Health

Do you love midnight snacks?

Swathy · October 3, 2018 · 18 Comments

midnight snacks,midnight cravings — Image Courtesy : Clem Onojeghuo via pexels.com

Updated from September 19, 2012. I can still picture myself sitting on my single bed and writing this post. I was probably hungry and gorging on some snacks late night during the weekend and that would have given me the idea of doing a post on the topic. Life has come a long long way since then!! But, yes, my love for midnight snacks remains unchanged and undisputed.

I totally love to gorge on midnight snacks. Making my disclaimer – having snacks late in the night is not recommended and is an unhealthy habit with long term implications.

You should have a light dinner two hours prior to bed time and should be fast asleep by the time it hits 11PM. Being awake till midnight is bad for your health, ruins your sleep, wreaks havoc on your body clock and helps you put on the extra flab.

Revisiting this post after so long has actually made me also realize how much I have changed in the past six years. Most of the days I am fast asleep or extremely sleepy by 11 and even if I remain awake by stroke of midnight, I usually take a comfort food which reminds me of childhood, have water or green tea which calms me down and helps induce sleep. Well, I have definitely aged and am wiser now!!

You can get hungry for water!

Swathy · October 1, 2018 · 32 Comments

Updated from September 14th, 2015. This is one of the most helpful tricks I have learned over the years which keeps your weight in check. Yes, most of the times when you think you are feeling hungry, it is your body craving for water. You can get hungry for water if you are not drinking enough of it.

We all get hunger pangs at different times of day. What is your immediate reaction? Grab a snack? Or, reach out for that bag of chips lying in front of you? Well, this is one of the major reasons why we tend to overeat. We do not regulate our bodies and we do not even understand our body signals. The first thing to reach out when you have hunger pangs is a glass of water.

Of course, regulating your meal times and looking into what you are putting in your meal is also a good place to start. But, the first thing is your body is hungry for water. Interestingly, I experienced this first hand tonight. I was reading a book when I started feeling hungry. Its late and I usually take my dinner light and I go for a walk later. So, it is quite possible that my body is low on the fuel.

Instead of gorging on anything (I did not have access to anything either which is helpful), I thought of testing this theory and had a glass of water. And, voila, my hunger pangs subsided, did not recur and I went to sleep happily. So, if you ever feel hungry, try drinking water. It may be as simple as that!

How to find out if you are just hungry for water?

Do you take care of your EARS?

Swathy · September 14, 2018 · 1 Comment

ear buds, ears — Image Courtesy Pixabay.com via pexels.com

Updated from 18th April 2010. Revamping an extremely old post. Grooming and taking care of personal hygiene is an important part of looking beautiful and that covers all parts of our body. So, we shall be focussing on how to keep our ears healthy and clean.

So, today, instead of talking about skin or eyes or hair, I would like to focus on Ears. Many people do not realize how to take care of their ears and what precautions they should take to prevent ear infections. Ears are the most taken-for-granted parts of your body. We abuse our ears so much without realizing that we are doing it. One should realize that ears are very sensitive and very much prone to fungal infections. Any wrong thing can cost us our hearing.

Many people use anything to clean their ears like pencils, pens, keys and even, their fingers unconsciously. Please remember there are things called ear buds which can be used very safely to clean the wax.
But, there is a limit to using ear buds also. Excessive usage of ear buds can push wax deeper into the ear instead of bringing it out. And, you would end up blocking you ear tunnel which leads to a lot of itching and irritation in the ear and can even impair your hearing abilities.
Then, there are many ear drops available in the market. They actually help to clean your ears by expanding the wax just as a cake rises when your use baking soda. Thus, bringing the wax on to the surface of the ear. But, these ear drops when used very frequently cause fungal infections in the ear and you could actually end up closing your ear. You can even feel the pressure difference in between both the ears and your hearing ability will suffer temporarily.
Another thing of concern is excessive of piercings done in the ear or usage of all kinds of artificial jewelery which is made from cheap metals which are toxic to human body. If your skin is too sensitive, you could end up being a very bad case of metal reaction in your ear and it is very painful. And, if the piercings are not done carefully, your ear veins might end up injured and you could again get a reaction in the ear. Too many piercings may be quite cool but are very dangerous in that sense.

How to deal with these issues?

Always remember that ear wax is an ear protection mechanism to avoid foreign particles and organisms from entering the ear so cleaning up the wax is actually bad for your ear.
The human body mechanism is such that it forces the wastes out of the body automatically so do not worry that the wax would stay inside and clog up in the tunnel. When enough of wax would accumulate, it is pushed to the surface of the ear. You can clean your ear by wiping your ear with a wet cotton ball (squeeze hard to let out all the water it has soaked so as to avoid water running into your ear).
Avoid using buds too frequently. Clean your ears once in two weeks or when you feel stickiness on the surface of your ear (whichever is later) and when using the ear buds, make sure you do not dig deep into the ear tunnel but clean only on the surface of the ear.
Take precautions not to let water enter your ears while taking a shower or during swimming. It is also one of the main reasons for fungal infections in the ear.