SPRING FLING PARTY AT PFTL – MAY 22
We’re having a PARTY! Past, present and future clients are invited to join us for a late Spring Fling Friday, May 22, from 6pm-10pm at our studio. This is great way to kick off the Memorial Day weekend. You will get a chance to mingle with PFTL trainers and clients without having to pump iron or sweat very much. We will have some wonderfully delicious, but healthy food (catered by The Noodle), as well as “healthy” wine. Also, this will be trainer Andrea Stoneback’s last chance to party with us before she leaves for Arizona.
We sent out email invitations, so you can RSVP online, or you can call us at 847-251-6834. Please let us know by May 18, so we can plan accordingly. Adults only, please.
IT’S HAPPENED OR WILL HAPPEN TO EVERYONE
You need to get something from another room. By the time you get to the room, you’ve completely forgotten what it was you wanted and freeze; then you try to remember what you were doing just before you got there, and hopefully remember why you came.
Memory loss is a natural symptom of aging, but it starts way before the grey hair and dentures — possibly when we’re as young as 20. Some researchers blame forgetfulness on our tweeting and Googling, suggesting that multitasking and a constant influx of information may be hurting our memory. Other parts of our lifestyle, like snooze time and working out also play a key role. Fortunately, there are lots of techniques that may help keep our memory sharp.
Get some sleep. Just one night of sleep deprivation can damage our short- and long-term memory, and all-nighters may bring down our ability to retain new information by 40 percent
Move it. Exercise can improve memory and learning — even if it’s just 30 minutes of daily walking. Scientists think exercise boosts the size of the hippocampus, the part of the brain that processes new information and plays a role in long-term memory storage.
Work the mind. Try changing things up by using a non-dominant hand or taking a new route to work. Or start using the mind in the ways you’ve been using the phone, like memorizing phone numbers and addresses.
Study when it counts. In one study, participants who received training in the afternoon performed better on tests than those who were trained in the morning. Reviewing what you’ve learned before bed and right after waking up can also improve retention.
Space out. Multiple studies have found that a memory technique called “spaced repetition” can increase retention by up to 50 percent. Basically, spaced repetition involves breaking info into smaller units and reviewing them consistently over the course of a few months. It can also help to test yourself on new information instead of just passively reviewing it.
Tell a story. The crazier the story, the more likely we are to remember it! Try this technique with the shopping list: If the first word is “apples,” picture an apple pie on the table and use other words on the list to tell a tale about what happened on the trip to the grocery store.
Systemize it. Create rituals and develop habits, like leaving keys in the same place every day. Run through a checklist of all essentials before leaving the house. (Phone? Check. Wallet? Keys?)
CHICKENS ARE NOT VEGETARIAN (from the Washington Post April 29, 2015)
Many of the largest U.S. sellers of organic eggs boast that their hens are vegetarian, and for an increasingly food-curious public, this may be great advertising.
Yet for the chickens, who are natural omnivores that readily devour bugs and small animals when they’re available, the forced vegetarianism can be a disaster.
Chickens on an unsupplemented vegetarian diet typically fall short of an essential protein-based amino acid known as methionine, and without it, they fall ill. Worse, the birds will also turn on each other, pecking at each other in search of nutrients, and these incidents can escalate into a henhouse bloodbath, farmers say.
The vast majority of those organic chickens are fed a ration of corn and soy beans that is supplemented with a synthetic version of methionine; however, since it is synthetic, the use is limited by law. The best way to raise chickens is to let them roam in a pasture where they can eat bugs and other sources of protein. Organic farmers are experimenting with other protein sources, but there is no current standard. In the meantime, chickens are being forced to eat unnaturally just to please the consumer.
ENJOY THE SPRINGTIME AND GET OUT THERE!