Health Tips for Busy Moms

Motherhood – arguably the most challenging, stressful, fulfilling, frustrating, thankless, glorious and important job in the world! And like any other job, a mom needs to be in top shape to give the best to her work. So along with looking after the well-being of everyone else in the family, don’t forget to ensure that you are healthy and happy as well.

Make yourself a priority. You’ve probably heard this repeated a lot. And yet most moms continue to keep putting themselves last on their to-do lists. Be it relaxing, eating, exercising or socialising, it’s important to make time for yourself. After all, only when you’re physically and mentally healthy can you give your best to your family.

Exercising tips. Regular exercise is important, there’s no argument there. However taking the time to exercise can be difficult for a busy mom.
(i) One tip is to set a specific, achievable goal for yourself. For instance, you may decide that you want to walk for half-an-hour 4 times a week. Now you have a set goal that’s also very achievable.
(ii) Another tip is to exercise whilst doing something else. (All you multi-tasking moms will like this!)  So if you’ve taken your child for a karate class, don’t just wait in the lobby. Use this half an hour to take a power walk in the street or in a park close by.

Food and you. Most moms have a less-than-ideal relationship with food and with all that effort they put into feeding their kids, they either eat too little or too much.
(i) One rule you absolutely must follow is to never finish up the food your child has left. Eating the food left over on your child’s plate is a very common phenomenon and this leads to the mom eating double and gaining unnecessary weight.
(ii) Mornings are an especially busy time with breakfast being cooked and lunch boxes being packed and often mothers end up skipping breakfast themselves. Make sure you sit down and eat a healthy breakfast; you could even pack it and carry it to work if that’s easier, but do not miss breakfast.
(iii) When it’s time to feed your child dinner at the end of a long day, it’s a good idea to finish your meal first. Trying to feed a fussy child on an empty stomach will only make you irritable and impatient. Eat first and you’ll find you’re way more patient and energetic to tackle any challenges the dining table may throw up.

Sleep time. Just because you’re a mother now doesn’t mean you need less than 6-8 hours of sleep every night. Prioritise and cut out some activities if you must, just do whatever it takes to get the required amount of sleep.

Moms and stress. Stress is inevitable, but there are ways you can minimise it.
(i) One tip is to keep expectations reasonable. Your child comes with his or her own set of talents and strengths. Do not expect unreasonable feats from your kids.
(ii) Never compare your kids with others. It doesn’t matter if your sister-in-law’s daughter started walking 17 days before your own! Your child has qualities that she doesn’t and it’s best not to get into any comparisons.
(iii) Quit the guilt. It’s OK to make mistakes. Everybody does! Don’t waste precious moments with your child feeling guilty about what you did or didn’t do. Just do the best you can and shower your kids with love.

Ask for help. They say it takes a village to raise a child. What that means is that you cannot do it solely on your own, and there’s no shame in getting help. Involve your husband, your mother, your neighbour, your nanny; nobody will think any less of you and you will be a happier, healthier woman through it all.

The supermom myth. Any mom will tell you – you cannot do everything. So stop worrying about trying to bring up children, while keeping a perfect house, having a successful career, looking like a supermodel, cooking like a pro and doing everything you used to before you had your child. It’s OK to have that pile of newspapers in the corner. You’ll get to it when you can.

Take a break from being a mom. Every once in a while it’s essential to take a break from kids and diapers and school admissions and homework. Call up a friend or go out and have an adult conversation. Discuss politics or fashion or indulge in a good old gossip session. You’ll feel rejuvenated and look forward to going back home to the kids.

Physical pampering is important. A day at the spa or beauty salon does a lot to revive a tired mom’s spirits. You get a break, look better and it takes your mind off the stress of parenting.

Enjoy motherhood. It’s a great time full of challenges and triumphs and the most important thing is to enjoy it. All moms will tell you that it goes by really fast and when you look back at this time, you should remember all the laughter and fun you had.

