How to Identify Your Hair Type

The first step in finding a style to suit you is to understand yo u r  hair type. Deciphering a few key terms and knowing  how they relate to your hair will not only help you choose the  right styling products, but also to work out why your hair behaves as it does, and why some styles, cuts and colouring techniques will work better than others.

If you regularly blow-dry or straighten your hair, or use a styling product every day, it may have been a while since you really looked at your natural texture. Allowing your hair to dry naturally will show you what it looks like when left to its own devices – and will help you care for it accordingly.

Step 1
Wash your hair with a shampoo designed for a ‘normal’ hair type, but don’t use conditioner.

step 2
After blotting gently, allow your hair to dry naturally, without using a dryer or towelling too roughly.

Step 3
Once your hair is dry, look at your natural texture. Is your hair totally straight or is there a slight kink? If your hair has waves, how many are there and are they loose or defined, regular or random? If you have curls, are they loose or tight, spirals, S-shaped or zigzag, or bouncy  or stiff? Perhaps you have a mixture of textures? If so, what’s the  overall effect?

The natural texture of the top image is straight, silky and fine. The hair texture of the bottom image seems porous, with a natural curl.

Step 4
Has frizz formed, or does your hair seem fluffy? Does it have a natural shine, look dry and dull, or is it a mixture of the two? Do the ends seem split and frayed?

Step 5
To measure the thickness and texture of your individual strands, pull out a single hair and look at it in front of a piece of white paper. If the hair is barely visible and feels soft, it is fine. If it’s easy to see but still feels soft, your hair is medium. If it looks thick  and feels wiry, your hair  is coarse.

Step 6
To measure the thickness of your hair, pull it back as if you were creating a ponytail, and measure the circumference of the tail (you can get a rough idea by seeing where your finger and thumb meet). If the circumference of the tail is five centimetres or less, you have fine hair. If it’s between five and ten centimetres, your hair is of medium thickness. If the circumference measures more than ten centimetres, you have thick hair

Pro Tip
Noting how long your hair takes to dry naturally is another way of measuring its thickness and texture. Thin, fine hair usually dries in under an hour, whereas thick or coarse hair takes an hour or more to dry.

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6 Strategies of Eating to Lose Fat

If you can do basic math, you can burn fat. No magic bullet, no secret, zero-calorie food, and no supplement—legal or illegal—works better, faster, cheaper or healthier than good, old-fashioned food.If you eat more calories than you burn you’ll start to store said calories. They have to go somewhere, don’t they? Usually that place is your gut. Fortunately, the same mechanisms that made you a little more man than you’d perhaps like can also help you achieve your perfect weight. You just have to adjust the content and portions that you consume.

Nutrition alone will not make you lose fat or boost your performance. Rather, the lack of nutrition kickstarts your fat-burning journey. Nutrition is the biggest player you can adjust if you want to get leaner and perform better. That’s because food gives you energy. Even those evil carbs everyone harks about are useful for giving you the energy you need to exercise. To lose fat through eating, all you have to do is follow these simple rules. No diet. No rapid-weight-loss programme that has you abusing your soup pot. And definitely no avoiding your favourite foods. The secret is to create a new you using these easy-to-follow rules.

Rule 1: Eat Little and Often

Even if your primary information source is the newspaper you find in the toilet at work, you’ve probably heard that you need to eat upwards of six small meals a day to lose weight. This strategy makes your body constantly burn fuel and ensures that you’re always eating and never hungry. It’s akin to the way our ancestors ate: by popping food into their bearded mouths as they hunted or collected it. However, you shouldn’t eat six huge meals a day. Rather, stick to palm-sized servings for snacks and servings the size of two fists for main meals. Alternatively, you can keep all your meals more or less the same size. Keeping all portion sizes the same tells your body that food is abundant and that it doesn’t need to store any as fat.

The ‘eat six small meals a day’ mantra works well in a perfect world in which we all work from home and are two steps away from the kitchen. It’s not always practical, however, if you work in an office, are on the road or are just plain busy. Fortunately, a recent study at Purdue University (Leidy et al., 2010) found that eating three normal-size meals that con-tain high amounts of lean protein can make you feel fuller than eating smaller, more frequent meals. In the study the three larger meals contained less than 750 calories each and were carefully portioned to encourage weight loss. The researchers found that eating protein during breakfast and lunch—meals one might not normally include protein in—made the system work and that proteins such as meat, eggs and legumes were good choices. That’s a pretty good excuse to order a tasty 250-gram steak on your lunch hour.

Rule 2: Fill Up on Fibre and Protein

These two nutrients are the champion weight-loss tag team. They both slow the rate of diges-tion so you feel full longer and can reduce sugar cravings. What’s more, fibre also helps hustle calories out of your body and helps get rid of your lunch quicker. A diet rich in fibre helps people keep weight off in the long run. How much is enough? The current rec-ommended daily allowance for fibre is about 25 grams, but don’t stop there. Eat as much as you can. It won’t harm you as long as you drink plenty of water with it. The same goes for protein; make sure you get plenty in every meal. If you’re trying to add muscle—and you should be to maximise fat burning—eat about two grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. If you were in Australia, that would mean throwing another shrimp on the barbie.

Rule 3: Ration Carbs

Since 1980 the food intake of the average bloke has grown by 500 calories a day, and nearly 80 per cent of this increase can be attributed to carbohydrate. In that time, the prevalence of obesity has become a pretty big burden on the world economy. Carbs are dense in calories, which your body uses very quickly. This can often make you feel full to capacity after a meal and then hungry enough to eat a low-flying pigeon less than an hour later. What can you do to keep yourself at your fighting weight? Cap your intake of the most carbohy-drate-dense foods, such as grains and spuds, at just a couple of servings a day. Eat them before or after training or any time before lunch. This ensures that you put these energy-rich foods to use in either fuelling or recovering from an exercise session. You can go one better by always eating high-fibre, minimally processed versions of these foods. That way, you’ll be leaner as well as healthier.

