Happy New Year’s!

Private Home Health Care wishes you and your loved ones a happy, healthy, and safe new year! I think everyone can agree that they are ready to leave 2020 behind and look forward to new beginnings in 2021! New Year’s resolutions are great to have, but not always the easiest to stick with.

The new year often feels like a fresh start and a great opportunity to change bad habits and establish new routines that will help you grow psychologically, emotionally, socially, physically, or intellectually. Of course, resolutions are much easier to make than to keep, and by the end of March, many of us have abandoned our resolve and settled back into our old patterns.

In one study, only around 12% of people who make New Year’s resolutions felt that they were successful in achieving their goals. Some of the most common resolutions include losing weight, sticking to a healthier diet, exercising regularly, making better financial choices, quitting smoking, and spending more time with family.

While many people feel that they don’t necessarily achieve their resolution goals, there is some good news! Those who set New Year’s resolutions are 10 times more likely to actually change their behavior than people who don’t make these yearly goals

Here are some tips for how to keep your New Year’s resolutions:

1. Set a clear, measurable goal – Some days you’ll feel as though you’re reaching your goals, but other days you won’t–and an intangible, vague goal will cause you to feel lost.

2. Identify clear action steps – You can’t lose weight or get out of debt without actions steps that will help you get there. Create a plan that includes objectives that will create change.

3. Set yourself up for success – Your motivation will start to fluctuate at some point. To prepare yourself for that dip in motivation, set yourself up for success well in advance. Make bad habits inconvenient and good habits convenient.

4. Plan for obstacles – Think about the obstacles you’re likely to encounter in the first weeks after establishing your resolution. Consider how you’ll navigate these challenges, and develop a plan. Planning ahead for the probable challenges can help you feel equipped to handle the unexpected obstacles that crop up along the way as well.

5. Start when you’re ready – Your New Year’s resolution does not have to start January 1st – nothing is set in stone! Start working on your goal when you’re ready. That’s not to say you need to wait until you feel fully confident before starting (that may never happen). But make sure you’re committed to the goal, and you’ve thought through what you’ll need to do and how you’re going to do it.

6. Track your progress – You need to know if you’re headed in the right direction. So it’s important to find a way to track your progress. Use an app or a calendar to check off the days you work on your goal. Or create a chart, spreadsheet, or graph that helps you visualize your progress.

7. Learn from your mistakes – Mistakes are part of the process. But too often people think one mistake means they’re destined to fail. When you make a mistake–like you skip the gym for a week, or you make a ridiculous impulse purchase you can’t return–learn from your misstep.

National Champagne Day!

Today is National Champagne Day! What better day and way to celebrate New Year’s Eve than toasting to this favorite beverage? National Champagne Day recognizes the wine that puts the pop in every New Year’s Eve celebration. 

Champagne is technically bubbly wine, but not all bubbly wine is champagne! Did you know that genuine Champagne only comes from France’s Champagne region?

In fact, French law protects where and how it is made. With some exceptions, only Champagne made according to set specifications and within the French region may label their wines using the term “Champagne.” 

Champagne, France, is located northeast of Paris and provides ideal temperature and soil to produce the grapes required for Champagne. The chalky remains of ancient sea-creatures are the “soil” for champagne’s grapes. The champagne region of France was actually once the floor of an ancient prehistoric sea. Now it’s the perfect foundation to grow grapes. French law allows only eight varieties of grapes for the production of Champagne in the Champagne region. Primarily, the three grapes used to create Champagne are Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier. 

It is rumored that champagne was created by accident! 

It all began when the wine growers (today’s famous Champagne Houses) from the Champagne region were trying to equal the Burgundy wines. Because the French region of Champagne is the most northerly of the wine-making regions in France, sometimes the cold winter weather would interrupt the fermentation process. So when spring came the yeast would start fermenting again, creating a secondary fermentation, which for a long time the winemakers tried to prevent. This is how Champagne came into being.

Champagne is high maintenance – it is the most labour-intensive wine to produce. The beverage undergoes two fermentations; one in the barrel, and one in the bottle.  It’s in the second fermentation that the bubbles form over a minimum of two weeks. Yeast and sugar is added to wine for a second fermentation, which then creates the bubbles that make champagne. Unlike other wines, Champagne ferments in the bottle allowing the vintner to trap the CO2 in the bottle. The bubbles give Champagne its effervescence.  The bottle is then gradually twisted and inverted, traditionally by hand, over a month, allowing the sediment to settle at the cap. It’s then aged for at least 15 months before the cap and sediment are removed and the bottle is finally corked.

