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Back to…A Better Bottom Line

The “lazy days” of summer are over, vacations are done, the kids are back to school, and it’s time to get back to routine. As a mom of four, believe me that I understand the stress of September and how parents can easily lose themselves with the focus on getting the kids back to a manageable routine. So, this September, we wanted to provide a series of ideas and strategies to make sure you are going “back to school” while also getting “back to you!”

We’ve shown you ways to get back to a healthier mind, fitness and healthy meals. This week, we turn the focus to your finances. Summer tends to be a time for splurging on vacations, day trips, dining out and other things that can add up. Expenses like increased child care and the cost of day camps can also throw your budget out of whack. Taking an hour or two to sit down and look at your finances is a great activity to do now as your summer spending has subsided and you start to prepare for the upcoming holiday season.

Here are 5 tips to help you get back to a better bottom line:

1. Set Goals: It’s extremely important to have financial goals! Without a goal there’s nothing to concrete to work towards. Categorize your main goals into short term (immediate – 2 years) and long term (5-10) years. If you know you want to take a vacation each year, figure out the cost and how you will save for this. Or if you want to be debt free in 5 years, figure out how much you need to pay down each month to make it happen.

2. Assess the Situation: It’s impossible to know how to you can reach your financial goals if you don’t know what is going on. It’s important to examine your finances each month. Create a statement of net worth looking at your assets and liabilities and track your monthly spending. Using a service like Quickbooks or Mint.com can simplify this process for you! This will also help you to address wrong bill charges or credit card mistakes quickly to prevent unnecessary charges from accumulating.

3. Create a Monthly Budget: Creating a budget based on your income vs. fixed and variable expenses is important. Fixed expenses include things like mortgage or rent, taxes, utilities and bills that occur every month. Variable expenses include things like clothing purchases, gifts and entertainment.

4. Compare: After a month, compare your projected budgeted spending to your actual spending and see where any discrepancies lie. You may find out that many of the things you are purchasing can really add up!

5. Change your Habits: If you find after all your assessing that you are spending more than you are making, or that you are not saving as much as you’d like, it’s time to make some change. Look first to your variable expenses and assess where you can cut back. Do you really need that coffee you buy each day or could you save by brewing your own? Why are you paying so much for cable when you don’t watch half of the stations available? Can your cell phone bill be lowered? Is there a cheaper store where you can buy your groceries? There are always options to lower your expenses, but you need to know what your expenses are to make some decisions!

Often, to make positive changes to your financial state, you may have to make tough choices and ultimately give up something you enjoy. We recommend enlisting the help of a financial advisor who can help you to plan, budget and reach the goals you set.

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How to Conquer “Sitting Disease”

The negative health effects of sitting for extended periods of time, coined as “sitting disease” has been a hot topic recently. Studies show that sitting for extended periods of time, as many of us do at work, while commuting, and even while watching television or reading, can lead to increased risk of heart disease, diabetes and a decreased lifespan. But while we need to work, commute, and enjoy our down time, how do we combat these negative effects? Here are our top 5 tips to conquer sitting disease:

1. Take Regular Breaks: Taking a regular break can help boost productivity, reduce stress and benefit your physical health. Once an hour make sure you stand up, walk around the office, stretch or do some simple exercises like squats or lunges.

2. Stand While You Work: Standing workstations are becoming an increasingly popular choice in offices across the globe. These workstations allow you to adjust your desk from sitting to standing so you can have both options during the day.

3. Switch Your Seat: If you must sit while working, think about changing your seating options! From exercise ball chairs to desks with pedals, there are many options to help you increase your health while sitting.

4. Perfect Your Posture: While you are seated ensure you are not slouching, leaning or bending over to access your workspace. Sitting up straight and ensuring proper posture will go a long way for your physical health!

5. Make it a Mobile Meeting: If you’re meeting with a colleague see if you can have your meeting on the go. Take a walk around the block while you discuss or walk to your favourite coffee shop where you can continue your discussions there.

Check out the following article from The Guardian for more information on “Sitting Disease” and be sure to speak with your employer or an occupational therapist about ways your workspace can be accommodated.

The Guardian:  Is Sitting Down Bad for my Health?

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Community Safety for Alzheimer’s Disease and Cognitive Impairment

Julie Entwistle, MBA, BHSc (OT), BSc (Health / Gerontology)

In recognition of World Alzheimer’s Day, I wanted to touch on the important topic of helping people with Alzheimer’s disease (or cognitive impairment) to be safe in the community.