Seven super awesome superhero moms

Elastigirl/Mrs. Incredible – ‘The Incredibles A true definition of a supermom, Mrs. Incredible cooks, washes and picks up her kids from school during the day, and fights evil baddies at night as Elastigirl, the girl with stretchy limbs! There’s no superhero mom as superhero as her, definitely.




Jetstream – ‘Sky High’ By day, she’s known as Josie Stronghold, a super successful real estate agent. And when she’s, umm, not a super successful real estate agent, she’s a superhero named Jetstream. She has the power of supersonic flight and an expert in hand-to-hand combat; with killer-looks to boot. She’s dangerous, this woman.




Selene – ‘Underworld: Awakening’ We all know Selene is a (super sexy) vampire who hunts werewolves for a living, until she fell in love with one and – gasp! – has a little vampire-werewolf baby named Eve! She spent the whole time battling super werewolves to save and protect little Eve, and that qualifies her for a spot in the Superhero Mom’s Club!




Mary Embrey – ‘Hancock’ Mary Embrey is your typical hot mom-next-door: married to a successful man, a stay-home soccer mom who puts food on the table every night, sends her kid to school and do what other moms do…until a chance meeting with arrogant hero Hancock reveals that she, too, is a superhero with super strength and super flight! In fact, Mary and Hancock used to be a pair of immortal lovebirds. Darn, who would’ve guessed.




Bella Swan – ‘The Twilight Saga’ OK, before you guys go screaming at us saying that Bella is no superhero, let us explain: 1) she is a vampire that is super strong and lightning fast; and 2) die-hard ‘Twilight’ fans will know that she’ll develop a super power (albeit kinda useless, we have to say) in the next movie. Hey, we’re not gonna argue with a blood-thirsty vampire.




Catwoman – ‘Birds Of Prey’ We bet many of you might not know this but yes; the cunning Catwoman is actually a mother! You see, Catwoman had a passionate relationship with – surprise, surprise! – Batman, and gave birth to Helena Kyle. And as you would expect, pretty Helena followed in daddy and mommy’s footsteps: she became a caped crime-fighter called Huntress who protects Gotham City after her daddy vanishes. So yes, Catwoman is a mom.




Mystique – ‘X-Men’ This one will definitely make you go “WTF!? Are you for reals?!”: the blue mutant Mystique in the ‘X-Men’ movies/comics is also a superhero mom! We all know that Mystique’s superpower is the ability to shape shift into anyone, so one day, she changed into a man (don’t ask us why), had an affair with a fellow mutant (who we assume is hot because why else would she change into a man, right?) and nine months later, out comes a baby boy mutant…who goes by the name of Nightcrawler! Mind blown yet?

Quake rocks Guwahati, tremors felt in Kolkata

Guwahati/Kolkata, May 11 (ANI): An earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter Scale shook the northeastern region of the country this evening.

Tremors were reportedly felt at 6: 14 p.m. Parts of Shillong, Assam and Meghalaya were jolted by tremors.

Tremors were also felt in north Bengal including Kolkata. The tremors were felt for around 10 to 15 seconds.

According to Met officials, the epicenter of the earthquake was Assam's Tezpur District. (ANI)

India clears doller 660 mn deal for artillery guns

New Delhi, May 11 (IANS) The Indian Army got a shot in the arm Friday with the defence ministry clearing its long-pending $660 million (Rs.3,000 crore) proposal to buy 145 ultra-light howitzer guns to add teeth to its ageing inventory.

This is the first time the army is buying artillery guns in 27 years, since the Bofors guns payoff scandal broke out in the late 1980s, defence ministry sources said here.

The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), headed by Defence Minister A.K. Antony, cleared the deal for the M777 BAE Systems guns that will be bought through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) route of the US government.

The purchase comes in the wake of Indian Army chief Gen. V.K. Singh writing to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in March highlighting the gaps in its preparedness.

