We all know that we need to be able to take good care of ourselves, yet it’s not always that easy to know how you’re going to do it. These days, there’s just so much conflicting information out there, and you’re not always going to know what’s best for you personally. You may speak to your doctor, read information online, or even find yourself asking friends for advice. But when you’re trying to work on your own personal health and fitness, it’s just so important for you to be able to get it right, on your own terms. This is why we all need to have our own personal focus’ – and tailor our attempts to what our minds and bodies need the most. But we don’t always know the best way to approach that. So, is there a secret?
Well, in short, no there’s not. There’s no quick fix or secret sauce that will allow you to be healthier. At all! Instead, you need to make sure that you’re aware of what you can do, that you absorb information, that you know yourself, and then you handpick which different options are going to work best for you. But before you do that, you need to know what you’re working for. Do you want to improve your health in general, lose weight, remedy a specific confirm, get fit? No matter what you want to do for your own health, you need to keep that in mind and then choose your key focus from there. Let’s take a look at what you can do.
Sleep
To begin with, you may find that you need to focus on having better sleep. This is one of the areas that is very easy to overlook – but crucial for your health and wellbeing. We heal when we sleep. So if you’re not sleeping enough, or not getting a good enough quality of sleep, it could be harmful for you. This may be why you need to make better sleep your focus for the time being.
Nutrition
The next crucial point that you may want to focus on, is nutrition. It’s easy to think of food as a source of enjoyment – or even a concern if you’re worried about your weight. But it’s an energy source first and foremost. So if you want to be your healthiest self, then you need to be focusing on your nutrition and the types of food you eat. This can affect your energy levels, your wellbeing, strength, and all-around health.
Hydration
From here, the next thing that you should make a focus because it’s a simple way to feel your best, is hydration. Like sleep, being properly hydrated is amazing for your body. So if you aren’t feeling your best, you might want to think about drinking more water, and what you can do to boost your overall health in this way.
Exercise
Next up, we need to talk about exercise. Because you know you need to be doing it – even if you hate it. When you can stay active and move your body more, it’s always going to help your health. So, what kind of exercise can you add to your agenda this year?
Weight Management
Now, if you know that you need to master your weight management a lot better, this could be the optimum focus for you. And this isn’t about being skinny or losing weight at all – instead, it’s about finding your ideal weight. The right weight for you. This could be putting on weight – or losing it. But, you’ll want to make sure that you are considering how your body weight can harm your health – rather than it just being a vanity thing!
Lifestyle Choices
Next up, it may be the case that you need to be able to make much healthier lifestyle choices. Sometimes, you may find that there are some things that you’re doing in life, or opting to do, that harms your health. But, if you can aim to make the healthiest choices, it may actually help you to improve your health and how you feel in general. Not smoking, reducing alcohol consumption, avoiding toxins, and of course incorporating some of the above pints can be really useful here. If you feel you need support in breaking bad lifestyle habits, you should look into Cigna Insurance drug and alcohol rehab to help you retain control of your health and life.
Specialist Treatment
But sometimes, it’s not always going to be a focus on those general health areas that work for you. You may find that there are health specifics that you need to be working on. If you have a particular ailment, maybe now is the time to work on it? Perhaps you want to look for a stress-free type of tinnitus treatment, or another specific treatment? It could be time to do some research, or speak to a specialist doctor.
Mental Health
You also need to make sure that you’re aware of your mental health and stress too. Because health is more than just your body. So, do you need to slow down or get some help? What do you need to do for your mental health this year?
Balance
As a step on from that, one thing that you may especially be interested in here, is having a balance. Because in this day and age, it’s really easy to get wrapped up in work and being busy, and this can cause you to become incredibly stressed! However, you need to be able to manage your to-do list better and enjoy much more of a balance throughout your life if you’re going to find the optimum levels of health.
Happiness
Now, we don’t always see happiness as something that affects our health – but it does! It’s one of those things that can drastically affect your mental health and have repercussions on your physical health too. As we know, you can have physical manifestations of stress and other mental ailments. And so, you need to be very cautious. Aiming to find happiness, look for gratitude and live well can really help you here. And this is something that we should all hope for.
*contributed post*
Hello friends! Happy Thursday! Today I am so excited to share with y'all 10 things that you should definitely do before you leave on a Caribbean Cruise!