Rule 4: Leave the Counting  to Accountants

Losing weight should never feel like you’re actually doing it. It should feel natural and instinctive. Cravings for poor foods are often caused by a lack of proper nutrients. By regu-larly snacking on the right foods, you’ll elim-inate hunger and control your calorie intake. That will not happen if you try to tally every calorie that crosses your lips.That doesn’t mean you can smash as many healthy, all-natural foods as you like. Natural foods such as fruit are often loaded with calories and are rich in fructose. These can be as dangerous as sugar to the size of your gut. Limit yourself to a few portions of fruit a day and choose to have more vegetables.

You can check out the calorie counts (www.nutritiondata.com) of your favourite foods to get a feel for how energy dense they are.Most important: Don’t avoid fat. Fat might be rich in calories but it is essential to life because it increases your immunity and metabolism, boosts brain function and helps you absorb vitamins A, D, E and K and anti-oxidants. However, you need to discriminate between good and bad fats. There is just as much place for unsaturated fat (olive oils and omega-3) as there is for saturated fats (the white stuff hanging off the end of your steak). Both kinds help produce muscle-building and fat-burning hormones, keep joints healthy and protect your innards against a host of diseases. However, there is absolutely no place for trans fats. You’re better off taking up smoking. Trans fats, which can be found in most fried-food eateries, clog your arteries and stack on weight. Junk food might make life worth living but it’s not worth dying for. Limit yourself to one or two cheat meals a week from your favourite fast-food pedlar. You’ll feel like you still get to eat your favourite cuisine and it’ll taste twice as nice because you’ve had to abstain from it.

Rule 5: Watch What You Drink

Gone are the days when drinking something meant quenching your thirst. Nowadays the variety of drinks to choose from makes water look pretty average. Fact is, you do not need any of them. Most of them will do you no good from a health perspective and almost all of them—barring H20—will boost your overall calorie intake. Sugary sodas, fruit drinks, alco-hol and other high-calorie everages such as coffee drinks are all adding to the obesity crisis.

With all we sip, we are getting far more calories from beverages than we used to.Thirsty? Simply adopt a water habit and you’ll be leaner. Water is an appetite sup-pressant, and thirst often masquerades as hunger. Most importantly, water helps your body metabolise lard. Placing your body into an arid state stresses your kidneys and stops them from functioning properly. Ever felt a little lower-back pain after a night on the razz? That’s your kidneys biting back. If your kidneys aren’t working properly, the workload shifts to your liver. This old workhorse converts stored fat to energy and can’t do its job efficiently if it has to pick up slack because you’re dehydrated and your kidneys are overworked. In short, put down the fizzy drink and stick your facehole under a tap. They’re not hard to find.

Rule 6: Eat Your Breakfast

The morning rush means that breakfast is the easiest meal to skip, but forgoing these valuable calories puts you at a disadvantage if you want to shift your paunch. According to a recent study in American Journal of Epidemiology (Purslow et al., 2008), men who got 22 to 50 per cent of their daily calories from breakfast gained only .7 kilogram over 4 years whereas those who ate only 11 per cent of their daily calories in the morning gained 1.4 kilograms. The very best kind of breakfast? Foods with a low glycemic index, such as beans on toast or a big bowl of muesli, that digest slowly and make you feel fuller for the rest of the day. Set your alarm eight minutes early and gorge on this banquet. You’ll soon be saying good morning to your abs.

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5 New Ideas of Kitchen Design

Open to the Life
Model           : CERES I CORE-A
Manufacturer: LEICHT
Photography: © LEICHT Küchen AG

The LEICHT Ceres l Core-A design is a clear example of how contemporary kitchens have lost their traditional  aesthetics  in  order  to  integrate  better  with  the  rest  of  the  home.  Nowadays, kitchen
furniture  does  not  rely  simply  on  doors  and  drawers  as  its  main  components,  but  incorporates attractive shelves on which to display decorative elements that are more commonly associated with a living room than a kitchen.

Architect       : OTD Design & Development

Location        : Malibu, California

Photography  : © OTD Design & Development

If anything stands out in this home it is its privileged location, right on the beachfront in the gorgeous enclave of Malibu in California. This spectacular location drives the whole design of the house and, as you would expect, it also dictates the configuration of the kitchen—it is open and oriented toward the spectacular wooden deck that sits right on the sandy beach.

Industrial Style Evolution

Model             : Code Evolution

Manufacturer : Snaidero

Photography  : © Snaidero

Code Evolution is a kitchen design that recalls a vintage aesthetic, decidedly industrial with touches that  will  appeal  particularly  to  fans  of  Nordic  design.  The  stylish  Snaidero  kitchen  plays  with different  materials,  linking,  combining  and  personalizing  them  with  a  high-quality,  youthful, contemporary look that pays attention to the latest design trends.

The hoods conjure up images of the glow of portside lighthouses and lend an industrial feel to the

design.

Geometric Volumes Combination

Model            : Elle

Manufacturer: Snaidero

Photography: © Snaidero

Snaidero’s Elle design proposes an evolution of the kitchen space: a concept that comes from careful architectural  study  and  finishes  up  with  different  layout  solutions,  characterized  by  a  series  of specific innovative components. This project is distinguished by its remarkable attention to detail, a project of proportions and series of planes that re-create the kitchen with originality.

With the doors overhanging the countertops, the door handles are more functional and easier to clean.

The Apartment

Architect           : Nook Architects

Location           : Barcelona, Spain

Photography: © NIEVE | Productora Audiovisual

Nook Architects produce a home that is designed with regular-shaped spaces to make the most of a limited-width facade and which is easily duplicable without leading to a sense of boredom. They encourage end users to customize their home to their individual style and needs.  In this case, the kitchen, dining and living room are located in the wider area, creating a central nucleus to the home.