Being light in weight, the 155mm 39-calibre guns can be easily airlifted and will be deployed in the high altitude mountainous areas in the northeast and in the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir bordering China.

A couple of weeks ago the defence ministry had approved infrastructure development projects in the northeast, including strategic roads and rail lines that will enable easy and quick mobilisation of troops.

The DAC cleared the M777 gun following a favourable report by a committee headed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) chief V.K. Saraswat that studied the suitability of the weapon system.

The army had recommended the gun following a series of rigorous trials.

--Indo-Asian New Service

ncb/vm

Microsoft redesigns Bing, plays up Facebook link

Microsoft Corp unveiled a new design on Thursday for its second-ranked Bing search engine, introducing elements from Facebook and other social networks, as it tries to claw market share from leader Google Inc.

Slow off the mark in Internet search, Microsoft has racked up losses of more than $6 billion in its online unit since launching Bing three years ago, but has yet to make a mark on Google's dominance of the lucrative ad search market.

In its latest push to increase usage of Bing, Microsoft is introducing a new, three-column screen design. Alongside the familiar search results displayed in blue to the left of the screen, Bing is rolling out an instant snapshot column, which displays extra information and links most likely to be useful such as maps, reviews and reservation tools.

To the right, it features a column of users' Facebook friends, giving them the option of asking their advice on a search. Users can also access their contacts on LinkedIn (LNKD.N), Twitter and other networks.

Microsoft, which owns a small fraction of Facebook after an investment in 2007, has been pioneering the integration of social network feeds into Internet search, being the first to allow access to real-time data from Facebook and Twitter in searches.

Google followed suit soon after and has now integrated its fledgling social network Google+ into its search engine.

Microsoft, which is losing around $500 million every quarter in its online business, largely because of Bing, badly needs to turn its search engine into a viable competitor to Google. It needs to challenge Google's increasing influence on the Internet and slow the growth of its popular Android mobile operating system, which poses a long-term threat to Microsoft's core Windows product.

Before rolling out Bing in June 2009, Microsoft's Windows search engine had 8 percent of the U.S. Internet search market, compared with Yahoo's 20 percent and Google's 65 percent.

In the three years since then, Bing has almost doubled its market share to 15 percent, but that has been mostly at the expense of Yahoo, which has had its share whittled down to 14 percent. Google remains around 66 percent.

Microsoft sealed a search agreement with Yahoo in 2010, which means that Yahoo's searches are actually performed by Bing, with Microsoft paying Yahoo a percentage of search ad revenue.

TCS to handle Lakshmi Vilas Bank s back office

The South-based private sector lender Lakshmi Vilas Bank has entered into an agreement with software exporter TCS for managing its back office operations and document management systems.

The Karur-headquartered bank has signed an agreement with Tata Consultancy Services(TCS) which will facilitate centralisation of essential processes like account opening, KYC compliance, loans and advances, trade finance and ATM card management, the bank said in a statement.

Data like forms and applications collected at the branches will be sent to a centralised processing cell and data centre which will help manage the content centrally.

"This tie-up will assist the bank in providing a single platform that can be used for centralising all the processes," bank Managing Director and Chief Executive P R Somasundaram said.

Centralisation will be done in two phases and the first one will entail savings and current accounts opening, centralization of account opening under financial inclusion while trade finance, opening demat accounts and 3-in-1 accounts will be carried out in the second phase

Can Huawei make Americans buy Chinese phones

Will Americans buy a Chinese smartphone? We're about to find out, as Huawei, one of the world's biggest phone makers, is planning a big push into US cellphone stores. 

All four nationwide US phone companies will carry Huawei smartphones this year, says Francis Hopkins, a Huawei spokesman. That's up from one right now-with AT&T. 

Only two Chinese companies are well known consumer brands in the US: computer makerLenovo, which entered the US market by buying IBM's PC division, and Haier, an appliance maker with a German name. 

