International Commercial flights show down mistakenly List

Iran Air Flight 655
Korean Air Lines Flight 007

View all: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_disasters_by_death_toll#Aviation

Read More

Type A and Type B Personalities

Type A and Type B personalities are just excuses created by professionals to make people feel better. Besides it has been shown that more people who fit the Type B personality are prone to success as they are more willing to take risks. They think outside of the box. However no one is only Type A or only Type B but rather a mixture of both. Being motivated to be a great artist versus being motivated to be a great CEO both require motivation.

Read More

Ditch the Melatonin Pills for a Better Night's Rest

If you're in the same boat, give yourself a "relaxation period" at the end of the day before going to bed. Anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to give yourself to slow down and prepare yourself for sleep. This will aid in the natural process of melatonin secretion in your brain. Try dimming the lights, taking a break from the TV or computer, and giving yourself time to meditate or think deep. A warm bubble bath is a great accompaniment to it all.

Off and on I have tried melatonin pills as means of circumventing the effects of caffeine intake late in the day or evening. Recently, they have been giving me headaches, making me exhausted and tired during the day, and overall, been detrimental on my mood, mentally and physically.

I already know a better way to get a good night's sleep - go for a run during the day, or do some exercise whatever it may be. Eat healthy meals 3 times a day and avoid caffeine and soft drinks.


But I can't do that. It is so intertwined with my daily cycle that Im not sure I could break it even if I tried.

So, I will do my best to "have it all" without using the Melatonin pills.

What is important here is that you're giving your body time to de-stress. If you go straight to bed, you still carry all the stress from today into tomorrow. Giving yourself time to process things, and come to solutions and ideas, will give you less stress the next day. Try it out!

Read More

Amazon Software Engineer Intern Interview : What To Expect

Interview length: Two 45 minute back-to-back interviews

Preparation given: The evening before, the morning of

I had an on-campus interview with Amazon yesterday. The recruiters live up to their reputation. The interview felt more like a test rather than a standard "why do you want to work for us, what will you bring us" questionnaire. I spent the day before brushing up on terminology and reading other peoples' stories on how their interviews went. Every interviewee signs a non-disclosure form so I cannot share the questions that I was given, but I can say a few things about the process to help you.

First, you need to brush up on your knowledge of com sci courses- everything ranging from digital logic, discrete mathematics, to data structures. These are all areas that they want to test their future hires to make sure they understand. You  don't need to know every single data structure out there, but avoid the mistake that I made; for some reason, I went into the interview thinking "data structures" referred to the data structure defined in Java. Data structures refer to any models that handle data; i.e. Sets, Trees, Maps, Queues, etc.

Second, know algorithms and how they work. Runtimes and Big O notation are very important to know. You will more than likely be tested on your knowledge of these. I perceive Amazon to be a company seeking out the best time-constraint algorithms out there, so naturally, they want to know if you can solve problems with algorithms that run fast.

There are a few areas of error that I should have been more careful on , but I wasnt. Namely, the second interviewer gave me the same code question to solve as the first interviewer. Not thinking, I said, easy, you do it like this. Im sure that will come back to haunt me as I am not given an offer! I wasn't sure if it was some sort of test by asking it again or not- you'd think they would have coordinated who would ask what questions.

The 45 minute interviews go by pretty fast. Sooner than expected, the interviewer will say that time is up, and you will either move to your second interviewer, or finish for the day. 

The interviewers are not like normal interviewers, in the sense that they dont care so much who you are as to what you know. During the interviews, they want answers. You either answer correctly or you dont. They helped me to an extent in areas that I had forgotten some of the terminology with- but Im sure that reflected negatively in my review. When you give an answer- make sure you know it works. They will not hesitate to dissect your answer to make sure you fully understand what you are talking about.


For example, if you write an algorithm that checks if the parameter int is an even integer greater than 0, remember to ask yourself these questions:

What are different ways to test this method? Different values for the parameter? How does the algorithm handle them? 

Is this the simplest way to solve the problem? What alternative implementations could be done and how do they compare in efficiency?

