Sometimes my 13 year old son will look at me in disbelief at a question I’ll ask him — not because I’m being overprotective or old fashioned, but because I just asked the same question 5 minutes before. Sound familiar? How about forgetting the name of that thing –oh yeah, the glove compartment!
Our society has found humor in these increasingly common bouts of forgetfulness with the term ‘Senior Moments’. But when you are relatively young and you are cognizant of the very real change in your brain’s capacity to remember things, it’s worth a little investigation.
There seems to be quite a bit of research on memory boosting exercises and supplements but it seems that these things would be treating the symptoms and not the cause. What could possibly be the cause of so many 40 -50 year olds having Senior Moments?
One possible explanation that fascinates me is what I heard Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn (currently treating Pres. Clinton) say regarding mini strokes happening to even young and otherwise healthy people. You can be driving, sleeping, working, and not realize that anything has happened. Moreover, you will not see any real symptoms because you still have the capacity to redirect function to other parts of your largely healthy brain. Watch this clip of Dr. Esselstyn from minute 27 to hear it explained by this renown physician.
With low blood pressure and no cholesterol or weight issues, I thought I was safe from cardio-vascular illness. This is definitely not the case. With the brain and heart inextricably connected in function and wellness, improving circulation in the veins and arteries through diet makes a whole lot of sense to me now. Pass the broccoli and hold the fried chicken!
Hippocrates believed that the human body has the innate ability to heal itself of disease. This is also the basis of Eastern medicine but the exact opposite of the modern pharmaceutical industry’s claims that there is a pill for every ill.
2 Must watch documentaries that will immediately motivate you to eat better and thus feel better are Food Matters and The Future of Food.
Dr. Linus Pauling, winner of 2 Nobel Peace Prizes, said that “Optimum nutrition is the medicine of tomorrow.” Not pills, not advanced surgery, but food. Bon appetit!
Food Matters and The Future of Food available on Netflix.
New gift items have arrived and we are so excited to give you a first look.
1. Ladies Who Lunch, Insulated Lunch Tote with Bamboo Handles
A lunch tote elegant enough to use as a purse!
2. Almond Delight, Chocolate and Almond Dipped Cookie Sticks
A favorite snack in Korea, these crispy delights from Lotte Confectionery are simply heavenly.
3. My Own Lunch Bag, Cotton Reusable Lunch Bag that You Decorate Yourself
Colorful Fabric Markers are included to make lunchtime an eco-fun activity.
4.Sushi Snacker, Sheets of Roasted Savory Seaweed
Everyone who loves sushi knows that seaweed is an amazingly delicious and nutritious food. Now enjoy the crispy savory goodness anytime with these roasted seaweed sheets. Just cut with scissors and enjoy alone or with steaming hot rice. Yum!
“It’s hard to overeat without noticing it. By contrast, soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages can sneak up on you, adding hundreds of calories to your diet each day without ever filling you up.” -NYHealth Dept.
Diet soda may seem like a good way to get your soda fix if you’re already addicted, but it can actually be even worse as I recently experienced when I had Splenda for the first time ever. Let’s just say that my stomach did not agree with this additive. At all. Twice.
After some quick research on the internet, I found that many people shared my reaction to Splenda and who knows how many countless others have less obvious more long term effects. If you really need a fizzy fix, try sparkling water or club soda instead.
I feel very lucky that my kids tried soda at an early enough age that they found the experience painful and unpleasant. They still love other sugary drinks like ice tea and such so we keep a big 5 gallon water cooler in the kitchen so that ice cold water is easily accessible at all times. The most effective policy for us is not to buy it at the store. Even with all the information out there on the negative effects of soda, if it’s in the fridge, I find it very hard to resist!
Is the IPad on your wish list for things to get this year? I really didn’t understand the hype and then I actually tried one at the Apple store. Call me a wimp but within 30 seconds of holding an IPad, I felt fatigued by the sheer weight of the thing. Yes I’ve had carpal tunnel and maybe I’m a little more sensitive than most, but I could not imagine why I would want such a thing when a laptop with a keyboard worked just fine for me.
Then I saw this video on Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop page and the IPad immediately shot to #1 on my most wanted list. Take a look:
Like most Moms (and a lot of Dads), I spend a lot of time in the kitchen. With this toy, you may never get me out! No more printing out recipes or unwieldy stereo cluttering the kitchen. I could even cook while listening to my favorite webcast or watching some Korean dramas. The possibilities are wonderfully endless.
