How to Protect Your Garden from Wildlife

Gardens are a great way to grow fresh fruits and vegetables for your family. You can also liven up your property with colorful flowers and plants. But, if you don’t keep your garden protected, all your hard work might go to waste.

Wild animals have a tendency to go after gardens, especially gardens with fruits and veggies. Still, how can you protect your garden from pests? In today’s post, we’ll go over this question in detail. This way you can keep your crops and plants safe from wildlife.

6 Ways to Protect Your Garden From Wildlife

  1. Use Fencing Around Your Garden

Fencing is the most effective way to keep animals off your property. And, while some gardeners don’t enjoy the look of a fence around their plants, installing a new fence by hiring a fencing company in Pflugerville or your vicinity can save your garden from being destroyed.

We recommend using mesh fencing around individual plants or your entire garden. A short fence is better for protecting against smaller wildlife like rabbits and raccoons. While taller fences are better for warding off bigger animals like deer. You can also ask your fencing supplier for suggestions as to which fence would look ideal in your garden.

In fact, painting your decking, fencing, or shed can breathe new life into any garden. Cool colors like white or grey can make your garden appear larger while beautifully contrasting green plants. Installing a fence may even support the formation of a contemporary garden in which you can relax or play with your children. You may just need to call a local fencing company to select from a variety of fences to suit your style, circumstances, and budget, as well as bespoke options that can perfectly fit in with your property.

  1. Contact A Professional

If you want to protect your garden, you might need to get professional help. We recommend hiring an expert at wildliferemovalmichigan.com, especially if nuisance animals are destroying your garden. They can help if there are signs of a mole in your yard or other animals are invading.

  1. Use Cloche

If you don’t want to bother putting up a fence around your entire garden, you can protect specific plants in your garden with wire cloches. A wire cloche is a rounded piece of wire mesh and is placed right over your plants like a cover. It keeps plants secure from any wildlife, especially birds. To prevent your garden from bird damages visit pestcontrolwildlife.com to learn more about how you can deal with it.

  1. Use Hot Pepper

Hot pepper might seem like an unconventional choice, but it keeps animals out of your garden. A lot of wildlife has a heightened sense of smell that is easily affected by strong scents. Therefore, when you use a spray of a hot pepper mixture in your garden weekly, animals will stay away from your plants.

To make hot pepper spray for your garden, you can use hot pepper sauce from your kitchen. Mix some of it with a few drops of natural dish soap. You can also add in marigolds or other types of flowers that are strong-smelling plants that wildlife don’t like. This includes lavender and mint.

Blend the mixture, then put it into a spray bottle with some water. Spray the mix of it every week for the best results.

  1. Get Rid of Other Food Sources

Food sources on your property could be attracting animals to your garden. For example, open trash, uneaten pet food, and bird feeders could be a beacon to wildlife. These and other types of open food sources need to be disposed of fast. This way wildlife won’t come to your property and eat your plants. Besides, keeping your garden free of trash and other food sources could also keep away fruit flies and other critters, which would have had to be exterminated with the help of a fruit fly queensland expert otherwise. In case of excessive infestations, professionals may need to step in; at other times, you can take steps to mitigate this problem by yourself.

We strongly suggest putting up a fence and then securing your trash bins and yard to make sure there is nothing that will make wildlife want to visit your property. You can place your bird feeder away from your house, you can check out LoveTheBirds for more information on how to set up your bird feeders properly.

  1. Do Some Research

You want to be proactive and keep pests out of your garden. But, you need to know what kind of animal you are dealing with. Watch your garden and find out what types of wildlife are going into your garden. Then start to do some research. Depending on the animal, some methods will be more effective than others.

What To Expect From A Healthy Balanced Diet

We’ve heard that eating a balanced diet is the key to good health and preventing illness and disease, but what does a balanced diet actually look like? Dieticians recommend that in order to eat a healthier diet, we need to eat a variety of foods in the right proportions and ensure that the foods we eat are providing us with the right nutrients. 