Champagne actually used to be considered dangerous! In the early days, the bottles were known to spontaneously pop their corks if they contained too much sugar. Helmets worn in Champagne cellars became de rigueur and the drink was dubbed ‘devil’s wine’. An interesting way of opening champagne is with…swords! “Sabrage” is a term for opening a champagne bottle with an actual sword. It’s only done in certain ceremonial occasions and the wielder uses the blunt side of the sword. It was made famous by Napoleon and his army when they celebrated victories in battle.

Champagne was beloved by historical figures! Queen Victoria and Edward VII especially loved champagne, they drank Joseph Perrier, a high end champagne. Marilyn Monroe once took a bath in champagne, it took 350 bottles to fill the bathtub! Also, Winston Churchill was one of the biggest champagne drinkers on record — between 1908 and 1965, the former British Prime Minister drank an estimated 42,000 bottles!

Champagne is fitting for any celebration! And what better than to celebrate leaving 2020 behind?! Raise a glass of bubbly champagne tonight to toast New Year’s Eve!

Christmas Eve

Tonight is Christmas Eve! The evening of December 24 kicks off a series of holiday traditions. Some are ancient practices with a modern spin, while others date back hundreds of years or decades. Ancient practices include decorating with evergreens, and more modern ones are Santa Claus!

Christmas Eve is filled with both religious and nonreligious traditions. Religious traditions center around the birth of Jesus. Different denominations have their own traditions. On Christmas Eve Roman Catholics and Anglicans hold Midnight Mass. Lutherans celebrate with candlelight services and Christmas carols. Many evangelical churches hold evening services where families celebrate Holy Communion.

Around the world, Christmas Eve is celebrated with a variety of foods. In Italy, they celebrate the Feast of Seven Fishes. Russians traditionally serve a 12-dish Christmas Eve Supper before opening gifts. Meanwhile, in Bulgaria, the Christmas Eve meal consists of an odd number of meatless dishes.

Besides food and religious services, the holiday is when Santa Clause takes to the sky in his sleigh to deliver Christmas gifts around the world. The legend of Santa is based on a real-life man named Saint Nicholas of Myra. The early Christian bishop was known for secret gift-giving, as well as many miracles. Through the years, the legend of Santa grew to include the North Pole, a sleigh driven by reindeer, a naughty or nice list, and his jolly laugh, “ho, ho, ho.”

Christmas has the power to reunite families and friends, to warm up our hearts, and remind us that we have so many things to be thankful for. So put on your cozy PJs, light up your fireplace, call your loved ones, and top off your hot cocoa with some fluffy marshmallows! Keep an eye out in the sky for Santa and his reindeer sleigh tonight! Private Home Health Care wishes you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas!

National Crossword Puzzle Day

Crossword Puzzle Day on December 21st commemorates the birth of a challenging word game enjoyed by millions around the world. The first crossword puzzles were published in England in children’s books and other publications. They were simple word games derived from the word squares where letters were arranged in a square so that the words read the same across and down.

Did you know that the first crossword puzzle was created by Arthur Wynne and published on December 21, 1913 in the New York World Newspaper? Wynne’s puzzle was diamond shaped and contained no internal black squares. However, it was so popular with readers that within a decade crossword puzzles were featured in almost all American newspapers.

The object of a crossword puzzle is to fill in the white spaces of a grid with the correct words using the clues provided. Black spaces separate individual words. The clues to more challenging puzzles read like riddles, making the game more complex.

Many tout the benefits of crossword puzzles. Not only are they fun, but challenging crossword puzzles may help delay the effects of dementia or sharpen the brain for problem-solving. They can also increase vocabulary and even relieve the mind from the day’s stress by focusing on something other than worldly problems.

Studies have shown that doing crossword puzzles prevents dementia, improves verbal skills, helps practice problem solving skills, helps the brain identify patterns, and improves your ability to do trivia. That’s a lot of wins — and a lot of reasons to become a master crossword puzzle solver. Up your crossword puzzle game and win at trivia the next time you play with your friends!

Winter Solstice

Today, December 21, is the Winter Solstice.