One of the questions that I receive on a weekly basis is for packing tips and suggestions along with vacation tips! These are great questions and realistic needs as you plan to leave on a trip and before I went on my first Caribbean Cruise back in 2014 I spent a ton of time researching these answers. Since that time five years ago I have been so blessed to go on 4 additional cruises (nearly one a year) and even a river cruise on the Rhine River (which was incredible!) and am looking forward to some additional cruising adventures in the coming two years! (As a side note if you ever want to see where I am heading next for travel you can find the information HERE!)
I share that to say that along the way there has been lots of different learning curves and so I hope that this list of 10 things to do before you leave on your Caribbean Cruise will help you have a stress-free and fun-filled and memorable vacation!
One of the questions that I receive on a weekly basis is for packing tips and suggestions along with vacation tips! These are great questions and realistic needs as you plan to leave on a trip and before I went on my first Caribbean Cruise back in 2014 I spent a ton of time researching these answers. Since that time five years ago I have been so blessed to go on 4 additional cruises (nearly one a year) and even a river cruise on the Rhine River (which was incredible!) and am looking forward to some additional cruising adventures in the coming two years! (As a side note if you ever want to see where I am heading next for travel you can find the information HERE!)
I share that to say that along the way there has been lots of different learning curves and so I hope that this list of 10 things to do before you leave on your Caribbean Cruise will help you have a stress-free and fun-filled and memorable vacation!
1. Make a List, Check it Twice
I know that not everyone is a "list-maker" like I am (color-coded and everything for y'all that know me well! *smiles*) but lists for a Caribbean cruise are extremely helpful. If you are like me and over-the-moon excited for your trip, it can be easy to forget something important so I definitely recommend making a list and then checking it several times. Also- consider making a second list of items that you can't pack until the morning that you leave.
I love using fun notepads and paper to make my lists on and THIS ONE from Rifle Paper Co is one of my favorites! You can find it HERE!
Some additional posts to help you with your list making in this step:
// 10 Things People Forget to Bring on Their First Cruise // Some additional posts to help you with your list making in this step:
// Top 13 Must Pack Items for a Caribbean Cruise //
// 16 Unexpected Things to Bring on Every Cruise //
2. Pack Medicines, Over-The-Counter Meds, Vitamins, Supplements, Etc.
I shared this last year in my post, 10 Tips for Cruising With a Chronic Illness, but make sure that you pick up any medicines and over-the-counter meds you need a few days before your trip.
If you are living with a serious or chronic illness this can take a lot of time to plan and prepare your medications and supplements. Honestly, it can take a bit of maneuvering (and even a lot of patience) to make sure that you have all of our meds before a trip. Try to give your doctors as much advance warning as you can that you will be going on a cruise and that you will need meds (and extra meds depending on your situation) for the duration of your cruise.
I have said this before, but I can't encourage you enough to try to work on this as much of you can ahead of time as some medications can only be purchased with insurance at certain intervals so you will want to work this out with your doctor and insurance company. Also, check with the cruise line as many cruise lines require that your medications are in the original containers not just in random pill containers.
Some additional posts to help you with this step:
// 10 Tips for Cruising With a Chronic Illness //
3. Purchase Any Specific Caribbean Cruise Items You Need In Advance
Definitely make sure that you have clothes, shoes, and specific items that you need for the Caribbean purchased a couple of weeks before the cruise. Depending on the time of year that you are traveling and where you live, you will also want to make sure that you have plenty of "summer weather" items including suntan lotion, water shoes, sandals, etc.
Looking for a list of "must pack items" for your Caribbean Cruise? Check out my post "13 Must Pack Items for Your Caribbean Cruise" which you can read by clicking HERE.
Don't forget to purchase an underwater camera that you can use for any water activities. Don't want to spend a ton of money on an underwater camera? Consider purchasing the Nikon COOLPIX S33 Waterproof Digital Camera to use! I purchased this for our Royal Caribbean Cruise in November and it was wonderful! You can see some pictures that I took with it in my post about our Reef Snorkeling and Sandbar Getaway Shore Excursion by clicking HERE!
4. Call Your Bank/Credit Card Companies to let them Know You are Traveling
Make sure to call your bank and credit card companies to let them know that you will be traveling out of the country to the Caribbean. Some people think that because it is just the Caribbean that you don't need to do this but it is definitely so much easier to make a phone call from home than to figure out when you are out at sea why your card was blocked during your cruise!
