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Beat the Heat!

June 18, 2021

Hot Weather Tips From Jon Hetherton Insurance Agency

Summer is here, and the 4th of July is just around the corner. As we move to do more outside activities, it will be important to remember to stay cool. For people who labor outside throughout the summer, heatstroke is the most serious risk and should be handled as a medical emergency. Heatstroke happens when the body's temperature is out of control, causing damage to the brain and other internal organs. Heatstroke can result in permanent impairment or even death if not treated promptly.

Drink plenty of water
Do not consume alcohol in the heat
Appliances generate heat. An oven can easily raise the room temperature by 10 degrees. Save cooking with heat for cooler hours during the day, or cook outdoors on your grill. It is also a good idea to run the dishwasher and clothes dryer at night.
Choose garments made from natural fibers, such as cotton, which is breathable. Wear loose-fitting, light-colored clothing that will allow air to circulate while you are out in the heat.
Eat small meals more often. Avoid foods that are high in protein because they increase metabolic heat. Avoid using salt tablets unless directed to do so by a physician.
Do not leave children or pets in a closed vehicle, even for a few minutes.
A cool shower or bath is a great way to stay cool and much more effective than using an electric fan.
Limit physical activity: Take breaks during the day.

Heatstroke is the most serious heat-related sickness, defined as a body temperature of 103 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. Hot, red skin, rapid heartbeat, shallow breathing, disorientation, delirium, and coma are some of the symptoms.

Please keep an eye on your neighbors who are old, housebound, or otherwise hesitant to seek assistance in your neighborhood. On hot days, you can offer to host them in your air-conditioned living room, transport them to a nearby cooling center, or phone family or city agencies to make arrangements for them to stay cool.

All of us at Jon Hetherton Insurance Agency hope you stay cool and enjoy your summer! Keep us in mind if you need to insure your summer toys.

Tips To Help You Reduce Stress

May 18, 2021

Stress has always been a part of our lives. In this hectic time, people lead an increasingly stressful life. Experts state that a little stress can be good; it keeps you sharp and ready to move forward and is sometimes vital for achieving optimum performance. However, medical research has determined that prolonged stress is very bad for the body and can block the body’s natural ability to repair, regenerate and protect itself. Over 90% of disease is caused by stress. Stress is both a physical and psychological response. It can lead to chronic disease, obesity, insomnia, deteriorating relationships, depression, and more.

Stress is such a powerful and harmful force that it is vital that you learn effective stress management techniques to live a successful, happy, and healthy life. We must remember that we will always come across inevitable factors that cause pressure and anxiety on us. What we do not know is that it is not really the problems that are difficult to deal with, but our attitude towards them. So basically, the cause of stress is your attitude toward these things. What, then, is an effective way to deal with stressors?

Below are five great tips for handling stress.

1. Identify what makes you stressed and uneasy. Making a list of your stressful experiences is useful. Immediately deal with the issues that you can change, for instance, waking up earlier for work in the morning, not leaving things till the last minute, and delegating tasks in case you are taking responsibility for everything. Forget about the issues that you cannot influence, like being stuck in a traffic jam or not getting into the elevator because there is no room for you.

2. Calm down. Wash your face, breath slowly and deeply, and notice if there is tension in any part of your body and release it. You can also listen to relaxing music, or call a friend. Releasing your inner feelings to a friend is a healthy option.

3. Remember it will pass, and it will be over before you know it. Remind yourself that the stressful event will end sooner or later can make you see the positive sides of things. At the same time, calm down your emotions and think of what is the best thing to do rather than take your energy away from what needs to be done.

4. Know yourself. Ask yourself: What triggers your anxiety? If, for example it is your job, then maybe it's time for you to reconsider whether it would be best to find a less stressful job. You can also make your job more tolerable by allowing yourself to get that needed vacation or leave.

