Global Party Continues - ZUMBA IN THE PARTY STARTS AT 12:30p THIS SATURDAY

Funny Parody with BEYONCE by Nigerian Americans 'Naija BOYZ'

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The Global party continues. Experience a NO FEE FITNESS JAM THIS SAT @ FLAT SHOALS PARK

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Small segment of Zumba Toning in a Reggaeton Style

Hapeville Happy Days Festival at the Zumba Demo Booth

Sept 17 2011

Zumba Demo to Bob Marley Remix at Happy Days Festival

Just Digging Positive Videos. BIG UP THE HAITIAN PPL

5 Foods That Can Trigger a Stroke

5 Foods That Can Trigger a Stroke

By Melanie Haiken, Caring.com Yahoo Health

Few things feel more terrifying and random than a stroke, which can strike without warning. And fear of stroke -- when a blood vessel in or leading to the brain bursts or is blocked by a blood clot, starving brain cells of oxygen and nutrients -- is well founded. After all, stroke is the number-three killer in the U.S., affecting more than 700,000 people each year. Here are five foods that cause the damage that leads to stroke.

1. Crackers, chips, and store-bought pastries and baked goods
Muffins, doughnuts, chips, crackers, and many other baked goods are high in trans fats, which are hydrogenated oils popular with commercial bakeries because they stay solid at room temperature, so the products don't require refrigeration. Also listed on labels as "partially hydrogenated" or hydrogenated oils, trans fats are found in all kinds of snack foods, frozen foods, and baked goods, including salad dressings, microwave popcorn, stuffing mixes, frozen tater tots and French fries, cake mixes, and whipped toppings. They're also what makes margarine stay in a solid cube. The worst offenders are fried fast foods such as onion rings, French fries, and fried chicken.

Why it's bad

For years scientists have known trans fats are dangerous artery-blockers, upping the concentrations of lipids and bad cholesterol in the blood and lowering good cholesterol. Now we can add stroke to the list of dangers. This year researchers at the University of North Carolina found that women who ate 7 grams of trans fat each day -- about the amount in two doughnuts or half a serving of French fries -- had 30 percent more strokes (the ischemic type, caused by blocked blood flow to the brain) than women who ate just 1 gram a day. Another recent study, also in women, found that trans fats promoted inflammation and higher levels of C-reactive protein, which have been linked to an increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.

What to do

Aim to limit trans fats to no more than 1 or 2 grams a day -- and preferably none. Avoid fast-food French fries and other fried menu items and study packaged food labels closely. Even better, bake your own cookies, cakes, and other snacks. When you can't, search out "health-food" alternative snacks, such as Terra brand potato chips and traditional whole grain crackers such as those made by Finn, Wasa, AkMak, Ryvita, and Lavasch.
2. Smoked and processed meats
Whether your weakness is pastrami, sausage, hot dogs, bacon, or a smoked turkey sandwich, the word from the experts is: Watch out.

Why it's bad

Smoked and processed meats are nasty contributors to stroke risk in two ways: The preserving processes leave them packed with sodium, but even worse are the preservatives used to keep processed meats from going bad. Sodium nitrate and nitrite have been shown by researchers to directly damage blood vessels, causing arteries to harden and narrow. And of course damaged, overly narrow blood vessels are exactly what you don't want if you fear stroke.
Many studies have linked processed meats to coronary artery disease (CAD); one meta-analysis in the journal Circulation calculated a 42-percent increase in coronary heart disease for those who eat one serving of processed meat a day. Stroke is not the only concern for salami fans; cancer journals have reported numerous studies in the past few years showing that consumption of cured and smoked meats is linked with increased risk of diabetes and higher incidences of numerous types of cancer, including leukemia.

