To continue with health and wellness quotes from one of Ireland’s favorite son’s, here’s another one from J F Kennedy. I hope you enjoy (and seize) the day!

See related articles on J F Kennedy Ireland visit 50th Anniversary here.

This week Ireland celebrates 50 years since US President John F Kennedy came to visit his ancestral home in County Wexford. Several of the Kennedy clan, including Caroline Kennedy and Jean Kennedy Smith, will be here for the festivities. Both will take part in the lighting of an ‘eternal flame’ — a replica of one at the Kennedy grave in the US — which will be on display in Ireland at the Dunbrody Famine Ship visitor’s center near his homestead.

To commemorate the anniversary, this week we’re posting some quotes by the late President on health and wellness. Today it’s on gratitude — always a good one to remember!

For more on the 50th Anniversary see:

JFK grave flame to make trip to Ireland, Herald

President Kennedy in Ireland online exhibition, RTE

JFK Visit, 50th Anniversary, official page

On 50th anniversary of JFK visit, torch lit from eternal flame heads to Ireland, Washington Post, 18JUN13

In the olden days when we use to buy computers, we’d look for the one with more processors — a dual-core or a quad-core. We want to get more done.

This happens to be the theory behind people multitasking. The only problem is that we’re not computers and our brain is more like a ‘uni-processor’. Thanks to neuroscience, we now know the brain doesn’t multitask at all. It only operates on one task at a time. What we think is multi-tasking is actually task-switching.

Not only that, multi-tasking is just not good — for our health or our productivity. Most people have enough to do already. Multitasking is just stressing us out. Plus, trying to focus on more than one thing at a time causes us to be 40% less productive!

As well as the cool infographic below (from onlinecollege.org), there’s a great article this week in the Huffington Post (see Multitasking Is A Don’t: 12 Reasons To Stop Doing It). Here’s some of the reasons they list:

 
1. It’s Slowing You Down – it will probably take longer to finish two projects when you’re jumping back and forth than if you were to finish each one separately.

 
2. You’re Making Mistakes – it can cause you to introduce errors into whatever you’re working on, especially if one or more of your activities involves a lot of critical thinking

 
3. You’re Missing Out on Life – because you’re just not noticing as much of anything else

 
4. Your Memory May Suffer – it disrupts your short term memory

So if you needed a good reason to stop multitasking, now you have several!

7 Healthy Reads is a new weekly post on the healthiest and hippest highlights of the week from around the web incorporating Soulful Sunday. Get your weekly dose of ‘healthiness’!

7 Healthy Reads

1. Three gift ideas to keep Dad healthy this year! 

It’s Fathers Day today and in case you’ve forgotten to get your Dad another one of those ‘lovely’ ties to add to his collection, here are some healthy and helpful tips for last minute presents.

(Approx. read time: 3mins)

2. The Perfect Protein

Why is fish so good for us? Can eating it really make a big difference to our health? Can’t we just get our protein from other sources like poultry and meat?! If you’ve ever asked yourself these questions, and we know we have, this article will provide the answers.

(Approx. read time: 6mins)

3. Stretches all desk workers should be doing  

If you find yourself tied to the office desk most of the day – which is a lot of us considering these statistics – then take a look at this article which shows us six stretches that loosen the muscles made most stiff by sitting.

(Approx. read time: 6mins)

4. What to Eat Now: Seaweed

Find out why seaweed is the new and nutritious snack for June.

(Approx. read time: 3mins)

5. If you could only give one piece of sleep advice, what would it be? 

No coffee after 4pm. No smoking after 6pm. Drink camomile tea. Eat a tablespoon of almond butter with celery before going to bed. With so many different tips out there for getting a good nights sleep it’s hard to know which ones actually work. And to save you the trouble of trying them all this article lists 13 expert-approved sleeping tips. We fancy singing a lullaby every-night!

(Approx. read time: 6mins)

6. How accurate are fitness trackers? 

What do Nike+ Fuelband, Fitbit and Jawbone Up have in common? They are all activity monitors designed to measure a person’s movement and energy expenditure. This article puts these devices to the test to see if they really are as accurate as they claim to be. And the results that follow? Well, lets just say they make for interesting reading.

(Approx. read time: 5mins)

7.What a 15 minute walk after eating can do for your blood sugar

This article describes brilliantly how such a simple thing like taking a brief walk after eating can have tremendous benefits for your health. If we can make simple changes like stretching during the day, and walking after eating, then we are already taking huge steps to living a healthy, happier life!

