Tuesday, January 15, 2013

purinrpuwain: Health and fitness Could Be Enjoyable With ...

Health and fitness Could Be Enjoyable With ... - Critical Care 2011

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://inception-stepchildren.blogspot.com/2013/01/health-and-fitness-could-be-enjoyable.html

Karrueche Tran dodd frank Lark Voorhies Jennifer Livingston Orlando Cruz MLB Playoff Schedule arizona cardinals

Source: http://purinrpuwain.blogspot.com/2013/01/health-and-fitness-could-be-enjoyable.html

tom coughlin wes welker eli manning eli manning kelly clarkson national anthem halftime show super bowl halftime show 2012

New mothers turn to an old Chinese diet

Five months into her pregnancy, Jessica Su was already thinking about what she would eat after her baby was born.

On a rainy Saturday afternoon, Su and her husband were sampling soups: pigs feet with dates and peanuts, pork chop with green papaya, beef and carrots with Chinese yam, sesame oil chicken. The makeshift cafe in Walnut was packed with pregnant women helping themselves from metal urns.

Nicole Huang, the tasting event's sponsor, rushed from table to table answering questions posed in Mandarin and English: "Am I allowed to eat fruit?" "Can you provide translations, so I know what I'm eating?"

Su hadn't decided whether she would fork over $2,000 to get Huang's meals delivered to her Buena Park home, or hire a nanny to cook similar foods and tidy the house. Whichever she chose, she planned to observe the Chinese custom of zuo yuezi, or "sitting the month," after giving birth.

According to believers, the monthlong regimen helps women recover from childbirth, produce more breast milk and recalibrate their bodies. In addition to the special diet, new mothers are supposed to rest in bed and avoid contact with water ? that is, no shampooing or showering for 30 days.

Skeptics say the health claims are not scientifically sound and that the high-fat, high-protein foods can be harmful to mother and child. Still, the practice is widespread among Southern California's Taiwanese and Chinese immigrants. Families call on companies like Huang's Jing Mommy as a way to follow tradition while sparing themselves from the kitchen.

"You need to do it. All women need to," said Su, a 35-year-old homemaker, of yuezi. "My sister in Taiwan said you really have to or your body will deteriorate. It freaked me out, and I said, 'OK, I'll do it.' "

Yuezi is based on ancient theories of Chinese herbal medicine dividing foods into "warm" and "cold" categories. Each food is linked to a health benefit for new mothers: liver replenishes lost blood, green papaya stimulates milk production and kidney helps with aches and pains.

According to yuezi theory, follicles expand during childbirth, leaving the body vulnerable to cold. Postpartum women are advised to stick to "warm" foods like ginger, chicken and pumpkin.

The prohibition against cold goes beyond diet. In the month after giving birth, women should not wash their hair or go outdoors. Hard-core yuezi observers stick to sponge baths.

After having her first child, Su gave the hair washing ban a try. But she ended up caving, sneaking a shower when her mother, who enforced the rules, was out. This time, she is determined to last the whole month.

"I give it three days," said her husband, David.

Like religion, Yuezi has its true believers and those who follow along just in case there's something to it. Some do it to appease family, while others are mainly interested in the convenience of home-delivered meals.

"At this point, I'm just trying to find food," said Vickie Wu, 35, a physician expecting her first child. "I don't think I believe in it, but it is readily available, and it doesn't seem to hurt."

Besides, Wu's husband, Daniel Sanchez, added, it will make his mother-in-law happy.

Other cultures also have postpartum diets favoring warm foods over cold. Koreans eat seaweed soup, Mexicans eat chicken broth, Nigerians, salty gruel. Southern California maternity wards with many immigrant patients are familiar with the drill ? skip the orange juice and offer hot soup instead.

Lily Hong, clinical nutrition manager at San Gabriel Valley Medical Center, worries that yuezi doesn't provide enough calcium and that the rice wine and ginger in Chinese soups will be transmitted to breast-feeding babies. She tells new mothers to drink plenty of milk and to choose white meat over innards.

Hong couldn't avoid doing a modified form of yuezi herself, at her mother's insistence, after her two sons were born.

She bathed, and she refused the traditional Cantonese soup of pigs feet and vinegar. She smuggled helpings of boba tea. To keep her mother happy, she ate lots of chicken soup and eggs and didn't leave the house for a month.

"Ginger vinegar soup with pig trotter ? to me as a dietitian, I can't stand it," Hong said. "The cholesterol, the saturated fat ? I don't think we can pass the Department of Health if we served that kind of soup.

Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/news/science/~3/gM9SQTVASYA/la-me-chinese-birth-20121204,0,1991403.story

Golden Globes 2013 Anna Kendrick Sandy Hook conspiracy lance armstrong natalie wood martin luther king jr jodie foster

Creating Winning Customer Service Experiences That Matter to ...

There?s a vast amount of research and special studies that take place looking into what makes a winning customer service experience. Is a winning customer service experience about marketing? Is it a sales process? Is it just about the product? Is it the customer service people involved? What is it that makes customers choose your business over the competition. What makes your customers continue to use you, instead of choosing your competitor?

If you dive into the information available from the successful customer focused companies, there?s one trend that is common between them all. Even though these organization are not limited to one business sector, not one specific industry, there?s one thing that they all share. No, it?s not really a secret. It?s a basic principle that they all agree is fundamental to delivering winning customer service experiences.

It?s about consistency.

The most effective customer experience is a consistent one

Author Michael Gerber calls this key to delivering a winning customer service experience ?orchestration?.

?Orchestration is the glue that holds you fast to your customers? perceptions?.

Think about it from the customer?s point of view. What happens when you deal with organizations that seem to be completely disconnected internally. Organizations that seem to be unorganized. Organizations that create frustrations when they can?t seem to align the various departments that have access to your data. Organizations that have poor workflows for dealing customer support issues. Think of growing disappointment that customers have to deal with when your organization fails to orchestrate or align and deliver a consistent great experience to your customers.

Your customer experience example

From the first interaction with your company, a customer begins to form the perception of the customer experience. We?ve done a decent job at creating positive first impressions. But what happens after that initial customer interaction? What is the experience after that initial sale is made? Consistency is the key to ensuring that the customer knows that your organization is committed to delivering what they need each and every time.

If we fail to deliver once that initial impression is made, the customer will come away thinking that all we wanted was to ?take their money and run?. It?s a common frustration expressed by customers and it?s a reason why customers are reluctant to buy. We?re constantly having to re-invent the sales process and come up with ever more creative psychological tricks to getting customers to buy now, but why? Because customers are afraid of the ?buy? button. Customers don?t want to say ?yes?, because they?ve had to deal with too many ?no?s from businesses when they need something after the sale is made.

Creating customer experience consistency

How do we create consistent winning customer service experiences?

  • Winning customer experiences are built by focusing every action to create the desired customer loyalty result.
  • Winning customer service takes commitment to getting, training, and keeping service focused employees who can make people happy.
  • Winning customers takes businesses that weigh every business decision against the needs of the customer.
  • Winning customers requires consistently delivering the type of experience that customers expect.

Customers may not always be dealing with the same person, they don?t need to. Customers won?t always contact the same department, you don?t need to have just one group working with customers. What customers need is to know that regardless of who they work with, what department they have to interact with, the result for them will be the same. So build your customer service experience processes to win the customer.

WinTheCustomer. is a premier customer service management blog. Flavio is a featured Customer Service blogger. Successful organizations embrace, live by, and innovate in awesome customer service, amazing customer experience, unique customer interaction and customer delight.

Source: http://www.customerthink.com/blog/creating_winning_customer_service_experiences_that_matter_to_customers

seattle seahawks new uniforms wisconsin recall wisconsin recall doris day buffalo sabres texas news kim mulkey

Pre-caffeine tech: Tommy Lee Jones is grumpy!

Featured

4 days

Wilson Rothman, CES 2013

More CES 2013?stories are below, but?if you want to follow all of the action,?here's your chance. Read more

40 min.

Our?pre-caffeine roundup is a collection of the hottest, strangest, and most amusing stories of the morning.

Over the weekend, the Internet mourned?Aaron Swartz, a wizardly programmer who as a teenager helped develop code that delivered ever-changing Web content to users and who later became a steadfast crusader to make that information freely available.

In his memory, academics are tweeting PDFs.

Women are?prying open door to video game industry's boys' club.

And game makers asked?the vice president not to blame gun violence on video games.?

The Obama administration?shares your desire for job creation and strong national defense, but a?Death Star is?not on horizon.

In case you were wondering, phone booths are indeed on their way out.?

What's more, Apple is done ... as far as teens are concerned.?

A photographer found 100-year-old photos on an antique camera ... check it out!

Also, have a look at this hilarious Windows 8 error.?

In closing, Tommy Lee Jones is Grumpy Cat.?

Compiled?by?Helen A.S. Popkin,?who invites you to?join her on?Twitter?and/or?Facebook. Also,?Google+.?

