Easy Changes to Incorporate More Exercise Into Your Life

Having a family, a career, and a hectic schedule leaves little time for a fitness routine. However the benefits to being physically fit are numerous and should be a priority in any family.

Choosing to make fitness a permanent part of your life takes a good amount of willpower, determination, and hard work from everyone. There are many ways you can incorporate fitness to fit your busy schedule.  It may take some planning and you might have to be creative at times. Just remember to stay active.  Making small, positive changes to your daily routine can help rid your family of bad habits and have you on your way to a physically fit life.

Fitness for Busy Families: Top Tips for Sticking To Your Plan

The busy life of a typical family today leaves little room for a scheduled fitness routine.  It’s easy to make resolutions every year to hit the gym, workout every day, and live a healthier lifestyle.  However, keeping with it and actually succeeding is a different story for most people.  In order to retain any form of discipline in your daily life you have to incorporate small changes in your routine.

Don’t go overboard – No matter what fitness goals you have, it’s important to remember to start small.  If you aren’t used to exercising make sure you work up to that super intense, hour-long workout. Don’t just jump in. (By the way...that really isn't necessary. A 30 minute walk will do just fine.) 

Find something you are comfortable doing and begin there. Take that walk for 20-30 minutes, do a round of crunches, jumping jacks or push-ups, or even just run in place for a few minutes. You don’t have to start with a workout that pushes all your limits. Just start small and build up over time. This will make it easier to stick with it.

Partner up – Choose a family member or friend who will hold you accountable to stick to your fitness plan. Carve out a specific time to meet up and workout together and keep track of how far you’ve come. It’s much harder to give up when you have someone pushing you in the right direction.  Likewise, you will be helping move someone else in the right direction as well. 

Choose your likes – It will be impossible to stick with a fitness plan if you are consistently doing things you don’t like. You will lose interest in no time and go back to your old habits. Choose a workout according to the things you enjoy. Walking, running, strength training, and/or yoga are just a few areas that may spark your interest.  It will be much easier to push your limits and will keep you headed toward your fitness goals.

Take a break – It’s important to throw a lazy day or two into your fitness routine. You can’t expect to workout seven days a week without hitting burnout in a short amount of time. Take a day to just relax and regroup. Figure out your workout plan for the next week and schedule time each day to make sure you get it done. You will jump back into your workout re-energized and ready to start a new week. 

Any fitness plan needs a little bit of organization and planning in order to stick with it. As soon as you begin, the excuses will creep in, you will get busy, and your fitness goals will go right out the door.  Planning in advance, and making sure to follow some of these tips will help to avoid these excuses and set you on a path to hit and exceed the goals you’ve set. 

How Clean Are Your Cleaning Products?

We all know keeping our homes clean and sanitary is an important part of good health. I know as a wife., mother, and grandmother, I want my family to live in a clean and safe environment. Cleaning product companies know how important that is to us also. And they are happy to provide us with an arsenal of sprays and liquids and wipes to help us out. Kitchen cleaners, bathroom cleaners, floor cleaners, fabric deodorizers, air fresheners...and specialty cleaners for each of those areas. Toilet cleaner and shower for the bathroom. Oven cleaner for the kitchen. Cleaner for wood floors. A different cleaner for tiles. Window cleaner. SOOO MANY CLEANERS!!! And all of them guaranteed to get rid of dirt and germs...AND leave your home smelling fresh and clean.

And for the most part, they live up to that promise. Most homes are pretty clean. But what the makers of these products don't tell you is the impact they can be having on your health.

I first discovered the problem when my children were small. When cleaning the house would send them into an full-on asthma attack, you know something isn't right. And so I started researching the ingredients in the cleaners I was using. Imagine my surprise when I found that many of them contained toxic chemicals. Yes, some of these could cause or worsen my daughter's asthma. Others could cause everything from breast cancer to birth defects. And yet they were in the products I was encouraged to use...IN MY HOME! EVERY DAY!

Unfortunately, you can't just look at the label and avoid products with harmful chemicals. Many cleaning labels will list ingredients that make little sense to us. Companies may list anionic surfactant or they may say dish protectant. What the heck is that? I want to know exactly what's in the products I'm spraying all over my home. But it seems companies are better at listing what isn't in their product. No phosphorous, no CFCs, and no bleach are popular things to tout on a label. But if you want to know the specifics, you often have to go through customer service to get answers.

How do you clean your home and keep your family safe from harmful, toxic chemicals? Here are some tips.

