Posts by Wendy S

About Wendy S

+Wendy S (also known as @mapsgirl) is a mom to two daughters. They are the inspiration of this blog.Passionate about child passenger safety, Wendy has been a certified Car Seat Technician in Ontario, Canada since 2008.

What To Wear On A Flight: Your Next Trip Sorted

November 16, 2022 by Wendy S

Photo by Killian Pham on Unsplash

When it comes to flying, throwing on any old outfit and hoping for the best isn’t always an ideal strategy. Sure, modern planes are super comfortable, but it’s not like you’re just taking a trip on the local bus. When you fly, you’re always on an adventure, whether you’re travelling for business or pleasure. Therefore, you need to be prepared.

Don’t worry, though, if you’ve never thought about this before. This post is here to help. In it, we take a look at some of the things you’ll need to wear on a plane to make the trip a breeze. Let’s take a look.

Plenty Of Layers

Imagine you’re flying from Lapland to Lagos. The temperature differential is enormous at any time of the year, probably over 30°C.

That’s why it’s a good idea to pack plenty of layers. You never know when you’re going to feel cold, and when things will be absolutely baking hot.

Beware of flight transfers. Aircraft air conditioning doesn’t always regulate the temperature perfectly, particularly if the new plane has been sitting on a hot runway for several hours before you board.

Good items to take along with you include shawls, wraps, cardigans, and sweatshirts. If you get too hot, you can take layers off and keep them in your hand luggage. Remember, aircraft air conditioning systems can feel a little cold to some people, particularly if you are sensitive.

Loose-Fit Clothes

Blood clots in the legs are a risk for passengers who spend a lot of time remaining absolutely still in aircraft seats for a long time. That’s why it’s a good idea to wear loose-fitting clothing. You want to ensure that you impede your circulation as little as possible.

Pay particular attention to tightness around the ankles. Ideally, these should be free from obstruction so the blood can easily travel back from the feet.

Wear Slip-On Shoes

When you’re running to gates and trying to find your seat in narrow planes, the last thing you want to worry about is tying your shoelaces. Stooping down to tie wayward laces could actually be a hazard.

For that reason, slip-on shoes make sense. And while they might not be the most stylish, they are certainly practical for the airport experience.

Take A Scarf With You

Take a wide scarf with you on the plane so you have something that can transform into either a shawl or a blanket. If you sleep in your seat, you’ll notice that your body temperature drops significantly so you’ll want something to keep you warm. Choose a sweat-wicking fabric if you can, meaning no nylon.

Slim Backpack

Look for a slim backpack for all your carry-on essentials. You want something with plenty of room for a laptop, headphones, and a shawl, but that won’t get in the way when you are trying to find your way to your seat.

These days, there are plenty of brands offering slim backpacks exclusively for travel purposes, so take a look and see what’s available. Look for bags with pouches for the specific items you travel with.

T-Shirt

When it comes to flying, you don’t want to wear anything too fancy. A simple Nike t-shirt will suffice. You can save all your elegant outfits and dresses for when you arrive at your destination. You want something that can cope with food being spilled on it during turbulence and you can easily wash when you arrive at your new location.

A Warm, Neutral Outer Layer

Even if you are travelling between tropical destinations, it’s still a good idea to take a warm outer layer with you. Gates next to air conditioning vents can get pretty chilly.

Look for something neutral that won’t make you stand out. Also, go lightweight. You don’t want to feel even more burdened than you already do.

A Jacket With Pockets

Lastly, if you have a lot of luggage, you’ll want to take a jacket with you that has a lot of pockets. This way, you can load it up with a bunch of trinkets and avoid hand luggage weight limits.

Just be sensible with how you load it. Fill pockets with small but heavy items that people would usually carry around with them. Don’t try to fit your laptop between the seams. Security probably won’t appreciate inventiveness like that.

Today, there are numerous high-quality jackets on the market with plenty of external and internal pockets to choose from. Most have pockets large enough for the biggest smartphones and standard airline tickets.

Starting Your Gym Journey? Tips For You!

November 14, 2022 by Wendy S

It doesn’t matter what time of year you choose or at what point in your life you start going to the gym – what matters is how you approach it. If you haven’t been to the gym in a while or aren’t sure what you should be doing – make use of free guest passes like the ones they have at Fitness 19. This will give you an idea of their equipment, and you can chat with the people who run the gym there. You can see whether it is the right place for you.

