With a really hot weather, you might break out and put your health to high levels of risks. Actually, getting careful on a hot season should only take a little effort from your side and a simple common-sense.

Day-to-day activities can be strenuous, even a simple walking or running wears you out on a hot day. These together with air temperature result to a, really, warm core body temperature. Now, your body reacts to such situation by transferring more blood infusions all through out your skin. You will feel a cold sensation, as a result. The bad thing in here is that lesser blood is left for the muscles. That is why, at the same time, you will feel your heart beat increasing and faster.

Have a cooler summer!

During a hot day, more stressed is experienced, because your sweat is only able to evaporate slowly, with the heavy humid around, it competes in part. This should, also, heighten body temperature, as well.

How can you endure such a hot day? To prevent suffering from a wearying heat exhaustion and possible heat stroke, you can do these precautions:

1. Remember tips and helpful ways in making a hot day, a cool one.
• Add several more recess or breaks during working, so that you can have time to drink more water or juice.
• Relax and enjoy your summer vacation.
• Re-schedule your strenuous activities like soccer field games or outdoor tennis games.
• Be sure to stay in shades like tents or small waiting areas.
• Use a big umbrella to protect your skin from the sun’s harmful rays.
• You can, also, stay in air-conditioned rooms, if it is possible, but if not, you can instead, twice (2x) take a bath in a day (or more.)
• Observing a proper diet can, also, cool things down, like eating chilled salads or fresh fruits. This should lessen your time in the stove.
• Moreover, alcoholic drinks can make your body really hot, so avoid it.
• In terms of fashion, dress lightly and choose pastel colors. Cotton is, still, the best material for your dress in a hot day. It is lightweight and reflects heat away from your body.
• Keep a bottle of water, always, with you.
• Help elders or kids suffering from heat stroke and heat exhaustion; bring them immediately to the nearest clinics or health department.
2. Know the early signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke symptoms, for quick first aid applications. These can be heavy sweating or no sweating (very dry skin), headache, dizziness, nausea and vomiting, body weakness and fainting, paleness or redness, very high body temperature, fast heart beat and stammered lines.
3. Use proper heat stroke treatments. Such a situation can be life-threatening. You should treat it as an emergency. For first aid steps, when finding a victim, be sure to carry him or her to the nearest shady place like under a big tree or inside a store. Loosen clothing, you can open the top buttons or remove totally the shirt. Apply cold materials, like a damp cloth or ice, on the victim’s neck, face, armpits or feet. Splashing small amounts of water all over the body can, also, helpful. Although, letting the victim drink water or treated with alcohol is a no-no. While you are doing these, the body temperature should be recorded in account. During life saving cases and the ambulance or health experts are still not there; call the health hotline for medical assistance.

Please read  How To Prevent Heat Stroke and Taking Care of Heat Stroke Patients for more information about heat stroke. I personally recommend it and share it to your loved ones and friends.

Be cool this summer! I hope the tips mentioned will help you to even be more cooler!

Really? Is there such a way to reduce weight naturally?

Wait, before I answer that let me tell you first that I’m a little bit few marks higher on weighing scale than my supposed to be natural weight. The good news is, according to my recent visit to my doctor,  I lost 2 pounds since the last time I visited him.  I think the biggest factor that helps me to loose weight is my active participation in mountain biking and running. I actually had my first 10KM run during Run United last March 04, 2012.

Our family picture during the Run United 1 2012

The other reason, although I dreaded the word “DIET”, is the body cleansing through…diet. And this is where how to reduce weight naturally comes in.

You see, our body detoxify itself daily. However, if we don’t monitor what we eat, there’s a tendency that our body systems become overload with toxic and wastes. These wastes  comes mostly from processed foods and even pollutants that we breathe in.

Cleanse diet detox helps us by getting rid of the harmful  and toxic matter from our body. It is also designed to increase our body stamina and energy.

The next question you might have in your mind right now is, isn’t dieting expensive that requires a special menu? Well, on the contrary, it’s not. If you really want to detoxify your body, you don’t need to shell out more money than the food that you might already have in your table or fridge. Fresh and whole foods is all you need!

Fruits and green vegetables are best for detoxification. Since it’s summer time, flush out the toxins in your body by drinking fresh squeeze juices such as oranges and carrots. Drinking plenty of water also helps a lot. It keeps your body hydrated.

If you can, (and since it’s Lenten season here in the Philippines), you may want to skip eating of meat for some few days.  Skipping or eating less meat is good for your health and proven way to lighten up on the scale.

Reducing weight without resorting to unnatural methods is possible. Try to participate in a more physically challenged activities such as running, and  eat (as much as possible) more fresh and unprocessed foods.

