Healthy Homemade Baby Meals

This April as I stay at home and really taking care of my baby for the whole day, I decided to make healthy homemade meals for my baby instead of just depending on cerelac and gerber as his only source of solid food. It's not hard to introduce veggies and fruits for him for he's already eating 2-3 tablespoons of single-grain cereal a couple of times a day since I started him feeding baby solid food since he's four months. I think that if I make my own baby food, I know what's in it, I can tailor the texture to my baby's preferences and I can shape my baby's taste and help him learn what fresh foods taste like.

You can see a sample of my meal plan for this week at Hyzyd's Diary. So far, his favorite meal is the apple and mango.

Apples are good source of soluble fiber, which helps with bowel function and may lower cholesterol levels. Mangoes help the body maintain bowel regularity and fight infection.

The preparation is very easy. For the apples:

4 cups chopped peeled apples (about 4)
1/2 cup water

1. In a medium saucepan, over medium-low heat, bring apples and water to simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, until apples are very tender, about 20 minutes.

2. Transfer apples to blender and puree on high speed until smooth.

Mangoes:

3 cups chopped peeled mangoes (about 2 large)
1/4 cup water

1. Place mangoes and water in blender and puree on high speed until smooth.

You see, it's just very easy...so yummy and delicious for your baby. I will continue preparing my baby's meal even I'll go back to work to ensure that he's eating healthy meal.

Run for your life!

No...I'm not threatening anyone here...he..he..what I want to say is "Let's run for the benefit of our lives"...*laughing*...Before I'll present to you the benefits of running, I wanna share that this afternoon we went out to Prince of Songhkla University just to enjoy the green scenario while my hubby is running/jogging. He used to go around this lake (it's 1.3 kilometer )for about 2-5 times . He loves to jog in this place a lot of people from children to senior citizen are jogging in here everyday.

the lake where our dad jog

we took some pics while waiting for our dad

He's practicing here every now and then because he wanted to be ready when there will be a marathon. Here in Hatyai, when there's an occasions like anniversaries, fund raising and other spectacular events they hold marathon. People in different ages can join to win cash and trophies, earn medal or simply just for fun. My hubby joined marathon for health's sake and for the medals. Anybody could claim for a gold/bronze medal if you run and finished at least 4 kilometers or 10 kilometers (it depends on how many kilometers you signed for). Even if you're the last person to reach the finishing line, you can have medals. These medals are priceless. You can't buy them in the department stores. Currently, he has collected 5 gold medals

you can't find medals like this in the Philippines...LOL!...

This was taken during the last marathon he joined with his friends

I asked my hubby to cite some good reasons to convince me that running is beneficial because I can see in him that he run not simply for the joy of running but he's the one who believes that there's a great deal of benefits which he can gained from rigorous exercise such as running. He's enthusiastic to enumerate the reasons:

1. weight loss ( hmmmm....I think he needs to gain weight) I think running is an excellent way of losing weight because this exercise needs a great deal of energy. This is what I did before my wedding day that's why I'm a bit skinny and sexy at that time...LOL!...

2. improved cardiovascular health- running reduces the risk of heart attack and stroke becomes diminished. This explains why I see a lot of "oldies" running around the lake...but you should not overdo it because it's not also good...I fainted last time (I'm still single) when I push over the limit...*wink*...

3. improved bone health- I overheard my hubby and his friend talking one day that those who run regularly are less likely to experience bone and muscle loss as they age at the same pace as those who do not run regularly...(^0^) (How about me? (^0^)...thus it means running slows down the aging process (this is much better than anti-aging cream!). Conversely, those who run on a regular basis are continually taxing their muscles and their bones so the bones are stimulated to remain stronger and do not as easily weaken with age....hmmmm...no osteoporosis...

