Author Archives: Edward Brownlee

10 tips to increase your fluid intake

Posted on by

July 10, 2024
Kathryn Szklany
Registered Dietitian, Syracuse VA

Summer has arrived, and that means hot days and more time outside. As we spend more time outside, it’s easy to forget about keeping your body hydrated. Hydration is important for controlling body temperature, supporting brain health and can even help with reducing joint pain.

Adults 60 years and older are at increased risk for dehydrationrelated to a drop in thirst levels and lower muscle mass. Fluid needs vary from person to person based on many different factors. Generally, healthy women need about 9 cups of water per day and healthy men need about 13 cups per day.

An easy way to tell if you are getting enough water is by checking the color of your urine. If you are drinking enough water, your urine will be a pale-yellow color (like lemonade). Anything darker means you should increase your fluid intake. Dehydration is the lack of water in the body and even mild dehydration can decrease your energy levels and make you feel tired.

If you don’t enjoy drinking water, then milk, juice, sports drinks, herbal teas and coffee can all contribute to your total water intake. It’s important to remember that some of these beverages do contain added sugars.

10 tips to increase your fluid intake:

  1. Carry a refillable water bottle.
  2. Don’t wait until you’re thirsty, drink water throughout the day.
  3. Drink water when you first wake up.
  4. Drink water at all your meals.
  5. Eat foods that are high in water content, such as juicy fruits and vegetables (Grapes, melon, cucumbers, lettuce, celery, pineapples).
  6. If you struggle to drink water, alternate your drinks. If you drink juice or soda, challenge yourself to have a cup of water as your next beverage.
  7. Add fruit to your water to jazz it up. Slices of lemon or oranges can be a fun way to add a little flavor to your water.
  8. Dilute juice with water or use club soda.
  9. Set a timer on your phone or watch to remind yourself to hydrate throughout the day.
  10. Set a goal on how much fluid you’re going to drink in the day.

To learn more about hydration or another nutrition-related topic, contact your local VA to speak with a registered dietitian.

References:

  1. https://news.va.gov/132742/summer-is-here-stay-hydrated/

Good Habits to Embrace

Posted on by

The biggest improvement in your life will come when you realize that happiness and contentment are just a byproduct of good habits.

Say No by Default

Your time’s precious: don’t give it to people who don’t deserve it. Especially to Energy Vampires who drain your energy.

Conquer FOMO and put yourself first – make it your rule of thumb that  if it’s not a “no brainer” yes, then it’s a no.

Choose Writing Over Complaining

Complaining isn’t attractive – it repels ambitious people and fosters a negative mindset.

Write down your thoughts instead: you’re forced to think slowly and deeply so your irrationality loses its edge.

It’s the therapy your therapist uses.

Prioritize Nature

A study of 20,000 people in the UK found that 120 minutes/week in nature improved health and well-being.

It’s the planet’s greatest healer.

Whenever you’re in a rut, time in nature will always spark the return of color to the gray.

Pay it Forward

Random acts of kindness boost well-being:

• Holding the door for someone
• Picking up trash outside
• Giving a compliment

The world’s a closed system: if you send waves of positivity out, they’ll find their way back to you.

Maintain Relationships

Human connections are the fabric of life – but you need to be intentional with them amidst life’s chaos.

So schedule time weekly for thoughtful texts and calls to those you’ve neglected.

It’s a couple of minutes with an ROI you’ll measure in years.

Focus on Your Health

I’m convinced most mental health problems are actually physical health problems. Everyone I know who:

• Eats well
• Exercises daily
• Drinks enough water

Has a Teflon mind that repels all negativity.

https://x.com/masculinepath04/status/1810924943191806061

Lessons Learned from Retirees

Posted on by

Lessons from retirees on their biggest retirement regrets

Thousands of Americans retire every day short on cash, friendships and plans. Investing for retirement means more than just stashing money in a 401(k). It’s equally important to cultivate the interests, relationships and activities that will fill our days with purpose and satisfaction when we retire.

Many retirees say they realized too late:

  • Retirees could have prepared for a more financially secure and rewarding postwork life.
  • Retirees would have focused on saving more money to cover the higher cost of living.
  • Retirees would have put more time into building relationships, taking better care of their health or cultivating new pursuits.
  • Retirees frequently don’t realize how much their career provided a sense of identity and self-worth.

The best predictor of longevity, health and happiness in later life is the quality of your relationships. That is the finding of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, which has followed families for decades.

The life expectancy for a 65-year-old is 84 for men and nearly 87 for women, according to projections by the Society of Actuaries based on 2019 data.

Surveys suggest many Americans vastly underestimate those numbers. Of 1,500 adults ages 45 to 80 polled by the Society of Actuaries in 2015, 41% of preretirees and 37% of retirees underestimated their life expectancy by five or more years, while 14% of preretirees and 18% of retirees underestimated it by two to four years.

A person who postpones benefits until age 70 instead of 62 would have to live to at least 80 to come out ahead.

Last year, Social Security paid out $1.38 trillion in overall benefits and got most of its funding from payroll taxes that generated $1.23 trillion. Believing that Social Security will vanish is akin to believing that these taxes will vanish too, policy analysts say.

Still, if Congress doesn’t shore up the program’s finances, projections show that it could be able to pay out only 83% of scheduled benefits in 2035, when the combined contents of its two trust funds would be depleted.