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The Most Questions About Fat Burning

Here are the answers to the questions most commonly asked about fat burning and food.

Q:  I work the night shift. How should I change my diet?

A:  That’s simple. Nothing changes; it just gets delayed by a couple hours. If you snooze when you get home from work, then train just before you go to work the way a nine-to-fiver would cram in an early-morning session before work. If you mince about when you get home and get on the nod around noon, then go to the gym at 7 or 8 a.m. the way most blokes train after work. Regardless of when you train, your mus-cles will always need the same balance of nutrients to fuel your sweat sessions. Eat a high-protein, high-carb meal 45 min-utes before exercise. A protein shake is first prize, but you can also have a couple of carrots dipped in hummus or a sweet potato and tuna or chicken. Plan ahead and you’ll be rewarded with a queue-free gym thanks to training during the off-peak hours.

Q:  Every time I hit a restaurant I want to flatten the bread basket. Why?

A:  There’s a support group for that. It’s called everyone. You’re not addicted, you’re just hungry, which is why you went to a restaurant in the first place. Curb the impulse by snacking two hours before going out. Necking a protein shake works well and will probably halve your dinner bill. When you get to the restaurant, order a salad or shrimp cocktail as soon as you sit down. If the waiter brings the bread, simply tell him you don’t want it.

Q:  How bad are hot drinks for my six-pack quest?

A:  They’re pretty good, actually. You don’t even have to skip the sugar. Consuming a 5-gram portion of sugar, which contains 16 to 20 calories, every day isn’t going to bolster your waistline. Skipping the sugar would save you less than one kilo-gram of calories per year. But if you’re a sugar junkie, find small ways to reel in the sweetness quotient in everything you eat, including that first cuppa. If you skip all sugar, including sugar-rich foods such as yoghurt, fizzy drinks and cereals, you’ll be on the fast track to losing your body fat. Be vigilant and check the labels because sugars are hiding in all sorts of foods you’d never expect, such as tomato sauce. In short, give sugar the boot. You really are sweet enough.

Q:  Will my wife’s diet programme work for me?

A:  Yes, but you don’t have tell your buddies about it. If something gets you to eat less it will work. The real issue is how healthy the diet is, how active you are and how well you can stick to it. You’ll be more successful at sticking to your diet if you and your wife diet as a team. You can motivate each other and cook joint meals, and you can use some of your male competitive-ness to lose weight. To succeed you need a goal, some structure, some accountability and some exercise. Oh yeah—try eating a little less, too.

Q:  When I first started dieting the weight dropped off me, but now it’s coming off slowly. Why? I still eat healthy and exercise.

A:  Most blokes reach a tabletop thanks to problems on top of the table. If you eat too little, your body think it’s starving and stores fat as an emergency measure.

The problem could also be excessive tension; this makes your body release the stress hormone cortisol, which inhibits fat loss. You could also eat a little more before your workouts so you can hit them harder. Adaptability is the key to long-term success. Changing your exercise routine and then changing the foods you eat while still eating a low-calorie diet will help you bust out of that rut

Q:  After a tough day at the office all I want to do is eat all night. How can I stop this?

A:  Witching-hour munchies can quickly con-jure a cauldron-sized belly. Regardless of how much you toss and turn in the sack, you simply aren’t going to burn off the calories like you do when you’re awake. That’s not to say you need to starve. You should eat something to reduce the nighttime wave of low blood sugar. Go for healthy, appetite-curbing oats, an apple and cheese or a thin turkey sandwich on rye. If you crave sweets, try fruit yoghurt, cereal with a little brown sugar on top or berries with a drizzle of chocolate sauce. Cottage cheese is also a good option because it digests slowly. Avoid spicy or high-fat foods, which can make it harder for you to fall asleep. If you must reach for the unhealthy stuff, try to pair it with something healthy. Your belly will be gone in a poof.

Q:  What’s the deal with cheat days? How much can I cheat?

A:  Think of cheat days as your reward for sticking to your programme. You need to enjoy life and, more importantly, food. Weight gain isn’t the only issue here. It takes a 3,500-calorie surplus to pack on .45 kilogram of fat, so you’d really have to chow down to notice an effect. The real worry is that even one high-fat, high-car-bohydrate load can boost the amount of stress on your organs and make it harder for your brain to resist new temptations. The bottom line: Cheating on your diet doesn’t mean abandoning it entirely. Limit your splurge to a few of your favou-rite forbidden snacks. Once you’ve stuck to a healthy eating plan long enough to see a difference in how you look and feel, you’ll find that those greasy old favourites aren’t as seductive anymore.

Q:  I train late at night. What should I eat afterwards? A big dinner?

A:  Chug a protein shake after your workout, then cook up a small meal of meat and veg-etables sans carbs such as pasta and spuds. No studies show that eating before bed makes you put on weight; rather, the total number of calories you eat throughout the day determines your waist size. However, to be safe, allow an hour between your last bite and bedtime. Your metabolism slows down a little at night and you won’t easily digest the contents of a stuffed gut. More importantly, having a large meal before dozing off can interfere with your sleep. But so can going to bed hungry. Don’t deny yourself a light snack if you had an early dinner or feel hunger pangs. Satiate cravings with the food groups you skipped during the day. If you missed out on dairy or fruit, grab some yoghurt and berries, a smoothie or an apple and some cheese. If you’re hanging for starch, a bowl of oats is a safe bet. Never go to bed with a stomach howling for food because a good night’s sleep will serve you better in your quest to get lean.

Q:  I love sandwiches, but are the carbs bad for my six-pack?