What to do

If a smoked turkey or ham sandwich is your lunch of choice, try to vary your diet, switching to tuna, peanut butter, or other choices several days a week. Or cook turkey and chicken yourself and slice it thin for sandwiches.
How to Tell if Someone Is Having a Stroke
3. Diet soda
Although replacing sugary drinks with diet soda seems like a smart solution for keeping weight down -- a heart-healthy goal -- it turns out diet soda is likely a major bad guy when it comes to stroke.

Why it's bad

People who drink a diet soda a day may up their stroke risk by 48 percent. A Columbia University study presented at the American Stroke Association's 2011 International Stroke Conference followed 2,500 people ages 40 and older and found that daily diet soda drinkers had 60 percent more strokes, heart attacks, and coronary artery disease than those who didn't drink diet soda. Researchers don't know exactly how diet soda ups stroke risk -- and are following up with further studies -- but nutritionists are cautioning anyone concerned about stroke to cut out diet soda pop.

What to do

Substitute more water for soda in your daily diet. It's the healthiest thirst-quencher by far, researchers say. If you don't like water, try lemonade, iced tea, or juice.
4. Red meat
This winter, when the respected journal Stroke published a study showing that women who consumed a large portion of red meat each day had a 42-percent higher incidence of stroke, it got nutrition experts talking. The information that red meat, with its high saturated fat content, isn't healthy for those looking to prevent heart disease and stroke wasn't exactly news. But the percentage increase (almost 50 percent!) was both startling and solid; the researchers arrived at their finding after following 35,000 Swedish women for ten years.

Why it's bad

Researchers have long known that the saturated fat in red meat raises the risk of stroke and heart disease by gradually clogging arteries with a buildup of protein plaques. Now it turns out that hemoglobin, the ingredient that gives red meat its high iron content, may pose a specific danger when it comes to stroke. Researchers are investigating whether blood becomes thicker and more viscous as a result of the consumption of so-called heme iron, specifically upping the chance of strokes.

What to do

Aim to substitute more poultry -- particularly white meat -- and fish, which are low in heme iron, for red meat. Also, choose the heart-healthiest sources of protein whenever you can, especially beans, legumes, nuts, tofu, and nonfat dairy.
5. Canned soup and prepared foods
Whether it's canned soup, canned spaghetti, or healthy-sounding frozen dinners, prepared foods and mixes rely on sodium to increase flavor and make processed foods taste fresher. Canned soup is cited by nutritionists as the worst offender; one can of canned chicken noodle soup contains more than 1,100 mg of sodium, while many other varieties, from clam chowder to simple tomato, have between 450 and 800 mg per serving. Compare that to the American Heart and Stroke Association's recommendation of less than1,500 mg of sodium daily and you'll see the problem. In fact, a nutritionist-led campaign, the National Salt Reduction Initiative, calls on food companies to reduce the salt content in canned soup and other products by 20 percent in the next two years.

Why it's bad

Salt, or sodium as it's called on food labels, directly affects stroke risk. In one recent study, people who consumed more than 4,000 mg of sodium daily had more than double the risk of stroke compared to those who ate 2,000 mg or less. Yet the Centers for Disease Control estimate that most Americans eat close to 3,500 mg of sodium per day. Studies show that sodium raises blood pressure, the primary causative factor for stroke. And be warned: Sodium wears many tricky disguises, which allow it to hide in all sorts of foods that we don't necessarily think of as salty. Some common, safe-sounding ingredients that really mean salt:

• Baking soda
• Baking powder
• MSG (monosodium glutamate)
• Disodium phosphate
• Sodium alginate

What to do

Make your own homemade soups and entrees, then freeze individual serving-sized portions. Buy low-sodium varieties, but read labels carefully, since not all products marked "low sodium" live up to that promise.

