kung hei fat choi!

I was rushing to Mall of Asia's Fitness First Spa for my scheduled appointment when i passed by MOA's activity center. There i saw onstage the famous feng shui expert, a woman ( i forgot her name, famous huh?!), who was discussing feng shui to the audience. Had it not been for my long-overdue spa treatment..., anyway, should i say more? huhuhu :(

Although the Catholic in me says that i should stay away from astrology, I just could not resist the curiousity that tickled me especially when one is possessed with an exhilarating energy during the chinese new year. Some of these predictions came true, some didn't. Coincidence or not, still, I'm curious.

You see, last year i had this 12-month forecast which i clipped from the Philippine Star. Unfortunately this year, or shall I say just this weekend, I was not able to get hold of the paper containing the new 12-month forecast which, if I'm not wrong, it was announced few weeks ago that they will have a special feature on that on January 24-25, 2009.

I thought the new 12-month forecast would be available online, much to my disappointment. Hence, i tried to browse other sites but as of this moment, I found none. Maybe I am not just patient enough or maybe I have not surfed wide enough.

Stay tuned for any updates! :)

10 Habits to a Healthy Body

I got  this newsletter from Bro. Bo Sanchez thru his website http://bosanchez.ph two days before Christmas day.  I did not have time to read it, not until now.  Since i've been blogging about being healthy for the past three posts, let me add another one. (Take note, I did not blurt any comments on Bro. Bo's article, lest I might distract anybody internalizing it. hehehe),  Enjoy reading! :)

1.     Move!

I already mentioned that each morning, I do simple stretching and breathing Tai Chi movements—and pray to Jesus too—for 30 minutes. I also cycle for an hour on my stationary bike, all the while reading 5 chapters of the Bible and other spiritual books, or writing my journal in my laptop (See photo above).   I also do a few pushups, sit-ups, and chin-ups. I’ll never win Mr. Universe, but it’s enough to tone my muscles. I learned that when we hit 50, we start losing 1.5% of our muscle strength every year. This is the reason why you see a lot of 60-year-old people who are very weak today—because they didn’t move their body. So walk. Swim. Play badminton. Move!
 

2.     Eat The Best Kinds Of Food

More than fourteen years ago, I stopped eating beef, pork, and chicken. Seven years ago, I also gave up crabs and shrimps. So my diet consists of fish and vegetables. At home, we eat organic brown rice and wheat bread. We also fry with soya oil. (Olive oil is too expensive.)

The Old Testament called certain foods unclean—like pork, crustaceans, shells, fish without scales—and modern science has found out that many of these foods have higher toxicity. Pork has more toxins than other meats. Crustaceans and shells are the scavengers of the sea. And because fish release their toxins through their scales, fish without scales have slightly more toxins. I’m not saying you shouldn’t eat these delicious food, but perhaps minimize them in your diet.
 

          3.   Juice Your Vegetables

Every morning, I drink fresh vegetable juice. I throw into my Juicer four large carrots, one long celery stick, and one apple. The advantage of juicing? By juicing, I’m able to consume 4 large carrots in two minutes flat—something that would take me one hour if I munched them. As I drink my juice every morning, I picture God nourishing me in every part of my body. It works!
 

          4.   Supplement

I’m a firm believer in taking supplements. I take a mega dose of vitamin C, fish oil (Omega 3), and other multi-vitamins. I also take a list of supplements too long to mention here. (One of these days, I’ll give you their names.) Before I drink them, I bless them.  So they contain a double punch!
 

          5.   Sleep Like A Babe

I usually dose off at 11:30pm and wake up at 6:00am. Six and a half hours is enough for me. If I feel a need to take a quick afternoon nap, I do it. I try to listen to my body. Praying before you sleep is fantastic because you’re able to surrender all your worries to God. So before I sleep, I do 20 minutes of my simple Tai Chi exercises again—as I surrender to Jesus all my stress. When I do this, I sleep like a babe.
 

