Enjoy the refreshing sweetness of a creamy and tasty Venezuelan Chicha

Rice is more than a staple food consumed by half of the world’s population. Affordability, easy cultivation, climate adaptability, and cooking versatility are just some features qualifying rice as the preferred grain of all.

Countless recipes where rice is the star are well-known worldwide. Its mild flavor makes it possible to use it in various dishes from the most common savory ones to incredible desserts.

Its versatility even allows creating delightful and refreshing drinks since its delicate flavor is the perfect base for pairing with herbs and other components.

You will be surprised by knowing the various rice drinks there are worldwide. You will be even more surprised to find out that you may have tried some of these drinks without perceiving rice among the ingredients.

Aug072020

4 Things You Can Do for Your Health Today

Health should be everyone’s top priority – the saying ‘health is wealth’ exists for a reason.

Sometimes it is difficult to know where to start. With so much conflicting information out there on what is best for your body, improving health can become a frustrating pursuit.

However, it does not need to be! Read this piece to find out five things you can do today to improve your health.

May042020

The Health Benefits of Kitesurfing

Kitesurfing isn’t a sport that would immediately spring to mind when thinking about forms of exercise that can help maintain good health. But kitesurfing is one of the world’s fastest growing sports. It’s also considered an ‘extreme sport’, but that doesn’t stop people of all ages and abilities taking it up. It’s not uncommon to see people in their 50’s and 60’s taking up the sport for example.

Apr202020

7 Tips to Boost Your Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 illness is taking the world by storm. Particularly in large countries, like Italy and the US, the number of reported cases continues to go up. As we face this pandemic, we are looking for ways on how to protect ourselves from the new coronavirus. One important way is to boost our immune system.

Source: Freepik

Is it really that important?

Let’s put it this way – if your body is a house, then your immune system is the entire wall that protects it from the outside world. So, yes, it is essential to have a healthy immune system when battling aggressive illnesses, such as the COVID-19.

So, here are ways how you can keep yourself healthy:

Oct152019

Why Living Organisms Need Water

Water is one of the most important compounds on the planet. Whether it’s a fish living in a river, a houseplant being watered, or you drink a cup of water to stay hydrated, nearly every living organism needs water to survive. In fact, many scientists hypothesize that any extraterrestrial being would need a planet with water to survive as well. Why, though? What makes the need for water so prevalent in all living things?

Jun272017

3 Tips to Choosing an Alkaline Water Machine Brand

If you haven’t jumped on the latest alkaline water bandwagon yet, then you are missing out on a lot of things. You could be losing on out on the health benefits that alkaline water gives. In today’s hectic lifestyle where we are left with our heads hanging due to massive fatigue from our daily schedules, an energizer in the form of our staple water will make a lot of difference. Alkaline water helps us relieve our fatigue and re-supply our bodies with new energy that will allow us to keep up until the end of the day. Now that is something that one would want, right? With renewed energy, we would be able to work harder and even have spare energy to spend our precious time with our families and friends. After all, what is the use of working hard when you don’t have the energy to have fun with your loved ones?

Now, the next question is how would you be able to get your hands on an alkaline water machine? The thing is, alkaline water has a high pH level that can balance the acid content on your body but at the same time, it can also potentially harm your body if the pH level is too high. A normal body should just have a ph level of 7- 8.8. An alkaline water can reach up to 14 pH rating, so therefore, you need to be careful and control the pH level of your alkaline water.

There are many alkaline water machine brands on the market today that one would definitely have a hard time choosing the best alkaline water machine for them. To help you in that aspect, here are 3 tips on choosing the right alkaline water machine brand for you.

Collect information or seek a knowledgeable person

By having an alkaline water machine, you would be able to convert your ordinary tap water into alkaline water which will have a higher pH level compared to ordinary tap water. With that in mind, you should first determine what kind of tap water do you have at your home. This is very important as it will be the basis for controlling the pH level of your alkaline machine. If you don’t have the capability of determining yourself, then finding an expert in the field would be your choice. In most cases, there are people from the government agencies that are knowledgeable in this aspect. You can visit your local water supplier and ask for information about your tap water. This should contain the pH level, the various minerals, and other substances in your tap water.

Research and list the different alkaline water machine brands

After determining the kind of tap water your household has, it is now time to find the right kind of alkaline water machine brand that will suit your needs. Take note that you are aiming for a 7. – 8.8 pH level. But, of course, if you have high acid content, then you can always adjust to a higher pH level. Visiting local alkaline machine brands will mostly do the trick as most machines have the specific details especially its pH level on their product quote. Asking the salesperson also greatly helps and can provide a reasonable guarantee with the product’s quality. You can also do a quick search on the internet to gather some useful information that will make your search more effective.

Reputation and Warranty

After having a short list of the potential alkaline water machine brands, you must then check their reputation. Look for client reviews about the product and carefully decide if they should stay on your final list. Check the quality of the product, if it is consistent on delivering on its promised pH level and how often should you get them checked or replace the filters.

After determining the product’s reputation, you should also secure a warranty for your alkaline machine. It is very important that you have a guarantee on the product so that you can always return and have the machine replaced in case things go wrong. Remember that you are dealing with your family’s health, that is why should cover all of your bases and prepare in advance.