4. improved mood - Really?...I researched to confirm this fact and it was confirmed that running can also have many psychological benefits. Most significantly runners typically report being happier and feeling less stressed than their counterparts who do not run or exercise regularly. Running actually has the ability to alter an individuals moods because hormones called endorphins are released while running. These hormones create a sense of euphoria often referred to as a runner’s high and can result in an improvement in the runner’s mood. This explains why my hubby is so patient in dealing with my tantrums....sorry dear...peace... Thank you Lord for having a "runner hubby"...he..he...

With these benefits, who can stop me for running for my life's sake, right? Who will join me? Let's run for our lives!!!!

Thanks a lot!
Meryl

Healthy Moms - parenting, pregnancy, health, and women's issues: Why Alexa Rank is Important to Bloggers

Healthy Moms - parenting, pregnancy, health, and women's issues: Why Alexa Rank is Important to Bloggers

Why Alexa Rank is Important to Bloggers

>> Monday, April 6, 2009

Some of you may not be familiar with Alexa so I will fill you in. Alexa is a website that ranks other websites based on the traffic that they receive. The lower the Alexa rank the more traffic the site gets.

Why is Alexa ranking so important to bloggers like us? Advertisers use the Alexa rankings to determine whether or not they will advertise on the particular site or not. Your Alexa rank also helps paid review sites decide how much to charge advertisers for a review on your blog. If you have a lower ranking chances are you will get more offers from advertisers to write a review for them.

If you are like me and treat your blog like a business, improving your Alexa rank should be a priority. Some people say that Alexa is not very accurate and biased towards webmasters. This is because they track the visitors through the Alexa toolbar. In other words, the only visitors being tracked by Alexa have their tool bar installed on their web browser. If you are a mommy blogger like I am chances are a good majority of your visitors do not have the toolbar installed.

Webmasters understand the importance of the Alexa toolbar so most of them have it installed in their web browser. Here are some tips that I've learned from researching Alexa rankings on the web.

First thing that you should do is install the Alexa toolbar and set your blog as your homepage. Next put up an Alexa rank widget on your blog. You should also encourage your readers to install the toolbar. Be sure to link to Alexa's full explanation of the toolbar and tracking system so that they understand the importance.

If you work in an office or company with multiple computers find out if you can install the Alexa toolbar in all their computers and set your blog as the home page. This will only work if those computers have different IP addresses.

Another great way to improve your Alexa rank is to write or blog about Alexa. Webmasters and bloggers love to hear about ways to increase their rankings. You might get more links to your blog and more targeted traffic.

Visit webmaster forums and show off your URL. Webmasters usually already have the toolbar installed so they will visit your site.

You can also write content that is related to webmasters. Tag your posts domaining and SEO. Promote your content on social networking sites and webmaster forums. Create a webmaster tools section on your blog. Webmasters will probably visit your site often to access the tools.

Submit your popular blog posts to social networking sites such as Digg and Stumble Upon. Encourage your visitors to make your blog their home page. Low cost advertising such as pay per click campaigns on search engines like Google or Exact Seek can also help bring in more traffic. This is even more useful if your ad is attractive to webmasters. You can also optimize those popular posts with an Alexa widget or graph along with the link to your site information on Alexa. Use Alexa redirection urls for your internal links. For example mine would be http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect?www.thehealthymoms.net


Create an Alexa category on your blog and list news or articles about Alexa.

Visit webmaster forums and purchase banner ads, link ads or hire forum posters to post about your blog. You can buy signatures from them or promote specific articles or material in your website on a regular basis. Visit Digital Point to find posters for hire.

Use Alexa redirect whenever you place your link on another website. Make sure you get your blog listed on as many search engines as possible by submitting it to DMOZ. This is the largest human edited directory on the web and is co-branded among hundreds of thousands of sites. It might take up to 5 months before your website is listed so have some patience.

I hope this information helps you to be able to create a business out of your blog like I have. For more tips on how to increase your Alexa ranking visit these great articles.

20 Quick Ways to Increase Your Alexa Rank
Increase Alexa Rankings
Alexa Toolbar and the Problem of Experiment Design
7 Proven Strategies for Improving Your Alexa Ranking