No, I’m not having a sleep disorder nor a sleep apnea. My problem (and my husband too ) is I can’t sleep the night before “big days. “These big days are either a big event like before going to a vacation, or simply our scheduled running and trail biking.

Tomorrow we will have a sort of bike ride reunion with our bike buddies. My husband prepared the bikes already making sure they are conditioned to take on the rough trails that we will hit by sunrise.  On my part, I prepared all the gears that we are going to use. The problem is, due to excitement, I can’t get a decent sleep. What worrying me actually is to make myself fully awake during our almost whole day bike ride.

I don’t drink coffee. Yup, that’s the reality. Besides, I don’t take those so called “energy drinks” as well. I do take chocolate drinks but not during a bike ride or run.

During our run last week, my brother gave me a sort of vitamins to drink before I race on  my first ever 10KM run.  I almost forgot the name of the pill, good thing I still have extra on my hydration belt bag. The brand is called Provil.  My brother told me it’s FDA approved as wakefulness aid medication. He suggested to buy provigil online if I want more, but I told him to give me one bottle so I’ll have enough supply since he’s got 2 more extra bottles.

I’m not quite sure if the tablet really helped me by keeping me awake but what I noticed was  that I didn’t get tired easily. I was able to finish the run 11 minutes ahead of my target time. It seems I still have the energy when I crossed the finish line. I feel like running for 5 more kilometers. Or, was it because of the training that I undertook before the race?

Our meeting time for our trail biking is 6AM tomorrow in Nuvali, Sta. Rosa, Laguna. It’s past 1AM already and I hope I can sleep right after writing this post. Wish me luck!

Are travel agencies things of the past? Most of my friends and relatives are booking their travels through online already. They’re getting a lot of travel and hotel deals from various coupon sites such as Ensogo, Groupon, Pakyaw and more.

A friend of mine who is based in abroad is coming here on summer together with her group of foreign friends. I don’t know the exact number yet. They’re planning to hit some of the best beaches here in our country and visit other tourist attractions as well. This is my first time to host a group of foreigner so I’m currently looking for a luxury travel agency that can handle their needs.

Personally, I’ve booked a lot of our family vacations through online as well . I can’t remember when was the last time I went to a travel agency to have our trips settled.  I haven’t had a bad experience when dealing with online agencies…yet. Hopefully not. Cross fingers.

Although I’ve been to a lot of local destinations already, I think it’s more practical if I’ll let a travel agency to do the footwork instead of me calling all the hotels and tour operators where they’re planning to go.

I want my visitors to have a unique experience here in our country so if you know a travel agency that can help me, please leave your comments here. Thanks in advance and have a great weekend!

Here’s the best tip to make your nail polish last longer: Avoid doing dishes!

But as a mom, specially mom who stays at home while their kids are out in the school and with a hubby who’s doing his best to be a good provider, we can’t avoid putting our hands in the water. Aside from the fact that skin and nails lose moisture with age, the dryness is compounded by frequent hand washing.

Now to really make your nail polish longer, take a look at some of my personal and tested tips:

1. Make sure your nails are  perfectly smooth, clean and buffed. This is to make sure the nail polish has a clean surface to attach to.
2. Use your own nail polish. If you go to a salon or even when you hire somebody to do the job for you, try to bring or use your preferred nail polish. It has been a practice of some salon owners to add thinners on their stock of nail polish to extend it’s life. Check out some nail care collection specifically for professional nail care.
3. If you have your own nail polish, store them in cold, dark place. This will keep them from changing colors. Not properly stored old nail polish can cause bubbles and peeling later on.
4. Avoid putting on nail polish with electric fan or moving air directly in your nails. This is a sure way to have some uneven finish.
5. Apply a base coat nail polish and wait for it to dry completely.
6. Apply your favorite nail polish (2-3 coats). Again, wait for it to dry completely. I prefer to use 2 coats only. My favorite colors are those with earth tones. You may want to check julep maven review for nail polish watches. Personally, I spend 15-20mins air dry between coats.
7. The last step is to apply a top coat nail polish. Take note that it takes around 12 hours for the nail polish to dry completely so avoid exposing them to harsh environment within this period.

Again for us moms who do the dishes, try to use dishwashing gloves on dishes, and other household chores.

Also, hydrate your hands with a petroleum-based cream to lock in moisture. Lately, I’ve found out that applying virgin coconut oil is also helpful in making my hands and nails smooth, moisturized and healthy looking.

