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Cutting Grocery Costs without Cutting Nutrition
Simple, healthy, and affordable ways to weather the rising price of food
by Karen Collins, R.D., American Institute of Cancer Research
Grocery prices are projected to increase again in 2008 – that’s following 2007’s highest annual increase in 17 years. But surviving these tough economic times doesn’t have to mean sacrificing good nutrition. Some simple strategies can help you cut food costs and eat more healthfully, too.
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Wellness Workbook
How to Achieve Enduring Health and Vitality
by John W. Travis, M.D., Regina Sara R
For more than 30 years, John W. Travis, M.D., and Regina Sara Ryan have introduced thousands to the concept of wellness, a practical whole-self approach to healthy living. From how you breathe to how you view the world, the 12 interconnected elements of the Wellness Energy System affect all aspects of your life: your disposition toward injury and illness, your relationships, your general level of happiness, and beyond. In an optimal state of wellness, you are less prone to disease, stress, and other life-depleting factors. Thoroughly revised, THE NEW WELLNESS WORKBOOK presents a comprehensive self-assessment and hundreds of exercises and ideas to help you take control of your health and happiness.
Top 10 Food Mistakes
Food Mistake #1: You reach for multigrain bread or cereal
Foods labeled 7-grain or multigrain may seem like the healthiest choices—especially with new findings showing that a diet rich in whole grains protects against heart disease, cancer, and other ills.
The famed Nurses' Health Study documented lower rates of heart disease and stroke among whole grain eaters. Experts don't know all the reasons behind the benefits, but they do know that intact grains are rich in fiber and nutrients—including vitamin E, B vitamins, and magnesium—that are stripped away when grains are refined into flour.
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My wellness center – a free and personalized weight-loss and fitness tool
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Where the Bugs Are
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Is there a more potent symbol of purity than the fluffy white snowflake, wafting from heaven and landing--ping!--on the tip of your tongue? Well, along comes the journal Science to spoil the fun, noting that bacteria called Pseudomonas syringe are lurking at the dark heart of many an earthbound crystal of frozen water. And if Frosty the Snowman is a target, what chance do the rest of us have?
A pretty good one, actually-- if you make note of the places where the bugs lie and swat them before they can do harm. Here's an updated to-disinfect list for all the surprising places (and people) contagion clings to.
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Listing of Top Online Schools
Click here to receive a free trial of TrioThin.
More Than a Fridge Filler: Clever Uses for Baking Soda
By Olivia Kuhn-Lloyd of Intent
As elements of spring start to peak through, I’m inspired to freshen up my
beauty routine, which has always been minimal. Winter has taken its toll on my
skin and hair and enough is enough! It’s time to peal back the curtain.
Influenced by these ten beauty essentials totaling seventy-five dollars, I
started to think about glow- and shine-inducing products that I already have
on-hand and, my favorite of the bunch, baking soda.
How can my favorite multi-purpose (beauty) product enhance your grooming
routines? Read on. (More than a dusted off Redbook list, these applications for
baking soda are a compilation of research, polls, and personal use.)
Where to buy? For how much?
Baking Soda is ubiquitous. It does not vary by brand nor fall into different price brackets. It’s reliable and will always come to the siren call of your beauty needs.
It’s available. You can purchase it at supermarkets, bodegas, drug stores, and gas station mini-marts.
The price is right. The average drugstore sells baking soda for less than three dollars.
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Could fat babies mean fat toddlers?
A new study from Harvard Medical School found that babies who gained weight quickly had a sharply higher risk of obesity. The study followed close to 600 babies and found those in the top quarter of weight for their length at 6 months had a 40 percent higher risk of obesity by age 3 than smaller babies.
Question: Should I be alarmed if my baby is very large?
The best course of action is to speak with your child's pediatrician. Your child may be large for her age, but not overweight when taken in the context of her height. Also, some babies may grow rapidly at first, and their growth starts to slow as they get older. What does that mean? Your child may be overweight at 6 months, and be at a perfectly healthy weight by age 3. A pediatrician can put your individual questions in the context of your toddler's specific measurements.
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Americans who have health insurance are more likely to receive preventative healthcare, which is an important part of making sure your future is happy and healthy. Request a free health insurance quote now to get coverage.
