5 posts tagged “health”

A couple of weeks ago, I had the privilege of visiting the Horrobin & Hodge spa in Manakau, north of Levin, for a future issue of Lucire. These are just random shots; the real 35 mm and digital ones will appear online and in print in due course. You can get great spa treatments there with products from Hema and other top-end lines, and I was pampered with a massage. A big thank-you to Sarah and Jacquie for making me feel so welcome, for an amazing lunch (meat from the farm next door and vegetables grown on site) and for letting me sleep on the day room couch when I was in sublime relaxation!
   Basically you are looking at world-class treatment but country-style hospitality—which makes the hour’s drive from Wellington well worth it.
   The first four shots are from the day room, both inside and the views toward the west and north.

   The reception is way cool: the lights are 110 ml milk bottles in a crate, acknowledging the rural heritage of the site. The old-fashioned telephone is actually push-button and not rotary, but it looks great alongside the Dell computer screen.    And, nearing sunset, one last shot before driving back to Wellington.

 
My friend and distant relative May Yan contributed to this new book on Chinese cuisine, called Eating Stories: a Chinese Canadian and Aboriginal Potluck. It’s important for those of us in the diaspora not to lose some of our good eating habits and knowledge about traditional cuisine, and to be able to pass them on to the next generation. The way May described this book, it’s the sort of thing that I would regard as vital for my own well-being!

Ceji has some great tips about eating and weight, and I thought it was very no-nonsense. Although she discusses them in the context of a gastric bypass, I can see it having relevance to me, and many others.

The BBC has an unusually good piece on what Richard Hammond’s brain could have been through in his car accident. Like most medical types, it ignores the power of prayer, good wishes and karma, but what do I know?

[Cross-posted] We have to wade into the whole obesity debate on Good Morning. One of the quotes we have in our briefing is from the TVNZ site: ‘For example, we pay around $38 million in health insurance claims each year for elective surgery or treatment of heart disease and yet the incidence of heart disease for most New Zealanders is highly preventable.’
   I imagine I could quote from an earlier post on the issue, and see if the conversation goes toward corporate social responsibility. However, I have been asked to keep the stories personal—pretty hard, considering I have not eaten at McDonald’s since Sundance 2004 (thanks to Mr Spurlock’s story in Super Size Me).
   It is something I need to think about some day. My late mother was careful with my diet, though McDonald’s was permitted during my teen years. However, my high school had a PE programme, so the food went into muscle, most likely. I ate a prepared lunch on most days in my high school years, and you could not buy a lot of today’s junk food at school. We saved money this way as well. And I stayed lean.
   These days, I hear of families on welfare giving their kids money to buy junk food. It’s parental thinking that needs to change for the sake of New Zealand’s young people; and for those of us who are older, we need to make time to get the exercise we need.
   Thoughts are very welcome—I may check comments before I go on air in the morning.