Huawei, by contrast, is pushing into the US market under its own power, and with a Chinese-sounding name (pronounced "wa-way''). It's hoping to replicate the success of gadget makers like Samsung and LG of Korea and Acer and HTC, which have formed a second wave of Asian companies to enter the US, after the Japanese. 

US phone companies are well acquainted with Huawei, which sells network equipment and accessories like wireless modems for laptops. It had $1 billion in sales in the US last year, Hopkins said. Globally, it's a big seller of phones as well. The company expects to ship more than 100 million this year. Of those, it expects 60 million to be smartphones. 

In a sense, nearly all phones Americans buy are Chinese. They are, after all, assembled in China. The most valuable components, the chips, come from Taiwan, Korea, Japan and the US. Huawei is linked to the same global phone manufacturing chain, buying the same chips and using the same factories for final assembly. The company's phones also look like other smartphones that are stylistically similar to the iPhone, and run Google popular Androidsoftware. What would really be different about the Huawei phones is that they're designed in China and marketed by a Chinese company. 

When it started selling phones in the US in 2010, Huawei continued to let the carriers take care of marketing, Hopkins said. Its phones are sold under the Huawei brand by some smaller phone companies, like MetroPCS, but the phone AT&T sells doesn't carry Huawei's name-just AT&T's. 

"In the US, the device makers have to continuously brand themselves,'' Hopkins said. 

So the company is planning a big marketing campaign with "global brand experience agency'' Jack Morton, which works with Nike, Wal-Mart and Cadillac. The slogan will be "Release the smart in everyone,'' reflecting Huawei's focus on making inexpensive smartphones for people trading up from regular phones. 

Analyst Ramon Llamas with IDC places Huawei among the up-and-comers in the phone market, who need a "hero device,'' a flagship phone, to establish it. Huawei has unveiled a couple of candidates in its new Ascend line, including what it called "the world's thinnest smartphone'' in January. But those haven't come to the US, and may not. 

"We know we can do it, we can offer it, but with us still being young in the device game, it's better for us to focus on delivering a good user experience,'' Hopkins said. 

That means, Hopkins, a self-described "smartphone power user,'' doesn't use a Huawei phone, but a Samsung Galaxy. He'd rather have the flagship Huawei phone, the Ascend D, he said, but it doesn't work in the US-yet.

Apple co founder Steve Wozniak I don‘t have broadband at home

 Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak stunned a business forum in Perth after he confessed that he does not have abroadband connection at home in Los Gatos, California.

"I don't have broadband at my home," News.com.au quoted Wozniak as saying.

"I, Steve Wozniak, don't have broadband at my home."

Wozniak told an ironic tale about a clash of second-class infrastructure and new-age technology.

"I live one kilometre out of the main part of town," he explained.

"Broadband is a monopoly in my town - that means you can get it from a cable company, but I don't have cable.

"There are 50 companies that want to sell me DSL, but they've all got to go through the Horizon wires - the local phone company - and I've got one of the two worst Horizons in the country.

"And so I can't get broadband in my house."

Wozniak also insisted that wireless networks were more economical than fibre-optic networks for remote areas.

"This country is quite spread out, with a lot of remote places," he said.

"I think in remote places, a lot of times a good answer economically is wireless," Wozniak added.

The Best Mother s Day Gift Is A Six Figure Blogging Income

I’m not married and I have no kids, so I hadn’t paid much attention to “Mommy bloggers” until i spoke at BlogWorld East in New York City last year.  When the Mommy blog movement started to take off in 2009, I had been dismissive of them, thinking it was more of the same “look at me” drivel that most bloggers had gotten over when Facebook became the platform of choice to vent about such First World Problems as noisy pediatrician waiting rooms and child-induced sleep deprivation.

Go ahead, say what you're thinking: I’m an idiot.

speaking again at BlogWorld next month; see the bottom of this post for information on how to get a 10% discount off conference registration). The best ones are making six-figure salaries (for the record, the worst ones, by-and-large, remain unreadable). 

