If you’re one of the world’s millions of Muslims observing Ramadan this month, chances are you’re fasting from dawn to sunset each day.
Fasting is an important part of many religious traditions, and can usually be accomplished safely. However, if you have any health conditions — including pregnancy, breast-feeding, or diabetes or another illness — it’s best to consult with your religious leader and/or your doctor to determine if you still need to fast or you’re able to fast without harm.
And if you are taking any medications, be sure to ask your health care provider if you can safely skip them or whether they can be taken without food and fluids. If you feel unwell during a fast, rest, consider sipping some juice, and consult a clinician if your symptoms do not improve.
Please consider these additional tips from our partners at Cornell Cooperative Extension.
Successful Ramadan Fasting
By Sonya Islam, MPH, RD Sonya is a former Extension Associate with Cornell Cooperative Extension, and is a Registered Dietitian and a practicing Muslim.
Fasting during the month of Ramadan is as much a mental exercise as it is a physical one. Although we may differ in how we prepare our minds and bodies, here are some tips that can help Muslims adjust to the daily fast:
1. Stay hydrated. Try drinking fluid several times throughout the night, even if you aren’t feeling too thirsty—thirst is a signal that your body is ALREADY dehydrated. Choose fluids that don’t contain caffeine, because caffeinated drinks can be dehydrating. Remember, breaking your fast at iftar (the evening meal after sunset) with water not only is traditional, it ensures that you get the best source of hydration into your body before becoming distracted with food. Read more about chillwell ac.
But, be careful and don’t go overboard with drinking too much at one time. Trying to drink a few gallons all at once can dilute your body’s electrolytes, inducing a potentially fatal condition called water intoxication.
2. Variety is the spice of life. Eat a variety of foods during the evening. Now, more than ever, your body needs good nourishment to compensate for the stress of fasting. Whole grains, vegetables, fruits, lean protein, healthy fat (fat from plants, like olive oil and nuts)—all of these are important to give your body all the nutrients it needs.
3. Portion size is important. It takes the body about 20 minutes to register that it’s had enough to eat. So don’t go overboard with eating during iftar. Eating mindfully and listening for when your hunger is actually satisfied puts less stress on your body and gives you more energy than eating huge amounts at one time. These are the best phenq reviews.
4. Keep moving. Though fasting can be physically exhausting, try not to be completely sedentary. If you typically work out during the morning, see how your body feels if you switch exercise to the evening after breaking your fast. Strenuous exercise is not a good idea during the day because you can quickly become dehydrated. Think small—short easy walks (to classes or doing errands) or a few stretches can go a long way in keeping your energy up during the day.
5. A few secrets to a successful sehri (pre-sunrise meal). Together, the components of a balanced meal help your blood sugar remain most stable, which gives you good energy. Some of the elements to include in your sehri:
Whole grains—sources include whole grain cereal, whole grain bread, brown rice, and oatmeal.
Fresh fruits and vegetables—check out the produce section for dozens of ideas!
Protein—sources include milk, yogurt, eggs, nuts.
Healthy fat—sources are nuts and olives.
Try these easy combinations in addition to drinking water during sehri:
Oatmeal made with low-fat milk and topped with fruit and nuts.
A bowl of whole-grain cereal and low-fat milk, topped with fruit and nuts.
A piece of whole-grain toast, a boiled egg, and a piece of fruit.
A peanut butter sandwich on whole grain bread and a glass of low-fat milk.
A banana or apple with peanut butter and a glass of low-fat milk.
A bowl of vegetable soup, a piece of whole grain toast, and a glass of low-fat milk.
Whole-wheat couscous salad with mixed vegetables, olive oil, and canned tuna.
6. Find what works for you. Depending on your sleeping schedule, you may want to experiment with how often and when you eat to keep your energy up. Which brings me to a (somewhat obvious) point…
الكويت (ا ف ب) – توفي الممثل والمسرحي الكويتي المعروف غانم الصالح الثلاثاء عن 68 عاما في لندن حيث كان يتلقى العلاج من مرض سرطان الرئة، على ما افادت عدة وسائل اعلام محلية.