If you are giving the IPad to a special someone this year, make it even more special by BOBOwrapping it. A Medium sized wrap will be a perfect fit for the 8 x 10 x 2 inch box. If you’re giving it to me, I promise to give the wrap back! ^^
Making a proper cup of tea from loose tea leaves is an affordable luxury that can add so much pleasure to your day. However, with all the extra equipment and hassle, you might often find yourself reaching for that lower quality tea bag instead. Take a look at this!
I first discovered the ingenious 3 piece tea mug years ago in Korea and marveled at the beautiful marriage of form and function. A matching ceramic strainer actually plops right into the tea mug and the lid goes right on top of that for proper steeping of the tea leaves.
Loose green tea leaves are hand picked and unoxidized. They contain life-giving nutrients such as cancer fighting anti-oxidants called catechins, theanine, chlorophyll and Vitamin C.
When making tea bags, lower quality leaves are crushed and chopped into small particles called Fanning and Dusts. No wonder tea connoisseurs are only interested in loose-leaf. Loose leaf has so much greater aroma, body and nutrients.
This tea mug set makes it so easy to brew loose tea. When your are finished steeping, you just flip the lid upside down and convert it into a holder for the strainer that will now sit and drain mess free. After enjoying your tea, you can plop the strainer back in the tea mug and steep the leaves for a second cup. Many tea lovers actually like the second brew better! So peaceful. So wise.
Don’t you love discovering great design that functions as beautifully as it looks? The beautiful crackling of the celadon porcelain is a topic for another day but you can read a bit about it here.
These celadon tea mugs are our Spring Special and are available now pre-wrapped and ready to delight you or any tea lover in your life. I hope you enjoy these as much as I do!
My boys sure love them some grapefruit. We buy it by the boxful and devour all through the winter to steer clear of colds and other nasty winter bugs. Since it’s the one thing we always have lots of, we often share the wealth when going over a friend’s house or repaying some debt of neighborly gratitude. Here’s how to make a great little hobo bag from a wrapping scarf for carrying your fruit.
Bagging up about 9-10 regular sized grapefruits will require a Medium sized wrap.
Spread out the wrap and fold in half so that the wrong side is showing.
Take one corner of the wrap and tie a single knot about a third of the length of the side. When making the single knot, try wrapping the fabric around your hand to make a neat knot.
Repeat on the other side with a nice snug knot.
Open the wrap by separating the corners that aren’t tied.
Give the whole thing a little fliperoo and fold the knotted ends into the center of the wrap.
Lift up your newly formed bag by the free corners and give her a little shake down. Gently punch your fist into the bottom of the bag to form the pocket.
Tie the loose ends in a tight square knot. The bag looks deceivingly small. But look at how much grapefruit goodness fits inside!
So much nicer than a yucky plastic bag. Now off to my wonderful neighbor Ann’s who gave me a tub of the most wonderful kimchi a couple weeks ago. Easy peasy grapefruit squeezy. ^^
Wildflowers wrap on sale now at bobowrap.com. While you’re there, check out all the limited time special values.
I’m sure by now you’ve heard of the huge patches of garbage floating about in our oceans. The massive one in the Pacific is estimated to be between the size of Texas and the size of the entire continental US.
Scientists say that in these garbage patches are 4 main polluters.
1. Plastic bags
2. Styrofoam cups
3. Styrofoam containers
4. Soda bottle lids
Albatross chicks fed plastic. Photo essay by Chris Jordan.
Photographer Chris Jordan traveled to the Midway Islands near the center of the Pacific garbage patch and captured images of decomposed bodies of albatross chicks that were fed plastic by their confused parents. Photos of the chicks document the actual stomach contents of birds and Jordan says that he did not touch a single piece of plastic in taking the photos.
Yesterday I heard David de Rothschild, who is sailing across the Pacific in a boat made from 12500 plastic bottles, say that in addition to the 3 Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle), there indeed is a very important 4th R: Refuse.
How many of the above 4 things can you refuse to use today. This week? How about this year.
Let’s take it one day at a time and see just how much we can refuse together before it’s too late.
Yes I am an addict. A coffee addict to be exact. I start my morning everyday with a steaming hot mug of strong coffee fresh from the percolator and wouldn’t want it any other way. When someone has an addiction to something like alcohol or food that I don’t fully understand, I compare it to my coffee addiction and then I understand.
If you are a hopeless coffee drinker like me, bring your reusable mug to Starbucks on Thursday, April 15, and get a free fill up of coffee. It might make tax day a little less painful!
Whether you like coffee or tea, carrying around a reusable travel mug in your bag or car is great for avoiding using disposable cups. Do you have a favorite reusable travel mug? If not, here are some reviews on the best ones out there.