Another thing to note is, you will be coding under pressure. You will be asked to give solutions to problems on the spot, whether you visualize and repeat orally, or write it down on paper. What really irked me was the fact that no time limit was specified or general amount of time to spend on it. I guess they assume everyone to have a solution within minutes of starting. Then again, the problems are not too challenging, so you shouldn't have to take any longer to figure them out.

My advice: Treat this interview like a midterm exam. Starting to prepare for it the night is a bad idea. Do as many simple algorithm questions as you can - writing code to solve problems. Write the code out or try and visualize it, as you are expected to do one or the other during the interviews. Personally, Ive never been a visualizer with code. They dont mind if you chose one item over the other. There are a ton of websites out there where you can do test problems (e.x. www.codingbat.com ) , and even more sites that offer problems with solutions.

After the interview: When "interview mode" was off on the interviewers, they were very friendly individuals. Not to say they werent during the interview, but there was a clear change in behavior from professional to relaxed and casual. In discussing their own experiences, they only had raving things to say about Amazon. They give you time to ask questions about the company. If you feel comfortable with the interview thus far, ask some general questions, like "What type of work do interns normally do over the summer?" or "what made you choose to work for Amazon?" and "Have you ever interned with Amazon?"

Read More

Best BPM to Run At Chart

10 min/km	9 min/km	8 min/km	7 min/km	6 min/km	5 min/km	4 min/km
16 min/mile	14 min/mile	12 min/mile	10 min/mile	9 min/mile	8 min/mile	6 min/mile
150bpm	153bpm	156bpm	160bpm	163bpm	166bpm	171bpm

Read More

Monster & Motivation

I went over to the local Walmart, not looking for anything particular, and got myself a 10 pack of Monster energy for about $15. For $1.50 a monster, instead of $2, it wasn't too bad of a deal.

Especially not a bad deal, considering the benefits I've gained from it. Im not here to endorse Monster, but from personal experience, it sets a driving force in you that is sometimes lost with week in and week out of workloads. For the last 5 hours, I have been programming, with one goal in mind; completing what I started. Am I freaking out about not finishing ? No. Am I worried I'll fall asleep? Definitely not... 

The big players in energy drinks are the surge of B vitamins, Ginseng, Taurine, and high amounts of caffeine. All these stimulants combined gives you an alertness equivalent to a few cups of coffee. Considering the high dosage of stimulants, you shouldn't drink more than one in an hour, or more than 2 in a day. You might have some heart complications should you choose to do otherwise. It is also a bad idea mixing with alcohol- although we all love Jager bombs. Mixing stimulants with depressants is a badddd idea. Especially caffeine-  mixed with alcohol will often result in a loss of memory of the previous night.

Anyway...back to the grind.

Read More

Your life is now.

Your life is now.

It is not what you did, or looked like, or lifted yesterday. It is not what you will do tomorrow or hope to achieve with your physique in the future. It is now. Do you ever notice that "I really couldn't give 2 wanks and a rats ass" feeling you get when some arrogant, has-been jerk says, "'oh yeah, I used to be really freakin' huge maaaan! I bench pressed 4 million pounds!" As Mr. Personality continues his self centered, biased story of what he used to be, you find yourself extremely uninterested to the point where you'd rather jack off your grandpa! Well, thats how others feel when you and I talk about what we used to do or what we are dead set to accomplish in the world of muscle and fitness. People are impressed only with what you are NOW.

Today is your opportunity to live the real life. Today is your time to get out of the swamp of the status quo. Yes, today is your time to give purpose and drive to your fitness life. Don't keep doing the "Easy" exercises. Don't just do a certain number of reps and sets- no matter if you are straining or not. Don't stop your sets when the burn and pain starts. Remember, now is your time. This is your hour. When I'm in the gym, I see people who are about as focused as a fart. They are all over the road. They'll run many different half-assed exercises together and wonder why they look no different that last year.

Fear can be a bad thing in your life, but it can also yield results.The only fear you need is the fear that you will continue living a life much smaller than your hopes and dreams'.. and awake someday to find yourself past your prime, a product of your mediocre lifestyle as a fitness enthusiast. Or worse yet, you might die unexpectedly tomorrow, next week or next month with your music still in you. Your life is now. Your life is now, or never. When I turned 30, this hit me hard. Up to that point, I was in my 20's. IT didn't matter how late into my 20's I was, I was still in my 20's! Then 30 hit. I realilzed that IF I'm going to be muscular and strong, it had better happen now. Yes, you can be big and strong into your 40's. But I think many agree that the 30's are where its at! I had to decide that the time was now.

