INPUT ARTICLE: Article: Lie down on a fitness mat. Lie with your back flat on the ground, legs together and knees bent. Keep in mind that this movement is not recommended for anyone who has ever had a back problem. This movement can be made easier by placing your hands and arms lower on your body (crossing arms in front of your chest) or harder, by placing your hands and arms past your head (arms extended above your head). With your knees remaining bent, turn at your waist and bring both of your legs to one side of your body, down to the floor. Your legs should be lying on top of each other. As you bring your legs down to the floor, keep your shoulder blades and the upper part of your back flat on the floor. Place your hands behind or at the sides of your head. Flex your abdominal muscles, and lift your shoulders off the floor. Be sure to keep your shoulders straight and level just as you would for a normal crunch. Hold the position for a moment, then release your constricted abdominal muscles to slowly bring your shoulders back down to the mat. Do not pull at your head and neck to complete the crunch. Your hands are merely resting near your head as you contract your abdominal muscles to lift yourself up and crunch. Once you have completed one set of crunches on one side of your body (about 1015 reps), turn your legs over to do the crunches on other side of your body. It's recommended to do this exercise 13 sets on each side, 23 times a week.

SUMMARY: Lie down on the floor. Turn your legs to one side. Crunch to your side. Complete your crunches on the other side of your body.

INPUT ARTICLE: Article: John's Wort for depression. Depression is the primary reason people use St. John's Wort. Research the value of using St. John's Wort as an anti-depressant to decide if this is a treatment option for you. There is some scientific evidence that St. John's Wort is useful for treating mild to moderate depression, but it is not effective for severe depression. If you have other mental health disorders (e.g. bipolar disorder) in addition to depression, taking St. John's Wort can cause psychosis (i.e. hallucinations, confused thinking, false beliefs and delusions). Take 300 mg, three times a day with a meal. Check the label of your capsule or tablet. It should be standardized to contain 0.3% hyperycin extract. Hyperycin is the active ingredient in St. John's Wort that works as an antidepressant. It will take three to six weeks before you feel any effect. If you decide to stop taking St. John's Wort, gradually wean yourself off. You may experience some side effects if you stop the treatment overnight. It is important that you know exactly how much St. John's Wort you are getting. Taking the herb in a capsule or table form will guarantee that you are getting the recommended dosage. Ingesting St. John's Wort as a tea or eating the flowers of the plant should not be done to treat depression. There is no way to know how much St. John's Wort you are actually getting using those methods. If you take St. John's Wort in conjunction with other anti-depressants, your serotonin (i.e. brain chemical that anti-depressants target) levels may rise to an unsafe level. Symptoms of serotonin syndrome include tremor, diarrhea, muscle stiffness, decrease in body temperature, death, and extreme confusion. It can also decrease the effectiveness of your prescribed medication.

SUMMARY: Read about taking St. Take the proper dose. Use a capsule or tablet formulation. Take care if you use it in conjunction with prescribed anti-depressants.

INPUT ARTICLE: Article: Cilantro's leaves and stems are equally delicious in recipes, so use them both! Snip off entire stems just above the soil line with scissors. Older, larger leaves tend to be less flavorful than newer, smaller ones, but you probably won't notice the difference once you chop them up and put them in your pico de gallo! Harvested cilantro loses its distinctive flavor quickly, so it's best to cut only as much as you need while creating a dish. That's why it's so convenient to have it growing indoors! You can put snipped cilantro stems in a cup of water for a few hours, if necessary, but the flavor will suffer. Cilantro does not store well either refrigerated or frozen. Every time a flower appears on your cilantro plant, it diverts energy away from leaf production. It also moves the plant one step closer to "bolting" (or "going to seed"), after which it won't be useful in recipes. Just snip the new flowers off with scissors, or pinch them off with your fingers. This will slow down the bolting process, but it's impossible to stop it from taking over eventually. Once the flowers start cropping up all over and the leaves stop appearing, you may choose to just pull up the plant and start over with new seeds or seedlings. However, you can also encourage the plant to self-propagate if you wish. Eventually, the flowers will drop seeds into the surrounding potting mix, and you can watch to see if new seedlings emerge. If you want to facilitate the process, pluck some of the seeds from the seed heads within the flower blooms. You can plant these in the same pot (and remove the old plant), or start them in a new pot.

SUMMARY: Harvest entire stems once the plant is 6 inches (15cm) tall. Use the stems and leaves immediately after harvesting them. Snip off flowers immediately to encourage leaf growth. Plant the seeds of "bolted" cilantro to propagate the herb.

INPUT ARTICLE: Article: This button looks like a black Apple icon in the upper-left corner of your screen. It will open a drop-down menu. This will open your System Preferences in a new window. This option looks like a speaker icon on the System Preferences menu. It will open your computer's audio settings. This button is located next to Sound Effects and Output at the top of the Sound window. You'll see a list of all the audio input devices connected to your computer here. Find the microphone you're using, and click on its name. This will boost the selected microphone's audio input to a higher level of volume. You can now speak to your microphone, and check the Input level indicator here in order to see if your microphone's input is boosted.

SUMMARY:
Click the Apple icon on your menu bar. Click System Preferences on the menu. Click Sound in System Preferences. Click the Input tab. Select your microphone on the Input menu. Slide the Input volume slider to the right.