The Winter Solstice marks the day with the shortest period of daylight and the longest night of the year (in the Northern Hemisphere), all thanks to the tilt of the earth. On the calendar, it is officially the start of winter (even if the cold weather makes it already feel like winter!). The winter solstice is marked by the point at which the North Pole is at its farthest from the sun during its yearly orbit around the sun. It will be approximately 23 degrees away from the sun. Despite the temperature outside, the winter solstice is considered the astronomical beginning of winter.

In many cultures, the day is a day of feasting and celebration, but even if you’re totally agnostic, you can still find a reason to rejoice, because after today, you’ll see gradually shorter nights and longer days, which means you can look forward to the emergence of spring.

New England winters can be long and dark, and instead of focusing on counting down until spring, the Winter Solstice is an opportunity to celebrate the current moment. Even if it is dark and cold, the Winter Solstice reminds us that we can create light, and that brighter days are coming. For, after all, this is the shortest day of the year, and from here on out the days are going to gradually get longer. Whether or not you happen to be sensitive to long hours of darkness, it’s impossible not to interpret this day as an optimistic turning towards brighter moments. Across the world, various holidays have been celebrated on this day in various spiritual and religious traditions, but they all have an element of rebirth and renewal involved. The most famous Winter Solstice celebration is Stonehenge in England. Every year when the sun sets on the winter solstice, the sun’s rays align with two of the giant stones known as the central Altar and the Slaughter stone.

As always, Private Home Health Care encourages you to make the most of every day and celebrate in any way you can! Some good ideas for celebrating the Winter Solstice include lighting a cozy fire, burning scented candles, connecting with friends and family, and keeping an eye out for the sky when Jupiter and Saturn cross paths for the first time in 800 years!

National Sangria Day

Now that we know what antioxidants are, what is the connection to sangria? Antioxidants can be found in food, especially in fruits, vegetables, and other plant-based, whole foods. Several vitamins, such as vitamins E and C, are effective antioxidants. Wine is made from grapes, and grapes are rich in many antioxidants. These include resveratrol, catechin, epicatechin and proanthocyanidins. These antioxidants, especially resveratrol and proanthocyanidins, are believed to be responsible for the health benefits of red wine. Sangria is a wine based drink, and is traditionally made with red wine. This type of wine in particular has been shown to provide numerous health benefits.

Proanthocyanidins may reduce oxidative damage in the body. They may also help prevent heart disease and cancer. Resveratrol is found in grape skin. It is produced in some plants, as a response to damage or injury. This antioxidant has been linked with many health benefits, including fighting inflammation and blood clotting, as well as reducing the risk of heart disease and cancer. Resveratrol can also make test animals live longer. The resveratrol in red wine comes from the skin of grapes used to make wine. Because red wine is fermented with grape skins longer than white wine, red wine contains more resveratrol. That is why red wine is considered healthier than white.

Red wine may help lower cholesterol. Drinking small amounts of red wine may reduce the risk of heart disease by helping to retain the “good” HDL cholesterol in the blood. Oxidative damage and the oxidation of the “bad” LDL cholesterol may also be reduced by up to 50%. Studies have also shown that the nutrients in red wine help improve blood circulation, reduce the formation of blood clots, and may improve the function of the layer of cells that line your blood vessels. All of these translate into powerful cardiovascular benefits – drink red wine for heart health!

Red wine may also promote gut health. Though often overlooked, a healthy gut is vital for overall health because it is where our immune system is. A 2018 study reports that polyphenols from red wine and grapes can improve the gut microbiota, contributing to a healthy gut. According to other research, red wine compounds may also act as prebiotics, which are compounds that boost healthy gut bacteria. In 2016, researchers suggested red wine could reduce the risk of heart disease through its effects on the gut microbiome.

Sangria can also be higher in antioxidants than regular wine. This is because the fruit that you add to sangria also has high levels of antioxidants. Fruit contains a great deal of antioxidants, especially berries! Add blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries to your sangria for an extra dose of antioxidants and nutrients, and it enhances the flavor as well! Sangria is such a fun drink because it is so versatile and there are virtually endless combinations of flavors. A great way to celebrate National Sangria Day is to have a get together where everybody brings their own sangria! No two sangrias are the same, so there will be plenty of options to sample and explore new combinations and flavors. Private Home Health Care encourages you to have fun and celebration National Sangria Day!