Supercharge Your Skeleton: Taking Care Of Your Bones

Two hundred and six individual bones make up the human skeleton, the structure of our entire body. When we think about good health it’s easy to overlook bones in favor of our organs, but — let’s face it — we wouldn’t get very far without it. As we begin to age, our bone health becomes even more important and starting young is the best way to guarantee it. Here’s what you can do to take care of your bones.

Eat Calcium-Rich Foods

Eating a healthy, balanced and varied diet will ensure you get all of the vitamins and minerals your body needs to thrive. One important thing to ensure you’re reaching your targets for is calcium. While dairy such as milk and yogurt is a good source, if you’re dairy free it can also be found in lots of different vegetables, seafood, legumes and fortified foods. A food tracking app such as MyFitnessPal is not only good for tracking fat and calories but also calcium levels. If you find you’re struggling most days to reach your target, adding a supplement like Algaecal can be useful. If you’re unsure, you can find a review of AlgaeCal Plus here, but of course be sure to speak to your doctor before making any important decisions about your health. Eating plenty of calcium-rich foods helps to build up bones and increase density. As we age, we can begin to lose bone cells faster than they are replaced leading to weak and brittle bones (osteoporosis) which are easily broken. Osteoporosis can cause death in many cases, a large number of older adults who fall and break their pelvis never recover and die in the hospital. Having very dense and strong bones, to begin with gives you a better head start against bone loss. You can begin the process of building them up right from childhood, so the sooner you start eating for bone health, the better.

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Exercise

Another way to build up bone density as well as strengthen the supporting muscles and ligaments is plenty of exercises. This will benefit every cell in your body, your bones included. Staying fit, healthy and mobile will prevent illnesses, help you maintain and healthy weight and keep you mobile into older age. Don’t see exercise as a chore, stay active by incorporating it into everyday life. Go on walks, hikes and bike rides with friends and family. Take up a sport, go to the gym or join a dance class. When you find something, you enjoy it doesn’t feel like hard work and allows you to keep it up.

Quit The Alcohol and Cigarettes

As if you needed another reason to quit the booze and cigs, not only are they bad for the lungs and liver but can cause the loss of mineral density in bones too. If you’re having a hard time quitting, speak to your GP who will be able to give you tailored advice about what to do and things you can try. If you want to live a long and healthy life, they are two dangerous vices that it’s time to wave goodbye to.

Great Careers for People Who Love Kids

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If you love kids, and you can’t imagine doing anything but care for them, deciding to work with children might just be the best decision you ever make, and no matter what qualifications you hold or where you live, there are always going to be endless options enable you to follow your dream and spend your days with kids.

Here are just some of the great career options for those of you who love kids so much you want to work with them every day:

School Counselor

Most high schools have at least one school counselor to help young teens through the tough times in their lives, so if you’re the caring, compassionate type, and you feel like you could handle listening to kids’ problems and offering them advice, you might want to look into getting an online masters in school counseling, so that you can start on the path to being a real help to young people in need.

Social Worker

I’m not going to lie, being a social worker is hard work, and some of the things you see can be quite harrowing, but there are few jobs that are more worthwhile, and if you do go down this route, you will make a difference. You’ll be able to help homeless kids, foster children and young people who are suffering and have the satisfaction of knowing that you’ve really helped people throughout your career.

Make a Wish Coordinator

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The Make a Wish Foundation is a fantastic non-profit that helps make the dreams of terminally ill children come true. I honestly can’t think of many jobs that would be more amazing that being a Make a Wish Coordinator and organizing trips to Disneyland for children with cancer or helping sick kids to live their dreams and be a prince or a fireman for the day.

A Special Advocate

Kids who have been abused need to be looked after by caring individuals who can take care of them and help them to feel a bit better about themselves and the world while a safe home is found for them. If you have the space in your home and room in your heart to look after them during a difficult time, you should definitely look into becoming a court appointed special advocate.

A Sports Coach

If you like having fun with kids and you are good at a particular sport, you could really make a difference in children’s lives by giving them lessons. Sport is a fantastic way to bring people together, promote healthy living and help kids who might otherwise fail, to succeed in life. It can build self-esteem and help less academic kids to stay in school. It really is a great way to make money while making a difference.

Teacher

Last, but by no means least, if you really love being around kids and you’re passionate about helping them to fulfill their potential and grow up to be happy, well-rounded adults, a career in teaching is just about the best gift you could give yourself and the children whose hearts you will touch.

Do you work with kids? What career path have you taken?

Another Summer Diet That Won’t Last? Try Something Different Instead

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It’s official, diets suck! But, as soon as the weather warms up or we step on the scales for the first time in a long time, we can often force ourselves into following unhealthy diets that just won’t last. Again! If you’re just as fed up with doing this as the rest of the world is, then stop. Try something different instead. Although you may be looking for a quick fix - it just won’t work. But, if you focus on staying healthy, work towards a living a healthier lifestyle and not trying every new fad that's thrown your way, you will finally notice a difference in how you look and feel.

