SOME RANDOM POINTS
Don't forget--when it comes to good health, try walking:
"The millions of people whose genes make them prone to obesity aren't at the mercy of nature. How they choose to spend their free time can make a big difference in their waistline, according to new research presented today at an American Heart Association (AHA) meeting in San Diego.
Watching TV for two hours each day increases the effect of certain obesity-related genes by as much as 25%, the researchers estimate.
If, on the other hand, people with a strong genetic predisposition to obesity spend one hour each day walking briskly or engaging in comparable exercise, they can halve the genes' effect."

And don't forget to get your sleep, either--going sleepless, too, can negatively affect your health:
"...intuition tells us that lack of sleep might contribute to our becoming overweight, but science has yet to confirm that connection or spell out exactly how it might work.
A new bit of evidence — albeit in the form of a very small, as-yet-unpublished study — supporting that link emerged today at an American Heart Association conference in San Diego.
Researchers from the Mayo Clinic observed 17 healthy young men and women (11 men, six women) ages 18 to 40 for 11 days and nights. For eight of those nights, half the group slept the amount of time they normally slept, while the others slept two-thirds of their accustomed time — an average of about 80 minutes less sleep per person per day. All were allowed to eat as much as they chose to. Their calorie consumption and expenditures were measured during the first three days of the study to establish a baseline and then throughout the sleep-deprivation period.
Those in the sleep-deprived group consumed an average of 549 more calories more per day than they did when on their regular sleep schedule. Neither the sleep-deprived group nor the control groups expended more calories during the eight-day study period."

There was an excellent essay written recently by a parent of a child with special needs, about just what it is like to be a mom in that situation (hat tip--FB friend April Johnson Saunders).  I bet many of you can identify with this mom--for example:
"I am human. I have been challenged and pushed beyond my limits in raising my son. I've grown tremendously as a person, and developed a soft heart and empathy for others in a way I never would have without him. But I'm just like the next mom in some ways. Sometimes I get cranky, my son irritates me, and sometimes I just want to flee to the spa or go shopping (and, um, I often do). I still have dreams and aspirations of my own. I travel, dance, am working on a novel, love good food, talk about dating. I watch Mad Men, and like a good cashmere sweater. Sometimes it's nice to escape and talk about all these other things. And if it seems that the rest of my life is all I talk about sometimes, it's because it can be hard to talk about my son."

Read the whole thing; it's interesting and heart-felt.

“Listen with an open heart and an open mind to those who love you the most. You may hear a grain of truth that will later become the foundation of your entire belief system. ”--Callie Khouri (born 1957)