Welcome back to A - Z Blogging Challenge, letter W!
As you can see, back in February when I was mapping out the alphabet and brainstorming about possible content for each letter, I was certain I was going to have a glass of wine with you!
You know what? We totally should! Cheers! Thank you for bearing with me, it's been a pleasure!
I want to tell you something I learned on our wine tour in Cape Town, South Africa. One of the vineyard owners told us about resveratrol, an antioxidant-like compound found in red wine, berries and peanuts.
While Wikipedia is acting pretty reserved about the benefits of Resveratrol, this article is pretty excited about potential health benefits like lowering systolic blood pressure and cholesterol levels, lengthening your lifespan, protecting the brain, increasing insulin sensitivity, easing joint pain and suppressing cancer cells.
However, studies suggest more research is necessary.
I agree, and I volunteer!
While we're swirling our wine glasses and enjoying sip after sip and letting resveratrol do its magic, let me tell you about my new watch. I have been mentioning throughout this alphabet that I was looking for a fitness tracker of some sort because I needed my hands to be free, and carrying around my iPhone while exercising wasn't going to work long-term.
I wanted one that worked on my wrist, I wasn't going to get all wired up with chest harnesses and whatnot. It needed to tell me about my heart rate, steps taken and calories burnt.
The more research and reviews I read, the less I knew which one would be perfect for me, so in the end I went with the obvious choice: I write on a MacBook Pro, I use an iPhone, I play on my iPad, so why not go for the Apple Watch? I knew I was going to have to put up with poor battery life, but hey - I am used to it!
As per publishing date I have been using it for four weeks, and I'm quite happy with the features for moving, exercising, standing and breathing - yes, you are prompted to take a minute and focus on your breathing twice a day!
The Apple guy who sold it to me said he used to wear the same one. Used to?
Yeah, he smirked, unfortunately I put it in the washing machine, and while the watch is waterproof, 90° C (that's 194° F) killed it!
Otherwise he was happy with it. He told me about two features I didn't know about: the sleep app. At bedtime you tell your watch "start sleeping" (as if that would work!) and when you get up, you hit "stop sleeping", and you'll get an analysis about the duration and quality of your sleep. I'm not too impressed about it, though.
How about you, do you believe in the power of wine? Are you using a gadget to track your fitness and sleep activities? How do you like it?
Head over to the other letter W posts and check back here for the letter we've all been anxiously waiting for: X!
PS: Today is Thursday. As of next Thursday we'll be back at our Top Ten Thursday routine. Don't know what I'm talking about? Head over to my board that contains all the previous posts.
I'd like you to join if you're interested! On May 4 we'll be talking about the top ten life skills we wished today's young people would learn. Sign up here. The week after we'll be doing a Mother's Day theme.
As you can see, back in February when I was mapping out the alphabet and brainstorming about possible content for each letter, I was certain I was going to have a glass of wine with you!
You know what? We totally should! Cheers! Thank you for bearing with me, it's been a pleasure!
 |
| Photo Credit |
I want to tell you something I learned on our wine tour in Cape Town, South Africa. One of the vineyard owners told us about resveratrol, an antioxidant-like compound found in red wine, berries and peanuts.
While Wikipedia is acting pretty reserved about the benefits of Resveratrol, this article is pretty excited about potential health benefits like lowering systolic blood pressure and cholesterol levels, lengthening your lifespan, protecting the brain, increasing insulin sensitivity, easing joint pain and suppressing cancer cells.
However, studies suggest more research is necessary.
I agree, and I volunteer!
While we're swirling our wine glasses and enjoying sip after sip and letting resveratrol do its magic, let me tell you about my new watch. I have been mentioning throughout this alphabet that I was looking for a fitness tracker of some sort because I needed my hands to be free, and carrying around my iPhone while exercising wasn't going to work long-term.
I wanted one that worked on my wrist, I wasn't going to get all wired up with chest harnesses and whatnot. It needed to tell me about my heart rate, steps taken and calories burnt.
The more research and reviews I read, the less I knew which one would be perfect for me, so in the end I went with the obvious choice: I write on a MacBook Pro, I use an iPhone, I play on my iPad, so why not go for the Apple Watch? I knew I was going to have to put up with poor battery life, but hey - I am used to it!
As per publishing date I have been using it for four weeks, and I'm quite happy with the features for moving, exercising, standing and breathing - yes, you are prompted to take a minute and focus on your breathing twice a day!
The Apple guy who sold it to me said he used to wear the same one. Used to?
Yeah, he smirked, unfortunately I put it in the washing machine, and while the watch is waterproof, 90° C (that's 194° F) killed it!
Otherwise he was happy with it. He told me about two features I didn't know about: the sleep app. At bedtime you tell your watch "start sleeping" (as if that would work!) and when you get up, you hit "stop sleeping", and you'll get an analysis about the duration and quality of your sleep. I'm not too impressed about it, though.
This was a particularly dreadful night, and I got up three times, two of which between 2 and 4am. Usually when I have to pee I manage to go back to sleep. If I don't, I get back up on my computer (I know, not the smartest thing to do), but even more so, how can the app tell me I got over 8 hours of restful sleep when I clearly didn't?
One interesting, yet not surprising, fact I did learn from those analysis, though: my best quality sleep happens either around midnight or in the morning, just before the alarm goes off. Booo!
The other new feature (new to me, techies among you know, of course) is that you can use your watch to pay with your credit card. So if you're out there, running, and you run out of water, you may stop at a convenience store and purchase a new one, even though you didn't bring your wallet or your phone. Or, even better, you get stopped by the police for running too fast. Imagine their face as you ask for their contactless payment terminal to settle that speeding ticket right then and there!
Also you don't have to worry about misuse. Once you take off our watch it is locked, and without passcode nobody can use it.
How about you, do you believe in the power of wine? Are you using a gadget to track your fitness and sleep activities? How do you like it?
Head over to the other letter W posts and check back here for the letter we've all been anxiously waiting for: X!
PS: Today is Thursday. As of next Thursday we'll be back at our Top Ten Thursday routine. Don't know what I'm talking about? Head over to my board that contains all the previous posts.
I'd like you to join if you're interested! On May 4 we'll be talking about the top ten life skills we wished today's young people would learn. Sign up here. The week after we'll be doing a Mother's Day theme.
Comments
Post a Comment
Thank you for your comment. It will be visible as soon as I had a chance to verify that you are not an anonymous user and/or a spammer.