Friday, March 28, 2014

10 Surprising Statistics About Honeybees

By Maryam Henein (Honey Colony)

Find out the buzz on one of the hardest working insects on the planet!

  1. Honeybees can fly up to 14 kilometers (8.7 miles) from their nest in search of food.
  2. Honey is the only food that includes all the substances necessary to sustain life, including water.
  3. Honeybees, from a typical hive, visit approximately 225,000 flowers per day.
  4. In her lifetime, a honeybee worker will travel about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles)!
  5. In her six-week life span, one worker bee will only make 1/10th of a teaspoon of honey.




  6. Honeybees must consume about 17-20 pounds of honey to make one pound of beeswax.
  7. A typical foraging honeybee will work herself to death in about three weeks.
  8. Queen bees will lay as many as 2,000 eggs on a good day or an average of one every 45 seconds.
  9. Honeybees have five eyes but see very few colors; they cannot see red.
  10. A honeybee produces beeswax from eight paired glands on the underside of her abdomen.

Want To Find Out More About The Disappearance Of Our Honeybees? CLICK HERE FOR MORE!

Friday, March 21, 2014

Foods That Reduce Breast Cancer Risk



The statistics can seem scary when it comes to breast cancer. Not only is it the second most common cancer among American women, but it’s also the second leading cause of female deaths attributed to cancer in the United States.

Despite those frightening figures, you have the power to beat the odds and reduce your breast cancer risk. In addition to exercising and maintaining a healthy weight, research shows that incorporating certain foods into your diet decrease your risk of developing breast cancer. Here are KnowMore.tv’s Nutrition Expert Erin Palinski-Wade’s top 10 cancer-busting foods, along with how much and how often you should eat them.

 

Food #1: Broccoli

Turns out kids aren’t the only ones who should heed that age-old advice to “eat your broccoli.” Research shows that sulforaphane, a compound found in broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables, can stop the growth of breast cancer cells. “That specific compound has actually been shown to help inhibit cancer cells from multiplying and might be able to kill off cancer cells,” says Palinski-Wade. Recommended dosage: Incorporate a cup of broccoli into your diet at least three times per week to get the full benefit of their cancer-fighting properties.

 

Food #2: Cabbage

Don’t save the cabbage just for Saint Patrick’s Day; regular servings of this leafy vegetable can greatly reduce the risk of breast cancer. “There’s a really interesting study that found that young women who ate four or more servings of cabbage per week during adolescence were 72 percent less likely to develop breast cancer as adults than those who only ate about one and a half servings per week,” notes Palinski-Wade. The same study found that adult women can also reap the benefits of this food’s anti-carcinogenic compounds, which include glucosinolates and myrosinase enzymes, so adding it to your diet at any age can be helpful. Recommended dosage: Aim for a cup of raw or a half cup of lightly-cooked cabbage at least four times per week.

 

Food #3: Carrot

Much more than just a colorful addition to salads, carrots are loaded with beta carotene, an antioxidant that gives these veggies their orange color and also helps lower breast cancer risk. “There has been a lot of research showing foods that are rich in beta carotene, such as carrots and sweet potatoes, seem to protect against cancer,” says Palinski-Wade. One such study found that African-American women who have a disproportionately higher rate of deaths from breast cancer were 17 percent less likely to develop the disease if they consumed three or more servings of carrots a week. Recommended dosage: Eat a cup of raw or a half cup of cooked carrots at least three times per week. Can’t stomach carrots? Try another orange option instead. “Sweet potatoes, pumpkins, and even summer squash are all really great sources of beta carotene,” suggests Palinski-Wade.

 

Food #4: Tomato

Slathering your spaghetti with marinara isn’t just a treat for your taste buds, but also a powerful protectant against breast cancer, thanks to the antioxidant-rich tomatoes used to make this sauce. “The biggest benefit of the tomato is the lycopene which has been found to inhibit tumor growth and help neutralize the free radicals that can damage and mutate cells,” explains Palinski-Wade. Recommended dosage: Incorporate tomatoes into your meals at least three times a week by slicing them up and adding them to salads or consuming them via spaghetti sauce or even ketchup. Choose your condiments and sauces wisely, though, as you want the fewest preservatives possible. “When you’re looking at cancer prevention the more natural you can go the better.”

 

Food #5: Garlic

A pungent addition to many dishes, garlic offers more than a mere kick to the palate. This bulbous vegetable also delivers a knockout punch to breast cancer since it contains beneficial compounds such as ajoene that can help stave off the disease. “Garlic has been shown to help kill off cancer cells in test tube studies which is promising,” notes Palinski-Wade. Recommended dosage: Use a quarter to a half teaspoon of fresh garlic to flavor your food at least twice a week. “In order to really maximize the beneficial compounds in the garlic, you want to chop it and then let it sit for 10 minutes before you cook with it.”

CLICK TO THE SOURCE TO READ ABOUT 5 MORE AWESOME FOODS

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Foam Roller Basics


Two good videos highlight one of our favorite tools, the foam roller. Excellent for self-massage, recovery, releasing connective tissue.....watch and learn.


