WcP.Life.Coach's blog

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Watch the Queen's Christmas Day message 2013 in full
The Queen reflected on prominent events from the past year during her Christmas broadcast - from the service that marked the 60th anniversary of her coronation to the birth of Prince George

"balance between action and reflection"
"reflection, meditation, prayer help to renew us"
"family, friendship, neighborliness"
"principle and service"

Her broadcast began with the Queen telling her audience how a man she once knew gained a clearer insight into the world after spending a year in a plaster cast recovering from a back operation.
She said: "He read a lot, and thought a lot, and felt miserable. Later, he realised this time of forced retreat from the world had helped him to understand the world more clearly.
"We all need to get the balance right between action and reflection. With so many distractions, it is easy to forget to pause and take stock."

The Queen, who was dressed in a single crepe wool primrose dress which she wore to William and Kate's wedding in April 2011, also said in her broadcast: "As with all who are christened, George was baptised into a joyful faith of Christian duty and service. After the christening, we gathered for the traditional photograph.

"It was a happy occasion, bringing together four generations."

The Queen also looked back over the past 12 months to the 60th anniversary of her coronation, celebrated with a national service in June.

She said: "I myself had cause to reflect this year, at Westminster Abbey, on my own pledge of service made in that great church on Coronation Day 60 years earlier.  read more »

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[Daily Infographic] - The first time I ate a fresh pear, I was roughly twelve years old. The flavor concerned me, and I asked my mom if there was something wrong with it. You see, I grew up on Hamburger Helper, Kraft macaroni and cheese, and Dole fruit cocktail in heavy syrup (still a favorite of mine–the maraschino cherries!). It wasn’t till my twelfth year that my parents finished grad school and finally had the time and money to introduce fresh foods into mine and my sister’s diet. It was a bit of an adjustment. Even at school we were used to eating processed foods.

My sister and I still give our younger brother and sister a hard time for being born a decade after us and getting to take advantage of dad’s newfound love for cooking. This is something that I talk to my dad about a lot, and he says that not finding ways for us to eat healthier earlier is one of his biggest regrets. It has taken me a while, but I have slowly but surely introduced every variety of food into my diet and learned how to cook along the way. Eating and preparing fresh foods brings me so much joy and keeps me healthy. The infographic above discusses the importance of educating children on food, and not just any food, real, healthy food.
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Image courtesy dailyinfographic.com

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The world's oldest marathon runner, 101-year-old Fauja Singh, will quit after one final run at next month's Hong Kong race, media reports said on Thursday.

Indian-born British national Singh admitted age was finally catching up with him and he had decided not to compete after the Hong Kong Marathon on February 24, five weeks before his 102nd birthday on April 1.

"But I will keep running for at least four hours daily after that," Singh, who lives in Ilford, England, told the Times of India newspaper during a visit to his home state of Punjab.

"Running is my life. I will keep running to inspire the masses."

Singh, dubbed the 'Turbaned Tornado', took up running marathons at the ripe old age of 89 and has been credited with competing in eight 42-kilometre (26-mile) races in London, Toronto and New York.

He finished his fifth London Marathon last year in a time of seven hours and 49 minutes and was honoured by being invited to carry the Olympic torch.

Singh, who says he was born on April 1, 1911, insisted he was not suffering from any illnesses and did not take medicines when he was asked the secret of his amazing physical fitness.  read more »

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Science Shows You Can Die of Boredom, Literally
Monthly magazines from Reader's Digest to Cosmopolitan are inundated with tips on how to sleep better, find happiness, and weave seriously sexy hair. Taking nothing away from being happy and blowing your romantic partner's mind on valentine's day, there are few things as valuable as staying alive...Try to withhold your skepticism for a moment as I share a brand new scientific discovery:

The more bored you are, the more likely you are to die prematurely

Over 7,500 London civil servants aged between 35 and 55 were interviewed in the late 1980's. Among other questions, they were asked if they felt bored at work during the past month. These same people were tracked down to find out who died by April 2009. What the researchers found was that civil servants who reported being very bored were 2.5 times more likely to die of a heart problem than those who hadn't reported being bored. You might be asking yourself, what the %$#@ does this mean? To put this into perspective, consider this fact by the American Heart Association: Smokers are two to four times likely to develop coronary heart disease than nonsmokers. People with a molotov cocktail of obesity, high blood pressure, and high blood sugar (that is, all three at once) are twice as likely to have a heart attack and three times more likely to die earlier than the rest of the population. This means that death by boredom is right up there with the favorite targets of media fear mongering, public policy, and pharmaceutical companies. Nobody is talking about boredom while people whine and die quietly at workplaces around the world.  read more »

Tree of Life
The Tree of Life in Bahrain is one of the world's loneliest trees. The mesquite tree sits at the highest point in the barren desert of Bahrain, hundreds of miles from another natural tree and is thought to have tap roots reaching hundreds of feet down to aquifers. The exact age of the tree is unknown though it's generally believed to be more than 400 years old.

Montezuma Cypress: The Tule Tree
The Tule Tree, or El Árbol del Tule, is a Montezuma cypress tree on the grounds of a church in Santa María del Tule in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. It measures more than 119 feet around but is only 116 feet high (To put that in perspective, the General Sherman is 275 feet high and 102 feet around). It's believed that the tree is about 2,000 years old. Local legend holds that the tree was planted 1,400 years ago by a priest of the Aztec storm god. According to National Geographic, it is the inspiration for an annual festival in Oaxaca celebrated on the second Monday of October.

Quaking aspen: Pando  read more »

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It’s nice to see that Spain is living up to its promise to make sure that the younger generation of Spanish women not kill themselves in an attempt to be thin. Five skinny models kicked out of Spain’s Cibeles. One of the rejected models had only reached a ratio of 16, the equivalent of being 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighing less than 110 pounds, said Dr. Susana Monereo, of Madrid Getafe hospital’s endocrinology and nutrition department, who along with two other doctors was in charge of assessing the models.

Spain Launches Movement Against Skinny Fashion Models  read more »

"Don’t dig your grave with your knife and fork." Heart Disease is the top killer. You can make a great impact - simply choose what you eat. Eating less meat is the most effective way to prevent plague-clogged arteries. 9 times out of 10, it's fatty plaque building up over time that narrows an artery. Nearly half of coronary deaths are of those who had no previous symptoms. Undoubtedly, however, they had excessive blood fat and cholesterol of which they were probably unaware. A blockage of one or more of the three major arteries that supply oxygen-bearing blood to the heart will cause a heart attack.

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*update*
Heart disease accounts for 1 in 3 deaths
Heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases remain the top killer of men and women in the United States
The top 10 causes of death. the 1st three? Heart related disease. Alarming

Heart Disease is preventable through whole food nutrition  read more »