Once again, all my family members – including my in-laws, participated in a marathon run last Sunday. We were all present during the Condura Skyway Marathon 2012. The premiere running event is actually an advocacy run. The proceeds from the previous events  have been used on various notable projects that protect and care for the marine environment such as the Tubbataha Reefs, the Donsol whalesharks and the Bohol dolphins. For this year, the proceeds will be used to save the Philippine Mangroves.

After our successful run, we celebrated  not only because all us broke our individual personal previous records but it was also my brother-in-law’s birthday. In fact, his birthday was also announced during the run and the participants in his category sung a happy birthday song for him. He didn’t know what to do when it was announced and when he was called to go up in the stage.

We planned to have a brunch near the staging area of the marathon. Good thing there are a lot of restaurant where the  marathon was held. Since we don’t have the time anymore to go home, take a bath and change our clothes, we just refreshed ourselves with rubbing alcohol and apply some mood perfume to kill any foul odors. What a trick!

Anyway, our celebration didn’t end there. We had another celebration when we reached my brother-in-law’s house. The whole family ate lunch together (yes another lunch) and of course the ever-present ice cream and cake in every birthday occasion. I think that was not enough because when the night comes, we all had a dinner in a seafood restaurant.

All of us agreed that the driving force for all us to run as a group is the food after the event. So it seems our mantra is now “the family that runs together, eats together”.

What about you? Do you run or do activities with your family? What keeps you on doing those activities together?

It’s easy to get a credit card and it’s even easier to misuse it. Do you agree?

I had a chat with my former officemate last night who is now based in Texas, USA. She told me that she’s having a hard time in paying her credit card bills and other debts.It’s affecting her everyday life already because some creditors are harassing her through mails and phone calls. I honestly informed her that I don’t have much knowledge about credit card laws in the USA, but I shared to her my story on how I was able to clear my credit card debts. I even advice her to check on some plano credit repair company to assist and perhaps help her on how to clear her negative credit ratings too.

I used to have 6 different credit cards in my wallet. Whenever I want something, I just whip out my card thinking that I can pay it through my salary which I’m receiving every month. But it was a gross mistake on my part. What I always have in mind was my high credit card limit  but not the real cash on hand, and my monthly take home pay. And before I knew it, I was already buried in debt and unable to pay even the minimum payment.

This greatly affected my  credit history when it was time to get a loan.  Somehow, the banks knew that I defaulted on most of my credit cards payment in the past.

At first I did not inform my husband about my problem but since we need to get a loan from the bank, I disclosed to him what happened. My husband helped me by lending me some amount to gradually close all my credit cards. Yes, he wanted me to cut all my credit cards in two. Being a dutiful wife, I resigned to my husband’s desire. It was a struggle in the beginning  but when I was able to pay the full amount on the first credit card, everything became smoothly until I was able to settle all 6.

I don’t want to be in that situation again. So I followed my husband advice to drop everything. I even requested a certificate of full payment from the credit card companies just in case I’ll be needing them later on. I was glad I did. After some few years ( 2 years to be exact, I think), my credit report was on the positive side already and was able to get a loan for our house.

Lessons learned.

• Two credit cards is more than enough already.
• Control your spending even if you  have high credit limit.
• Don’t give in to installment basis if you can’t even pay the item in full cash.
• Pay the balance in full  on or before due date.
• If you’re having trouble paying your credit card debts, settle it as soon as possible.
• Tell your husband about your spending habit.

Read Filipiniana Books!
Buy Your Copies at the Filipinas Heritage Library Online Book Club

If you are a book lover, you should visit the newly improved Filipinas Heritage Library. They now have a generous list of Filipiniana books, journals, magazines, videos, music, and CD-ROMs (meaning the authors are Filipinos) sold online at their “Libros Filipinos” book club.

Its goal is to allow an extensive research place that is both available locally and internationally for the eyes and ears of kids or adults. Now, our fellow Filipinos, who are abroad and can’t go home in our country, can enjoy reading culture-based materials. From year 1996, the library has been a leading one-stop electronic library of Filipiniana books and other resources.

New projects on a widened commitment to reading beyond the functions of a traditional library have been started last year as part of its 15th year celebration. At “Filipiniana Online,” the price ranges from Php 80 to 11,100. Looking into the categories, you can see that a lot of these books are written under extraordinary and unique topics, anyone would absolutely die for!