 

Know your food groups

 

In order to have a balanced diet, the NHS guidelines recommend that we should be eating:

 

  • At least five portions of fruit and veggies every day
  • Meals based around high fiber starchy foods, such as potatoes, rice, pasta and bread
  • Some form of dairy or dairy alternative, like soya or plant-based milks
  • A portion of protein each day, such as meat, eggs, fish, pulses or beans
  • Unsaturated oils and spreads, in small amounts, instead of saturated fats

 

We should also be drinking plenty of fluids – ideally between 6-8 glasses a day as a minimum – and reducing our intake of salty, sugary and high-fat foods.

 

In order to ensure we’re getting a wide range of nutrients that the body needs, we should be choosing a variety of foods – and the more whole foods that haven’t been processed, the more nutrients we’ll get.  However, it’s important to note that people with dietary conditions need to seek advice from their GP and that the NHS’ guide doesn’t apply to children under 2 as their dietary needs are different.

 It may be that you need to seek the services of a local gastroenterologist who can assist you in finding the cause of any stomach upsets you might be having or to get more in-depth recommendations for what to include in your diet to avoid complications down the line. You can get a referral from your GP in this instance. 

 

Fruit and veg

 

Fruit and vegetables are high in vitamins and minerals, such as Vitamin A, B vitamins and Vitamin C, as well as fibre, so they should make up over a third of your daily diet.

 

There are certain nutrients that can be difficult to get from fruit and vegetables alone, such as D2 and D3, but in these instances you can take vitamin D supplements to support your health. 

 

Your 5 portions of fruit and veg should be the minimum, but they can be from fresh, frozen, canned, juiced or dried. A portion is 80g of fresh, canned or frozen fruit and vegetables, or 30g of dried fruit. 

 

Carbohydrates and protein

 

Starchy foods should account for around a third of your diet, so your meals should be based around these foods. Opting for whole grain versions of bread and pasta will provide you with more fibre and nutrients. Protein is required to help the body grow and repair itself, and it can come from a variety of sources, such as meat, fish, eggs and legumes. 

 

Dairy and dairy alternatives

 

Milk and dairy foods, such as yoghurt and cheese, are not only a good source of calcium but also protein. However, they can be high in fat and sugar, so choose low fat and lower sugar options if you can, such as semi-skimmed milk. For people avoiding dairy, such as those following a vegan diet, choose dairy alternatives like soya drinks which have been fortified with calcium. 

 

Oils and spreads

 

Contrary to the media, we do need some fat in our diet to stay healthy – however, many people eat too much saturated fat which is the unhealthy kind. Instead choose unsaturated fats and natural fats, such as from avocados and nuts. 

Time-Saving Hacks For Busy Moms

When it comes to being time-poor moms all over the country are sighing and nodding. Busy working lives, children to taxi around, food shopping, house cleaning, not to mention some downtime or hobbies. Being a mom can get intense and it often feels like there are not enough hours in the day. So, if you’re looking for ways to do it all or how to eke out a little bit more time in your day take a look at these time-saving hacks. 

Meal plan and batch cook freezable food 

Meal planning is one of the best time-saving hacks around. If you know what you are cooking for dinner every night you won’t be staring aimlessly at the fridge or cupboards trying to piece together a meal. It will keep you organized throughout the week and you can ensure you have everything that you need in advance, which will also save you money on your grocery bill as you won’t buy unnecessarily.

To really maximize your time you could batch cook a few simple meals when you have the time and freeze them, ready to be defrosted for the day you need them. Or you could cook twice the portions you need for dinner that night and freeze the excess. Meals such as spaghetti bolognese or cottage pie are perfect for this. Superior Farms has a perfect warming shepherd’s pie recipe to feed the family. 

Photo credit; Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels

Get ready the night before

The kids’ clothes, your clothes, school lunches, and backpacks are all examples of some simple tasks you can prepare the night before to make the morning rush easier and less stressful. You can even layout the breakfast so all you have to do is eat it.  

Shop online

You can order almost anything online now. You can order your grocery shopping and save your regular items so they are there at the click of a button each week. You can order clothes, household items, books, you name it Amazon will deliver it, even socks.  You no longer need to visit three different shops for all you need, you can do it from your kitchen table.

