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Can Sudoku keep you slim?

Can Sudoku keep you slim?

Forget hours in the gym or trying to find the time to squeeze in an hour-long yoga session, the new Sudoku diet promises to keep you slim and trim without having to leave your chair. But is it all it’s cracked up to be?

Research has now found that the time spent doing a difficult puzzle, quiz or crossword can burn off the amount of kilojoules found in most biscuits.

Keep in mind that this barely believable claim that puzzles can help you to lose kilojoules has come from mental-agility expert and researcher Tim Forrester, of cannyminds.com, a website full of brain-training games and exercises.

But is there any truth to Forrester’s claims of a puzzle-playing weight-loss regime?

Forrester explains that the brain is made up of millions of nerve cells called neurons which transmit messages to the body.

He told the Daily Mail that the neurons produce chemicals called neurotransmitters to relay their signals.

These neurons extract three-quarters of sugar glucose, available kilojoules and a fifth of oxygen from the blood to create neurotransmitters.

So doing difficult crosswords or a challenging Sudoku means your brain will crave more glucose and more kilojoules too, he said.

According to the research, doing a puzzle or quiz can burn an average of 90 kilojoules every hour. This is more kilojoules than you would find in an average chocolate-chip cookie, which contains 56 kilojoules.

But Australian medical experts have warned that although the process explained by Forrester may have some merit, simply doing puzzles won’t help you to lose weight.

Spokeswoman for the Dietitians Association of Australia Julie Gilbert said that when a diet sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

“This is absolutely true as a lot of diets promise to do a lot, but don’t deliver long-term success,” she said.

“People need to know that when they take on a diet they are mastering that diet,” she said.

“To be successful in weight loss you need to maintain your eating.

“This also includes implementing lifestyle changes, like learning portions sizes, learning to read food labels and learning to apply healthy eating to not just your home life, but in a social setting as well, like when you’re out to dinner or go on holidays.”

Julie said maintaining a healthy weight means having a good combination of diet and exercise.

“When trying to lose weight, 70 percent of weight loss will come from the food you eat while 30 percent will come from the exercise, so food does have quite a big impact,” she said.

Although it may not make you lose a lot of weight, puzzles can still be fun and get your brain working!

For some real weight loss solutions, check out these tips.

Your say: Do you enjoy puzzles like Sudoku?

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Tai chi helps stroke patients

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In a study published in Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair, Hong Kong researchers have discovered that tai chi can significantly improve quality of life in survivors of stroke.

Stroke victims are often left with balancing problems which may not be addressed by conventional physiotherapy.

However, the particular skills taught in tai chi — especially the ability to maintain balance while shifting weight and leaning in different directions — was shown to be of special benefit in helping these people face real-life challenges, such as standing in a bus or coordinating head, torso and limb movements while reaching for an item in the supermarket.

As a bonus, tai chi classes cost less than conventional physiotherapy and provide an opportunity for social interaction.

Your say: What do you think of these findings? Have you tried tai chi? Share with us below…

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Michael Buble Live!

When Michael Buble stopped off in Australia recently to promote his new album Crazy Love he was greeted by a crowd of adoring fans. We captured all of the fun, fans and fighting to catch a glimpse of the sexy singer when he performed on channel Nine’s Today Show.

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Chickpeas

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Chickpeas are a creamy, golden, mildly flavoured member of the legume family. High in protein and fibre, chickpeas are low in fat and have a low glycaemic index (GI) value.

If you don’t think you have ever eaten chickpeas, chances are you have and just didn’t know it. They are the basis of hummus dips and falafels — both popular foods in Australia. But don’t stop there. Chickpeas are a delicious and versatile addition to your regular diet — try some of our recipes.

Did you know?

The chickpea got its unusual name because it was thought it resembled a chicken’s beak.

Chickpea choices

Dried

If you buy dried chickpeas, it’s best to soak them overnight before use so they soften and take less time to cook. Be generous with the amount of water you soak them in and remember to use a large pot when cooking as they will expand to double their size.

If you don’t have time to pre-soak your chickpeas, you can use them dried but you will need to add about an hour to the cooking time. Dried chickpeas can be stored for up to a year in an airtight container in a cool dark place.

Canned

Great to have on-hand for instant use, canned chickpeas don’t need any soaking before use. Make sure you drain and rinse them well and discard any discoloured or cracked peas. Once opened, canned chickpeas can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Chickpea tips

  • Enhance one of your regular salad recipes by tossing some chickpeas through it.

  • When making soups try to use a variety of legumes including chickpeas. The nuttiness provides a unique flavour and is a great way to add some extra vegetables into your diet.

  • Make a batch of hummus at the beginning of the week and use it as a sandwich spread or a dip for vegetable sticks.

