Yet another short, pithy guideline for getting to healthy eating. This is a great example of social marketing - getting the right message to people who need it.

The QuickStart Guide to Eating: Better Nutrition in 217 words

Feels like the old “Name That Tune” game show. This time, you win if you come up with a good message in the fewest words.

Sadly, these sound bite-size messages speak to the very short attention spans of the folks who have the worst eating habits, and are most in need of the advice.

http://everydayathlete.wordpress.com/2007/06/27/the-quickstart-guide-to-eating-better-nutrition-in-217-words/

Sock patterns
http://knitting.about.com/od/sockknittingpatterns/Free_Knitting_Patterns_Sock_Knitting_Patterns.htm

Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf
http://douma.net/Karen/knitting/Accessory-Scarves/Multidirectional_Diagonal_Scarf.htm

Diagonal Baby Blanket
http://www.jimmybeanswool.com/freeKnittingPatternDiagonalBabyBlanket.asp

Diagonal Dishcloth

Diagonal Scarf
http://www.jimmybeanswool.com/freeKnittingPatternBiasedScarf.asp

Socks with short row heel - top down
http://mary4169.tripod.com/id87.html

Toe-up socks with short heel
http://www.hellchick.net/needles/patterns/toeupsocks.shtml

tutorial with pictures
http://misocrafty.squarespace.com/journal/2006/9/21/short-row-heel-tutorial.html

Women Leaders for the World - July 22 - July 29, 2007
Santa Clara University

The Women Leaders for the World program is a residential leadership development program that sparks innovation, fosters global citizenship, and expands the capacity and network of women leaders.

http://cms.scu.edu/business/gwln/programs/world-women-leaders/

2007 Women Leaders of the World (PDF, 1208KB)
profiles
http://www.scu.edu/business/gwln/upload/wwos-may-07-profiles.pdf

Hear from the participants in the 2006 Women Leaders for the World program.
Video: Women Leaders for the World [Windows Media Player Required]
mms://216.93.180.194/parc_forum/gwln_06.wmv

Learn more…

• Open-Source Platforms for Education and Equalization

  … If connectivity is of prime importance, what comes second? That place, I believe, goes to the need to provide a learning platform of some kind - at least as a “kick-start” initiative …

  national platform cobbled together from Web 2.0 and open-source tools - such a platform could only ever be a starting point. Once learners get used to a pre-determined set of tools such as this, they would soon begin to explore the Web for themselves, for better tools, for more productive applications, and for the services that they want to use for their own good reasons. It would be a platform that would be bio-degradable as its users acquired the sophistication to go off on their own to create their own personal learning environments. Perhaps therefore we are looking to create a learning un-platform!
  http://www.johnconnell.co.uk/blog/?p=422
  

• One Laptop Per Child

  It’s an education project, not a laptop project.

  –Nicholas Negroponte

  Our goal: To provide children around the world with new opportunities to explore, experiment and express themselves.

  http://laptop.org/

• OLPC Content
  http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Content
  

As a former “fat kid” I am really concerned about the huge increase in weight of children of all ages.

What passes for food these days is pretty awful nutritionally. I was appalled when the kids’ high school “couldn’t” offer anything but sodas as that would be in violation of the contract that provided the school athletic program’s primary source of income - a cut of the vending machine revenues! The parents would have been happy with bottled water as a choice because the water fountains didn’t work worth a damn most of the time.

The long-term health prospects are not good. Childhood obesity has been linked to various diseases including Type 2 Diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and sleep apnea, to name a few.

Can Kids Handle the “O” Word?
http://www.diet-blog.com/archives/2007/06/15/can_kids_handle_the_o_word.php

Psychological and Behavioral Risk Factors for Obesity Onset in Adolescent Girls: A Prospective Study
lack of serotonin that is usually inherent in depression also leads individuals to consume excessive amounts of carbohydrate-rich foods in an effort to regulate his or her serotonin levels. These foods can lead to gaining weight
http://www.apa.org/releases/teenobesity.html
http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/ccp732195.pdf - full article

Although this advice was directed to parents, it works for everyone

• limit exposure to media - too much food, unrealistic and un-affordable lifestyles and unnaturally thin actors portrayed as being “ideal” and “desirable”
• promote healthy eating and moderate physical activity
• encourage participation in activities that increase mastery and self-esteem

Learn more…

Body Image, Media, and Eating Disorders
http://ap.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/30/3/257

Do You Know the Health Risks of Being Overweight?
http://win.niddk.nih.gov/publications/health_risks.htm

Helping Your Overweight Child
http://win.niddk.nih.gov/publications/over_child.htm

Shaping Youth is a nonprofit concerned with media & marketing’s impact on kids. We have NO political, religious, or censorship agenda. Our focus is to shift harmful messages in a more positive direction with the help of industry insiders.
http://www.shapingyouth.org

American Obesity Association - Obesity in Youth
http://obesityusa.org/subs/fastfacts/obesity_youth.shtml

American Academy of Pediatrics

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Adolescent Health Working Group
web resources
http://www.ahwg.net/resources/weblinks.htm
Adolescent Health Care 101: The Basics - includes some checklists for health exam
http://ahwg.net/resources/Module2-final.pdf
Body Basics - information for health care providers dealing with adolescent patients
http://ahwg.net/resources/Body%20Basics%20(changed%20version).pdf

American Association for Health Education (AAHE) AAHE serves health educators and other professionals who promote the health of all people. AAHE encourages, supports, and assists health professionals concerned with health promotion through education and other systematic strategies.
http://www.aahperd.org/aahe/template.cfm

American Academy of Pediatrics Childhood leads to the adolescent years. This link is to update publications for parents, health educators/pediatricians, & policy analysts.
http://www.aap.org/

American Public Health Association (APHA) APHA is a resource for public health professionals. They’re on the forefront of disease prevention and health promotion.
http://www.apha.org/

Yes, well, we can’t get enough of that instant gratification when it comes to health and happiness. We are in a pretty sorry place when an eight-week diet takes too long. That is certainly an issue. However, the flip side - these changes should help move toward better eating for a lifetime.

I read somewhere that it only takes 4 days to make something a habit. If you can’t make it work for eight weeks, it isn’t going to work for the rest of your life. Find something else that will.

There are some good suggestions here, but it is a lot to ask to make all these changes in just 7 days.

The UltraSimple Diet
from Dr Mark Hyman, author of the bestseller UltraMetabolism.

UltraSimple is a 7 day program that seeks to address toxicity and inflammation. Hyman believes that these two factors are the reason why many people struggle with obesity.

Hyman has written the diet to appease our desire for “instant-gratification”. Apparently many people thought the 8 week UltraMetabolism program was too long and “never gave the program a chance” (according to Hyman).

“I designed this program [Ultrametabolism] to be only 7 days (which anybody can do) to prove just how good you can actually feel once you have addressed the core problems of toxicity.”

http://www.diet-blog.com/archives/2007/06/15/the_ultrasimple_diet.php