Health – Page 6 – Sibo's blog

Sleepy Head

You all know how I like to read… well sometimes mum is really irritating when she interrupts me in the middle of a good story and says it’s time for bed. I beg for another half hour but she says that kids need to sleep for at least 10 or 11 hours a night to be happy and healthy. She reckons I get grumpy when I don’t have enough sleep.

Sometimes I cheat and read with a torch under my blankets. The other day Mum caught me out and I was in serious trouble – she took my book away for two whole days!

I was quite sure that Mum was fibbing about how much sleep in needed so decided to google and find out why exactly why so many hours are needed.

Firstly between the age of 7 and 12 years old, we really do need to sleep those 10 or 11 hours a night. This is not just to stop us from becoming cranky either. It’s the time when our muscles repair themselves during the night. And don’t just think arm and leg muscles – it also includes our heart muscle.

Sleep also controls the signals that tell us when we are hungry or when we are full up – which allows us to maintain a good weight.

While we are happily snoozing our brains stores up all the stuff we have learned during the day – so that we can recall it later when we need it.

If we don’t sleep properly at night, it is harder to pay attention at school during the day. We tend to make more mistakes if we are tired than if we are well rested.

If we don’t get enough sleep at night – we could always have a little nap during the day to make up the sleep time. Preferably not during school time though because we’d land up in trouble with the teacher.

Apparently – it should take us about 15 to 20 minutes to fall asleep from when our head hits the pillow.

Of course teenagers can get away with a little less sleep – like 8 to 9 hours a night. Half the time they don’t get anywhere near this amount of sleep and so they really do need to sleep in over the weekends.

Seems like the older you get the less sleep you need.

Sleep tight and sweet dreams.

Sibo

Happy Hula Hooping

Says Ginny…

A year or so ago my daughter, Emma, came to visit. She’d only been here for a day when she started whinging that she was missing her hula hoop.

I rolled my eyes and said we could go trawl the shops and find her a hoop (thinking to myself what kind of nonsense is this – being addicted to hula hooping).

She sighed, then remarked that we would not be buying a hoop – we would be making one.

So off we went to the hardware store and bought all the necessary paraphernalia to make a couple of different hoops. I looked at the roll of five metres of irrigation pipe… how many hoops can you make out of that then – two or three?

Just one – she replied.

Opened my mouth to argue but the look in her beady blue eye told me to shut the hell up as I had no idea what I was talking about.

I was flat out busy organising a conference at the time so took myself off to my office and left the business of hula hoop making to Emma.

When I emerged a few hours later I was amazed to see a circus creature dancing on our lawn.

The general misconception is that hula hooping is for kids. You see those little hoops for sale in the stores and don’t even give them a second glance. Yet there was my child (okay, she’s 25 but she’s a tiny skinny little thing) rocking this enormous hoop – taller than she was.

Doing tricks nogal!

I watched in amazement. She was so good at it. Flipping that huge hoop around and about. So graceful.

Here, she said. Have a go.

It looked so easy.

I grabbed the hoop and waggled madly. It plummeted to the earth. I tried again. And again… and again.

Hmmm… handed the hoop back to Emma – hula hooping is not for me.

Don’t be a wuz Mom, the nasty little weasel scoffed. She took the hoop and demonstrated where my feet should be and how I should stand up straight, shoulders down, tummy tucked in tight.

I had another go. Then stomped back up to my office in disgust. Next morning I noticed there were bruises on my ribs. I was horrified but according to Emma, this was perfectly normal.

It took me two weeks to get that wretched hoop to stay around my middle. And there was none of that graceful hand thing either – rigid dinosaur paws more like it.

Gradually I relaxed and let it flow. Fudgie (the dog) and Ralph (the cat) could stand under the hoop without getting clonked on the head every few seconds. (They consider this a new form of play.)

One day I hauled out a skirt that had gone from being loose and comfy to a tad on the tight side. Zipped it up and immediately noticed that the squidgy bits of body that used to hang over the sides of the skirt had considerably diminished. In fact, it looked halfway decent again.

Realised that I must have sneakily lost a centimetre or two.

