too tired.

3. Initially, introduce simple breathing exercises rather than complicated postures. If the child is very young, teach them with fun by saying how the air he is inhaling entering the lungs and driving all the toxins. They will feel interested and will do the inhalation and exhalation appropriately with the same imagination.

4. Once the kid is used to breathing exercises, start introducing simple postures. Use videos or visual charts to teach the postures in a step by step manner. Do not force them to attain the exact position right on day one. A simple yoga posture that children love to learn in the initial days is the elephant posture. Just ask them to bend at the waist and challenge them to touch the ground with their palms. Then, slowly teach them not to bend near the knees. You can select other postures with animal names such as cobra pose, fish, crow and downward-dog pose and such.

5. Do not expect the child to remember all the exercises you taught him. Let them take their own time. To increase their ability to learn, ask them to teach you the exercises they know.

6. As children are very little and will get tired very easily, encourage them to take short breaks after strenuous exercises. It is also essential not to retain any posture for a very long time. Children below the age of six years should not practice any posture for more than a minute and the entire session should not be more than 15 minutes. For children above six years of age, the session can be up to 25 minutes.

7. Children always keep nibbling some food. Make sure that the kid does not eat any food half hour before yoga practice.

8. Before starting the yoga session, make sure to practice certain warm-up exercises. However, warm up should not eat up all the energy of the kid.

9. To encourage the kids, reward them with a small gift, whenever they do correct postures.

10. If the kid is bored to practice with you, involve his friends to make him feel enthusiastic.

By following the simple tips given above, it is very easy to train the child for yoga and give them a gift that is beneficial to them throughout their life.

Summer’s fun has faded and now it’s time to crank up the heat, grab a cozy throw, wrap your cold hands around a cup of hot tea and perhaps curl up with a good book.

Well, that would be nice in a parallel universe. The thing is, you have to jump up early, make sure the family has a healthy breakfast, and get everyone out the door in one piece. And… you’re faced with frigid weather conditions.

The last thing you need to worry about is the oh-so-dreadful sniffles, which then turn into a sore throat, accompanied by a nasty cough and fever, which inevitably represents lost wages you were counting on. Let’s not even talk about the growing pile of dirty laundry you can‘t bring yourself to do.

So, how do you stay sniffle-free? What can you do to increase your chances of breezing through the winter healthy and strong, immune to the sea of sickness surrounding you?

I’ve decided to share what works for my family. Following are seven ways to keep your body’s defenses on the up and up. These tips will help keep you on your feet performing all the duties beckoning to you.

1. Take probiotics. Available at your local health food store, this supplement boosts your immune system’s defenses. Swallow a capsule or two each morning before you head out the door. It’s a simple and quick way to help fight the flu by preventing it.

2. Add a teaspoon of organic apple cider vinegar to a glass of water, 1-3 times a day. The vinegar kills the bacteria that can make you sick. It also has been known to give one an overall feeling of increased energy and well-being.

3. Eat garlic. A natural antibiotic, this often-avoided food has medicinal value that will not only keep the vampires away, but the doctor, too. The body doesn’t become immune to garlic as it would a prescription antibiotic, therefore you can reap the positive benefits continually.

4. Take a good multivitamin. Provide your body with all the ammunition you can to combat the germs it will come into contact with. In our polluted environment, we need all the help we can get.

5. Make healthy food choices. Fuel your body with balanced nutrition so it will be strong and function properly. The more nutrition you consume, the stronger your immune system will be. Treat your body well and it will do the same for you.

6. Wash your hands! Germs are on the rampage these days and cleanliness is vital to your health. You never know what illness lurks on doorknobs or shopping carts. Keep a big bottle of hand sanitizer in your car as well as a small one in your purse or pocket.

7. Rest. Get to sleep early and stay well rested. Enough sleep cannot only enhance your immune system, but give you that extra ‘pep in your step’ you need to make it through the day.

These seven suggestions should carry you through winter’s cold and flu season sniffle-free.

