Author: HairWeavings Editorial Team

With the internet offering so much these days, I’d be surprised if anyone needs cable TV anymore. And the prices are high – an average of US$83.35 for TV alone. In Canada, the average is about $50 for just cable TV.

Your Health

While visiting my local community health food store, I had an informative chat with a knowledgeable health guru. She shared some frightful news with me: The latest risk to our health is no longer smoking; it has been replaced by sitting!

As someone who is guilty of sitting in front of my computer for most of the day, she suggested an important ratio:

For every 50 minutes sitting, do 10 minutes walking, standing on your toes, dancing, playing with the dog, or bouncing on a mini-trampoline. Just get up and get moving!

Get Rid of Your Cable TV!

In 1992, Bruce Springsteen told us there were “57 Channels (And Nothin’ On).” My son tells me there are now over 900 channels. Good grief! How does one find time to actually live a life?

Once your posterior has settled on that couch, you may find yourself flipping through the channels rather than turning it off. You are already comfortable, and it is so hard to get up.

With cable gone, you will no longer be mindlessly watching game, interview, or reality shows simply because staying put is just so easy (and deadly).

It has been over seven years since I cancelled my overpriced cable. I missed it for a couple of weeks but then discovered how easy it was to find alternatives that I could enjoy during scheduled downtime.

So, if you have Wi-Fi, below are my six suggestions in no particular order:

Want to Catch the Latest News?

I think we can all agree that if you are watching mainstream media outlets, we are getting more opinion than actual facts. Your station is choosing what they are going to report, and much is missed – including good news stories. Alternatives are free:

Reuters

Try your country’s Reuters if you would like to receive just the facts.

X

My suggestion is to chose people and organizations you trust to follow. My husband, a diehard X-er, tells me I would be astonished at the world news I am not hearing about. I am still undecided whether that is a good thing or not.

Online News Outlets That Do Not Receive Government Funding

Smaller, hardworking news sources that receive their funding from subscribers rather than governments do not have an agenda to push. Choose one that you believe is giving you the truth. They are free but might ask you for a paid subscription or donations.

Do You Occasionally Want to Take in a New Movie Release?

For just a few dollars, I sign into my Cineplex Cinemas account online and rent a movie for a day. This is available in Canada but movie chains in your country may offer something similar. The price is approximately $5 to $6 each.

YouTube

I had no idea what a fountain of good programming is available on YouTube – and all for free! Documentaries, old movies, how-tos, comedy, politics, music, and bygone shows. I just finished watching all the seasons of the Dick van Dyke Show. Now that was entertainment!

Your Local Library

The library where I live is free to join. I thoroughly enjoy HBO, FX, and Showtime productions, and discovered most of their shows are available at my library. Keep in mind this requires a degree of patience.

Good programs are in high demand, so get your name on the list, and, in due course, they all come available. You can also enjoy online shows we loved as kids. Butter the popcorn and watch Walt Disney’s The Castaways with your grandchildren.

Netflix

Sadly, Netflix Canada doesn’t compare with USA programming due to slow copyright access. But if you live in the States, you are truly fortunate to have an abundance of diverse shows. You can’t beat the price: US$7 to $23 per month as of this writing.

Other Streaming Services

There are many streaming services to choose from, and to my knowledge, all offer free trials. I recently took Acorn, Britbox, and Sundance on their offers and gave each a try. Out of the three, I settled on Acorn for less than CA$7 per month. Now I enjoy great quality programming.

Depending on how smart your television is (and apparently mine is neither new nor smart) you may need to go old-school. I purchased a Chromecast device that hooks up to my illiterate (no Wi-Fi) television and voila! Through the magic of the Internet, my TV has now smartened up.

Hopefully, I have helped in reducing your monthly television watching bill to about $20 (give or take) and got you off the couch.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

Do you have cable TV? What’s your monthly bill? Have you tried an alternative that isn’t as expensive? What are your suggestions in your part of the world? Please join the conversation!