Once you find the right place, though, here is how you can make the most of your gym time.

Photo bySven Mieke onUnsplash

Reps or form?

To get the best from your workout, the form you use will have the most significant impact. However, many new gym goers look at their reps rather than their form. Proper form will mean you get the best out of the workout and avoid injuries.

Ask a gym instructor or a gym buddy to help you get your form right – then, after that, move on to nailing the reps you have set as your goal.

Goals

While it is good to set a goal, your main goal could just be to feel fitter – and that is fine. Many people choose to set a weight goal, a reps goal, a distance goal, or others. Goals can help you stay on track for what you want to achieve. There are a couple of ways to track your goals. One of them is to take photos as you go.

Photos can be incredibly motivating because you can see the changes in your body. They say that most of the time, the people around you will notice the changes after a couple of months – but you might notice them much sooner if you track them carefully.

Workout journals are also instrumental because you can see the figures attached to your work. You’ll see the uptick of the weight you can lift, and depending on if you are bulking or losing, you will be able to track that too.

Nutrition

You need to feel your body has the right foods so that it has the right amount of energy to go into a workout and recover well. The foods you choose should be considered like fuel. Some foods will give you more benefits than others.

You don’t need to change everything you eat immediately; you can do it over time as you start to work out more.

Change up

Doing the same workouts every time you go to the gym will mean that, over time, you get bored – and that you might start to plateau because you don’t push yourself anymore. Every few weeks, change what you are doing. Work out a new muscle group, change the cardio that you do – anything that keeps you engaged in the workout process.

Time off

Even if you want to hit the gym daily to reach your goals, by doing this, you are likely to find yourself burning out pretty quickly. Your body won’t have time to recover between workouts, and you will be pushing tired muscles to perform their best. You’ll notice the difference, which can cause many people to feel like they aren’t making the progress they want.

Rest and recovery are two of the most important things for a good workout.

Never underestimate how vital cardio is when it comes to your workout, it has a long list of benefits: The Benefits of a Cardio Workout.

The First Five Steps to Better Mental Wellbeing

October 20, 2022 by Wendy S

Better mental wellbeing begins with you. There are professionals who can help. But you must be willing to recognize and address your situation in order to move forward with your health.

Man on sofa comforting a crying woman – Image Courtesy of Pexels

Reach Out to Professional Services

There are a lot of professionals who can help you with mental health problems. There is always help for mental health problems, from mild ones like anxiety to serious ones like personality disorders. For instance, the trained and caring therapists at the Toronto and Ottawa Psychotherapy Centre can help with a wide range of mental health problems. All you have to do to get the help you need is call, send an email, or send a text message.

Spend Time with Other People

Studies have shown that having good relationships at work is good for your mental health. By keeping in touch with friends and family and making those relationships stronger, you can build a group of people who can help you. Maslow says that this helps people feel like they belong and have value, which is high on the list of needs. Also, you can be honest with the people you trust the most and talk to them about your problems for the emotional support you need.

Learn Something New for Better Mental Wellbeing

You might think you don’t have time to learn something new. Or that you can’t do it or are afraid to try. Getting out of your comfort zone slowly is another way to deal with pain and mental health that can be used in many different ways. Also, learning a new skill can help you feel better about yourself and connect you with people who like the same things you do. You could do something like a do-it-yourself project, learn how to cook or sign up for a local college course.

Be Aware of Your Situation

Your mental health can get better if you pay more attention to the present. This would include your thoughts and feelings, your body, and the rest of the world. This is called “mindfulness,” which you might know if you’re a Star Wars fan. But being more aware can help you enjoy life more and find out more about who you are. It can change the way you see the world and help you solve problems in a positive and logical manner rather than ruminating into depression.

Use Your Time to Help Others

Recent studies have shown that about 40% of people help people around them on a regular basis. This could be done by listening, being a friend, or even giving money and food. But other studies have also shown that helping other people is good for your own mental health. It does this by making happy feelings a reward, mostly because of a balance of serotonin. But it can also make you feel like you have value to other people and help you connect on a human level.

Summary

Better mental wellbeing isn’t out of reach for anyone because there is always help available. But it begins by taking steps such as contacting professionals, learning new skills, or helping others.