I’m not a gym person – have never set foot in one and don’t plan to either. Can’t do yoga because Fudge thinks I’m playing with her and running would surely make my heart attack me. I like walking – but not uphill. The best exercise I’ve come across to date is rebounding – or jumping on my mini-trampoline. That’s great for building leg muscle and toning your butt!

I was totally delighted. Just when I’d resigned myself to being 52 years old and taking up more space in the world than I’d ever done before – here was a magical way of doing something about it.

In my own yard and in my own time!

And let’s be honest – it’s not like I’d been doing it all day every day either – maybe 10 minutes a day in several small sessions.

Emma smirked. See – hula hooping is not just for kids. It’s a great exercise.

Gave her the evil eye – right – now show me how to make these flabby arms not-so-flabby in time for the conference.

She gulped – the conference was less than two weeks away. She demonstrated some arm crunches and stretches. Three sets of those – three times a day. Get going, Mom!

My eyes lit up – I envisaged going to the conference with nice firm, brown arms – you can’t help but get tanned whilst hooping outside. (Of course, it rained almost the whole conference and my half-toned, tanned arms never even saw the light of day.)

Emma was here for two months. In that time I shaped up – lost a couple of kilos plus a good couple of centimetres around my middle and upper body. My arms look better than they have done in years my back has those nice muscly bits. I have improved my posture no end.

Last year our dog was sick and I had to lug all 29kg’s of Fattie Fudges up the stairs to my office – I could do it – thanks to hula hooping and strengthening my core muscles.

I now hula around the grass each day. It’s a great way to relax, have fun and keep in shape at the same time.

And it’s not just for ladies either – Chris, my husband, is also busy mastering the art.

The big hoops are great for toning up and losing centimetres – but if you want to lose more weight the smaller hoops are better – because you expend more energy keeping it up. However, the kid’s hoops that you buy in the shops are good for doing tricks, but are too light for weight loss – you need a heavier larger hoop.

It’s really easy to make your own hoop too! Not expensive either.

I even managed to sneak into the South African Book Fair by promising to read Sibo in Space while hula hooping in my giant space ship.

20150731_134815 — Ginny hula hooping at the Jozi Book Fair in Aug 2015

If you want the hoop making recipe… read here.

Ever wondered how a book gets written and published?

In the case of the Sibo Series there are different scenarios. Several of the titles in the Sibo Series were straight up published by Lets Look Publishers. Okay – that sounds confusing – all of the books have been published by Lets Look – but six of them were published without knowing that we had already sold x amount of copies up front.

A few years ago, it was guaranteed that the school system would snap up any worthwhile books that were published but since CAPS came in, things are not quite the same. A publisher can publish books (usually 3000 is the minimum print run) and they can sit in a store room and trickle out very very slowly. As you can imagine, this is not good for business.

Some of our books have been commissioned. This means that x amount of books are ordered before we even write it on a particular topic. Sibo Fights Malaria was one of those – The Centre for Sustainable Malaria Control and the Department of Health wanted a different way of telling people about what a nasty disease malaria is and how to avoid it. (Ginny knows about this first hand because she had malaria when she was a kid.) So we wrote the book in conjunction with both of them and they are using it in schools in some areas in Limpopo. The good thing about this book is that students from the Education Department at the University of Pretoria are using this book in some of their projects – so we will get feedback as to whether it has any effect or not.

We’ve also written books to celebrate International Years – like Chemistry (funded by BASF, the chemical company). Astronomy and Biodiversity were funded by SAASTA, who also commissioned a book about nanotechnology. That was interesting. We knew nothing about the topic when we started and had to do a lot of research. Strangely enough – it’s one of the most popular books in the series.

Then we get books that are sponsored – or partially sponsored…

Ginny feels strongly about animals being abused and hates the way kids get pets and then only love them when they are small and cute. Once they get bigger and more demanding they tend to be ignored. Pets are for life – not just for the two minutes they are adorable and tiny. Luckily she found a like-minded person who was willing to help sponsor Sibo Saves a Stray. It was very hard to find funding for this book because most people would rather spend their money on the animals themselves, instead of educating kids (and their parents). If you would like more information about the Sibo Series please visit the website.