Infant Twins see each other for the first time. TOUCHING STORY

Face To Face For The First Time, Conjoined Twins Separated By Life Saving Surgery (Photos)

• Posted by Natasha on September 15, 2011 at 2:05pm
• Send Message   View Blog

It's you! The moment Jacob and Joshua see each other for the first time at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis, where they were born

They were tiny newborn twins, delivered by frantic doctors in an emergency caesarean in January, six weeks before they were due. 
And born conjoined at the base of their spines, their chances of survival were made even smaller.
In what is being hailed as a medical miracle, little Joshua and Jacob Spates have survived being separated after a gruelling 13 hours in surgery.
And as this heart-warming picture shows, the boys - who had never been able to see each other - have now been introduced face to face.



The eight-month-old twins from Memphis, Tennessee, are continuing to recover under the watchful eyes of doctors but they have already overcome what is likely to be the biggest obstacle they will ever face.
The twins were joined at the rear of the pelvis and gastrointestinal tract and had to be separated because of the severity of Jacob's heart condition.
The boys' mother, Adrienne, said the boys are doing well following their operation, on August 29.

Gorgeous: The boys now have the chance to lead full, independent lives when they grow up

Overjoyed: The boys' mother Adrienne celebrates after the successful operation

Loving: Before the surgery the boys had never been able to look each other in the face

Happy: Baby Joshua is being prepared to go home, while Jacob faces more operations

However the twin boys are recovering at different rates.
Jacob remains in intensive care and needs a few more operations, while Joshua is already out of the unit and is being prepared to go home.

Dr Max Langham, one of the surgeons at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis, said: 'Joshua's doing great, and hopefully he'll be up and going and have a pretty normal lifespan.

Recovery: Jacob can now be treated for his heart condition, which would have killed them both

Joined: This MRI scan provided by the hospital shows just how the pair were fused together

Fused: A 3D reconstruction shows how the boys' vertebrae were joined at the base

He told TODAY that while Jacob has more serious heart problems 'our cardiology team has very high hopes his treatment… will be successful'.
'If they had not been separated, sometime in the next year or two, they probably would have passed,' Dr Langham said.



Just two dozen conjoined twins have ever been successfully separated anywhere in the world.
The condition is extremely rare, only about one in every 200,000 live births is a set of conjoined twins and about 15 per cent of these are joined in a similar way to Joshua and Jacob.
Fewer than a third of conjoined twins survive more than one day after birth.

Battling: A team of surgeons at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis worked for 13 hours to separate the babies and keep them alive

Relief: Joshua and Jocob's mother Adrienne was overwhelmed that all went to plan at hospital

Success story: The separation was carried out at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee

Joshua and Jacob are one of only six such cases in Memphis history.

Doctors at the hospital said practice was the key to separating the twins successfully. This had included the anaesthesia team sewing together two Cabbage Patch dolls to practise flipping them without tangling the various lines that would be attached during surgery.

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FREE ZUMBA THIS SATURDAY CHECK IT!!
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Hapeville Happy Days ** Free Zumba** Sept 17

Hapeville Happy Days Festival is Sept 16 AND 17. **There will be *FREE* Zumba/Zumba Toning on Saturday, Sept 17. Class begins at 8:45 SHARP. Come jam with the rest of the Hapeville Honeys at the Village Church   3418 Dogwood Avenue in Hapeville (Only minutes from Hartsfield Atlanta Airport).


THERE WILL BE A ZUMBA IN HAPEVILLE BOOTH IN J LUCAS PARK...MORE CHANCES FOR GAMES PRIZES AND RAFFLES!!

Morbidly Obese Baby Sitter dies and collapses on 1 month old infant

Sitter dies and lands on Long Island infant

1-month-old smothered in freak accident

By KIERAN CROWLEY

Last Updated: 7:10 AM, September 3, 2011

Posted: 1:15 AM, September 3, 2011

More Print

A morbidly obese Long Island baby sitter accidentally smothered to death a month-old infant when she collapsed and died on the couch where the child was lying, authorities said yesterday.
Teresa Coffey, who was 5-foot-6 and over 200 pounds, was found on top of little Michael Baldwin III on Thursday at around 9:30 p.m. by the boy's horrified father, and both were pronounced dead at a hospital near the Greenlawn home.
"The woman was described as extremely heavy," said Detective Lt. Gerard Pelkofsky. "She was extremely large-breasted . . . Because of the amount of flesh, it could have caused the baby to suffocate."

