One stick, two stick, POP!

February 6th must be a busy day because today is also bubblegum day!! Who doesn't love bubblegum?  Some of my fondest memories of this sticky snack include images of a dusty softball field or sneaking pieces into my elementary school classrooms.  I even remember when I first learned to blow a bubble; it was such a great accomplishment! Bubblegum is just one of those things that makes you smile and feel good no matter where you are or what you're doing.  Here are some fun facts you may not have known about this delicious treat.

** The biggest bubble ever, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, was 22 inches in diameter, 1 1/2 times the size of a large pizza.

**Double Bubble was included in the ration kits for soldiers serving in WWII.

**Sixty to seventy percent of bubble gum is sugar :)

**Chewing gum burns about 12 calories per hour (not quite enough to count as your heart healthy exercise)

**Chewing gum on an airplane will keep your ears from popping (I always chew Big Red on planes)

**The top ten most popular brands of bubble gum are as follows:

1) Hubba Bubba Max

2) Stride (my favorite daily gum)

3) Trident

4) Bubble Yum (my favorite gum to chew during softball games)

5) Bubblicious

6) Orbit

7) Big League Chew (gum that looks like strips of chewing tobacco and helps promote athletes to chew gum instead of tobacco)

8) Double Bubble

9) Extra

10) Winterfresh

Which one is your favorite??

Wear Red Day

This month is National Heart Disease Awareness Month, and February 6 is the day to show your awareness and wear red.   Heart disease is the leading cause of death among women so I am going to talk about some ways to help reduce your risk of a heart attack or other heart related injury. 

When it comes to a healthy heart, it’s all about eating right and exercise.  These are things that not everyone likes to do on a regular basis, especially when there are so many more fun things to do rather than run around a track and so many more delicious things to eat besides celery.  Here are some tips to make these tedious tasks fun and easy.

Instead of going to the gym to tediously lift weights or run on a stationary object, do something fun! There are so many more options out there such as just dancing around your room or taking a walk around the neighborhood.  One fun thing my friends and I have taken too is group exercise classes.  At the Purdue Co-rec. there are “Group X” classes which offer a variety of hour-long classes to attend from ‘Cardio Blast’ to Kickboxing to ‘Get on the Ball’!  The pass only costs 40 dollars for the semester and you can go to as many classes as you want.  It’s a great deal!  The classes are taught by really fun and upbeat student instructors and whether you go with one friend or 20 they are a blast!!  The cardio classes really get your heart pumping and the classes focused on body sculpting do a great job of toning. 

To get your daily amount of fruits and veggies—aim for the colors of the rainbow!  Remember ROY G. BIV!!

R: apples, red peppers, cherries, cranberries, pomegranates, strawberries, tomatoes, watermelon

O:  oranges, tangerines, clementines, carrots, cantaloupe, squash, sweet potatoes, mangoes, pumpkin, peaches

Y: Pineapple, yellow peppers, papayas, lemons, apricots, corn, bananas

G: green apples, artichokes, asparagus, avocados, green beans, broccoli, cucumbers, green grapes, honeydew melon, kiwi (my personal favorite), limes, green onions, peas, green peppers, spinach, zucchini

B, I, V: blueberries, June berries, purple grapes, raisins, prunes, figs, eggplant, blackberries

With all of those options, how can you not get the right amount of daily produce?  You also can’t forget your three daily ounces of whole-grain foods such as whole-grain cereals, whole-wheat bread and pasta, and brown rice.

By doing all of the things above, you will reduce your risk of high cholesterol, heart attack, stroke, diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure.  So start your heart-healthy routine today!!

Punxsutawney Phil's Big Day

As most of us know, Monday February 2nd was Groundhog Day.  I feel like this day was made a much bigger deal when we were in elementary school.  It was an event that would take up the whole day.  We would have pages to color and fun activities to do throughout the day. Now, if we even have the time to remember that February 2nd is Groundhog Day, we may think about it for five minutes at the most and move on.  No one really takes the time to think about where this holiday came from or what it means.  So for all of you busy college students, here's a quick re-cap.

For thousands of years, Candlemas, the Catholic celebration of the presentation of Jesus at the Temple, and Groundhog Day have been celebrated on the same day.  We all know that there is a phrase about what happens when Phil sees his shadow, and this is the formal one:

If Candlemas day be sunny and bright, Winter again will show its might.

 If Candlemas Day be cloudy and grey, winter soon will pass away.

So this means if the groundhog sees his shadow there are six more weeks of winter, but why six weeks?  Apparently, this tradition started with the early Christians in Europe.  It started mainly as a celebratory milestone in the winter, where the weather on that day was important, but the groundhog didn't come into play until later.  This tradition was passed on to the Germans who concluded that if the sun made an appearance on Candlemas Day a hedgehog would show its shadow predicting six more weeks of winter, which they called "Second Winter".  

The tradition was passed on the States when the Germans came to Pennsylvania, where they decided the groundhog was a close equivalent to the European Hedgehog.  Apparently, this was an animal known for its intelligence because it was deemed to be smart enough to know that if it saw its shadow, it would scurry back into its hole for six more weeks of winter.  I bet that was more than you ever wanted to know about Groundhog Day, but I hope it answered some long thought about questions! :)

By the way, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow.  Are you surprised?

