Category Archives: health & happiness

is stress keeping you fat?

15 Tuesday Jan 2008

Posted by in health & happiness, life stuff

≈ 7 Comments

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Is stress keeping you fat?

An interesting Times on Line article that says a lot for having balance in your life. I think too often we treat our bodies like it’s some sort of machine that isn’t really connected to the rest of us. It also answers some questions about why some people just cannot lose weight even though they are going to the gym every day and eating next to nothing.

Two things that resonated with me were restless sleep and generally reacting badly to stress. I’d never actually heard of cortisol before, but it wouldn’t surprise me if my poor ol’ bod was totally awash with the stuff.

So I’m going to dust off and update nothing ventured… (yes, again! ) and start working on the fitness and well-being thang with a new perspective that takes in the bigger picture. I think the past couple of months of going to the gym almost every day for yoga and pilates has been a good first step towards a new nice & easy lifestyle, keeping in mind a very nice ‘frase de hoy’ from my yoga class the other day…

Let go of old habits with love, and find positive ways to address the needs that they met.

~ the fat fat cat comes from olga forever ~

 

free rice

14 Monday Jan 2008

Posted by in culture, fun stuff, health & happiness, life stuff

≈ 25 Comments

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FreeRice has two goals:

1. Provide English vocabulary to everyone for free.
2. Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

This is made possible by the sponsors who advertise on this site.

Whether you are CEO of a large corporation or a street child in a poor country, improving your vocabulary can improve your life. It is a great investment in yourself.

Perhaps even greater is the investment your donated rice makes in hungry human beings, enabling them to function and be productive. Somewhere in the world, a person is eating rice that you helped provide. Thank you.

Over on this post it was suggested by the lovely alejna that I check out FreeRice, but I thought it was just another vocabulary quiz site that would make me feel stupid, so I was putting it off until I felt more like a bit of a challenge. Then yesterday I was reminded about this by bob’s yer uncle, a new visitor to casa az, and afterwards Nog and I spent quite an enjoyable half hour or so playing it together … and got up to about 2000 grains of rice.

So why not try it out?

It’s refreshingly addictive! And you also get to help feed the world.

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cat ear cleaning time

31 Monday Dec 2007

Posted by in animals & pets, health & happiness, home

≈ 5 Comments

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Always soooo much fun!

During Sunny’s last trip to the vet’s I was reminded about doing a monthly ear cleaning. Apparently Sunny has very waxy ears and Azar had quite a bad ear infection a couple of years ago, so not doing regular cleanings is very remiss on my part. Anyhow, today was the day (decided that the end/beginning of the month is the easiest time to remember) and everyone is recovering well – including me. 🙂

With Azar I have to sneak up on him when he is sleeping and get at least one ear done before he fully wakes up and starts doing his Tazmanian Devil thang. Sunny is easier to deal with and is so doggy … although he squirmed a bit, as soon as I finished doing his ears he went directly to his food dish and waited for his ‘after trauma treat’ (it’s just so cute and trusting when he does that!). Meanwhile, Azar has just come out from sulking under the bed.

Well, that’s it till next month. It’s one of those things where the anticipation is actually worse than the reality (especially now that I’ve improved my technique) and this post is to remind me of that so that I won’t put off the regular cleanings anymore.

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terry pratchett

13 Thursday Dec 2007

Posted by in books & writing, health & happiness, life stuff

≈ 7 Comments

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Pratchett has Alzheimer’s disease

Author Terry Pratchett is suffering from a rare form of early Alzheimer’s disease, it has been revealed.

He said: “I would have liked to keep this one quiet for a little while, but because of upcoming conventions and of course the need to keep my publishers informed, it seems to me unfair to withhold the news.

“I have been diagnosed with a very rare form of early onset Alzheimer’s, which lay behind this year’s ‘phantom stroke’.”

He added: “We are taking it fairly philosophically down here and possibly with a mild optimism.

I first saw this on Paul Kidby’s website yesterday, via a post on Ask h2g2. Mr Pratchett is also quoted as saying he would prefer it if people “keep things cheerful”, but it’s hard not to feel sadness and concern. 😦