Go one step further and take the pledge to stop using disposable cups altogether. Starbucks will take 10 cents off your cup o joe every time you byo mug.
I feel so guilty whenever I forget my travel mug and “have” to use a disposable cup. I usually rinse it out and use it one more time the next morning and only once did it start leaking on me. I do the same thing with ziplock bags and brown bags. If I have to use them, I’ll try to reuse them at least a few times before throwing them out. I figure if everyone did that, we’d have half the amount of that particular kind of garbage. Sometimes baby steps are better than no steps.
Please don’t try to tell me coffee is bad for me cuz I’ll barrage you with research that shows the health benefits of drinking coffee. Others have tried and they’ve regretted. Now let me get back to my coffee before it gets cold!
What’s the cheapest haircut you’ve ever gotten? Aside from getting a free cut from Mom, I had never before heard of a “professional” haircut that cost less than $15. When the kids were younger and didn’t have a zillion activities going on on the weekends, we loved to drive into Manhattan on the weekends and sometimes even ventured down to Chinatown for some shopping and dim sum. One day we saw something that stopped us in our tracks.
Typical sign in Chinatown, photo by Nick Carr scoutingnyc.com
$8 Haircut?? $7 for Men and children? It was very hard to believe but we considered it a good sign that the people in the chairs had pretty decent haircuts and there were several people waiting for their turn. The boys all took their turns and ended up with haircuts that were better than any we had gotten in our neighborhood. All the way home, we wondered, how could they do it? How many cuts would they need to do in a day to make a living wage?
Chinatown is truly an amazing and historical nook in Manhattan where the normal rules of modern American society often don’t apply. Check out today’s blog post by Nick Carr, a location scout in NYC whose job it is to find the most intersting and unique locations for feature films. He says that one of his all time favorite spots in NYC is “Bloody Angle”, the nickname given to Doyle Street, one of the few curved streets in Manhattan which was also the site of many gang street battles and murders.
"Bloody Angle" 2010, photo by Nick Carr, scoutingnyc.com
Same location 1909 via Library of Congress.
Hopefully Chinatown will always remain the fascinating place that it is and resist the gentrification and worse the mallification that is spreading all over the country and NYC. Check out Doyle Street on your next trip to the big apple and if you’re feeling really adventurous, you might even try the $8 haircut.
Food is a very powerful thing. Not only is it essential for life, it deeply affects how we look and feel. I’ve learned to keep my pantry pretty bare cause in the wee hours of the night, I will eat unlimited amounts of any available junk food. I’ve even been caught by my kids stuffing myself with a late night snack of plain rice. Straight out of our jumbo sized rice cooker. I have since been nicknamed “the rice monster”. Nice.
With all the recent information we have available regarding the direct relationship between the food we eat and disease, I’ve slowly started taking baby steps toward a smarter diet and one of the things that have really piqued my interest is the field of antiangiogenic food. Apparently turmeric, which is the key ingredient in curry, is an antiangiogenic superfood and a way I can get my rice fix guilt free. ^^
What are Antiangiogenic foods??
Antiangiogenic refers to inhibiting the growth of new blood vessels without which cancer cells cannot grow. When Dr. David Servan-Schreiber was diagnosed with brain cancer in his thirties, doctors told him that his diet will not make a difference in his fight with cancer. After grueling treatment he was bitterly disappointed when the cancer came back years later. This time he decided to do his own research and wrote a fascinating book calledAnti Cancer. In it, he methodically explains how we can use the war strategy of cutting supply lines to inhibit the growth of cancer cells in our body. Antiangiogenic foods help our bodies detect and cut off the rapidly developing blood vessels that are feeding new cancer cells. These same good foods, especially when eaten together, can also force the cancer cells to “commit suicide”.
We may wonder why his and so many others’ research isn’t more widely known but Dr. Servan-Schreiber explains that when nutritional treatments like this cannot be patented, they do not receive the grant money necessary for expensive double blind research that is the industry standard trusted by mainstream doctors. Dr. David Servan-Schreiber is far from the only one promoting this breakthrough research however, and the above slide is from a TED presentation by Dr. William Li. He says that we can eat to starve cancer and what we eat is our chemotherapy three times a day.
I love the fact that this is so simple and just makes so much sense. Most of these foods are so yummy that I will gladly partake in this new treatment. We will soon be offering a wider selection of tea on our website including an amazing Japanese green tea that I can’t wait to share with you. What are your favorite antiangiogenic foods?
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