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contractor, painter

How to Choose a Contractor

If you’ve owned your home for any length of time, you likely have needed some sort of contractor at one time or another, whether for painting, remodeling, or any other home improvement project. And you probably remember how hard it was getting a good one. Good contractors really are out there; it’s just a matter of finding them. But how do you go about choosing a contractor that will meet your needs? Following are helpful tips from top contractors that will help you choose a house painter or any other type of contractor, the next time you need one.

healthy living women

Healthy Exercise for Pregnant Women

While exercise may be the last thing on the mind of many pregnant women, since they often feel more tired and achy than normal, there are many reasons to continue or begin a fitness program.  As long as your doctor approves, moderate exercise can be incorporated into your routine most days of the week.  The health benefits of swimming make it an excellent choice for those who are seeking to find the best way to stay active during pregnancy.

aerobic exercise

Health Benefits of Aerobic Exercise

Perhaps you’ve heard about the health benefits of aerobic exercise, and that phrase simply makes you conjure up a mental image of a bunch of women clad in cutesy spandex outfits at a school gymnasium performing synchronized Jazzercise steps.

Well, the trend in the past has been to take what is collectively referred to as “aerobics classes”, or gatherings that are enjoyed by groups of men and women who follow an instructor while they embark on an exercise regimen which combines aerobic exercise, stretching and strength-training moves to achieve different levels of fitness.  It may be a “step class” or a dance class.  Aerobic exercise could be simply be doing “Jumping Jacks”… it is anything that gets your heart pumping.  First, we need to define the word “aerobic”, which means “with oxygen”.  Aerobics is not just the exercise regimen per se, but a series of moves by you that will continue to stimulate your heart and breathing rate, improving your breathing through each successive session.   Aerobic exercise takes on many forms.  Such examples include activities like the use of cardio machines, or spinning, running, swimming, walking, hiking, dancing, cross-country skiing, kickboxing, and the aforementioned aerobics classes.

weight training

Health Benefits of Weight Training

You can follow a healthy diet and exercise until you are blue in the face (please don’t do that though – it’s just an expression), and your body will never achieve that sinewy, conditioned look you see in the pages of fitness magazines.  Before you assume those chiseled-looking bods of the men and women who grace the magazines’ pages is the result of Photo Shopped images, you should be aware that the look that you admire, and perhaps covet, comes from weight training.

“Oh… weight training” you say glumly.  But… wait a minute – before you stop reading and go no further, because, although you know you’re interested in looking good and getting a primo workout to your muscles and lungs, you may shudder to think that you will end up looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Well this article will dispel that myth right now.

nuts. healthy

Health Benefits of Nuts

Not so long ago, the medical honchos told us that eating nuts was not good for our health.  We believed them because they are, after all, the medical gurus, and we are just mortal men and women.  Besides, if you think about it, what possible redeeming value could a peanut butter and jelly sandwich be, or, if you are really decadent and like swirling your tablespoon around in the Jif bottle and delivering yourself a big mouthful of that creamy or crunchy goodness?  They shamed us into believing peanut butter was a no-no.

finance, hospital

How to Finance a Hospital

Hospitals today are not the same as you may remember from back in your youth.  Hospitals, for the most part, are all about making a profit these days, and, since the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) became a reality, more and more people find themselves with elective surgeries are on the rise.  The ACA has also increased the need for more hospitals, as well as doctors and related hospital staff.  Truly the ACA has been a win-win situation in the medical field, especially when you discover that as recently as 2014, hospital’s uncompensated care costs were estimated to be a whopping $7.4 billion, or 21% lower in 2014 than they would have been in prior years due to the absence of coverage expansions.  One of the ACA’s chief aims was to incentivize hospitals to promote high-quality care and avoid unnecessary re-admissions, and slowly and surely this is coming to fruition.