There are a lot of people who choose not to weigh themselves on a regular basis because it tends to make them too obsessive about their weight. However, if you are trying to lose weight and you have the ability to track your weight loss without becoming obsessive, then you don’t just want to get yourself just any standard bathroom scale, you want to find yourself the best body weight scale on the market. This is because a lot of scales don’t give very accurate readings and if you’re really trying to measure your progress, then you need something that is incredibly accurate. Here is how to choose the right bathroom scale.

Always Go Digital

First things first, you always want to go with a digital scale. Some people think that they should go with a standard physician’s beam scale, assuming that it must be the best option if it’s what the doctors use. However, not only are those scales not the most accurate because they’re actually measuring mass rather than weight, but they don’t need to be that accurate. Your doctor just wants to know how much you weigh in general. When you use a digital scale you can see all the way down to how many tenths, or even hundredths of a pound. That said, measuring hundredths of a pound isn’t extremely necessary, because your weight will fluctuate very naturally and changes this small are not something you should read into very much.

Talk to Your Personal Trainer

If you have a personal trainer, then you should definitely ask them what kind of a scale you should buy in accordance with your particular fitness goals. Not only should they have their finger on the pulse when it comes to these types of things, but they should also be able to tell you what time of day you should be weighing yourself and how often. If you don’t have a personal trainer, then you might just want to ask any trainer that works at your gym.

Find One with Body Fat Assessment

Measuring your body fat is an important factor in tracking your weight loss. You want to know if the weight you are losing, or possibly gaining is the result of building muscle, losing muscle, burning fat, or gaining fat. Finding a digital scale that includes body fat assessment is the best way to gain a better understanding of your progress when you set very specific fitness goals. The more specific your fitness goals are, and the more accurate your measurements are, the easier it will be to make the progress that you want.

Read User Reviews

Lastly, before you make any final purchases, you want to make sure that you really read the user reviews on any scale that you plan on buying. You want to find one that has plenty of user reviews to read in the first place, and you want to take a look at what percentage of them are positive and what percentage are negative. And don’t forget to consider the people who are reviewing the item. Reading a few of their other reviews is usually a good indication of how much you can trust their opinion.

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Hip surgery recovery is something you don’t want to mess around with on any level. That’s because the initial few weeks of hip replacement recovery are critical for successful healing. So, as you probably have guessed, there are a number of activities and forms of exercise that you will need to avoid in order for your surgery to heal correctly.

The most common problem that comes from a patient attempting to go back to their normal daily routine is that the individual suffers a dislocation of the hip at the point where the ball and the socket of the artificial hip come apart. Moving as you normally would places you at a greater possibility for replacement hip dislocation which leads to the necessity for corrective action in order to put the hip back into place.

Keep in mind, your range of motion and mobility are both limited right after a hip replacement operation and forcing yourself to do even the smallest things that you otherwise take for granted throughout the day can lead to significant damage.

The Way You Walk

Even the way you walk, the most basic of ambulatory functions, will need to be reconsidered and carefully performed in order to keep your hip from being dislocated and injured. Be sure that you always walk slowly and keep the toes of the foot on the affected leg pointed directly outward at all times. Try to avoid rotating your foot inward, this will increase your risk of dislocating the hip.

The Way You Sleep

Sure, we’re not always aware of our positioning when we’re asleep, but you can take some careful measures to ensure that you don’t hurt yourself while you’re getting your rest. So, in order to stay safe and prevent an injury, try to sleep on your stomach or sleep on your back with both legs slightly apart.

Sleeping on your side is not recommended, however, if that’s the only way you can fall asleep, place a pillow between your knees or use an abduction pillow. These are effective for keeping the knee immobile and reducing your risk of dislocation or injury.

The Way You Sit

Anytime you wish to sit, and you are going to want to do that often, you need to reconsider the furniture that you choose to sit down in. Avoid anything soft and/or low to the ground. That means no couches, sofas, easy chairs, recliners, bean bag chairs, anything that will force you to exert more effort in lowering and rising yourself to sit in and get out of any seated position.

Try to choose something with armrests as you can shift your weight to assist you in getting down and getting back up again. Make sure your chair or seating area is firm and you aren’t left struggling to sit or stand up.

The Way You Walk Up Stairs

If possible, avoid stairs entirely for about 2-3 weeks. Take the elevator or an escalator instead. However, if you don’t have that luxury, always use your good leg to step up first, then follow that with the leg you had operated on, and finally your crutches. Stay in that order until your leg is stronger.