You possess unfathomable strength and ability, but you are rarely calling on your tremendous mental and physical resources. They demand to be stretched, exercised and challenged. They demand to be used to their full capacity. The reward your abilities promise is nothing short of greatness and excellence. Have you ever been told you have "potential'" Let me tell you something about "potential"'''. "potential" means that you're not doing it. Think about it'' Would you say that Jay Cutler has "potential?" No, because he's doing it! He's training hard, eating big, and keeping his focus. He is past the "potential" stage. Thats where I want all of us to be. To be to the place where every week we are setting and reaching goals in our fitness. Be it strength, size, or just a funny story from your daily walk as a bodybuilding enthusiast as proof that you are living the life and having a great time doing it!

Let me be blunt, in hopes of making my true point: Everyday you step into the gym, and do not commit yourself to greatness, you are falling asleep, allowing yourself to suffocate in an atmosphere of mediocrity. Is the spirit-killing atmosphere I reference real? Bodybuilding is supposed to be such a positive and demanding sport where just by association with it, you start aiming to better yourself. You only need to look at the newspaper or TV to know we are surrounded by negativity that cares little about inspiring greatness. You are never far from people who care nothing about being different, better, stronger, trying harder, or aiming higher. You know who they are. You get stares and double takes from them at the store when you have to go from the gym, to the store to get more protein for supper. With your swole still in full effect, you got cannonball shoulders bursting out of your sleeveless shirt, and swole chest trying to bust its way out. Furthermore, you're freaking everybody out with pipeline veins crawling beneath the surface of your skin'' so much that it causes all the heroine addicts to orgasm! Yes indeed, you live in an atmosphere of mediocrity, and like poison gas it will dull you, bore you, disillusion you and lessen you if you don't wake up and do something about it. If you are not getting comments from people about your physique, you are still in the mediocrity. If people at work are not tripping out on your disciplined and strict dietary practices, you are still in the mediocrity.

My friend, your life is now. Take a stand against mediocrity, weakness, skinnyness, and obesity. Make your greatness non-negotiable. Put it into higher gear.

Read More

11 Things to Know at 25(ish)

This article is just terrific. Must read for anyone in their early or mid 20's!

What you need to know to be a real adult.

When you’re 25-ish, you’re old enough to know what kind of music you love, regardless of what your last boyfriend or roommate always used to play. You know how to walk in heels, how to tie a necktie, how to give a good toast at a wedding and how to make something for dinner. You don’t have to think much about skin care, home ownership or your retirement plan. Your life can look a lot of different ways when you’re 25: single, dating, engaged, married. You are working in dream jobs, pay-the-bills jobs and downright horrible jobs. You are young enough to believe that anything is possible, and you are old enough to make that belief a reality.

1. You Have Time to Find a Job You Love

Now is the time to figure out what kind of work you love to do. What are you good at? What makes you feel alive? What do you dream about? You can go back to school now, switch directions entirely. You can work for almost nothing, or live in another country or volunteer long hours for something that moves you. There will be a time when finances and schedules make this a little trickier, so do it now. Try it, apply for it, get up and do it.

When I was 25, I was in my third job in as many years—all in the same area at a church, but the responsibilities were different each time. I was frustrated at the end of the third year because I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do next. I didn’t feel like I’d found my place yet. I met with my boss, who was in his 50s. I told him how anxious I was about finding the one perfect job for me, and quick. He asked me how old I was, and when I told him I was 25, he told me I couldn’t complain to him about finding the right job until I was 32. In his opinion, it takes about 10 years after college to find the right fit, and anyone who finds it earlier than that is just plain lucky. So use every bit of your 10 years: try things, take classes, start over.

2. Get Out of Debt and Stay Out of Debt

Part of being a healthy, mature adult is learning to live within your means all the time, even if that means going without things you think you need, or doing work you don’t love for a while to be responsible financially. The ability to adjust your spending according to your income is a skill that will serve you your whole life.

