Reduce Your Diabetes Risk

You may not be able to totally prevent type 2 diabetes, but there are steps you can take to lower your chances of getting the disease. • Talk to your doctor about your personal risk factors, such as age, weight, cholesterol level, blood pressure and family history. Make a personal lifestyle plan. • Choose healthier foods. Add these foods to your diet: broccoli, fish, blueberries, olive oil, spinach, walnuts, and dairy. For details, search for “Top 10 Super-foods For Type 2 Diabetes” at www.webmd.com. • Avoid sugary beverages, including soda and energy drinks. One 12-ounce can of regular soda has 150 calories and 40 grams of carbs. That’s the same amount of carbs in 10 teaspoons of sugar! • Exercise every day. Everything counts: walking, swimming, gardening. Just keep moving.

Dangers of Not Enough Sleep

Did you know that the quantity and quality of your sleep may be the biggest indicator of your health? Dr. James B. Mass, bestselling author of Power Sleep, and Cornell University professor, reports that sleep can have an enormous impact on your overall health, outlook and productivity. It may also be the biggest predictor of how long you live – even more than diet, and exercise! How do you know if you’re getting enough sleep? Most people should get eight hours, experts say. If you fall asleep the minute your head hits the pillow, if you’re frequently tired, irritable, or if you have trouble getting up in the morning, you need more sleep. What can you do? Here are seven important strategies to help you get a better night’s sleep: 1. Maintain A Regular Sleep Schedule. Go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time every day; allow for at least 8 hours per night. 2. Keep Your Bedroom Dark and Quiet. Your body’s response to darkness is to produce an increase in the naturally-occurring hormone, melatonin – proven to produce a deeper, more restful sleep. 3. Exercise Daily. Exercising daily relieves stress and improves your overall health; however, avoid exercising right before bedtime. 4. Avoid Alcohol and Stimulants. If you have any trouble sleeping, avoid alcohol, coffee, caffeinated drinks, tea, chocolate, and nicotine. 5. Make Sure Your Bed And Pillow Are Comfortable. Choose the right bed (and pillow) for you. If you’re having trouble sleeping you may want to shop around for a new bed or pillow. 6. Put Your Worries In Jar. Write down any worries, put them in a jar, and let them go for the night. You can set aside time the next day to handle them. 7. Sleep Alone If Your Partner Keeps You Awake. If your mate is keeping you up with his/her snoring, sleep in another room. A good night’s sleep is essential to your good health. Make it a priority!

Prevent Cloud Hackers

Never heard of “Cloud Hackers?” You undoubtedly know the importance of backing-up photos from your smartphone and documents on your computer to cloud storage, just in case something happens to your devices. While it’s nice to know you have a copy of your digital files that can be retrieved from almost anywhere, it’s also important that you take steps to protect data that you store in the cloud from hackers who may attack or break into online storage centers. • Avoid automatic backups. Yes, having your devices automatically backed up means you don’t have to worry about it, but this also means every single photo, video, and file you create is sent to the cloud – and accessible by hackers. You may have several apps uploading photos, so you need to disable each and every one. Note that the built-in Camera app on iOS and Android can’t be disabled and every image is uploaded to the cloud. To delete them, you need to remove them directly from the online storage space. You can disable this feature for mobile devices, and upload on your own schedule. • Check files that are already backed up. Take some time to browse your cloud storage to make sure there aren’t sensitive items like bank statements or questionable photos that you wouldn’t want others to find. • Strengthen passwords. Create a 12-character password or longer for your cloud storage system, and change it a few times annually. Use a variety of capitalization, numbers, letters, and punctuation, and avoid using names, places, or actual words (or have passwordsgenerator.net make one for you).

Check out the Edgewater!

The Edgewater is located on Pier67 it’s the only over-water hotel in Seattle. Zoning changes will never allow anything like this to be built again! It was built for the opening of the Seattle World’s Fair in 1962. It has hosted famous guests including The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, President Clinton and many more. It allowed guests in the North wing to fish from your room. I was recently invited to share in my friend’s anniversary dinner and really enjoyed the food, service and being right on the water overlooking Elliott Bay and West Seattle. If you want to go out for a special event you should give it a try. Prices are high and in the summer months I was told it is extremely busy and you need to make reservations. ENJOY

Summer Grilling Tips

Charring a steak on the grill can release cancer-causing agents. Reduce the dangers by:  Marinating the meat first  Letting the flames die down before cooking the meat  Seasoning the meat with garlic, rosemary and sage (they help block production of those agents)

Alternatives to Bottled Water

You’ve likely heard that bottled water has major environmental consequences, but how bad is the problem? Here are a few facts from thewaterproject.org that illustrate the severity of the situation: • Approximately 80% of single-use water bottles in the U.S. become “litter,” and one bottle takes more than 1,000 years to bio-degrade. • U.S. landfills have two million tons of discarded water bottles in them. • It takes three liters of water to package one liter of bottled water. In response to the bottled water problem, some cities and businesses have banned it, but what can you do? • Skip the single-use water bottle, and invest in a reusable water bottle. If you forget it, buy multiples to keep in vehicles, the office, and your gym bag. • Drink tap water. Several studies have been done to show municipal tap water is usually just as safe as bottled water. • Refrigerate water. Cooling tap water helps remove the chlorine taste many people feel is in tap water. • Boil water if you are concerned water might be contaminated.

Are You Really Eating Healthy?

To buy healthy food, you look at the Nutrition Facts labels on food products. But do you understand what Percent Daily Value (%DV) next to a nutrient really means? The percentage is based on a 2,000 calorie per day diet for adults, and it can help you determine if a food is high or low in a specific nutrient. For example, 18% for “Total Fat” means one serving furnishes 18% of the total amount of fat you should eat in a day. The general guideline for any one food is 5% or less of a nutrient is low; 20% or more is high. Here are the recommended daily values: Nutrient Ideal DV %DV Total Fat Eat Less Than 65g =100% Saturated Fat Eat Less Than 20g =100% Cholesterol Eat Less Than 300mg =100% Sodium Eat Less Than 2400mg =100% BONUS TIP: When comparing two products, make sure “serving size” is similar. For example, if two jars of peanut butter claim to have “reduced fat,” compare the %DVs for “Total Fat” on each label.