Health Resources
Our Health Resources page shares news, tips and tools that we hope you will find useful. Feel free to participate in the discussions posted! Follow us on Twitter or Facebook to stay up to date with our latest posts.
The Spring Cleaning Your Way to Health
One would think that it is obvious that any form of exercise, even in doing housework, would improve your overall mental health. In a study by University College London, it was found that as little as 20 minutes of housework per week reduced feelings of psychological distress. Doing housework not only makes you feel better on the inside and outside, it lowers your stress level, and by doing a simple chore with more intensity can burn calories in the process. The American Heart Association categorizes housework as “moderate exercise,” and says that a person weighing 150 pounds who engages in 30 minutes of household chores can expect to burn the following: General cleaning: 127 calories Cleaning a bathroom – 200 calories Doing laundry – 133 calories
Happy St Patty’s Day
As we all know, the Irish sure do know how to have fun, and what better way than to enjoy an entire day of festivities. Tis’ the luck of the Irish… But with all that fun, you have to take time to enjoy the great food. Top of the morning to ya’ with Emerald Eggs for breakfast. An all green lunch with the Green Goddess Dip, and for dinner (probably the most popular Irish meal ever) Corn Beef and Cabbage. And don’t forget to end St. Patrick’s Day with green beer! For those of us who would still like to maintain our figures during St. Patrick’s day, but stay within the Irish tradition, below is a recipe for Irish Soda Bread. A homemade treat, with only sixty calories per slice. You’ll be lucky not to eat the whole loaf.
How familiar are you with your Homeowners Insurance Policy?
How familiar are you with your Homeowners Insurance Policy? When is the last time you have looked over your policy? Do you know what it covers or excludes? If you are unsure about any of the questions above, it is time to review your homeowners insurance policy. Homeowners policies tend to differ from state to state. However, a homeowners insurance policy should cover more than just structural damage. But this does not include damage caused by acts of mother nature. Damages caused by Floods, Earthquakes, Mud Slides, Hurricanes, and Tornados are not always covered on an average/general policy. Flood Insurance, for example, is categorized as a policy in itself and is an additional policy that needs to be purchased separately. Flood coverage is available through the federal government under the National Flood Insurance Program, or you can speak with Jon Belinkie at Health Insurance Specialists about it. All other acts of weather may need an additional policy, especially if your home is in an area prone to certain cataclysmic events (such as tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes).
Healthcare In Your Pocket
With technology moving faster then the speed of light it seems, more and more applications for smart phones are popping up. What is a nice added feature to the app market, is health insurance companies such as Aetna offering an all in one app. Not only making accessing your medical records more convenient but locating a doctor and one surprisingly new helpful feature – giving you the price of a prescription before you get it filled.
Organized Lists
The holiday season is so hectic, and for most we are bound to forget something. Even Santa has a list to make sure he knows who to remember. By using adding these apps below to your phone, you are more likely to forget less while keeping yourself a bit more organized. Both of these apps can create any type of list you need, whether it is a grocery list or your things to do and they can be shared with others. They can also be linked to your calendar, or remind you of when things need to be done. Hope it makes your holidays (and life) a little less stressful. Droid: With TASKOS, you can add, edit or delete tasks, share them with your friends, write notes, set alerts and even make calls. I Phone: With the Family Organizer by Yaddahom, You can share to-do lists with family members, Make a master grocery list with staple items and other lists for on-the-fly needs. Create repeating events and task reminders and other to-dos with an unlimited folders and sub-folders.
Upromise
When doing your holiday shopping this year, what is better than a really good sale? How about cash back? That’s right; When you sign up at Upromise.com you actually get a percentage of your purchase back to your very own savings account. And it doesn’t have to just be on your online purchases, you can link it to your credit/debit cards and save at the grocery stores and gas stations. This is highly recommended! As an added bonus below are links to the apps for your cell phone, to help you keep track of your savings in the palm of your hand. Droid: Upromise for Android I phone: Upromise for Iphone
The Dangers of Thanksgiving
It’s like a Halloween title, but on the wrong holiday! No one wants to end up in the ER on a holiday, especially one that would mean missing out on turkey dinner! By being prepared for the unexpected, you can prevent a disaster from impeding upon your favorite dinner of the year. So here are some tips to keep you and yours safe and healthy this Thanksgiving:
The Healthy Thanksgiving
When many people think of Thanksgiving, they think of turkey and cranberry sauce, stuffing and gravy… and most of all, how much of it they can eat! Thanksgiving is the perfect excuse to cram ourselves full of food and not feel guilty about it. Unfortunately, we usually regret the stomach ache we experience after our holiday splurge. We try to prepare for it with a careful selection of pants that are maybe a size too large and have button that can be popped off, making sure the belt chosen has a few extra notches to expand, and the shirt has room to grow. But in the end, we’ve enjoyed our 20 minutes of gorging and not so much the 3 days of recovery. So here are some tips to make it through this Thanksgiving enjoying the turkey rather then regretting it.
Pocket Help to Quit Smoking
Yep, there’s an app for that! There are many variations available for iPhone and Smart Phones alike aimed to help people quit smoking. One that we found well-featured is iQuit for iPhone. It allows you to pick a goal time frame, then sets up a timer that gradually gets longer in between how often you can have another cigarette. Hopefully with a place to view your goal process and possibly the help of other cessation products, this app can really be useful in helping smokers quit. (Also helps with curving alcohol and other addictive substances). Download the iPhone app iQuit from the iTunes store.
Taking Charge of Your Medical Expenses
If you have had trouble with pricing from your doctors or hospitals, the place to go is HealthcareBlueBook.com. If you have the fortune of knowing about a procedure before you have it done, you can use this website to prepare for the actual costs. Search for the procedure, then enter your zip code to customize your local pricing, then print out the pricing agreement to take to your doctor and hospital to guarantee your pricing. For many, insured and uninsured, medical costs are constant concern. With as many as 16% of Americans unable to afford their medical bills, according to Consumer Reports, making sure you are paying a reasonable rate is an important way to manage the costs of your medical expenses. With tools such as the Healthcare Blue Book, researching and haggling your medical pricing is now a legitimate practice that helps you make sure you are paying a fair price for your healthcare.
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