A few months back I received an email from a friend. She wanted to “pick my brain” about a problem they were encountering with her father who has Alzheimer’s disease. She mentioned that he enjoys spending time in the community on his own, but the family was growing increasingly concerned about his safety. She was wondering if I had any suggestions on how they could monitor his community activities, and be able to locate him should he not return home when expected.

My experience working in brain injury has had me looking for such solutions in the past. Some people, with behavioral or cognitive impairment, are at risk in the community because they become disoriented, confused, lose track of time, or are not attentive to traffic. There is such a loss of independence for people to be told they cannot leave the home alone, and some become agitated or angry when people try to supervise their activities. Yet, even a familiar route can become a problem for people if their cognitive status changes or deteriorates, and what is manageable one day may become problematic the next. Part of my role as an occupational therapist when dealing with cognitive impairment is to problem solve with the client and family the ways we can help them to pursue their goal of independence outside the home, while also ensuring their safety and easing the mind of the care provider. There are several ways to do this, and the list below is not exhaustive by any means.

1. Consider the local Police Departments. These often have programs and ways to track people at risk of wandering. It is also helpful to notify the police about a potential wanderer so this is in their records should their help be needed.

2. The S-911 bracelet has multiple features that allows health care workers and families to GPS locate anyone that may have wandered off, or who is in the community unsupervised. There is a monthly and yearly fee for this device.

3. The Loc8tor is another option and notifies a care giver (or parent of a child for that matter) if the person wearing the device has wandered up to a certain distance away. The Loc8tor is also useful for helping people to find those items that tend to get misplaced – such as keys, wallets and cell phones.

4. Smartphones have GPS detection capabilities such as the “Find my Friends” application for the iPhone. With this, both users can locate the other person, but it does require the person to be carrying the phone, and the phone to be charged and on. This can be a problem for people with cognitive impairment as they may not always remember to take the phone with them when out, may not understand how to turn this on and / or to check and see if it is charged.

5. There are home monitoring systems that can notify family when people are coming or going, or even bed alarms if people leave the bed at night. Motion sensors in the home can also help to notify family if someone is wandering or moving between locations indoors. While these don’t work to locate or ensure someone’s safety outside the home, they are a way to give family members piece of mind to go about business inside the home without always needing to provide the person with cognitive impairment constant supervision.

Remember that Occupational Therapy is about helping people to solve the problems that arise when physical, emotional or cognitive abilities change rendering daily activities to become a struggle. In all cases, because disability is experienced differently by everyone, the solution for one person may not be the solution for another – even when dealing with the same diagnosis. So, consult an OT if you have a functional problem to solve!

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Back to…Healthy Meals

The “lazy days” of summer are over, vacations are done, the kids are back to school, and it’s time to get back to routine. As a mom of four, believe me that I understand the stress of September and how parents can easily lose themselves with the focus on getting the kids back to a manageable routine. So, this September, we wanted to provide a series of ideas and strategies to make sure you are going “back to school” while also getting “back to you!”

We’ve shown you ways to get “Back to” both fitness and a healthier mind. Now, in the third week of our series, we will focus on getting back to a healthy diet! Summertime can be a time of indulgence, filled with barbeques, parties and eating out. Now that fall has come, it’s time to refocus on healthy meals and we know these are most likely to happen at home. With proper planning and preparation, creating healthy home cooked meals can be simple every day. Check out our top 5 ways to save you time and to boost your nutrition at dinner time!

1. Plan Ahead: Planning and posting your weekly meal plan in advance each week will save you time and keep your organized! From this, create your list and hit the grocery store for all you need for the week. Post clearly on your fridge so you remember to pull what you need out of the freezer each day.

2. Shop Only Once: Going to the grocery store multiple times per week eats away at your time and your pocket book. Although you may have only gone in for a bag of milk, often you come out with things you don’t really need. With proper meal planning you should be able to shop for the entire week.

3. Make Ahead: Once you have your meals planned, your ingredients purchased, and your fridge stocked, start cooking! Prepare your vegetables and meats for your next meal ahead of time or, better yet, create some of the many healthy make-ahead meals you can freeze to eat later in the week.

4. Make Friends With Your Slow Cooker: A slow cooker or crock pot can become a busy cooks’ best friend! Simply toss in your pre-prepped ingredients before you leave in the morning and come home to a delicious healthy meal ready and waiting for you when you walk through the door!

