Posts Tagged ‘health’

OK, that's not exactly an earth-shattering revelation.

According to a survey by U.K.-based website PetNet360.co.uk, 70 per cent of the adults they spoke with say that seeing a cute photo of, or hearing a funny story about, a pet cheers them up.

This news seems like as good a reason as any for our second cute pet video round-up. (Not so much cute pictures, as cute moving pictures?) We start with one that's been viewed a mere 86 million times…

I'm usually sound asleep when the "Late Show" comes on, but I'll move my bedtime back a bit for Stupid Pet Tricks.

Mama cat snuggling her baby tight. I'm sure a couple dozen of the views on this one are by me alone.

Is there a video or photo that does the trick for you? Or is there a story about your pet that always cheers you up? Please share in the comments below.

This week's blog is a guest post from Wendy Graves, our senior Life editor.  – Teresa

Who has time to sit down for a family dinner anymore?

Between two busy working parents and kids running off to hockey practice one night then piano lessons the next, how often is the entire family even home at the same time?

So eating a meal together? At the same table? Even a couple times a week? That’s crazy talk.

Researchers at the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University in New York City have studied the importance of family mealtime extensively. Here are just 2 of their rather sobering findings:
• Teens who have fewer than 3 family dinners per week are nearly twice as likely to report receiving mostly C’s or lower grades compared to those who have 5 to 7 meals a week.
• Teens who have fewer than 3 family dinners are twice as likely to have used tobacco, nearly twice as likely to have used alcohol, and one and a half times likelier to have used marijuana.

And at least two other studies have shown the nutritional benefits of eating together:
• Families eat more healthfully, regularly getting higher intakes of calcium, fibre, iron and vitamins B6, B12, C and E (Archives of Family Medicine).
• Children eat more fruits and veggies and less unhealthy snack foods (Journal of American Dietetic Association).

And even without scientific studies we know that family mealtime will:
• Give kids the chance to talk with their parents and siblings, which will not only expand their vocab beyond what they’re learning in school but also teach them about the give-and-take of conversation.
• Give parents the chance to keep up to date on their kids’ activities, who they’re hanging out with and whether their moods or behaviours are swinging like a pendulum.

Here are 5 ways you can make family mealtime easier for you and yours:
1. Turn Sunday into Family Cooking Day. Double a favourite recipe or two and set yourself up for quick, hot meals later in the week. Get the kids involved as well – they’re more likely to eat something they had a hand in preparing (pizza, anyone?). Here are a few of our favourite family meals.

2. No time to spend the whole day in the kitchen? Why not take advantage of Supperworks, a meal-preparation service that allows you to put a healthy and delicious meal on your family’s plate. In two hours you can prepare up to a dozen freezable entrées, all with fresh and nutritious ingredients. The Bring Your Child Sessions allow you to make it a family affair. Best of all? Somebody else does the dishes. While Supperworks locations are currently only in Ontario, they can deliver anywhere in Canada.

3. On nights when your son or daughter has hockey practice, pack up the meal (it can be as simple as sandwiches, veggie sticks and fruit or yogurt) and have a picnic at the arena.

4. Teach your teens a handful of easy recipes – something simple that doesn’t even require the stove – that they can make when they get home from school so everyone can sit down together once you're home from work. Or have the kids assemble the ingredients of an easy one-pot dish (our online food editor, Colleen Tully, suggests this delicious Roasted Vegetable Pasta Bake) that you can pop in the oven when you step in the door. (It's never too early to encourage your kids to be active in the kitchen.)

5. Pick up a serving or two of the prepared but nutritious food, such as a roast chicken, at the grocery store. Serve some mixed veggies as a healthy side.

Do you have a secret to making mealtimes easier for your family?

Brrrr.

That pretty much sums up how I felt on the seven-minute walk from my apartment to the subway station this morning. The cooler weather is now here, and sadly it’s only going to get colder.

As chilled as I was (granted, I’m kind of a wimp with the weather), I can only imagine how the two cats I passed on my walk were feeling. I could at least stick my paws in my pockets.

Here are some ways to ensure your pet stays warm during the cooler days of fall and the even more frigid ones of winter.

• Check the weather before letting your pet out. The danger threshold for animals is about –10 to –15 C. Here’s a good rule of thumb: if it’s too cold for you to stay outside for long, then it’s too cold for your pet as well.

• Never leave your pet alone in your vehicle. While you car will temporarily retain the warmth from the heater after you turn the engine off, it will soon start to feel like a fridge to your friend.

• Give Spot an extra coat. Short-haired and smaller dog breeds are particularly mindful of the cold, so before heading out for a walk, throw a sweater on him. (You may even want to start this now, just to get him used to wearing it before the real bad weather hits.)  For short-hairs you may even want to add booties to the outfit: they’ll provide insulation and prevent salt from getting stuck in the paws.

• Wipe your dog’s belly and paws when you come back in from a walk. This will remove any possible dangers – such as salt – that he may have picked up on your jaunt. (Salt can irritate the footpads and make your dog sick should he decide to lick his paws clean.)

• If your dog is an outdoor enthusiast, make sure he continues to eat well. The ASPCA recommends you up his protein intake to help keep both him and his coat extra healthy.