Your say: Do you enjoy chickpeas? What are your favourite chickpea recipes? Share with us below…

This information is provided by the Sanitarium Nutrition Service.

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Jerusalem: City of Faith

A city that has survived millennia of conflict to be the complex and fascinating place it is today, Jerusalem is like no other place on earth.

Jerusalem is 45 minutes drive and 3000 years from Tel Aviv. In Tel Aviv, thousands of carefree Israelis dance till dawn in nightclubs overlooking the Mediterranean, arms in the air, the words to the songs falling easily from their pretty young lips: Sex, sex, sex on the beach …

In Jerusalem, there is no sex on any beach, only prayers, lamentations and messianic yearnings stretching back over the centuries, behind the medieval limestone walls and towers of this desert city.

To say that there is no place on earth like Jerusalem is to indulge in massive understatement. No place has been more revered and ravaged, more conquered and re-conquered, more subject to the competing claims of hostile faiths and creeds than this small city at the end of a corridor of pale, broken hills.

Jerusalem is where history piles in on geography, squeezing it for space and air to breathe. You name the army, you name the civilisation or empire, you name the religious or national grouping and they have all been here. They have all come to conquer and lay waste, and to lay claim to its holy treasures – Canaanites, Israelites, Moabites, Hittites, Nabatites, Byzantines, Greeks, Romans, Persians, Crusaders, Saracens, Turks, Ottomans, Egyptians, British, Jordanians, Israelis again …

Jerusalem is as much a sacred site as a place where people live and work and pray, a “psychic empire”, according to the Israeli writer, Amos Elon, that has seized – and kept hold of – the imagination of Jews, Christians and Muslims for two millennia.

This is Abraham’s city. This is King David and King Solomon’s city. This is the place of Christ’s passion, crucifixion and resurrection. This is the city of the Via Dolorosa and Mary’s Tomb and David’s citadel.

This is where Mohammed stopped on his night voyage to heaven because, as one Jerusalem professor quipped – obviously he was a Jew! – “there are no direct flights from Mecca to heaven. You have to make a stopover in Jerusalem”. This is the city that Nebuchadnezzar destroyed and that mad King Herod rebuilt. This is where Pontius Pilate condemned Jesus and where the Last Supper was held, and where a crown of thorns was placed on this all-loving Jewish sectarian’s head. This is where the Crusaders arrived, waist-deep in the blood of their enemies, Muslims and Jews alike, and from where Saladin eventually sent them packing in 1187 AD.

This is where Israel’s legendary one-eyed general, Moshe Dayan, arrived nearly 800 years later, through the same gate that Jesus first entered on a donkey – to reclaim the city for the Jewish people after nearly 2000 years of exile. What irony. What perverse symmetry. The Nazarene peacemaker and the Jewish general. The Christian saint and the Israeli soldier.

To understand the power that Jerusalem holds over the collective imagination you only need to visit and contemplate one small patch of this ancient, blood-soaked town. Then you will begin to appreciate why it is said that even the jackals cry their biblical injunctions at night.

The place is known as the Temple Mount and you can reach it from various directions, through the narrow, cobbled, spice-filled alleyways of the Old City. (On this visit, I came at it via the Via Dolorosa, from the Stations of the Cross, where Jesus was once flagellated and scourged, and sent mockingly on his way to Golgotha.)

The Temple Mount is where you feel history, religion, nationalism, politics, fanaticism and biblical prophecy all colliding as one, and where you fear that if ever there were to be another Middle Eastern conflagration, it would be over this hallowed, contested spot. In the flat-earth cosmology of the Middle Ages, this was the centre of the universe. It still might be.

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Exclusive extract: *Complicit*

Half Broke Horses

Download your exclusive extract from Complicit by Nicci French here.

A story of friendship, desire and murder that moves backwards and forewords in time, drawing you in deeper and deeper. It’s a long, hot summer and carefree Bonnie falls madly in love with a gorgeous but dangerous man, only to plunge into a sticky web of lies and deceit. This is an absorbing and enthralling holiday read.

Read more about the best-seklling husband-and-wife Nicci French team of Nicci Gerrard and Sean French in the December issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly on page 346.

Receive $5 off the marked price of this month’s Great Read when you present the coupon in page 346 of the Decemberissue of the magazine at any Dymocks store.

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When the party’s over

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What do famous faces get up to beyond the velvet ropes of those swish A-list soirees? Some less than stellar behaviour.

Ouch! No, you’re not in physical agony, although the hangover is probably a doozy. Instead, this sting is a memory that you would give anything to forget. You’ve woken up and recalled dancing on the office photocopier, swinging on your neighbours’ curtains Tarzan-style or crash-tackling an off-duty Santa.

What’s worse is that others witnessed the dubious behaviour of your other self, the one that comes out only during party season.