The site Moms Who Need Wine, as noted in an article in Thursday's Boston Globe, has more than 570,000 Facebook fans, compared to just a little more than 36,000 for Wine Enthusiast. Wired islaunching a new blog today, GeekMom, written by the four moms on its staff. As a block, Mommy bloggers garner the careful attention of Fortune 500 companies seeking a mother’s stamp of approval for their products. McDonald’s, for example, has been setting up shop at the BlogHerconference and flying in top Mom bloggers for exclusive tours of its corporate headquarters in meetings with President Jan Fields and other top executives. 

“Originally I found the whole Mommy blogger phenomenon to be a little unsettling and, as a married woman without kids, annoying,” said Leigh Ann Dufurrena of Red Sky Public Relations. “But, what I've discovered, and allowed myself to accept, is that Moms have been harbingers of brands long before blogs, the internet and even Oprah.”

Indeed, big brands know that targeting women, who make 80% of household buying decisions, has long been a key to success. Dufurrena says momvertising goes back generations before the Web became a marketing tool. And, she reasons, is getting a Mom to pitch healthy side-dish items in a Happy Meal any different than Tupperware getting women to host Tupperware parties in the 1960s or Kix coming up with a slogan assuring television viewers that the cereal is "Kid Tested, Mom Approved"?

Low Cost, Big Returns For Advertisers

We weren’t able to interview any of the Mom bloggers who claim to be pulling in six-figure salaries, but all of the Mom bloggers (as well as other niche bloggers) we spoke with said that keeping their blogs was worth the effort.

“I think there are a lot of lower-traffic Mom blogs that are just getting free perks. There are medium-traffic blogs that get some perks and some money,” said Scarlet Paolicchi, who runs Family Focus Blog. “I haven't met any bloggers that make big bucks, but I have read about them and assume they exist.”

Jesse Richardson, who runs the holistic health publication Organic Soul as well as Conscious Box, a monthly subscription service focused on green and sustainable goods, said his young sites rely almost exclusively on mentions from Mommy and other niche bloggers for increasing their visibility. Conscious Box has worked with more than 300 mom bloggers.

“Organic Soul focused on paid social media advertising to build a following, whereas Conscious Box has gone 99% toward unpaid, product-for-service-traded reviews,” Richardson said. “By and large, this has been leaps and bounds better at generating paid customers and return buyers. For us, using Mommy bloggers has replaced used paid advertisements.”

Other, non-parenting brands are likely to jump on the trend. Melissa Murphy, who connects brands with influencers for SocialChorus, is currently working on a campaign for Toyota that's seeking young, hip progressives. Intel, meanwhile, is looking to engage entertainment influencers, and Mountain Dew wants NASCAR fans.

“Although Mommy bloggers are the biggest demo in the social space, all verticals are working with brands,” Murphy said. “If you pair the right brand with the right influencer demo and social currency, anything is possible.”

Is It Advertising? Public Relations? Journalism?

Many bloggers follow Federal Trade Commission guidelines that were implemented in 2009 and require the disclosure of compensation when they endorse a product. But others do not, and there are some grey areas.

“The majority of bloggers we work with are either honest in their product reviews or treating their blogs as a different type of media than a traditional news blog - more like a magazine,” said Julie Wohlberg, the founder of BlogWire and SheBlogs.org, a community of more than 5,000 women who blog. “Mags typically endorse good products, while ignoring bad ones...In the same way, bloggers who receive products will often ignore coverage for the shoddy products and endorse those they like.”

The FTC rules are also designed to monitor the less-scrupulous practice of pay-per-click endorsements. Elisa Camahort Page, co-founder and COO of BlogHer, said the inclusion of bloggers and social media influencers in the FTC guidelines validated the medium.

“It was actually a tremendous validation that blogging is another media channel, subject to the same responsibilities," Page said. “BlogHer's position is that there is no one the women in our community trust more than another woman talking about her experience...We love a deal. We love an opportunity. We just want to know exactly what we're reading before we get out our wallet.”

