Beets
Beets are one of the best sources of folate, a nutrient which lowers your blood levels of homocysteine, an inflammatory amino acid produced by the body.

One cup of beets provides only 60 calories, no fat, about 40 percent of your daily value for folic acid and four grams of fiber. Enjoy beets raw, sliced…. or prepare a delicious beet salad by tossing them with olive oil and a splash of lemon.

The leaves and stems are also packed with nutrition - sauté with garlic, olive oil, kosher salt, ground black pepper and dig in!

Cabbage
Part of the cruciferous vegetable family, one cup of chopped cabbage contains 20 calories, two grams fiber and is loaded with sulforaphane, a cancer fighting chemical that’s been shown to decrease cellular damage throughout the body. Add cabbage to your salads, order steamed ‘moo shoo vegetables’ at your local Chinese restaurant (request sauce on the side and go easy!), or prepare low-calorie coleslaw.

Guava
Guava is a tropical super fruit. One cup provides 110 calories, 376 milligrams Vitamin C (that’s more than 300 percent of the daily value), 699 milligrams potassium and nine grams of fiber!Guava also provides a hearty dose of lycopene - an antioxidant that appears to fight prostate cancer (when it comes to lycopene, most people only think about tomatoes).

Swiss Chard
This vegetable’s greatest health benefit comes in the form of lutein and zeaxanthin - a matched pair of antioxidants - found in high concentrations in the tissue of the macula.

Because they absorb 40 to 90 percent of blue light intensity, these nutrients act like sunscreen for your eyes. Studies have shown that eating foods rich in lutein and zeaxanthin can increase the pigment density in the macula-and greater pigment density means better retina protection, and a lower risk of macula degeneration. One cup steamed Swiss chard provides only 35 calories.

by Joy Bauer, M.S., R.D., C.D.N. 

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/joybauernutrition/21604/4-healthy-foods-you-should-be-eating/

your ads here (468x60) - after 1st post.

Ingredients:

crushed garlic
sliced onion
ground or sliced ginger
rice or leftover cooked rice
chicken
onion leaks, cut into small pieces
water
salt
pepper
Procedure:

1. Cut the chicken in serving pieces.
2. Put it in a casserole and add about half a cup of water.
3. Let it boil til it dry. When oil from the chicken comes out, saute the garlic, ginger and onion.
4. Add the rice and put some water about 3/4 of the pan.
5. Boil til the rice became very soft. When its thickening, add more water (depends on the consistency you like).
6. Put some salt and pepper. You may add a little sugar or msg.
7. When done, add the onion leaks.

Serve while hot. You may add boiled eggs.

Sleep experts agree: If you want to be fully alert and in a good mood, creative and energetic all day long, you might need to spend at least 1/3 of your life sleeping. Over an average lifetime, that’s a commitment of nearly twenty-four years in bed!

Most of us feel we can’t afford to spend so much time sleeping. Motivational speakers encourage us to spend less time sleeping and more time working. They’ll try to convince you that you can condition yourself to sleep just four hours a night.

Yes, you can condition yourself to wake up after four hours. But in the long term, lack of sleep can negatively affect your career, your health and your life. Sleep is not a luxury. It is a necessity!

Sleep = Power
The process of sleep, if given adequate time and the proper environment, provides tremendous POWER. It restores, rejuvenates and energizes the body and brain. The third of your life that you should spend sleeping has profound effects on the other two thirds of your life. Appropriate sleep can enhance your:

- alertness
- energy
- mood
- body weight
- perception
- memory
- thinking
- reaction time
- productivity
- performance
- communication skills
- creativity
- safety
- good health
- longevity

The various activities of the sleeping brain play a dramatic role in regulating bodily functions (including the immune system), energising the body, and enhancing thought processes when awake. That is why it is so important to get the right quantity and quality of sleep.

http://www.simmonsbedding.com.au/About-Sleep/Understanding-Sleep/Importance-of-Sleep.asp

How to Sleep Well?

http://www.stanford.edu/~dement/howto.html

More infos

http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/8-24-2004-58321.asp

The Impact of Stress
All that epinephrine or adrenaline is produced during the stressful bouts of fight-flight, survival mode that gets turned on all too often these days.

The adrenaline is released from the adrenal gland when you are under mental pressure, and it tells the body to convert stored sugar from the liver to glucose because the energy needs of the body will increase substantially during the supposed fight-or-run-for-your-life scenario.