Before you contemplate a one-way flight to Uzbekistan to avoid the humiliation, console yourself with one sobering thought – at least photographs of your shame won’t be published for the world to see the next day.

In other words, at least you’re not famous.

You see, celebrities make mistakes, too, only theirs often wind up as front-page fodder, allowing those of us denied access to their world of free champagne, famous friends and posh privilege a delicious slug of schadenfreude.

Tips for celebritoes

  • Wear underwear when you leave home and keep it on.

  • Enter a toilet cubicle solo.

  • Don’t be videotaped having sex – it will be leaked.

  • Don’t go back to work if you’ve had one too many and you’re a TV presenter.

  • “Plus one” on an invite means plus one person – not an entire entourage.

  • If you’re slurring the word “taxi”, you need one.

  • If you run a red light, just pay the damn ticket.

  • If you’re banging your head against a fence, it’s time to go home.

  • Remember that goodie bags are gifts, not rights.

Your say: What are your tips for surviving the silly season? Share with us below…

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Hey, Dad!

Photography by Peter Brew-Bevan. Styling by Maia Liakos

Photography by Peter Brew-Bevan. Styling by Maia Liakos

Missing out on the top spot in the Liberal party to Tony Abbott this week, Joe Hockey had been touted as a future Liberal leader and even PM. Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey has a demanding job, but, as he tells us, nothing compares to being a father.

Ignatius Theodore Babbage-Hockey. When Joe Hockey and wife Melissa Babbage named their third child, born on October 19, it was not on a whim. “Ignatius is for Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, and the creed of Ignatius was to be ‘a man for others’. That’s what we want our Ignatius to be, a man in the service of others,” explains Joe. “And his middle name is Theodore, meaning ‘gift from God’, and Ignatius is that because the doctors said Melissa, at 43, was too old to have another child.”

When Joe scaled Mount Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania in July to raise funds for children’s hospitals, he carried something more precious than water, energy bars and medical equipment. On reaching the summit, exhausted and elated, Joe fell to his knees, “and I buried Ignatius’ ultrasound X-ray.

Your say: Who do you think should lead the Liberal party into the next election? Share your thoughts below…

“The ultrasound was proof positive that the doctors were wrong and, besides, I think every child should start life from the top of the mountain,” he declares.

As crucial political issues go, the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is right up there. On Sunday, October 18, federal Liberal Party leader Malcolm Turnbull summoned his frontbenchers to Canberra to endorse the Opposition’s amendments to the government’s ETS policy. Yet shadow Treasurer Hockey was facing an even more important issue – Melissa was due to give birth to the baby in the ultrasound, at the Mater Hospital in North Sydney.

“When Malcolm said I had to be at the meeting, I told him it was a big ask because Melissa was due any moment, but I flew down,” Joe says.

“I was there for the morning session, but by the afternoon, I was really nervous. Finally, I told Malcolm, ‘The wrath of my colleagues is nothing compared to the wrath of my wife if I miss this birth. See ya!’ ”

When Ignatius was born, at 12.07pm the next day, Joe was at Melissa’s side, as delighted as when Ignatius’ brother and sister, Xavier, now four, and Adelaide, two-and-a-half, were born. “First, I felt relief when the baby was born healthy. Then I went, ‘It’s a boy!’ Then it struck me that he was a normal-sized baby, not a huge baby like his sister and brother had been,” recalls the proud dad.

Your say: What do you think of Joe Hockey? Share your thoughts below…

Read more from this interview in the December issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly out now with Julie Goodwin on the cover.

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My fight for life

Photography by Tim Bauer. Styling by Stav Hortis

Photography by Tim Bauer. Styling by Stav Hortis

Navy diver Paul de Gelder survived a savage shark attack, but despite his horrific injuries, as he tells us, he’s not going to let that stand in his way.

It was a beautiful February morning, with the early sun dancing on the still waters of Sydney Harbour. From his position, swimming on his back between Garden Island and Mrs Macquarie’s Chair, navy diver Paul de Gelder could see the elegant lines of the Opera House.

The anti-terrorism exercise was just another day at work for Paul, 32, but that was about to change in a heartbeat. He was struck from below, a bone-jarring jolt that took his breath away. In milliseconds, he flipped over and found himself staring straight into the cold, black eyes of a massive bull shark – one of the ocean’s most aggressive predators, known as “the pit bull of the sea”.

His left leg was in the shark’s jaws and he went to lash at the shark with his left hand, planning to jab it in the eye, but it was too late. Its razor-sharp teeth had already closed around his wrist. “I tried to push it off with my other hand and punch it on the nose, then it started shaking me,” says Paul. “Sharks have teeth that work like a saw and that’s when the pain started. It was all instinct: fight or flight.

