The Helping Hand

Go Nuts for DONUTS and Cereal! Whizzy Puffs Sweet Spot Bakery Open In Lockport

2018-02-25T09:27:00.003-08:00

The owners of the popular burger joint Sizzles have opened a brand new location in the Bonnie Brae neighborhood! Their new spot incorporates a trendy cereal bar as well as a bakery shop displaying delicious donuts, pastries and other treats for sale. Coffee, teas and other drinks provided as well!! Stop in to see the owner Merve and try out one of her famous cereal donuts!!

Whizzy Puffs Sweet Spot
110 MacGregor Road
Lockport, IL 60441
(708) 856 - 5894

2018-02-22T14:20:00.001-08:00

Can You Lengthen Your Life?

Researchers Explore How To Stay Healthy Longer

Want the secret to living a longer and healthier life? Scientists have found ways to prolong the healthy lifespans of worms, mice, and even monkeys. Their work has revealed exciting new clues about the biology of aging. But solid evidence still shows that the best way to boost the chance of living a long and active life is to follow the advice you likely heard from your parents: eat well, exercise regularly, get plenty of sleep, and stay away from bad habits.

People born in the U.S. today can expect to live to an average age of about 79. A century ago, life expectancy was closer to 54. “We’ve had a significant increase in lifespan over the last century,” says Dr. Marie Bernard, deputy director of NIH’s National Institute on Aging. “Now if you make it to age 65, the likelihood that you’ll make it to 85 is very high. And if you make it to 85, the likelihood that you’ll make it to 92 is very high. So people are living longer, and it’s happening across the globe.”

Older people tend to be healthier nowadays, too. Research has shown that healthful behaviors can help you stay active and healthy into your 60s, 70s, and beyond. In fact, a long-term study of Seventh-day Adventists—a religious group with a generally healthy lifestyle—shows that they tend to remain healthier into old age. Their life expectancy is nearly 10 years longer on average than most Americans. The Adventists’ age-enhancing behaviors include regular exercise, a vegetarian diet, avoiding tobacco and alcohol, and

maintaining a healthy weight.

“If I had to rank behaviors in terms of priority, I’d say that exercise is the most important thing associated with living longer and healthier,” says Dr. Luigi Ferrucci, an NIH geriatrician who oversees research on aging and health. “Exercise is especially important for lengthening active life expectancy, which is life without disease and without physical and mental/thinking disability.”

Natural changes to the body as we age can lead to a gradual loss of muscle, reduced energy, and achy joints. These changes may make it tempting to move less and sit more. But doing that can raise your risk for disease, disability, and even death. It’s important to work with a doctor to find the types of physical activity that can help you maintain your health and mobility.

Even frail older adults can benefit from regular physical activity. One NIH-funded study included over 600 adults, ages 70 to 89, who were at risk for disability. They were randomly placed in either a moderate exercise program or a comparison group without structured exercise. The exercise group gradually worked up to 150 minutes of weekly activity. This included brisk walking, strength and balance training, and flexibility exercises.

“After more than 2 years, the physical activity group had less disability, and if they became disabled, they were disabled for a shorter time than those in the comparison group,” Bernard explains. “The combination of different types of exercise—aerobic, strength and balance training, and flexibility—is important to healthy aging.” NIH’s Go4Life website has tips to help older adults get and stay active.

Another sure way to improve your chances for a longer, healthier life is to shed excess weight. “Being obese—with a body mass index (BMI) higher than 30—is a risk factor for early death, and it shortens your active life expectancy,” Ferrucci says. BMI is an estimate of your body fat based on your weight and height. Use NIH’s BMI calculator to determine your BMI. Talk with a doctor about reaching a healthy weight.

Studies in animals have found that certain types of dietary changes—such as extremely low-calorie diets—can lead to longer, healthier lives. These studies offer clues to the biological processes that affect healthy aging. But to date, calorie-restricted diets and other dietary changes have had mixed results in extending the healthy lives of people.

“We have indirect evidence that nutritional adjustments can improve active longevity in people, but this is still an area of intense research,” Ferrucci says. “So far, we don’t really have solid evidence about caloric restriction and whether it may have a positive effect on human aging.” Researchers are now studying potential drugs or other approaches that might mimic calorie restriction’s benefits.

Not smoking is another pathway to a longer, healthier life. “There’s no question that smoking is a hard habit to break. But data suggest that from the moment you stop smoking, there are health benefits. So it’s worthwhile making that effort,” Bernard says.

You might think you need good genes to live longer. But genes are only part of the equation for most of us, says Dr. Thomas Perls, an aging expert and director of the New England Centenarian Study at the Boston University School of Medicine. “Research shows that genes account for less than one-third of your chances of surviving to age 85. The vast majority of variation in how old we live to be is due to our health behaviors,” Perls says. “Our genes could get most of us close to the remarkable age of 90 if we lead a healthy lifestyle.”

The influence of genes is stronger, though, for people who live to older ages, such as beyond 95. Perls has been studying people who live to age 100 and up (centenarians) and their families to learn more about the biological, psychological, and social factors that promote healthy aging.

