It would be nice to go leave the busy city life every once in a while and go on a camping trip, to breathe in fresh air, enjoy nature's surroundings and go back to the basics.

When campers take their dog along on the trip, they will be able to loosen up and enjoy each other's company with no distractions, making it a fun way to make their bond stronger.

In case they happen to find themselves in the middle of nowhere as they head out with their tent to camp out underneath the stars, at least they will have peace of mind knowing that their dog is tucked up beside them.

Actually, there are health benefits when camping with a pet dog.

Fresh, natural air increases serotonin levels.

Spending some time outdoors like near the seaside or trees lets the body breathe in more oxygen, giving a camper and his pet a big break from the pollution and other chemicals experienced daily in the city. Also, this makes the camper feel happy since this releases serotonin inside the brain.

The serotonin hormone has an effect on different things in our body, including a person's mood, behavior, digestion and sleep, to name a few.


Sunshine boosts melatonin

When people are camping out in a place that is warm and sunny, they can benefit from the abundance of sunshine received. It helps even out the body's melatonin. This chemical affects the mood and sleeping patterns in a positive way when people have the right levels. Melatonin can also restore the dog's body rhythms, reproductive cycles and sleep patterns plus it can be given to help dogs that suffer from anxiety and phobias.

Reduce stress in a person and his dog

Camping is an effective way to de-stress humans and dogs. During camping trips, people can turn off their phone and other gadgets to relax, exercise, explore, read a book and do all sorts of things that they don't have time for when attending to their daily routine. Stress has a negative effect on the minds and bodies. Being more relaxed with their dogs will make their furry friends more relaxed as well.

More exercise

When they bring along their dog on a camping trip, the more exercise they get since their pet will motivate them to get up and about, whether they are making fire to roast marshmallows or heading out to explore the sights with their best friend. Camping involves more exercises outdoors than spending the day in an office so it will benefit a camper and his dog alike.

Sleep well

Since the camping site is located outdoors, where there is fresh air and trees or water, campers can definitely get a good night sleep with all the relaxation experienced. It can make anyone fall into a deep slumber, which incidentally also offers a load of health benefits.

Interested in purchasing a quality outdoor dog tent? Come and visit our online store today! That's where you can also find awesome store display tents for sale!

For info on RVing in Colorado, Click Here

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Karina_Popa/1432444
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10391591

For all the pumpkin lovers out there, we have three delicious Pumpkin Dessert Recipes for you!
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They can be used for casual or more formal occasions. They are sure to please everyone!

Pumpkin Dessert Recipes:

Pumpkin Lasagna

This Pumpkin Lasagna is a take-off of the ever-popular meat/tomato sauce lasagna. This is a great way to prepare a delicious dessert for eight or more.
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Ingredients
For crust:

• 1 cup flour
• ½ cup butter-softened
• ½ cup toasted walnuts (or pecans)-chopped

For cheesecake layer:

• 8 oz. cream cheese- softened
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 cup whipped topping

For pumpkin layer:

• 2½ cups milk
• 3 small pkgs. vanilla instant pudding mix
• 15 oz Pumpkin puree
• 1 tsp. cinnamon

For topping:

• 1 cups whipped topping
• ¼ cup toasted walnuts (or pecans)-chopped

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven at 350 F and spray 8×8 inch baking dish.
2. Mix flour, butter and ½ cup walnuts, press into a sprayed baking dish and bake for 15 minutes, remove from the oven and let it cool completely.
3. Mix cream cheese and powdered sugar until it’s light and fluffy, add 1 cup whipped topping and spread over cooled crust. Set in the fridge while making pumpkin mixture.
4. Mix milk and vanilla instant pudding mix, add pumpkin puree and cinnamon and mix until it’s smooth. Spread over top of cheesecake layer.
5. Spread remaining 1 cup of whipped topping and sprinkle chopped walnuts and set in the fridge for at least 3 hours.

Source...

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Pumpkin Cheesecake Dip

This Pumpkin Cheesecake Dip is scrumptious served with chocolate graham crackers and shortbread-type cookies. The combination of flavors is outstanding!
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Ingredients

1. 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
2. 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3. 3/4 cup confectioners sugar
4. 1 tablespoon brown sugar
5. 2 teaspoons International Delight Pumpkin Pie Spice creamer
6. 1 tsp vanilla
7. 1-2 teaspoons pumpkin spice
8. 1 cup miniature chocolate chips (optional)

Instructions

1. In a large bowl beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy.
2. Add confectioners sugar, brown sugar, pumpkin pie creamer, and vanilla until well combined.
3. Add 1-2 teaspoons pumpkin spice, depending on your preference. Stir in chocolate chips. Chill until ready to serve.

Source...

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No Bake Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

These No Bake Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies are divine and simply melt in your mouth! If you love pumpkin, this is your time of year…pumpkin everything!