SHOCKING FATE: Long Island broadcaster Michael Baldwin is despondent yesterday after the death of his son at their home.

The boy's dad, Michael Baldwin -- a local TV personality -- ditched a broadcast when he couldn't reach the sitter by phone and raced home.
He found Coffey splayed out on the couch and looked all over for his son.
"I searched every room," Baldwin tearfully recounted yesterday. "I was saying his name, 'Michael! Michael!' "
When his search failed, Baldwin said he returned to the living room, where Coffey, 39, was "slumped on the couch, face down, her knees on the floor . . . I just had this funny feeling she was on top of him.
"I lifted her and he was underneath. He was lying on his back with his hands folded on his stomach.
"He was blue . . . I just grabbed him and called his name -- I knew he was dead."
Both were pronounced dead at Huntington Hospital.
Baldwin was taping his own show, "Diverse Long Island," when the freakish events unfolded.
Suffolk Police Detective Lt. Gerard Pelkofsky said investigators believe the deaths were a "tragic accident" -- but were conducting autopsies and toxicology tests.
A bottle of prescription pills was found with Coffey, who was known to have health problems, Baldwin said.
Baldwin said he'd gotten a message three hours earlier from Coffey telling him to call her. She never picked up his return calls, and Baldwin, an anchorman for News 12 on Long Island, finally raced home.
"[Coffey] had been asking forever if she could watch my baby, because she couldn't have children," Baldwin said.
"She wanted to have kids so bad. I know she had health issues, but I thought she was OK."
Baldwin said his wife, Colby, is devastated by the death of their only child.
Coffey, who lived in Port Jefferson Station, was also married.
kieran.crowley@nypost.com

From: NY POST

'Child Prodigy' takes center stage in fashion blog

Tavi Gevinson, 15, is out to make the world cooler, smarter, and better. She might just succeed.

• by Piper Weiss, Shine Staff, on Fri Sep 2, 2011 1:43pm PDT

(Photo by Andy Kropa/Getty Images)

She doesn’t sing. She doesn’t act. She doesn’t even work for Disney. Or MTV. And despite being just 15 years old, she sometimes dresses like an eccentric older woman. Blogger and founder of Rookie, the new online magazine for teen girls, Tavi Gevinson is nothing like the kids on TV. And according to the Chicago native, neither are her readers.

Tavi first gained attention at age 12, for her fashion blog Style Rookie. Preternaturally clued in to fashion’s independent emerging designers, her enthusiasm for avant garde style offered a fresh, hilarious and snark-free perspective. Through her eyes, the elusive luxury industry suddenly seemed goofy and fun.

When I first spotted her blog three years ago, I remember thinking: this can’t actually be written by a kid. It was right around the time the faux teen author J.T Leroy was exposed as an adult hoax, so I assumed Style Rookie was just another grown-up art project.  I should have given Tavi more credit.

Her genius for communicating has earned her the title of child prodigy, and now the burden of being a teen whisperer. She will hate that I wrote that because Tavi doesn't believe teens need whisperers, they just need someone to listen to them. And that’s what Rookie is all about. The site, run by Tavi and a team of adult publishing veterans, will post stories by and for teen girls three times a day—before school, after school and before bed. Contributions come from readers as well as cool, Rookie-approved, adult writers: think sex columnist Dan Savage and director Miranda July. Tavi will also do her share of expounding on the site. “I’m a better writer than I am a talker,” she told me over the phone, a few days before the big launch. Don't doubt: she’s an excellent talker.  
Shine: Was starting Rookie your idea?
Tavi Gevinson: I guess it was my idea but I was looking to Sassy [magazine] for inspiration and so many people have helped shape—without sounding cheesy–the vision of the site.