There will be times when you have more money than you need. In those seasons, tithe as always, save like crazy, and then let yourself buy fancy shampoo or an iPad or whatever it is you really get a kick out of. When the money’s not rolling in, buy your shampoo from the grocery store and eat eggs instead of steak—a much cheaper way to get protein. If you can get the hang of living within your means all the time—always tithing, never going into debt—you’ll be ahead of the game when life surprises you with bad financial news.

I know a lot of people who have bright, passionate dreams but who can’t give their lives to those dreams because of the debt they carry. Don’t miss out on a great adventure God calls you to because you’ve been careless about debt.

3. Don’t Rush Dating and Marriage

Now is also the time to get serious about relationships. And “serious” might mean walking away from a dating relationship that’s good but not great. Some of the most life-shaping decisions you’ll make during this time will be about walking away from good-enough, in search of can’t-live-without. One of the only truly devastating mistakes you can make in this season is staying with the wrong person even though you know he or she is the wrong person. It’s not fair to that person, and it’s not fair to you.

“Who are you dating?” “Do you think he’s the one?” “Have you looked at rings?” It’s easy to be seduced by the romance-dating-marriage narrative. We confer a lot of status and respect on people who are getting married—we buy them presents and consider them as more adult and more responsible.

But there’s nothing inherently more responsible or more admirable about being married. I’m thankful to be celebrating my 10th wedding anniversary this summer, but at the same time, I have a fair amount of friends whose marriages are ending—friends whose weddings we danced at, whose wedding cake we ate, whose rings we oohed-and-aahed over but that have been taken off fingers a long time ago.

Some people view marriage as the next step to happiness or grown-up life or some kind of legitimacy, and in their mad desire to be married, they overlook significant issues in the relationship.

Ask your friends, family members and mentors what they think of the person you’re dating and your relationship. Go through premarital counseling before you are engaged, because, really, engagement is largely about wedding planning, and it’s tough to see the flaws in a relationship clearly when you’re wearing a diamond and you have a deposit on an event space.

I’m kind of a broken record on this. My younger friends will tell you I say the same things over and over when they talk to me about love, things like, “He seems great—what’s the rush?” and, “Yes, I like her—give it a year.” And they’ve heard this one a million times: “Time is on your side.” Really, it is.

4. Give Your Best to Friends and Family

While twentysomethings can sometimes spend a little too much energy on dating and marriage, they probably spend too little energy on friendships and family. That girl you just met and now text 76 times a day probably won’t be a part of your life in 10 years, but the guys you lived with in college, if you keep investing in them, will be friends for a lifetime. Lots of people move around in their 20s, but even across the distance, make an effort to invest in the friendships that are important to you. Loyalty is no small thing, especially in a season during which so many other things are shifting.

Family is a tricky thing in your 20s—to learn how to be an adult out on your own but to also maintain a healthy relationship with your parents—but those relationships are really, really worth investing in. I have a new vantage point on this now that I’m a parent. When my parents momentarily forget I’m an adult, I remind myself that someday this little boy of ours will drive a car, get a job and buy a home. I know that even then it will be hard not to scrape his hair across his forehead or tell him his eyes are looking sleepy, and I give my parents a break for still seeing me as their little girl every once in a while.

5. Get Some Counseling

Twenty-five is also a great time to get into counseling if you haven’t already, or begin round two of counseling if it’s been a while. You might have just enough space from your parents to start digging around your childhood a little bit. Unravel the knots that keep you from living a healthy, whole life, and do it now, before any more time passes.

Some people believe emotional and psychological issues should be solved through traditional spiritual means—that prayer and pastoral guidance are all that’s necessary when facing issues of mental health. I disagree. We generally trust medical doctors to help us heal from physical ailments. We can and should trust counselors and therapists to help us resolve emotional and psychological issues. Many pastors have no training in counseling, and while they care deeply about what you’re facing, sometimes the best gift they can give you is a referral to a therapist who does have the education to help you.

Faith and counseling aren’t at odds with one another. Spiritual growth and emotional health are both part of God’s desire for us. Counseling—like time with a mentor, personal scriptural study, a small group experience and outside reading—can help you grow, and can help you connect more deeply with God.

