Tips from gaining health

Every Saturday, we post a piece from the CHG archives. This one is from March 2009.

Spend an afternoon perusing family-oriented frugality blogs, you’ll discover there are a few recurring themes. Among them: yard sales, thrift store shopping, a widespread love of free shampoo, and of course, weekly menu planning.

Menu planning, it’s argued, will streamline evenings in the home. Ma and Pa are saved money, time, and mounds of frustration because they know what the brood’s having for dinner days ahead of time. There’s no scrambling in the kitchen or supermarket, since both shopping and cooking are ined to a science. Kids (sometimes) get to have a say in what they eat, too, which makes the whole thing a family activity rather than merely a parental chore.

All in all, it’s a fantastic strategy. Even better, EVERYBODY can use it.

See, while weekly menu planning for non-families is a rare topic around the blogosphere, it’s just as monumentally helpful for post-collegiates, office workers, struggling singles, and young couples. It even offers extra benefits, mostly involving time management. Like:

• You’re saved from 8pm post-work dinner freakouts, because dinner is ALWAYS planned.
• Ingredients are guaranteed to be on hand.
• Cooking goes much faster, since you go in knowing how to prepare a meal (by instinct or through print-out recipes).
• You eat healthier, as home-cooked meals are generally much more nutritious than calorie-laden takeout or heat-and-eat dinners (Hot Pockets, Hungry Man, etc.).
• Grocery shopping goes waaaaay faster. You go in knowing exactly what you want, and don’t have to blow an extra half-hour wandering around. Case in point: last night, using my weekly menu plan, I did all my shopping in 59 minutes, door to door, WALKING. In that time, I hit two stores, the further of which is about a half-mile away. Woo!
• Extra trips to the grocery store are mostly eliminated.
• You can plan for leftovers for office lunches. This is huge, personally speaking, because turkey sandwiches get tired 40,000 times in a row.
• You always have food for those bag lunches (the night before, no less), saving you $30 per week, or around $1500 per year.
• For budgeting purposes, you can pretty much estimate the cost of your bill to the dollar.
• There’s less food waste, because you’re buying only what you need.
• It allows for variety during the week, since you’ve got all the ingredients on hand anyway.

But how to begin? How do you organize this stuff? How do you create a weekly menu and grocery list without it taking a billion, gazillion years?

The answer: I don’t know. Everybody has their own system, based on what works best for them. But here’s what The Boyfriend and I do currently:


STEP 0
Create a new word document
This is what you’ll be typing, cutting, and pasting to. It’s much easier than writing everything down, and at the end, you can print out the grocery list, weekly menu, and recipes all at once.


STEP 1
Make a quick grocery list of what you need
What groceries are running low? What foods do you eat regularly from week to week? This is my most recent list:

Cereal
Cumin
Deli ham or turkey (for lunches)
Eggs
Fruit (for breakfast and lunch)
Meat (general)
Yogurt (for lunches)


STEP 2
Brainstorm the dinners you want to eat this week
New dishes? Old favorites? Seasonal experiments? Whatever you’re in the mood for, list ‘em here, with special attention paid to food you need to use up before it goes bad. This is also a good time to take a cursory glance at your local online circulars. Entire menus can be built around loss leaders (biggest bargains).

This week, our dinner list includes:

• Chickpea and Bread Soup from the Kitchn
• Spinach Rice Casserole from Tammy’s Recipes
• Brunch Clafouti from Serious Eats
• Spiced Chicken with Tangerine Sauce from Cooking Club
• Curry Cauliflower Soup with Honey from Sunday Nite Dinner
• Pasta with veggies
• Turkey burgers with rice and frozen veggies

For the sake of convenience, cut and paste each new recipe IN ITS ENTIRETY into your document. That way, you can print it up and consult it when you’re cooking.

(Note: I cook a lot of new dishes for both Serious Eats and CHG, so chances are your list will be a lot less complicated.)