The bad news is that this scenario almost never plays out and the excess blood sugar that never got used up ends up being stored as fat.

One of two things can happen from a prolonged survival mode. One: Your body will keep storing up excess sugar as fat and asking for more energy from more sugar. This equals weight gain (an unpleasant side-effect of stress).

Two: All of this stress and Herculean effort continually depletes your body of its energy resources until it inevitably crumples under the overload. This can either lead to adrenal exhaustion, nervous breakdown, or a broken down immune system - thereby exposing a person to disease. The vicious circle repeats itself over and over again and people never seem to be able to get out of the rat race.

Release Your Stress
Here are some healthy habits you can integrate into your daily grind to free yourself from stress forever.

1. Cut the Caffeine: Caffeine stimulates the adrenaline release. Give up the cup of coffee and opt for the therapeutic benefits of caffeine-free herbal teas.

Or you can cut down on your caffeine intake by substituting green tea for coffee, which usually has 1/3 of the caffeine of a cup of coffee, but with the benefits of the antioxidant polyphenols.

2. Meditation: A daily meditation program is can be your number one method to decompress at the end of a busy day and release tension.

3. Take a Breather: Exhale the stress away. Specific exercises can detoxify your body and revitalize your being. Try this exercise, adapted from Chinese qigong and make your goal to slow down, smooth out, and deepen each breath.

With every exhalation, utter the word calm in your mind and breathe out the tension from a part of your body, starting from the top of your head and working your way down through each part of your body until you get to your feet. Release the remaining tension through your toes and the bottoms of your feet.

4. Cleanse the Clutter: Have you ever heard the saying that what you own soon owns you? Not only do these unnecessary items consume much of your energy for cleaning and maintenance, they also add to the clutter, making you disorganized and increasing your stress level. Cut back and let go. A good rule of thumb is that anything you haven’t used in six months can be given away to charity.

5. Lighten Your Schedule: Cut back on the commitments in your calendar of events. If you are really scrambling for some free time, try writing in a day a week to just spend alone and relax…and stick to it!

6. Reframe Your Perspective: As you move through your day, pay attention to what causes you feelings of stress. Our response has much to do with how it will affect us; by reframing our perspective on stressful situations, we can often see that the danger is largely an illusion and maintain a calm frame of mind.

I hope you take some healthy steps toward reducing daily stress. I invite you to visit often and share your own personal health and longevity tips with me.

May you live long, live strong, and live happy!

-Dr. Mao

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/drmao/5378/go-stress-free-for-a-longer-life

Welcome to denz blog! I had reinstalled my WordPress due to some glitches on the theme I used. Old posts will be back soon.

British researchers on body language have actually recorded nine types of smile after studying over a hundred distinct head gestures and facial expressions. Here are the five types, the first three of which are more common:

1) SIMPLE SMILE
The simple smile is created when the lips curve back up while the mouth is closed. This smile is commonly seen when a person is alone with happy thoughts. Shy persons also often wear a simple smile.

2) UPPER SMILE
Also known as the “How do you do? Smile,” this is formed when the mouth is slightly open and the upperteeth are seen. This is usually the greeting smile when friends meet. This is also the best smile customer service providers should use when meeting clients.

3) BROAD SMILE
This is created when the lips curve back and the mouth opens to expose both the upper and lower teeth. This smile is often associated with play and laughter. More vivacious individuals, actors, actresses, singers and campaigning politicians wear this smile. Compared to the first two smiles, the person smiling broadly appears happier, more confident, warm and approachable.

4) OBLONG SMILE/GRIMACE
The lips are drawn fully back from both upper and lower teeth forming an oblong with the lip. Compared to the first three types that are often associated with happy feelings, this type of smile is worn when one wants to be polite during a trying situation ? as when pretending to enjoy a joke.

5) LIP-IN SMILE
This is more like the upper smile except that the lower lip is drawn in between the teeth. This smile is worn when a person is flattered to meet someone who is more superior.

Knowing the five types of smile is one thing but using this knowledge to your advantage is another. By now you would have concluded that the best smile is the broad smile but you wouldn’t, of course, flash this during a wake or a funeral, or when interviewed by media on your reaction to the New York bombings.

