One Big Sunshine Spritzer: May 2015

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We have heard that 'laughter is the best medicine'!
I can vouch for this - I love a good laugh! I always feel better when I have enjoyed a good dose of laughter.

There are many beliefs and facts about laughter so I did some googling and put together 10 Facts about Laughter...

1. Laughter is an instinctive behaviour produced and recognised by people of all cultures!

2. Laughter tends to occur in short bursts of vowel-like sounds like "ha-ha", "ho-ho" or "he-he" which are repeated every fifth of a second.

3. The average person laughs about thirteen times in a single day.

4. We laugh up to 30 times more when we are in the company of others, than when we are by ourselves. So the concept of 'laughter is contagious' is quite accurate!

5. Full-on laughter experienced frequently helps your body to fight off harmful diseases. Laughing lowers our levels of stress and wards off harmful things by altering the levels of cortisol and epinephrine in our body.

6. Laughing is pretty good workout! Although not a replacement for the gym or a good exercise regime, laughter can strengthen muscles in your face, stomach, and diaphragm. For every fifteen minutes of solid, full-bodied laughing, you can burn up to 40 calories.

Get laughing!!

7. Laugh...and you will live long!

Some studies report that laughing at least fifteen minutes can add around 2 days to your overall lifespan.

8. Laughing has shown to be very beneficial in alleviating some of the social stress that can come with being around new people. Laughter works by creating an instant bond with individuals and make you feel a natural connection with those people.

9. Most people can't laugh on command. Laughter is not something we produce consciously. The brain has the impressive ability to differentiate between when laughter is forced and unnatural OR genuine and hearty.

10. The study of laughing and the effects of laughter on the human body is called Gelotology. Yep - it's a science!!

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REFERENCES

Tipsy Writer

Care2

Delivering Happiness

Nairaland

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"Laughter is the fireworks of the soul!"

With Sprinkles of Sunshine...

Anna

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" Howdy there, how ya been? X"

This was a text from my bestie this morning.

We haven't had a good chat for quite some time and I've been meaning to call her for ages but something always pops up and it just hasn't happened.

So I was SUPER thrilled to get a text from her today!

Thing is, it was EXACTLY what I needed right now.

She asked all the right questions that enabled me to get out what I had been holding in for quite a few months.

I needed that vent!

It gave me perspective. Something shifted in me.

And I came away feeling lighter and able to breathe that much better within myself.

And like the dreams and aspirations I have for myself and my life, were REAL and WORTH IT!

I felt a whole lot braver and my belief in myself and my dreams grew immensely.

I love that about our friendship - no matter how far away we are from each other, or how long between chats...we just get each other.

Forever friends are like that :-)

As part of my renewed fervour to go after my dreams and TAKE ACTION, I got out my phone and propped it up [precariously] on the speaker beside my piano and recorded myself playing, just to get a feel for it and see how it all sounded played back.

You see, music as always been a large part of my life and who I am!

And for quite a few years now I had just...stopped.

No playing, no song writing, I still sang but it was limited to little everyday dittys, not much purposeful, soulful singing.

I had become stagnant.

But lately, these dreams and goals I once had have been resurfacing and rising up BIG TIME!

So much so, that I have needed to stand up to attention and start doing something about it.

In response, I have been slowly, step by step giving myself time to explore my dreams again.

One of these steps was to be brave and record myself playing the piano.

And now I am going to take one giant leap of bravery and post that video here!!!

It's not perfect.

It's just me being random. It's just me being free.

And I like the ending. My eldest daughter was witnessing the whole thing and you hear her little voice at the end. Makes us giggle looking back on it ;-)

I guess you can call it - the mishaps of phone recording! LOL!

With Sprinkles of Sunshine...

Anna

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This year, I have made some decisions about my diet.

For the last 5 years, my diet has been tweaked constantly due to experiencing digestive disturbances and ill health. My diagnosis of Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome three years ago kind of explained these ailments I was having as most of my symptoms were indicative of these conditions. They just had to rule out every other more sinister possibility first before setting the diagnosis in stone.

Ever since then, I have had to become quite tuned in to my body and what it wants, needs and can handle.

Diet-wise, I have taken a process of elimination, determining what I need to cut out, decrease intake of, or add in.

It's still a work in progress but I have a pretty fair idea now what I can and can't handle.

I have cut down gluten intake quite significantly. I don't have coeliac disease but may have some kind of intolerance. It's quite hit and miss. Most days I just go completely gluten free and other times I can chance one serving and I'm ok.

I have switched to soy or almond milk in my hot beverages as I wanted to decrease lactose intake. I still eat a small amount of cheese and greek yoghurt. If I have cereal, I use rice milk.

This year, I decided to cut out red meat. I still eat chicken and fish, predominantly tuna and salmon, but I'm steering clear of steak and the like as it makes me feel bloated and heavy in the gut and I just don't enjoy it so why eat it, right?!! Having said that, when it is most convenient for the other members of my family, I will very occasionally eat meatballs or a super small serving of spag bog (gluten free pasta of course).

But otherwise, I avoid red meat.

I have converted from ordinary flour to using Spelt flour for any baking. It is more gentle to the stomach so is much kinder to my digestive system.

I thought that I would share my most favourite GO-TO dishes for each meal.

BREAKFAST

For my morning meal, my most common choices are between the following three choices:

Quinoa Porridge

I use the recipe from the e-book A Nourishing Kitchen via A Holistic Ingredient website.

I cook that up and then pile it up with a sprinkle of Raw Breakfast Powder, greek yoghurt, banana, strawberries, walnuts and goji berries.

Gluten Free Weetbix

I eat this sprinkled with the same Raw Breakfast Powder mentioned above, banana, strawberries, rice milk and goji berries.

Poached Eggs with Smoked Salmon and Avocado

I serve these on a piece of gluten free toast with cottage cheese and some spinach leaves.

**I find having a generous breakfast sets me up for the day and I really only need fairly light meals for the rest of the day.**

LUNCH

Rice Cakes

I usually eat these with mashed egg and avocado OR cheese and vegemite.

Pan-Fried Tuna with Salad

I like to marinade my tuna steak for an hour or so before cooking.

Marinade: peanut oil, soy sauce, fish sauce, sriracha sauce, ginger, italian parsley, and lime juice.

You can see two fellas from my most favourite music group, The Tenors, making this dish HERE.

It's a quick and simple meal and not heavy...just filling enough to make you feel satisfied.

Tofu Stir-Fry

I usually marinade the cubed tofu in soy sauce, honey, and dijon mustard.

Basically, I cook that in a pan, add stir-fry veggies and it's done!!

DINNER

This meal can vary every night, depending on what we have in the fridge or what we feel like eating.

But my favourite dishes to have are...

Salmon

My most popular way of cooking salmon fillets, is to wrap each one in some foil with a light drizzling of Mediterranean Olive Oil, a squeeze of lemon juice, and a sprinkling of Himalayan salt. Pop it in the oven for about 15 mins and nom nom nom.

I usually serve it with a side of veggies or salad.

Veggie Spaghetti OR Pearl Couscous

So all I do here is add a selection of different chopped up veggies to a pan with a scoop of coconut oil. The vegetables I usually use are: carrot, capsicum, asparagus, squash, zucchini, spring onion.

I cook up the gluten-free pasta OR the pearl couscous as per packet instructions.

Add in the vegies, and either some sliced kalamata olives or capers, sometimes some tomatoes, and sprinkle with Italian parsley - and again...nom nom nom!

(Sometimes I'll serve this as a small side to the salmon fillets).