          6.   Drink Enough

The first thing I do when I wake up is drink a glass of room temperature water. As I drink it, I ask the Holy Spirit to cleanse me. After my exercise, I drink my carrot juice. Here’s what I found out: For many of us, what we think are hunger pangs may just be our thirst. So when you feel hungry, drink water first. And eat water-rich foods like fruits and vegetables.
 

          7.   Work With Passion

Get into something your love to do. When you enjoy your work, it isn’t work. It’s play. And that keeps your body humming. If you can see your job as a sacred mission from God, you wake up in the morning with joy and excitement. Your body gets the message: “I need you to be healthy, because I’m here to bless the world.” (I have a TrulyRich Club where I coach people in their finances and work. To join, log on at www.TrulyRichClub.com now.)
 

          8.   Feel Your Feelings

Our bodies are simply the blueprints of our emotions. When we get sick in our bodies, many times, it’s simply manifesting our stress, our fears, our anxiety, and our unresolved angers. I strongly urge you to become aware of your emotions and bring them constantly to the Lord. Before Him, work through them. Feel them, yes. Respect your emotions, yes. But lay them at His feet and follow God only.
 

9.     Be Happy

Be a positive person. If you’re a child of God, how can you not think positive? If you believe that “all things work for good to those who love God”, how can you not rejoice even in your problems? Happy people are generally healthier than unhappy people.
 

10.            Love Well

What keeps me healthy? I play with my kids on the floor everyday. (I call it “floor time”.) Each week, I date my wife and hold hands often. And I have fantastic friends! (By the way, wherever you are in the world, join my FREE virtual community and sign up at www.KerygmaFamily.com) 

Once upon a time, an Elderly home had a very high death rate: One resident died each month. But one day, a volunteer came and started social activities among the old people. As the old people engaged with each other in conversation, the mortality rate plunged dramatically almost overnight. Just being in relationships will make you healthier. Imagine how healthy you will be if those relationships are deep and loving?

Hey, there are lots of Christmas parties these days.

Be healthy, my friend. God needs you to bless the world.

Merry Christmas!

May Jesus have a home in your heart.

Causes of Liver Damage

You might have noticed that this is the third consecutive time that i blogged about healthy living/eating.  Well, I just realized that we need to take extra care about our health (this is after my friends and I recently had a chat about sickness).  Still interested? Scroll on:

The main causes of liver damage are:

1. Sleeping too late and waking up too late are main cause. (yes, i'm guilty..)

2. Not urinating in the morning. (after 6-8hours of sleep? of course!)

3. Too much eating. (check my previous post)

4. Skipping breakfast. (check my previous post)

5. Consuming too much medication. (even vitamins, so I've heard)

6. Consuming too much preservatives, additives, food coloring, and artificial sweetener.

7. Consuming unhealthy cooking oil. As much as possible reduce cooking oil use when frying, which includes even the best cooking oils like olive oil. Do not consume fried foods when you are tired, except if the body is very fit.

8. Consuming raw (overly done) foods also add to the burden of liver. Veggies should be eaten raw or cooked 3-5 parts. Fried veggies should be finished in one sitting, do not store.

We should prevent this without necessarily spending more. We just have to adopt a good daily lifestyle and eating habits.

Brain-Damaging Habits

Memory lapse has been becoming a common problem not only among "senior citizens" but also with the yuppies of today's generation (i myself included? hehehe). Check out if you have the following brain-damaging habits:

1. No Breakfast
People who do not take breakfast are going to have a lower blood sugar level. This leads to an insufficient supply of nutrients to the brain causing brain degeneration.

(Is this the reason why, in the good ol' days, our parents always forced us to eat breakfast even when we were already late for school? Mothers and fathers indeed know best. :)

2. Overeating
It causes hardening of the brain arteries, leading to a decrease in mental power.

(no comment...)

3. Smoking
It causes multiple brain shrinkage and may lead to Alzheimer disease.

(oh, i should stop occasional smoking! AS IF! hahahahaha!)