A:  Not if you choose wisely. Start with the solid foundation of rye bread, which is rich in fibre and will keep you full for ages. Lay out the inside with solid walls of whole protein such as sliced chicken breast or a bit of meat. Decorate with at least three fruits and vegetables of differ-ent colours and you have the perfect meal to make a body worth building.

Q:  Is it true that celery has negative calories?

A:  This is a pack of hocus pocus. Celery has 10 calories per 100 grams. You cannot lose weight by eating a food that takes more energy to absorb than you get from it. To conjure a six-pack you need a balanced diet, not calorie sleight-of-hand tricks.

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Eat These to Boost Your Libido

You don’t need pharmaceuticals to reclaim your manhood. All you need to do is step into the kitchen and eat the right foods. Here’s what should be on your menu.

•  Watermelon.
 It’s a whole lot tastier than a pill and has the same effect. Researchers at the University of Texas (Jayaprakasha, Chidambara Murthy and Patil, 2011) found that the citrulline in watermelons makes more blood flow south. You don’t even need a prescription.



•  Dark chocolate. 
In a study from the University of California at San Francisco (Engler et al., 2004), blood vessel dilation increased by more than 10 per cent in participants who ate 50 grams of low-sugar dark chocolate per day.


•  Berries. 
Forget about bringing coffee and toast to bed; bring the raspberries and strawberries. You lose 9 per cent of your daily zinc intake when you ejaculate. The berries will replenish the zinc you lose—five milligrams, or one third of your daily requirement—making them the perfect snack to eat between romps.



•  Peanut butter. 
Sign on for the Skippy diet. Studies have found that men who ate diets rich in monounsaturated fat—
the kind found in peanuts—had the highest levels of testosterone, which will help you grow big muscles and have firmer erections.

•  Pomegranate juice. 
Turf the orange juice because a study at the University of Cal-ifornia (Azadzoi et al., 2005) found that pomegranate juice boosts blood flow to your nether regions thanks to its high levels of antioxidants. It doesn’t taste half bad, either.

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Great Smoothies And Fast Food Recipes For Your Heath

When pressed for time, filling your belly can take longer than the average exercise session.
If you’re on the street, you have to wait for someone to prepare your food for you and you
take the risk that the food isn’t going to match up with your training goals. If you’re at home,
you have think what you can eat, prepare it, eat it and clean up.

Fortunately, there is a way to streamline your healthy dietary habits: Drink your food. Smoothies are one of the quickest stealth-health meals you can make. You can drink them in seconds, and clean-up consists of swishing a little water over your blender. The nutrients support your goals and leave you feeling full for hours afterwards, and prep takes just three to five minutes. Here are some of the best recipes to help you hit your goals in the tastiest way possible.



Ache-Fixing Shake
4 thick slices fresh pineapple
1 stick celery
2.5 cm (1 in.) piece ginger
200 ml (6.8 oz) water

Pineapple contains a compound known as bromelain, which is a painkiller and natural anti-inflammatory agent. Celery is used to fight pain associated with arthritis and gout, and ginger contains chemicals that have anti-inflammatory and painkilling properties.

Immune booster
1/2 to 1 can (450 ml) coconut milk
2 raw eggs
1 scoop whey protein
1 handful berries (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries) or 1/2 to 1 banana
2 tbsp ground almonds
1 tsp honey
1 tbsp flaxseed oil

The fats in coconut are not stored as fat. They are easily digested and pass straight to the liver, which improves energy levels and assists the digestive system by reducing stress on the pancreas. The fats are similar to those in mother’s milk and help support the immune system. People with chronic fatigue can really benefit from consuming coconut milk as it helps increase metabolism, thereby assisting in weight loss.

It is also antibacterial, antimicrobial and antifungal and can benefit those with candida (yeast and fungal) infections or digestive problems and those who regularly suffer colds. The berries are a great source of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and enzymes. Nuts provide essential fats and protein. Honey is the best thing to use as a sweetener because it is a natural product. The flaxseed oil is a great source of omega-3 fatty acids, which help electrical impulses move from the brain to muscles across the membranes around all the cells in the body and prevent heart disease.

Super-Cheap Preworkout Shake
1/2 cup oats
1 banana
1 small (50 g) yoghurt
3 tbsp powdered milk
400 ml (13.5 oz) water

The best preworkout eating strategy is to keep things simple. The ingredients should be minimal and you shouldn’t eat anything too acidic that might repeat on you during exercise. This shake has the perfect mix of fast- and slow-digesting carbs, protein and fats for fueling any exercise session and it won’t come back to haunt you while you train.

The Energiser
75 g (2.6 oz) frozen strawberries
115 g (4 oz) mango
125 ml (4 oz) orange juice
250 ml (8 oz) fat-free milk
2 tbsp honey
1/8 cup whey protein
Powdered eggs or 4 raw egg whites

Honey is an antioxidant and provides 17 grams of carbohydrate per tablespoon, making it a great booster as part of your postworkout and preworkout meals. The mango contains potassium that helps create a healthier nervous system and releases energy from the rest of the protein, fat and arbohydrate in the shake.



Poor Man’s Protein Shake
1/2 cup semolina
1/2 cup raw oats
1 banana
1 whole egg
3 or 4 tbsp powdered milk
6 drops vanilla essence
118 ml (3.9 oz) goat milk
118 ml (3.9 oz) water

The carbohydrate-rich semolina, proteins from the eggs, milk powder and milk and fats make this the perfect combination of calories for consistently adding mass to any frame.

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How To Gain 10 Kg Body Weight For Busy Skinny Guy, A Case Study

Max Walker(47 years old) had been slight his whole life and wanted to go from scrawny to
brawny before his holidays abroad. He decided on five goals:
1.  Add 10 kilograms of muscle mass.
2.  Develop arms he could flex with pride.
3.  Create abs that looked good on the beach.
4.  Find the time to exercise at least every second day.
5.  Have the confidence to take off his shirt in public.

