Invest in a blood pressure monitor

High blood pressure is known as the "silent killer". About one in three adults in the US is likely to develop high blood pressure at some point in their lives, but unless you monitor your blood pressure regularly, you will not realize that you've a problem until its too late. Your blood pressure varies throughout the day, and may be especially high after exercise or if you're feeling stressed out. Therefore, an accurate assessment of your blood pressure requires periodic random measurements to obtain an average reading. Furthermore, some people may suddenly develop high blood pressure after a stressful event, or for no reason at all. And everyone's blood pressure slowly climbs as we age and our blood vessels harden. For these reasons, buying a good blood pressure monitor is an excellent investment. It will help you and your family constantly monitor your blood pressure, and take preventive measures as soon as a problem develops. High blood pressure, if untreated, will gradually cause deterioration of blood vessels, leading to glaucoma, gangrene, heart disease, or stroke.

Blood pressure monitors can be divided into manual and digital devices. Manual monitors come with a cuff, a stethoscope, and a pressure gauge. They are usually cheaper, typically below $25, but require some operator training, and pressure readings may differ depending on who is doing the measurement. Furthermore, they tend to break easily, especially if the cuff is routinely over-inflated, and their readings may drift over the years as the mechanical parts wear down. Modern digital blood pressure monitors are typically much better than manual devices. They are more expensive, but the machine automatically inflates and deflates the cuff, ensuring consistency of readings and ensuring that over-inflation will not occur, which helps increase the life-span of the cuff. Furthermore, most machines come with replaceable cuffs which can be changed when they wear out. Many machines also read heart rate and may be able to detect irregular heart rhythm, which is a very dangerous and potentially fatal condition. The best digital machines are FDA certified and clinically tested to be accurate over their lifetimes.

The most trusted blood pressure monitors are those from Omron. They are FDA tested, and carefully engineered to inflate the cuff to an ideal pressure during use. The Omron monitors are widely considered to be the most accurate and reliable by primary physicians and pharmacists. Different models come with different capabilities. Some are able to hold readings in memory and average them for you. Most models are able to detect heart rate and rhythm. Another decent manufacturer is Microlife, although they are not as popular as the Omron monitors.

Monitoring your blood pressure at home is uncomplicated and convenient if you have a good blood pressure monitor. Buying a blood pressure monitor is a relatively cheap and valuable investment which will help you enjoy a healthier and longer life.

Click here to see most popular blood pressure monitors at Amazon.com

Save 80% on Teva women's Tamur casual hiking shoes

Teva is a very good and pricey brand for outdoor footwear. They make a series of shoes of sandals for running, hiking, camping, and water sports.Normally, their shoes go for $80-$120 on their website, and even on Zappo.com, they go for $70-$100. However, Amazon occasionally sells shoes with deep discounts from list price when shoe companies want to clear their inventory.

Recently, Amazon has listed the Teva Women's Tamur Casual Hiker shoes on sale for $18.28. This is an incredible deal, as the lowest price listed by PriceGrabber is in the $40s. All reviews raved that this is an incredibly comfortable shoe, and is very very good for hiking and also for casual wear.

There are however a few catches for the particular shoe on offer. Firstly, the shoe on offer is only available in one of the more unpopular colors, a darker shade of brown, called Espresso. Secondly, the shoe is slightly shorter than one would expect based on the shoe size. In other words, it is best to get the shoe a half-size larger than what you would normally wear. Other than these points, this is an exceptional shoe on sale at a great price.

The sale prices are applicable to most sizes in Espresso color, size 5, 6 , 6.5, 9.5 in Dust Cloud color and size 5.5, 6.5, 9.5 in Mud Flat color.

Click here to see Teva Women's Tamur Casual Hiker shoes on Amazon.

Schwinn 230 recumbent exercise bike Review

Over the Christmas holidays, we bought a Schwinn 230 recumbent exercise bike from Dick's sporting goods because it was on sale. A recumbent exercise bike is preferred over an upright bike because it better supports the back while cycling. A bike exercises the thigh and leg muscles, which are the largest muscles in the body, and is mainly used for aerobic/caloric exercise (exercises the heart and helps you lose weight). Bikes are the most popular options for home exercise, because they have a small footprint.

The Schwinn 230 recumbent exercise bike is well built and engineered. While it came in many small pieces which barely fit into a regular sedan without the packaging and looked quite intimidating to assemble, installation turned out to be a snap. The Schwinn 230 bike has 8 resistance levels, comfortable wide pedals, and an integrated heart rate monitor on the grips. The bike can be programmed with any combination of resistance levels, and comes with several in-built programs, and can track your speed/calorie expenditure/heart rate over the entire exercise. There is a convenient quick start feature where you can just jump on the bike, set the resistance level, and go. It is truly a quality machine, and is a joy to use. A small complaint is that the provided power supply came with a rather short cord, necessitating an extension cord to position the bike where we wanted it.