4. High Sugar consumption
Too much sugar will interrupt the absorption of proteins and nutrients causing malnutrition and may interfere with brain development.

5. Air Pollution
The brain is the largest oxygen consumer in our body. Inhaling polluted air decreases the supply of oxygen to the brain, bringing about a decrease in brain efficiency.

6. Sleep
Deprivation Sleep allows our brain to rest. Long term deprivation from sleep will accelerate the death of brain cells.

7. Head covered while sleeping
Sleeping with the head covered increases the concentration of carbon dioxide and decrease concentration of oxygen that may lead to brain damaging effects.

8. Working your brain during illness
Working hard or studying with sickness may lead to a decrease in effectiveness of the brain as well as damage the brain.

(what is the use of a sick leave?!)

9. Lacking in stimulating thoughts
Thinking is the best way to train our brain, lacking in brain stimulation thoughts may cause brain shrinkage.

10. Talking
Rarely Intellectual conversations will promote the efficiency of the brain

(good thing, i have a talkative officemate. from now on, i'll compete with her. hahaha!)

top 5 cancer-causing foods

i got this email for a few times already. but as a hard-headed individual that i am, i usually just take these unsolicited advices for granted. but then, i think it is time for me to think about it and get serious. what about you? read on:

Top 5 Cancer-Causing Foods

1. Hot dogs

Because they are high in nitrates, the Cancer Prevention Coalition advises that children eat no more than 12 hot dogs a month. If you can't live without hot dogs, buy those made without sodium nitrate.

(Maybe this is true.  Somebody told me that a child of one of our colleagues died for eating too much hotdog.)

 
2. Processed meats and bacon

Also high in the same sodium nitrates found in hot dogs, bacon, and other processed meats raise the risk of heart disease. The saturated fat in bacon also contributes to cancer.

 

3. Doughnuts

Doughnuts are cancer-causing double trouble. First, they are made with white flour, sugar, and hydrogenated oils, then fried at high temperatures. Doughnuts, says Adams , may be the worst food you can possibly eat to raise your risk of cancer.

 

4. French fries

Like doughnuts, French fries are made with hydrogenated oils and then fried at high temperatures. They also contain cancer- causing acryl amides which occur during the frying process. They should be called cancer fries, not French fries, said Adams .

5. Chips, crackers, and cookies

All are usually made with white flour and sugar. Even the ones whose labels claim to be free of trans-fats generally contain small amounts of trans-fats.


How cruel! All of the above-mentioned goodies are my favorites! Waaaaah!

On the brighter side however, chocolate is not one of those!  Yummy!  Hehehe! :)

 

plane crash miracle

Surviving from a plane crash is unbelievably a miracle. Just like what had happened recently with a US Airways Airbus which landed safely at the Hudson River, New York. I got that news in the internet first but I did not give much attention to it as I was thinking, it was just too good to be true. The primary cause of the engine trouble is allegedly due to - collision with a flock of birds..

But just this morning, when I saw some of the passengers of that plane were interviewed on TV, I began to realize that the miracle is indeed real. To think that the plane could have hit any of the buildings of Manhattan or the bridge and what else.. It could have been worse!

Thank you God... :)

tagaytay invades manila!

brrr! i found myself almost freezing when i woke up at around 6 o'clock this morning. yeah, "freezing" is somewhat a little bit exaggerated. hehehe. but, at this moment, i could not find any words to describe what i felt at that time.

i was even more surprised when i checked the temperature upon my arrival in the office. 21 degrees celsius! still that low at 830am?! that's the lowest temperature i've ever monitored since i transferred here in manila.

but then, tv patrol reported that manila had experienced 18 degrees celsius more than a week ago. i could say that, that still holds true to this day as i imagined how i buried myself in a bed full of pillows few minutes before reality dragged me up to my senses just this morning.

yesterday, i was strolling along the neighborhood when the cool breeze joined me in. i suddenly exclaimed (to my mind, of course!), this is just like tagaytay!

oh my! i miss my life in tagaytay! (sigh...)