The Problems
Mark is one of most prominent photographers and is always on the road. Eating a high-protein, high-calorie diet while travelling for work can be difficult. Max felt self-conscious about going to a gym for the first time, and his age meant he was at a muscle-building disadvantage.

The Solutions
Max bought a membership to a club that has multiple gyms around the country so that he could
find a gym when he travelled. He began using premixed protein shakes and packed a lunch every day to make sure that he always had enough of the correct nutrients to finance his muscle building. Max, a really friendly guy, grew to know just about everyone at each club, which made exercising seem like more like a social gathering. The fellow gym users eventually thought of him as one of their own and dished out advice and friendship, which made him keener to keep at it. Because Max was a total novice he added muscle easily, which more than offset any dis-advantage from his age.

The Eating Plan
Because Max has an incredibly fast metabolism, he had to develop a new appetite and make a change from his standard three-meals-a-day routine. When his packed lunches ran dry he filled up on high-protein meals wherever he could and followed the muscle-building nutrition plan in chapter 2. He occasionally paid an odd visit to a coffee shop, but the calories counted towards gaining muscle and bulk. His calorie-burning potential was naturally high so he never let hunger pains take root.

The Training
Max was a total beginner so pretty much anything would work, but he could risk injury and lack of motivation if the postworkout pain became too great. He followed the plan in chapter 5, which uses high reps and works the entire body in each session, to help his muscles gradually become accustomed to being put through their paces. He felt a little pain for the first two weeks, but after the initial shock wore off he loved the satisfying feeling that his muscles had been worked, and he gradually increased the weight and reduced the reps.

The Drive
Max' desire to take off his shirt in the summer months fuelled his exercise ambitions. He didn’t want to be the only one in his family snaps sporting a yoghurt complexion after a trip to Spain. Enjoying more time with his family became his inspiration, even though the demands of his job were stacked against him. He bought a five-month supply of protein, half of which was premixed, so he could take it with him wherever he went. This outlay may have been hefty but it sent a clear message to his subconscious that he was in it for the long run and that backing out would cost him more than just muscle.

The Results
Max gained more than 10 kilograms of lean muscle in just two months and maintained a lean waist. After two months his daughter commented that he looked like a model. If that’s not motivation enough to stick to it, then nothing is. Time to book another holiday.

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Simple Steps to Save Water At Home

Aside from replacing water-guzzling appliances, fixtures and fittings with efficient models, try these
other simple steps for conserving water:

• Fix all leaks. 
A leaky faucet, dripping at a rate of one drip per second, can waste more than 3,000 gallons of water each year. One leaky toilet can waste about 200 gallons of water a day. To check for leaks in general, read your water meter before and after a two-hour period when no water is being used. If the meter doesn’t read exactly the same, you probably have a leak.

• Shower rather than bathe. 
A full bathtub requires about 70 gallons of water, while taking a five-minute shower uses just 10 to 25 gallons. Limit your showers to the time it takes to soap up, wash down and rinse off.

• Water the garden wisely. 
A typical single-family suburban household uses at least 30 percent of its water outdoors for irrigation. Some experts estimate that more than 50 percent of landscape water use goes to waste due to evaporation or runoff from overwatering. Drip irrigation systems use between 20 and 50 percent less water than conventional in-ground sprinkler systems.

• Control your faucet.
The average bathroom faucet flows at a rate of 2 gallons per minute. If you turn off the tap while brushing your teeth or shaving, you can save up to 8 gallons of water per day, or 240 gallons a month.

• Fill it up.
The average standard washing machine uses about 41 gallons of water per load. High-efficiency washing machines use fewer than 28 gallons of water per load. To achieve even greater savings, wash only full loads of laundry or use the appropriate load size selection on the washing machine.

• Don’t flush money away. If your toilet was made in 1992 or earlier, you probably have an
inefficient model that uses at least 3.5 gallons per flush. New and improved high-efficiency models
use less than 1.3 gallons per flush. Compared to an inefficient toilet, a WaterSense-labeled toilet could save a family of four more than $90 annually on their water bill, and $2,000 over the lifetime of the toilet. Alternatively, you can upgrade an old toilet more affordably by replacing the flush mechanism with a dual-flush toilet valve kit. One company that makes them is Flush Choice, and they’re available for around $60 at Green Depot stores.

• Install water-saving showerheads and low-flow faucet aerators.
Inexpensive water-saving showerheads or restrictors are easy to install. For less than $15, you can install one of these yourself and save up to 500 gallons per year.

• Wash wisely. In addition to fully loading dishwashers for optimum water conservation, avoid
prerinsing dishes to save water, and if possible, do not wash dishes by hand. The water in a sink
doesn’t get hot enough to kill bacteria and leaving water running for rinsing wastes water.

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The Benefits of Green Home

There are many benefits to living in a green home. In general, though, it will have a positive influence on three primary aspects of your life.

Your health: 
Foremost among the benefits of greening your home is that it’s good for your health.
Green homes rely on natural ventilation as well as mechanical ventilation systems that filter and bring
fresh air in and vent stale air out to keep indoor air clean. Good green homes also use toxin-free
materials and finishes or those with low toxicity to limit indoor air pollution, which can be more
harmful than pollution outdoors. Green homes are also designed to maximize natural light, which not
only boosts your mood, but is also vital to indoor plants, which are natural air detoxifiers. And some
green materials and home products resist mold and mildew or are antimicrobial, making for an all-around healthier indoor environment.

Your bank account: 
Living in a green house is also good for your pocketbook. Tax incentives or rebates and energy savings can make building a new green home or greening an existing home more cost-effective than building and living in a standard house. On a month-to-month basis, people who live in green homes save money by consuming less energy and less water than those who live in standard homes, which reduces their energy and utility bills.