I initially objected to purchasing the bike because we have a small gym just 5 minutes from our apartment, with several treadmill machines, several bikes, and a weight machine. However, it turned out to have been a good decision. I was amazed at the difference having a bike in the privacy of your own apartment makes. Since the bike is always available, whenever I have 5-10 minutes to spare, or when I am tempted to watch TV, I just jump on the bike and cycle. I can cycle whenever I want to, and watch whichever channel I want on the TV. This makes bike exercise enormously more attractive, and I end up doing more exercise than I ever did before.

Most of the time, Schwinn 230 recumbent exercise bike is priced arround $449 at Amazon.com. It was seldom on sale. But once I saw it in Amazon Gold box and priced less than $300. Unfortunately deals in Amazon Gold box are only good for a day, so I missed that chance.

George Foreman Grill GRP90WGR Review

We bought the George Foreman Grill GRP90WGR from Amazon over the Christmas holidays when it was on sale. This is the most advanced grill in the George Foreman series and one of the most popular indoor grills. George Foreman Grill GRP90WGR comes with 5 interchangable cooking plates. There is a common Upper plate that is used with both the Griddle and the Baking Pan plates, and then there are two Waffle plates (upper and lower), which rounds out the 5 plates. Compared to the other indoor grills, the GPR90WGR is larger (more cooking surface), comes with a variable temperature control, and the plates are dishwasher safe. It is also possible to adjust the slope angle of the grill, allowing you to drain off excess fat/juices when the grill is at a slope, or keep all the juices on the grill when it is horizontal.

Since buying this George Foreman Grill GRP90WGR, I have used all the plates with a variety of
foods. I've made waffles several times with the Waffle plates. At the maximum heat setting, the waffles are done in about 10-15 min, and they come off the plates cleanly without the need to oil or grease the plates. I've made omelettes with the Baking Pan plate and the Upper plate, which come out nicely in 5 min. I've also cooked steaks and fish fillets with the Griddle and Upper plates. The fat and juices run off nicely (though that isn't a good idea with the fish fillets, since
they came out rather dry). One very nice feature about the grill is that cooking time is shorter than with a pan or an oven, because the grill heats up quickly and heat is applied on
both the upper and lower sides of the food. With a pan, with have to flip the food to get it cooked on both sides, and with an oven, you typically need to wait 5-10 min for it to reach the correct temperature. The time savings is most dramatic with thicker cuts of meat.

Despite being generally satisfied with this George Foreman Grill GRP90WGR, there are a few points that annoy me. Firstly, the raised bumps on the Upper plate tend to trap small pockets of grease in the corners, and are impossible to clean with the tools provided. The grease also do not wash off well in the dishwasher. Secondly, the non-stick coating on the plates wear off rather quickly. Still, these are minor annoyances that do not detract much from a good product.

Casio G-Shock DW-9052 watch review

Recently, the battery in my Casio Baby-G BG-151 watch died after a good 5 years of service. Rather than shell out $10 for a new battery, I found a brand new Casio G-Shock DW-9052 watch on sale for just $38 at Amazon.com, so I bought that instead. One of the problems with the old Baby-G was that after the first year, the night light became too dim to be any use at night; it was just a conventional light that comes on in the watch. The new Casio G-Shock DW-9052 watch has the illuminator feature, which is an electro-luminescent backlight, which is both brighter at night and saves electricity, making the battery last longer. However, I was shocked that after just 2 months of use with the new Casio G-Shock DW-9052 , it suddenly stopped working. I did not drop, hit or damage it in any way; it just stopped one day at work. I'm not
sure whether it was a bad battery, or a bad watch.This sudden death syndrome of this Casio Men's G-Shock DW-9052 classic digital watch was reported by other customers according to the product reviews at Amazon.com. When I bought this Casio G-Shock DW-9052 1V watch from Amazon, it came with a 1 year limited manufactuer's warranty, which covers labor and parts but not shipping. Considering that the Casio G-Shock DW-9052 watch is pretty bulky and heavy, it may cost me more than $10 to ship it back for repairs. Furthermore, I have read about other custormers' bad experiences with Casio's warranty. Therefore, I gave up on the idea of sending it back to the manufacturer for repair. I think that it is not worth the money and hassle to ship this Casio G-Shock DW-9052 watch back and forth. At Amazon.com, this Casio Men's G-Shock DW-9052 classic digital watch has pretty good ratings with 4 out of 5 stars from 49 reviews. But if you read the reviews carefully, you will find there are at least 7 other people who encountered a similar situation. I used to be a big fan of Casio watches, believing that Casio makes good and
sturdy watches at a reasonable price point. I have changed my mind. My next watch will definitely not be a Casio or at least not a Casio from Amazon.com.

In the future, before I buy something online, I will carefully read the negative comments from reviewers and ignore the headline rating. If there are more than 3 reviewers with the same complaint, then the complaint is very likey to be true.