Category: General Topics

Herbs and spices are not only tasty, they can be nutritious too. We also recommend them because people tend to think of ‘dieting’ as suffering and deprivation. Herbs and spices keep food tasty, and fresh, as well as wholesome.

Herbs and spices are a great way to add flavor without a whole bunch of artificial ingredients, and are particularly healthful if you are trying to cut down on salt for the sake of your heart health or high blood pressure.

One of the easiest ways to get better nutrition is by adding breakfast to your day. Too many people fail to eat in the mornings despite the fact that a healthy breakfast provides fuel for the rest of the day. Thanks to the joys of a microwave egg poacher, you can have a fabulous poached egg in about 30-35 seconds, depending on how runny you want it. You don’t even have to add oil, so it weighs in at a tiny 90 calories, for about 15 grams of protein, about 1/3^rd of what you need in a day. 

 

You can also mix in some herbs for a quick scramble, like dill, parsley, chives, red pepper flakes, and best of all, you can pop it onto and English muffin or piece of bread to have on the go. It is far fewer calories to make it yourself than to by it in a fast food joint, and cheaper too.

 

You can also stir in a bit of low fat goat cheese or cream cheese for a real taste treat or lovely runny mini omelet. Add some salsa on top, and even put it in a low fat, low carb tortilla for a light homemade breakfast burrito with a bit of fresh coriander, parsley, and some cumin for spice. 

With a glass of milk and a piece of fruit you have already covered protein, fruit and dairy in your day, with some greens as well, for a great nutritious start to your day.

You can also use fresh herbs in your home-cooked dishes. Add parsley to meat dishes for a fresh new twist and use oregano and basil to spice up spaghetti sauce, roasted vegetables, bean and pasta soup, and more.

Herbs contain valuable antioxidants to build the body’s immunity, and they add delightful flavor that enhances your meal and cuts down on food cravings. The more seasoned variety you have, the less likely you will be to munch out of control. 

 Cravings are typically not about being hungry, but seeking a special flavor. Some would even argue that the craving is your body telling you that an essential nutrient is missing in your diet. I think I used to crave onions a lot because of the vitamin C.

 For ice cream addicts, add nuts to your dish for an extra boost of heart-healthy nutrients. Or, you can make your own fruit based topping with fruit in the microwave, plus some cinnamon, nutmeg, mint, lemon and so on. You can even make your own sorbets and add spices to them to make them more flavorful. Dress up your plain vanilla, without a whole bunch of sugary additives. You can do the same with cakes and pies. A bit of spice added makes for a more satisfying  dessert.

And best of all, the more you cook for yourself, the more you will have control over the calories you take in. Plus, you’ll be able to make food exactly the way you want it. In addition, you will likely save money as well. Whenever I go to a restaurant, for example, I always order something I have never had before, and then I try to duplicate it at home.

 

Of course, years of cooking with herbs and seasonings has made this easy for me, but if you pay attention read labels, menus and so on, plus do the old sniff test in the spice aisle, and snap off a twig or two to taste in the fresh herb aisle, you’ll be able to start experimenting, identifying, and eating well in no time.

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Proper Nutrition on the Go

Everyone worries about getting proper nutrition, but in this hectic-paced world we live in, where fast food abounds, actually eating right can be a very challenging task.

 The lifestyle of an average American is crammed with chores, which makes us cram goodness knows what in our mouths. Between juggling work, family, and outside commitments, people have come to believe that they have no time to cook.

 
Creating a nutritious meal for the family when you are all on the run is challenging enough. Trying to balance your  daily nutrition requirements can be even harder. Add to that special diets, like vegetarian, vegan, or lactose intolerant, for example, and you can have a nightmare on your hands.

Fortunately, MyPyramid is here to help, at  http://www.mypyramid.gov

 
The FDA has put up resources to help you calculate your daily requirements, and the best sources for each, so you can make every meal, and even every mouthful, count.

 

One size does not fit all when it comes to food and nutrition, which is why the have designed these interactive tools.  MyPyramid Plan offers you a personal eating plan with the foods and amounts that are right for you. You can get started with the MyPyramid Plan quickly and easily at the site.

MyPyramid Tracker offers a detailed assessment of your food intake and physical activity level. You can also use the advice “Inside the Pyramid” section to help you

• Make smart choices from every food group.
• Find your balance between food and physical activity/exercise
• Get the most nutrition out of your calories.
• Stay within your daily calorie needs to maintain weight or even lose weight.