5. Learn to use your relaxation response. Just as we all have within us the stress response, we also have an opposite response, which is the relaxation response. A person should elicit that on a regular basis. The relaxation response involves two steps. Repetition the repetition can be a word, a sound, an expression, or a repetitive movement. The second step is to ignore other thoughts that come to your mind while you’re doing the repetition, and come back to the repetition. The technique should be used once or twice a day for about 15 minutes. Sit quietly and choose a suitable repetition, like a prayer, the sound Om, or the word love, or calm.

Consequently, you’re less likely to be upset by a stressor and thus less likely to have its harmful effect occur. Eventually, it is your choice. You could either continue to react in the same stressful way, or you could choose to improve your life by changing your attitude and becoming relaxed. There's no other way around it.

And of course, we hope that your interaction with Jon Hetherton Insurance Agency is as stress free as possible!

Simple Yet Effective Gardening Tips

April 15, 2021

If you're lucky enough to have a lawn with a good topsoil base, much of the hard work of keeping a lawn beautiful is already done for you. But many of us do not have this luxury, and besides, even with a good topsoil base, you still have to work hard to keep a beautiful lawn and garden.

1. The best time to mow a lawn is when it is cool and dry. Wait for the morning dew to dry off, and before the afternoon, heat takes hold. Alternatively, late afternoon or early evening following a watering in the morning is also a good time.

2. A hedge is a much better boundary divider than a fence. It will provide better privacy and keep pets and children in or out. It will attract birds to its shelter and provide a great backdrop for plants and flowers.

3. Bring the beauty of your garden to you; plant hyacinths near walkways and doors. Their magnificent perfume will swamp the spring air and make your garden really come alive.

4. Add your garden to non-garden items, such as lampposts and mailboxes. Surround these items with flowers planted to take advantage of the earliest to the latest flowerings. You could have white snowdrops, purple and gold crocus, blue hyacinths, and various colored tulips. You could also surround the posts with rocks to provide added interest.

5. Simple but effective weed control can be achieved on your lawn by often mowing during spring. This will prevent dandelions from spreading by eliminating the yellow blossoms and preventing seed formation. Mow high during late spring and early summer. This will allow grass blades to shade the ground and will help prevent crabgrass from sprouting.
Your lawn and garden should be a source of pride and beauty.

You don't need to spend lots of money on expensive fertilizers and herbicides or fancy lawn furniture and ornaments. A little commonsense and thought can go a long way to making your lawn and garden a much better place.

As always, all of us at Jon Hetherton Insurance Agency appreciate your business, and If you would like us to do a 'spring cleaning' of your accounts please don't hesitate to email or call us.

Tips to Enjoy Your Spring Workout

March 10, 2021

There are three key elements that are important to make any exercise program successful. These elements are safety, effectiveness, and enjoyment.

Safety: The “No pain, no gain” theory is a myth. Avoid any exercise that causes pain or undue discomfort. If pain occurs in the neck or chest area, stop exercising and, if necessary, seek medical attention. General muscle soreness is another matter, especially for the beginner. You can expect some soreness, but it need not be excessive.
A personal trainer will design an exercise program for you and your current fitness level. As your fitness level increases, your program will be adjusted to keep up with you. Too much too soon will only undermine your efforts.

Using proper form, technique and avoiding high-impact will keep your exercise program safe. A strain in your lower back, shins, calves, ankles, and knees are predictable results of improper form. Repetitive, jarring movements should be avoided for general fitness. If you feel a strain, please let your trainer know. We don’t always know if you don’t tell us.
Don’t bounce or force stretching movements. Quick, pulsing movements while stretching can result in muscle strain and tears. Static movements that gradually extend muscles through the full range of motion until you feel resistance is the stretching to use for general fitness. Stretching will also decrease the likelihood of injury and soreness.
Effectiveness: Effective exercise does require effort, but those who say it must hurt are wrong. The level of exercise is determined by your fitness level and goals. The fuel source for the body during low to moderate aerobic exercise is fat. If burning excess body fat is your current fitness goal, stick to the recommended exercises and intensity levels to receive maximum results. As your fitness level increases, so will the formula for your program. Intensity, weight, repetitions, and rest periods will all be adjusted as you progress.
Proper warm-up before exercising and cool down afterward is essential to avoid injury and achieve peak performance.