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by Sylvia Brown, author of The Post-Pregnancy Handbook: The Only Book that Tells What the First Year After Childbirth is Really All About -- Physically, Emotionally, Sexually
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Unfortunately, fatigue is part of the postnatal period. Although sleep deprivation is almost inevitable, utter exhaustion is avoidable. Here are a few tips and recommendations on how to manage your energy levels in the weeks and months after childbirth.
While some mothers feel “back on their feet” after just a few days home from the hospital, medical studies show that fatigue generally reaches its peak two to four days after you return home. Many women also go through a slump between the eighth and tenth week after childbirth when the accumulated lack of sleep really begins to cause damage. Only 50 percent of women feel that they have regained their usual energy levels within six weeks postpartum. Twenty-five percent more feel that they are back to normal only after six months. This means that a quarter of new mothers are still suffering from fatigue and low energy more than six months after childbirth. But then, remember also that two-thirds of babies aged six to twelve months, and a third of toddlers have trouble sleeping through the night….
Most mothers find that their biggest problem is lack of sleep. A sleep cycle is made up of four phases, which in total last about 90 minutes. The last phase, deep sleep, when physical recuperation takes place and the immune system works hardest, occurs mostly early in the night. Only after the full sleep cycle is complete can the body go into REM (rapid eye movement) sleep when we dream and process all the mental stimuli accumulated during the day. If a mother is woken during any stage of her sleep cycle, she will go back to its very beginning when she falls back to sleep, thus missing out on precious REM sleep. So even if you are sleeping the same number of total hours within a 24-hour period, you may still suffer from REM sleep deprivation.
Elevated hormone levels are notorious for disturbing sleep during pregnancy. These persist for the first weeks after childbirth. Add in a newborn’s erratic sleep patterns as well as the habits of your older children, and it seems that you can’t escape the burning eyes, chills, hunger for sweets, irritability, lethargy, difficulty in concentrating, and even depression that accompany “sleep debt.”
Fortunately, it takes just two or three nights in a row of uninterrupted sleep to cure these symptoms. Most importantly, fatigue is managed through prevention: by building up energy reserves that can be called upon in times of stress and by never letting yourself become completely exhausted.
Managing your time to make rest your top priority usually means a total reorganization of your normal routine. This must be planned well ahead of your delivery. Building a network of friends and family to whom you can assign tasks (household chores, baby-sitting, shopping/cooking/washing up after a meal) ahead of the baby’s birth is the most important step you can take. The secret to surviving the postnatal period is to delegate, delegate, delegate and to forget about what you cannot delegate.
• Give your partner a list of daily responsibilities and leave him to do them at his pace and in the way he wishes to. Babies have an amazing capacity to adapt – and to express dissatisfaction. Rather than criticize, encourage the baby’s father to think about how happy he makes you when he helps you.
• Don’t assign yourself more than two tasks a day beyond those required in looking after the baby. Face each problem one step at a time. Your self-esteem will grow with each small solution.
• Keep at least one room in your home tidy and looking nice. You can go there when your spirits need a lift.
• If exhaustion threatens, get help! Ask your partner, mother or hire someone (a student for example) to come for part of the night or every other night to feed your baby expressed milk, so that you can sleep at least six hours in a row. Although it is not advisable to skip a night feeding when nursing, an exhausted mother’s urgent priority is to overcome her sleep deprivation.
• Go to bed very early. When trying to make up for lost sleep, it’s better to go to bed early rather than plan to sleep late.
• As soon as the baby is sleeping, drop everything and have a nap! Babies usually sleep longest after their bath and a feeding. Take advantage of this time slot.
• Organize your night feeds ahead of time. If you are breastfeeding and have the baby in bed with you or in a bassinet right by your bed, you can nurse while lying down. Just anticipate what you might need in the middle of the night (glass of water, snack, clean diaper, wipes, plastic bag for the dirty diaper). If the baby is in another room, prepare a comfortable chair with pillows and a blanket, along with a snack and drink for yourself. Set up a small lamp with a low-wattage bulb that you can leave on all night.
• Don’t forget to continue taking your pregnancy vitamin and mineral supplements.
• During the postpartum period, the need for good nutrition is greater than at any other time in your life. Make sure that you have good dietary habits, avoid fats and sugars, but DO NOT DIET for the first three months after childbirth. At this stage, your body needs carbohydrates for all sorts of hormonal and metabolic reasons. Strict dieting within the first three months after childbirth will lead to fatigue and failure.