(Approx. read time: 3mins)

Soulful Sunday Thought of the Day

Happy Father’s Day to all fathers and Happy Bloomsday too!

Just for Fun

So that’s our favorite health-related articles of the week. If you have an opinion on any of the articles featured we’d love to hear from you. What do you do to stretch your body when you sit at a desk all day? Or how best do you get to sleep? Let us know. Before we go, here’s something to check out if you’re still counting calories.

Have a super Sunday from all of us here at YouSteps!

If you enjoyed this post and would like to see it become a regular feature on our blog let us know in the comment section below. Cheers!

To take advantage of these nice warm evenings, why not incorporate a short stroll into your daily commute? If you use public transport maybe you can get off a couple of stops early and walk the rest of the way. Or park at the far end of the car park. Or take the long way around to get to your front door.

There are endless opportunities to take long-cuts, they’re easy to find, they cost nothing and the health benefits are enormous.

Here’s to your health!

photo credit: dlemieux via photopin cc

Astronaut Chris Hadfield, who was the first astronaut to tweet from space, announced his retirement earlier this week on Twitter. He returned to earth last month but not before making this viral video which he posted on YouTube. Enjoy!

Have a great Friday!

One thing that makes me feel good is when I think I’m at one with the world. Different things will do it at different times. Today, for example, we experienced a real turn in the weather – from our lovely sunny summer days to a blustery, misty-rainy day. Undeterred, I and two friends went for a walk (Cassie came too of course). We chatted and walked in the cool wind with the misty rain blowing in our faces. When I got back in the car it was warm and lovely! I felt full of energy, my face glowing. It was great. I peeled off my jacket and sat enjoying the moment.

That’s what made me feel good today. What about you? What makes you feel good?

Father’s day, 16 June, is fast approaching.  It’s time for fathers to hit the spot light.

What can you do on father’s day to make it special?

We blogged about Mother’s day last month and fathers probably want the same… a bit of special time and love and they’ll be happy. So get organized and figure out what you’ll do this Sunday. Have fun and they will too!

So what’s the deal with food? Is their business model exempt from this?

Spoiler alert: rant fast approaching.

I purchased a bunch of fruit the other day. Me and my family, we were all looking forward to it. The fruit looked super delicious on the outside. My husband bit into a perfect looking apple only to find that much of it was rotten and mushy on the inside.

Argh, I hate this. Don’t you? It makes me wonder… is the whole bag this way?

So then I reach for a plum. Again — really lovely looking on the outside. I bit into it thinking little about it. Sure didn’t the hubby just get a ‘bad apple’? But I found myself wanting to spit it out as it too was rotten. What’s going on?

There’s nothing worse than expecting one thing and getting another. It’s especially bad when it’s something that you put in your body. We want more fresh fruit and vegetables — for ourselves and our kids. But how can we eat more when this is going on never mind the expense?

With brands, you leave the brand. With fruit and veg, however, there’s often no noticeable brands. Plus, ‘rotten-ness’ in produce can be across brands and across stores with many of them sourcing produce from a limited pool of suppliers.

Okay, rant done.

Brand Organic

So why don’t I just buy organic? Good question. In the ‘olden days’ if you bought fruit you could clearly see if it was going off or not. Most fruit was ‘organic’ anyway. But now you can’t. It would be nice, however, if you buy something that it’s not rotten in the middle.

Food producers and stores know that if their produce looks right on the outside, people will buy even if it’s going off. Very few people return bad produce because it’s a hassle for the little amount that they’d be refunded. I know modern day food distribution systems mean that fruit and vegetables often have to travel a long distance before they get to the supermarket. So maybe it’s just a case of buying local.

I want to save money like everyone. That means that sometimes I buy organic and sometimes I don’t. I expect the food to been in ‘good’ condition regardless. It’d be nice to have more honesty in food. Don’t you think?

Will I buy more organic? It depends. I hope that most producers want to supply us good produce even if it’s not organic. This kind of stuff, however, doesn’t feel right. There’s something wrong about biting into fruit that looks perfect and that’s really gone off.

What do you think? Do these things put you off eating fruit and vegetables? Please share your thoughts in the comments below. Your input helps others who read this blog too. Thanks!

Image from freedesignfile

Scientists are finding out all sorts these days about what makes us happy. But here’s something you can do to get happy now.

Go on, give it a try. Let us know how you get on in the comments below. Cheers!