Our latest title – Sibo Looks Right is all about road safety. This is a topic that is very important to both Peter Sanderson (Lets Look) and Ginny. The first draft of the book was written years ago and at various stages different people showed some interest in sponsoring the book. Sadly none of these prospects paid off and the story mouldered in Ginny’s laptop for way too long. Every time there was a road, taxi or bus accident or incident Ginny would hiss and spit and say that we have to get this knowledge out to the kids (and their parents) somehow. She’d fire off another round of frantic emails to try and drum up some support for the book.

Towards the end of last year, Chris (Ginny’s lovely husband) asked her if she had considered crowdfunding to get the book on road safety published. She didn’t know much about crowdfunding and so got stuck in and did some research. She also sent out a plea on Facebook and Thandi suggested that she try Thundafund as a South African crowdfunding platform.

Ginny is not one of those nice cautious people who likes to sit and brood and stew about things for any length of time. Once she’s got an idea it needs to get out of head immediately and get going. She bounced the idea of crowdfunding off Uncle Pete from Let’s Look and got the go ahead.

Thundafund were great – they replied immediately and sent a form to complete so they could see if the project was going to be worthwhile or not. Typically they would reply within a few days with the answer. Indeed they did reply positively within the allotted time.

There followed another learning curve. Part of a Thundafund campaign includes having a short video on the project. In our case it was not something that you could just go out and film. Ginny had to get cosy with some software she had not used much before and make a little video from scratch.

After all – the whole point of crowdfunding is for potential funders to think the project is worthwhile and not just a little whim of some bankrupt person who fancies doing something with other people’s money!

Ginny showed Chris her first attempt at being a filmmaker. No no no! He screeched before he’d even seen half of it. He ranted and raved for a few minutes about what he expected to see. She considered sulking and pouting – she hates it when he pulls his “Professor” tone on her and treats her like one of his students – but she grudgingly acknowledged that he had a point.

A new and vastly improved video clip was made that passed muster on its first showing.

The campaign went live. We had to reach the tipping point in 90 days otherwise all the money that had been donated would be returned to the backers. Pete, Sharon, Chris and Ginny all promptly plugged cash into the campaign to start it off.

The tipping point was just enough to pay the layout artist and the illustrator. If we got enough money to do this we’d be able to have an e-book at least. Of course first prize was R140,000 so that we could print 3000 books and distribute them freely to kids and schools around the country.

There were various “rewards” that could be purchased. For R500 you could have your child’s name written into the story line. R300 and your logo would be displayed on the inside cover. R100 got your name mentioned. Everybody who donated would obviously receive an e-book as well.

A few days into the campaign – Mike Ward from Nash Nissan in Alberton catapulted the campaign from a “wannabe-book” to a “this-is-now-happening-book” with his very generous donation of R33600! This meant we had passed the tipping point and could sleep again.

The Department of Arts and Culture also decided it was a worthwhile project to back and donated several thousand rand to the campaign as well.

There were lots of lovely friends and acquaintances, not to mention family members who all backed our project. These donations came in from all over the world too! Ginny contacted as many of the car companies as possible – for a measly R300 they could have their logo included in the book. To no avail – they all had some sappy excuse or other. Even Peugeot – and Chris had just bought a brand new car from them.

We also tried repeatedly to get the attention of the major radio stations. This might have made a great difference as far as funding was concerned. It’s not like we were trying to make money out of the project – we wanted to be able to distribute as many books to the children as possible. Road safety is an issue.

Pippa Hudson at Cape Talk interviewed Ginny but by that stage there were only a few hours left to the campaign.

After 90 days we had a grand total of R54,550. Whilst not as much as we hoped for, it was enough to publish an e-book as well as printing 800 copies.

Ginny realised that she had not exactly done her homework prior to starting the Thundafund campaign. Whilst she’s quite good at bombing people on email and Facebook, her tweeting habits left a lot to be desired. This is an integral part of crowdfunding and we sucked at it. It’s something that she is working on to promote the book.

After much haggling and to-ing and fro-ing between, Ginny, Uncle Pete, the layout artist and illustrator – we finally have a product that we are very proud of and are excited to share it with the world.

The files went to the printers this morning and the e-book will be ready in the next few days.

Lets Look Publishers and Ginny are very grateful to all those who helped make this book happen. We hope and trust that it might save some of our precious children’s lives (and those of their parents).