You wonder why she’s glaring at you over breakfast and notice the way she slams the door as she leaves without a goodbye kiss. It’s not until an hour later that you glance at the calendar and get a sickening feeling in your stomach. It’s your anniversary… and you’ve forgotten all about it. Don’t worry, here you’ll find some great anniversary ideas!

What to do as soon as you remember

Don’t panic and ring her up to wish her a happy anniversary, thus admitting you’d forgotten about it to begin with. Instead, send her a coy text message or email along the lines of ‘I hope you’ve kept tonight free.’ Don’t make mention of the day or any specific plans (easy, as you don’t have any); this will pique her interest.

What to do in the next 1-3 hours

Make plans and make them good. It doesn’t have to be an expensive dinner, though that can go a long way. It should be something that she will enjoy; seeing a play she’s wanted to see for awhile, going on a boat on the river – anything you know she’d love and you’d usually do anything to get out of. Ring around until you have a reservation somewhere.

Then…

Call her or send her a text or email to tell her you’ll pick her up at 7 or 8 or whenever. Also give her an idea of what to wear, i.e; if it calls for her to break out her little black dress or not.

Lunchtime

Go Shopping. If you’re at work this is what lunch breaks are made for and if you only have an hour then you’ll have to do it fast. Steer clear of flowers and chocolate. Jewellery and perfume can be great if you get them right but choose the wrong scent or a piece she doesn’t like and it’ll look like a token gift. Again, it doesn’t have to be expensive; just make it something she’ll like and that shows you know her well.

Before you pick her up

If you have the money then spring for a taxi to take you out. It’ll add a date-feel to the whole evening and that way you can both drink without having to worry about how to get the car home. When you see her dressed up to go out tell her she looks amazing. Be sincere.

And the final tip…

Don’t forget your anniversary again. Program a reminder into your computer or your mobile phone or anything that will send you an alert a week in advance next time. It’ll be that much easier.

More than 65 percent of U.S. mothers with depression don’t receive adequate treatment, a new study has found.

Black, Hispanic and other minority mothers are least likely to receive adequate treatment. Mothers with health insurance are three times more likely to receive adequate treatment than those without insurance, wrote the researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.

“Health insurance facilitates access to adequate treatment for maternal depression. Expanding health insurance coverage to mothers with depression is a critical step in helping them get the care that they need,” study author Dr. Whitney P. Witt, an assistant professor of population health sciences, said in a news release from the university.

The analysis of national data on 2,130 mothers with depression also found that working mothers were less likely to receive adequate treatment, possibly because long work hours make it difficult for them to find time to seek treatment. This means that workplaces could prove a useful location for depression intervention.

“Services like employee-assistance programs can help these mothers get screened and treated, even if they are unable to visit a provider or a mental health professional in the health-care setting,” co-author Kristin Litzelman, a population health sciences doctoral student, said in the release. “Since healthy employees are productive employees, it’s often a win-win for employers to offer benefits that support employee mental health.”

Depression in mothers can have a major impact on the entire family, especially on the health and well-being of their children, the researchers noted. Treating depression in mothers can improve the long-term health of their families.

Health-care providers need to understand the racial, ethnic and educational disparities that affect treatment of mothers with depression in order to intervene and help these patients get the care they need, the study authors noted.

The study was released online in advance of publication in an upcoming print issue of the Journal of Behavioral Health Services and Research.

Sleep experts say habitually sleeping more than 10 hours can be indicative of other medical problems

(CNN) -- Instead of feeling crisp and refreshed, Jesse Wu wakes up sluggish after 12 hours of sleep.

"If I sleep the right amount, I feel really good," said the 25-year-old who lives in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois. "If I sleep too long, I feel groggy throughout the whole day."

Like Wu, some feel exhausted after long hours of rest.

"Many people will tell you, they sleep a little worse when they sleep a long time on weekends," said Dr. Daniel Kripke, co-director of Scripps Clinic Sleep Center in La Jolla, California. "Too much long sleep on weekends does not seem to make people feel better." But he acknowledged that the reasons haven't been determined.

For years, doctors have warned about the dangers of not getting enough shuteye -- traffic accidents, weight gain, decreased productivity and immune protection, but the effects of oversleeping are not well-understood. There isn't medical evidence to recommend that people who sleep long hours should change their habits, Kripke said.