5. Eat As a Family: Although schedules are busy and time is tight, make an effort to sit down and eat together as a family. Doing so is beneficial for your mental and physical health and helps to maintain that family togetherness. If this just can’t work during the week, make an effort to connect as a family over meals on the weekends.  Check out our previous post, “Make Time for Family Dinner Time.”

 

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Good, Better, and Best Healthy Meals

Ensuring you and your family are consuming a “rainbow” of foods and eating enough fruit and vegetables each day is important. But do you know if what you are serving is providing yourself and your children with the nutrients they need? The following, from Parenting, invites the Author of the “Sneaky Chef” to show you the good, better, and best you can be serving at each meal of the day. Check it out!

Parenting:  Healthy Family Meals

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Getting Physical with Education

Great news! Physical education is not just happening in the gymnasium anymore and gone are the days of children being expected to sit quietly all day in the classroom. Instead, it is now recognized that each student learns differently and for those with attention deficit disorders and learning disabilities, classrooms need to accommodate unique styles of learning. In today’s classroom, children are spending more time collaborating, exploring, moving around the room, creating student driven discussions and having frequent breaks for stretching and physical activity. The following form the New York Times discusses how adding physical elements to the classroom can help spark creativity and support a better learning environment for all kids, but especially those with ADHD.

The New York Times Well Blog:  Put the Physical in Education

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Terry Fox – The Legacy Continues

“It took cancer to realize that being self-centered is not the way to live. The answer is to try and help others.” Terry Fox

I was 5 when Terry Fox began his epic journey across Canada. I remember watching this on a television with bunny ears and no remote. He would run in the rain, fog, and cold, with his prosthetic limb and very distinguishable gait. Even in a world without the internet, Facebook, email and Twitter, news of his journey spread and touched millions of Canadians. Unfortunately, Terry died before he could complete his journey, at the way-too-young age of 22.

What I find so incredible about Terry’s story, however, is that it didn’t die with him. Even 34 years later Canada remains committed to continuing his legacy through education about Terry, his disease and his mission, and by continuing to promote and encourage others to run as Terry did, and to donate. My children will again participate in the Terry Fox Run this September, as I did in school before them.

According to the Terry Fox Foundation, to date they have raised over $600M for cancer research. But above the massive amounts of money raised, and the heroic action of being one man, all alone, dedicated to raising funds and awareness for an important cause, Terry set an example. He became a poster-boy for overcoming challenges and to have hope. He paved the way for others (Rick Hansen included) to do epic things to raise awareness, and money, to fight for important causes. He demonstrated, as his quote indicates, that being self-centered does not progress a Nation, nor does it raise a generation of loving youth committed to the greater good. The answer is to help others. In some way, or some form, to give back and make your existence matter. This can be as simple as a kind word or friendly gesture, or as significant as donating time, money or careers to worthy causes. We have a lot to learn from Terry Fox – still – even if he is only here in spirit to teach us.

 

photo courtesy of www.historymuseum.ca

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Back to…Fitness

The “lazy days” of summer are over, vacations are done, the kids are back to school, and it’s time to get back to routine. As a mom of four, believe me that I understand the stress of September and how parents can easily lose themselves with the focus on getting the kids back to a manageable routine. So, this September, we wanted to provide a series of ideas and strategies to make sure you are going “back to school” while also getting “back to you!”

In the second week of our series we are focusing on getting back to fitness! As keeping fit is a key way to maintain physical health, mood, improves sleep, increases energy – exercise really is the best medicine! However, it is also one thing that drops off the radar when parents are overwhelmed. Here are some great simple ways to sneak in exercise when you don’t have time to hit the gym.

1. Walk or ride your bike – if you’re going less than 1 km, try to walk or ride your bike. Take a walk at lunch to boost your energy for the afternoon.

2. Park far away—get in some extra steps by parking in the farthest spot from the entrance – those extra steps add up over time.

3. Take the stairs—take the stairs instead of the elevator or even escalator. This can get your heart pumping and help strengthen muscles at the same time.

4. Focus on posture – if you’re sitting at a desk all day long, ensure you remember your posture. Sitting up straight and tightening your stomach can help to strengthen your core.

5. Sneak it in—If you’re on the couch at night watching your favourite show use the commercial breaks as a quick 2 minute exercise drill. Do some squats, crunches or lunges until the show comes back on. Have a competition with your kids to see how many sit-ups or push-ups you can do in that 2 minute period!