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Thursday October 22, 2009

Pilates is great for shaping your body, balancing your muscles and making you more flexible. It gives attention to your stabilizing muscles, which are often ignored by other exercise styles. The hips are where most females store their fat, so we've got some easy exercises to get that area into shape. To learn more check out this week's article on Pilates for a complete hip workout .

Supplementation of iron and folic acid is necessary during pregnancy for the creation of extra red blood cells. It is difficult to keep up with the demand of these nutrients (but not impossible) by eating foods alone. Prenatal vitamins can help a healthy diet, but they are not a substitute for a healthy diet. Good sources of folacin are broccoli, beans, spinach, romaine lettuce, eggs, and oranges.

Life is what you make it

To put it another way, you can't change the cards life has dealt you, but you can determine the way you'll play them.

When Wendy Stoeker of Ceder Rapids, Iowa, was a freshman at the university of Florida, she played third in the girl's state diving championship. She missed first by two and a half points. While swimming in the number two spot as only a freshman on the highly competitive Florida swim team, Wendy was carrying a full academic load.

Wendy sounds like a happy, positive coed, capable of making life whatever she wishes it to be, doesn't she? She is such a person. As a matter of fact, Wendy Stoeker already made life what she wants it to be, even though she was born with no arms. Wendy has no arms, and yet she enjoys bowling, water skiing, and types at over forty-five words a minute. Be encouraged to follow the example of Wendy Stoeker and think positively about what you want in life, regardless of all the obstacles.

Remember, Life is what you make it.

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"Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won. It exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours."
-- Ayn Rand

Stewed Berries in Red Wine Sauce With Yoghurt Cream

Ingredients:

• 12 berries

• 100 ml water

• 150 g sugar

• 100 ml red wine

• 40 g icing sugar

• 100 g hung yoghurt (curd tied in a muslin cloth and the whey drained out)

• 50 ml cream

Direction:

• Cut the fruits into quarters. Add water and sugar and cook for five minutes. Add the red wine and slowly bring to a boil.

• Lower the flame and simmer till the fruit is soft.

• Remove the berries form the sauce and simmer the sauce for two more minutes.

• Fold the cooked berries into the boiling sauce and allow and chill.

To prepare the yoghurt cream:

• Mix together icing sugar, hung curd and cream and mix well. Refrigerate the yoghurt mixture for two hours.

• Serve chilled, garnished with berries.

Nutritional Information: (per serving)

• Calories: 230.0 Kcal

• Proteins: 1.5 g

• Fat: 3.4 g

• Minerals: 0.31 g

• Fibre: 0.1 g

• Carbohydrates: 50.0 g

Pilates for a complete hip workout

Pilates is great for shaping your body, balancing your muscles and making you more flexible. It gives attention to your stabilizing muscles, which are often ignored by other exercise styles. It does some strengthening, especially when it comes to your trunk section, but its primary purpose is not to make your legs strong.

The hips are where most females store their fat, so we've got some easy exercises to get that area into shape...

Hip rolls: This exercise is great for toning and stretching the waist specifically,

strengthening the oblique and other rotators of the torso and stretching the back muscles. In addition to reducing the "love handles", it will also keep your lower spine flexible!

1. Lie on your back in the relaxation position with both arms out to the side and palms up.

2. Bring your knees up one at a time to your chest, and put the tennis ball between your knees. Thighs at right angle to body. Pelvic neutral and Scapulas anchored.

3. Breathe in and zip and hollow.

4. (Breathing out): Slowly lower both legs a little toward the right and look to the left. At the same time, turn the left palm down. This will remind you to anchor your left scapula and keep it on the mat.

5. Breathe in and (while breathing out): zip hard and use the "strong center" to bring your legs back to the middle. At the same time return your head to the middle and the palm of your left hand upward.

6. Repeat, but this time lower both legs toward the left.

7. Repeat six to eight times each side, going a little further each time.

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