STEP 3
Make a rough menu
Based on what you have in the fridge, what you’re planning for the week, and what you usually have, create a weekly menu. Take care to note when you won’t be home for a meal. Yours can be simple or complex, but I might start off pretty low-key until you get the hang of it. Heres ours:

WEDNESDAY
Lunch: sandwich, leftovers yogurt, Kix, fruit
Dinner: Spinach Rice Casserole with leftover Irio

THURSDAY
Lunch: Leftover casserole, salad, fruit, yogurt
Dinner: The Boyfriend OUT; Me - Chickpea and Bread Soup w/asparagus

FRIDAY
Lunch: Leftover soup and/or casserole or sandwiches, fruit, yogurt
Dinner: Both OUT @ comedy show

SATURDAY
Brunch: Brunch Clafouti
Dinner: Both OUT @ friends’ house for dinner

SUNDAY
Brunch: Omelets, toast, and fruit
Dinner: Spiced Chicken Breast w/tangerine Sauce and Cauliflower-Honey Soup

MONDAY
Lunch: Leftovers, crackers, fruit
Dinner: Pasta with veggies

TUESDAY
Lunch: Sandwiches, popcorn, fruit
Dinner: Turkey burgers with rice and frozen veggies

(Note: 90% of our weekday breakfasts consist of cereal [or homemade whatever], so we don’t list them. Also, we keep our beverages limited to coffee, beer, and water. This way, we’re always awake, tipsy, and hydrated, just the way we like it.)


STEP 4
Add additional ingredients to the grocery list
Now that you have a concrete menu, add your new needs to the foods you listed in STEP 1. Mine are at the bottom here, for the recipes I plan to make:

Cereal
Cumin
Deli ham or turkey (for lunches)
Eggs (for Clafouti and otherwise)
Fruit (for breakfast and lunch)
Meat (general)
Yogurt (for lunches)
2 15-oz. cans chickpeas (for Chickpea Soup)
4 cups beef stock (for Chickpea Soup)
2 cups low-sodium chicken stock (for Cauliflower Soup and Tangerine Chicken)
3/4 a baguette (for Chickpea Soup)
9 or 10 ounces fresh spinach leaves (for Casserole)
1 1/2 cup fresh fruit (for Clafouti)
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (for Tangerine Chicken)
1/2 cup tangerine juice (for Tangerine Chicken)
2 tangerines (for Tangerine Chicken)


STEP 5
Go through circulars (thoroughly this time)
Now that you have a general plan, comb your online (or paper) circular for sale items corresponding to your list. If you have coupons, this is a good time to see if there are any good discounts.

One more thing: if you see something you love but don’t need on mega-sale, go for it. For example, I don’t NEED red peppers this week, but I use them frequently for salads, pastas, and whatnot. So, I’ll probably pick up a few because $1.99 is a good price. If beans were on sale, I’d be all over that, too. But they’re not. Boo.

This week, this was on sale from my list:

SUPERMARKET #1
Chicken Breast - $1.69/lb (for Tangerine Chicken)
Bananas – 2lb/$1 (for breakfasts/lunches)
La Yogurt – 2/$1 (for lunches)
Oranges – 8/$2 (for breakfasts/lunches)
Red Peppers - $1.99/lb (for whatever)

SUPERMARKET #2
Cantaloupe - $0.99/ea (for breakfasts/lunches)
Blueberries - $1.99/6oz (1-1/2 cups for Clafouti)
Eggs – 2/$3 (for Clafouti and otherwise)


STEP 6
Finalize the list
Okay, stocks weren’t on sale. Neither were tangerines, chickpeas, baguettes, cold cuts, or spinach. So now, I assign them to a grocery store that I think will have the lower price.

In the end, my list looks like this:

SUPERMARKET #1
Chicken Breast - $1.69/lb (for Tangerine Chicken)
Bananas – 2lb/$1 (for breakfasts/lunches)
La Yogurt – 2/$1 (for lunches)
Oranges – 8/$2 (for breakfasts/lunches)
Red Peppers - $1.99/lb (for whatever)
2-15 oz. cans chickpeas (for Chickpea Soup)
2 tangerines (for Tangerine Chicken)
1/2 cup tangerine juice (for Tangerine Chicken)

SUPERMARKET #2
Cantaloupe - $0.99/ea (for breakfast and lunch)
Blueberries - $1.99/6oz (1-1/2 cups for Clafouti)
Eggs – 2/$3 (for Clafouti and otherwise)
Cereal
Cold cut ham or turkey (for lunches)
4 cups beef stock (for Chickpea Soup)
2 cups low-sodium chicken stock (for Cauliflower Soup and Tangerine Chicken)
3/4 a baguette (for Chickpea Soup)
9 or 10 ounces fresh spinach leaves (for Casserole)