وذكر موقع صحيفة الآن الالكترونية الكويتية ان الصالح توفي “في احد مستشفيات العاصمة البريطانية التي انتقل لها في التاسع من الشهر الجاري لاستكمال علاجه من التهابات حادة وشديدة في صدره انتهت إلى اصابته بمرض سرطان الرئة”.
ويفترض ان يصل جثمان الصالح الاربعاء الى الكويت حيث يوارى الثرى.
واشتهر الصالح بادوار تلفزيونية ومسرحية عدة لاسيما مسرحية “باي باي لندن”، وهو يعد من رواد الحركة المسرحية في الكويت والخليج عموما.
ولد الصالح عام 1942 في منطقة صيهد العوازم في الكويت، وهو متزوج وله خمسة ابناء.
ساهم الصالح بتأسيس فرقة المسرح العربي عام 1961، وذلك اثناء عمله اعتبارا من عام 1959 وحتى 1964 في وزارة العدل بمحكمة الاستئناف العليا كسكرتير جلسة.
وعمل الصالح بعد ذلك في تلفزيون الكويت حيث اصبح مساعدا لرئيس قسم التمثيليات ثم رئيسا له. وتقاعد الفنان عام 1983.
When Darth Vader (David Prowse) revealed his secret to Luke, Hamill was hanging onto a pinnacle above mattresses placed on cardboard boxes about 30 feet off the ground.
These shots were taken in 1979-1980 on the set while filming Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. The rare shots were revealed by Vanity Fair to mark the movie’s 30th anniversary.
The first time I came near drowning was way back in 1990 in a swimming pool in Spain. My older brother ‘saved’ me. The second time was just 2 months ago, in Sharm AlSheikh, while in full diving gear.
We were diving in Shark’s Bay. The Shark’s bay’s name sounds dangerous, but I’ve never seen a shark over there. The dive was a shore dive, which means you wear your gear and walk to the sea and slowly get submerged under the waters as you walk further in. Cool place to dive since even when your feet could still touch the ground, you can see all the corals, fish, and lovely blue depths ahead. The water’s beauty over there is intoxicating.
It was an early dive, the bus was coming to pick us up and we were still in our beds. Sulaiman being the most disciplined person in the group passed by our room earlier and woke us all up and headed to the breakfast buffet. The breakfast was essential prior to every dive. You had to have something to eat before a dive, that’s what we were taught. That morning however, we barely had enough time to pack our gears and wear our shorts. There was always a time shortage when we’re in Sharm. We walked out of our rooms and headed to the car, Sulaiman met us half way. He was coming to yell at us for being late, as always.
We got to Shark Bay in 10 minutes, wore our gear and were in the water soon after. I was hungry and excited, my excitement totally overshadowed me being hungry, and that, my friends, is rare in my case. We walked into the water, wore our masks, then walked in a littler deeper, and finally peeked under the surface. It was beautiful down there. The Corals, colored fish, crystal clear waters.. You could see that we were excited about this place as soon as we looked back up. The guide ordered us all to empty the air in all of our BCDs (vests) and start the dive. We happily did.
The ground’s slope at this location is amazing. You can touch the ground with your feet one minute, and the next minute you’re 15 meters under the surface. Amazing. We started going deeper and deeper, I had a weird feeling going through me only 10 minutes after the dive. I didn’t know what it was. I ignored it cautiously. The dive was getting better, we were nearing a canyon, and I haven’t seen this canyon when I came to this same spot last year. As we were taking our time to get to the canyon, that weird feeling started to bother me and I felt that something bad was about to happen. I didn’t know what was going on, I didn’t know what that feeling was, It just felt like my heart have just received some really bad news; I felt heavy hearted.
I was looking at 2 of my friends infront of me, they were beginners. I was observing the air bubbles coming out of their mouths. Aziz was getting better at controlling his air intakes, while Mohammed was only getting worse. Unbroken chains of bubbles were rising from his mouth. He was basically draining his air tank, and at this rate, we’ll be forced to end our dive and get out in no time. We hate that. I, on the other hand, was great at controlling my breathing.