Daylight saving time ends this Sunday, giving sleepers a bonus hour of sleep.

Wu savors his sleep. "I really enjoy it," he said. In the morning, he needs five alarms -- each with a different sound -- that he smacks as he lumbers out of bed.

Like many professionals, Wu sleeps little on the weekdays (about five hours) and makes up for it on weekends, spending eight to 12 hours blissfully hibernating. Sometimes, after a long stretch, he wakes up too tired to function.

"After I've gotten so much sleep, the first situation is I fall asleep at 10 p.m., even though I've gotten 12 hours of sleep, because I feel so groggy," said Wu, who works as a membership coordinator for a professional association.

This is known as sleep drunkenness, when a person hovers between sleep and wakefulness, said Dr. Lisa Shives, medical director at Northshore Sleep Medicine in Evanston, Illinois. In one case, a patient who had sleep drunkenness came to the emergency room because his wife thought he had a stroke.

"They'll wake up and be in this weird state of sleep drunkenness," Shives said. "If it's really severe, you're not going to be in any state to make decisions. If it's just regular [case], a lot of us feel 'blah,' and most of us have to carry on and get going on a shower and cups of coffee."

Oversleeping once in a while doesn't present serious health risks, experts say.

But if you habitually sleep excessively, it could be the result of an underlying health problem. And it could be cutting into your life span.

"There's been at least two epidemiological studies to show that if people get less than five hours, or more than 10 hours of sleep, it increases their mortality," said Michael Breus, the clinical director of the sleep division at Southwest Spine and Sports in Scottsdale, Arizona.

A 2007 Finnish study found that the mortality risks increased by about 20 percent for people who slept more than eight hours. That same year, a British study found that people who slept five hours or less and those who slept more than eight hours also faced increased risks. Another study showed that people who routinely slept more than eight hours a night had a greater chance of stroke than others with less sleep.

Scientists say sleep and longevity are somehow associated, but there might be confounding factors.

"We don't know if it's the long sleep. It could be something else causing illness and the long sleep," said Kripke, who has researched the topic for 35 years.

Here are possible factors for habitually excessive sleep, known as hypersomnia:

• Problem: Poor-quality sleep

A person could sleep the recommended amount, but still feel tired because he or she got poor quality sleep.

"Oftentimes, we only think of sleep in terms of minutes -- but that's really the quantity of sleep. In fact, there's a quality of sleep," said Breus, author of the book "Beauty Sleep."

The average sleep cycle takes 90 minutes to complete. It starts from stage 1, the lightest sleep, and progresses to deeper levels through stage 4. Then, it continues to rapid eye movement (REM) sleep when the person dreams.

"When you have poor quality sleep, you spend a lot of time in stage 1 sleep," said Shives, a spokesperson for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. "You will tend to want to sleep longer to make up for the quality and increasing quantity."

Some people naturally thrive on little sleep. And then, there are others who flourish after nine hours.

"It's only when you go less than six and a half hours of sleep, we call you a short sleeper; more than 9.5 hours, we call you a long sleeper," Shives said. "We think there's something genetic."

A study published this year in the journal Science identified a mutated gene in a mother-daughter pair that allowed them to function on six hours of sleep. The research conducted by University of California, San Francisco scientists is believed to be the first to discover a gene, hDEC2 involved in regulating sleep length. This finding could someday lead to a better understanding of why some people require more sleep.

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) reports that the total number of cases of E. Coli O157 linked to Godstone Farm in Surrey is 90.

Two children remain in hospital, both of whom are described by the hospital today as 'stable.'