5. Print off and Make Copies of All Your Documents and Passports
Make sure that you have paper copies of all of your documents and even a copy of your passport for your Caribbean Cruise. While I love the ease and convenience of having everything on my phone, I also understand it is wise to have a "hard copy" of everything that I need, including a copy of my passport in case something gets lost. Looking for a cute passport holder and something to hold your tickets/credit cards/etc in one? Checkout THIS ONE which comes in a variety of colors!
Wondering what documents you should bring? Check out the post below for some helpful tips:
6. Give an Emergency Contact All of Your Information
Make sure to let someone know the important information of the dates you are traveling, your flight numbers, hotel names, contact information, and the ship and room number that you will have. This is important in case anyone needs to get a hold of you while you are traveling or if you have an emergency on board. Just a heads up also that most cruise lines require an emergency contact (of someone not traveling with you) to be listed on their forms when you are checking in.
7. Arrange to Have Your Mail Held or A Neighbor to Pick it Up
Depending on how long your cruise is you will want to make sure that you have your mail held at the post office or that you make arrangements to have your neighbor pick it up. Just a heads up: stopping and holding mail at the post office can take a few days to "kick in" so you will want to give yourself at least 7 days to do this!
8. Organize Your Wallet/Purse
Take a few minutes to re-organize your wallet for your trip and remove anything that you won't need including department store cards, gas credit cards, etc. Put all of these together in an envelope and keep them in a safe and secure place for you to have once you return from your cruise.
Looking for a purse organizer? Get this ONE. Y'all... I swore against these for the longest time and now I can't stop talking about (and gifting it) to everyone I know. They are FANTASTIC. There are tons of different color options and keep everything so organized. I also love that I can easily transfer it from bag to bag with everything in it! I started off just using them for trips and now I use it everyday! I LOVE this one and it is less than $16! Click HERE!
9. Deal with Your Phone
You will want to make sure you understand the fees and roaming charges on your phone with your provider before you get on the ship. If you are wanting to use your phone, social media, etc. while you are in the Caribbean you will want to make sure to call your cell service provider and ask for a package for the countries that you are visiting. You will pay a ton less and be thankful when you get home.
10. 10 More Things to Do the Day Before You Leave/the Day You Leave
(1) Take Pets to be Boarded
(2) Water house plants
(3) Mail Last-Minute Bills
(4) Clean Out Refrigerator
(5) Set timers for any lights for your Home
(6) Adjust the thermostat in Your Home
(7) Turn off water in your Home if there is a Danger of Frozen Pipes while you are Gone
(8) Double Check the Locks in Your Home
(9) Double Check to Make Sure you Have all Important Documents, Including Passport
(10) Fill out Luggage Tags and attach according to the cruise specification
Most of all- get ready to have a blast!! The Caribbean is beautiful and relaxing and I hope you have a wonderful cruise! If you are looking for additional cruising tips (to the Caribbean or other areas of the word) you can find the following posts on my blog:
I hope that this list of 10 Things to Do before you leave on your Caribbean Cruise have been helpful! Let me know if you have any questions!!
Happy Tuesday friends! I hope that you are having a wonderful week so far and that you had a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend! As I mention last week, with summer quickly approaching I wanted to share some recaps from my trip to Alaska last year as I hope it encourages each of you to take a road trip in this beautiful part of the world! I am deep in preparation for our upcoming trip this summer and am so excited to see so many new things and share them with y'all on Instagram and here on the blog!
Also- please take a moment to read about the #10000in7days campaign (click HERE) that I am hosting this year as part of this trip! Thank you so much for considering donating to this!
Our second full day in Alaska was spent driving from Trapper Creek (where we had stayed at the Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge [you can read more about it HERE]) over to Copper Center, Alaska. Our first stop on this day was to travel north to Cantwell before taking the Denali Highway east.
As you can see from the map above it would have been easier to cut across than go up and around like we did. If you are short on time and are looking for the quickest way than that would have been to drive south (back towards Anchorage) and then over to Copper Center. It would take you along AK-1N (which is a gorgeous drive!) and it would take about 4 and 1/2 hours.
Because we were going to be going along AK-1 later in the week (read about it HERE) and I wanted to see as much of Alaska as we could I decided to go north to Cantwell and then take the Denali Highway over to Copper Center. It was the absolute best decision and if you have the time to do so I really can't encourage it enough.
Despite the fact that the day started off a bit rainy and cloudy, it didn't diminish the beauty of what we were seeing at all. As I continued to drive the clouds started to break off and as the day went on we were blessed with sunshine.
The views, even in the clouds, were simply stunning.