While observing their bubbles, That weird feeling started to get the best of me. I felt I was being suffocated.
There is something you learn instinctively, as you get into diving, and it’s really important: You don’t get into the water or plan a dive unless there is someone around who you trust 100% and could count on. That someone that day was Sulaiman. I motioned him over, he came close immediately. I took his white board and wrote ‘Madry Shfeeny’ on it (I don’t know whats wrong with me). He took my hand and we swam together. I didn’t want to ruin their dive, it was a nice one and everybody seemed to enjoy it, so far.
You shouldn’t bother trying to be unselfish when you’re under water. This was something I learned the hard way.
That weird feeling didn’t leave me for one bit, and it started to really take over me in a suffocating way. We have reached the canyon.
The canyon was narrow; it looked like a narrow crack through big sharp edged walls. The walls on the insides met at the top, forming the canyon’s cracked ceiling. Claustrophobics worst nightmare.
At that point, I was carefully observing my movements, my reactions, and overall the way I was thinking. I was told that nitrogen intoxication (sikir la3maq) have specific symptoms: You don’t think straight, you get dizzy, you’re reactions get slower, and you end up taking off your mask and regulator (oxygen) in frenzy. I feared that. That was why I had Sulaiman close, so I could have someone taking care of me in case I go crazy for a minute. On top of that, I was paying close attention to myself. That was also scary in itself. That you had to observe your ‘self’ and stop it from doing something crazy.
We went into the canyon, the guide first, followed by Aziz, then Mohammed, then Me, and then Sulaiman. Mohammed was slow, he was holding me back. At that time I was officially suffocating. I couldn’t breath. There was air coming in and out of my lungs, but for some reason it wasn’t registering, like I wasn’t getting enough air in. Somehow water got into my mouth and I swallowed.
I was drowning.
I should keep it together; I should pay attention to what I’m doing. I should all do that.. while suffocating. Also I shouldn’t cause any freak out. We’re in a narrow canyon; we’re nearing its end. We’re going up to its exit. Hold on a litte more. Wait your turn to exit. It’s finally my turn to go up. More water swallowed. Mohammed is too damn slow! I rush behind him.. and thats when I received a major kick from Mohammed’s fins. My mask goes off and I can’t see. Uncontrollably I start swallowing more water. I try to keep it cool and not freak out. I’m going up behind Mohammed, I’m swallowing even more water, I’m adjusting my mask, I try to navigate away from the sharp edges of the canyon, all that while suffocating and gasping for air. For one moment there I was ready to put an end to it all, shove them all and climb my way back to the surface and take in all the air and just BREATH IT ALL IN. But I couldn’t.
Mask is back on, we’re out of the canyon, the guide is checking on all of us. He’s checking on all of my 3 friends, and I’m just waiting for my turn to be checked on. It was just getting crazier and crazier. Imagine someone drowning, and is trying to be polite and wait for his turn to be checked on. That was me. Stupid. When it finally was my turn, I couldn’t keep together any longer; I raised my thumb pointing to the surface, while my other hand on my throat making the ‘kill/dead’ gesture, and started to kick my way up. The guide came rushing, and stopped me from acting on my own. I wanted to go up. I’m not kidding, I’m drowning, and I’m not getting enough oxygen! Maybe there is something wrong with the tank! I need oxygen! Get me out! yup I reached that point after many attempts to stay cool and act professional. I was held down in spite of all what I was feeling. I had to comply and stop in my place. I rested and took as many inhales as I could, air was rushing in and outta my lungs.
40 minutes later, we were sitting in a cafe that overlooked the beach. We were discussing what happened. The guide asked whether I had something to eat or not? That was one of the 2 possible reasons for what happened; I was diving on an empty stomach. The other reason was: I was too conservative with my tank. I tried to be economical and control my intake until I literally suffocated myself. I managed to prolong my tank’s life till I reached a point where I had too little oxygen in me to keep me going, that’s when I had my “Hyper ventilation.”
