The premise behind it is that every month starts a new “game” where you try to achieve healthy goals.  You choose your rules and your bets before the first of the month then use the website to track your progress.

The only downside to this is the cost if you want to have a lot of goals.  If you want more than three goals per month, the fee is $5/month.  I understand that websites like this take a lot of time and energy to maintain, and living with a programmer myself, I understand why there is a fee.  Think of it as an incentive to keep reminding yourself of your goals in addition to helping a programmer make a living with a cool product without ads.  Or just limit yourself to three goals…

I’ll be trying it with next months goals and seeing how I like it.  I wanted to let you all know today because you need to sign up and set up your goals before the first of the month to participate for October.  If you try it, let me know!

Health Month

It’s really neat!  For every pledge to live a healthier lifestyle (isn’t that what this blog is about?) and give back to the community (which is part of developing a healthy community), a group of egg farmers will donate an egg to feed America.  In addition, if you sign the pledge you get a coupon for buy one dozen eggs, get another dozen free! Warning to Mac users: I have been having serious problems with printing from coupons.com. I would suggest printing on a different computer if you don’t want to deal with a hassle.

So share the love, sign the pledge and get a healthy, cheap source of protein!

All credit to Phdcomics.com... where would we grad students be without you to visually explain what is going on in our lives?

Have you celebrated any little victories today?

I’ve always said that if scientists could figure out the cause of migraines, then better treatments can be developed.  Apparently, they’ve isolated the gene that they believe mainly causes migraines and are working on developing treatment!

I can’t say that the explanation of how this gene works makes a lot of sense with my knowledge of migraine triggers, but it is still an interesting development.

Scientists discover how to ‘switch off’ pain of migraines – Telegraph.

Other times you wish you had a supply on you at all times.

Like when all the fluids in your head decide to make as mass exodus.

While you are twenty minutes into an 8 hour train ride.

Violently sneezing for minutes at a time makes the ride unpleasant for everyone.

Lesson for today: If you are allergic to things commonly found in nature, double check that you brought your benadryl. Because there are some places where it is inappropriate to use a Neti Pot. And you won’t make people cringe and weep when they see and hear you.

Medications, when improperly disposed, can enter our water supply.  We already have enough issues with our environment and staying healthy without having extra chemicals in the water causing trouble (like young girls reaching puberty much earlier).

Check out the DEA website to find collection sites who will properly dispose of your medications from 10 am to 2 pm on Saturday.

Actually, I didn’t know about World Peace Day until I read about it on a Whole Lotta Love.  But I’m so glad to know about it now.

The idea of World Peace Day is simple… encourage non-violence,  in all areas of our life.

While the idea of peace is relatively simple, I know in reality it is difficult, especially for those tackling peace on a global level.  So do what you can today to bring more peace to your life, your home, and your community.  Spread the message of peace, pray for peace, or do whatever it is you feel will encourage peaceful thinking.

I sincerely hope that our world leaders take today seriously and embrace the idea of peaceful communication… even if it is just for one day.

If you want to read stories and get inspired throughout the day of how people around the world are embracing world peace day, I encourage you to check the United Nations International Day of Peace Website.

Peace out.

I knew exactly what to make.

Oh hi beautiful fruit!

Before my first trip to Puerto Rico, I always thought that plantains and bananas were essentially the same things.  I had certainly never tried one before.  Now, I know better and they are one of my favorite foods.  A staple in Puerto Rico and other islands in the Caribbean, you can get your plantains several different ways, depending on the ripeness of the plantain:  mofongo, tostones, and amarillos.

I’ll go into the other types of plantains and how to cook them as I learn, but tonight I knew I wanted amarillos.  Amarillos are yellow, very ripe, sweet plantains lightly fried in a frying pan.  These are so fast and easy to make and make a great snack or side dish!

Ingredients:

• Plantains
• Oil

1. Pick a very ripe yellow plantain.  You may notice that the one I have above looks black and kind of bad on the outside.  While this is a bad thing for regular bananas, it is GREAT for amarillos!
2. While you heat up your skillet with a thin layer of oil, peel and slice up your plantain.  It is typically difficult to peel a plantain, so use your knife to cut a slit the length of the plantain and peel from there.
3. Place your plantains on your skillet and lightly fry them on both sides until they start to brown slightly and are a bit translucent.
4. Take them off the skillet and soak up some of the oil with a paper towel

These are typically served as a side dish in Puerto Rico, but I love to have them for dessert as well.  Cooking time total?  Around 8 minutes, including prep.  For those of you interested in calories the only thing I could find (here) says that fried plantains have about 116 calories per one cup, with 3g of fat.

Doesn’t get much better than that!  I know that plantains aren’t local, but I’m not quite ready to give them up for that reason. I’m so happy that I can get these without going all the way to the islands.  I see more homemade Puerto Rican meals in my future…