If you’re a UK resident, then you’ll be no stranger to the dark, cold conditions that permeate throughout the winter months (and often even the summer months). During these darker periods, the lack of sunshine has been proven to cause the levels of the chemical serotonin (the so-called ‘feel good’ chemical) in the brain to dip, resulting in a feeling of depression often referred to as the ‘Winter blues’.

So how can you beat these Winter blues? What steps can you take to help you feel better during the colder, darker months? According to Put Pork On Your Fork, you can help beat the blues by eating what they refer to as ‘mood boosting’ foods (including pork, spinach, chilli, mango, bananas, walnuts, salmon, pineapple, chocolate and avocado).

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I read in my local newspaper yesterday that the kitchen of the pub I used to work in while a student had caught fire over the weekend during a busy evening service. My friend Juliette who still works there said on her Facebook page:

Burning Down The Pub

“So at peak time on my pub shift the chef comes running in shouting ‘FIRE’! Before you can say ‘blasted chip pan’ the pub was in flames. A mass exodus ensued followed by 4 fire engines, 2 ambulances and several police cars! Now, some would suggest that I attract a somewhat abnormal amount of bad luck…

“AU CONTRAIRE..! Rescued by truck loads of brave strong firemen and plied with Tequila to settle the nerves!?! I’d imagine that’s what Heaven is like!”

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Image via Wikipedia

The internet is a great blessing to us no doubt, it has changed the lives of so many people; it has changed how we behave and how we perceive things, it is helping us connect with people all over the world but at the same time it is also doing some people more harm than good.

A lot of people spend several hours everyday on Facebook and other social networking sites than they will ever spend elsewhere and they think this is really great, they never really know what harm this is causing them. It doesn’t matter how great or good a thing is; too much of it is always bad. This post will be giving you some tips to help you know if your addiction to the internet is killing you.

You’re Experiencing Constant Headaches/You Are Always Feeling Dizzy

Have you ever experienced a situation when immediately after you stop browsing the internet to start doing some other things you will begin to feel dizzy or when you start seeing double and you’re unable to concentrate? This is a very dangerous thing and if you ever experience it you should start working on taking more breaks from the computer.

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This is a blog post I wrote back in 2009 but I do think that it will help almost everyone, hence the update

A few days ago, I had serious problems trying to sleep and those following my Twitter will know that I went for 72 hours without any sleep, a real bad case of insomnia so what was the problem? I mainly think it was my mind working overtime, so I decided to use a method of meditation that I used to do from the book  “Meditation for Inner Peace”

Yes I know it does sound very New Age, but there is a method in the book that has helped me sleep in the past, so I gave it a go.

It’s sounds very strange, but it does work! 

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Now for many years I’ve had the terrible habit of biting my nails, sad I know, but it is an extremely hard habit to break once you start, there are many reasons why you may have started biting your nails, it could be a catchy nail that you’ve bitten off, nerves, boredom or just something you’ve done for years!

I had bitten my nails for many years and then stopped out of pure will power, but, sadly after a week in a hospital with the lack of food and the overdose of boredom, I started again and now my lovely long strong nails are in a terrible state… Read the rest of this entry »

Now I have to admit that some years ago I could never stand Olives on their own until I had them on a pizza, but since those days, I do quite enjoy them on their own or specially in a salad.

So what are the benefits of the humble olive, well olives are a good source of vitamin E and contain natural antioxidants, the only drawback is they do contain a high amount of salt.

Some time back it was thought that the olive was  high-calorie food due to the oil that they contain. But both black and green olives actually contain very few calories and an average serving of ten olives only contains around 30 to 40 calories.

As I mentioned earlier olives do have the benefits of vitamin E, you have to eat a large amount to give your diet a good supply of vitamin E. Olives also provide you with natural antioxidants.

The oil that is derived from the olives is quite high monounsaturated fatty acids, unlike saturated fats do not affect your bloods cholesterol levels and may even help to cause them somewhat.

It’s that time again for this weeks Saturday six and this weeks theme is Doctors & Health, so without further a do let’s get on with it:

1. Do you rush straight to the doctors when you feel ill?
2. Do you have trouble trying to make an appointment with your doctor?
3. When was the last time you visited your doctor?
4. When someone close to you is ill, are you caring and considerate or do you try to stay away so you don’t catch anything?
5. Have you ever made the excuse that your ill to get off work/school/college etc?
6. What really annoys you about people when they are ill?

Thanks for taking part. If you would like to nominate a theme for the next Saturday Six then you can Tweet me on Twitter and if you are on entrecard the winning theme will get 200 ECs in my Saturday Six Entrecard Competition