A common goal to improve your overall health is to ditch the sugary drinks and increase water intake within reason.  This is a great goal as water is essential to your hydration and health. Increasing water consumption is a virtually free and painless way to instantly make a positive change for yourself.  Your long-term goal should be to drink about 64 oz or 2 L of clear, sugar-free fluids every day.  Ditch sweetened beverages.  Drinking more water is great, but skipping the sweetened beverages will help reduce your overall calorie intake.  Start drinking more water gradually.  Add in one glass or one bottle of water than usual.  Or, swap out one soda or one energy drink for an equivalent amount of water.  Slowly increase the amount of water you drink and decrease the number of sweetened beverages you drink. Don't drink your fruits.  Drink less fruit juice and instead get nutrients from whole fruit. You'll get the added benefit of the fruit fiber in addition to missing out on the added sugar of fruit juice. Beware of water intoxication. This is caused by drinking a large amount of water in a short time. When one is suffering from water intoxication, it brings the level of sodium (salt) to a dangerously low level. Water intoxication is a rare condition. It should be taken seriously, however, as it can have fatal results. While increasing the amount of water you drink, you can also be strategic about when you drink it. Drinking a big glass of water (about eight oz) right before a meal or snack can help decrease your appetite and how many calories you consume. Eating enough fruits and vegetables is key for a healthy lifestyle and diet, since these foods are essential sources of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.  However, eating the recommended seven to nine servings of fruits and vegetables everyday may be daunting or difficult.  If you're not a big fruit or vegetable eater, make a list of your top five favorite fruits and vegetables.  Start by adding in just one serving of fruit or vegetables a day.  As you get comfortable with this goal, add two servings a day. If you dislike many fruits and vegetables, go to the grocery and pick out something new or unfamiliar to you.  Or try an item that you haven't had in a while. Keep fresh fruit on the counter and vegetables cut, washed, and ready to eat in the fridge.  The less preparation needed, the more likely you'll include them in your diet. If you enjoy a sweet after dinner, try having fruit with your dessert. Keep in mind that fruit skins have the most nutrients. Say, in an apple, keep the skin on. Don't eat pomegranate skins, even though that is where the nutrients are. Whole grains are minimally processed grains that are higher in fiber, protein, and other nutrients compared to refined grains (white bread or plain pasta).  They may have a more nutty flavor and chewy texture, which may not be enjoyable by all people.  If you typically eat refined grains, start by making about half of your grain choices whole grains.  As you get more comfortable with this goal, you can work up to making more of your grain choices whole grains. Whole grain foods to try include:  100% whole wheat pasta, oatmeal, quinoa, brown rice or 100% whole wheat bread. Try a variety of whole grains and a variety of brands of whole grains.  For example, try 100% whole wheat pasta.  If you don't like it, try another brand of 100% whole wheat pasta as each brand has a slightly different flavor. Making lifestyle changes to be healthier doesn't mean you can't enjoy a snack.  In fact, having a snack can help manage and control hunger and support weight loss. Healthy snacks should contain some lean protein and a fruit or a vegetable.  However, start slowly changing your snacks for a lasting change.  For example, if you normally have a small bag of chips in the afternoon, try swapping to a small bag of whole grain chips with salsa. Fructose is a sugar that goes through your body, like the glucose sugar that your body usually uses. However, fructose has its own pathways. It can turn into glucose for your muscles and brain to use, but it tends to go straight toward making fat in your body, when there is too much sugar in your body. Fructose is found in fruits and vegetables naturally, but it is found in high concentrations artificially, as High Fructose Corn Syrup.High fructose corn syrup is used as a sweetener so much that we don't realize it can be found in almost everything. It is in lots of processed foods, pastries, and beverages, so eating less of it might be a little difficult, but it's good to be aware of what you're eating.

Summary: Drink more water. Drink water before a meal. Eat a fruit and vegetable every day. Choose whole grains when you can. Eat healthy snacks. Eat less high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).


If you are making your pipes out of bamboo, buy as many stalks as you need. If you live in a warm climate that grows bamboo, you may be able to find bamboo outside or at local shops. If you don't have access to bamboo in your community, order it online. Make sure each stalk of bamboo has around a 5/8 inch diameter.  It's important that all the stalks have a similar interior diameter, or else it will be hard to make them sound good together. Make sure the bamboo isn't green, and instead is dried and tan in color. Take a stalk of bamboo and cut it at one end right before the first node using a saw. The nodes of the bamboo are the lines that run horizontally across the stalk that you can see from the outside. The nodes are closed on the inside, so they create a good natural bottom to your pipes. After you have made the cut before the node, use a belt sander to make the outside bottom of the bamboo stalk rounded. This isn't necessary, but it will make the bottoms of your pipes less prickly and spiky, and will also make your instrument look better. Do the same process for all of your bamboo pieces. Use the same measurements for the straw pan pipes, starting with the longest pipe at 17.5 cm and the shortest at 8.5 centimeters. Use a ruler to measure and mark these measurements on the bamboo. After forming the bottom of the pipes around the node, you will want to clear the inside of the bamboo, still keeping the bottom node untouched. Since nodes are closed on the inside, they will stop air from going through the entire pipe and will interfere with your sound.  Use a steel rod with roughly a 3/8 inch diameter to break through the nodes inside of the bamboo shaft. An effective way to do this is to clamp down the steel rod, and then take the bamboo shaft and poke the nodes out using the rod. You also will want to use the rod to scrape around the inside of the bamboo nodes so that the inside node area has the same interior diameter as the rest of the stalk. Using the measurements you already marked down, cut the bamboo into differently-sized pipes. Remember that it's better to cut your pipes a little too long than too short, because you can always do another cut.
Summary: Pick out or buy bamboo stalks. Cut the bamboo in front of its first node. Sand the node area. Measure out your pipes. Clean out nodes between sections. Cut the bamboo according to the measurements.