Quality of Sleeping for a Happy Baby

Does your baby usually revealing a sullen face and inclined to be fussy, when woke up in the morning? A baby who is getting out of bed without a smile, can be categorized as an unhappy baby. If the condition continues to recur, it would affect the babys growth conditions.

Sleep is an optimal process for children growth, especially for the development of brain cells. A baby aged 0 to 6 month will spend all day in their bed, and you shouldnt disturb your babys sleeping time. A baby is usually woke up from sleep at night for 3 to 5 times, or even more. This is because of babys ability is not able to distinguish the time, whether its a day or night. A baby aged below 3 months old cant see very well, due to babys eyes are still on the developing process. So, turn off your cameras flash, when you want to take picture of your baby. Flash light from your camera, especially a xenon flash, will hurt your babys eyes.

Based on my experience with my children, when my elder daughter aged a month old, she slept with room lights on at night. Because when I turned off the lights, suddenlly she woke up and cried immediately. Fortunately, I was helped for a full month by my favorite TV show, a live broadcast of World Cup 2006 soccer match.

This didnt apply on the second month. At the age of 2 months, I tried to teach my daughter to distinguish between day and night, also taught her to sleep well at night. Every time she woke up crying, my wife and I had never lifted her up from the bed, or even carried her out from my bedroom. Enough with the breast-fed by my wife, she then went back to sleep. Its just the same when she was pooping and peeing. I purposely didnt get to put disposable diapers on my daughter, especially at night.

The result was, she had managed to distinguish between day and night, when she was 3 months old. When she woke up in the morning, she were always showing a smile. She also rarely cry at night. But if she did, once upon a time, she cried for almost an hour without stopping. The incident was repeated until 3 times, it happened when she was aged under 6 months old. Older people once said to me that if a baby cries endlessly, it can be caused by disruption of the delicate creatures, such superstitious beliefs, but its true.

Sidoarjo, Indonesia, January 23, 2008. 2 days old Michael got his 1st kiss from his sister.

When Michael was born, since the age of 1 day, he slept with room lights off. Wait a minute..!? You may wonder? How come my son could get home on the day after my wife gave birth on him? My wife gave birth on both of my children, were not in a hospital, but in midwifes home clinic. The day Michael was born, I carried my wife to the clinic at 5 am, and Michael was born at 9 am. At 4 pm on the same day, they both were allowed to go home by the midwife.

Why did a day old Michael could able to sleep with room lights off at night? It all because of his elder sister, who aged 20 months, was already used to sleeping with the lights off. My daughter woke up instantly at midnight, when suddenly I turned on the light to change her brothers diaper.

I can ensure you that both of my children are categorized to be happy babies, in which the characteristics are:

• Always smile when wake up in the morning.
• Wake up at night less than 4 times.
• When your babys waking up in the middle of the night, will be able to go back to sleep again.

The quality and quantity of sleeping for children will determine the level of their emotion and intellect. Children aged under 5 years old should have at least 9 hours of sleeping at night. You should avoid putting a TV in your childs bedroom, it will reduce your childs sleeping time.

Does woman or a man have a better memory

There are several human characteristics considered to be genetically predetermined and evolutionarily innate, such as immune system strength, physical adaptations and even sex differences. These qualities drive the nature versus nurture debate and ask of our species, who is more successful and why?

Psychologists Agneta Herlitz and Jenny Rehnman in Stockholm, Sweden asked an even more complicated question of human predisposition: Does one’s sex influence his or her ability to remember every day events? Their surprising findings did in fact determine significant sex differences in episodic memory, a type of long-term memory based on personal experiences, favoring women.

Specific results indicated that women excelled in verbal episodic memory tasks, such as remembering words, objects, pictures or everyday events, and men outperformed women in remembering symbolic, non-linguistic information, known as visuospatial processing. For example, the results indicate a man would be more likely to remember his way out of the woods.

However, there are also sex differences favoring women on tasks such as remembering the location of car keys, which requires both verbal and visuospatial processing. Although men are commonly more confident than women that they could remember where in the house they put their car keys, pill bottles and other personal effects, women showed greater competence in actually finding the objects, said Robin West, a University of Florida psychology professor who designed the research project along with Duana Welch, a UF psychology graduate student. They studied men and women in the Gainesville area between the ages of 18 and 30, and 50 and 90, but they believe the findings apply to all ages.

“To say that when it comes to memory, women have more skill than confidence and men have more confidence than skill is a simplistic way to put it, but we found it to be true in this study,” said West, author of the book “Memory Fitness Over Forty.”