ENDS

Notes to editors:

• Escherichia coli (commonly referred to as E. coli) O157 bacteria usually cause diarrhoea which settles within seven days without treatment. The diarrhoea may contain blood. Occasionally, serious kidney and blood complications can occur. Good hygiene is very important in preventing person-to person spread and small children should be supervised with hand washing after using the toilet and before eating.
• E. coli is a species of bacteria commonly found in the intestines of humans and animals. There are many different types of E. coli, and while some live in the intestine quite harmlessly, others may cause a variety of diseases. The bacterium is found in faeces and can survive in the environment.
• To avoid getting strains capable of causing intestinal disease people should avoid eating undercooked meat, in particular inadequately cooked minced beef and avoid drinking unpasteurised milk. Individuals working with uncooked meats or on farms should pay close attention to good hygiene practices, as should visitors to farms.
• It is important to always wash your hands with soap after going to the toilet and before and after handling food.
• Hand washing in young children should be supervised, especially after handling animals or their surroundings, for instance on a visit to a farm.

You keep on practicing all the possible ways to lose weight like dieting, exercise and diet pills, but still they haven’t give that promising result. Then, the fault is with you. It’s correct. It is just because of lack of strong determination to lose weight. First, stabilize your thoughts and practice the below given measures, then you will definitely observe a fall in your weight.
• Step one as said above, make a strong determination to lose weight. Do not let anything come on the way.
• Plan appropriately. While planning take a squared approach, like consider each and every detail like your health condition, number of pounds you are overweight, foods you like the most and those you hate, drugs currently being used and your daily routine. May be consulting your doctor is the best. He will help you out in planning considering all the above factors.
• Now, coming to the actual practices dieting is of great importance. Eat to live but not live to eat. Consume only the amount your body needs. If you consume excess, then all of it gets deposited in the form of fat. The number of calories you burn should be greater than or at least equal to the calories needed by the body.
• Consume fiber rich foods that give the feeling of satiety very easily. Fresh fruits and vegetables are rich source of fiber.
• Drink plenty of water. Avoid sweetened fruit drinks.
• Next to dieting, practice of regular physical exercise is important. If your body doesn’t cooperate, start with something simple like brisk walking, and cycling. Walking alone will help you to burn a great number of calories. If you are youngster you can even consider attending sports training sessions. You can improve the health of entire family by involving them in practices.
• If your daily routine doesn’t give you time for exercises make it a part of your work. Wondering how? It is just very simple, move as much as you can. Do not take the help of others to get a file or book. Prefer steps over elevator. If you are out for shopping prefer to hold them yourself without taking the help of a cart.
• If you are very strict and nothing seems to work consult your doctor. Be frank about the workouts and dietary habits that you have been adopting. If obesity runs in your family history, then it will take a long time, you will reduce but not to the extent of models. Basing on the condition he will either recommend diet pills or surgery in worst cases.
• Use of diet pills is not compensation to dieting and exercises. They are used to boost the overall weight loss regime. While purchasing the diet pills, check if they are approved by FDA. Be cautious; never overdose with an intention to lose weight fast. It would result in side effects.
• Last approach where the diet pills fail to work is surgeries. There are a variety of surgeries that mainly act by reducing the stomach and small intestine volume. Everyone is not a candidate for weight loss surgery. Only people whose body mass index is above 40 are ideal candidates for weight loss surgery. Surgical procedures should be followed by strict dietary habits and workouts.

Enlarge ImageI have six sex tips for you.
1. Explore your wife's sexual potentials
2. Tease your wife. Anticipation makes the act even more pleasurable.
3. Explore your wife's fantasies
4. Listen to your wife. Give more than you take.
5. Don't play by any rules. Create your own world. Do what works for you . . . what excites and satisfies your wife.
6. Mind your wife. Understand her body language. Be there when she needs you. The six sex tips above are all you need to satisfy your wife sexually and to enjoy better sex. You will notice that these sex tips do not say anything about sex positions or even the procedure or method of sexual intercourse, as most experts do. The reason is simple. Sexual positions and 'special methods' of sexual intercourse suggested by sex experts are not the things that lead to sexual satisfaction. Sexual satisfaction and better sex are emotions that your wife feels after sexual intercourse. They have nothing to do with your sexual positions. In fact, many 'state of the art' sexual positions recommended by sex merchants are far from practical. Don't waste your time. The six sex tips above are really all your need to satisfy your wife sexually. Look at it this way. Your wife is your customer. To keep her coming again and again, you need to satisfy her yearnings, her wishes, her wants and desires. And more importantly, you need to see things from her perspective. No matter how well intentioned you are, you won't satisfy her sexually if you don't listen to her and see sex from her perspective. Remember . . . she is your customer. And the customer is king. Follow the six sex tips above.
Offer her what she asks
Listen more than you talk
See things from her perspective
Tease her
Break the rules
Explore her fantasies
Live for her
Be present when she needs you She will love you for it. And . . . she will keep asking for more. That's sexual satisfaction. Never again will you have to worry about her looking elsewhere. About The Author: Samson Itoje is a relationship expert. He offers free sex tips at http://www.true-love-relationship-advice.com/sex-tips.html. Looking for love advice? Talk to Samson Itoje