• Try walking outdoors for an hour a day – this has an amazing effect on your energy levels.
• Recreation is almost as important as rest: schedule at least one fun activity each day. Plan ahead at least three occasions per month when you can go out alone with your partner or a friend. Try to organize activities with friends who also have young babies so that you can take turns watching the children.
• If your fatigue persists despite all the above measures, check with your doctor for possible anemia, potassium deficiency or thyroid malfunction – all causes of low energy.
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About Author:
Sylvia Brown wrote The Post-Pregnancy Handbook: The Only Book that Tells What the First Year After Childbirth is Really All About -- Physically, Emotionally, Sexually (Published by Griffin Trade Paperback; $14.95 US; 0-312-31626-7) in response to her own frustration at the lack of comprehensive information for the mother in the weeks and months after childbirth.
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9 Cash-Saving Tips That Pay Big Bucks
complaintsboard.com
The expression "a penny saved is a penny earned" doesn't cut it these days. But saving a few dollars here and there can add up...
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more...
Try out these Thanksgiving recipes from tasteofhome
You May Have Too Much Debt But You Also Have Options
How Life Works
If you feel like you're in over your head with personal debt, you're not alone. Millions of Americans have become overextended, many as a result of easy credit and the recessions. Credit cards, medical bills, personal loans and raising interest rates do not make a good financial mix.
read more...
Suze Orman's Recession Rescue Plan - helps you survive in times of financial crisis
OPRAH.com
Do you know what your family would do if you lost your job - or worse, your home? Financial expert Suze Orman is ready to help you
devise a recession rescue plan to survive - and possibly thrive - during this deepening financial crisis...
read more...
Could fat babies mean fat toddlers?
A new study from Harvard Medical School found that babies who gained weight quickly had a sharply higher risk of obesity. The study
followed close to 600 babies and found those in the top quarter of weight for their length at 6 months had a 40 percent higher risk of
obesity by age 3 than smaller babies.
read
more...
The 10-Ingredient Shopping Trip
By Tara Parker-Pope and Mark Bittman
... In his latest “How to Cook Everything” segment on the Today Show, New York Times food writer Mark Bittman makes it
surprisingly easy to cook a week’s worth of dinners with just a 10-ingredient shopping trip.
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more...
Finding last-minute tuition money
There's still time to find funds for this semester's college tuition. But you'll have to move quickly.
By Gerri Willis
It's only a couple of weeks or even days until school begins. And if you don't think you'll be able to get a handle on your college
tuition bill, here with your guide to last minute money.
read more...
Short-term Payday Loans
econ4u.org
...Which are more expensive, late fees or short-term loans?...
A short-term payday loan can be a better option than overdraft fees, reconnect fees, late payment fees or a damaged credit rating when
the loan is repaid promptly. However, these loans are not suited for longer repayment periods...
Being realistic about budgeting can help avoid the need for short-term borrowing.
read more...
Your Just-in-Case Emergency Plan
by RealSimple
Who do you call if you can't make it home in time to meet the kids' bus? Who do
you trust to take in your mail when you're on vacation? Who do you trust with
the extra set of keys to your house?
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more...
How to save $10,000 in 2009
By Liz Pulliam Weston
If you were hoping for a list of small tweaks you could make in your spending to save $10,000 a year, sorry. The reality is that
$10,000 is a lot of money. And saving big money usually means making big changes in the areas where we spend the most, such as:
Housing, Transportation, Food.
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more...
The Super, Sexy, Single Mom on a Budget
by Renee Rayles
A quick reference guide designed for the busy, single mom who has
little time to read while running the mom taxi, cooking dinner, helping with homework, and trying to fit in a date night every now and
then.
32 and Counting? Finding Your Happily Ever After Today
by Gi Gi
The author talks about the struggles a single mom goes through and the discovery that you can have HEAT (Happily Ever After Today) just
as you are, being single, taking care of your kids...
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Single Mothers &
Male Role-Models / Mentors
Single mothers carry an enormous load of responsibility, especially those having sole and/or primary custody of minor children. They
nourish, they nurture, they teach, they discipline, they shelter, they protect, and they provide… all without the assistance of another
equally-invested adult.
read more...