(Note: I get cumin in bulk from an ethnic grocer on the walk home, so it’s not included here.)

~~~

And that’s it. Now, after only 40 minutes of planning, I have an exact grocery list AND menu for the whole week. Plus, I’m guaranteed to save money on sale items, prepare healthy foods, and have plenty to bring to the office. And that’s good for everyone involved.

Readers, how about you? Do you menu plan? What’s your plan like? How might you change this one? Fire away in the comments section.

Honest People More Healthy and Happy | To obtain a healthy body, make sure you always eat fruits and vegetables, regular exercise, and stay away from lies. According to research, more honest people who are physically and mentally.

A study showed that the average American lied 11 times in a week, ranging from "white lie" a sort of compliment, to infidelity or a more serious lies. According to research conducted by Anita Kelly, professor of psychology at Notre Dame, if we reduce the number of lies that we do, in fact we can achieve a higher life satisfaction..


"No lie is clearly associated with better health," said Kelly.

"Lying can cause stress to many people, triggering anxiety and even depression. Reduce lies not only good for your relationship, but also healthy," said Dr.Bryan Bruno, chairman of the psychiatry department of Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City.

A habit of saying and acting honestly for 10 weeks also make it more intelligent participants avoid lies. For example, responding to questions that could lead to a tendency to lie with another question as a diversion.

2050, Number of Senile People | World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, the number of people with dementia or dementia throughout the world will be tripled by 2050. WHO says, as many as 35.6 million people worldwide are currently living with dementia.

The UN health agency says, that number will double to 65.7 million in 2030 and reached 115.4 million in 2050. This report published by WHO in Dementia: public health priority.

WHO said the share of cases of dementia in poor countries and the middle will increase to 70 percent in 2050, given the growing elderly population.
Dementia is caused by various diseases of the brain that affects memory, thinking, behavior and ability to perform daily activities.

"We need to improve our ability to detect early dementia, and provide medical care and necessary social," said Oleg Chestnov, assistant director-general of noncommunicable diseases and mental health from the WHO.

"Much can be done to reduce burden of patients with dementia. But unfortunately, many health workers are not adequately trained to recognize symptoms of dementia," he added.

WHO noted that only eight countries worldwide that have a national program to cope with dementia. In fact, dementia is a public health priority.

WHO is also highlighting still a lack of information and understanding about dementia, as well as the strong stigma sometimes makes patients delay seeking medical assistance.

"The low public understanding of dementia and the stigma must be overcome," said Marc Wortmann, Executive Director of Alzheimers Disease International.

Meanwhile, Shekhar Saxena, head of WHOs mental health department revealed that the prevalence of dementia will explode in this century, along with the length of ones life expectancy.

"Those aged over 65 years, 1 in 8 of them will have dementia. While those aged over 85 years one of 2.5 people will develop dementia," said Saxena.

Allergies Drug Make People Fat - When the allergy relapse, Many people will fast take the drug of allergy, That is antihistamin. This drug is good and can move the allergy symptoms, but if consumed regularly, this drug will make the body in fat. The research of Yale University has out a study in obesity journal, that show that people who consume antihistamin periodically more weigh then the people that no consume it at all.

In the research, researcher use data from centers for disease control and prevention (CDC), ie: National health and examination survey 2005-2006 for compare the weigh from 867 adult and user of antihistamin. Two drugs that really common in research are setirizin (zyrtec) and fexofenadine (allegra). The research also shows that effect which more clear looked at Man.

In a separate study published in 2009 in the Journal of Clinical Allergy and Immunology, using data from the same CDC survey, researchers found that obese children are more likely to suffer from allergies, especially food allergies, than children of normal weight.

"It is unclear to us whether really mean that obesity is the cause of the allergic tendency or not,"

said Cynthia Visness, PhD, lead author of the study and a research scientist at Rho Inc., as reported by Rodale, Monday (23/05/2011) .

According to Visness, Not many literature available that show the relation between obesity and allergy, So may be the association looked in two study only theory.

Another theory suggested in the Yale study is histamine, which is a neurotransmitter that over-reaction when in contact with allergens, has a secondary role in regulating appetite.

Studies in animals have shown that mice with doses of histamine reduces food intake, while the dose of antihistamine to increase appetite.

Therefore, it makes sense if the authors note, that if you take a lot of antihistamines may cause you to eat more. The researchers also added that some older antihistamines even used as appetite stimulants in children.