PS – If there is anybody out there who missed this campaign and would like to contribute now – it’s never too late – we can print more books and get them out there – contact Ginny.

A pinch of salt…

Heavens to Betsy! Whoever knew that there was such a thing as World Salt Awareness Week (29^th Feb – 6^th March).

Our bodies only really need a little bit of salt to survive. If we eat too much salt then we run the risk of developing high blood pressure. High blood pressure is the major cause of heart disease and strokes.

Apparently we only need 1 gram (a pinch) of salt a day to function properly. But mostly we eat around 7 – 10 grams per day.

In actual fact, we should aim to eat no more than 5 grams of salt per day. This is about a teaspoon.

I know what you’re thinking… but I never even have a quarter of that much salt on my food.

The thing is – about 75% of the salt we eat gets added to our food without us even realising it. Half the time you can’t even taste it. But it’s there! Just like sugar, salt gets sneakily added into our food. Things like ham, bacon, processed foods, breakfast cereals, bread, cheese and sauces all contain salt.

Unless you read the labels – you will never know exactly how much salt you are consuming without even knowing.

And… if you think that fancy salt is less salty – think again.

According to the experts – salt is salt – no matter what colour it is or how big the crystals are. It has the same effect as normal old table salt.

If you are used to eating lots of salt, and you need to cut down, then you might worry that your food will taste horrible and bland. Blah!

But this does not have to be the case… you can use herbs – both fresh and dried, black pepper, lemon and chilli to enhance your food and make it tastier. Apparently, after about three weeks, your taste buds start getting more sensitive again and you will be able to taste the smaller amounts of salt.

Ahhhh… I hear you say – but I’m healthy and don’t have high blood pressure so I don’t need to worry.

Hmmmm… sorry for you but you do!

Many people who end up with high blood pressure start out with normal blood pressure and work their way up to high blood pressure by eating too much salt (amongst other things).

So! Start today – eat less salt. (And that goes for us kids too.)

Sibo

PS… Salt is comprised of sodium and chloride. Most labels give both sodium and salt. If only sodium is given, multiply the number by 2.5 to get the figure for salt.

A little consideration goes a long way

I know I am a kid and am not really supposed to have strong opinions about stuff but sometimes I do get mad.

Like yesterday… some dude came and stood right next to where I was sitting outside and blew his smelly cigarette smoke all over me. He could have easily stood somewhere else – away from me.

I made coughing and choking noises but he carried right on. So I had to move.

Isn’t it against the law to make kids smoke?

I know you are not supposed to smoke in the car if you have children – so shouldn’t that apply to other places as well?

Then I nearly got flattened by a bakkie that did not stop at the pedestrian crossing. The cars on the other side had stopped and people had started to walk already, but he just screamed through without even looking. He was talking on his cell phone.

One of the other ladies who also nearly got smooshed yelled something rude at him and shook her fist.

It’s against the law to talk on your cell phone and drive – isn’t it? For exactly that reason… you don’t concentrate properly. Zebra crossings are supposed to be a safe place to cross. What is the point if cars don’t bother to stop?

I watched a lady pushing a wheelchair try to manoeuver through a door. First she opened the door and was about to push the chair through when the door blew shut.

So she had to squeeze around the chair and try and push it open again. It blew shut for a second time. There were lots of people sitting near the door but they just watched her struggling. In the end I leapt up from three tables away and held the door open for her. She was very grateful and gave me a big smile.

What is wrong with people? Why can’t they help each other and be nice.

We all live in the same space and yet everybody is just rushing around, swamped in their own lives, too busy to take time out to smell the daisies or take note of when another fellow human being needs a bit of help.

It’s so sad.

Be nice people.

Sibo

Stay well

I’ve come to the conclusion that we all probably just take our health for granted. I know that the powers that be are always telling us to look after our bodies, but when we are feeling healthy it seems like a silly thing to have to worry about.

Until we get sick. Then it is a really big deal and we are sorry that we did not pay more attention.

Here are some of the things that you can do to look after your body.

After all… you only have one.

Eat less sugar. Sugar is bad for you on so many different levels. The worst thing is… they sneak it into all sorts of different types of food and you don’t even realise you are having sugar.

Like baked beans! Who would have dreamed that a tin of baked beans has sugar in it?