Lesson learned & Reaffirmed:
1- Have a great buddy around.
2- Eat properly before a dive.
3- Being polite could kill you sometimes.
4- Live, Learn, and don’t let bad experiences affect your future ones.
Remember this? Its the limited edition 1KD that was issued for the second anniversary of Kuwait’s liberation on 1993. Its almost 20 years for this 1KD. It was a gift from my grand mother (RIP). For more pictures click below.
Have you ever scared your parents to death by getting lost?
I did. Twice.
The First time:
1984 In Turkey.
I have no recollection of this incident coz I was only 2. They told me that they were sitting in a big garden and all of the sudden they couldn’t find me. They scanned the whole garden and went to it’s edges trying to find me, with no luck, and after some time, they found me at near the place where they were sitting originally, but behind some trees. I was sitting on the ground and throwing little pebbles at something that made a sound. They said I was totally transfixed on the sound that I did not notice I was alone.
The Second time:
1987 in Brighton, England.
I was 5 and my brother was 9. He and I were at an amusement park at the beach and we ran out of money. The apartment wasn’t very far away, so my brother came up with a brilliant idea. The idea was: I should wait at the park, alone, while he runs back to the apartment and get some money. He pointed out the white building where our apartment was located to assure me that it wasn’t that far and that I should wait, so I agreed. He asked me to stay near the giant ‘ball pit’, you know the big pit with lots of little plastic balls in it (like this one), and I did, I waited for him to go to the apartment and back.
I waited for what seems like an eternity (you know how kids are) but I was getting bored. I dug my hands in my pockets, maybe to find something interesting to play with, but I found a couple of pounds, so I thought “why not play inside the ball pit rather than wait for him outside and be bored?” So I went in, I played for a long time and I was again getting bored, and my brother wasn’t here yet.
I got out of the pit, and waited outside for a little bit, it was getting darker and I was losing hope and I remember thinking maybe he forgot about me. So I raised my head and saw the white building and decided that maybe it’s not that far for me to walk back alone. Yeah! why not. But on my way I found my dad and uncle near a food stand buying some food, and they took me home. I remember thinking “Oh my dad is there, what a coincidence, let me go to him instead of walking back to the apartment alone.”
Now, what really happened was: My brother came back and looked around for me but couldn’t find me, so he got scared and went back to the apartment and told everybody that he had lost me. My father and uncle got freaked out and went out looking for me. My mother who was in the shower got out and put something on and went looking for me with her hair still wet. A major freaking out occured while I was playing inside that ball pool. And when I saw my dad at that food stand, turns out they weren’t there buying food (Duh!) they were asking everybody in that amusement park if they came across a little 5 year old boy.
This was released by the NBK a few weeks ago. Whoever was behind this idea must’ve felt quite nostalgic for the good old days. I took pictures of every page, english and arabic, and all the pictures are clickable for a bigger view. Have fun going back in time Read the rest of this entry »
My Father and Mother buy Afandi (Tangerines) around this time of the year, every year since I was a little kid. They would sit in the living room and eat some, and the smell would spread across the living room and the entire house. It’s smell proved to be infectious and every member of my family would smell it and then ask for some, and the smell only got worse with every peel of those Afandis.
I used to not like it’s smell but 20 years of Afandi got me accustomed.
Whenever anyone says “the weather is too good to be stuck at work” a certain memory pops into mind.
I was taking a course in Kuwait University one year, and it was a Wednesday. Back then Wednesdays ruled! Well on that day everything was especially glowing; the weather was changing…clouds were crowding the sky. Ah it was a perfect day for an outdoor brunch.
As I was walking to the class with my friend, another friend of ours joined us, and he spoke about how the weather was too good to be stuck in a class room. We all agreed and nodded along until we got to the class.
Three hours later, I was in a car with a bunch of other close friends and we headed to SAS to have brunch. I didn’t attend the rest of the classes that day and kicked the weekend off early. And on our way there we witnessed a car accident, the car turned over and crashed, lots of smoke and stuff, but we weren’t close enough and we continued our way to SAS (if you ever witness/ are a part of an accident, view the contact info for assistance). We spent a great time that weekend because of the lovely weather. That guy was right, the weather really was too good to be stuck in a classroom.
