From faces and frogs to butterflies and boats, Salad Bag Art shows just how creative children can get with a bag of salad.

source:   bringonthesalads.com

Silver, gold, copper and other metal jewellery have all been claimed to improve your health. Did you know silver can improve the elasticity of your blood vessels, heal skin and bones and focus your thoughts and energy? Wondrous! Gold jewellery creates an energy circuit around your body mimicking the planet’s magnetic field and restores your psychic balance. Amazing! Alas, unproven and just a little bit wacky.

For people with a chronic illness or potentially fatal allergy, medical jewellery could literally be a life saver. While you may not want to emblazon ‘DIABETIC’ on your forehead, you do want something stylish but also simple and spottable in the heat of the moment if you are involved in an emergency.

If you are going to wear jewellery you want it to be attractive and fashionable, so what is out there and does it work?

Magnetic jewellery often claims to improve blood flow and enhance energy levels and often includes beads made from hematite. The amount of magnetism is so low as to be negligible and marketing of the health benefits is restricted in many countries given it is so far unsubstantiated. Can’t hurt though, I hear you say. You do have to wonder when the warnings say do not use if pregnant, have a pacemaker, are under 7 or if you work with high voltage machinery. But these are pretty.

Magnetic jewellery won’t help you find your car keys

Want to balance your energy, be a better athlete and manage pain and arthritis? Don’t buy one of these ionised bracelets then. The Mayo Clinic carried out a major study that showed no effect greater than the placebo effect on pain relief and a manufacturer in the US was forced to pay back thousands of dollars to duped users.

Pretty but useless.

Copper bracelets are worn by arthritis sufferers, but alas it has no scientific back up. People with the condition actually already have enough copper anyway, according to research. I wore one for a while and just ended up with a green wrist.

NHS says no.

Bio energetic jewellery makes some bold claims – to improve blood circulation, metabolism and the detoxification process as well as maintain a slim and slender body. It is not clear if you need to start with a slim and slender body, but I’m guessing so. Proponents try to bamboozle you with quantum physics and if that doesn’t work will talk about qi, the Chinese word for the vital life energy flowing through everything. It should make your blood boil if you are a sceptic.

Bio energetic babble bauble

Then there is medical jewellery to ensure you get the right help in an emergency. Many people need to carry some kind of identification of an illness or allergy. Mixing modern technology with the old fashioned locket, Emily Rothschild has created this useful piece. Keep your medical information on the USB flash drive.

Make sure you have your USB handy as well so this can be read.

For the sporty types, you may want something that matches your lifestyle. Clearly branded with eye-catching symbols, this snazzy band has a USB flash drive inside as well.

Comes in a range of colours for men and women

The Rothschild range also offers a very arty series of bracelets and necklaces with the words of your condition – such as bee sting, blood type, insulin and so on. However, I would not want to rely on the eagle eye of a good Samaritan or ambulance officer in an emergency.

Gorgeous bracelets with customised engraving from Lauren’s Hope

Dog tags are easy for medical staff to find.

While there is little scientific proof of the healing claims made by some in the medical jewellery line, if you believe it works for you, then it may just do that. And whatever your condition or allergy, you can find a funky way to wear it proudly.

Shame there isn’t a bracelet that brings on quick weight loss, now that would be a sought after item.

Midge can generally be found blogging about how to lose weight fast via a range of differing methods, from Vegan diets and healthy walking routines.

Seared Scallop & Shrimp Skewers
As per top poker websites, they are amongst the most high-end cuisines, which are quite easy to have, especially when you are playing the game of poker. As an add-on, you can include pineapples and roasted vegetables. This will lead to an increase in color and flavor of the product.

Focaccia (with Honey & Blue Cheese)
For making the Focaccia bread, you need to mix dough and then follow it up by baking the same. Following that, you need to include honey and bleu cheese on the top. Once it is created, you need to serve the same in smaller triangular pieces. You can also use cookie cutters for creating shaped dough prior to baking the same.

Martinis
You can keep all alcohol drinks aside and keep just the martini bar. As per poker websites, it is one of the most popular drinks amongst poker players. Who can forget the James Bond and how he use to love having a sip of Martini while playing the game. In case your guests do not like martini, keep champagne as a backup.

Petit Fours and Stuffed Olives
You should have stuffed olives as a side dish at the martini bar. Again, you should keep the plate of petit fours moving all the time. You can have card-shaped petit fours as well.
All these are different ways of adding more color to your poker party. As per the poker websites, today, a lot number of poker organizers, who prefer this same menu, as they have a feeling that these are quite nice to eat and healthy as well.

Tradition is very important to the Japanese and through the centuries, bento box contents and containers have been refined and have followed a fashion of their own. The first bentos were just dried boiled rice in a bag, but in the late 1500s they started to use lacquered lunch boxes (jubako) to celebrate during hanami, the flower viewing parties during cherry blossom time. Later on into the Meiji period, train stations and markets sold lunch boxes to those workers who didn’t bring their own from home.

