Note to Self on Ingredients

My rule of thumb going forward is to not eat any food items where the listed ingredients make up more than 50% of the text on the packaging.

I was handed a Party Mix food item on a recent flight and decided to read the ingredients. I was shocked to see the list - not just the content, but the length. Especially when I compare it to a healthy bag of carrots, where the ingredients simply state:

• Organic carrots

Here's what was listed on the Party Mix package

• Pretzel Sticks (Enriched Flour {Wheat Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin and Folic Acid}, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Salt, Corn Syrup, Yeast, and Baking Soda)
• Cheddar Chipotle Bagel Chips (Enriched Flour {Wheat Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin and Folic Acid}, Soybean Oil, Salt, Corn Syrup, Salt, Whey, Dextrose, Monosodium Glutamate, Reduced Lactose Whey, Cheddar Cheese {Milk, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Enzymes}, Maltodextrin, Buttermilk, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Onion, Nonfat Milk, Garlic, Disodium Phosphate, Autolyzed Yeast, Blue Cheese {Milk, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Enzymes}, Annatto, Artificial Color {Extractives of Paprika, FD&C Yellow No. 5, FD&C Yellow No. 6, Extractives of Turmeric}, Lactic Acid, Citric Acid, Disodium Inosinate, Disodium Guanylate),
• Honey Roasted Sesame Sticks (Unbleached Wheat Flour {Contains Malted Barley Flour as a Natural Enzyme Additive}, Soybean Oil, Sesame Seeds, Honey Coating {Sucrose, Wheat Starch, Honey}, Bulgur Wheat, Tack Blend {Maltodextrin, Xanthan Gum}, Salt, Beet Powder, Turmeric)

The package now resides in the trash.

Soaking it up...because hydration rocks!

Oxygen is critical for our survival. If we are starved of oxygen, we will die within minutes.

Out of food and water, which is the next most important for our survival? Water. You will be able to survive weeks without food, however, after about 10 days with no water, you will be dead.

If you think about our bodies, we are soaked! Water, water, water! It's in our brains (76% water), our blood (84% water), our lungs (90% water) and our blood plasma (98% water). You can't digest, excrete, have proper blood circulation, maintain body temperature, grow and other critical functions without water. Therefore, it is important for us to stay soaked, or better said, keep hydrated.

How do you know if you are NOT hydrated?

Waiting until you feel thirsty is way too late! Dry mouth is the last outward sign of dehydration. Also, our ability to gauge thirst deteriorates with age. You can also check for dehydration by checking out the colour of your urine (fun!). Specifically,

- Orange or dark colour urine means you are severely dehydrated

- Yellow urine means you are somewhat dehydrated

- Colourless urine means you are hydrated (yay!)

Examples of side effects of dehydration include:

- Stress

- Headaches

- Back pain

- Allergies

- Weight gain

- Asthma

- High blood pressure

- Alzheimer's disease

Even though we are soaked, we lose a lot of water daily through activities such as respiration, perspiration, urination, defecation, exercise, etc. In order to stay soaked, we need to drink, and drink and drink. However, we want to be reasonably soaked, not water logged! So, how much water makes sense?

Each day we need to drink half of our body weight in ounces. For example, if you weigh 180 pounds, you need to drink 90 ounces of water. Yum! Also, drink up in the morning, that's when we are our most toxic and dehydrated. Delay the coffee, sip on the water. To help your digestion, you should also drink prior to eating, but never during your meals (my parents have been telling me that since I was 3 years old, and it finally registered!).

A key champion for the wonders of water is Dr. Ferrydoon Batmanghelidj. He was a political prisoner in Iran and while in captivity experienced in himself, and noticed in others, the benefits of water. For example, increased in take of water diminished a fellow prisoner's pain from a peptic ulcer disease, and decreased the Dr's own hunger pains. Dr. Batmanghelidj subsequently devoted his life to studying water as a medication and wrote about how medicine inaccurately diagnosed varying manifestations of the body simply crying out for more water. He died in 2004, but created a great service for us all through his research. If you are interested in learning more, please read "The Bodies Many Cries for Water" and go to the following website: http://www.watercure.com/.

Water is critical for life. Let's stay soaked, and remember if you wait until you feel thirsty, it's already too late.

Happy drinking!!!

Source: Tony Robbins, Dr. Ferrydoon Batmanghelidj

Urban Rebounding

Yesterday, I participated in my first Urban Rebounding class at the New York Health and Racquet club. It was so much fun!

During my Tony Robbins seminar in Nov. (see http://kerijam.blogspot.com/2007/11/this-weekend-tony-kissed-me.html for details) , Tony recommended that we purchase rebounders and do 25-30 mins of rebounding daily. Why?

Tony cited the following 7 benefits of rebounding:

1) The vertical use of acceleration, deceleration, and gravity provide the ideal conditions for cleansing cells

2) Rebounding is a true cellular exercise. It builds physical cellular strength by challenging the structure of each cell. This strengthening of the cells helps to protect against degenerative disease

3) It leads to improved posture, increased vascularity, better muscle tone, enhanced timing, sharper vision, greater coordination, better balance, more rhythm, and elevated energy levels

4) By working against the constant gravitational pressure while bouncing, you resist the earth's pull. Gravity becomes a force for the good of your entire body

5) Rebounding will let you improve the working of your heart muscle by improving the tone and quality of the muscle itself and by increasing the coordination of the fibers as they wring blood out of the heart during each beat

6) It provides the stimulus for a free-flowing lymphatic drainage system, which helps rid your body of toxins, cancer cells, wastes, trapped protein, bacteria, viruses, and other waste the cells cast off

7) When you are rebounding, you are flooding the cells with oxygen. This enables them to convert glucose into ATP and also into glycogen. Thus, rebounding can actually increase your ability to convert glucose into glycogen. Further it may be possible to train your body (through consistent lymphasizing) to store this glycogen and have it released when you need it for a sudden burst of energy

All that - and it's fun too!

The class at the gym lasted approximately 55 mins. We had a great instructor and high-energy music. The instructor was gentle with the newbies in the class and gave us a couple minute tutorial at the start of the session. Thank God!

I was proud of myself as I tried some of the more complicated moves, and never once fell off the rebounder! I was surprised to find myself smiling during the class - I felt so carefree bouncing through the air. I can't wait for the next session :).