There are a few limitations to the site that you need to be aware of.  MyPyramid food patterns are designed for the general public ages 2 and over. They are not therapeutic diets for specific health conditions. Those with a chronic health condition should always  consult with a health care provider to find a dietary plan that is right for them, particularly for conditions like diabetes.

 

But it is a quick easy way to start thinking a bit more about sound nutrition and educating yourself about what you can eat each day for maximum nutrition.

 

A lot of people turn to vitamins and supplements, but ideally you should be able to get balanced nutrition from the food you eat. 

The useful sample menus should get you started with a nutritional eating lifestyle you can sustain both short and  long term without driving yourself crazy or taking too long cooking and shopping. So you can have more time to sit down, eat, and savor!

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Blind Alley (An Eve Duncan Forensics Thriller)
by Iris Johansen
1 out of 5 stars Far-fetched, badly written drivel

After Fatal Tide I swore I would never read another of her books, but then this got such good reviews, so I decided to give it a try. It was nice to see Joe and Eve but the story was about Jane, and teens are really not that interesting, especially not her burgeoning sexuality, and attraction for a con man she lambastes at every turn. Trevor the likeable but unpredictable villain is sure to be back, as the author quite proudly tells us to look forward to the next book soon. If it is anything like this one, give it a miss.

There is no hero, no villain, and the whole nonsense with Eve mourning her dead daughter and never being able to forgive Joe for wanting to give her closure is too repetitive. These characters are like robots who lurch in response to stimuli. The whole engine running on the fuel of a serial killer killing women around the world who look like Jane is just too unbelievable and really not that interesting.

The whole novel was strung together episodically like a soap opera. Really dull. The ending was delivered with the sequel in mind and thus totally cheats people reading for so many pages. Get it out of the library if you must, but otherwise, save your money and time.

Many men and women are interested in getting fit, but don’t know where to start. Or, they start, but don’t keep it up because they get bored or feel like it’s a lot of hard work.

But you can get into the mood and the move in a lot of different ways that don’t involve hours on a treadmill or stairclimber, or spending a fortune on gym membership or equipment.

The most important way to stay fit and lose weight is to stay on the move. It takes 2000 calories to put on a pound, but 3500 to burn one off.

But exercise does not have to be a chore, or something you need to set aside hours for. The good news is that even 10 minutes a day can help—and new research has also shown that 4 sessions of 10 minutes a day is actually better for you than 40 minutes of sustained exercise.

Not only does it help you stay physically fit and trim, exercise also enhances your mood. Often you can even meet a lot of great like-minded people who will encourage you to stay fit.

The easiest way to exercise is the 10,000 steps a day rule. You can get an inexpensive pedometer to help keep you on track. Walking is a tremendous way of staying in shape for many men and women. You can gradually begin walking more with each passing day. In time, you can build up to the 10,000 step a day level.

You can also carry two water bottles and/orswing your arms more vigorously, to burn even more calories. Walking up hill or up stairs can also increase the impact of the workout and the number of calories burned.

Walking to the store instead of taking the car, or, not grabbing the first parking spot, but actually parking further away from the store entrance, can all help you meet your 10000 step goal.

Taking the stairs instead of the elevator, both up and down counts. Stepping from side to side while you wait for a bus or train works too, and actually exercises another set of helpful muscles. To increase your heart rate when walking, take smaller, more numerous strides per minute instead of longer, fewer ones.

A dog is also a great way to keep fit, and he is a mood booster too. Just remember, a puppy is a 15 year marriage commitment, til death do you part, usually its death. At the same time, though, there are tens of thousands of dogs looking for a home at www.petfinder.org if you feel that a canine pal will help keep you on track with your fitness goals.

Other daily activities which you can include would be golfing, especially if you carry your own clubs, and gardening.

Swimming is another huge calorie burner with low impact on your joints, something to consider if you are trying to lose weight without stress and strain to yourself or your joints. But you can’t do it literally anywhere (even in a plane!) the way you can with walking.

The worst exercise is none at all, so look at your daily schedule and try to see where you can add a few steps here and there to get your 10,000 every day. Every step counts on your path to better fitness.