Escape Day

So I'm not sure if this is a completely legitimate holiday, but I like the sound of it so I'm going to go with it.  Everyone needs an escape, whether it is a place they go physically or in their mind, or even if it is not a place at all.  These places or frames of mind are necessary in a person's life because as much as we would like for it to be, life isn't perfect all of the time.  By having a place to run away to, people are able to stay sane in this crazy, bustling world.  My favorite escapes would have to be music and the beach -- any combination of those two.  

I have some family in San Diego, California and, being from flat Illinois, I have to say the vacations I enjoy the most are the ones we take to go visit them.  We try to visit each other every other year, and the years that my family goes there are the best.  First of all, I am not a cold weather person.  So living in a climate where it is typically 72 and sunny is the epitome of how I want to live.  The most perfect day I've seen was about 75 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, and just a slight ocean breeze skimming by.  It's ideal.  Now I know a lot of people say that they love the beach, I mean who doesn't love relaxing with a smoothie and a good book listening to the waves and the seagulls as their soundtrack?  However, for me, it's so much more than that.  When I am at the beach, I feel better than any other time in my life.  I am at a maxed out happiness level and everything just feels right.  One of my all-time favorite beach activities is surfing.  I have only officially taken lessons once, but it was the most fun thing I have ever done.  It is the perfect balance of exercise and fun.  When you're out there surrounded by nothing but water, it is such a relaxing place to be, and when you finally catch a wave it is exhilarating! You feel on top of the world and so amazed that such a little person could use a huge force of nature for recreation.  Obviously, I've never ridden a wave taller than about two or three feet tall, but I can only imagine that the feeling is unparalleled.  

Going to the beach is an extra treat, but the thing I cannot go a day without is music.  It is my daily escape from the world, it knows just what to say (when I put the right playlist on my iPod) and it just enhances my day.  It doesn't matter when I listen to it or in what context, but if there is music playing I can't be feeling too desolate.  I have always loved music, but I have to say I really became attached to it through my high school choir.  In choir we would go over the meaning of the lyrics of the songs we sang and we would talk about the composer's motivation for writing these pieces of music that we did our best to portray in the desired way.  It was a really eye-opening experience and I try to keep that with me always.  One of my favorite quotes is

"When words fail, music speaks."

     -Hans Christian Andersen

It is so true because all kinds of music have a message they are trying to get across.  It doesn't matter if the music has words or not, it all has a deeper message than the things we initially hear.  Music is something that can lift me up and make me feel invincible.  It is an incredible release that, I am thankful to say, is back in my life after not being able to sing very much during my first semester in college.  I am now in Heart & Soul, a gospel-style choir right here at Purdue, and I am loving every second I spend with all of the talented people I sing with.  It is such a privilege to have things in your life that you truly enjoy, so take the time today to think about them and go do them if you are able to! Have a great day and find some time to escape from reality this weekend! :)

Chinese New Year

January 26th marked the beginning of the Chinese New Year. 2009 is the year 4706 in the Chinese calendar, which amazes me to think a civilization has been alive and thriving for so long! This year marks the year of the Ox, known in the Chinese language as Ji Chou. Each person born in any given year is said to have the traits represented by the animal for that year. The Ox represents someone who is calm, dependable, patient, hardworking, ambitious, conventional, modest, logical, and tenacious. Some negative traits said to be possessed by those born in the next year are tendencies to be stubborn, narrow-minded, materialistic, rigid and demanding. Those are a lot of things for the ancient Chinese ancestors to predict about a person, but I've got to say that I have found my traits to be pretty consistent. I was born in the year of the snake (for some reason all of my animal representations are poisonous...I'm a scorpio) and some of those traits include being ambitious, strong, purposeful, creative, wise, graceful and a deep thinker. I'd say, if you know me, most of those are pretty accurate.

The Chinese New Year is the most elaborately celebrated holiday in the Chinese culture. As for most cultures, it represents finishing up with the old and making way for a fresh start in the upcoming year. Many traditions take place annually including the sweeping of the grounds, Lai-See, "Everybody's Birthday", the lantern festival, and an extravagant parade. The sweeping of the grounds happens before the actual new year, in preparation for the celebrations to come. Every corner of the house is cleaned and flowers are placed around the house to symbolize a fresh start for the upcoming year. On the first day of the new year, children are given red "Lai-See" envelopes with good luck money inside. This is the day to put on your best clothes and your best behavior, and to make sure you do not break anything. They really want to start off the year right! The seventh day is a day to celebrate being a year older. It is called "Everybody's Birthday", and everyone is considered one year older as of that day. Imagine if it was like that in the U.S. -- people would never forget a birthday again!! The final day of Chinese New Year celebration is celebrated with a lantern festival. Everyone comes out into the streets with an elaborately decorated lantern, and watches a parade highlighting the sacred dragon dance. The young men of the town decorate a dragon made of bamboo, silk, and paper, and travel down the streets making the dragon move and dance in celebration.

I think the Chinese New Year is an incredibly rich tradition that outdoes any celebration we have here in the United States. Their culture is so meaningful, and their traditions reach back thousands of years. Not one symbol goes without a story behind it, or a tradition that goes along with it. So as all of you observe this holiday in your own way, take time to think about what your life means to you and what symbols mean the most to you in your life.