Are you looking for a no-BS way to achieve rock hard six pack abs by June? Then stop wasting your time and hard-earned money on worthless fat burning pills and useless tips in the fitness magazines. Anyone interested in fitness desires great looking abs and everyone has the ability to achieve firm, rippled and well-toned abdominal muscles along with a lean and trim waist.

Just beware of accepting any myths about instant flat stomachs and targeted fat reduction around the waist. You want guaranteed solid abs? Then you must exercise hard enough and eat clean enough to burn the fat covering up those cherished muscles.

As you exercise, you consume energy measured in calories. When you consume enough to deplete the available energy, and enough to reduce the sugars that convert easily to energy, the body goes after stored energy. That stored energy is largely in the form of fat deposits in adipose tissue. But that process takes place non-selectively. Unfortunately, you do not get to choose which fat deposits the body converts into energy. That means you cannot target belly fat specifically by working on your abs. The effect is still achievable, but doing abdominal exercises alone does not target that fat.

When you focus your exercise on the abdominal muscles, you will build strength in that area by increasing the mass in those muscles. That is helpful because it builds a firm, strong layer of muscle which helps keep the stomach and other internal organs well inside the plane defined by your hips. It also results in a solid amount of energy burned by your body since the abdominal muscles are relatively large as compared to many other muscles. However, working the abdominals does not directly target a reduction of belly fat.

There is no gadget, supplement or drug currently on the market that will do that safely and effectively. It can only be done through proper diet and regular, moderate to heavy exercise. There is no shortcut to a trim waist, at least not yet.

In order to reduce body fat around your mid-section, you must work all of the large muscle regions of your body to force your body to burn more energy than you are consuming. The best way to do this is to work the larger muscle regions of the body, such as the legs, chest, shoulders, back and arms, as wells as the abdominal muscles as part of a regular weight lifting routine.

By adding weight lifting to your regular fitness routine, your body will consume a larger amount of energy and burn fat much longer following your workout than performing cardio alone. After a strenuous weight lifting workout, the body will continue to burn fat for up to 24 hours! The result is more calories burned, more weight lost, and more fat converted to energy.

So, basically, you are targeting your mid-section body fat by targeting the all of your body fat. Some people store more fat around the middle more readily than others and there is also no control over where the body accesses fat for energy. Gender and genetics make a difference in how and where your body stores and burns fat as well.

In order to achieve the most fat-burning benefits, you have to approach muscle fatigue in your workouts. Proper diet is just as important as exercise to achieving six pack abs this summer. You must commit yourself to a lean healthy diet with meals spread out 5-6 times during the day to really rev up your metabolism. I have other articles specifically addressing the proper diet and nutrition to achieve the best results.

When exercising the abdominal muscles, there is no need to perform hundreds of crunches. Done correctly, 20-30 reps per set is optimal.

For a great ab workout, warm up and try the following:

Lie on your back, with your knees bent and heels on the floor. Raise your torso up halfway, hold for half a second and return to the starting position. Keep your hands on top of your head and do not use them to pull yourself up. Do 20 reps.

Then, immediately perform 20 reps of the following; lie on your back with your legs raised straight up in the air. Then lift your shoulders off the floor, reach for your toes with your hands, and hold for 2 seconds.

Finally, return your knees to the bent position with your heels on the floor and hold your body at a 45 degree angle (the half-way sit-up position). Holding your hands together in front of your torso, twist to the left until your fingers touch the floor and then all the way to the right until your fingers touch the floor. Complete 20 reps of this exercise.