“It seems there’s not a single gene that imparts a strong effect on the ability to get to these older ages,” Perls says. “Instead, it’s the combined effects of probably hundreds of genes, each with weak effects individually, but having the right combination can lead to a very strong effect, especially for living to the oldest ages we study.”

It’s a good idea to be skeptical of claims for a quick fix to aging-related problems. Perls cautions against marketed “anti-aging” measures such as “hormone replacement therapy,” which has little proven benefit for healthy aging and can have severe side effects. “People used to say, ‘the older you get the sicker you get.’ But with common sense, healthy habits such as regular exercise, a healthy weight, avoiding red meat, not smoking, and managing stress, it can be ‘the older you get, the healthier you’ve been,’” Perls says.

The key to healthy aging is to engage fully in life—mentally, physically, and socially. “Transitioning to older years isn’t about sitting in a rocking chair and letting the days slip by,” Bernard says. “Older adults have unique experiences, intellectual capital, and emotional involvement that can be shared with younger generations. This engagement is really key to helping our society move forward.”

Original Article News In Health

Weekly Grocery Ads

2018-02-22T13:52:00.000-08:00

2018-02-22T13:45:00.001-08:00

How to Get Organized at Home: Tips for Moms

Working mothers face unique challenges and circumstances, but planning ahead can help

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Home organization is not easy, especially when you work outside of your home. Mounds of dirty laundry, hungry kids, school homework and dinner yet to be made do not make for a happy return to homely warmth after a tiring day in the office. So what do you do to streamline your daily routine and practically every aspect of your life?

All women can be termed ‘working’ once they start a family. There are people who look up to you and expect you to deliver, even if it is your 3-year-old who wants his mom to build the best Lego castle, after what seems like millions you have already built. The work becomes all the more demanding when you have a full-time job that consumes 40 precious hours every week.

Every working mother faces her own set of unique challenges and circumstances. You will have to work out a plan that suits you best, and helps you manage your family and career better.

Let’s look at how you can go about taming the dragon of time management in your own unique way with these tips for how to get organized at home.

What Is the Biggest Ordeal?

It is important you analyze your activities and pinpoint the ones that stress you the most. Once you have worked out a plan to simplify them, you will find your life free of much clutter.

But these stress-causing activities vary from one working mom to another.

Setting Right the Dinner Fiasco

If having to cook after a long day bothers you, try simple and time-tested tricks like meal planning. Plan your menu for the coming week and finish your grocery shopping on the weekend. This will spare you much stress and uncertainty when you come back from office tired and hungry.

Other benefits of meal planning include less consumption of packaged and unhealthy fast-food, more of eating nutritious home-made home-made meals and less spending on eating out. Also, you can cut down on unnecessary grocery purchases mid-week.

Menu planning does call for some cooking in the evenings. If you need to help your kids with homework or there are other social commitments in the evening which makes it difficult to spare time, a crock pot meal is the best solution.

Advance planning will make your dinner tasty and satisfying. Get all the ingredients ready the previous night. Trim the meat, chop the veggies, measure out the spices and get the sauces ready. Refrigerate them and in the morning all you need to do is place them in the insert and switch on the crock pot to walk in for a delicious home-cooked dinner in the evening.

Getting Kids Ready in the Morning

It is not easy to jump out of bed, get dressed, grab a cup of coffee and be off to work on time. The task becomes harder when you have a whining 5-year-old to wake up, feed and dress, pack lunch for, and drop off to school. So plan and deal with weekday mornings smartly.

Do not add to the madness of the mornings with missing homework sheets, files, keys and misplaced backpacks. Get everything ready the previous night itself.

· Help your child pack the backpack so that it is ready to go in the morning. Pack lunches and refrigerate them. Have your work satchel ready so that you do not miss out on any important file or paperwork.

· Lay out the clothes for the next day, both for yourself and your child. It is best if you can plan your kid’s outfits for a week and put them on hangers with a color-coded label for each day of the week. Children’s hangers with clips will not damage or crumple clothing, and also give you versatility to keep all that your kid needs together, including inner and outerwear.

· Ensure you wake up at least an hour before your children. This will give you enough time to get dressed, have your morning coffee and ready breakfast for the family. Once the kids are awake you can focus on getting them ready and off to school.

Household Chores Can Be Managed

Once you have had kids it’s best to put away the dreams of achieving an immaculate and spotlessly clean house, at least until your kids are off to college.

When you hold a full-time job, it will be difficult to find time to clean and spruce up your whole house in a single mega-cleaning session. You will have to tackle it one room or task at a time.

· Curing the clutter problem will help your house breathe free and easy. In all probability, more than the dirt or the dust, it is the pile of things strewn here and there that is making your house run wild.

· Enlist the help of your family to keep the house clean. Make your children a part of your clean-up force. Small children enjoy lending a helping hand and taking on responsibility. You can delegate chores and ask your kids to water the plants, feed the pet, put away the toys and tidy up the bed. You can also teach them to put things they take out back in their place, and put their bowls and spoons in the kitchen sink after dinner.