 

Don’t forget when it comes to your shopping list you can use tools such as Alexa to add things to your list so you don’t forget them at the time of shopping and find yourself popping to the store. 

A place for everything and everything in its place

How much time do you spend looking for things? Or how often do your children ask, ‘Mom, where is?’. Having a ‘home’ for everything is a fantastic way to save on time. A box for the TV remotes, a place for the pens, and racks for shoes. If everybody knows where something belongs and ensures it is put back there after use, you shouldn’t be caught out hunting for sneakers again. 

Implement routines

Having routines for daily tasks can be a great way of ensuring they’re not put off and you keep on top of everything. It could be a daily cleaning routine, you might clean certain rooms on certain days for example. It could be your exercise schedule or laundry days. Whatever chores and tasks you have, consider utilizing a routine to ensure they get done.

Clearing Your Roof Before Winter!

Winter is creeping up on us all right now, and that means that you need to think about the condition your home is in before the temperatures drop. The house has to be adequately prepared to withstand the onslaught of the new weather that’s hitting the place. The walls have to be effectively insulated, the roof has to be intact with no broken tiles and your pipes have to be maintained to prevent leaks.

The roof should be your main concern, however, as it’s the bit that shelters everyone inside the house. Clearing the roof and getting it maintained by a reputed firm similar to American Way Exteriors before winter is certainly important if you want to maintain a leakproof and comfortable house throughout this deadly season and after. It’s always a good idea to ensure that you have a roof contractor come out and see your property if you’re making any refreshers or changes to your roof. You don’t want to do this alone because it is a big enough job as it is. Your roof needs specialist attention to ensure that nothing goes wrong.

Of course, it also includes the clearing of attic space just beneath it. This means calling in the pest control company to ensure there are no critters living in the roof space, and it also means making sure that you have the guttering cleared, too. Below, we’ve got some of the best ways that you can get your roof ready for winter.

Image Source: Pexels

  1. Call an expert like Great Lakes Building Concepts. You want to ensure that you have the experts clear any and all debris from your roof. This means that the leaves, twigs and pine needles that tend to settle during a blowy Fall have to be cleared. When it lives up there and gets soaked from the rain, it can cause mold and fungus to grow.
  2. Check the roof for damage. Missing shingles, broken guttering, deterioration in the vents and more can all cause issues with your roof. You need it to be less damaged and more secure. The roof edge has to be inspected, too, as you need to think about the way it weakens your roof against the wind and rain. If you find any damage then you need to get it repaired soon. You can do searches like “licensed roofing contractors near me” and find a service provider with expertise to do the job. By doing this you can also make sure that your roof is set for the season.
  3. Clear out the downspouts. We talked about the gutters, but the downspouts need to be cleared, too. Leafy debris can get into it and you end up with excess water seeping into the roof and causing even more damage. The gutters have to be secured to the house and the roof, too, because once it’s secure there’s no issue about it being loose and ripping away.
  4. Trim back the nearby branches. Low hanging trees may be pretty, but they’re also pretty dangerous for your roof. Cutting back the trees will ensure that you have fewer loose branches falling onto the roof and breaking through. This can happen when they are weighted down by snow!
  5. Go to the attic. We talked about clearing pests and setting traps for newbie pests who come in through the winter, but think about the insulation, too. The attic insulation has to be intact if you want your space to stay warm. You need that extra warmth through the winter if you hope to ensure that you are all comfortable.

Your roof needs to be cleared before winter if you want to maintain your comfort in the home. Calling in the experts to help you will be the best thing that you do this winter for your family.

Eco-Friendly Ways to Clean Your Bathroom

 

 

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Experts recommend sanitising the bathroom at least once a week and performing a deep cleaning once a month. However, wiping spills or wet areas and cleaning visible dirt is something you must do regularly to prevent mould, mildew and grimes or stains from building up. Several commercial cleaning products are available in the market, but they may contain toxic ingredients harmful to the family and the environment. 

