Day 164
I have a secret.
I am a magazine junkie.
Seriously. If there is a title published, I’ve, at one time or another, subscribed to it. Well, maybe not … but it seems like it.
I was dusting tonight (gasp!) and came upon my basket of magazines. Truthfully I’ve been a wee bit preoccupied to give Oprah or Coastal Living even the quickest of once overs in the last few months. Therefore, I have quite the stash of soft-cover reading material waiting for me … and, ahem, literally collecting dust.
I subscribe to about (no snickering) 30 magazines in any given year. Some I’ve taken for a year (can’t even remember their titles they were so unremarkable) … others I’ve had for eons (Better Homes & Gardens, Real Simple, Living) … some I’ve outlasted (Gourmet).
Tonight, in between doing laundry, dusting and watering down the dogs, I flipped through First. I have to admit that I really love this publication. It is chock full of tidbits of wisdom, yummy recipes and every month it tells me what electrolyte or mineral or enzyme I am missing from my daily intake and if I ate/took said “thing” I’d be thinner, my hair would be shinier, my eyes brighter, my liver less fatty … well, you get the picture.
In any case … I don’t think they print anything that is harmful, so why not eat more arugula if it’s going to detox my system?
This is what I found in tonight’s reading:
A recipe for a chunky salsa gazpacho. Sounds cool, refreshing and is also full of tomato goodness. Tomatoes, it appears, help increase the body’s defenses against sunburn due to the fruit’s antioxidant properties (lutein, lycopene and zeaxanthin) that protect against UV-induced free-radical damage. Who knew?
In another story I learned that dissolving an Alka-Seltzer tablet in a bowl of water and soaking your blood, sweat or ice cream stained blouse for 30 minutes before rinsing/washing it out will leave everyone guessing as to if you actually were sweating, bleeding or slobbered your ice cream on yourself! (Apparently the abrasive sodium bicarbonate along with the effervescence of the tablets forces the protein right out of the cloth fibers!)
I also learned that Butterbur helps regulate blood flow to the brain which wards off migraines. (However, it’s always a good idea to check with your doctor before using any herb.)
And I learned that if I flossed more my arthritis might not be as pronounced because it diminishes gum disease which can make gum tissue permeable, allowing harmful microbes to enter the bloodstream and settle in joint fluid. Where is my floss?!
Another tidbit was that 48% of chicken in grocery stores tested positive for E. coli. Ewwwwww. Can everyone say Veggie Pattie?
And the best thing I read tonight – other than the tip to line your taco shell with a butter lettuce leaf to hold all the ingredients together if your shell cracks … was how to carve an oval watermelon into a shark head!
You’d better believe I’m gonna try that!