 

If you find that it’s becoming a greater challenge to keep your grass green throughout the summer, there are some helpful hints to keep in mind for practicing smart and sensible lawn care in Richmond, VA.

Consider these five tips for a healthier lawn as the days get longer and the temperatures go up:

Choose Your Grass Wisely

All grass is not created equal. Some will not thrive in warmer climates as well as others. If your home is located in a part of the country that gets warmer weather over longer periods of time, you want to put in a grass that is meant to survive better in such a climate. There are hot-season grasses and cold-season grasses, meaning that each type of grass thrives better in warmer or cooler climes respectively.

For a grass that works best where you live, consider your climate and then select your grass accordingly. Failing to do that will all but ensure you have a tougher time keeping your lawn green over the summer.

Don’t Water Your Lawn (As Much)

The quickest way to kill your grass is by making it think that water is an easy thing to come by. That happens because you are watering it too much and the roots of your lawn remain shallow since they do not have to go searching for that sustenance of moisture. But if you water grass less often, you can train the lawn to extend those roots a bit deeper to search out moisture and don’t remain closer to the surface.

Doing this will prepare the lawn to keep thriving throughout the summer months and increase your chances of keeping it in excellent condition.

Water at The Right Time

Don’t water when it’s hot out, do it much earlier in the morning. Before the sun comes up. Some time around 5 or 5:30 am, because any moisture that doesn’t get below the surface will evaporate instead of laying on top of your grass. Moisture in your grass blades increases the chances of fungal infections developing and killing your grass in patches.

Avoid Mowing Your Lawn Too Tight

Keeping your grass blades too short and tight increases your chances of the lawn getting brown spots or dying altogether. The way you mow can have a significant impact on your ability to keep the grass healthy. While you certainly want to mow your lawn, doing so at a height that is far too short can leave the grass exposed to root damage. A good rule of thumb is to keep your blades about 3” in height.

You want to be careful not to trim more than a third off from the top, as that reduces shade for the root system and promotes a greater potential for the grass to become unhealthy.

Avoid Mowing in The Sun

Always avoid mowing the lawn when the sun is at its highest point. Heat stress can be very tough on your grass and when you add the further pressure of being cut by a mower, that is doubly difficult on your lawn.

 

Caring for the elderly comes with many challenges and when those receiving care are members of one’s own family it can be even tougher due to those personal familial bonds. Many of these caregivers are finding that providing care to an elderly loved one can be a full-time job, devoting 40 hours or more per week to the task.

Family caregivers are often expected to deal with a wide range of jobs from feeding to bathing to dressing their loved along with many of the typical medical and nursing responsibilities that are part and parcel of caring for seniors.

This isn’t to suggest that providing care to your loved one is simply a burden that must be accepted, caregiving to others can be highly gratifying and even productive, but those who succumb to the difficulties of these tasks can find themselves having a very tough time of it.

Let’s consider the challenges that these caregivers face when they are trying to provide high quality senior care in Bethlehem, PA.

Time Management

One of the toughest challenges for caregivers working with their elderly relatives is the lack of time that remains for other aspects of life. These individuals are putting forth so much effort towards their senior that they have little to no time left for other things in life such as spending time with other family members, going away on a vacation, and devoting enough time to duties at their place of employment.

Too Much Stress

Caregivers have shown to have increased levels of emotional and physical stress. They are putting all of their time towards ensuring their senior avoids becoming sick that it forces them to put aside their own health. Physical stress can manifest itself in helping an elderly loved one up from bed, even carrying that person when need be. This is exacerbated by the emotional and mental stress that can come from seeing their loved one dealing with conditions such as Alzheimer’s or dementia.

Setting Personal Boundaries

Many caregivers find they lack normal, common privacy when they move their elderly loved one into their home. They find they have no private domain in the home because they are always needed by that loved one for help or assistance with daily tasks.

Financial Concerns

Experiencing trouble balancing a work schedule with a caregiver schedule can have an impact on the finances. Sometimes being a caregiver can take up so much time, work suffers and the loss of income due to spending so much time on being an unpaid caregiver to an older family member can start to create financial challenges that can be tough to overcome the longer the situation lasts.

