World Toilet Day

Today is World Toilet Day - more than 2 billion people still don’t have a dignified or private place to go to the loo.

 Text  WASH12£1
to
70070

to donate one pound to Village Water working to reduce this dreadful statistic (I'm a trustee so I can vouch for this charity and all the good work it does).

Toys For Boys And Toys For Girls?

My grandson is 7 years old and I’m beginning to think about what to buy him for Christmas. I’d received a copy of the Boots catalogue and decided to have a look through it.

I was shocked to see that the toys for older children were divided into “Girls’ Toys” and “Boys’ Toys”. And, you guessed it, in the boys’ section there were  exciting things like Meccano Assorted Build and Play Vehicles or a Weird Science Slime Laboratory. Girls? Oh they have Glitter Babes Giant Pamper Set or, but no, I can’t bring myself to write about the rest.

I’m throwing the catalogue away. I will not be buying from Boots.

Healthy Protein Powders

I am a keen gym person and find that I do well if I take a protein powder after my workout, ut lots of protein powders are full of all sorts of other stuff as well. I like Good Hemp Protein Powder. The taste isn’t that great, but I mix it with orange juice and glug it down. Since I've been doing that I've found I recover better, am generally less tired (particularly in the morning) and my skin looks and feels a lot better.

I like the fact that it’s made in the UK on a farm in Devon. I was pleased to receive their latest newsletter and to read this:

“This year we have been growing on farms where we plant additional areas with plants to increase birdlife and wildlife. In fact for every acre of hemp we planted, we planted an additional 10% of land with wildflowers, special grass mixes and food for the birds through the winter.

"The combination of this work and the benefits of hemp have increased the birdlife dramatically – in fact the RSPCA (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) recently counted the birds seen in a section of the farm and found almost 70% increase from 5 years ago.”

The Secret Of A Healthy Old Age?

I really enjoyed this long article from the New York Times magazine. They title it The Island Where People Forget To Die. If you're interested in having a long and active old age, this article will certainly offer lots of food for thought. It also makes you realise (yet again) that there is a lot in modern society that is not conducive to health and well being.

An Interesting Approach To Weight Loss

Would you take part in a weight-loss program in which you were explicitly asked not to lose any weight for the first eight weeks?

Although the approach sounds counterintuitive, a study from researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine found that women who spent eight weeks mastering weight-maintenance skills before embarking on a weight-loss program shed the same number of pounds as women who started a weight-loss program immediately. More importantly, the study showed that the “maintenance-first” women had regained only 3 pounds on average a year later, compared to the average 7-pound gain for the immediate dieters.

The study’s authors say that the maintenance-first approach may offer a way to halt the cycle of yo-yo dieting.

Read more information on this weight loss technique>>

Small Bits Of Time

If you spent 10 minutes every day doing something, that would be 1 hour 10 minutes a week, and a staggering 60+ hours a year. Think what you could do with all those small bits of time.

Homesick Students

It can be hard on the whole family if someone goes away to college and finds it difficult to settle and is homesick, so why not give the Bach Flower Reemedies a try.

There are 38 different reemedies, so see which one is suitable. Obvious choices could be Mimulus, Walnut or Honeysuckle.

Lowering Alzheimer's Risk

5 steps to lower Alzheimer's risk as suggested by the Harvard Medical School Newsletter
While there are no surefire ways to prevent Alzheimer's, by following the five steps below you may lower your risk for this disease — and enhance your overall health as well.

1.    Maintain a healthy weight. .
2.    Check your waistline. To accurately measure your waistline, use a tape measure around the narrowest portion of your waist (usually at the height of the navel and lowest rib). A National Institutes of Health panel recommends waist measurements of no more than 35 inches for women and 40 inches for men.
3.    Eat mindfully. Emphasize colorful, vitamin-packed vegetables and fruits; whole grains; fish, lean poultry, tofu, and beans and other legumes as protein sources; plus healthy fats. Cut down on unnecessary calories from sweets, sodas, refined grains like white bread or white rice, unhealthy fats, fried and fast foods, and mindless snacking. Keep a close eye on portion sizes, too.
4.    Exercise regularly. This simple step does great things for your body. Regular physical activity helps control weight, blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol. Moderate to vigorous aerobic exercise (walking, swimming, biking, rowing), can also help chip away total body fat and abdominal fat over time. Aim for 2 1/2 to 5 hours weekly of brisk walking (at 4 mph). Or try a vigorous exercise like jogging (at 6 mph) for half that time.
5.    Keep an eye on important health numbers. In addition to watching your weight and waistline, ask your doctor whether your cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure, and blood sugar are within healthy ranges. Exercise, weight loss if needed, and medications (if necessary) can help keep these numbers on target.

For more on ways to help prevent Alzheimer's as well as information on diagnosing and treating it, purchase A Guide to Alzheimer's disease by Harvard Medical School.