The Top 10 most powerful cities in the world

We present a list of the ten most economically powerful cities in the world, as selected by Richard Florida in his survey of surveys on global metro powerhouses. Florida is Senior Editor at The Atlantic and Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto. Source: The Atlantic

No: 1 New York




No: 2 London




No: 3 Tokyo




No: 4 Hong Kong




No: 5 Paris




No: 6 Chicago




No: 7 Singapore




No: 8 Shanghai




No: 9 Los Angeles




No: 10 Zurich

Soon, air-powered cars to debut in India

Washington, May 10 (ANI): India-based Tata Motors has said that it has tested two cars that can run on compressed air, and that the next step is setting up the manufacturing plants to actually build them.

In 2007, Tata Motors signed a licensing deal with Motor Development International, a French design firm.

Compressed air engines aren't a new idea. The first models were proposed more than a century ago, and they were used in the mining industry for decades before electric motors became commonplace.

Even now, compressed air powers all kinds of tools, notably the pneumatic impact wrenches in auto body shops.

A compressed air car engine works in a way similar to the internal combustion version - Fuel forces pistons to turn a crankshaft and power the car. The difference is that in a compressed air engine, the pistons are moved by air and not gasoline.

Researchers in Sweden have experimented with single-cylinder engines of this type.

The only problem is power. Air compression alone only gets a car moving to about 30 to 35 miles per hour. So to supplement that, the car could take in more air as it moves faster, using an onboard air compressor.

The air compressor could be electric or, more likely, gasoline-powered. But even that would reduce emissions a lot, since the gasoline engine wouldn't be running at lower speeds.

Range is also an issue. Like all vehicles, an air-powered car can drive only as far as the amount of fuel in its tank. And storing compressed air requires "fuel" tanks that are stronger than steel to contain the thousands of pounds per square inch necessary.

On the bright side, compressing air in such a tank is a lot less dangerous than natural gas or hydrogen. Then there is the issue of filling the car's tank, most air compressors would take at least a couple of hours to do that.

Tata seems to be the only manufacturer that has committed to actually building an air-powered car. Honda unveiled an air-powered concept car in 2010, and a company called Zero Pollution Motors had promised to deliver one to the United States, but that was two years ago.

If Tata is successful, it will go a long way toward reducing emissions in India-and perhaps freeing cars from fossil fuels completely. (ANI)

Why a Foot Massage is better than Comfort Food

If you haven’t been living under a rock these last few years, you will probably have indulged in a foot spa treatment at least once.

I hope the experience involved soft lighting, classical Indian music, and a smiling woman redolent with tangy demureness aiming to please…no, I didn’t mean that kind of pleasure, but I’m sure you get the general idea.

The question is, why don’t more people head to a foot spa when they’re depressed or down in the dumps? Women have the prerogative of getting a facial or a haircut when they’re feeling down, but most men just slump on a couch as close to the television set as possible, hoping that inane channel surfing will numb the pain.

But it never really works, does it? Time might be the ultimate healer, but time works like ayurvedic medicine. You take the tablets everyday, but try to forget about the illness and hope that the symptoms don’t show up again. But what do you do while waiting for time to cast its spell upon you? Don’t stuff yourself, or you will soon be both fat AND depressed. Don’t feel sorry for yourself; that’s an emotional vortex that sucks you further down into the dumps. Don’t try to drink or smoke the pain away; it returns with a vengeance when you wake up with a hangover the next morning.

Instead, try a foot massage. Either that or go for a jog. Because they say action determines emotion, so you have to get off your lazy behind and do something. But a spa massage does more than simply help you forget. Here are some reasons why a foot massage helps you get over a bout of the blues:

1. Because a foot massage is a feast for all five senses

A foot massage at a designated foot spa parlour is all about sensation. A comfortable armchair– check. Soft music– check. Earthy-scented room– check. Subdued lighting and an unworldly absence of city sounds, almost like you’ve been whisked away to a tropical island– check. Sweet ginger-and-thyme tea to calm your nerves– check. And the massage hasn’t even begun yet!