Perhaps women outperform men because they have more experience in finding things around the house, while men show more confidence because they are socialized throughout life to form strong self-convictions, Welch said. Also, she said, American women are brought up to be supportive and nonthreatening.

In her research of memory, West said she has found, regardless of age, that women are better than men at remembering grocery lists and people’s names. But men excel at certain spatial tasks, such as mentally rotating objects to see how they might fit into space, she said.

Men’s superiority on some spatial tasks has been explained, in part, by the different kinds of play activities males and females engage in as children, West said.

“Boys traditionally do things that involve larger movements in space and using their whole body, such as playing baseball or running games,” she said, “whereas traditional girls’ activities tend to be in smaller, more restricted spaces, such as playing with dolls, which involves staying in one place and manipulating objects by hand.”

“In addition, women are better than men at remembering faces, especially of females,” described Herlitz and Rehnman, “and the reason seems to be that women allocate more attention to female than to male faces.”

To determine this particular finding, the psychologists presented three groups of participants with black and white pictures of hairless, androgynous faces and described them as ‘female faces,’ ‘male faces’ or just ‘faces.’ The findings indicate that women were able to remember the androgynous faces presented as female more accurately than the androgynous faces presented as male.

In additional studies, psychologists also discovered that women perform better than men in tasks requiring little to no verbal processing, such as recognition of familiar odors, and that the female episodic memory advantage increases when women utilize verbal abilities and decreases when visuospatial abilities are required. Environmental factors, such as education, seem to influence the magnitude of these sex differences, as well.

Women remember people better than men. “Women have an advantage when it comes to remembering things like the physical features, clothing and postures of other people. This advantage might be due to women being slightly more people-oriented than men are.” said Terrence Horgan, lead author of a study in interpersonal sensitivity and research fellow in psychology at Ohio State University.

While the probability of genetically-based differences between the quality of male and female memory remains unknown, the results suggest that females currently hold the advantage in episodic (long-term) memory.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080220104244.htm

http://blisstree.com/feel/5-physical-differences-between-women-and-men/

http://news.ufl.edu/1998/03/12/gender/

http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2008/02/who-has-a-better-memory-man-or-woman/

Adelfo Cerame 11 Days Out Looking Back 2012 vs 2013 Things I Made Different Things That Made a Difference

2013 aint 2012: Different diet, different training, different macros, different physique... different placing!?

I am not sure if all of you read yesterdays SuppVersity Exercise Science Quickie, but those who did have probably already told their boss that they dont need an extended lunch-break today to listen to the "Thursdaily" 1PM EST installment of the SuppVersity Science Round Up on Super Human Radio. My voice did recover somewhat within the last 24h, but after a hefty dose of NAC I am now sniffin and snortin 24/7 - probably not exactly what you want to hear, I guess.

What you want (at least Id suspect so) to read, however, is Adelfos last blogpost before he is making his third and imho by far best-conditioned and thus promising attempt on winning his pro-card at the NPC Wheelchair Nationals on March 16, 2013... ah, I guess, Id better let him tell the story... enjoy!

Roughly 11 days out & looking back

I am approximately 11 days out from CJ’s NPC Sunshine Classic & Wheelchair Nationals in Palm Beach, Florida, where I will try to make another attempt at trying to win the overall and possibly earn my IFBB pro card for the wheelchair division. So far I feel great! My food intake is high, my energy is up and I’m very confident that I have made all the right moves, adjustments and improvements this year to put myself in the best possible position to take it all down this year ;-) I joined a great team in 3DMJ, and am being mentored by a great coach in Alberto Nunez, who is a seasoned and experienced bodybuilder.

So, lets recap a couple of key features of this to previous ones....

As I reflect on this years contest prep/ bodybuilding season, I thought it would be interesting to compare notes from last years season to this year.  

Nutritional Regimen - Which "diet" have I been following?

• 2012 = IF (Leangains)

• 2013 = IF (Leangains) + IIFYM (flexible dieting)

From a physiological perspective,  125g of carbs per day shouldnt be a problem for any non-diabetic - even if he/she does not work out (learn more)

In 2012 I followed an intermittent fasting meal protocol using a 16h to 8h fasting vs. feeding window. This year I used the same IF meal protocol (since I found success with it last year and it’s a protocol that works with my daily life schedules) but combined it with a flexible style of dieting that is also known as the acronym IIFYM "If It Fits Your Macros".

As I mentioned in previous posts, I dont abuse the IIFYM paradigm to stuff myself with all sorts of junkfood, my diet is still mostly clean, but the leeway it gives you is refreshing and takes away a lot of stress related to picking, preparing, packaging etc. foods (see next point, i.e. Food Choices, as well).

Food Choices - What type of foods have I been eating?