Saturday, March 15, 2014

Letting Go of the Power Sucks

Highly recommended website and blog, Exuberant Animal, here is a sample:

http://blog.exuberantanimal.com/

by Frank Forencich on March 12, 2014


“The truth is revealed by removing things which stand in its light, an art, not unlike sculpture, in which the artist creates, not by building, but by hacking away.”
Alan Watts


Everyone wants to be stronger and more powerful. And these days, a lot of us have a strategy for making it happen. Our most typical approach is to do it directly, through physical training and by developing the knowledge and strategies that make us more effective in the world. We build our power by, well, building our power.

It’s all good, but there’s also a flip side to this whole enterprise. That is, we can also increase our power by removing those things that get in the way of our strength and our skill. In this practice, we act as sculptors of our mind-body-spirit experience; we create by eliminating the unnecessary things that weigh us down.

Of course, there’s lots of baggage that we carry around with us, baggage that inhibits our ability to be strong. These are the attitudes, ideas and beliefs that distract us and displace our ability to function effectively. These things act as power sucks, drawing away our energy and our ability to enjoy the beautiful adventure. They obscure our view of the world and inhibit our ability to see clearly.

Opinions vary of course, the list of classic power sucks usually includes things like resentments, bitterness, anger, blame, hatreds, hostility, complaint, grievances and expectations.

At the root of it all, the victim orientation sucks away our power right at the source. When we adopt the role of victim, as many of us do, we spend our days blaming perceived perpetrators or wishing for salvation from rescuers. In the process, we simply perpetuate and deepen our weaknesses. By attributing all of our woes to outside forces and agents, we effectively give away our ability to function in the world.

And so, the burning question. How do we relinquish these power sucks? How do we let go of all the baggage that inhibits our ability to be strong and powerful in the world?

One short answer is meditation. By training our attention, we learn how to relinquish unnecessary thoughts, images and negative emotions. In this practice, we reverse our effort. We turn our conventional flow of striving upside down and start letting go of those heavy, onerous weights that we carry around with us. We relax, we forgive and we let go of attachment. It’s not always easy, of course. After all, many of us have built entire identities and world views around these very things.

Above all, we adopt the creator’s orientation and take full responsibility for who we are and what we’re doing in the world. We are the authors of our behavior and our trajectory. This may feel like a burden, but it actually works the other way. The more responsibility we take on, the more powerful we become.

And we don’t even have to pump any weights.

Although that would probably be a good idea too.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Clean Energy Workshop

Clean Energy Workshop, Carbondale, Colorado
https://www.facebook.com/events/296183990531752/
 How close are we to achieving our clean energy goals? Share in our clean energy accomplishments to date and join us in creating the plan for the future.

Wednesday, March 16, 2014 at the Carbondale Branch Library

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Yoga workshop w/Brenda Nelson Garlow

Join guest instructor Brenda Nelson Garlow, a longtime local who now resides in Maui, HI for a 3-hour yoga workshop in Rifle.

Brenda has been studying and teaching yoga for well over 20 years and is a certified instructor of the American Viniyoga Institute.

This general workshop will have a secondary focus on alignment and mobility in the hips, upper back and knees, along with pranayama (breathwork) and dhyana (meditation.)

Yoga philosophy will also be woven into the class.
All levels are welcomed and encouraged to attend.
$50 per person. Minimum 6/Maximum 20
Please RSVP to Kim to reserve your spot. 970-309-2400
When
Tue Mar 11, 2014 9am – 12pm Mountain Time
Where
ArtillumA, Jarrad Avenue, Rifle, CO, United States (map)

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Awesome Simple Gardening Idea


"This worked well for me for many years - it's a simple, weed-free way to grow lettuce, spinach and even radishes. Take a 2 cubic feet bag of potting soil (I used Miracle Grow), rumple it around quite a bit to loose the soil, poke quite a few holes in the back side for drainage, then lay the bag on a smooth surface that will allow drainage and not get too hot, and cut out the top, leaving about a 4 or 5 inch border all around. Lightly rake through the soil to even it out and loosen it even more, then carefully, and evenly sprinkle the seeds around. I put my salad green seeds in an old spice bottle with large shaker holes, added some cornmeal, shook it all up to mix well and sprinkled them out of it. I put the cornmeal in there to allow me to see that I had covered the soil evenly. If doing radish seeds or spinach, just make lines the depth mentioned on the seed pack, plant the seeds and cover appropriately. For salad greens I sprinkled a lite covering of soil over the cornmeal and seeds and then spray-misted to water them in. I put my bags on metal sawhorses and grates to make them waist level. This kept the bags off the hot concrete and I didn't have to bend over when cutting my salad. When harvesting, just use a pair of scissors and cut what you need - don't pull the plants out. Same goes for spinach - they will grow back almost magically overnight, and you can't tell where you cut. Spray mist the seeds and plantlings at first when watering, until they are established, then you can water more vigorously as the plants mature. You will probably need to water more often, since the depth of the bags are not as deep as a regular in-ground garden. I just kept mine moist, but not sopping wet." Ashley Rasmussen.