Once you have done all three of these abdominal exercises back to back, rest for one minute and then repeat the cycle two more times for an amazing ab workout! Exercise your abs hard in this way 3 times per week, feel the burn, and you will definitely see results. Author Resource:- Jay Miller is fitness enthusiast dedicated to finding the perfect balance between nutrition and exercise to help you maximize results for a leaner, stronger, and healthier you. Learn more at http://www.PerfectBalanceFitness.

There are things that make a mother's heart "smile". Things that make us feel like we're doing a great job as a mom and that all is right with the world.

Like most moms, my list includes things like listening to my kids in the midst of major belly laughter, cuddling with them, watching them sleep, 'catching' them play together in some great imaginary world, reading together, listening to them pray, going for a walk with them, peaceful moments of sweetness, watching them run and jump and play, holding hands with them, really big hugs, giving them the freedom to really be kids, witnessing them learn a new skill or a new piece of knowledge, spending quality family time together... the list goes on forever!

Sure, motherhood has its share of less-than-rosy moments, too, but overall we are so blessed to be moms.

I notice that one of the things that really makes my heart smile occurs when I see "it" all come together. When I can see the principles that I've been teaching in practice and writing about for so many years, the principles of Health and Wellness that I believe so strongly in, come to fruition in my own children, it's a feeling of fulfillment that's hard to match.

When it comes to creating optimal health and happiness, I use "The Wellness Formula" as a guide. The Wellness Formula simply states that in order to achieve a state of Wellness, we must make lifestyle choices that are pure and sufficient (meeting our body's innate genetic requirements for health), while simultaneously reducing or eliminating toxic and deficient lifestyle choices. We need to make these healthier choices consistently over an extended period of time in order to create optimal health and happiness.

"Lifestyle" can be broken down into 3 main components: how we move, how we eat and how we think. These categories encompass every component of our lives: how much and how often we move, what type of movement we do, what we eat, how we eat, the quality and quantity of our food, what supplements we take, our stress levels and our response to stress, life balance, sleep patterns, what we're feeding our brains, our belief systems, our emotions, our outlook on life, our spiritual connection... everything!

In each of these areas health and balance are created when we add purity and sufficiency, and limit toxicity and deficiency.

It's not about being perfect, it's about making better choices more often. We have a mantra in our family, "Fill up with Health FIRST." This means, make sure you give your body, mind and soul what it needs everyday... do that consistently. You don't have to say "never" to the toxic and deficient things, just say "yes" to them less often, and always choose pure and sufficient things first.

In the case of my kids, I love it when I see them eating and enjoying pure and sufficient foods, or when I see them moving their bodies with sheer power, energy and joy, or when I notice shared moments of perfect happiness and connection with them. I know that in these moments, they're meeting the needs of their bodies and hearts. I know it's the best chance they have to create optimal health and balance.

Since I'm so passionate about Wellness-based nutrition, some of my heart's biggest "smiles" happen when I prepare an ultra healthy, delicious meal for my family, loaded with fresh, clean foods. There's something about the entire process, the entire scene, that resonates deeply with me and makes me feel like I'm doing something really important for them. When I take the time to prepare a healthy meal, set a nice table for my family (nothing fancy, trust me!), and we all sit down together, pray, share great conversation and everyone enjoys the great food... ahhhh... fulfillment!

(You and I both know that this scene doesn't happen every single meal! C'mon, we ARE a real family, too! I just do my best to create this setting for the majority of our meals each week.)

It doesn't even have to be an entire meal that elicits this response in me. I feel the same thing in the mornings when I start their day with a heaping plate of fruit. They usually have 4 -6 different fresh fruits on their plate each breakfast. I still get a kick out of it each and every morning - how happy they are with their plate of fruit and how quickly they gobble it up! I follow it up with a serving of protein shortly after. A little thing like that gives me the satisfaction of knowing we're meeting their nutritional needs right from the get-go each day.

Who knows what toxicity and deficiency they'll encounter as their day goes on... as their life goes on! For now, my heart is smiling and fulfilled when I see their overall health and happiness being created one meal at a time, one moment at a time.