1. Make your own safer cleaning products. With just a little baking soda, white vinegar, lemon oil, and water, you can get a lot of clean. There are recipes for green, safe cleaning products all over the internet. Just Google them and whip up a batch.

2. Read the labels. I know I said most companies don't fully disclose their ingredients. But if the label has words like "poison", "toxic", "caution", "warning" or "danger", it does not go in my shopping cart. And don't be fooled by vague terms. Just because it says "natural" or "eco-friendly" on the label doesn't mean it's true. Those terms, and many others, are totally unregulated. there are no standards a company has to meet to say it's cleaning products are "natural."

3. Buy fragrance-free products. Synthetic fragrances can trigger asthma and may contain hormone-disrupting chemicals.

4. Stop using "disinfectants". If your family is healthy, you don't need to regularly disinfect your house. Improper use of disinfectants can contribute to "resistant" bacteria (meaning the disinfectant won't work anymore). Plus there are studies suggesting our fascination with keeping our environments as sterile as possible may be leading to the rise in asthma, autism, and other conditions. We aren't being exposed to common everyday germs and so we do not develop an immune system that can handle them.

There are definitely times when you will want to disinfect while cleaning. But there is no need to do it every time you clean.

5. Wash your hands with plain soap and water. Antibacterial soap provides no additional benefit over plain soap.

6. Use green cleaning products. If you don't want to take the time to make your own, there are more and more companies producing safer cleaning products. Check out this article for a list of the best natural cleaning products.

Or try the one I use. Versatile enough for every room of your home, this all-purpose formula uses natural baking soda and plant-derived surfactants to remove grease, dirt and grime, from upholstery as well as hard surfaces. You can get it here.

8 Health Tips To Take Back To The Office

Here we go again! When things shut down last year, our lives got turned upside down. One day ran into the next and it seemed like the year just went on forever. We didn't have the familiar routines that are so much a part of our daily lives. Get up. Make the coffee. Feed the kids. Get them to school. Head to the office. Now our office was often in a corner of the kitchen, in a spare bedroom, or anyplace we could find some quiet...and a good internet connection...to get some work done.

But then the world started opening back up again. After a year of isolation and lockdowns, we were starting to feel normal. We started returning to our offices, leaving those home "offices" behind. Life was going to be good again.

Until the Delta variant arrived. Now all of a sudden we're hearing talk of surges and mask mandates all over again. But this time, something is absent. There is no talk of lockdowns or quarantines. People are still being encouraged to return to work.

This isn't a post on the right or wrong of how we are handling the pandemic. I'm not a political writer and so will not get into the political fisticuffs I'm seeing everywhere. I'm only interested in one thing...helping you stay as healthy as possible. 

It's hard enough to stay healthy when you sit behind a desk all day. Add a deadly pandemic to the mix and it can be scary. So now is the time to make sure you are diligent in following good health habits. The following tips will help you return to the office a smoothly and intelligently as possible.

1. Exercise. Physical activity boosts your immune system, relieves stress, and improves your mood. Check out some work-out videos on Amazon. Take a walk around your neighborhood. When you get to work, park as far away from the entrance as you can. Skip the elevator and use the stairs. Get a fitness tracker and start counting your steps. You'll be surprised how quickly they add up!

2. Eat whole, nutritious food. Instead of hitting the local drive-thru pack a healthy salad with some lean protein for lunch. And even though returning to work often means snacks in the breakroom, don't indulge in that chocolate frosted donut. Pack some nuts or veggies with hummus or a hard-boiled egg. One of my favorite snacks is slice of bell pepper with guacamole. 

3. Get enough sleep. The recommendation for most adults is 7-8 hours a night.

4. Drink plenty of water. It's important to stay hydrated. 

5. Manage any stress and anxiety. If returning to the office causes you stress or makes you anxious, try talking with management to see what can be done to make you more comfortable. If you are still stressed-out, try some relaxation techniques such as exercise or meditation, or talking about your feelings with a trusted friend or therapist.

6. Practice physical distance. But that doesn't mean you have to be socially distant. We all found ways to connect during quarantine. Keep those lines of communication open and speak to friends and family often.

7. Don't ease up on precautions. Wash your hands. Practice physical distancing. Wear a mask in crowded, indoor settings. Stay home if you feel sick.

8. Just take it one day at a time. This is a new experience for all of us. Most companies will have procedures and protocols in place to help employees return to work safely. There will likely be changes to the way things were before. Be flexible. If you are have issues or concerns, address them with your manager promptly.

This is a challenging time for all of us. But if we all do our part, try to maintain our own health, and practice simple precautions to help others stay healthy as well, we can keep our workplaces safe.