Lack of Sleep

Nobody is at their best when they are feeling exhausted all the time. With all of the time that you may have to devote to caregiving, along with the hours spent working a job, and doing other errands and tasks that are important, there is usually very little time left to get a good night’s sleep. This can contribute to health problems and make all of these many challenges even tougher and insurmountable.

Finding the right event location is all about knowing what you want. It’s also the most important decision you will make in the preparation for your function because without it, you have no event. You can’t very well expect 100 or 1000 people much less 10 to come to a party that has no venue.

So it all starts with booking the proper Raleigh Event Venue, however, not everyone is entirely sure what goes into making this decision. Fortunately, you likely have all of the information you need to help you determine which event space is best for your particular gathering. Let’s take a look at the important factors that you must consider as you start shopping around for the right spot.

The Appropriate Event Space

Think about what kind of event you are attempting to put on. If it’s a wedding, you’ll want one kind of space whereas if it’s a corporate event, you’re going to want another that is more appropriately suited for that type of function.

Give a thought to what kind of party or event you are planning before you start seeking out venues in your area.

The Event Activities

A really helpful method for finding the best possible venue is to know what it is you plan to do during the event. Do you intend to have a large presentation in front of your guests? Will there be food? Will that food be served at tables or will all of your guests be serving themselves buffet style?

What about a DJ and dancing? Are there other physical activities that you plan to conduct? What we’re getting at here is that you want to know just how much space you will require for a successful event.

Capacity Considerations

You do not want to book an event space that is too small for your event. That means you need to know how many guests you are planning to invite for the event along with the planned agenda. So, think about your intended activities and cross that with your guest list.

Capacity is crucial here, because the last thing you want is for your party to be interrupted and possibly even shut down because you have too many people packed inside of a space that can’t accommodate everyone safely. If the Fire Marshal comes by and determines that your event space is nearing or over capacity, your shindig will get shut down.

Keeping Your Costs Manageable

Price is always a major factor in choosing anything that can get costly. You need to think about your budget as you shop around for the best event space. Building a budget before you start to plan the event is an essential step, so once you know how much money you have to allocate towards the rental space, you can be better prepared to find the best venue.

Knowing what you have to spend can help you avoid searching through event spaces that are out of your budget range. This way you keep the potential venues to solely to those you can easily afford based on your resources.

If you’re one of the thousands of new caregivers to an elderly adult, you are probably facing some tough challenges. One of those is most undoubtedly financial and when it comes to caring for a senior citizen in today’s healthcare market, costs can skyrocket.

This is particularly true for hiring on home care in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Studies have shown that seniors who are able to age in place often live healthier and happier lives. It’s up to you to help then live that best life, but there can be a myriad of obstacles that can get in the way. Getting your senior loved one the care that he or she deserves will have a lot to do with a capability to pay for it.

As a result, some seniors will go without the care they need because the money just simply isn’t there. The senior may not have the money for their own care and you may not have the resources either. Fortunately, there are many solutions to assist you in caring for your elderly adult, but don’t be concerned that reducing your costs means reducing the quality of care.

On the contrary, these tips and hints for spending less will be useful for getting your senior the care he or she really needs:

Hiring Help Without an Agency

If you are looking to get someone to come into the home on those days when you are unavailable, you’re going to want to put a lot of time and effort into finding not just the right individual, but the best one. As a result, you may decide to go with a professional hiring agency to get that person.

The pitch for hiring through a caregiver agency is that the company has done all the vetting and diligence for you, providing you with peace of mind in knowing that you are hiring some reliable, trustworthy, and knowledgeable in caring for your elderly loved one.

But hiring through an agency could cost you more than if you were to track down the individual you want to bring on all by yourself. Most agencies will charge you additional fees for that peace of mind they are offering, some as much as 25% to 30% more than if you were to find someone yourself. Sure, that might mean taking more time to get the right individual and that expense of time may be comparable to that 30% expense of cost, depending on your line of work and how busy you may be doing it.

Having Meals Delivered

When you aren’t available to help your senior with prepping meals, you are going to need to hire someone on to do it for them. This is usually essential for elderly adults who are no longer confident with operating appliances like an oven or a stove to prepare their meals. For situations such as these, you can save money by hiring a meal service to supply the ingredients and prep the food for your senior to have nutritious sustenance.

The meals that these services provide are high quality so don’t worry about cutting corners in that regard simply because you decided to spend less to feed your elderly adult. Hiring a meal service means that all of the costs are covered, from the ingredients to the cooking of the food.