Serves: 36 cookies
Ingredients

• 1½ cups sugar
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ¾ cup butter
• ⅔ cup milk
• 1 (3.4oz) box instant pumpkin spice pudding mix (you can sub vanilla pudding and 1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice)
• 3½ cups quick cooking oats
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

1. In a saucepan, combine sugars, butter and milk.
2. Bring to a boil.
3. Boil 2 minutes.
4. Remove from heat and add in the pudding mix, stirring to combine completely.
5. Add in pumpkin pie spice, vanilla and oats.
6. Stir to combine and let stand for 5 minutes.
7. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto waxed paper, and allow to cool completely.
8. Store in airtight container.

Source...

Check out these Delicious Fall Soup Recipes: Soup

​Fall decor is abundant in the stores and online. However, don’t forget about shopping at thrift stores and second hand stores. When people clean out cupboards, drawers and closets, they get rid of seasonal items as well as normal everyday items.

Images - Courtesy of Pinterest

1) Canteloupe – One serving has just 46 calories and nearly a day’s worth of vitamins A & C. It’s also a very good source of potassium. Eating it raw or making a fruit salad with a little feta and mint makes a delicious summer lunch.

2) Zucchini – Wow, only 29 calories in one cup and is high in fiber, vitamins A, C and K and also potassium. It also adds bulk and substance to your diet. Zucchini is versatile in that it can be grilled, eaten raw, stuffed, made into chips or used to replace noodles in homemade lasagna.

3) Eggplant – This purple beauty is a good source of vitamins B6 & K as well as being a very good source of fiber. It is also low in calories and contains antioxidants that fight disease. The purple color is a cue that it will benefit the heart and memory. Prepare it sautéed, grilled or cubed in a stir fry or on a sandwich.

4) Blackberries – Blackberries are a good source of potassium and vitamins E, C, K & manganese. They are also loaded with fiber and antioxidants. Other benefits include protecting the heart and lowering blood pressure. They add a nice taste to a glass of ice water or seltzer or add them to salads. Blackberries are popular in baked goods as well.

5) Yellow Summer Squash – This is also known as “crookneck or straightneck” squash. It is rich in fiber, vitamins C, K, and potassium and has very few calories. Prepare it grilled, in a summer soup or be creative and use it as a pizza topping.

A culinary tip: A grilling basket or tray is a very easy way to prepare veggies alongside your main meal on the grill. It makes for easy clean up and no mess in the kitchen!
Let us know which summer super foods are your favorite…Comment Below

Read more here: Super Foods

Eat Plenty of Summer Super Foods for a Healthier Diet!

The kind of coffee – Dark Roast, French Vanilla, Dark Roast Decaf and everything in between will be left for another time. Frankly, for me it depends on my mood and the time of day as to the kind of coffee I prefer…although, I don’t like it too strong!

What about your coffee preferences and the pandemic? A majority of respondents (59%) said the pandemic disrupted their coffee habits in a way they weren't expecting! Nearly half (46%) of American coffee drinkers have tried different types of coffee at home since they weren't able to visit their favorite coffee shop. Some individuals (42%) even tried to recreate their favorite go-to coffee orders at home...including latte art!

While the pandemic kept most people at home, cold coffee drinkers were more likely to experience cabin fever than their hot coffee counterparts. Pre-pandemic cold coffee drinkers said they would travel three times per year, versus two times a year for their hot coffee peers.

Cold coffee drinkers are more inclined to spend their time browsing Instagram (27%) while hot coffee drinkers spend more time on Facebook (35%).

The study also revealed that having a preferred temperature of coffee can even affect one's taste buds. Eight in 10 cold coffee drinkers prefer sweeter, fancier drinks featuring flavored syrups. Twp-thirds (67%) of hot coffee drinkers, however, would rather have a simple cup with cream, sugar or both.
Source...

So…What about you? How do you like your coffee…what is your coffee preference? Leave a ‘Comment’ below!

We’ve often thought about muscle as a thing that exists separately from intellect—and perhaps that is even oppositional to it, one taking resources from the other. The truth is, our brains and muscles are in constant conversation with each other, sending electrochemical signals back and forth. Thus, our lifelong brain health depends on keeping our muscles moving. 

Skeletal muscle is the type of muscle that allows you to move your body around; it is one of the biggest organs in the human body. It is also an endocrine tissue, which means it releases signaling molecules that travel to other parts of your body to tell them to do things. The protein molecules that transmit messages from the skeletal muscle to other tissues—including the brain—are called myokines. 

Myokines are released into the bloodstream when your muscles contract, create new cells, or perform other metabolic activities. When they arrive at the brain, they regulate physiological and metabolic responses there, too. As a result, myokines have the ability to affect cognition, mood, and emotional behavior. Exercise further stimulates what scientists call muscle-brain “cross talk,” and these myokine messengers help determine specific beneficial responses in the brain. These can include the formation of new neurons and increased synaptic plasticity, both of which boost learning and memory.