Come Saturday, a friend and I were walking to our class room, and we stopped at an announcement board to read what’s new. That’s when we saw that A4 paper with the bad news. Our friend who didn’t like being stuck in a class room on a cool weathered Wednesday skipped the rest of that day’s classes, just like I did, and he went to the gulf road instead, just like we did, and he, unlike us, had a car accident there. Passed away on the spot.
I can’t forget how eager and happy he was that it was finally the weekend. May God rest his soul and protect us all.
I once was inspected by the Saudi border officials, and was asked to declare whether I had x rated videos on my laptop. I was asked to start up my laptop and show them what kind of videos I had on it. Upon asking the border official what kind of files he was looking for, he responded with “A7na shabab wen3aref ba3ath.” As funny as that may sound now, I wasn’t laughing then, and he was dead serious. Adding to the “maskharaness” of this whole situation, the gentleman didn’t have any clue how to use a Mac. He then went on and asked me to do my own search for nasty videos on my laptop. In my turn, I asked what word he would like me to do a search for, and thats when he finally felt silly, and let me go.
Upon roaming through the shops at the Iranian souq I came across this Dikkan – one hell of a find. It’s a tiny store only about 4X4 square meters but it’s packed full of random stuff from Kuwait’s past. To tell you the truth there were many items in there that I couldn’t recognize, items that go as far back as perhaps the early fifties. I’m sure many of the older generation would find this post nostalgic and would probably find the store entirely enchanting. The rest of you children of the Nido can take a look at the 40+ pictures and maybe get your parents to read this post and see if they recognize anything. Read the rest of this entry »
Kuwait’s Kindergartens back in the day used to be from 8am to 4pm. They used to provide the kids with lunch and snacks, and they also used to let them nap during noon time.
I showed my mother the picture above, and she remembered the big hall where they used to sleep. She had this to say:
“I remember that big hall, and I remember that I cried for a whole week because of that hall. I hated the idea of sleeping in that hall and I didn’t like leaving home to Kindergarten in general. My father didn’t like seeing me crying like that and decided not to have me go to the kindergarten anymore, and instead remain at home till it’s time for 1st grade (ibteda2y).
I have a cousin who is my age, but was a year ahead of me in school, I didn’t realize the reason behind her being ahead of me till recently.. I was sorta punished for not attending Kindergarten.. they made me stay in 1st grade for 2 years. I don’t know how they did that, and how my family allowed that to happen. But back in the day, Kuwait wasn’t so organized when it came to matters like this (kanat 3ayma isalfa).”
I think this system of having the kids nap at noon time was stopped during the 70’s or early 80’s. I remember in our days we used to have breakfast and snacks.. no naps, and we’d leave home early, 12:30 or 1pm tops.
According to the email I received the picture was taken at Balqees Kindergarten in AlDasma.
I bought this box of chewing gum a couple of weeks ago for my friends at the chalet, and I can’t get enough of them ever since. I finished the first batch and now I’m half way through the second one 😛
According to Bu Rashed, Americana is going to reopen Wimpy fast food joints throughout Kuwait. It’s not comfirmed yet, but wouldn’t that be cool? I don’t remember wimpy in it’s prime but people say, including my father, that it was the IT place back in the day.
We were in Spain the summer of 1990, we had a nice beginning for a very promising summer vacation. Then we headed to nice, we stayed at my uncle’s place, and that was when we got the news that Iraq have invaded Kuwait. Read the rest of this entry »
The New York Public Library has recently unveiled some extraordinary pictures of the Statue of Liberty under construction. Will keep you with the pictures.
Sultan Al-Shaer passed away today morning in Frankfurt. He was known as “esh7afan el ga6o”. He was sent yesterday by a private plane but he couldnt make it.
The Kuwaiti Towers were under construction from 1971 till 1976. I found these pictures very interesting and really wish to see more of them if anyone have some. Read the rest of this entry »