It’s a smart alternative to paying a caregiver to prep, cook, and serve a meal because the caregiver is still on the clock, you will be billed for those hours. With a meal service, the price you pay takes care of every factor that goes into ensuring that your elderly loved one gets a good nutritious meal.

Eligibility for Tax Breaks and Credits

Many of the expenses that come with senior care may also make you or your senior eligible for specific tax deductions or credits that can be applied at the time you file taxes. These credits and deductions can be very useful for reducing a tax bill when that time of year comes around once again and especially for taxpayers who can claim a senior as a dependent.

But like with anything else related to paying your taxes, you may have some questions or confusion about the deductions or credits you might be able to claim. It will behoove you to discuss your concerns or ask your questions by contacting the IRS. Talking to a tax preparer, while a smart idea, can also cost you money. So, keep that in mind as you try to pinch those pennies.

When you are working with drywall, you have some leeway with respect to committing any mistakes. You always want to be careful not to do it improperly and end up with shoddy workmanship, however, should you have a minor mishap, it’s not the end of the world. That’s certainly not the case with other aspects of home in-home repairs and improvements, such as electrical or plumbing work.

But that’s not to suggest you can go into this work without the required level of skill and careful attention to detail. Hanging drywall is one of those tasks that you get a whole better at performing the more often you do it. It’s like anything else, practice makes perfect, but some of your first-time DIYers may need some more help than those veterans who have worked with this material before.

No matter, we have five helpful tips for anyone attempting to do the work of drywall installation or drywall repair in their home without the assistance of a trained professional. Take these all under advisement as you get to work on your drywall project and you may find the results are even better than you anticipated.

1. Hang Your Panels Flat and Level

Sounds like a common sense hint but you would surprised how many do-it-yourselfers don’t put all that much thought into getting this fundamental aspect of the job right. If you hang drywall on a plane of a wall or the ceiling that is not perfectly flat and level, you will start to see the folly of your labors sooner than you think.

These will emerge in the form of a panel that is starting to show signs of bowing and cracking long after the work has been completed. So, take the additional step or two to confirm that your wall and ceiling are flat and level. You might need to do a little extra work but you’ll be glad you did.

2. Horizontal Not Vertical

Your ability to install your drywall panels will depend largely on your approach to the work. For hanging drywall in a residence, you want to go horizontal instead of vertical with your installation. This is done to reduce the number of seams that could be visible to the naked eye once the work is finished.

Horizontal installation will leave you with just the one seam, if you are putting up drywall that runs about twelve feet in length. If you install the panels vertically, you will be left with multiple seams running from the floor to the ceiling. That is going to much tougher to conceal.

Even better, horizontal installation also gives the wall a greater level of structural integrity and strength.

So, when you’re ready to get to work, put up those panels in a horizontal position.

3. Find Your Studs First

Ahead of your installation efforts, find and mark the centered positions of the wall studs at the ceiling and the floor. Doing this before you hang the drywall panels will make it a whole lot easier to insert your drywall screws and ensure they are properly secured.

The way you mark the areas and the straight line where you decide to drive the screws is entirely up to you, just be careful that you know where the stud is located and then start to drive the screws into your panels. But don’t mark up your panels too much or too dark, those marks could eventually start to show up from underneath your paint job.

4. Be Careful How You Cut Your Panels

This may sound strange to some of your newbies, but you don’t exactly cut your drywall as much as you snap it. But while cutting is still a part of the process, it may seem more than a bit confusing as to the best way to get the work done.

So, let’s walk you through it really quick – you are going to score one side of the panel with a utility blade or box cutter, X-acto knife, anything that is sharp and lets you be really precise in your cutting capability. Once you’ve scored the panel all the way (you’re going to be doing this length-wise, keep that in mind), you will then use your knee or some blunt object against the opposite side in an effort to snap the panel in half.

This is meant to allow you to break the panel nice and clean along the perforation. But the board will only be snapped in half, you will then need to take your blade and cut at the fold to finally sever the two segments from one another.

5. About Your Screws

Finally, this tip is the easiest and shortest to remember. When you drive your screws into the drywall make sure you get screws with coarse and not fine threads. Coarse threads hold their position better and they are easier to put in. On top of that, don’t drive them in too far or you could end up cracking the paper facade of your drywall.