In Praise of: Tea

I know I've mentioned, News Currents before, but I really do enjoy reading this weekly news subscription with the residents that I work with. This week, there was an article about "TEA." I have not really been a tea drinker in the past, but I have started drinking it a little more often lately. I brought some Lipton's Green Tea. I have been enjoying it in the evening with a splash of milk. I never would have thought to add milk until I saw one of the residents in the dining room add milk to her tea. After reading NewsCurrents, I came to find out that adding milk to your tea is an English tradition.

I had know idea that tea was the second most popular drink in the world. Wow! I found this quick read about the benefits of drinking tea. Tea has the potential to combat Type 2 diabetes, help boost your immune system, build bone strength, help your heart's health. It also has the ability to build and improve memory power.

I had know idea what the difference between green tea and black tea was either before today. I now know that they come from the same plants, but are prepared in different ways. Black tea comes from leaves that are dried while green tea comes from leaves that are steamed or heated to keep their green color.

An interesting fact from NewsCurrents: "Each day, people around the world drink about two and a half billion cups of tea. WOW! It's one of the 0 point beverages as long as you don't add anything to it too;)

100 Best Cities

I heard about the top 100 Best Cities according to Prevention Magazine, to walk in on the news this evening and decided to check the list out for myself. Being from Wisconsin, I checked out the top 10 cities in Wisconsin. Not surprisingly, Milwaukee was not the top of the list. It was #7. Technically, I'm not in Milwaukee, but a suburb that is within walking distance of Milwaukee. I wasn't surprised by the #1 cities in Wisconsin and the criteria did make sense. I love walking in the parks and tend to stay away from residential areas when I'm walking. Check out the list for yourself and see if you agree with it. I would disagree with Green Bay being #10, but after reading the "why" I understand that it is cold for a good amount of time, but Appleton, which was #1 in Wisconsin is not more than 50 miles south of Green Bay.

I love my two mile route that I have mapped out around my house and feel lucky to have a great place to walk. The weather is starting to warm up and I am getting out everyday for at least a short walk. As the evenings grow warmer, I will start taking walks after dinner, but for now I am happy with my lunch time walks and short walks around the block.

Video Games and Losing Weight

Found an interesting article entitled Can Video Games Improve Your Health?. I hate video games, always have. My wife, on the other hand, could sit her Nintendo DS all day without giving the rest of the family the time of day. In fact, she has on occasion been so lost in her game that she has not been able to answer simple questions while playing. Even the game system, Wii, does not appeal to me personally. A lot of guys on the WW message boards have been asking about getting "activity points" for playing the Wii. I just have to think if you're playing in your living room, there can't be much physical activity going on. I have heard that when you play boxing, you do work up quite a sweat. I'll keep exercising the way I have and let others continue having the fun and trying to exercise with a video game.

Has anyone ever tried the Wii gaming system? Would you consider it a good form of exercise?

Tuesday Tip of the Day
Check out a restaurant's website/menu before going and place an order in your head before you even get there.

This has saved me the frustration at the restaurant of looking through the menu. I don't even open the menu anymore for fear of unneeded temptations.

Get Some Fresh Air

Found this interesting article The Fresh Air Fix and it makes some interesting suggestions as to how to get more fresh air. I’m sure if my wife reads it, she’ll be sending me outside for the summer sleep out in the backyard with the kids.

My wife and I took our three kids to the Milwaukee County Zoo yesterday. While walking through the zoo, my 6 yr. old commented that it had been a long time since she was outside. When we thought about it, she hadn’t been outside “All year!” Grant you, the year is only 5 days old, that still seems like a long time to be inside. I think she was talking about playing outside, since we had gone out shopping and running other errands a few days this week. I know when I go outside for a walk or just to take the trash out, get the mail, etc. I feel so much better when I go back inside. The fresh air seems to invigorate me. The kids seem to feel much better with the fresh air as well and it makes them sleep like babies at night as well.

After going to the zoo, my daughters and I played in the backyard. We threw snowballs onto the sidewalk and watched them “splat” and I threw snowballs onto the slide and they had a great time sliding down in the snow. I will definitely try to get the kids to go outside at least for a while a few times a week.

The last two days, I have braved the cold Wisconsin winter and gone out for a walk. It really isn’t the cold that bothers me. It’s the snow and ice on the sidewalks that keep me inside. I remember walking in late November when the temps were just as cold as they are now, but there was no ice on the sidewalks.

I am going to add talking a walk outside to my goals for the year. I would like to get a walk outside at least 3 times weekly. Sometimes I know this will just not be practical, but it’s a reasonable goal for the year and it will help reduce stress, keep me thinker sharper and focused.

New Book

I'm not a big book reader and if I do read a book, it's usually to my kids, but today I ordered this book: 101 Foods That Could Save Your Life. I'm always looking for something different to eat and I'm hoping this book will throw something new my way.