 

Be sure to check the contents of these cleaning items and only go for the green options. Some are made with eco-friendly substances. They are effective in eliminating dirt, and at the same time, you can be sure they are free from chemicals. Besides these cleaning products, there are also other green options to clean your bathroom. For example, you can make your cleaning solution using different ingredients, which you may already have in your pantry. 

 

Toilet

 

It may not be the favourite thing you want to clean in the bathroom, but it’s one of the most used, so you need to do the job. Plus, a filthy toilet is not hygienic, and it’s also unsightly. Many people use bleach, but it has chemicals that are bad for the surroundings, and it smells harsh. So instead of using that, a green way to clean your toilet is by mixing a tablespoon of baking soda with half a cup of vinegar. Spray the mixture in the bowl, let it sit for half an hour, then start scrubbing. 

 

Shower 

 

A walk-in shower with easy clean glass is, as what the term suggests, easy to clean. If you plan to get a new one for your bathroom, choose an option with this type of glass. Do not use abrasive materials as they could scratch it. Instead, spray black tea, white vinegar or hot water on the glass, and use newspaper to wipe dry. A steam cleaner will do wonders in cleaning your tiles. You can also spray a mixture of water and vinegar on the tiles and wipe them with a clean cloth. 

 

Surfaces

 

Other surfaces in the bathroom and even other parts of the house can be cleaned with vinegar and water mixture, but this time, add lemon juice. Mix a cup of water to a cup of vinegar and the juice of a lemon, put in a spray, and apply on the surfaces you wish to clean. To remove dirt, let the solution sit for some time before wiping with a clean cloth. It will not only sanitise the surfaces but also leave the bathroom smelling fresh. 

 

Mirrors 

 

Warm water is enough to clean your bathroom mirrors. However, if you have difficulty removing stains, add vinegar to the water and spray on the area you want to clean. Finally, wipe dry with newspaper, towel paper, or clean cloth. 

 

Drain

 

Pour a quarter cup of baking soda in the drain, then half a cup of vinegar. The mixture will break down debris. After half an hour, pour boiling water to flush dirt. 

Cleaning your bathroom doesn’t need to involve harsh chemicals. Let go of the toxic cleaning products you are familiar with and switch to eco-friendly options listed above. 

The Top Surviving Tips You Need to Live a Better Life

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The world is a busy place, and it can be hard to keep up with everything. However, there are some things that you need to do to live a better life. They’re the things that will help you feel more productive, healthy, happy – all of those nice things!

Here are the top surviving tips you need to live a better life.

Prioritize Your Fitness

Fitness is a type of medicine that will help you stay healthy and fight diseases. There are many ways to improve your fitness, such as enrolling in a gym, personalizing gym equipment, and doing homework-out. Still, but motivation is most important for those who have been neglecting it lately. Resources such as https://www.motivationdistrict.com/ can be referred if you need encouraging messages and life stories to build a healthy lifestyle.

A great way to start is by signing up for a fitness class that you love. It can be running, yoga, or cycling if it makes you happy! The important thing is not the type of activity but your willingness to do something regularly.

You can also train to become a fitness instructor. By this, you will be able to help those in need while also keeping fit. Isn’t that a great way to kill two birds with one stone! You can click here www.americansportandfitness.com to sign up for a fitness course.

Master Your Skills

It is not very difficult to master a skill, but it takes practice and hard work. To become good at something, you need patience as well as perseverance. If your habits are weak or you want to strengthen them, there may be things that will help, such as having the right mindset and surrounding yourself with positive people who can push you in the right direction.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help. People love showing off their knowledge and will often feel honored if you come to them asking for assistance or advice on a topic they have expertise in. However, it is essential that before going over what someone else suggests, you first try doing it your way so as not to waste their time.

Work on Your Weaknesses

Don’t get too comfortable in your weakness. It’s easy to fall back on them, but you need to do the hard work of putting some effort into it. You can even use strategies that are designed for this purpose if required.