“I didn’t feel anything after it shook me … the adrenalin kicked in. I didn’t have time to think. I didn’t even know that my hand was gone. It was only when I started swimming freestyle to get away and back to the boat that I looked up and there was no hand there.”

Amazingly, the former paratrooper had the presence of mind – after four years of intensive naval training – to sidestroke his way back to his boat.

His shocked colleagues hauled him aboard and, through his daze, he heard them swear. His face was so white, his supervisor thought he was dead. Yet, when Paul’s eyes started rolling back in his head, he punched him hard, to try to keep him awake. Everyone knew that was his only chance of survival.

The attack on Paul sent shockwaves around the country. It was the fifth shark attack in two months and the first in Sydney Harbour in a decade. A day later, a surfer was mauled off Bondi Beach. As hysteria reached fever pitch and made front-page news, Paul was fighting for his life in Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital.

His girlfriend of a year, Kim Elliott, 29, stayed by his side constantly.

“When they phoned me to say he’d been attacked by a shark, I didn’t believe it at first,” she says. “I thought it was a joke. But when they insisted and I asked if he was all right, they just said I should get to hospital quickly.

“The doctors there told me he’d lost a hand and would probably lose his leg, too. My first thought was that he wouldn’t be able to ride his beloved motorbike again, but then I was just thrilled he was alive.”

Paul begged the doctors to save his savagely mauled leg, but, unable to feel his foot, he was filled with dread. “They gave me the option: I could keep the leg, which would be useless and I’d just drag it around for years, or they’d take it off and give me a prosthetic. They explained that if they cut it off, I could be up and running with a prosthetic within 12 months. It wasn’t that tough a decision.”

Your say: What words of encouragement would you like to send to Paul? Did the spate of shark attacks last summer frighten you at all? Share your thoughts below…

Read the rest of this incredible story in the December issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly out now with Julie Goodwin on the cover.

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Not so Serena

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Coming out of a tough area of LA, Serena Williams isn’t your ordinary tennis champion. Sheer grit has seen her overcome huge obstacles to reclaim the world’s number one ranking. We find out what makes the superstar tick.

Two years ago, Serena Williams let out a mighty yelp. She was playing in the Australian Open, she was slow, overweight and had sunk to 81st in the world rankings. And she had just about had enough. At that moment, it was impossible to know whether she’d had enough of success or of failing.

In pictures: Super Serena

The yelp proved to be a turning point. Match by match, she remade herself. She slapped her thighs, swore at herself and forced herself on. Astonishingly, she reached the final to play the in-form Maria Sharapova.

So, that was that. After all, she’d played hardly any match tennis for two years and you couldn’t win a major on willpower alone. Former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash had called Serena “deluded” when she said she planned to be number one again.

Serena did not simply beat Sharapova that day, she annihilated her. It was one of the most unlikely victories the sport has seen. By the end, the woman who could barely stretch for a ball in her first match was lithe, fast, subtle and brutal.

After the match, she rolled on her back, legs kicking in the air like a puppy. She bowed and blew kisses, mouthed, “Oh my God!” and whooped and whooped again. Then she made a thank-you speech that said everything you needed to know about the rise and fall of Serena Jameka Williams.

“I would like to dedicate this win to my sister, who’s not here. Her name is Yetunde. I just love her so much … So, thanks, Tunde,” she said, before breaking down in tears. Tunde, her eldest sister, was killed in a drive-by shooting in Compton, Los Angeles, in 2003.

In September this year, Serena Williams completed what may well be regarded as world tennis’ most remarkable comeback, when, at a tournament in Japan, she overtook Russian Dinara Safina to reclaim the world number one ranking.

It’s a resurrection of Lazarus proportions, though not without bumps along the way, such as Serena’s extraordinary outburst at the US Open earlier that same month, when, in a semi-final against Belgian Kim Clijsters, she abused a line official, screaming that “if I could, I’d take this f—ing ball and shove it down your f—ing throat.”

The incident showed the world that serenity is a sometimes elusive state for Serena and gave a glimpse of the high pressure and deep emotions that simmer below the surface.

In 2003, Serena Williams became only the fifth woman in history to hold all four majors simultaneously. Today, she has reclaimed two of them, winning the 2009 Australian Open and Wimbledon titles, and, for good measure, taking the doubles titles in Melbourne and London with sister Venus, for the second successive year.

It’s an extraordinary story, but not one that comes on its own. It’s also the story of her sister, Venus, and of the whole Williams clan, and it belongs as much to myth and marketing as to fact.

Your say: What do you think of the Williams sisters? Do you think Serena is a good role model? Does it matter? Share your thoughts below…

Read more about Serena in the December issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly out now with Julie Goodwin on the cover.

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