“It’s the nouns that go first,” a good friend quipped when she couldn’t remember a favorite author’s name. How true. Every year, it seems to take me longer to learn names and phone numbers, and lately, I need an extra hour to pull some words out of my memory – if they ever come.

More often, too, the wrong word pops out of my mouth. When I say January, but really mean July, my women friends understand and put together the meaning from context. The men in my life just get confused and frustrated with me. Don’t they know I can’t help it?

Or can I? What can I do to protect my memory? More and more of us are living longer, and the majority of us will live well into our 80s. So, are we facing an unavoidable mental decline in the coming decades? No! Here are 7 simple steps to boost your memory.

Get Plenty of Sleep

We can take some simple steps to boost our memory, and the first is as basic as breathing: get plenty of sleep. Sleep deprivation has a huge impact on mental functioning, but too many of us ignore this important aspect of a healthy lifestyle.

Most people need at least eight hours of sleep a night – every night, not just on weekends – to give our brains time to regenerate cells and reorganize information as we sleep. A body deprived of sleep loses ground with memory.

Enjoy a Balanced Diet

The next item on the list is nutrition. According to the Harvard Medical School, a healthy, balanced diet is one of the proven ways to protect your memory. They also recommend regular exercise, not smoking, and keeping blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar in check.

Add Nutrients and Supplements

Of all the nutrients, B vitamins are the most essential for helping your mind stay sharp. Your body uses B vitamins to turn food into mental energy and to repair brain tissue. Thiamin, niacin and vitamins B6 and B12 are probably the most important for mental functioning.

Many breads, cereals and pastas are enriched with thiamin and niacin, so usually we get enough of these nutrients. B vitamins also occur naturally in meat, poultry, shellfish, baked potatoes, bananas and chickpeas. Nutritional yeast is also a great source for B-vitamins.

Love Your Vegetables

Another factor in avoiding ‘brain drain’ is getting a good supply of blood to the brain. Back to low fat and high fiber, which keep your veins and arteries clear. Health tips keep coming back to a low-fat diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables. O.K. I can do that.

Go Easy on the Coffee

Those of us who rely on coffee for a jump-start each morning may be pleased to learn that a recent study at Johns Hopkins University found that “caffeine has a positive effect on long-term memory.”

Of course, moderation is the key here: too much coffee can make you jittery and reduce your concentration, and coffee has other negative effects, too.

What About Peppermint?

Another short-term boost to mental functioning might be peppermint. After hearing about a study linking mint chewing with higher test scores, I gave my students peppermint candy during their state writing test.

A few students swore that it made a difference, and at least they all had sweet breath – and thought I was wonderful.

Limit Alcohol

Finally, go light on alcohol. Alcohol destroys brain cells every time you use it. Many doctors recommend abstaining completely to keep your mind at its sharpest, but at the very least, it’s wise to limit yourself to one or two drinks a day.

What About These Brain-Improving Web Sites?

It’s true that you can improve your memory by challenging yourself. You can do it with the online sites, but it might be cheaper and more effective for you to challenge your brain by learning something new.

Master a language, learn to play a musical instrument or volunteer at something that’s new to you. The important thing is to engage your brain with new and challenging situations.

I consulted one of my more obscure resources to get a historical perspective on memory. The guidebook Vivilore: The Pathway to Mental and Physical Perfection was written in 1904 by Mary Ries Melendy.

The author warns not to think about or handle the sexual organs because “it draws the blood away from the spine and the brain. It lays the foundation for consumption, paralysis and heart disease. It weakens the memory, and makes one careless, stupid, and too lazy to study or even play with any keen enjoyment.”

WOW! We’ve come a long way, baby. So, choose your own path, but remember… remember… Oh, well!

Let’s Have a Conversation:

What do you do to boost your memory in your 60s? Are you finding that you are more forgetful as you have got a little older? Please share your observations and any tips you have found helpful in retaining a good memory.