The problem with added sugars (like sucrose and high fructose corn syrup) is that they have no nutritional value at all and yet they contain a whole lot of calories. This is why they are called “empty calories”.

Instead of grabbing chips or sweats eat healthy snacks like fruit and nuts. Try and drink water instead of carbonated drinks that are full of sugar.

Exercise is also a way to stay healthy. For one thing – it reduces stress and anxiety. So next time you are going to write an exam or something, go for a walk or a bike ride (or you could hula hoop) before hand– it will make you feel calmer and more in control.

Exercise boosts creativity. Plus it helps you sleep better. Never mind that – it also makes you feel great and look good too.

A significant benefit of exercise is that it strengthens your heart. This is very important. If your heart does not beat properly – it can cause all sorts of problems.

Exercise strengthens your bones. Means you won’t break them so easily and for those who have broken bones already – you know it is a huge pain in the butt and really inconvenient.

Exercise makes your brain work better – this means it makes you smarter! It can even make you a better reader.

They say that if you exercise 150 minutes a week it will add years to your life. That’s not so hard to do – is it? Just over 21 minutes a day.

So… all we have to do is eat less sugar and exercise to help our bodies stay healthy. Easy peasy!

Stay well

Sibo

World HIV AIDS Day

On the 1^st of December it is World HIV AIDS Day.

Hai Sibo! I hear you say. What does a little girl like you know about HIV AIDS?

It all started when I found out that my friend Lizzie’s brother is HIV positive. Strangely enough – because her brother is positive – a lot of people thought that it was bad to be friends with Lizzie.

What a lot of rubbish!

It’s okay to be friends with people who have family members who are HIV positive. It’s also okay to be friends with the people themselves who are HIV positive. In fact they really need friends – lots of them. It can be seriously depressing to find out that you have been diagnosed with such a thing and having all your friends run away from you is the last thing on earth that you need.

It’s terrible to think, in this day and age of social media, television, radio, cell phones and goodness knows what else – that people still think that they can get sick just by being in the same room as somebody who is HIV positive. Or by sitting on the same toilet, or using the same dishes. Or drinking from the same water fountain or using the same gym equipment. You can hug or kiss a person who is HIV positive and hold their hand too.

Sometimes when the person’s employer finds out that they are HIV positive they even go so far as to fire them – just when they need their medical aid and all the support that they can get.

You need to eat the right food – good nutritional stuff that builds up your body – no junk food. We shared our veggies with Lizzie’s family. It’s important to eat lots of fruit and veggies. But then it’s important for everybody to eat fruit and veggies – not just those who are HIV positive.

Okay – so Lizzie’s brother was stupid. He’d been doing drugs and got the virus from sharing a needle with somebody who was HIV positive. Doing drugs is wrong – we all know that. Not only using needles but sniffing, snorting, smoking – all that stuff is just silly. Plus it’s a waste of your good hard earned cash and it messes your life up so much more than you could ever imagine.

Visit my website and join our readathon on 1^st December. You will be able to read Sibo Thinks Positively – free of charge. On your computer, cell phone, tablet or whatever!

Be nice people,

Sibo

A fun weekend activity

Many people would not really have known about the EcoMobility World Festival which is currently running in Sandton for the month of October if the catastrophe of the pedestrian bridge collapsing had not occurred. That’s so very sad and my heart goes out to the family of those people who lost their lives and were injured.

The whole point of this festival is supposed to underline the fact that the Sandton area has simply become too congested. There’s not enough parking, too many cars are making the roads just nasty.

So certain roads have been closed down for the month and people have been encouraged to use public transport – like buses and the Gautrain. People have also been encouraged to ride to work on bicycles and indulge in a bit of exercise and walk or run to work or the shops.

Of course, you can imagine that there was lots of chaos the first few days. In fact, some people are still complaining. Others are having fun and enjoying the opportunity to be able to cycle easily around the place.

Tucked away in a little nookie – a spot run by @ColouredCube, is a pop-up museum that brings to life “Our History of Transport”.

If you come on the Gautrain, at the top of the stairs (after the turnstiles) you turn left into West Street, follow the green stop signs and look for the white tent entrance on the left. Go passed the test track through a gate to the little grey building that says “Our History of Transport”.