Some people have made great success with this type of method, so don’t feel alone when you’re struggling to change. Working on your weaknesses is a great way to make you a better person. There’s more potential for growth when working on weaknesses because if something is already your strength, it means that there isn’t much room for improvement at this point. So, you have to put in the work, and you will get rewarded with personal satisfaction from accomplishing it, which makes all of these efforts worth it in the end.

Living a better life is more than just living; it’s about the quality of your experiences. It’s not always easy or fun, but you can do many different things to get through tough times and enjoy yourself in good ones. Keep in mind that your life will never be perfect, and it’s up to you to make what you can of each day.

Adopting A Greener Lifestyle: Tips For The Modern Family

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Living an eco-friendly lifestyle has become a priority for everyone. As a parent, though, you are very concerned about protecting the planet for your children and future generations. Sadly, it can feel like an uphill battle as many aspects of modern life naturally increase our carbon footprint.

With the right strategy at your disposal, though, it will be possible to adopt a greener lifestyle with very quick results. Focus on the following ideas and success is assured.

Building a greener home

You spend more time at home than ever before. Moreover, the average family uses more energy than previous generations. As such, working your way to a carbon-neutral property should sit at the top of your agenda. Aside from protecting the planet, it’s a move that will aid your bank balance in the long run as reduced energy waste will lead to smaller bills.

There are many ways to improve the energy-efficiency rating of your home. Simple ideas like switching to LED light bulbs can be made right away, helping to make an instant energy saving. Meanwhile, water-saving toilets, taps and dishwashers can help to reduce water usage. Consider installing a water-butt to collect rainwater too. This can then be used to water plants in hot weather, and can even be plumbed in to toilets using greywater technology.

Additionally, removing your boiler and fitting an air or ground source heat pump will reduce gas usuage, saving on fossil fuels. To save on heating costs further, replace your windows with triple-glazed models and insulate your roof with a thick layer of wool. A شركة عزل أسطح بالرياض (roof insulation company in Riyadh) or a similar company closer to you can do this for you. Wool is a great insulating material to use as it is cheap, natural, organic, chemical-free and water-proof, meaning you won’t get issues with damp. You could also choose foam, but this is often full of polluting and harmful chemicals, or fibreglass. Fibreglass is dangerous to touch, but it can be boxed in to make it safe and it can also be made out of recycled glass, meaning it is better for the environment than foam.

The quest for an eco-friendly home isn’t just about the situations inside your property. It should also bring a change of mindset that will subsequently influence your habits elsewhere.

Change your approach to driving

Car technology evolves at a rapid rate. In the last decade or so, the growth of both hybrid tech and EV tech has been huge. The added accessibility and affordability have created a far better situation for green drivers. Not least because the used marketplace is now very accommodating for drivers that care about the environment.

Embracing the latest eco-friendly car tech isn’t the only way to enhance your approach to driving. Even if you keep your current gas guzzler, improvements can be made. Going for family bicycle rides instead of driving to a local attraction is one option. Simply combining daily errands into a single trip is another commonly utilized solution.

Away from the home, your vehicle is probably the biggest contributor to your carbon footprint. If that doesn’t inspire you to give it the attention it deserves, perhaps nothing will.

Take eco-friendly vacations

Vacations provide the highlights of our lives. Sadly, many holiday types will significantly increase our damage to the planet. This is because we tend to dismiss our daily habits and become far more wasteful. With food. With plastics. With resources. You probably won’t find the perfect vacation, but a conscious effort to do better should yield positive results.

Camping trips and trekking adventures are up there with the best. With the right EcoGearFX equipment, your family will have an incredible time. You won’t need to travel far or by plane, which instantly aids the cause. For instance, if you live near Costa Rica, then you need not think about going to Panama for your fishing trip. You could simply visit the Tamarindo area, where you can opt for a charter boat (by contacting reputed Costa Rica fishing charters) and enjoy the sport with your family. (See, you do not need to think about spending boatloads of money to hire a private jet for a simple fishing trip. Charter boats can do!) Remember that many of the adventures enjoyed during your time here on the boat can be eco-friendly. Fishing with the best topwater frog lures, cycling, and walking are just some of the examples.