So let your pastor do his or her thing, and let the person who has an advanced degree in mental health help you with yours.

6. Seek Out a Mentor

One of the most valuable relationships you can cultivate in your 20s is a mentoring relationship with someone who’s a little older, a little wiser, someone who can be a listening ear and sounding board during a high change season. When I look back on my life from 22 to 26, some of the most significant growth occurred as a direct result of the time I spent with my mentor, Nancy.

The best way to find a mentor is to ask, and then to work with the parameters they give you. If someone does agree to meet with you, let it be on their terms. Nancy and I met on Wednesdays at 7 in the morning. I guarantee that was not my preference. But it was what worked for her life, so once a month I dragged myself out of the house in what felt to me like the dead of night. It also helps to keep it to a limited-time period. It’s a lot to ask of someone to meet once a month until the end of time. But a one-year commitment feels pretty manageable for most people, and you can both decide to sign on for another year or not, depending on the connection you’ve made.

7. Be a Part of a Church

Twenty-five is the perfect time to get involved in a church you love, no matter how different it is from the one you were a part of growing up. Be patient and prayerful, and decide that you’re going to be a person who grows, who seeks your own faith, who lives with intention. Set your alarm on Sunday mornings, no matter how late you were out on Saturday night. It will be dreadful at first, and then after a few weeks, you’ll find that you like it, that the pattern of it fills up something inside you.

8. Find a Rhythm for Spiritual Disciplines

Going out into “the real world” after high school or college affects more than just your professional life. Where once you had free time, a flexible schedule and built-in community, now you have one hour for lunch, 10 days max to “skip” work and co-workers who are all over the place in age, stage of life and religion.

In those first few years of work-life, it’s easy to get too busy, too stressed and too disconnected to keep up spiritual habits you may have built in school. Figuring out how to stay close to God and to grow that relationship through activities and disciplines that complement your new schedule is critical for life now—and those habits will serve you for years to come.

One of the best routines I adopted in my 20s was a monthly solitude day. In addition to my daily prayer time, I found I lived better if once a month I took the time to pray, read, rest and write, to ask myself about the choices I’d made in the past month and to ask for God’s guidance in the month to come. Some of the most important decisions I made in that season of life became clear as a result of that monthly commitment.

9. Volunteer

Give of your time and energy to make the world better in a way that doesn’t benefit you directly. Teach Sunday school, build houses with Habitat for Humanity, serve at a food pantry or clean up beaches on Saturdays.

It’s easy to get caught up in your own big life and big plan in your 20s—you’re building a career, building an identity, building for a future. Find some place in your life where you’re building for a purpose that’s bigger than your own life or plan.

When you’re serving on behalf of a cause you’re passionate about, you’ll also connect in a deep way with the people you’re serving with, and those connections can yield some of your most significant friendships.

When you serve as a volunteer, you can gain experience for future careers. Instead of, for example, quitting your banking job to pursue full-time ministry, volunteer to lead a small group, and see where it goes from there. Use volunteer experiences to learn about causes and fields you’re interested in, and consider using your vacation time to serve globally.

10. Feed Yourself and the People You Love

If you can master these things, you’re off to a really great start: eggs, soup, a fantastic sandwich or burger, guacamole and some killer cookies. A few hints: The secret to great eggs is really low heat, and the trick to guacamole is lime juice—loads of it. Almost every soup starts the same way: onion, garlic, carrot, celery, stock.

People used to know how to make this list and more, but for all sorts of reasons, sometime in the last 60 or so years, convenience became more important than cooking and people began resorting to fake food (ever had GU?), fast food and frozen food. I literally had to call my mom from my first apartment because I didn’t know if you baked a potato for five minutes or two hours.

The act of feeding oneself is a skill every person can benefit from, and some of the most sacred moments in life happen when we gather around the table. The time we spend around the table, sharing meals and sharing stories, is significant, transforming time.

Learn to cook. Invite new and old friends to dinner. Practice hospitality and generosity. No one cares if they have to sit on lawn furniture, bring their own forks or drink out of a Mayor McCheese glass from 1982. What people want is to be heard and fed and nourished, physically and otherwise—to stop for just a little bit and have someone look them in the eye and listen to their stories and dreams. Make time for the table, and you’ll find it to be more than worth it every time.