2. Because the soles of your feet have a denser concentration of nerve endings (more than 2,00,000) than any other part of your body

What’s more, your soles are an erogenous zone, which means that just having your feet bathed and cared for makes you want to purr in happy contentment. But that’s just the beginning. There’s scented cream, and eucalyptus oil, and baby powder…all for the part of our anatomy that we pay the least attention to!

3. Because foot therapists really know about the pressure points

And for one blissful hour, you surrender control of your body to her expertise. This is as close to an experience of the divine as one can possibly get. No strings attached; all you do is sit back, relax, and feel the worry drain away as the therapist’s fingers work their magic on every bone, muscle, and tendon.

4. Because very few forms of pure, hedonistic pleasure are still legal

Comfort foods sound girly, and evidence suggests that they’re a myth. Anyway, who doesn’t like being pampered? And when we’re depressed, we tend to need some tender loving care. Just having a curtseying attendant concentrate all her attention on you will make you feel like royalty, literally whisking you back into a time when harems and other related indulgences were considered a man’s right instead of being frowned upon as a neurotic craving to be ashamed of.

Most foot massages end with a ten minute kneading and caressing away any remaining anxiety in your neck and shoulder muscles. If you haven’t melted into the attendants (ch)arms yet, you will now.

Don’t take my word for it. This one has to be experienced to be believed. You can thank me later.

I want to ride my bicycle

Cycling is one fun activity that can be enjoyed by toddlers, teens and adults alike. The love for cycling begins with the toddler’s tricycle and goes on to evolve into a mountain biker’s or a racer’s bike. Of course, not to mention the casual cycling that just about anyone can benefit from. How? Let’s see.

1. Easiest form of exercise You can cycle almost anywhere, be it the great outdoors or the streets. The best part about cycling is that it has only one prerequisite – you should know how to ride a cycle. No team members, no skill sets, no gymming. Cycling also doesn’t cost you a fortune. One good cycle and you’re good to go for a couple of years at the very least.

2. Cardio-vascular fitness Cycling is a great way to give your heart that much needed workout. Steady cycling makes your heart pump faster and at a steady rate. This is very good for strengthening the heart. The lungs also benefit greatly from cycling. It has been known to significantly reduce the risk of coronary diseases, if done regularly.

3. Stamina Cycling a few miles every day on a regular basis is a great way to build stamina. It is easier to build stamina by cycling, as you never know when you may end up cycling more as compared to the last time.

4. Muscle tone Your leg muscles are going to get a serious work over with regular cycling. It works wonders for your calves, quads, hams, hips and your rear end. It is great for toning and building these muscle sets. The main benefit over other forms of exercise – for these muscle sets – is that cycling has minimum impact on the joints, for those people who may have joint problems.

5. Reduce weight An excellent way to burn those calories and pull down that flab would be to get on a cycle as soon as possible. It is a great way to get rid of an increased waistline and excessive fat. A person weighing around 75kg can burn more than 600 calories with an hour’s cycling. Cycle uphill and you’ll burn even more.

6. Eco-friendly If your workplace is close to your house, then it would be best to make a habit of cycling to and fro every day. Not only will this keep you in shape, but you can also do your own bit towards using lesser fuel and keeping the air pollution free.

7. Physical and mental health The physical activity involved helps in keeping your immune system healthy, and also keeps the mind fresh and relaxed. Cycling outdoors is a great way to give the body much needed fresh air, which helps keep stress at bay.

Do yourselves a favour and get onto a real cycle, the one that moves about when you push the pedal. The stationary cycle found at your gym certainly does you good, but it also robs you of the opportunity to explore new places on your bike and breathe in some fresh air. So get out there in the open and pedal away to good health.