Enjoyment: It has been said that nobody will exercise just because it is good for them. We need additional motives or goals that mean something to us, and that will come as a result of regular exercise.
It is important to identify your goal, so your exercising effort focuses on your goal(s) to keep you motivated. The more motivating your exercise becomes, the more enjoyable it will be. More enjoyment produces more consistent and more incredible results!
So how do you make exercise fun? First of all, stop thinking of it as exercise and start thinking of it as play. You remember play: those activities you enjoyed as a child. Turn exercise into play! Usually, play involves interaction with friends and variety.

All of us at Jon Hetherton Insurance Agency appreciate your continued business, and wish you a healthy and happy March!

Make 2021 The Start Of Healthy Living

February 4, 2021

In the fast-paced world that we live in it can be easy to neglect our health and wellness. We're so busy racing through our day to day lives family, friends, work, social engagements that we don't take the time to look after ourselves. It is no wonder that so many of us are tired and run down. What are some simple things that we can do to improve our quality of life?

Drink, Drink, Drink
You've heard it a million times, and you'll probably hear it a million more drink more water!
Think about it: The human body is 72% water. A 5% drop in fluids creates a 25-30% loss in energy. A 15% drop in fluids causes death! At this point, 66% of us aren't drinking enough water, so over half the population is not running on all six cylinders, to begin with before things like bad air, bad food and stress take their toll.
It's not really a difficult thing to remedy. Just drink one glass of water every half hour or so or 10-12 glasses of water per day, and you'll notice a huge jump in your energy levels.

Living Food Loving Life!
A little-known fact is that heating food above 116F destroys much of the nutrient content. Considering that we already aren't eating enough veggies, that's a fairly substantial problem. Nutritionists recommend five serves of fresh vegetables per day. How many of us are taking that advice?
A great way to get the nutrients found in fresh veggies without spending all day at the stove or eating raw celery sticks is to juice your veggies. Make sure that you own a good juicer (some juicers expose vegetables to heat created by friction during juicing, which breaks down important enzymes), grab some fresh vegetables and drink your way to good health. It takes a fraction of the time (there's no cooking involved, for one thing) and it's convenient. You can take your juice to work and even give some to the littlies for school lunches!
Wheatgrass, in particular, is an excellent source of nutrition. Its high in chlorophyll (sometimes described as plant blood because it closely resembles human red blood cell molecules) and has over 100 elements that the body needs. Fresh grains are another excellent source for vitamins and minerals

Energy In Energy Out
Exercise is another dirty word for most of us. The thing is, exercise doesn't have to be time-consuming or mind-numbingly dull. There are plenty of options.
If you don't have the time or money for the gym, or prefer to spend your mornings/nights at home, then try an exercise bike or walker. I'd be lost without my exercise bike I set it up in front of the television and peddle away merrily during my favorite shows.
An excellent way to get back into a physical routine is to start slowly. Ridiculously slowly. For the first couple of weeks, walk/ride for 5 minutes per day precisely 5 minutes, no more, even if you think you could continue. When the two weeks are up, increase to 7 minutes, then 10 minutes, 12 minutes continue to gradually increase your activity until you're at a level that you're comfortable with.
It may sound a little silly, but it works. In effect, you trick your body into producing more energy. Your building your exercise time up so slowly that your body doesn't realize what's happening. Follow this method and, before you know it, you'll be comfortably exercising within your limits every day.
So, folks, that's the basics. If you can rearrange your life a little to allow for better eating habits and a little exercise, and if you remember to drink a glass of water every half hour or so, you'll be well on the way to living a healthy life. On a final note, don't forget to take some quiet time for yourself. Meditating is an excellent way to minimize stress. You don't have to sit around for hours, give yourself 5 minutes of quiet time every day even in the shower if that's the only place where you can get the time out and have a little catch up with yourself.
And, last but by no means least, laugh! Laugh like a loon, the louder wi the better! You’ll be amazed at how much such a simple thing can lift your spirits!

All of us at Jon Hetherton Insurance Agency appreciate your business, and wish you good health and happiness throughout the year!