Insecurities show with a lip-in smile. This is best avoided when meeting with competitors, marketing a product to clients or defending a thesis.

Upon hearing a corny, dilapidated and outdated joke, give the joker a simple or upper smile instead of an oblong. You would appreciate this if you were in his shoes.

And if you are very shy that you always wear a simple smile, upgrade to an upper or broad smile and notice a change in people’s reaction when they think you are now more confident.

http://www.philippinestoday.net/October2001/finesse1001.htm

Maturity is the ability to control anger and settle differences without violence or destruction. Maturity is patience. It is the willingness to pass up immediate pleasure in favor of the long-term gain. Maturity is perseverance, the ability to sweat out a project or a situation in spite of heavy opposition and discouraging set-backs. Maturity is the capacity to face unpleasantness and frustration,discomfort and defeat, without complaint or collapse. Maturity is humility. It is being big enough to say, “I was wrong.” And, when right, the mature person need not experience the satisfaction of saying, “I told you so.”

Maturity is the ability to make a decision and stand by it. The immature spend their lives exploring endless possibilities; then they do nothing.

Maturity means dependability, keeping one’s word, coming through in a crisis. The immature are masters of the alibi. They are the confused and the disorganized. Their lives are a maze of broken promises, former friends, unfinished business, and good intentions that somehow never materialize.

Maturity is the art of living in peace with that which we cannot change, the courage to change that which should be changed — and the wisdom to know the difference.

http://www.storybin.com/words/words132.shtml

At last we finished the Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Normal mode though.
Ivyn and I love using Mighty Thor, Storm, Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Iceman, and my most favorite Human Torch. All of them have good powers. We haven’t tried all in the pool but I shall try every hero as I play the hard mode.

Thanks to the cheats and tips I read on the internet. I managed to full all their skills and strengths.The most difficult villain I guess is Galactus, which I believe will be the main enemy in MUA 2. Hopefully next year it will also be available in PS2 (or if I have the money, I will buy the latest PS).

Ivyn, my bro, is always in a hurry to go to the next level that’s why we didn’t complete all the objectives. But when I’m playing alone I see to it that I wondered every place. The least part I like is the level where it’s like you are playing the old family computer. 2D and quite boring. The most challenging was with Galactus. The final part is what I love although Dr. Doom wasn’t that difficult to defeat.

If you have questions or wanna have cheats, just message me. I am now thinking what game to play next.

I went to a nearby town to check a lot that is for sale. Before I went home, I decided to buy some things at the public market. It’s getting dark so I made it quicker (shopping consumes a lot of time). As I crossed, the street the barker points to the jeepney waiting for more passengers.

I was one of the five. It’s hot inside… add the fact that summer came early. I’m just glancing to my left and right while waiting for more people to ride. Then came 2 ladies. They sit in the opposite seat facing me. They arent in my front but near enough to see them close. They look lovely specially the one with longer hair. She’s very quiet and naive. She’s pretty. Then another two rode. And to their surprise (and mine too somehow), the first two are their friends. As expected, girls had a cheery chitchats. The last 2 sit beside me.

A lady, a seat apart from me, caught my attention. She looks fine but the other one is prettier. But when I saw her smile and showed her dazzling teeth, I melt. What transpired is me staring at her. The smile is so captivating. After a while the girl look at my direction. And yeah…. I was caught! I think I blushed. But that didn’t stop me. Everytime she looks on the window, I stare at her.

I didn’t have the guts to know her. Well I’m a torpe guy. I also feel embarass on the ladies coz I am handing some fresh vegies and stuffs. No chance in short. But who knows? Maybe next time.

I’ve been a TV addict when I was younger. These days I enjoy staying on cyberspace; reading forums and browsing everything that I find interesting.

One afternoon, I just decided to watch TV. I am always changing channels specially during commercials (I hate ‘em). Then I turned on Wowowee where the host is interviewing every contestant. The man came from I think somewhere in the Visayas. He is awfully funny. His voice alone keeps me rolling in bed. I laughed and laughed in every answer. I end up pausing for a while.

It has been a long time since I’ve been that happy, that’s what I realized. It is very pleasant to have that feeling… no stress, no worries, just plain joy at those moments.

Well this blog isn’t about the show. The title is just an expression. Until now I can’t forget that feeling. I hope I have more of those moments to come. Cheers!