Sunny Health

The skies have been grayer these days, no thanks to the seventh-month burnings and hot spots in the forests in Sumatra. Are the hazy days giving you an excuse to stay home for health purposes? Well, don’t let the calories from all the heavy party food seek permanent residency in you! Here are some simple exercises that do not require much space, time or fancy equipment. All you'll need is your usual exercise outfit and good sports shoes.

Do the Hula

Equipment required: Hula hoop. You can easily buy this at shops selling gym and exercise equipment. Toy stores like Toys “r” us sell basic hoops for under $10.

Hooping encourages your whole body to work out, especially your stomach and torso muscles. Even if you’re not adept at the hula, practice makes perfect and you'll soon discover the satisfaction  of keeping the hoop on your waist for minutes! It's a fun game to play at parties too.


Stair Climbing

Do you live in a HDB flat or high-rise apartment? Give your leg muscles a good work out by climbing from the very top floor to the lowest floor, and back up! It is good training for your stamina. Eventually, you'll find yourself reflexively choosing the stairs over the elevator or escalator in your daily life, an excellent practice that keeps obesity at bay. Start slow, and add on a few more flights of steps with each try.

Skipping

Equipment required: Skipping rope. Again, you can get this from exercise equipment or toys shop. You can even make your own rope out of lots of rubber bands.

Skipping is a high-intensity exercise that makes you burn a lot of calories and perspire a lot. It is also a full-body work out and really puts your arm and leg muscles to hard work! However, it would be intimidating for beginners, who may have to stop early out of exhaustion. You may wish to combine this exercise with stair climbing or jogging to strengthen your stamina and leg muscles so that you can lengthen your skipping duration in a shorter period of time.

If you don’t have a rope, try “ghost jumping,” rotating your wrists and jumping on your toes like you would in skipping, but without the actual rope. For beginners who find their feet constantly tangling with the rope, this may be a more effective way of skipping.

Be sure to wear proper exercise foot wear, and use the correct jumping technique. Jump on your toes (not your whole foot), and don’t jump more than an inch off the floor or you may hurt your feet. Keep the work out interesting by skipping to your favourite songs.

Abdominal crunches

Equipment required: An exercise mat, or a mattress that doesn’t sag.

This is similar to sit-ups but more advanced. It is great for tauter stomach muscles and slim waists!

Lie on the mat with your feet and knees together, and pull your legs in so that your calves are almost vertical. Put your hands on your chest or behind your head. Take a deep breath, then pull your torso up slowly towards your knees. Raise your head off the ground, then your neck and finally your chest. The small of your back should still be against the mat. When your chest is raised, hold yourself there for a count of one, then lower yourself back in a slow and controlled movement. Repeat this and you should soon feel a satisfying burn in your stomach muscles.

Push-ups

Push-ups aren’t just for men! They’re perfect for ridding those stubborn flab in the upper arms, and they help to maintain stronger chest muscles. Start off by lying down on your stomach. Your toes should be towards the floor, ready to lift your lower body off. Your palms should be flat on the floor parallel to your chest. While keeping your back straight and your head parallel to the floor, push against the floor and slowly raise yourself up until your arms are straight. Focus solely on using your chest and upper arm muscles. Lower yourself to the ground slowly (starting position), and repeat.

Tricep Dips 

Equipment: Some form of support that is about as high as your thighs e.g. bed, chair, bench

Triceps are the muscles in your upper arms, and once again, working out these muscles can prevent unsightly “butterfly” arms!

With your back facing the support, places your hands on the edge, fingers facing forward, and bend your knees at a 90 degree angle. You should seem like you are sitting on an invisible chair with your arms stretched backwards, hands pointing forward.  Slowly lower your body, keeping your back straight, then just as slowly, raise yourself back up. If done right, you will feel the strain in your upper arms.

Calf raises

Stand on the edge of a stair step, or a low raised platform. Your heel should be facing outward facing from the step, with only your toes balancing on the edge, while the rest of your foot is suspended in mid air, but parallel to the ground. For stability, place yourself next to a wall or a counter that you can hold on to when you feel like stepping off. Raise your body up on tip toes, hold for a count of one, then lower yourself so that your feet are parallel to the ground again. Concentrate efforts on your calf muscle, not your toes or knees. If done right, you'll get toner and sexier calf muscles in the long run!

Jog on the spot

You don’t need a treadmill to jog at home. Put on clean, running shoes (so you don’t dirty your floor), turn on the telly or your ipod, and start jogging. If you have a smart phone, and wish for those treadmill features that keep track on things like heart beat and speed, you can download some for free. A search for jogging apps should turn up quite a few good ones that you can select from based on your need.

Aerobics, yoga and other workouts from an exercise video

Thanks to Youtube, you don’t even have to purchase exercise videos. Choose one for your favourite type of workout. Read the reviews, and watch it to ensure that it’s something you can do and would like to do, then get started! If you do not have prior experience, choose a simpler workout for beginners. Without the presence of a professional instructor, you may hurt yourself if you perform advanced moves inappropriately.

Alternate, or combine the above, and you will have a fun and effective indoor routine come rain, haze or shine!

http://www.whatclinic.com/dentists/singapore/bad-breath



Change toothbrushes often – Well-worn brushes host bacteria and yeast associated with stomach ulcers, strep throat, upset stomach and diarrhoea.