Green homes are also often more durable than most standard homes, thanks to high-quality building materials and construction processes, which lead to lower maintenance costs and fewer repairs. Furthermore, the value of a green home is often higher than that of a comparable standard home, particularly because the market demand for green homes is on the rise.

Local, state and federal governments as well as utility companies have been offering tax breaks and
other incentives for building certified green homes or adding green features to your home, as long as
they meet accepted green guidelines. In the near future, green homes will likely cost less to insure
than standard homes, too.

Your planet:
Green homes are also easy on the environment and often use up to 40 percent less energy than similar standard homes. If you use drought-tolerant landscaping, efficient plumbing and bathing fixtures, and water-conservation systems, your home will also use less water than standard homes. Many green building materials are made with recycled content, which also minimizes impact on the environment. Salvaged materials from demolished buildings are also often used in green homes, as are materials made from rapidly renewable materials, such as bamboo, hemp and soybean-based products. In addition, the use of specially certified woods helps promote socially and environmentally beneficial forestry practices.

How to make your home greener
In general, the guidelines of these agencies and organizations aspire to make homes greener by doing the following:
• Minimizing environmental impact by wasting fewer resources during site preparation, construction
or renovation
• Recycling and conserving water and materials
• Reducing carbon buildup
• Using sustainable and nontoxic materials and finishes whenever possible
• Ensuring good indoor air quality
• Creating structures that are at least 15 percent more energy-efficient than those built with standard
construction practices

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Working In Education Sector

With government-backed financial incentives and a shortage of teach-ers, it’s a good time to find work in this sector. Teachers are required at all levels, from pre-school to post graduate, with the greatest need at inner city secondary schools. Teachers still complain there is too much paperwork and red tape eating into time they would rather spend in the classroom and there is a high drop-out rate.

However, qualified teachers can insure themselves against unemployment in recessions and often get preferential visa status if they want to work abroad. There is also the holiday factor that attracts a lot of parents into the profession – you can be off school when your kids are and save on childcare costs. Careers in education extend beyond teaching in schools of course and include disciplines as varied as educational psy-chology, TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and grounds-keeping.

Career paths
With so many vacancies it’s possible to move up the ranks to become a head of department or to increase take-home pay by taking on extra-curricular duties. Experienced teachers may choose to apply for deputy headships and headships. Universities also need staff and it’s possible to lecture part time on specialist subjects without extensive teacher training.

Entry points
Vacancies are frequently advertised in the national, local and special-ist press. You can get (unpaid) classroom experience as a teacher’s assistant in many schools. 160 sector-by-sector information for career changers

Qualifications
You need a degree to start teacher training and must have your Post Graduate Certificate in Education before you can apply for teaching work.

Salary information
Newly qualified teachers can expect a starting salary of between £17,000 and £21,000. Teachers with seven years’ experience can look to be earning more than £25,000 outside London. Head teachers of
schools that perform well in inner cities are being incentivized with salaries up to the £80,000 mark.

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How to Start your Interior Design Business

Starting any business is never simple, but it doesn’t have to be as complicated as many people think. A lot of what is needed is actually fun. You have to understand that much of starting any business requires you to be a salesman. You have to build yourself and your company up.

You must get a business number and registration. You can check your government listings for the correct number. You must also check with your local accountant to see what needs to be done about taxes etc.
You must also decide if you are going to be a home business or if you are planning to run a studio for a lease. Make sure to purchase all of the necessary materials. Some items you can get for free if you know where to look. Here is a list of some of those materials.


What you will need
•  Color swatches for paints and fabrics ( you can get many of them for free from local paint stores if    you ask)
•  Fabric samples are a necessity (you can get them for free from your local furniture store)
•  Interior design magazines for client perusal (it helps them get an idea of what they like)
•  Furniture catalogues (free from furniture dealers and retailers)
•  Fine arts catalogue, get them from art galleries
•  Kitchen and bathroom catalogues. Basically get catalogues from everybody that deals with furniture, art, and lighting stores
•  Photos of your work, and signed recommendations (remember you get them from family and friends when you are just starting out)
•  Your portfolio (always have a copy of your portfolio)

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Having Career In Consultancy

Most people think they can tell other people how to do their jobs better. This universal truth of ego means there are plenty of people who want to get into consultancy, either as a one-man band or by join-ing a City firm. The belief that consultants are well paid, do very little work and accept no responsibility still seems to be true. Career changers tend to fare far better by going the solo route (City firms are geared up for recruiting recent graduates) and if you have extensive enough 156 sector-by-sector information for career changers knowledge of and experience in a certain field, becoming a consultant could be lucrative. Generally you will be self-employed and build up a portfolio of clients for whom you will work on a project-by-project basis or for a few days a month. Many consultants report earning more money for working fewer hours.

Career paths
Ideally, you should be able to line up your first clients before you leave your current job. Clients are generally built up through recommendation and networking. Career progression comes from working for more exciting companies on more exciting projects.

Entry points
If you’re looking to join a firm of consultants, your opportunity to join the team may be pegged to them securing contracts requiring your specialist knowledge. Alternatively, smaller and specialist consultancy firms tend to have more liberal entry criteria and will consider candi-dates on aptitude and attitude as well as academic brilliance.



Qualifications
If you are working for yourself, it will be your contacts, networking ability and experience that qualify you best for a lucrative career as a consultant. If you want to join a firm, specialist sector knowledge and a good degree from a good university will open a lot of doors.

Salary information
A consultant at a City firm can expect a salary of between £40,000 and £60,000 after a couple of years. Partners earn considerably more (£125,000–£350,000). Self-employed consultants’ earnings
sector-by-sector information for career changers 157 depend on their sector, with rates varying from £200 a day to £200 an hour.