• 2012 = Stuck to your so called “clean foods”  

• 2013 = I am not depriving myself of any type of foods; I’m eating what I want but use a 80/20 to 90/10 ratio of whole “nutrient dense” foods to processed foods, or what you would call “junk” food but I don’t like the word junk so I call it “fun” foods ;-)

Last year; even though I started to veer away from the whole “eating chicken breast and broccoli and brown rice” mentality and began to broaden my horizons in eating more variety of whole foods, I still basically stuck to your so called "clean foods" and I was just in the beginning phases of getting over my phobia of carbohydrates since I consider myself coming from a high fat/ low carb camp for almost 2 years on a dietary regimen that was more or less identical to the "anabolic solution diet".

So yes, even though I was eating a greater variety of lean meats, fruits, veggies, fats and whole food carb starches like tubers, I still deprived myself of foods like bread, oatmeal, grains, cereal because I still believed that they were evil, when it came to a body composition standpoint or even just when it came to general health.

Believe it or not, but the quote on the left, is actually from Adefos very first post, here at the SuppVersity.

However, as you all know if you’ve ever read my very first Blog here on Suppversity and I’ll quote from it:

"My diet and training methods have evolved and will continue to keep evolving, because of my willingness to keep an open mind and apply and experiment with new strategies, methods and philosophies to my diet and training" - me

(Yes! I just quoted myself! Hahaha!)  And that’s exactly what I did, I kept an open mind and gave IIFYM a shot just like I gave “IF” a chance last year, and guess what?

It all worked out for the greater good because the combination of an IF meal protocol combined with a flexible method of dieting has really taken me a step closer to that goal of finding a perfect diet that I can convert into a lifestyle and do long-term. Like I mentioned before… A diet should be able to synergistically co-exist with your daily life and social schedules, and is something that you can convert into a lifestyle and do long-term  - thats fundamentally different from a "dietary intervention", under which you can easily subsume all the fad, single-sided and unflexible dietary regimen that work in the short run, but have you plateau before you even see your abs.

Training - Which type, how much and how intense was my training regimen?

• 2012 = Low volume/ high intensity – cardio was non-existent

• 2013 = hypertrophy/ strength split using an RPE scale – cardio was all throughout prep

Last year the majority of my training was very low volume/ heavy weight. My training consisted of 5x5 and EDT’s and reverse pyramids. The highest rep range I ever flirted with was 6-8. This year, I’m doing a split between hypertrophy and strength training using an RPE scale, and I would say the majority of my workouts would fall into the high volume category by common standards.

Does rest matter? Study finds 7-9% greater increase in muscle size w/ decreasing rest periods (learn more).

The main difference this year was the frequency of hitting the muscles and using just a handful of exercises as my staple and improving on them.

Last year I barely did any cardio except for probably the last 4 weeks of my prep to try to expend a little bit more energy but that was it. This year I incorporated a cardio regimen all throughout my prep... but to be honest: it was very easy – I started the first 2 to 3 weeks with none, then Alberto eventually prescribed 2x cardio session per week for 9 laps each session around a track. I completed those at a self-chosen until a couple o weeks ago, when he reduced the volume by 50%

As you may imagine this type of cardio regimen really wasnt a big issue... nothing compared o my previous HIIT sessions, for sure. I still feel that the additional laps on the track allowed me to keep my food high via carbohydrates -- and if Ive learned one thing from this prep, then it is that the higher you can keep your carbs up while dieting the more beneficial it is for your physique.

Calories/ Macros - How much did I eat at the beginning of the prep?

Caloric zigzagging? (Re-)Read Adelfos guest post "How I Break My Fast, Plan & Time My Macros and Use Caloric Zigzagging & Re-Feeds on a LeanGains Inspired IF Regimen" and learn more!

• 2012 = eeehhhh…??? around 1700/ 2000 kcal. (non-training/ training); 55-7g5 fat/ 150-200g carbs/ 150-200g protein (non-training-training) – skiploading style re-feed (basically eat as much high GI carbs as you can while keeping fat intake as low as possible.

• 2013 = 1960 kcal w/ a re-feed day 1x/ week;  40g fat/ 200g carbs/ 200g protein – 300g carb re-feed

Last year I experimented with caloric zigzagging, so my calories were higher on training days with a higher carb/ low fat intake and my calories were lower on non-training days with a higher fat/ low carb intake. And I didn’t start incorporating refeeds till later towards my prep or until I got lean enough to feel comfortable doing refeeds. This year I stayed consistent with my numbers and just had one re-feed day – so I had low days and one high day

Calories/ Macros - How much did I eat towards the end?