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/pre-caffeine-tech-tommy-lee-jones-grumpy-1B7953539

maundy thursday fab melo google glasses kim kardashian and kanye west henrik stenson jobs act greg mortenson

Wedding Photographer Sued for Missing 'Kiss', Other Significant Moments

Wedding Photographer Sued for Missing 'Kiss', Other Significant Moments

www.ksee24.com

Although Jarrad and Sheree Mitchell were married a year and half ago, they are still agonized over what one can only hope is greatest disappointment in their lives: their wedding photos, which they find unacceptable and unbearable.

Source: http://www.facebook.com/KSEE24/posts/234488206685834

lobster recipes hearts roses flower delivery e cards smash kate upton sports illustrated

When Is Worrying OK?

By Dr. Oz & Dr. Roizen for YouBeauty.com

When was the last time you felt zero stress, no stress at all? Don?t know? That?s right -- the only time you have no stress is when you are lying quietly under the covers. Life comes with stress and we?re told over and over that stress is bad for us and that we should reduce our stress whenever possible (talk about stressful!). It?s easier said than done, we know. But stress is only bad when you make it so.

Worrying has evolutionary benefits; it signals a lack of confidence, knowledge or control and it makes us snap to attention when situations call for thought, planning and action. If you think about it, beauty is often about managing the different kinds of stress in our lives -- and put to proper use, worrying can actually be ?good for you.

More From YouBeauty
Stress, Explained
Live Simply Simply This Year
QUIZ: Are You Too Stressed Out?

Worry: The Good

Worrying can help us perform better. When our bodies are in a stressed state -- say, due to a looming deadline, or important meeting -- blood flow increases to our brain, which helps us think more clearly, and our mood becomes more serious, promoting increased concentration. A recent study from the University of Rochester Medical Center even found that people who consider themselves neurotic (you might call them worrywarts) and are also conscientious (organized and responsible) and have lower levels of a protein called Interleukin 6, which, at higher concentrations, is associated with inflammatory precursors to conditions such as heart disease, stroke, asthma, diabetes and some cancers. And a long-term study conducted over 80 years found that people who always see the world through rose-colored glasses do not live as long as those who have a tendency to fret and fuss. A little worry goes a long way.

Worry: The Bad

Chronic stress -- that is, not the acute stress you deal with when you have a project due and you get it done -- brings with it a whole host of nasty side effects. It increases anxiety, causes headaches, hurts sleep, compromises your immune system and can lead to high blood pressure. It can also speed collagen breakdown, making your skin look older, can make acne and eczema flare up, and gives you dark under-eye circles. Unmanaged stress makes you crave sugar. Then eventually you start stressing even more because your jeans don?t fit!

Dealing With Worry

You?re never going to get rid of every stressful thing in your day -- and for the reasons we?ve shown you, you wouldn?t want to. But you do want to keep your nail biting in check (literally and figuratively!), for beauty?s sake. Here are five ways to keep a healthy, beautiful balance:

Reevaluate. Maybe there are too many things on your to-do list, or you?re letting unrelated issues cloud your emotions. Worry is often about a feeling that you?re not in control. So take control! You might not always be able to change a situation, but you can change the way you think about it.

Keep A Positive Outlook. Tell yourself: I have the power to love my job, I can help make the world a better place, I am capable of handling tough tasks. You can do it! Thinking positive thoughts will not only help you manage what worries you, but it?s proven to make you look more beautiful.

Relax.Go to a quiet room and close your eyes while taking deep breaths. Listen to imagery tapes, music, meditate and most importantly, move! Some of us may prefer reading, while others would choose a power lift while listening to Metallica at the gym. Whatever it is, we recommend incorporating exercise and deep breathing as part of your stress reduction plan.

Get Silly.Our favorite stress buster? Laughter! Switch on your favorite comedy while stretching and doing yoga in the living room or go for a walk and call up your funny best friend.

For more on stress, click here.

Also on HuffPost:

"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/14/how-to-stop-worrying_n_2457954.html

joe pa dead laura dekker stephen colbert south carolina seal seal and heidi klum drew peterson untouchable herman cain south carolina

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Valley bars suffer from ho-hum NFL playoffs

NFL fans at Starters Riverport in Bethlehem Saturday.

Sure the economy is limping along and part of that pesky fiscal cliff still looms, but Lehigh Valley pub owners have a more immediate financial worry: the Eagles, Steelers and Giants all missed the playoffs.

Snicker if you like, but those three teams haven't missed the playoffs together this century and Valley watering holes that rely on their rabid fans to keep the taps flowing are feeling the pain.