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Career In Banking and finance

Sector overview
The job seekers are still attracted to this sector because of the enormous salaries on offer. Banking is a volatile sector, subject to the whim of the markets and greater competition. Some analysts predict there are more takeovers to come, which would almost certainly lead to job losses. It is a very traditional area of the economy and it’s still the case that young white men who went to the right university rise highest and fastest, although the picture is improving for female and minority
candidates.


Generally, the salaries compensate for a stressful work environment. Burn-out rates are high, working weeks can easily be 80 hours for juniors at City firms and competition for promotion is fierce. Consequently, this is a sector to which not everyone is suited.

Career paths
You can specialize in any number of disciplines – fund management, stock broking, currency trading, corporate finance, venture capital – or you can work in a high street branch as a mortgage adviser, business banker, etc. Often managers take entire teams with them when they are poached and career advancement seems to have nearly as much to do with networking as it does performance.

Entry points
Generally, this industry is geared up to recruit graduates and getting in several years after university can be difficult without a personal recommendation. Try smaller banks as they often have a more creative approach to recruitment. Non-graduates can take part in in-house training schemes (normally three to five years) operated by most banks that pay between £12,000 and £17,000 pa. You could also work sector-by-sector information for career changers 155 as a clerk – maybe in a department such as settlements or funds – and earn £18,000 to £22,000 pa.

Qualifications
A 2:1 degree or higher is a standard for City jobs and generally banks only look at candidates with at least 24 UCAS points at A-level. For career changers, banks also look for the following qualities: problem-solving and numeracy skills, lateral thinking, good communication and analytical skills, leadership potential.

Salary information
Starting salaries are higher than most sectors, typically around £25,000, but senior bankers earn anything up to £150,000 a year, with an annual bonus of roughly a year’s salary on top of that. Top brokers and financiers can easily earn a basic £500,000 pa.

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What You Need to Know If You Want To Be An Interior Designer

This is just an idea of the things that you will be taught in accordance to your specialty. Interior design for a home is slightly different than commercial design. The needs for a home are quite different. Materials are different as well. When you chose a specialty, you will learn all of the basics in design, but also how to deal with, and get clients effectively. That is where things are quite different. You would not approach a company in the same manner that you might approach a homeowner. The ability to read and design blue prints

1. Knowledge of color coordination and painting 
2. Difference between furniture brands and styles 
3. How to coordinate and organize a room to create a comfortable environment. 
4. How to correctly estimate the length and size of materials needed 
5. How to correctly estimate the amount of paints or wallpapers needed 
6. How to maximize interior space to the room’s advantage. 
7. How to communicate your ideas effectively to your client 
8. Basic marketing skills are needed to further your business 
9. How to correctly identify different types of furnishings, and to incorporate that knowledge into a legitimate design plan. 
10. How to create an environmental plan because this is a practical, conducive and esthetic approach to your eventual goal of raising productivity, and selling your merchandise. 
11. How to explain space planning, lighting, layout and color schemes to your clients. People often like to know why you are doing the things that you are doing. 
12. How to arrange carpets, accessories, drapes and wall coverings. 
13. Knowledge of fine arts, sculptures, music etc. These will often be included in your design changes and must incorporate properly into the area. (you would not want to hang a Picasso in a Victorian themed room)  

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How To Be An Interior Designer?

When trying to decide if Interior Design is right for you, it helps to know what that really means. Interior Design is not simply the profession that “makes rooms and places pretty”; it takes a little bit more than that. You need to know how to do some of the technical aspects of design also. Some of these technical things include:

Designing and reading blueprints: This is particularly for the projects that require a great change in the area’s structure like wall removal etc. This is also required in order to make additional rooms, build gazebos, and adding extra rooms. You will need to draw up blueprints of the entire house or read the originals copies, so that you can do your job without causing much disturbance to the rest of the house or environment.

Environmental Analysis: Once you can read blueprints, you will have to analyze the information that is listed so that you can best decide where to go with your ideas. You need the ability to effectively create or remove space in a particular environment so that you can cause little or no disturbance the environment as a whole when making your changes.

 

Environmental Lighting: Many people forget that lighting is included in any space changing project. You must have knowledge of how lighting works, and have a general idea of what is needed to install light fixtures in areas that do not have them already. Many homes are not equipped with lighting fixtures in some rooms. Of course, if you wish to change the lighting fixtures from general lamps to say, track lighting, you may have a problem if you do not understand how to install it.

Basic Plumbing & pipe structure: If adding or changing spaces in kitchens and bathrooms, plumbing fixtures are often changed or re-organized. You will need to understand their basic functions in order to effectively plan a change that involves them, or is to be done around them.

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Choosing Career As An Interior Designer

Have you ever seen a beautiful house or office building and wondered who did the work? Have you ever wished that you could do some of the work that you’ve seen elsewhere? Many people wonder what it would be like to be an Interior Designer, but they rarely ever go beyond thinking about it.

If you really want to know if Interior Design is right for, this article will be your comprehensive guide to the ins and outs of the business. In this article, you will learn what it takes to be an Interior Designer, what it costs to get certified, you will get all the techniques on how to get started, and much, much more.

An interior Designer is a consultant. You are there to beautify any particular environment as well as provide your clients with the service of explaining why you are recommending, and doing the things that your project will require. You must educate your client about interior design as well as design.
You have obviously given the idea of being an Interior Designer serious thought or you wouldn’t be reading this. Of course, like most people, you are probably wondering whether or not it is the right choice for you. I can guarantee you, that after you’ve read this, you will know for sure if Interior Design is the right career choice for your future.

Interior Design can be a very lucrative job choice for the right person. You might be wondering exactly what an Interior Designer does. It is really simple. An Interior Designer creates, organizes, and designs commercial and/or residential properties. Basically, an interior designer works with the
interior of a particular space, such as rooms, offices, boardrooms, and various other internal spaces.

