How to buy a bicycle to stay fit and safe!
Spring is on its way and bicycling is a great way to get or stay fit!
Heather over at HealthBee has a great post about bicycling the right way so that you stay safe and injury free.
She points out right away that you need to make sure that you get a bike that fits you right to help avoid knee pain and other problems. She suggests going to a bicycle shop and have them help you adjust things like the seat height and handle bars correctly.
She also suggests buying a helmet, bicycle pants, shoes, pedals and gloves and explains why for each.
I never learned how to ride a bicycle when I was a kid - I was always too afraid. I would like to learn now though, and this article has all the information I need to know how to buy a bicycle - and now I just need to figure out how to actually ride one!
February 11, 2006
What’s the scariest thing about being a parent?
At Blogging Baby there is an interesting discussion about what is the ‘most challenging thing about being a parent?’
Now, I don’t have kids yet but we are in the middle of paperwork for adopting and I often wonder about these kinds of questions myself.
The author of the post, Sarah Gilbert, says that for her it is ‘between the ages of 18 months and 5 years’ and she may very well be right.
But the thing that scares me the most about being a parent is what meg says: ‘the expected loss of self’.
My mother, who was/is a great mom didn’t have many interests or hobbies - she was first and foremost a mom and wife. I appreciate all the sacrifices she made for me. But - I feel bad for her. She never had a chance at having a life of her own - to develop a sense of self or the challenge of goals to achieve outside of parenthood.
I’m not sure if I can live my life like that - without being miserable. And yet I don’t know how to avoid it and still be a good parent.
I guess my challenge over the many months of waiting will be to figure out how I can arrange some ‘me time’ to develop who I am outside of a parent.
In the end though, if I can manage it, I think my child might be better because it - to see her mother be a good mother - yet have outside interests and goal along with that.
For the mothers out there - what do you think is the scariest part? And for those not-yet-moms - what scares you the most?
Corticosteroids and osteoporosis
If you are taking oral corticosteroids on a long term basis for the treatment of a chronic skin disease you should be especially careful to make sure you don’t develop osteoporosis. Osteoporosis caused by this is called glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis (GIOP).
The use of bisphosphonates to treat or prevent osteoporosis should be considered if you are taking corticosteroids.
The January issue of the journal Archives of Dermatology has more information on this subject.
(Technorati Tags: osteoporosis, corticosteroids, bisphosphonates)
February 6, 2006
Flushable diapers?
Over at The New Homemaker, Jilsyt reports that an Austrailian company is now making a diaper with a liner that is flushable, but the rest of it is reusable. Kind of like a cross between a disposable and cloth diaper.
I don’t know what they look like, but they sound kind of like pad for babies to me!
There is no way we could flush something like that down our toilets though. We have major sewer problems - its backed up in our basement a few times lately, and the county is going to have to come and dig up the line and fix it.
But, even if you don’t flush them, that’s still less material to throw away and end up in a land fill. So it might still be a good idea.
Jilsytis looking for opinions from anyone who has use them.
February 3, 2006
It all starts at home!
Once again I feel compelled to write about the problem of obesity and a generally poor diet in kids.
I want to focus this time on how parents must set a good example. If the parents don’t 1) eat healthy nutritious foods themselves, in front of their kids and don’t 2) prepare healthy nutritious meals for their children - what do you expect?
Cutting out the junk food in schools alone won’t solve the problem - kids might just end up skipping school meals entirely or bring junk food on their own to school.
While reducing or eliminating the amount of junk food commercials that appear during children’s TV shows would also help a lot - again, without parents setting a good example its not enough.
I don’t have any kids now, but we are starting the process to adopt and I want to make sure my child will see good eating habits coming from her parents. I’ll admit, I sometimes cheat and eat a little more junk than I should - but I’ll have to stop that once we are parents.
For those who are parents already - do you have any tips to share on how to make sure you do the right thing and eat healthy foods around your kids and how to get them to eat right too?