An alternative option is to sign up for a volunteering scheme. Working on a project that develops eco-friendly technologies or works in renewable energies will be perfect. This type of vacation also offers a sense of immense satisfaction.

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Find greener hobbies

In addition to becoming more responsible on vacation, you need to make daily updates. The way in which you spend your leisure time is sure to have a telling impact on your overall situation. Therefore, you should be keen to introduce eco-friendly hobbies, such as gardening at home or at the local allotment. It can be enjoyed by all the family. In fact, if you are serious about growing your own food, then you can even start a family farm! All you will need is a piece of land, some robust machinery like tractors and ploughs (visit the Costex Tractor Parts website to see more), the right seeds, and a bit of farming knowledge. While this can seem like a big endeavor, a little effort can go a long way in building your own farm, especially when the whole family gets involved.

Other environmentally friendly pastimes include taking part in water sports at the beach. You can choose to take a lengthy family vacation in locations like the Lake District, which offers a wide variety of water-based activities. You have an endless selection of water-based sports to choose from, such as sailing and windsurfing as well as diving. You can either forego renting canoes, kayaks, or paddleboards and simply enlist the assistance of pros from adventure companies like Graythwaite Adventure, who may be able to aid you with the sports. You might even take an interest in learning how to sail or water ski. Or why not attempt raft building or dragon boat racing if you want a fun team activity?

As with most things, you don’t have to strive for perfection. The key is to make a conscious improvement and reduce your carbon footprint, without negatively impacting your lifestyle.

Also, snorkeling and scuba diving with SwimOutlet gear is a great example. Playing team sports and enjoying activities that won’t require heavy machinery or rely on electricity will work wonders. The knowledge that you’ve made smarter choices can actively boost your enjoyment.

Cut food waste

Opting for greener energy and materials will serve you well. However, it’s equally important to focus on how you use resources. While people are guilty of wasting various resources, there is no question that food is one of the worst culprits. Anywhere up to 40% of all food ends up trashed. So, learning to manage your intake is key.

The easiest way to do this is to monitor how much you eat. You can subsequently adjust your grocery purchases accordingly. If you stop overbuying, you will have far less waste. Another popular solution is to cook batches and freeze portions for another day. Aside from reducing your food waste levels, it saves you time in the long run.

Adding a food waste disposal unit or making a garden compost will additionally support your cause. Once you embrace the winning habits, you’ll notice the difference in no time. In truth, it’s likely that you will keep up those improvements for many years to come.

Use eco-friendly brands

Implementing better habits in your daily life will make a significant impact. However, you must not overlook the fact that commercial endeavors will always carry a bigger impact. In short, cutting your usage of resources by 10% is futile if the company’s you buy products from are causing vast waste. As such, researching brands that align with your ideas is key.

Businesses can’t wave a magic wand to become carbon neutral. However, partnering with advocates of cleaner energy is a positive step. Meanwhile, choosing local companies will cut down on the transportation of goods. Brands that utilize green packaging should be openly supported too. When they succeed, it forces other brands to take note.

In truth, thinking twice about the brands you use is probably the most effective way to improve your situation. When supported by personal changes, success is assured.

The final word

Adopting a greener lifestyle does take a little effort. Thankfully, the rewards in your personal life will vindicate the decision. The fact it also supports the planet is merely a bonus.

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Discover The Most Common Problems In Early Pregnancy

Discovering you are pregnant is both exciting and nerve-racking. The longer you have been trying the more nerve racking it is. After all, if it has taken you years to get pregnant you will be anxious that something will go wrong and you’ll have to start all over again. 

Unfortunately, the first trimester of any pregnancy is also the one that carries the highest risk of issues. That’s why most people see a reputable obstetrician Sydney as early as possible but don’t tell their loved ones until week 13 or later. 

Miscarriage

Without doubt, this is the biggest concern and one of the most common issues in early pregnancy. It is estimated that 80% of women will experience bleeding during the first trimester. The good news is that at least 50% of these women go on to give birth to a healthy baby. That means the odds are in your favor.

However, it also means that roughly 50% of these women will experience a miscarriage. 