How To Better Deal With Pain

October 10, 2022 by Wendy S

Pain is a fact of life – everyone is going to experience it in various forms throughout their lives, and this is something you can’t get around. However, it is possible to change how you approach it, so that you are going to make as much as possible out of the situation, and that is something that you should always be able to do. In this post, we are going to take a look at some of the better ways to deal with pain, so that you can reduce its impact on your life as much as possible.

Change Your Mindset

One of the most fundamental changes you can make is to change your relationship to pain as it occurs. If you are able to get to a place where you just see pain as the necessary information it is, useful data that you need to pay attention to, rather than some huge problem, then that in itself makes it a lot more bearable to deal with. Changing your mindset to this kind of approach is perfectly possible, even if it takes a while to achieve. It’s the kind of thing that you are going to want to think about working on right away.

Photo by JESHOOTS.com

Alternative Treatments

You might also be interested in trying out a number of alternative treatments that are out there to be sought after. There are so many of these that you would be forgiven for forgetting about some of them, but there are some that have been known to help people out a lot in the past, and which are therefore quite worth thinking about. For instance, you might find that the kind of acupuncture services offered at www.qitcm.ca could be a good solution for your long-term pain in particular, and it’s definitely worth trying out at the very least.

Gentle Exercise

In general, when you have hurt something in your body, the best thing is not to just keep it still entirely, but to move it gently a little. We used to think that you should keep it still, but we now know that this is the worst thing to do. Instead, you should get some gentle exercise with the area, ensuring that you don’t push it too hard or too far, but generally making sure that you are engaging with it in a small way. That helps it to recover, and it actually works through the pain sooner too.

Photo by Engin Akyurt

Controlling The Breath

Your breath is one of the most powerful tools you have for managing pain too. If you are able to control your breathing as best as you can, it’s going to help you manage how your pain feels, so this is definitely something to think about. In particular, deep breaths are always important for overcoming your pain, so make sure to avoid shallow chest breathing when trying to get rid of pain in your body. That is a simple thing you can do which really makes a huge difference.

How To Make More Money Before Christmas

September 16, 2022 by Wendy S

The added expense associated with Christmas is coming up quickly. Even in the best of circumstances, stress may be a problem, but dealing with financial difficulties adds another level of difficulty. Before the holidays, some people try to earn a little more money; here are some suggestions on how to accomplish it.

(Image credit)

Sell your old and unwanted items

One of the quickest and simplest ways to get money is to sell things you don’t need. Have a large number of CDs and DVDs you no longer watch or listen to? Sign them up to sell services. Old video games and systems collecting dust? Also sell them. Stacks of bags of clothing in the spare room sell them on eBay or in a yard sale. Got an old car in your garage? sell it with edmunds.

Use mystery shopping instead

Paying people to shop? Really? Yup! Ruth Bushi, the editor of Save the Student, explained how to work as a mystery shopper to us last year. Payment can vary per project, but it won’t make you rich. Sometimes the products you buy are yours to keep, giving you an extra Christmas gift to give.

Live art

For their art programmes, local institutions and colleges frequently seek out individuals with a variety of physical types. Some models are paid, thus they are not necessarily required to be entirely naked when posing.

Learn to Walk Dogs or Pet Sit

There are apps that do more than just deliver food that can be used to supplement your income. If you enjoy taking care of animals, you can board or walk dogs to earn extra money. Dog walkers are often hired by dog owners to take care of their dogs while they are at work. Additionally, you may make more money if you could board pets for their owners while they are away.

Complete online polls

There are other ways to earn additional money before the holidays besides working a part-time job. You can also complete surveys to earn money to bolster your wallet. Paid surveys are a simple way to get extra money for Christmas without making you rich. While waiting for an appointment or while watching TV at night, you can do surveys on your phone. Since they don’t take very long to complete, it’s simple to fill them out whenever you have free time.

Babysit

Babysitting is a well-known side business to pursue if you’re seeking quick ways to generate money. There is an increase in demand for babysitters as the holidays get closer. If you enjoy spending time with kids, this is a great way to earn additional cash for the holidays. Through word-of-mouth marketing or social media, you can promote your services.

Article Writing for Payment

One of the best gig economy jobs to get money before the holidays is freelance writing. There is no requirement for a specialist degree, and working from home is possible. Many companies outsource their writing requirements, and some jobs pay very well. Blog articles, white papers, lectures, and other types of content are all possible, if writing is your hobby, start making money from it.