There are several bento rules to follow in creating one. Bentos should be balanced and usually have five colours to ensure fruit and vegetables are eaten as well as rice and meat, fish or tofu. All the cooked ingredients should be at room temperature so there is no condensation once the lid is closed and no food should need refrigeration as traditionally they were not chilled. A bento box is usually wrapped in a large coloured cloth called a furoshiki, which can double as a cover for your lap and the food is eaten with chopsticks, not your fingers.

Lie back and think of bento

Beautifully decorated food is believed to heighten the mood of the person who eats it. The most common and patriotic decoration is an umeboshi or red pickled plum in the centre of a bed of steamed rice to represent the Japanese flag (Hinemaru bento). Besides picture bentos with people, places and things, lunch boxes with Japanese cartoon figures – anime and comic books – manga are popular. Oishii so desu ne.

Happy Halloween

Teddy bear’s picnic

Poodle Bento

Hello handsome Manga! For ladies who lunch

Lunch in the garden or garden in the lunch?

Samurai strong box

Midge is usually blogging about food in particular meat – such as chicken, fish and pork loin recipes

One of the most common misconceptions is that Life Insurance is simply not affordable. The truth is, that if you have any income, you likely can afford insurance. In fact, for the cost of one meal at a restaurant, you could potentially pay an entire months premium. The protection offered by one of these policies far exceeds the low expense of maintaining a policy. Another common myth is that the Federal Government has a responsibility to provide for your family. This is simply false, and is a dangerous idea to believe. While they do provide some societal safety nets, what they offer will likely be less than needed to sustain a decent standard of living.

Keep in mind that you and your spouse should both have insurance. Many couples make the mistake of thinking that only insuring the main income earner is essential. When a partner passes away, there can be a great deal of stress put on the survivor. Having adequate life insurance will ensure that both individuals are taken care of in the event of a tragedy. This holds especially true when both persons work and provide income towards a mortgage or rent. Remember that insurance companies are not out to deny every claim either. Just like you, they must abide by the contract that has been mutually agreed upon.

Most Australians are unaware of how affordable Life Insurance can actually be. A male around the age of 35 could potentially be insured with a premium less than $25. Many females can be insured for even less. Most people spend that much money or more on luxury food items in a month. Even car insurance can be a lot more expensive. There really is no good reason not to be insured, and your family will certainly be grateful

Traditional military boot camp

Luckily, that is not how most fitness boot camps work in the civilian world. Yes, many of them employ real live military instructors and yes, many of those instructors yell at you and push you beyond your limits. But they do it with support and understanding, apparently and it really does seem to work.

When military-style fitness first really took off a few years ago, most offered a series of outdoor group sessions with a personal trainer in a local park or on a beach. In some of those areas, neighbours were being woken in the early hours by instructors barking commands, and in Sydney at dawn and dusk, sections of beaches like Bondi began to be overrun with competing classes.

Boot camp Bondi style

Although immediately popular with fitness fanatics, it was soon obvious the intense workouts provided quick a weight loss diet replacement. TV shows like The Biggest Loser, combining serious training, dietary advice and medical knowledge for the morbidly obese, brought boot camp to a mainstream audience. Suddenly a new market for actual live-in camps or weight loss retreats was created, identified and fulfilled.

Do a search for boot camp online and you get more than 26 million hits. I’m guessing they are not all ads for actual camps or classes, but you get the idea of the popularity. Some boot camps offer a hard, military style for GI Joe and Jane in uncompromising landscapes like the Peak District, Brecon Beacons and pretty much anywhere in Scotland. Others cater for more of the Private Benjamin types in five star retreats in the UK, sunny Spain and Portugal.

Despite my own misgivings about commitment levels and yelling, boot camps certainly motivate many people. A week in a camp could just be the kick start someone needs to get their weight loss off to a flying start. It is difficult to keep that level of intensity up on your own, which is why ongoing classes, personal trainers and gym buddies really help in the long term.

With all those endorphins from exercising and sense of team and personal achievement, it’s not hard to see why some develop an addiction to extreme fitness even when they reach their goal weight.

The best thing about boot camp fitness is that it has developed and adapted to move beyond a fad for masochists, providing a wide range of levels and intensity and the right amount of yelling for just about anyone.

Early in the year is prime weight loss resolution time, beloved of gyms and instructors all over the world. A quick scan of a few UK boot camp classes/retreats shows plenty of availability in most areas, with lots of discounts and offers. So get your boots on, drop and give someone twenty. It’ll do you good.

Go hard or go home

Midge typically blogs about fitness and fashion and her next blog will be on the topic of more weight loss diet programs and if they are fad or really work.

Most educated Physicians used Astrology in their practice of Medicine and were trained in at least the basics of Astrology. As Christianity grew, Folk Medicine was viewed as old fashioned and sometimes even frowned upon by people of Christian belief. Christians believed that so called Magic, such as Spells and Herbal Remedies etc couldn’t be trusted and that Prayer would cure or heal all. The theory of Medicine was then beginning to be developed aswell, such as the Study and Dissection of the Human spinal cord and how muscles worked, but also Hygiene, Dietetics, Pathology and Pharmacology were also starting to be looked at in more detail too.