Your 5-minute guide to protecting your identity
20 steps to protect yourself from identity theft, and seven ways to clean up things if you become a victim.
read more...
TheOnlineMom.com offers parents and consumers a guide to the top-rated, age-appropriate, kid-tested and parent-approved tech toys and gifts.
read more...
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw
by Jeff Kinney
For those wondering why tween boys don’t read very much, the answer is that more books aren’t like this...
read more...
10 Superfoods That Should Be in Your Daily Diet
Supercharge your diet with these doctor-approved upgrades
As Told to Max Alexander, Best Life
My interest in what is now known as integrative medicine began many years ago when I was a teenager and witnessed my grandmother battle a breast-cancer recurrence. In those days, it was typical for patients receiving chemotherapy to be confined to a hospital bed. Nothing was done to stop her decline—not nutritionally, not physically, not really medically—and she eventually wasted away and died in her bed.
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The Twenty Healthiest Foods for Under $1
By: Brie Cadman
Food prices are climbing, and some might be looking to fast foods and packaged foods for their cheap bites.
But low cost doesn’t have to mean low quality. In fact, some of the most inexpensive things you can buy are the best things for you. At the grocery store, getting the most nutrition for the least amount of money means hanging out on the peripheries—near the fruits and veggies, the meat and dairy, and the bulk grains—while avoiding the expensive packaged interior. By doing so, not only will your kitchen be stocked with excellent foods, your wallet won’t be empty.
Read more about the great nutritional value of these twenty healthiest foods under $1: Oats, Eggs, Kale, Potatoes, Apples, Nuts, Bananas, Garbanzo Beans, Brocolli, Watermelon, Wild Rice, Beets, Butternut Squash, Whole Grain Pasta, Sardines, Spinach, Tofu, Lowfat Milk, Pumpkin Seeks, Coffee...
How to eat healthy on the cheap
TODAY diet and nutrition editor Madelyn Fernstrom talks with TODAY host Meredith Vieira about some ways to cut down your grocery bill, while still buying nutritious foods.
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10 Reasons You're Not Losing That Weight
If losing weight were simple, Spanx would be just a screen name in an S&M chat room. But dieting is complicated: There are even ways to screw up without realizing it. For instance, who would ever think that working out in the a.m. or cranking the AC might be the reason you're not slimming down? Luckily, once you've ID'd these flubs, fixing them is nowhere near as hard as pulling on a pair of control-top hose.
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Take Your Licks
Icy treats for 160 calories or less — how cool is that?
by Loren Chidoni, Women's Health
When you're squeezing into last year's tankini, the dessert end of the freezer aisle seems taboo. But what would summer be without popsicles and fro-yo? Sucky, that's what. To find frosty goodies that won't test the limits of Lycra, we sampled 27 kinds. The result: these eight amazing, guilt-free indulgences — and one mother of an ice-cream headache.
read more...
How to Be a Budget Organic
What's worth the extra cost, what's not, and how to save in other ways
by Cynthia Sass, RD, Prevention
With all the news about rising food costs, you may be wondering if the organic milk you've been putting in your cart is worth the extra cash. It is. Organic food is more expensive, but when it comes to the staples of your diet, organics are a worthwhile investment, with payoffs that might surprise you. The benefits influence your health today—and long-term.
read more...
Eat your way to less stress
Whether you're anxious, irritable, angry or suffering from insomnia, Dr. David Simon discusses which foods can help.
read more...
10 things your hospital won't tell you
by SmartMoney
"Oops, wrong kidney."
Treatment errors are common, finding someone in charge can seem impossible, and patients sometimes wind up sicker than when they arrived. And here's a tip: Try to avoid hospitals late at night and in July.
In recent years, errors in treatment have become a serious problem for hospitals, ranging from operations on wrong body parts to medication mix-ups.
At least 1.5 million patients are harmed every year from being given the wrong drugs, according to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. That's an average of one person per U.S. hospital per day.
One reason these mistakes persist: Only 10% of hospitals are fully computerized and have a central database to track allergies and diagnoses, says Robert Wachter, the chief of medical service at UC San Francisco Medical Center.
But signs of change are emerging. More than 3,000 U.S. hospitals, or 75% of the country's beds, have signed on for a campaign by the not-for-profit Institute for Healthcare Improvement to implement prevention measures such as multiple checks on drugs.
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