In these ways, strong muscles are essential to healthy brain function. 

In young muscle, a small amount of exercise triggers molecular processes that tell the muscle to grow. Muscle fibers sustain damage through strain and stress, and then repair themselves by fusing together and increasing in size and mass. Muscles get stronger by surviving each series of little breakdowns, allowing for regeneration, rejuvenation, regrowth. As we age, the signal sent by exercise becomes much weaker. Though it’s more difficult for older people to gain and maintain muscle mass, it’s still possible to do so, and that maintenance is critical to supporting the brain.

Even moderate exercise can increase metabolism in brain regions important for learning and memory in older adults. And the brain itself has been found to respond to exercise in strikingly physical ways. The hippocampus, a brain structure that plays a major role in learning and memory, shrinks in late adulthood; this can result in an increased risk for dementia. Exercise training can increase the size of the hippocampus, even late in life, protecting against age-related loss and improving spatial memory. 

Your mind is in fact an ongoing construction of your brain, your body, and the surrounding world. 
Further, there is substantial evidence that certain myokines have sex-differentiated neuroprotective properties. For example, the myokine irisin is influenced by estrogen levels, and postmenopausal women are more susceptible to neurological diseases, which suggests that irisin may also have an important role in protecting neurons against age-related decline.

Studies have shown that even in people with existing brain disease or damage, increased physical activity and motor skills are associated with better cognitive function. People with sarcopenia, or age-related muscle atrophy, are more likely to suffer cognitive decline. Mounting evidence shows that the loss of skeletal muscle mass and function leaves the brain more vulnerable to dysfunction and disease; as a counter to that, exercise improves memory, processing speed, and executive function, especially in older adults. (Exercise also boosts these cognitive abilities in children.)

There’s a robust molecular language being spoken between your muscles and your brain. Exercise helps keep us fluent in that language, even into old age. Source...

Do you find yourself holding on to things just in case you need them? We don’t let go because we might need something in some far-off, nonexistent and probably hypothetical future. We keep too much stuff in the very remote chance that we might need something for trips, vacations or everyday use!

We don't need to hold on to these possessions for that "just in case" moment!  We rarely use our just-in-case items—they sit there, take up space, get in the way, and weigh us down. Most of the time they aren’t items we need at all.

The truth of the matter is that when we remove the "just-in-case" items from our lives, we get them out of the way and free up the space they consume. And, that is a very liberating feeling!

We are sharing a technique that is the "brain child" of Joshua & Ryan, "The Minimalists"! They "practice what they preach" and have found a sense of freedom by not having lots of "just-in-case possessions. The technique is called: that 20/20 Rule.

They got rid of or didn't pack anything "just in case". If you can replace an item for less than $20 in less than 20 minutes don't worry about it. This results in less "things" in your possession on a daily basis and less to pack when traveling.

Josh & Ryan found this hypothesis has become a theory that has held true almost all of the time. They rarely have had to replace a just-in-case item, and they have never had to pay more than $20 or have gone more than 20 minutes out of their way to replace the item. This theory usually works 99% of the time for 99% of all items and 99% of all people—including you.

They haven’t missed the hundreds of just-in-case items they've gotten rid of, and they didn’t need to replace most of them.

Getting rid of these items will clear your mind, free up your space, and will take the weight off your shoulders.

What do you consider a "just in case" item? What are you holding on to "just in case"?

You will find more valuable information in their book:  Essential

We are sharing information from a website for seniors and retirees that they can go to when they need help.

The "help subjects" include the following:

• Financial Help
• Health Care
• Help with Rent
• Housing Assistance
• Food
• Clothing Assistance
• Transportation Assistance
• Daily Life and so on

There are resources listed from all 50 states! If you live in Colorado but have parents, friends or other relatives in other states, this is a great resource.

Articles on their blog include:
Best Workouts for Seniors
Best Gift Ideas for Senior Women Over 50
Best Gift Ideas for Senior Men Over 50
 Best Online Meal Services for Seniors
Seniors in Education
Grants for Grandparents

                         You will find all the above info & more here: https://grantsforseniors.org/

                                                                        A Helping Hand!

Let's hear it for Trivia!

Here's a free trivia quiz website that provides free trivia quizzes on a multitude of subjects.

It has a variety of trivia games for adults as well as kids. Topics covered include U.S. history, geography, Harry Potter, Disney films, science, sports, holidays general knowledge, Bible trivia, movies, music and more!

All of the free trivia quizzes are in multiple choice format, so even if you don’t know the answer, you’ve still got a chance to guess correctly! Have fun and let us know what your favorite category is!

Here's the link:

https://allthetrivia.com/


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Let's hear it for IQ Tests!

You can take quick, free IQ tests that provide instant results and will also show you where your score sits compared to the full spectrum of IQ ranges.

Here's the link:

https://iqtestprep.com/