Here are some of them:

• Ako si Kaliwa, Ako si Kanan (Category: Book: Children’s Literature) – written by author, Russell Molina
• Alien To Any Skin (Category: Book: Poetry) – written by author: Jim Pascual Agustin
• After The Storm: Stories on Ondoy (Category: Book: Essay) – written by editor, Elbert Or
• Bravo Filipino (Audio CD) (Category: Non Book: Multimedia) – written by author, Jaime Zobel
• Gitnang Uring Fantasya (Category: Book: Poetry) – written by author, Rolando B. Tolentino
• Legaspi: The Making of a National Artist  (Category: Book: Autobiography/Biography) – written by author, Alfredo A. Roces
• The Love of My Buhay: A Pinoy Love Poem Just For You (Category: Book: Poetry) –
• created by artist, Elbert Or
• The Road Less Travelled: Project Development by LGUs for LGUs (Category: Book: Reference) – written by authors, Colin Hubo, Dionisio Paelleras, Jr., Rolando Dy, Winston Conrad Padojinog and Gilbert Llanto
• True Encounters wth the Unknown (Category: Book: Fiction) – written by author, Jaime T. Licauco
• Unsurrendered 100 Voices (DVD) (Category: Non Book: Multimedia) – written by Author: A Spyron-AV Manila Production

Other projects are Book Donations, “Bravo,” “Teens Read, Too!” and the “MyLibrary” for communities and public schools, which was promoted last August 2011 by apl.de.ap, the famous Half-Filipino international singer and member of “Black Eyed Peas” group, when he opened a music studio, computer room and library at his own alma mater: Holy Angel University (HAU) and Sapang Bato National High School (SBNHS) in Angeles City, Pampanga.

Visit the site now for further details on the latest books. Just go through Bibliofiles, shop online with its website book catalog and read news or updates from the Filipinas Heritage Library. Even better, you can bring the whole family for an afternoon reading at their land location in the Nielson Tower, Makati.

Aim to dig-up the coolest finds, but low-cut gifts this season? Visit the Novel Discovery Bazaar now. Any budget would fit in with its really cheap and affordable products sold in kiosks, stalls and “tiangges.”

Here are some shopping tips from Ms. Aida Gregorio, the project manager herself:

• Start at the most convenient time possible. You should allow only two hours of shopping hours.
• Wear cool and comfortable clothes as well as limit wearing jewelries or accessories that can add to the hassle of carrying things that you have shopped for from stall to stall.
• Write down everything you want to buy and who will be given the gifts.
• There should be a definite budget for each gift to give.
• Bring shopping bags in reasonable numbers that you can use as well as re-use for shopping at the bazaar.
• Keep the receipt.
• Check what you have shopped for numbers and repairs.
• Take care and look after your personal possessions.

Prices for men and women t-shirts can range from Php 99 up to 150 only. On the other hand, shoes are offered in a buy-one-take one discount promo, which are made in high quality and in lots of sizes. There are also casual or formal blouses offered in 3 for Php 580, really affordable. You just have to buy once for 2 persons.

Store hours are: 11 am to 9 pm during Monday to Thursday and 11am to 10 pm during Friday to Sunday. This year, on its 11th run, there are 23 shopping days to enjoy. Namely they are:

• World Trade Center – November 18 to 27 and December 21 to 23
• PICC Forum – December 9 to 18

The proceeds of the bazaar will go to the GMA Kapuso Foundation, Associate Missionaries of Assumption and Bantayog ng mga Bayani Foundation. Helping are the hands of GMA Network and the Philippine Daily Inquirer to be able to acquire more buyers and sellers.

Were you shocked with the title of my post today? Don’t be.

It’s the time of year once more when many of us get loads of cash from year-end bonuses, at least for the working moms out there. And for those who are not in active working force anymore, well just ask for your husband’s bonuses. 

I’m pretty sure a lot of you can easily answer my question. Majority will answer ” spend, spend and spend!” Well, that’s my answer too… but I’m thinking on some other ways to put a part of it in savings. Not too big, but enough to start the ball rolling of savings for the future. My husband told me that If I want to keep my money, then I’ll just deposit it on a bank but If I want to make it grow then I need to invest it.

A badminton friend of mine told me that every end of the year, together with her husband, they pooled their money together and invest in stocks. Well, I don’t know anything about these kind of investments  but I’ve been reading more and more online like the Timothy Sykes penny stocks.

Good thing another friend of mine, who is connected to a local life insurance and a mutual fund company, explained to me how stocks works. Since I’m not an active player in buying and selling stocks, she encouraged me instead to look into mutual funds. She told me it’s the same with the pooling of money that my badminton friend is doing, the money for mutual funds is being pooled also from a lot of people and invest them on different portfolios like stocks. The advantage of this is that you don’t need to be involve in day-to-day o buying and selling of stocks since a Fund Manager will take care of it.

So for those of you who doesn’t know where to spend, I mean to save your hard earned money, you  may get in touch with me and I’ll refer you to my friend.