May212016

A Fresh Way to Keep the Body Clean and Healthy

Do you think your health is connected to your drinking water? I’m guessing that you probably do since humans require a lot of water. Not all cities have access to clean water, even (or especially) big metropolitan cities. So even if you’re living in a hip town, the water coming from your very own tap could be poisoning you. There have been a lot of products to try to combat this, but not all of them work. However, there’s a new player in town backed by science and a mission. This product doesn’t focus on your waistline; it focuses on something all cleanses are supposed to do. What’s that, you say? Water Liberty developed a product called Adya Clarity that rids you of toxins and metals from your body. How? By purifying your water! We now have the power to harness clean, healthy water!

Nov052012

Swim to Workout, Swim to Live

Pressured by Alana to write a post because our consistency has been awful lately (we are very busy, but no real excuses exist, I have enough time a day to write ONE post), I am going through the most difficult process.. deciding what to write about. I can write about anything, or try to… I mean it might not be good but I can go on and on if I want to. So I’ll save the favorite video games of the past year post for when I’ve played a few more I want to finish, my dinner tonight was disgusting so forget that (over 1600 frozen calories), I took the past two days completely off workouts and three from climbing because of forearms splints and just being sick.

I need rest to recover quickly (I hope), so let’s talk about something obvious for me… swimming. This isn’t going to be in detail, I’m just going to talk a bit about swimming. Of the over fifty hours a week that I work, or will be working, almost all of it is related to swimming or aquatics. So let’s break it into a few categories… continue if interested:

Swim training

Water Safety: This is the most important of all aspects of aquatics. Whether you’re at a birthday party playing pool games, swimming laps to stay in shape, working on your strokes to qualify for an event, surfing in Southern California, snorkeling in the keys, or scuba diving in Southeast Asia, you always need to consider safety and it starts at a very basic level.

Learning to be comfortable and not scared of the water is the first step before you can become proficient at any aquatic skill. If you’re scared of drowning at a very forward level (everyone should be aware of it) then you need to get over that fear quickly. Having children get comfortable with the water at a young age will allow them to break into learning how to actually swim easier, so it’s never too early to start. But it’s also never too late to start! Better early than late but better late than never. If you aren’t comfortable or children that are dear to you aren’t either, then you need to find someone to work on that.

English: A breaststroke swimmer, in a hotel sw...

Just keep swimming!

Swimming: Swimming is a great way of moving efficiently, doesn’t always have to be quickly, once you’ve got your water safety and comfort taken care of. The key here is to conserve energy and have a means of moving that utilizes your arms, legs, and ability to breathe. That’s right, obviously, breathing is the most important aspect of swimming. I don’t care how fast you can swim with your face in the water if you can’t breathe. Swimming is about survival when it comes down to the nitty gritty. Whether it’s rolling onto your back to float or using a rollover breathe to replenish air before going back into a faster means of moving, breathing it key. Once you have those motor skills involving your arms, legs, and breathing operational, it’s time to think of the next step.

Swimming to workout: Now at the highest level this would include competitive swimming, but the basic level means that you can kick, stroke, and breathe properly so that you can workout without hurting yourself. If your stroke is off, you might hurt your shoulders or something else. If you breathe to one side you might develop a huge knot over there, or you might just develop an uneven stroke. If you don’t kick, you won’t swim as well or you could pull a groin or a muscle in your leg. If you don’t breathe, your workout won’t last long. Even if you’re not competitive think about taking stroke classes so that you can get a better workout by doing breast stroke, back stroke, flip turns, butterfly and other advanced techniques that will activate muscles you’ve never used. You can expand your lung capacity, burn fat, and even more. (Note: Please get proper instruction in how to do butterfly, it’s far too easy to hurt yourself if done improperly.)

Competitive: If you have all your strokes and techniques down, and you’re in good shape or want to be, join a team or a program to keep swimming. United States Masters Swimming will take anyone not affiliated with some other organizations if you are over 18. It’s a great chance to keep or start competing. United States Swimming is another huge program to look into especially for youth, and there are local clubs for people of all ages if you are in the right spot and look hard enough. Otherwise, join a class and compete against yourself in a strict environment. YMCAs usually offer lots of programs.

Competition

Recovery: If you are injured or your body has become more fragile there are tons of water therapy and recovery, and fitness, classes that are much easier on your joints. AEA and Waterart offer some certifications in teaching these courses if you are interested. You are never really too old to stop getting in the water.

Extreme: If you want to surf, go for it, I recently did and feel comfortable although we just moved after Alana got a new board. Snorkeling is a great tourist activity and scuba diving is the ultimate underwater adventure. Scuba stands for self-contained underwater breathing apparatus and it, and the aqualung, were in great part the result of the efforts of the late Jacques Cousteau. I recently had the pleasure of meeting and having lunch with his son, Jean-Michel. You can either go to SSI or PADI to get certified and they last for life and offer endless specialization continuing education opportunities. I am currently enrolled in SSI’s Open Water Diver course, and I plan on completing that and my Advanced OWD by the end of the year. Then it’s onto Rescue Diver and Dive Master but we’ll see how long that takes.

Scuba-ing

If you have any questions about anything aquatics, even ocean conservation, please feel free to leave a comment. I’ll get into more detail about each of these over the next few weeks, possibly expanding by giving each its own post, including ocean conservation and preservation, and everything else.