Adelfo has already written about the beneficial effects of a higher carb intake on your physique in a previous post onThursday, January 31, 2013: "Intermittent Carbohydrate Modulation as a Stepping Stone Towards an Anatomy Chart Physique"(read up on the article)

• 2012 = 1300/ 1600 kcal (non-training/ training days)
  50-60g fat/ 50-100g carbs/ 150-190 protein (non-training-training day) – skiploading style re-feed

• 2013 = 2305 kcal w/ a re-feed day 1x/week
  50g fat/ 240g carbs/ 200g protein – 325g carb re-feed

Last year I floated around sub 100g of carbohydrates for about the last 11 weeks of my prep and this year I started to gradually increase my food intakes 5-6 weeks out. I used weekly 25g increments (I’ll explain the process of how I started to bring my food later before I wrap up my blog)

With regards to my re-feeds; it was a bit more controlled this year compared to last years Sunday carb feasts I use to have. My fats this year were also on the lower end but still 20% of my total calories and I feel that this was another of the decisive factors that contributed to the clear improvements in my physique - with the low(ish) fat intake, I simply had way more room for carbs in my diet.

Comparison of Adelfos pre-contest physique 2012 vs. 2013 (photos (c) Adelfo Cerame. 2012-13)

Well that’s all I got for today! I hope you enjoyed the notes PrimalKid ;-) but before I sign off, as I said I would; here’s a brief overview of how I started to gradually bring my food up to where it’s at now.

At about 6-5 weeks out is when coach Alberto started to gradually bring food back up via carbs but prior to that I was on about a  2 ½  week intensive dig of 100g/ day, then we increased 25g (125g) for about a week and a half, then increased another 25 the next (150g), then increased by 50g (200), then increased by just 25g last week (225g)  and now increased by 15g this week (240g)… Oh and fat got increased by 10 somewhere during that week. lol.

But yeah… Coach Alberto felt that my body was lean enough for carbohydrates to start having a positive stimulating effect on my physique, and that my body was more capable of partitioning carbohydrates much more efficiently now that I am leaner.

Getting Ready To Go For A Run First Thing You Should Ban!

The first thing to ban from your wardrobe when you get ready to go for your run or walk/run: Your trusty cotton tee. "Cotton is one of the worst things you can wear, especially if you are training outside, because it holds moisture and can make you feel cold or clammy and uncomfortable.

Instead, choose clothing made from moisture-wicking fabrics, such as CoolMax or DriFit, which will pull the sweat away from your skin. That includes your socks as well. "Youll have less moisture, heat, and friction around your foot, which means fewer blisters.

Dress in layers, especially when the weather is cool. "Youll want to dress as if it were really 10 to 20 degrees warmer outside, since your body will heat up quickly," adds Solkin. Wear a light, windproof jacket out the door (and a vest if it is very cold), then tie it around your waist when you heat up.

Finally, dont forget one very other important piece of equipment: a supportive sports bra. Whether youre big, small, or somewhere in between, keep the bounce factor to a minimum by choosing a model that fits you well -- larger-chested women may want to try an encapsulated model, which separates the breasts. Dont be afraid to bounce around in the dressing room to see what works.

Dealing with a Migraine

Dealing with a migraine headache while suffering from one can be painfully exhausting. Knowing the signs of an impending migraine, understanding what triggers your migraines, and taking fast action when your migraine starts will help you through your next migraine episode.

Health professionals agree that there may be certain circumstances that trigger migraines. Some of those triggers could be:

* Infrequent eating and fasting
* Sleep pattern changes
* Loud noises, unusual odors, or bright lights
* Hormonal changes
* Food triggers such as nuts, strong cheese, processed meats, artificial sweeteners, and citrus foods

While in the throes of a migraine, it doesnt matter to you which kind of migraine you have, or what triggers it. What matters is getting fast relief. If youve had a migraine episode before, you know what precedes it, so you know what to expect. If you know a migraine is coming, following these tips may help ease the pain and shorten the length of the headache:

* Use an over-the-counter medicine such as Excedrin Migraine, Extra Strength Tylenol, or Aleve.
* Lie down in a quiet, dark room.
* Apply a cold washcloth to your head.
* Drink a soda containing caffeine, or a cup of strong caffeinated coffee.
* Use relaxing massage techniques and gently massage your head, neck, face, and shoulders.
* If your doctor has prescribed drug therapy, take the recommended dosage at the onset of your migraine.

Determining what triggers your migraines, and avoiding those triggers, can lessen their frequency. If you know a migraine is developing, take immediate action to stop the migraine or shorten the duration of it. If you have continued and frequent migraines, see your doctor for more ways to manage your migraines.