This is uniquely activated as an interactive multi-sensory exhibition – the transit time-line traverses key turning points in our history, examines our current situation and shares exciting news about future transport possibilities.

It’s a moving exhibition and includes cool stuff like life-size vehicles, audio visual materials, storytelling and game playing. This means… it’s something for everybody!

My friend Ginny is going to be reading Sibo Likes Life in that very spot on Saturday 24^th October whilst she hula hoops using a huge hoop. She has the 15h30 story telling slot, but this particular expo is open from 10h00 to 19h00 on weekends with guided tours at 10h30, 14h30 and 16h30.

If you want to find out more information you could call 082 4503356.

For more information about the EcoMobility Festival.

Come visit and have some fun.

See you there,

Sibo

Cool word of the week: traverse
Meaning: Crosses, navigates
Example: Big ships traverse the ocean.

Smile and wave!

Our teacher, Mrs Ball, gave us a teensy tip in class the other day.

She said we should smile and wave when cars stop to let us cross the road at the zebra crossing. She was specifically talking about the one outside our school – but then she said that any old zebra crossing would do.

We all looked at her.

Why?

Cars are supposed to stop at a zebra crossing to let people go safely across the road. But they often don’t. In fact, they speed up and zoom over it without even looking.

Wayne piped up that this really was true. He nearly got squished as flat as a pancake last week – expecting somebody to stop and they didn’t.

But Mrs Ball stood her ground. When somebody has the courtesy to stop and let you cross the road safely – it costs you nothing to look the person in the eye, smile and wave thank you. It’s a nice, kind gesture.

She reckons the world is often sorely lacking in basic human kindness.

People are so caught up in their own lives, with their own problems that they have forgotten how to be nice – for no reason at all.

That reminded me of the little smiling experiment I did at the mall a few months ago. I remembered that had worked too. When I smiled at other people – most of them smiled back at me. It also made me feel good. Plus I noticed that many of the people carried on walking down the mall, still smiling.

We had the chance to try out her idea later that day. A few of us were waiting in a group at the zebra crossing. A car coasted to a complete halt and let us all walk across.

I looked up, smiled and waved. Some of my classmates were also in the group. They did the same thing.

The people in the car smiled and waved back. They only carried on driving after we were all on the other side of the road.

Some kids that were also crossing (who’re not in our class) asked why we were waving and smiling at strange people. I explained to them what Mrs Ball had said to us.

They had just seen what a positive reaction we had received and agreed that it was a good idea.

Smile awhile!

Sibo

Your new word for the week:

Word: gesture

Meaning: movement or sign

Example… Smiling and waving when you cross at a zebra crossing is a nice gesture.

Life.

The other day one of my uncles passed away. When my mom told me about it my first thought was… well, okay – he was old and we did not see him very often. So how does this affect me?

I went outside to play.

But then I started thinking… I quite liked that uncle.

He always used to come and visit and produce sweets out of his pocket like magic. Sometimes he pretended he found them in my ear! But more importantly, he talked to me like I was a real person. Not just some dumb little kid. He used to ask me questions about school and what I was doing – it seemed like he cared what the answer was. He listened to me.

I just took that for granted and maybe did not appreciate it enough.

You know, we often take people for granted. We just assume that they are going to be there forever more. And then sometimes… pooof! They are gone.

People pass away. Important people in our lives, people who we care about. And once they are gone, they are gone for good.

We will never, ever see them again in real life. Sure, we can look at photos but it’s not the same, is it. You can’t touch them. Or talk to them.

We won’t be able to hug them. Or ask them questions about special stuff that only they knew about. They are just not here anymore.

But we are just little kids and we are not supposed to worry about stuff like this… are we?

I sat on the swing and thought about my uncle. Realising that he was no longer here anymore made me so sad that I cried a bit. I went inside and gave my mum a hug. I was glad that she was real, and warm… and here.

I think Mum thought I was a little bit crazy – but she hugged me back anyway.

Your uncle will always be with you, she told me. Just think about him – and he will be there in your head and your heart.

So I thought about him and could almost see him. It made me smile.

I guess people really do live on in our hearts forever.

We should appreciate the people around us. We never know when they will be snatched away.

Hugs,

Sibo