You can see in so many of my pictures that I was enthralled with these adorable "small" pine trees that we saw in this part of Alaska. Hahaha, I took hundreds of pictures of them (don't worry, I will spare you in sharing all of them *smiles*), and I even said I was going to put one in my suitcase.
Y'all, set against the incredibly tall and expansive mountains they looked like mini trees. Now, I know and understand that this is a perfect thing for this area with the amount of snow that Alaska receives, but I was still enthralled. *smiles*
I had to stop and just take a picture of both directions of the highway that we were driving. It doesn't show all of the beauty that we were seeing, but I hope it will give a small taste of what you can see if you take this drive north to Cantwell.
Another thing that I wanted to point out about this road is something that I think us "lower states" will not understand until you experience Alaska for yourself. In the trip planning phase I had about a thousand questions for J who is from Alaska. Hahaha. Maybe several thousand. *smiles* He patiently answered each of them and all of his tips and advice were incredibly helpful in making this trip an absolute dream.
One thing though that I was very skeptical on was when he was saying that you could literally pull off in so many places and park your car or RV to get some rest. Even though I am coming from a rural area in upstate NY I was skeptical of this, but in the first day of traveling (to Hatcher Pass) I saw a small snippet of what he meant, and then on this part of the drive I started to really understand. There are literally hundreds of places you could do so if you needed or wanted to and we saw many cars and RVs throughout the trip that did so. I add this in because if you are like me and coming from a "lower state" and hear this advice you may be as skeptical as I was, but it honestly is true. *smiles*
The drive from the Mt. McKinley Princess Lodge to Cantwell should take you approximately an hour and 20 minutes. If you are like me though and stop every 5-10 minutes to take pictures to try and capture the beauty than it may take a bit longer. *smiles*
These flowers... I fell in love with them and the story behind them. I shared a bit on my instagram page (click HERE), but you can read more about the beautiful symbol of hope that they are in this post HERE!!
The mountains and the lakes together make my heart swoon.
I stopped here to take a few pictures and ended up staying for a bit longer as we explored around this area. It was definitely worth the time!
As you are driving along, this area that we stopped at is incredibly easy to spot so if you want to explore this same area you will be able to easily find it.
Oh Alaska, you stole part of my heart. *smiles*
The first part of the day was a beautiful experience and one that I would love to do again. The Denali park is huge and getting to see this little space of it in this drive was an incredible blessing. It is definitely an area that I want to come back and explore so much more of!
PS- If you are curious about the specific details of the road trip that we took throughout Alaska or if you are planning a similar road trip (or just want to see and dream about visiting the beauty!) I hope the information below is helpful. You can read all of the posts from the trip by clicking on the links below:
// 5 Reasons You Need to Take an Alaskan Road Trip//
Chugach Mountains (Alaska 1-South Drive): // Scenic Seward Highway Drive (Turnagain Arm Drive)// Along the Matanuska River on Alaska 1-South// A Beautiful Lake Adventure Near Chickaloon// A Cloudy & Beautiful Drive on Alaska 1-South//
Chugach Mountains: // Eklutna Lake//
Cooper Landing (Kenai Peninsula): // Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge Nature Hike//
// Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge //
Denali State Park Area:// Denali Highway Video// One Last Adventure on the Denali Highway//
// The Denali Highway: Part Two // The Denali Highway: Part One//
//The Drive to Cantwell// Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge //
General Alaska Tips: // 5 Things You Must Know Before Driving in Alaska //
// Best Alaskan Books to Purchase for Your Road Trip //
// What to Pack for an Alaskan Summer Road Trip //
// Why You Should Dream About Visiting Alaska //
Girdwood: // Winner Creek Trail Video// Winner Creek Trail //
Hatcher Pass Area: // Hatcher Pass Video// Hatcher Pass // Little Susitna River //
Homer (Kenai Peninsula) Area: // Homer Video// Homer Spit// Homer Lighthouse// Bishop's Beach//
// A Brief History of Homer //
Thompson Pass Area: // Thompson Pass Area Video // Worthington Glacier Hike//
//Worthington Glacier//
// Among the Alaskan Fireweed on Alaska 4-S: A Beautiful Symbol of Hope in the Hard Seasons of Life //
// A Brief History of & Drive on Alaska 4-South of the Richardson Highway//Klutina River//
// The Beginning Drive to Thompson Pass//
Wrangell-St. Elias Park Area: //Copper River Princess Wilderness Lodge //
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