11. Don’t Get Stuck

This is the thing: When you hit 28 or 30, everything begins to divide. You can see very clearly two kinds of people. On one side, people who have used their 20s to learn and grow, to find God and themselves and their dreams, people who know what works and what doesn’t, who have pushed through to become real live adults. Then there’s the other kind, who are hanging onto college, or high school even, with all their might. They’ve stayed in jobs they hate, because they’re too scared to get another one. They’ve stayed with men or women who are good but not great, because they don’t want to be lonely. They mean to find a church, they mean to develop intimate friendships, they mean to stop drinking like life is one big frat party. But they don’t do those things, so they live in an extended adolescence, no closer to adulthood than when they graduated.

Don’t be like that. Don’t get stuck. Move, travel, take a class, take a risk. There is a season for wildness and a season for settledness, and this is neither. This season is about becoming. Don’t lose yourself at happy hour, but don’t lose yourself on the corporate ladder either. Stop every once in a while and go out to coffee or climb in bed with your journal.

Ask yourself some good questions like: “Am I proud of the life I’m living? What have I tried this month? What have I learned about God this year? What parts of my childhood faith am I leaving behind, and what parts am I choosing to keep? Do the people I’m spending time with give me life, or make me feel small? Is there any brokenness in my life that’s keeping me from moving forward?”

Now is your time. Walk closely with people you love, and with people who believe God is good and life is a grand adventure. Don’t get stuck in the past, and don’t try to fast-forward yourself into a future you haven’t yet earned.
Give today all the love and intensity and courage you can, and keep traveling honestly along life’s path.

Source: http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life/whole-life/features/25956-11-things-to-know-at-25ish

Read More

Libyan Civil war - NATO bombs the Great Man-Made River

After seeing this photo, I was intrigued to figure out the truth. This came from a page of a conspirator, so I was hesitant at best to believe that any of it was true... So I began to dig.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Manmade_River

My Next stop was Wikipedia- learning about the Great Manmade River. Apparently Gaddafi did have some interest in his people after completing what they called the "eight wonder of the world."






So what really happened? My next site I ventured to was Human Rights Investigations.org
http://humanrightsinvestigations.org/2011/07/27/great-man-made-river-nato-bombs/

Here they offered a complete context of what took place; apparently Gaddafi forces had been using the water factories to hide military weapons. NATO and US claim that minimal damage was done to the infrastructure... who knows?

Read More

Don’t Drain Your Brain! Eating Tips for a Killer Memory & Laser Focus

If I were to tell you that eating certain foods in the right combination will make you more alert and focused, would you give them a try?  How about if I told you that some of your food choices are literally draining your brain power? Would you think twice before chowin’ down on them?

The bad news – it’s true!
The good news – you don’t have to completely overhaul your diet in order to get results.

Three factors influence what I like to call your “brain power”:  meal composition (the foods that make up your meal), meal size and meal frequency. Allow me to break it all down for you:

Meal composition:


Carbohydrates:
Seratonin, the chemical in your body responsible for calmness and sleep, is triggered by carbohydrates.  A meal or snack high in simple sugars will produce more serotonin and sedate your brain.  Not exactly what you need when you’re trying to study for that big exam, is it?  Another reason to limit the sweets: they enter your bloodstream at a rapid rate, leaving you “crashing and burning” within the hour.  Simple sugars include foods like: cake, candy, cookies, frostings, fruit drinks, syrups, sodas, sweet tea, table sugar, etc.

Stick with “brain building” carbohydrates like whole grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes, low fat milk and yogurt.  They digest nice and slowly, delivering a steady stream of glucose (your brain’s preferred fuel source) to your brain.

Hint:  If you are really craving something sweet like a piece of candy or cake, eat it after a meal to weaken the serotonin effect.


Protein:
Dopamine is the chemical in your body responsible for revving up your brain, making you alert, energetic and focused.  It’s triggered by protein-rich foods like dairy products, eggs, meats, seafood and soy.  Be careful because a “brain building” protein can turn into a “brain draining” one depending on how it’s prepared- cold cuts, fried or breaded meats and those covered in cream sauces will put you in a slump.