Learning is another key strategy.

Strategies to ward off dementia include getting more sleep, exercising and eating a healthy diet to maintain brain health, said Rudolph Tanzi, a Harvard Medical School professor of neurology and co-author of “The Healing Self.”

Even people who don’t have Alzheimer’s show cognitive changes with aging, so it is important to keep learning to keep your brain healthy, said Yaakov Stern, professor of neuropsychology at Columbia

References:

  1. https://www.brownleeglobal.com/wp-admin/post-new.php
  2. https://www.wsj.com/articles/your-401-k-isnt-enough-to-invest-for-retirement-build-friendships-and-hobbies-11672269861

Parable: “200 Year Old Watch”

Posted on by

A dying father called his son to his bedside and presented him with an old pocket watch. The father said,

“Your grandfather gave this watch to me. It is more than 200 years old. But, before I give it to you, I want you to go to the watch shop and tell the owner you want to sell it. Ask him what price he would pay for it.”

The son went to the watch shop and then returned to his father’s bedside. He reported, “The watchmaker said he would pay $5 for the watch because it is old and scratched.”

The father then said to the son, “Go to the coffee shop and ask the owner if he would be interested in buying the pocket watch and what he would be willing to pay.”

The son ran to the coffee shop and quickly returned. He told his father, “The coffee shop owner said he didn’t have much use for an old pocket watch but offered $3 for it.”

Finally, the father told the son, “Go to the museum and show them the watch.”

The son left for the museum and returned with a look of astonishment on his face. He whispered, “Father, the curator at the museum offered me $10 million for this pocket watch!”

The father laid his head back, closed his eyes and said: “I wanted you to experience for yourself that the right place, and the right people, will value your value in the right way.

Never put yourself in the wrong place, with the wrong people, and then get angry when you don’t feel valued. Don’t stay in a place, or with people, that don’t value your value. Know your worth and while being confident in your own value look for the value and the potential worth of others.”

The lesson of this parable is that you must value your own value. Along with recognizing your value you must also avoid putting yourself in the wrong place, with the wrong people, who don’t or who are unable to value your value.

https://www.deseret.com/opinion/2019/12/11/21012123/what-an-old-pocket-watch-says-about-your-unique-worth-and-leadership/

Be Strong

Posted on by

.“Strong people make as many mistakes as weak people. Difference is that strong people admit their mistakes, laugh at them, learn from them. That is how they become strong.”

“Great things never come from comfort zones. Embrace change and challenge yourself to grow.”

Your habits dictates your behavior and your BEHAVIOR DETERMINES your DESTINY

Chipotle Stock Split

Posted on by

Chipotle Mexican Grill’s first-ever 50-to-1 stock split will be one of the largest in New York Stock Exchange history. The split will cut Chipotle’s share price to about $64 each from nearly $3,200 each now.

Splits don’t change the market value of a company, but the smaller share price may be more attractive to retail investors, making them popular vehicles for companies.

Chipotle shares are up nearly 40% this year. CFO Jack Hartung has said the move can help it reward employees.

Chipotle’s split comes after some other high profile ones this year, including Nvidia’s and Walmart’s. Chip maker Broadcom is set to split its stock in July.

Overall there are nine stock splits this year through July, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence, up from two in the same time period last year.

History shows that companies tend to outperform after splitting their stock, even though nothing fundamentally changes about their business.

BofA Global Research found that average returns are about 25% during the 12 months after a split is announced, versus 12% gains for the S&P 500

Margin of Safety

Posted on by


Seek investments where the asset’s intrinsic value significantly exceeds the market price – a concept known as a “margin of safety.”

Investing is all about finding opportunities to buy assets below their true worth.

“It is extraordinary to me that the idea of buying dollar bills for fifty cents takes immediately with people or it doesn’t take at all. It’s like an inoculation. If it doesn’t grab a person right away, I find you can talk to him for years, and show him records, and it just doesn’t make any difference. They just don’t seem able to grasp the concept, simple as it is…I’ve never seen anyone who became a gradual convert over a ten-year period to this approach. It doesn’t seem to be a matter of I.Q. or academic training. It is instant recognition or it is nothing.” ~ Warren Buffett

Source:  http://mastersinvest.com/newblog/2017/6/12/50c-dollars

Peter Lynch Rule 5:

Posted on by

Peter Lynch, the Fidelity investing guru, once said:

“When stocks are attractive, you buy them. Sure, they can go lower—I’ve bought stocks at $12 that went to $2, but then they went to $30.”

With this in mind, never invest in a company without understanding its finances.

The biggest losses in stocks come from companies with poor balance sheets.

Always look at the balance sheet to see if a company is solvent before you risk your money on it.

Understand how a company makes its revenue and maintains its cash flow.

Peter Lynch Rule 3:

Posted on by

In the short run, the stock market acts like a “voting machine”, while functioning in the long run more like a “weighing machine”. ~ Warren Buffett

Often, in the short term, there is no correlation between the success of a company’s operations and the success of its stock over years.

In the long term, there is a 100% correlation between the success of the company and the success of its stock.

The disparity is the key to successful long-term investing.

Such opportunities arise occasionally because in the short run the stock market acts like a “voting machine” (reflecting all kinds of irrational attitudes and expectations), while functioning in the long run more like a “weighing machine” (reflecting a firm’s true value).