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Today, many men and women (and children) around the globe, but particularly in America, are significantly overweight. As a result, a growing number of people find themselves starting different diet programs all the time, going for fad diet after fad diet hoping for some sort of miracle for them being overweight.

Unfortunately, most people who embark on a diet plan fail to lose weight. Or, even if they lose, it often not only creeps right back on, but in many cases, it rebounds back again, so that they end up even heavier than they were before they started attempting to diet. Dieting can cause you to put on weight because you are playing with your metabolism in a potentially dangerous way.

Many of the fad diets being promoted are hazardous to a person’s health. While you may lose weight at the outset on one of these diet plans or programs, many of these plans are not designed to promote a healthy and balanced eating lifestyle which you can sustain long-term in order to keep the weight off.

In the final analysis, when it comes to healthy living and reaching and maintaining an appropriate weight, the only true course of action in which you can follow is a balanced diet and exercise, and those are not things that you can get out of a pill bottle or a box.

By eating a balanced diet, you will be able to maintain the energy and nutrition levels needed to keep your body running like a well-fuelled and well-oiled machine.

For those of you who hate counting calories, the facts are sad but true. To gain a pound takes 2000 calories. To LOSE one, takes 3500, because your body stores fat to later be used for energy.

Do the math! Only regular exercise or physical activity is going to help you budge the pudge!

Regular exercise will also help you maintain a healthy, toned and trim body, and a toned body helps you burn more fat, again, because your body is operating efficiently.

Through a balanced diet and regular exercise, you can not only reach your weight goal, you can get the pounds off and keep them off.

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3.0 out of 5 stars Another solid but average thriller

This is yet another addition to the ‘shag the suspect’/victim the FBI guy is supposed to be protecting line of romantic suspense books. I think it might have been better as a dark book. Relying on the obnoxious dog with an eating disorder and diarrhea in order to get them out of various disasters is just too cutesy and ridiculous for words. The villain is motiveless, so none of the very rushed ending of the book really ties together.

Sam McCabe is great, but his sidekicks Wynne and “Rambo Barbie” Gardner and her “J. Lo” posterior are just very irritiating. The book is so repetitive that this is probably why. She uses whole sentences almost verbatim for the couple of love scenes in the book. The instant love affair is also wildly improbable but this is all par for the course in this genre. They never have a real conversation once they get past the ‘so what is your family like’ stage. Also, does every Romantic suspense novel have to be set in New Orleans these days? It must be putting off tourism to the city like nobody’s business, with people thinking they’re going to be murdered at any moment!

Finally, the heroine, Maddie. She swings wildly from quivering little girl afraid of the dark to another Rambo Barbie sex goddess without any consistency.

An enjoyable read, but don’t look for any heat or depth, just a mildly interesting way to pass the time.

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Book Review: Dark Magic
(The Carpathians (Dark) Series, Book 4)
by Christine Feehan

1.0 out of 5 stars Gross and offensive

I have read and enjoyed the Carpathian novels in the past, about 5 or 6 of them, but this one truly disgusted me.

Gregori the Dark one has engineered Savannah in the womb by making his blood part of hers when he helps her mother Raven. He has also tricked her into intimacy for years as a child by posing as her beloved pet wolf. Really pervy.

We are told that Carpathians cannot live without their lifemate and so he will go over to evil if he does not have her. He is so close to the edge he might as well be over it. He has waited twenty three years for her after all-though after a thousand of not turning bad we find this hard to believe.

Despite Savannah’s continuous protests, he takes her as his lover and partner. But there is no tender lovemaking-he nearly rips her to pieces in every sense of the word in an appalling scene which goes on for over 50 pages!

I do get the blood part, really, but the gratuitous violence and rape in this book is simply not what I expect from a romance.

Nor does his terrible behavior get mitigated in anyway when he uses his saliva with all of its Carpathian healing properties to ‘heal’ her and of course make the moves on her at the same time. Really graphic, take my word for it.

There is just too much nonconsensual sexual activity in this book for any sensible modern woman reader to be comfortable with. I gave up after 100 pages, the book was so crude, violent and graphic in its portrayal of his betrayals and rape of the heroine. I will not even go into the terrible repetitive writing, with the use of hunger, need and erotic used about 4 times on every page. The shocking violence should be enough to deter any true seeker of a romantic read. 343 words