Ah no, don't take it the wrong way. This article about the type of sleep where you go 'zzz', and yes, it is a key to success! How so?



Many people think that by working a lot, they can achieve success. This is of course, true. But it also depends on the manner you work. As you know, too much of a good thing can backfire. In Singapore, many people are finding it so difficult to get sufficient sleep that some wellness companies have set up spaces in the CBD where customers canget a power nap of thirty minutes during lunch hour. Unfortunately, Singaporeans are such workaholics that some people skip lunch, let alone sleep!


But far from raising productivity, staying up to get more work done actually does the opposite, by affect your learning and memory power negatively. Sleep helps the brain grasp new information and direct it to memory. The process is called “memory consolidation”. Lack of sleep interrupts this process, thus weakening the memory.  Sleep deprivation contributes to falling asleep during the daytime, because it makes you tired and unable to focus.

Insufficient amount of sleep may result in mood swings characterised by impatience, irritability, inability to concentrate and moodiness. Hypertension and increased levels of stress are a fall out of chronic sleep loss. If you lose your temper at your boss or a client due to lack of sleep, no amount of extra work you put in could possible remedy that mistake!

Far more serious, long term sleep deprivation can result in weakening of the immune system, reducing the body’s ability to fight diseases. Falling ill means poorer work performance and the need to leave your work post for sometime while you recover!

Therefore, to improve your work productivity, good health and ample rest is really important!

And here’s a bit of good news to those who really have no choice but to turn in late. Eight hours of sleep is the ideal amount of time you need, but if you cannot achieve that, at least make sure that the amount of time you spend sleeping is quality time!

Simple ways to improve your quality of sleep:

Maintain a consistent sleep schedule, going to bed at night and waking up in the morning. Even if you slept really late the night before, you should still wake up in the morning as usual. Sleeping until noon will not give you sufficient sleep. (In fact, late nights are basically irreversible and you can’t just make up for it by sleeping in on weekends)

Sleep with an excellent supportive and comfortable pillow so that you will have an easier time falling asleep, and will not wake up with aches and pains.

Avoid meals and any liquids, especially alcohol and soft drinks, for at least two to three hours before your bedtime. Absolutely no snacking!

Wind down at least two hours before bedtime. Television, computers and other stimulation can alter your time clock, making it difficult to fall asleep. If you must do work, try the primitive method of writing and reading off paper instead, and transfer your work to the computer when you get up early in the morning!

Building new habits takes time. What is important is your desire and mindset to change the way you are sleeping. Sleep is essential for the body to remain healthy. Think of how an improved health and work productivity may cinch you a promotion, just by having ample rest! Remember the popular Chinese adage: 休息是为了走更长远的路 Rest is the first step to a long journey ahead!

Having a good relationship with your family is important. Not only does it make life at home more interesting and fun, it is also good for health. If you have people close to you whom you can depend on in times of trouble and sickness, you can cope with your problems more easily, and are less likely to fall into depression. You also tend to be happier, and as we all know, happiness is a solution to longevity and good health.

Yet these days, the youngsters tend to prefer spending holidays with their friends and significant others. They would do dinners and count down parties outside of home, while parents consider the holiday a well-earned rest. But the holiday season is the best time for family get-togethers as it is a rare time when everybody gets time off work or school. It would be such a waste not to spend this precious free time together!

Parents may perhaps attribute this lack of interest to celebrate holidays with family to generation gaps and differing interests. Indeed, few parents would like to go to the foam party or clubbing with their children. But regardless of generation gap, family members should enjoy their time together and have strong bonds with each other. If you find yourself leading your life separately from your children, the problem may be more of a lack of communication than an age gap, and you should consider ways to mend the gap.

Here are some ideas to get you started!

1.      Studies have shown that children who regularly eat dinner with their parents have bigger vocabularies, earn better grades, are less likely to do drugs and less likely to be overweight than children who don’t. This is because they adopt interaction skills from their parents, as well as enjoy their parents' attention. Start making once-weekly family dinners compulsory!

2.      The family that plays together stays together. If dinner is usually followed by the television, laptop and telephone, it’s time to pull the plug. There are board games and card games for every age and temperament, as well as creative games like charades and active games like Twister. Teenagers may groan, but which are they more likely to look back on nostalgically, the time spent staring at the television or the time spent defeating mum overwhelmingly at Monopoly?

3.       There is one common saying that every parent knows, "time flies". The baby you held yesterday has become an adolescent, and will be on his/ her own before you know it. You can’t catch time in a bottle, but you can watch it go. Don't spend all your time at work, or all your time in the kitchen. Set aside some time every night to interact with your child.    

4.        Give yourselves the gift of time. While all sorts of entertainment are available these days, from movies to theme parks, it is often time spent relaxing at home and doing activities together that we remember most fondly. Set aside some regular time with each other. Just one day per week or per month when the entire family says no to other commitments and just hang out together.

This SG50, arrange a fun-filled weekend visiting all the attractions and events that are just free for the Jubilee weekend. Don't like crowds? Have a movie marathon at home, play card games and board games, game together as a family. Have your own hotpot party at home - who says hot pots are only for Chinese New Year? If you failed to get tickets to the parade, and don't want to splurge on an expensive hotel room with a view, you can head to Marina Bay, lay out your picnic mats, and catch the fire works, just to name a few. Time passes quickly, and it helps to retain beautiful memories whenever you can.

Happy SG50 and happy holidays!