• Schedule a checkup with the vet. Some medical conditions may make your pet more sensitive to the cold. According to the TLC Pet Hospital, diabetes, heart disease and kidney disease “can compromise a pet’s ability to regulate her own body heat.”

Moving indoors…
• Keep your pet’s bed or cage away from anywhere in the house where there's a draft. He likes a warm place to rest his head as much as you do.

• Be aware of the risk that fireplaces and space heaters can pose. The more the mercury dips, the more you’ll be tempted to curl up by the warmth of a fire or plug in some extra heat. Just make sure to keep an extra eye on Fido and Fluffy so a tail doesn’t inadvertently swish through a flame or a fluffy body ends up trying to cuddle the space heater.

Do you let your pet out during the colder months? Will your pooch be sporting a stylish sweater this winter?

Would you let your dog or cat go under the knife? It seems more and more of our friends across the pond are answering yes to that question.

According to a recent report from Petplan, a British pet insurance company, last year in the U.K., there were about $2.3 million worth of claims related to pet plastic surgery.

As absurd as that number sounds, a good majority of these surgeries are for beneficial health reasons.

For example, some flat-nosed dogs – think pugs, bulldogs and Boston terriers – have smaller breathing passages. An owner may elect for his dog to have rhinoplasty to help open up the passages and allow Fido to breath easier.

Or an owner may pay for a face-lift for her shar-pei to tighten up the skin folds, which are prone to infections from the moisture that can build up in them.

But then there's the other side of the coin, the more "cosmetic" surgeries. At the top of the list: Neuticals, bean-shaped silicone replacement testicles. Basically, they give the appearance that your pet hasn't been neutered when, in fact, he has.

I don't know about you, but I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the words "plastic surgery" and "pets" in the same sentence. Having once been a "parent" of a cat, I know I would've done pretty much anything to ensure her good health while she was here.

But I also know I wouldn't have subjected her to surgery for something for appearance's sake. As much as I believe pets have real emotions, I can't help but feel – rightly or wrongly – that something like a silicone implant is more about making the owner feel better than the pet.

What about you -- would you consider getting plastic surgery for you pet?

In March 2010, Jack Windeler, an 18-year-old first-year student at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., died by suicide. In the note he left for his parents, Eric and Sandra, he asked that others get the help he never asked for.

Eric and Sandra set up the Jack Windeler Memorial Fund to help youth transition from their high school years to university or living on their own.

Eric also made a video as a way to reach out to young people who may be suffering from depression and to those who may know someone who is.

For more information, please visit The Jack Project.

And to learn more about suicide and teen depression, please visit these resources:
• Mental Health Commission of Canada
• Canadian Mental Health Association
• Teen Mental Health
• Mind Your Mind
• Kids Help Phone

Like many folks, my New Year's resolution this year is to be healthier and lose weight. Luckily, I have two fab resolution boosters to help me along:

1. Sexy Boot Camp
This is totally unlike other Boot Camp programs, which can be all long, boring, sweaty workouts and no fun.

Canadian Living's free, online six-week Sexy Boot Camp program mixes quick and easy workout videos and nutrition tips with ways to help you look and feel your best by brushing up on your self-esteem, beauty and fashion sense, and your relationship.

I'm loving it. I'm losing weight, I'm having fun, I'm connecting with other Sexy Boot Campers on Facebook and Twitter and I'm primed to look my best in time for Valentine's Day. Plus my husband is benefiting as much as I am!

2. Live Right Now
Unless you've spent the past week under a rock, you've undoubtedly heard about CBC's all-encompassing Live Right Now campaign. It's got an increasingly rocking website (if you were on it earlier this week, check back now - a lot of the little bugs have been resolved, making it even better).

Plus, part of Live Right Now is the new show 'Village on a Diet,' which airs every Monday at 9 p.m. EST on CBC TV. This great, gimmick-free show isn't your standard, cheesy reality show fare (although I do love me some cheese-ball reality shows).

This is more like a documentary-style study of a town in need of health help, and the lessons they're learning are things I can apply to my life, too. Beyond the healthy living inspiration, there's a large dose of gripping drama and emotional personal stories that have me hooked already. Can wait for next week's episode.

How 'bout you? Are still working on your New Year's resolutions? What is helping you achieve them? Have you signed up for Sexy Boot Camp yet? And are you watching 'Village on a Diet'?

My partner came down with a serious bout of the flu the other night, and in order to help cure him I pumped him full of Gravol to help with the nausea, Tylenol to bring down his fever and chicken noodle soup to comfort him (they all do work like a charm). It was only yesterday when I thought (more...)

Today, web editor Colleen Tully is back to tell you about her race.

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The Nike+ Human Race, Vancouver: 700 calories burned; well over $500,000 into the paws of the WWF worldwide; 1 week into my 30s and I've discovered the elixir I've been seeking my whole life: running for charity.What a sense of community and genuine fellowship. Young parents ran with fresh babies in strollers. Seniors pushed forward with cross-country walking sticks. Kids looking as young as 10 sailed along and one tough-as-nails gal in her late 80s broke into a run at the finish line.Even group of Sudanese runners, who were once "The Lost Boys of Sudan" - boys who escaped the Sudanese civil war in the 1980s walking barefoot across international boundaries - ran in Vancouver to raise funds for ninemillion.org. Though I was far behind, I heard there was nary a dry eye when these men finished.

My most memorable moment was (more...)