Ancient Indian sages and even western saints strongly believed in the power of prayer–mantra in the language of India. Children down the ages have been entertained by stories –and adults too in the secret cockles of their hearts–of good fairies and bad fairies; witches and wizards; tantrics and mantrics.  Look at the popular fantasy fiction for adults and children and you need no further proof that there is a fascination with the power of the word!

The bible begins with a reference to a mantra!  “In the beginning there was the word and the word was God”. Vedas say that “OM” was the word of creation–the pranava mantra–and all creation emerged from OM.  Even today, saying Amen, Om, Amin are integral to the vocabulary of prayer.  These words are mantras that have been handed down to us by our forefathers and fathers and are said to endow you with the power of creativity and energy to excel.

Science too is fast reaching the conclusion that sound has creative energy.  The scientists have discovered that everything in the universe vibrates with a subtle sound.  This sound seems to be pervasive and enters our bodies, alters our blood pressure, breathing, muscle tension and skin temperature. Experiments with music have proved that healing can be accelerated with use of music therapy. The repetitive use of “om” also creates a vibration that is beneficial for healing.

If all this is true, are we being rational in refusing to believe in Mantra?

Invite friends over and make a colorful display on your table with salad dishes arranged at suitable intervals! Enjoy the complements you receive!

Here is an interesting salad book that you may like to own, titled simply–Salad Recipes. There are more than 2500 salad recipes that you can use for every season and every reason! Here are a few that you can start with immediately.

Here is a sneak peek into the table of contents.

Introduction
Personalized Cooking Aprons
Antipasto Pasta Salad
Beet Salad
Couscous Salad
Beef Fajita Salad
Greek Salad
Chicken Pasta Salad
Lentil Salad
Ham Salad with Hot Peanut Dressing
Deli Potato Salad
Mandarin Orange Salad
Turkey Macaroni Salad
Taco Salad
Hungarian Cucumber Salad
Golden Corral’s Seafood Salad
Strawberry Spinach Salad
Mediterranean Salad
Spicy Pecan Salad
Rice Salad
Zucchini Slaw
Poached Chicken and Walnut Salad
Sugar Snap Salad
Fruit Salad with Champagne Sauce
Mushroom Antipasto Pasta Salad
Grilled Caribbean Chicken Salad
Spicy Fruit Salad

Certain medications may have to be stopped and antibiotics begun before the  commencement of the procedure. Patients will also be asked to avoid alcohol during the course of treatment.

Patients will be required to shampoo the night before the hair transplant  is performed in the dermatologist’s office or a hair transplant center.  The dermatologist will remove a strip of scalp from the back of the head that has good growth under local anesthesia. This is called a “prep strip”.  The prepped strip will  be divided into sections for suturing onto thinning or bald areas of the head.  Prepped slivers are carefully divided by technicians into grafts containing up to three hair follicles.  The procedure itself may last from 5 to 10 hours depending on the level of hair loss and transplant.  For optimum results, other restorative procedures such as scalp reduction or expansion may be combined with the transplant.  Often only one restoration treatment is required to produce satisfactory results.  If patients require additional restoration, it will be scheduled 6 to 12 months later.

Patients must take care to follow instructions for post-restoration recovery.  Instructions are normally given to prevent infection and minimize soreness that is inherent in the procedure.  Since it takes about five days for the hair to attach to the new area, patients must apply medication  carefully as directed.  Rubbing can cause the restored hair to fall out.  If scabs develop post restoration,  they must be left alone.  They generally heal in two weeks or less. Patients must wait a week to ten days to resume normal activities such as exercise to help prevent restored hair from falling out.

Though hair transplant is relatively safe and effective, it is not completely without risk of complication.  Follicle damage or other factors may produce poor or slow growth to the affected area.  Infection, scarring, or hyperpigmentation may occur.  Patients must keep their hair covered and protected from the sun for at least one month following the transplant to encourage ideal healing.

There are many arguments in support of meditation being an active state!  They would point out that you can actually burn calories by doing meditation. Visit http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/fitness/exercise/meditating/ and you will be told that meditation helps you burn 66 calories per hour for an average person–average being a person who weight 145 pounds.  http://caloriecount.about.com/calories-burned-light-meditating-a148 says that you can burn 70 calories  per hour if you weigh 150 pounds by doing light meditation.

You may then,  turn round to argue that even people who are sleeping burn calories. Of course, you do that in the assumption that sleep is not an active state! Well, it must again be pointed out that the active or passive state of sleep is itself in question.  However, studies show that you burn 60-72 calories an hour(per 150 lbs weight) during sleep. So sleep too is an active state for the purposes of our thesis.

Of course, we do not have to believe all this. We can look to scientific proof. Siebert, Gessner and Klasser who studied the energy consumed by the central nervous system when a person sits down to do some deep thinking reveals that the brain burns 230-270 calories an hour. {Energy supply of the central nervous system.PMID: 3516137 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] Bibl Nutr Dieta. 1986;(38):1-26.].

While this is not much when compared to calorie loss during exercise, it is certainly a large amount for a small organ accounts for such a small part of the body weight! Also, it is a clear indication that “thinking” is activity that burns calories. It follows, that meditation which is a kind of focused and concentrated thinking, is an active physical state and not a passive one.

.

.

1000 calorie diets do not take into account the body weight, or calorie requirements of the individual.  A person who requires 1200 calories and a person who requires 2200 calories for his daily activity are treated on par. Both individuals are to consume only 1000 calories per day for the duration of the diet.

An average person loses around one pound for every three thousand five hundred calories cut down.  If you are cutting down the calories at the rate of 1200 calories a day, you will lose one pound in three days.

This diet also implies that you need to drastically change your eating habits for the duration of the diet. The diet recommends smaller meals that are eaten more frequently.  It cuts down on fats, sugar and lowers the consumption of carbohydrates.  Alcohol is to be avoided and diet soda and black coffee can be taken with limitations.

The calorie focus can rob the diet of interest.  If you are foodie, it is very easy to give up counting calories and abandoning the diet in frustration.  If you are an active person, you will find that the low calorie diet is depriving you energy.

Moreover, after the diet is complete, it is difficult to maintain the calorie levels at the 1000 calories.   The tendency is to revert back to the original levels. This will bring the weight back to the original level.

While there are many disadvantages of a low calorie diet, it is an effective way of kick starting a long term diet plan.