S: Is it wrong to say the site has a feminist vision?
T: Without putting too much pressure on us, the site definitely has a feminist tone. But when it comes to writing about feminism and wanting people to understand what you’re saying it’s better to show than tell. It wouldn’t really be effective if we handed over the guidebook and said these are the rules of feminism. It’s more in our tone and just in the general messages we portray.

S:  How does '90s nostalgia play a part in those messages?
T: We do have a lot about stuff about “My So-Called Life “and “Freaks and Geeks” in our articles on Rookie, but I don’t know how much that has to do with the 90’s as it does with the fact that there hasn’t been too much great stuff for teenage girls lately, I don’t think.

S: I guess I took for granted growing up in a time when Riot Grrrls and Ani DiFranco were pop stars. Your generation doesn't seem to have the same types of “role models”.
T: One thing I’ve learned from Sassy and from shows like “My So-Called Life” is to just respect your audience. I think about how obsessed everyone is with Miley Cyrus’ virginity. You see everyone being like ‘that’s so awful all these girls look up to her blah blah blah’ and you never really hear anything from girls themselves.  I think you can trust young women to look at something like Miley Cyrus and form their own opinions.  But there isn’t really a place for them to do that. So I guess that’s part of what we’d like to do with Rookie.

S: What else will you be covering?
T: Every month we pick a different issue and shift focus according to our theme. One of the topics we’re working on is something like ‘slut-shaming’.

S: Slut-shaming?
T: Slut shaming is basically using words like 'slut' or 'w----' or 'skank'—which there are no male versions of—to shame a girl or woman for being sexual or for doing something people will link to being promiscuous. But on a larger scale, slut-shaming is about people being judgmental. I think that’s so prevalent when you’re a teenager. One article I have written for the site is called ‘Getting Over Girl Hate.’ Like when you feel threatened, and the reasoning behind it is ‘look at the way she walks,  she thinks she’s so great’. When in actuality she’s just a confident person and that’s fine.

S: Right. Knocking down someone who threatens you.  That seems like something that doesn’t just happen in high school...
T: Yeah. I think snark on the internet, can sometimes be witty. But too much snark comes off as if everyone is stupid except for you. There’s so many other positive things you could be writing about.

S: Like for example Fashion Week. Your front row attendance a few years back kind of blew the otherwise exclusive industry away. Are you going to New York for Fashion Week this year, and is it fun or traumatizing?
T: Yeah, I’m going. To me Fashion Week is like Lollapalooza, where you go and see a band you like. It’s not about a scene.

S: Well, that’s a refreshing take. That’s not how the 'Real Housewives' see it. Okay so at 15, you’re in the front row at Marc Jacobs , you’re profiled in the New Yorker, you spent a year with grey hair. What do your classmates think of you?
T: I don’t know. You’d have to ask them. I go to a really big school. I can’t really tell which people know about my blog or not. I know there are people who have made judgments, but I don’t really care. A few of my friends were like ‘I totally expected you to be a b---- ’. But we’re friends now so I guess they know I’m not. I think it’s just my face. I just look eternally unimpressed so I wouldn’t be surprised if someone saw me walking through the halls looking super-moody and found out all this stuff I do and jumped to conclusions...But it’s just the way my face looks and not how I really feel. I do smile, sometimes.

S: How are you going to handle dating, not as a teenager, but as an editor?
T: I think we give a lot of freedom to readers to make their own choices. Same with talking about drugs. Magazines twenty years ago had to be way more careful because they were the only authorities on what teenagers should do. Now it’s just different. People who are reading our site have probably grown up on the internet so I don’t think we’re corrupting anyone when we’re just being honest. But dating for teenagers is different from the way you think about dating for adults. For adults it’s thought of as this duty and just an inherent part of being a grown-up. But we don’t really talk about it like ‘dating’.