Here is a list of some of the places that interior designers can work in.
•  Hotels                                            
•  Banks
•  Restaurants
•  Stadiums
•  Arenas
This doesn’t seem very broad, but think of all of the other types of homes and businesses that I didn’t mention. The possibilities are truly endless in this field. Interior Designers do more than just decorate a space. In some cases they can add extra rooms, design patios and gazebos, add or remove wall space, and they spend a great deal of time networking with people.

Interior Designers are responsible for creating a comfortable and relaxed space for their clients to live and/or work in. It is your duty to offer clients the best work that their needs, and budget can give. People put a great deal of trust in you, and you must reward that with the best final result possible.

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Big Questions About Muscle Food

Here are the answers to the questions most commonly asked about muscle building.

Q:  Will vitamin and mineral drinks help me bulk up?

A:  To answer this yourself, take a glance at the calorie content of your vitamin drink. Chances are you never knew how energy rich water could be. Plain water has no calories, which means you’re actually drinking flavoured water. Yes, you’ll get some vitamins, but you’ll also swig more kilos onto your frame. Some vitamin drinks contain as many calories as a soft drink and are sweetened with sugar or aspartame. This makes them nothing but glorified soft drinks and puts you in danger of being duped out of your water habit. In fact, Coca-Cola filed a lawsuit against Vitamin Water over the claims that Vitamin Water is good for you. If you’re looking for vitamins, you’re better off taking a multivitamin and sticking with plain water, especially if you’re trying to lose weight. If you’re trying to bulk up, drink plenty of plain water and have the odd vitamin drink when you’re away from your kitchen.

Q:  Are organic foods really worth the ex- tra coin if I’m trying to build muscle?
A:  That depends who you believe: the hippies or the suits. A study by the suits at Stan-ford University (Smith-Spangler et al., 2012) found that no nutritional difference exists between organic and convention-ally produced food. The levels of protein, fats and carbs were the same between
foods; however, the study didn’t measure the taste of the foods. Price is a big factor because eating healthy is more expensive than eating junk food. A good ploy is to always buy seasonal, locally produced grub because fresh food is the best for you. Both genetically modified (GM) and organic food from abroad have to travel, which depletes their nutrients. If you can’t be bothered to get to a market, visit online market sites and be a suit-wearing hippie who gets his food delivered to his door.

Q:  If I’m trying to bulk and be healthy, should I choose soy over diary?

A:  First up, milk is for babies. You’re not a baby, are you? Soy can be useful in the odd bowl of cereal. For people who are lactose intolerant, calcium-fortified soy milk is an alternative source of protein and calcium. However, the calcium in milk is absorbed better than that in soy milk, and milk has vitamin D, which is necessary for your bones. Low-fat milk has been l
inked to healthy blood pres-sure, colon and prostate health and even fat loss. The proponents of soy say that it can prevent prostate cancer and lower the risk of heart disease. However, it’s often recommended to menopausal women. As a red-blooded male, you should probably avoid anything that helps your mom bal-ance her hormones.

Q:  What should I do if I’m starving and  not near any eateries that serve healthy food?
A:  If you’re in a restaurant, there’s not a chef in the world who won’t make a steak with some blanched veggies. All you have to do is ask. That’s a pretty healthy option for anyone looking to lose weight or gain muscle. But if you’re dead set on gaining muscle even if it means adding a little
fat, eat whatever you like. You’re better off filling the gap with something high in protein such as a kebab or a burger than anything sugary or sweet. There’s nothing worse for your muscle-building ambitions than a grumbling stomach.

Q:  Is fresh or dried pasta better for building muscle?
A:  Nutritionally, no difference exists between the two. The fresh variety has more water to start with, but both types are the same once cooked. Most blokes generally eat too many carbs and not enough protein, so if you want to be ripped start by cutting these out at night.

Q:  Is the hype about omega-3 fatty acids all it’s cracked up to be?
A:  In a word, yes. Omega-3 fatty acids have been proven to—deep breath—boost memory, improve aerobic capacity, reduce chances of a heart attack, beat inflamma-tion, decrease joint pain, help reduce body fat and bolster muscle size. Try saying that fast. Look for a supplement with at least 1,000 milligrams of docosahexaenoic acid, the stuff that gives this fatty acid its potency, and drop two or three doses a day. If you have problems with aftertaste, stash the tablets in the freezer to put an end to fish burps. If better health, a longer life and abs that show are on your agenda, be sure to get fishy every day.

Q:  Is fresh or dried pasta better for building muscle?
A:  Nutritionally, no difference exists between the two. The fresh variety has more water to start with, but both types are the same once cooked. Most blokes generally eat too many carbs and not enough protein, so if you want to be ripped start by cutting these out at night.

Q:  Is the batter on fish really that bad?
A:  Batter is usually made from cheap, GM ingredients such as battery hen eggs and Eating Right
27 white flour. These ingredients can over-rule the goodness in fish once it’s deep fried. But if takeaway is on the menu, fish is the best option because it is still a good source of healthy protein. Ask for it grilled and you should have no problems

Q:  What’s the healthiest kind of concentrated fruit juice: with pulp or with-out?
A:  Juice concentrate is made when water is removed from fresh juice so that the juice can be transported easily. After transpor-tation, water is added to the concentrate and—presto—you can drink it as fruit juice. The flavour of concentrated juice is approximate to that of the fresh kind
but the nutritional content is the same. The pulp is rich in flavonoids, which are antioxidants that work in the same way as vitamin C. Pulp also contains fibre, which aids digestion and weight loss. Washing down your creatine with concentrated juice helps the creatine absorb into your muscles faster.

Now that you know how to build muscle with food, the next step is to learn how to use food to lose fat. The final section in this chapter teaches you how to get leaner in the fastest and healthiest way possible, without even having to sweat.

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