Pineapple, Good Example to Learn

Today has been an effective Monday for me. Now by lunch time, I have completed almost all the work items I planned to do for the whole day. As usual as every Monday, today morning, I wipe cleaned and tidied up all our home, especially the living room. Then I put the dirty clothes into the washing machine for its operation. Next, I washed some rugs and hung them out in the balcony for drying. Finally, I also put the washed clothes out for drying in the yard downstairs. As having finished all these things with a surprisingly inspirative spirit and without tiredness, I happily realized that my strength and mind have improved apparently as compared with last week.

The above encouraging progress of my health status and mood is partly thanks to my current treatment by the massage cushion combined with my proper daily nutrition regime with more fish, vegetables, fruits and yoghourt, less fat, more water, and regular exercises by jogging around the lake in front of my house everyday.

After a modest mini lunch with instant noodle as usual, I thought I should treat myself some fruit juice as a dessert and also a small bonus for my progress in health. Opening the fridge, I saw some various fruits, but came first to my nose only the attractive strong fragrance from pineapple juice. So I decided to drink a glass of it for refreshment.


Enjoying this juice, I suddenly imagined the strange shape & difficult thornful out-cover of pineapple fruit, so I felt this sweetness more tasty and fragrance more attractive. I have really admired pineapple for the impressive contrast between its rough-and-tough outside appearance and its inside bright yellow color containing fine qualities.






So curious to learn more about pineapples, this afternoon, I tried searching for some websites on good effects of this fruit. Such images as these below could help recall me of a period of my childhood (around the year 1972) when Hanoi city was in the war with the US army, my family had to evacuate to a rural region in Vinh Phu province and temporarily lived for some months in a farmer’s family’s house which was all surrounded by pineapple fields. As still appearing in my mind now, thousands of pineapple plants were grown in very dry and barren land without watering anytime.




However, for me, looking from afar, pineapple plants and fruits have their own beauty, the beauty of strength in growth.





As all of us can see, when getting ripe, after cleanly uncovered and processed in various ways, pineapple can become so nice and delicious-looking as in the following cakes or caramel:






Small-cut pieces of pineapple pulp can be mixed in good harmony with some vegetables, tofu, cashew, some herbs and onions, to make into healthy salads like the below:



It can become even more beautiful and charming as decorative accents for an ice-cream:



Or in the simplest way, pineapple fruit can be cut fresh into small pieces or big slices (depending on eaters' different tastes), mixed with some sugar, cooled in the fridge before being enjoyed as a wonderful dessert:




I am even more surprised at pineapple fruit beauty as it can combine with other fruits to create such unique fresh artworks as hereunder:



Recently, my new teacher of the fitness and fat-burning mini course online, who is an US professional body-builder, advised me to eat pineapple fruit and drink its juice more because this is one of the top fruits rich in Vitamin C, calcium and potassium, thus very good for protecting teeth, gum and mouth in general. Moreover, as I have begun my age of 41, I also need to think of preventing ageing and decreasing bone. So I like pineapple fruit for its manganese-rich content, which is good for my bone-building and repair function.

Admiring pineapple from its origin, then growth, to products with helpful beneficial uses for human beings, I am telling myself that I should learn from this natural plant its way of overcoming all surrounding difficulties to aim better goals in life.


These pineapple fruits look so beautiful and their pulp is surely more enjoyable !

New special friend in my home

This week has been running strangely fast, much faster than my previous ones. Each day has come and gone with apparently more lively activities. Do you know why ? Well, it’s a simple reason that I have just welcome a new special active friend into my home – that is the Shiatsu Massage Cushion SMC by Medisana. Since its appearance at the beginning of this week, my activity day has become much busier, more effective, and also more exciting with my training of some basic German home-therapy head and neck massage techniques with this lovely cushion.



For some months lately, for much concerned about my not-yet-recovered distorted voice status (that means still bad blood circulation in my head and neck), my darling Thang has made his considerable endeavors to search online and survey to many medical-care equipment and device shops in Hanoi, and he finally found and bought this German-made multi-functional massager called exactly Medisana Shiatsu-style Massage Cushion (SMC in short), which he considers most suitable for us with its small size, easy to handle, and most importantly, very effective in massaging our heads, necks, backs, as well as hands and feet.

Hearing Thang tell me to read the SMC manual for its use instructions, I felt so touched at my husband’s devoted care and thorough action for me that I could not express enough my thanks to him in words. Then I thought and keep thinking now that the best way of thanking him is my regular training with this massage cushion for some good result or visible certain progress of my health.

Delighted and hopeful for better improvement of my head and neck blood circulation, and also sometimes for my back pain relief with this cushion strong support, I was eager to read quickly but carefully all the main points of the operating manual. Through it, I have known that Shiatsu is a form of finger pressure massage and one of the most important massaging techniques along with manual lymphatic drainage and reflexology. This form of massage was developed in Japan but stems from traditional Chinese massage. Gentle stroking and beneficial pressure application techniques are used to awaken life forces and encourage them to flow through the body. The object of the massage is not just to ease tension, but also to optimise the flow of life force and harmonise body and soul.

Since the recent Monday afternoon, I have trained these massaging techniques 3 or 4 times everyday. I have felt this Medisana SMC Shiatsu Massage Cushion is a state-of-the-art device for genuine head and neck massage. With its 4 massage heads rotating in opposite pairs, the direction of rotation can be reversed. Additionally, the device is equipped with an optional heating function for massage heads. The combination of intensive massage and radiated heat makes the massage cushion an effective and relaxing treatment. During these recent days, depending on each exact position where my head or my neck was placed on the cushion, I felt each massage different, sometimes deeper, sometimes softer, altogether felt like someone’s fingers dexterously pressing on my spots on my head or neck, very relaxing and calm.



As said in the manual, the SMC will treat your tired muscles and tissues, thus improving your wellbeing after a stressful day. I believe so, and indeed felt my mind at ease and more optimistic after each massage. Therefore, I strong believe that with daily regular treatment, in some months’time, the cushion can help my blood circulation better, so to improve my voice, and provide me with pleasant relaxation and a peaceful mood for long. As it can also be used for massaging hands, legs, feet, and other parts, it is also useful for fitness, another area of my special attention now.

Last evening, sitting by my little Tuan along with the new friend being Shiatsu Massage Cushion, I was quite happy to be encouraged by my son, “Do you like to massage now, Mum ? Let me switch on the cushion and control it for you.” He stared at the massage cushion very curiously, then sometimes smilingly asked me,“How do you feel, Mum ? When you finish, please let me put off the power as per Dad’s guidelines”. I thought thanks to my husband being so active and dynamic, always looking for new things to serve us, all of us, especially I and my son have now enjoyed such favorable conditions with so modern technology of the world, so laborless and surely beneficial.

My darling and my son’s care and encouragement are firmly strong support for my higher determination to fight against my illness and get a better health because I understand deeply that for the time being, my good health partly means good happiness for my family.