How bad is it? Dave Rank, owner of three sports bars, admitted that as it became clear late in the season that all three "home" teams could miss the postseason, he hit rock bottom.

"I'm a diehard Eagles fan, but for the first time in my life I was actually rooting for the Cowboys to make it. Maybe their fans could have saved us a little," said Rank, whose stable of pubs includes Starters Riverport, the Valley's largest restaurant. "This is killing us. We haven't faced this before."

Maybe Rank and his colleagues didn't realize it, but they've been spoiled when it comes to packing their restaurants in January. Just 60 miles from Philadelphia and 70 miles from New York, they sit about midway between two of the NFL's largest football markets. And though Pittsburgh is 280 miles away, the Valley is full of fans who drape themselves in black and gold on Sundays.

Not only are Valley bar owners fortunate to have three NFL home teams, but those teams have been so successful that they usually help pubs sell tons of wings and gallons of beer clean through January. The last time at least one of them didn't make the playoffs was after the 1999 season. And they've won four of the last seven Super Bowls ? two each for the Steelers and Giants. Sorry, Eagles fans, maybe next year.

There have been few studies that give a clear picture of the NFL's economic impact on communities . One commissioned by the NFL Players Association in 2011 estimated that each team created $160 million in economic activity for their region. Closer to the point, Philadelphia Sports Congress Executive Director Larry Needle last week said each Eagles playoffs game means $10 million in economic trickle-down for the region.

For Rank, a typical playoff weekend meant fans would arrive early for the Eagles game, drink and eat plenty, and keep the excitement going deep into the late game. And if he was lucky enough to get an Eagles-Steelers doubleheader, it was cash register gold.

But the luck has run out. This year the taps are at a trickle, the usually overworked waitresses at a stroll. In past years Rank said he could expect almost every seat of his 500-seat Riverport in Bethlehem to be filled for playoff weekends.

And this year?

"Probably down 35 percent," Rank said. "I'm hoping they come out this week to see Peyton Manning or Tom Brady. We're reduced to rooting for individuals."

That'll likely amount to roughly $5,000 fewer sales per day at Riverport alone, he said.

The drop is steeper than that at Mezza Luna Sports Bar & Grill in Allentown, owner David Gubitosi said. Last week, for the wild card clash of the titans that was Cincinnati at Houston, at times his 27 screens were barely outnumbered by the patrons.

"Devastating. Take away the Eagles, Steelers and Giants and we're probably down 50 percent," said Gubitosi, who opened the 265-seat sports bar on Airport Road eight years ago. "This is going to be our worst playoffs since we've been around."

Same deal at Big Woody's Pizza and Sports Bar, where even take-out and delivery orders on weekends are down because fewer people are having house parties, said Matt Marcks, whose family runs five Big Woody's in Allentown, Bethlehem and Forks Township. The chain's best defense is the wing-eating contest it started six years ago during the playoffs, which often draws more than 100 spectators each day.

"The wings are our one saving grace," Marcks said. "Of course, more people are watching the wing eating than the games. It's a real downer when your teams aren't in."

It hurts this bad largely because the local bars are used to having it so good. The Valley benefits from three of the nation's top 10 most popular NFL teams, according to a monthly ESPN telephone poll of 1,500 NFL fans. The Giants and Steelers tie for the third biggest nationwide fan bases, and the Eagles are ninth.

For that reason, it's not just the pubs that are hurting. Every playoffs, the likes of Dick's Sporting Goods, Sports Authority and Modell's could count on stocking up on hats, jerseys and sweats of whatever "home" team was in the playoffs, stacking the merchandise on tables at the store entrance. No discounts needed.

"When one of them is in, people are happy, they're excited and they're crazy for merchandise ? doesn't even matter if there's a recession," said Lori Miller, assistant manager of the Modell's sporting goods at the Lehigh Valley Mall. "It's so much fun. This year it's boring. No fun."

And no sales. Managers at Dick's, Sports Authority and Modell's all said that for the first time in years, they didn't order additional merchandise for this playoffs season.

But it's not all bad, said Aaron Wilson, store manager of the Dick's Sporting Goods in Whitehall Township.

"We're a national company," Wilson said. "I'm sure our stores in Denver and Boston are selling lots of stuff."

matthew.assad@mcall.com

610-820-6691

Source: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-nfl-playoffs-fans-20130112,0,1364803.story?track=rss

david decastro aj jenkins shea mcclellin nfl draft 2012 whitney mercilus 2012 nfl draft picks andrew luck