S: That right there is proof that adults could learn something from teenagers. Also time management. How do you work full-time on a launch and go to high school?
T: I found the best way to work on Rookie is to be an internet hermit. I work from my bedroom. The launch has been pretty crazy...but, look, I care about doing it. I care about making sure I like and would read and am passionate about everything we publish. So I’m happy to be spending time on it.

S: What does your mom think?
T: My mom? She’s cool about it. I mean, she’s excited she thinks it’s a good thing.  It might be one of two websites she actually reads.  I’m really to lucky have parents where I can be like ‘I’m starting this website for teenage girls’ and for them to not only think I’m not ridiculous but to also be helping with the business side of things and all of that.

S: Why would anyone think it’s ridiculous?
T: When I tell people I’m starting a website for teenage girls I’m met with laughter so many times because people can’t really imagine that existing and not being vapid or something. But you have to respect the intelligence of your readers. Teenage girls are smart and can think for themselves.

S: Is there anything in pop culture now that you think is an off base portrayal of a teenager?
T: I don’t know, I guess cell phone commercials.

S: I can see that. Anything that gets it right?
T: I love love love the character April Ludgate on "Parks and Recreation". She’s so moody and angsty in the best ways. There hasn’t been a good, bored and mildly angry teenage girl on TV in a while.

S: Anything else you love?
T: Well, I mean, I love Justin Bieber.
If you're not already in love with Tavi enough, check out a gallery of some of her eclectic outfits below and then curl up with Rookie, when it launches on Monday.

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At an Alexander Wang show in 2009, blogger Tavi broke the mold

Photo by: (Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images)

Caught rockin it out on the film..LOL

Police Dancing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3lclZIf3sI&feature=related

SEPTEMBER IS CHILDHOOD OBESITY AWARENESS MONTH

 

Did you know that Georgia has the second highest rate of childhood obesity in the country?? 

 

 

Take the first step to fight against this crisis with:

 

  http://www.stopchildhoodobesity.com/

 

 

 

Obama declares September as Childhood Obesity Awareness Month

Last Updated: Thursday, September 01, 2011,10:25

 93  0  

Tags: Obama, September, Childhood Obesity Awareness Month

 

Washington: US President Barack Obama has declared September as the National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month as part of his administration`s efforts to address the challenge of a "dramatic rise" in obesity among American children.

"Since the 1970s, the rate of childhood obesity in our country has tripled, and today a third of American children are overweight or obese. This dramatic rise threatens to have far-reaching, long-term effects on our children`s health, livelihoods, and futures," Obama said in his proclamation in this regard.

"Without major changes, a third of children born in the year 2000 will develop Type 2 diabetes during their lifetimes, and many others will face obesity-related problems like heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, and asthma," he said.

As a nation, Obama said, the greatest responsibility is to ensure the well-being of American children. "By taking action to address the issue of childhood obesity, we can help America`s next generation reach their full potential."

Taking the lead, First Lady Michelle Obama has also launched a series of steps to fight increasing obesity among children and promote healthy food.

"Together, we can stop this epidemic in its tracks. Over the last year and a half, the First Lady`s Let`s Move! initiative has brought together Federal agencies and some of the biggest corporations and nonprofits from across our country, working to meet our national goal of solving the problem of childhood obesity within a generation.

"Let`s Move! aims to help ensure we can make healthy choices about the foods we eat and how much exercise we get, while building the habits necessary to tackle one of the most urgent health issues we face in this country," Obama said.

The US President said everyone has a role to play in preventing and reversing the tide of childhood obesity. "This year, we announced groundbreaking partnerships with grocery stores and other retailers to increase access to healthy food in under-served areas."

The stores have pledged to increase their fruit and vegetable offerings and to open new locations in communities where nutritious food is limited or unavailable, he said.

SOURCE: ZEENEWS.INDIA.COM and Strong4life