Enjoy A Colorful Plate

Let’s talk food. Because food is yummy and we all like to pig out every once in a while. But, when you start to realize that you pigging out is becoming a regular thing and that you’re feeling rubbish, you’re going to need to make a change. Instead of dieting and restricting yourself like you normally would, change the kinds of foods that you’re eating instead. Fill your plates with colorful fruits and vegetables and enjoy different meats and fish. You’ll soon feel better inside and out.

Find A Combo That Works For You

We all know that we should be exercising in life to stay healthy. But, for one reason or another, you can just find it super difficult to fit into your schedule. So, instead of setting yourself unrealistic expectations or starting workouts that you just won’t stick to, try a great nutrition and fitness combination instead. You can get a diet plan and workout tips from lots of different programs, like this venus factor review by defendyourhealthcare.us, that can help you to stay on track and find it easy.

Make Sure You Move

Once you’ve gotten into the rhythm of eating a balanced diet and working out, you might feel like you’re getting on track. But, to enjoy a healthier lifestyle, you might find it beneficial to be on the look out for extra ways to burn calories too. Whether you choose to walk more instead of drive, join a fun sports club with your friends, or even head out on hikes with your family, anything you can do to burn extra calories will make you feel like you’ve got this balanced lifestyle thing down.

But Enjoy Yourself Too

Above all else, you need to make sure that you’re enjoying your healthy journey. As soon as you realize that restrictive diets don’t work, the sooner you’ll start to feel better about yourself, your body and your health. And when you’re happy, it can contribute to your health. Because a good emotional and mental outlook can boost your physical health too.

And Monitor Your Progress The Right Way

Stepping on those scales is often a bad way to judge how well you’re doing. Muscle weighs more than fat, water weight can fluctuate, and your body shape can show you more than scales can. So, instead take pictures to measure your progress, think about how your clothes fit and how you feel about yourself. These options are much better monitoring methods to follow.

On a personal note, here's my walking story for National Walking Day a couple of years ago with an update.

Swagbucks Father's Day Sale

Swagbucks is currently offering double cash back or more at a number of stores for Father's Day. From Best Buy to Lowes, you'll get cash back (in the form of SB points) for buying your gifts online through Swagbucks. They also have offers where you can earn SB points towards free gift cards for getting the Dad in your life a subscription to Hulu or Dollar Shave Club! It's a smart way to buy the gifts you were already going to get, and Swagbucks offers coupons and deals when you shop online to your favorite stores on top of the points you earn.

You can find all of the details here. If you haven't signed up for Swagbucks yet, you can also do that at this page and start earning points towards your first free gift card. As a bonus, if you sign up through me a spend at least $25 shopping online through Swagbucks, you'll get a 200 SB bonus - that's $2 in addition to the points you get for each dollar you spend.

These deals will run all the way through Father's Day on Sunday, June 18th.

What's Holding You Back From Your Perfect Career?

It's pretty understandable to find yourself in a job that you might like all that much. After all, as much as many of us would like to be able to spend our time doing something else, the commitments of day-to-day life means that sometimes you have to prioritize. Of course, that doesn't mean that you have to end up trapped in that kind of job for the rest of your life. Many people stuck in jobs they hate actually have something else that they'd much rather be doing. Yet, despite this, the vast majority of people tend to stick with the job that they have rather than going for the job that they really want. There are plenty of reasons why this might be happening, but if you want to get out and finally pursue your dream career, the first thing to do is to think about exactly what it is that's holding you back.

Money

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Of all of the reasons that many people tend not to pursue their dream career, money is probably the most understandable. After all, not everyone is in a position to take a major pay cut in order to follow their dreams. However, that doesn't mean that there aren't ways around the financial implications of a career change. For one thing, you may be able to find a new career that doesn't involve much of a pay cut at all. However, if you're starting at the bottom of the ladder, then you might want to think about reducing your spending and expenses. Not only that but, if you have a significant other, talk to them, and you might be able to figure out a way to balance your income so that you can both still survive in the event that your pay takes a cut.

Time

The most common excuse from a lot of people when it comes to starting a new career is simply that they do not have the time. Many careers require a lot of qualifications, and if you don't have those, then you're going to need to get them before you can do anything else. Understandably, many people feel as though they can't spare that time and still bring in the money that they need to live. However, there are still plenty of ways around that. Part time courses and online classes are incredibly useful for those trying to gain more qualifications. Whether you want to work with machinery and need to become a master of engineering; learn new communication skills that can help you earn a management position in your office; or simply earn the kinds of grades in math and English that you weren't able to get at school so that you can go into something like teaching. There are plenty of options out there for anyone trying to learn at any level, no matter what your desired career is.

Fear

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In the end, fear is the biggest thing standing between you and your dream career. All of the other reasons are probably just excuses that you've created around it to justify the fear that you're feeling. Sadly the only way around that fear is to fight through it. Sure, there are going to be occasions where you fail, but in the end, if you really put the work in, then you're going to be able to reach your goals.