Getting Satisfaction From Small Things

Many people belittle themselves for getting immense satisfaction from small things. You hear people say things like: “I know it’s sad but I get such a lot of satisfaction from ..” What that from is varies. It can be

• A tidy desk drawer
• A line of washing
• A new magazine
• The colour purple
• The downy hair on my child’s arm
• Chopping onions finely

The implication is that it’s not a good thing to get satisfaction from small things. But think about this again. Isn’t it better to find lots of satisfaction in small things rather than waiting for your lfe to be perfect before you can be happy.?

Get more tips and insights from my book 500 Plus Health And Happiness Tips >>

My Bicycle Ride From Russia to Turkey

I have been away from the office riding my bicycle from Peterhof (St Petersburg, Russia ) to Istanbul (Turkey). I rode 2596 miles (over 4100 km) through ten countries. It was  quite an adventure – exhilarating, exciting, scary, tiring and much more. I kept a dialy blog about my journey. You can read my blog here>>

Organic Christmas Gifts

I love Green People organic personal care products. Remarkably cheap for such effective products that care so well for you and the environment. And they’re not tested on animals and use some fairly-traded ingredients too.

They’re currently offering 10% off the Christmas Gift Range if you quote the code GPXMAS – offer ends 20th October.

Vegetarain and Vegan Athletes

If you're a vegetarian or vegan athlete there's some great information here about making sure you get enough protein, etc:

• Athletes: Power Up with Good Nutrition
• Carb-Loading
• How to Stay Hydrated
• Meeting Protein Needs

It's from the well-respected Nutrition MD web site.

200 Plus Weight Loss Tips

My latest book is now available from the Amazon Kindle Store:

200+ Weight Loss Tips, many of them backed up by references to scientific and medical research. Practical ideas that are easy to apply and effective. No bizarre diets or trying to sell you pills, CDs, specific programmes, or anything else!  Just great advice and support to help you get control of your appetite, lose weight and keep it off.

Vegetarian Survey

What’s it like being vegetarian in the world today? Is it easy, challenging, satisfying, fun? What’s difficult and is there anything that could really make a difference? The Big Veggie Survey, a major new research project, commissioned by the Vegetarian Society and carried out by market research company ORC International, aims to find out.

The Vegetarian Society, an educational charity, wants to hear from vegetarians, vegans, ex-veggies and meat-reducers to learn more about the experiences of vegetarians in today’s world. The Big Veggie Survey is also aimed at caterers, carers and teachers, indeed anyone with an interest in vegetarianism. The survey is open now and runs until 3 September at www.vegsoc.org/survey 

Vegetarian Shoes

I used to have a much loved pair of shoes from Vegetarian Shoes based in Brighton (but with an online shop too) that had a sticker inside saying: shoes for feet that don’t eat meat. It always made me smile when I put the shoes on. Sadly my most recent pair of shoes from this great company don’t have the sticker, but they’re still stylish and comfortable.

Vegetarian Shoes now has a sale on with some great bargains. So do take a look.

Learn More About The Bach Flower Reemedies

 Want to know more about the wonderful Bach flower remedies? There's a new web site where you can do that: Bach Educational Resource. This is a highly informative, internet-based learning programme with films, lectures, and archive material which is all free to view and use.

New book on Kinesiology now available

My new book on kinesiology is now available.

In it you can learn about the history of kinesiology and the different systems that have evolved; read case studies from around the world and accounts of how practitioners and system developers got involved in this amazing therapy.  Learn about the potential of kinesiology to help heal the world.

I have just discovered how you can avoid carriage charges altogether. The Book Depository is a large reputable online book company based in the UK, they offer free carriage to the USA, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and lots of other countries. Seems bizarre, but it is true. You can see and buy all my books here. (I have seven in print now in English.)

Help small businesses in cambodia, Benin and other countries

Lendwithcare is a UK charity helping people in the Philippines, Benin and other countries who need small loans to help fund their businesses. You can loan as little as £15.00.

Currently there is a reflexologist in the Philippines

A restaurant owner in Benin

A hairdresser in Cambodia

An internet café owner in the Philippines


Give someone a hand up, not a hand out. Feel good about yourself and the world.

articles and information

just been looking around InfoZooms - seems like it has some good information in easily assimilated form.

Walking

Walking is a great form of exercise, particularly if you haven't done much exercise before. Here are some tips from the US National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases:

# Try to walk at least three times per week. Each week, add 2 or 3 minutes to your walk. If you walk less than three times per week, you may need more time to adjust before you increase the pace or frequency of your walk.

# To avoid stiff or sore muscles and joints, start gradually. Over several weeks, begin walking faster, going further, and walking for longer periods of time.

# Set goals and rewards. Examples of goals are participating in a fun walk or walking continuously for 30 minutes.