Hint: The American Dietetic Association and The American Heart Association recommend eating 2 servings of lower mercury fish per week.  Salmon and canned or pouched light tuna are two good sources of brain building omega 3 fatty acids that are lower in mercury.  Each serving is 3.5 ounces cooked, or about ¾ cup of flaked fish. Fish with higher mercury levels should be avoided: Shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tilefish.

Fat:
You have a fat head.  Really!  Your brain is made up of two-thirds fat, so eating enough of it is important.  “Brain building” fats include monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.  Monounsaturated fats promote healthy blood blow to your brain and include olives, olive oil, nuts and seed, peanut oil, canola oil and avocados.  Polyunsaturated fats, specifically omega 3 fatty acids, are the main structural component of your brain. Eat them and you’ll have a much higher functioning noggin!  They include herring, mackerel, salmon, sardines, trout, tuna, chia seeds, canola oil, flaxseeds, flaxseed oil, soybean oil and walnuts.  Because they are calorie-rich, remember to keep portion sizes small when it comes to oils, nuts and seeds.

Your brain hates trans fats (trans fatty acids), otherwise known as “brain draining” fats.  That’s because it’s not a natural fat, so it stands to reason that it doesn’t act naturally in your body.  Trans fats make their way into your brain cells, line your brain cell membranes and disrupt communication, resulting in diminished mental performance.  In other words, your brain malfunctions in the presence of trans fat.  Possible trans fat-containing foods include:  cookies, crackers, doughnuts, foods fried in partially hydrogenated oils (fried chicken, French fries), frostings, margarine, pastry, potato chips, shortening, snack cakes and tortillas.

To check if a food is made with trans fat, look at the Nutrition Facts Label for grams of trans fat and also under the ingredient list for the words “partially hydrogenated oils.”

Hint:  Carbohydrate, protein, and fat are all necessary components of a meal. Take out the carbs and your brain won’t have a reliable source of glucose to function properly, take out the protein and you may not be as alert, take out the fat and it’s just like eating Chinese food…you’ll get hungry in an hour!


B-Vitamins & Choline:
B-vitamins help your body take the energy from the foods you eat and turn it into energy you can use.  Without B-vitamins it would be difficult for your brain to operate at its peak.  Fruits, vegetables, grains, dairy products, meats, beans, soy, seafood, nuts and eggs are all good sources of B-vitamins.  As you can see, it’s pretty easy to get your B-vitamins if you follow a balanced diet with lots of variety!

Choline belongs to the B-vitamin family and improves thought, memory and focus.  Eggs, soybeans, wheat germ and whole wheat products are all rich in choline, so be sure to have them on your plate during exam week!

Antioxidants:
Free radicals are harmful substances in your body that cause damage and loss of brain function over time.  Your body naturally eliminates some, but not all of them.  This is where food comes in to finish the job.  Antioxidant-rich foods in particular are what you are after.  Antioxidants literally act like a broom, sweep up these nasty free radicals and eliminate them from your body.  This means a healthier body and brain.  Foods high in antioxidants include fruits (especially berries), colorful vegetables, dark chocolate, legumes, oats, green tea, spices, nuts and garlic.

Meal size:

Larger meals that are higher in calories take longer to digest, contribute to serotonin production, make you sleepy and diminish your mental performance.  Lighter meals with fewer calories, on the other hand, will not only nourish your body and brain, but will keep you energized and with peak mental focus.

You probably have to be at your most sharp during daylight hours, so breakfast, lunch and snacks should be lighter on the calories.

Meal frequency:

If it’s extra energy and more focus that you’re after, it is critical that you “refuel” every few hours.  This includes the most important meal of the day – breakfast of course!  To break the overnight fast that happens when you sleep, breakfast is a must.  When your blood sugar levels drop below a certain level, say after about four hours with no food, your stress hormones go up in an attempt to raise your blood sugar.  This process weakens your brain and your ability to concentrate suffers!

Focusing on that boring lecture and studying for your first exam will come much easier when you:  eat often, eat light, and fuel your brain with a wide variety of “brain building” carbohydrates, proteins and fats.  If you’re dying for something sweet, go ahead and have a small portion of ice cream…after you’ve eaten a well-balanced meal!

Read More