Dentistry

Crude Instruments were used to extract rotten or infected teeth, without any means of pain relief or anaesthetic. We all know how painful an abscess can be, but could you imagine having this done without being numbed up first……just horrendous !!

Pain rating  4 and chance of complications and even death were quite high because of hygiene problems.

Hemorrhoids

Hot irons were applied to the anus, to cauterize the hemorrhoids. This would have been extremely painful during and even afterwards for days…oh and the smell, burning flesh !!
Pain rating 5, risk of death was extremely high due to pain, and possible rupture of the bowels.

Blood Letting

This is where the patient is cut and bleeds out into a bowl, this treatment was used for many different ailments and diseases, such as asthma and anything where it was believed that toxins were present in the body.

Pain rating 2, risk of death would be quite high due to either non clotting of the blood, so bleeding out and of course infection in the blood or wound, leading to blood poisoning.

Clysters

A medieval method of injecting fluid into the anus. Basically the same principal as a modern day enema. Of course in those days you would be filling your anus with contaminated drinking water, so if you didn’t die of constipation before the treatment, you would probably die of either an infection or a bleeding or ruptured bowel.

Pain rating 2, risk of death very high, due to your innards falling out your ass !

Surgery

The use of crude, dull instruments, lack of medical training or knowledge, no anaesthetics, pain relief or antibiotics…no wonder so many people died after these barbaric surgeries. The pain alone could kill you.

Pain rating 4, risk of death, very high from infections bleeding or just the trauma and shock of undergoing the surgery.

Trepanning

Supposedly there were a few life saving cases from these times,but really this technique was used widely until later…these successful cases had broken pieces of skull removed from their brains and the pressure was relieved, they went on to make a full recovery. But how many others died during or after these procedures ?

Pain rating 5, risk of death extremely high, due to infections on the brain or mishaps during the surgery where the brain was damaged.

Eye cataract surgery

Thin sharp instruments were inserted into the eye through the cornea, the lens was then pushed out of it’s capsule and forced to the bottom of the eye. Most of the patients that went through this painful procedure, didn’t get any benefit from it what so ever.

Pain rating 3, risk of dying reasonably high from either infection or mishaps during surgery.

Catheters

Urinary catheters were used to alleviate a blocked bladder, either from a venereal diseases such as syphilis or even kidney stones. They insert a metal tube into your bladder to relieve the blockage.

Pain rating 4, risk of death very high, either from the blockage itself or the toxic build up inside you body or from a bodged procedure where the bladder was perforated.

Demon Chick is starting her new weight loss diet plan to try and shed the extra pounds gained over Christmas, she will be trying the no carb diet to shift the pounds quickly and relatively easily.

Another relaxant known from ancient times to affect body movement and muddle the mind is hard liquor. Current practitioners vary in their dedication to the art; some just practice on feast days and special occasions and for others it’s a lifestyle.

The word yoga has several possible definitions including ‘to unite’, ‘contemplation’ and ‘absorption’. It’s the latter that may interest those who wish to practise a new form of yoga – one that unites it with perhaps its polar opposite.

In the land where vodka drinking is a national pastime, drunken yoga has caught on fanatically and experts have been seen dropping suddenly and striking poses for hours at a time. The concentration is immense in this very demanding practice.

It is clear drunken yoga is not for the faint hearted. Copious amounts of alcohol are required to achieve the correct level of unconsciousness to ensure these positions are carefully set and held.

Halasana or plough pose

Malasana

Ananda Balasanda

Setu Bandha Sarvangasana or bride pose

Marjaryasana or the cat

Dolphin pose

Salambhasana or locust

Savasana

Balasana or child pose

But seriously now, will it work I hear you ask. As someone who has dabbled at yoga – ok I went to one class – and dabbled with drinking – ok slightly more than dabbled, I think it might just be a combination that resonates with many people who, like me, are looking for something more from their exercise and their nights out. Both yoga and drinking need discipline to do properly and both have been known to relax the body and take the mind to a different plane.

Everybody seems to be searching for something in this modern age; enlightenment, fulfilment, peace, oblivion. It could be a match made in heaven or nirvana or the pub. Trying to loose weight with the use of drunken yoga probably won’t help, you are probably better off with one of those weight loss soups.

There’s no doubting dedication is required and you need to find the time to work your way into the correct state of unconsciousness. It’s best to start slowly and make sure you get a trainer or expert to help you in a controlled environment in the early stages. Everything will hurt the next day anyway whether you do one or both practices and as they say, no pain no gain. Don’t try this at home on your own, although then again, that may just be the best place as I bet the morning after recovery can be hell.

Midge typically blogs about weight loss diet plans and healthy eating for summer, but this subject was just too amusing to miss.