Choose your holiday gift wisely

When people ask you what you want for Christmas are you often at a loss what to say? You are trying to stay healthy so unhealthy gifts are not what you want. So what are your many kinds of gift options when it comes to your health?

Here is a list what you can tell them you want for Christmas

• a workout DVD
• gift card to a sporting goods store
• a basket of fresh fruit
• a comfortable pair of walking shoes

So this Christmas think healthy.

Hobbies can keep you healthy

When you think of hobbies keeping you healthy, I bet you are thinking about ones that are physically active. It is true that keeping fit will help you stay healthy but often mental health is not taken into consideration at all. Studies have shown us that happy people live longer than depressed people. Depression kills, depression is unhealthy.

In order to keep yourself happy and depression free take up a hobby that is mind challenging and fun. Try guitar lessons, photography, training a pet, knitting or learning something new that you wanted to do since you were little. Even meeting with old friends you have not talked to in years or putting a scrapbook together can bring interest back into your life. Don't let the economy get to you. You don't have to spend a dime to be happy. Happiness is a frame of mind. What ever you do to find that frame is all you need to stay there.

Eczema and other skin problems

Eczema can cause dry patches of skin that can drive you nuts. There are skin care products that can take care of the problem almost immediately. I should know, I had an unsightly dark raised patch on my face. I was scared to death that it might be cancer. At the time I was experiencing very dry skin behind my ears and had bought a skin product for eczema. Out of a whim I dabbed a bit of the lotion on the dark raised patch just before going to bed. By morning I noticed a marked change in the skin.

I continued to put lotion on the darkened skin long after my dry skin behind my ears cleared up. It took about 2 months of applying daily lotion to the area and the spot was almost gone. I figured that it could not be skin cancer because skin cancer does not go away without a doctors care. I don't know what it was but the lotion I bought apparently worked.

Do you remember jumping jacks?

When I was in high school there were exercises that most workout videos don't even cover anymore. One of them was jumping jacks. It makes you wonder if those old time exercises were doing us some harm. How many of you saw those old vibrating belt exercisers? I was 6 years old when I saw a neighbor using one. She also had one of those machines that you sat on and it had wooden rollers. Here is a picture of one:

I wonder what kind of exercise they were thinking about when that machine was developed?

I suppose it is along the same lines as supplements. Do you remember the oyster shell pills and the skin scrubs made from dead sea salt and apricot pits? All in the mane of health and beauty. When will we learn?