· Your husband can also chip in to make things easier in the evening. He can cook the dinner or help with the kids’ homework so that you can do the dishes or clean up the bedroom closet.

· Outsourcing tedious cleaning activities can provide a harried mom much relief. If possible, pay for reasonably-priced cleaning help to come in every month. It will save you a lot of stress and also help you find time for other pressing activities, like your child’s PTA meet or a long-overdue visit to the salon.

Never Give Romance a Backseat

Mark out a day in the calendar for a date night. Plan well in advance and make babysitting arrangements so that you will be able to really enjoy your night out together. If possible, go for a short holiday with you partner while your children have fun at the weekend summer camp. Do not let the burden of everyday routine snuff out the romance from your life.

Make Room for Friends and Have Some Fun

The carefree girlhood days are long behind you, but that should not stop you from enjoying a night out with your girlfriends. This is a rare luxury for busy moms but do ensure you enjoy some me-time, whenever possible. Get your hubby to stay at home while you go shopping with your friends or catch up on the latest gossip at a café. Friends take the steam out of your high-stress life and provide a shoulder to lean on, so treasure and nurture those bonds.

Conclusion

A working mother puts everything and everyone before herself. It is important you give attention and care to yourself as well. Try to fit in some personal time in your schedule and stop being a perfectionist. Be flexible, go with the flow and be okay even if no plan works. It will on another day, just let go of it today.

Original Article Posted by Working Mother

Benefits of Hiring a Dog Walker

2018-02-22T09:19:00.003-08:00

Your pets need regular exercise, too. Here's why you should hire a dog walker.

OK, as a dog walker myself, maybe I’m a bit biased, but the truth is that hiring a dog walker can provide crucial benefits for your pet and you. Here are the top five reasons I believe hiring a dog walker is a good idea:

1. Walks improve pet health

Just like their human counterparts, pets need regular and consistent exercise to live long, healthy and happy lives. According to the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention, an estimated 54 percent of dogs and cats in the United States are obese.

Many pets will develop health problems in their lifetime that could easily be prevented or diminished with proper exercise. One of the absolute best ways to keep your dog healthy is to provide three or more 20-minute walks per day.

2. Walks provide socialization and stimulation

Walking not only gets your dog the exercise he or she needs, but it also stimulates his or her senses. Your dog gets to see, smell, feel and hear all types of new and interesting things when out for a walk.

This stimulation often includes meeting other people or animals, which can be an excellent way to encourage proper socialization for your pup. We often take for granted these brief encounters and stimuli, and we can easily forget that these are frequently the highlights of our pet's day.

3. Walks improve pet behavior

Simply put, a tired dog is a good dog. Regular walking helps to release excess energy in your pup, resulting in calmer behavior at home. With frequent, lengthy walks, your dog will be less inclined to engage in undesirable behaviors such as barking, chewing, biting or using the bathroom indoors.

4. Dog walkers give you peace of mind

Hiring a dog walker gives you the peace of mind that your dog is well taken care of, even when you aren't at home. With a daily dog walker, you don't have to worry as much if you need to stay late for work, or if your dog doesn't completely "finish" when you take them out in the morning.

The knowledge that your dog will get quality time outdoors during the day also helps relieve the guilt or stress held by knowing your pup is otherwise locked up alone, often for 8 or more hours every day. You can feel confident that you are doing the best you can for your pup, and that your dog is living a rewarding, happy life.

5. A dog walker saves you time

We all live busy lives, and every minute counts. Sometimes, consistent lengthy walks are difficult to fit into our schedules. We often wake up extra early, head home for our lunch hours, and delay making dinner for our families in an effort to make sure our dogs get the care they need. With a regular dog walker, your dog still gets all of the exercise and attention they deserve, while you get back a great deal of time. Everyone wins!

Original Article Found at https://www.angieslist.com/articles/benefits-hiring-dog-walker.htm

Top 10 Reasons Why You Need An Assistant (YESTERDAY!)

2018-02-22T09:09:00.002-08:00

The dry cleaning still needs to be picked up.
The prescription is waiting at Walgreens. Still.
The running shoes (not Zappos) are the wrong size and need to be exchanged.
Every plant in your house needs a burial at sea.
Paper: you have paper – stacks, piles, files and more – just waiting you attention.
Your cupboards and refrigerator are as bare as old Mrs. Hubbard’s.
The ‘Thank You notes‘ from Christmas ‘15 still need to be purchased, addressed, signed and mailed.
You don’t have time to find, hire and train a housekeeper, an electrician, a new gardener or a handyman.
Even your Netflix are egregiously late.
You are simply too busy.

When life has become too hectic and you can't seem to keep up, Leave It To Me Personal Assisting comes in and handles all of the daily tasks there is simply not time for! We can run errands like grocery and dry cleaning pick up, light house hold cleaning and pet care duties like dog walking and feeding! Contact me today to find out about out low rates!!

How Hiring an Assistant Has Made Me Happier - Article by Entreprenuer

2018-02-22T08:59:00.004-08:00

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/276967