It is important to have a miscarriage investigated. It is possible that you had an ectopic pregnancy, this is when the fetus has implanted outside of the womb and cannot survive. This type of issue can be dangerous for the mother as well as fatal for the unborn child. 

It should be noted that an ectopic pregnancy can either be dealt with by medication or surgery. However, it can often involve the removal of one of the fallopian tubes, making it harder to get pregnant again.

Sickness 

You’ve heard of morning sickness and it’s estimated that at least half of pregnant women will suffer from this during the first trimester. 

The good news is that in most cases it is just a feeling of being sick, in some you are actually sick, but it doesn’t lead to complications with the baby. It is simply a symptom of pregnancy. 

Tiredness 

As your body adjusts to having to support two lives it is common for you to feel extremely tired. Interestingly, this lasts for the first trimester and returns in the third. During the second trimester, you are likely to have plenty of energy!

Hemorrhoids 

Hemorrhoids are swollen veins that appear just inside and outside the rectum. They are caused by the increased pressure that you experience as your uterus starts to expand. They are more common in late pregnancy but can occur at the start. Understanding the best ways for how to prevent hemorrhoids is going to be much more comfortable for you while you are pregnant. Hemorrhoids aren’t always avoidable when you have a baby pressing down on your insides, if you understand how to look after them you’re not going to be a pain for too long.

In general, this isn’t a concern and they disappear after the pregnancy has finished. 

Cravings

Many pregnant women experience cravings during their pregnancy. These generally start during the first trimester and can be a sign of a nutrient deficiency. It’s a good idea to get it checked. If you have cravings they are likely to last for the duration of the pregnancy. But, again, they will disappear after the birth.

Headaches

When you become pregnant your body undergoes a lot of changes, particularly hormonal changes. This often results in headaches during the first trimester./ But, they should pass as you enter the second trimester. 

 

5 Ways to Reduce Neck and Back Pain at Work

It is estimated that four million Australians suffer from neck and back pain. The fact is that an increasingly digital age has people looking at screens more of the time. If you work in an office it is likely that you spend up to 12 hours sitting down.

For much of that time, you will be staring at a screen. Despite your best intentions, it is highly likely that you’ll slouch in your chair and lean forward to see your screen better. This causes neck and back pain.

In fact, sitting for long periods every day also increases the likelihood of you developing chronic conditions such as diabetes or heart disease.

In extreme cases, you’ll end up stooped or with other spinal issues that require a reputable spine surgeon to resolve for you. This can be avoided by reducing neck and back pain. However, it is always a good idea to consult a spine surgeon and get a professional opinion and advice.

  • Stand Up

The problem with sitting is that all the weight is taken off your legs and goes on your bottom. This slows your circulation and causes an array of knock-on effects.

However, there is an increased interest in standing desks and these will help you to balance out your sitting. A standing desk can move between sitting and standing, allowing you to alternate through the day.

Providing you set the desk up correctly it can make a huge difference to your back and neck pain.

  • Re-Organize Your Desk

The top of your computer screen should be level with your eyes and your elbows should be level with your keyboard. Rearrange your desk so that this is true and you’ll find it much more comfortable to sit for an extended period of time.

  • Change Your Chair

It is also worth looking at your chair. You should have an ergonomic chair that provides lumbar support. This encourages you to adopt the right seating position and, along with your rearranged desk, can eradicate neck and back pain.

  • Move Around

Exercise is the key to good health both today and in the future. If you find yourself sitting for large parts of the day then make time to exercise. In a basic sense, this means getting up from your desk every hour and moving around the office or perhaps running up and down the stairs.

You can also commit to exercising daily to help negate the effects of sitting all day. If your back pain still hasn’t subsided, you could think of looking for an adelaide back pain centre near your home.

  • Skip The Phone

One of the biggest issues today is that you can do everything on your phone. This means that emails and other work items are often done on the phone. Unfortunately, when you are on the phone all the time you are looking down, and this causes a painful neck, often referred to as ‘text neck’.

By simply using the computer to answer these messages you can avoid this issue and decrease the neck and back pain you are currently suffering with.