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How to Stay Fit On a Budget in California

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HOW TO STAY FIT ON A BUDGET IN CALIFRONIA

I think we can all agree that California is home to some of the fittest people on earth.  Especially during summer time I am constantly reminded of how great in shape many Southern California residents are.  Strutting their stuff on beach boardwalks all around the regions constantly inspires and motivates me to live healthier in regards to my nutrition and fitness.

By no means am I intending to become the female version of a young Arnold Schwarzenegger during his Mr. Universe days, but I am striving to become leaner and healthier all around.  While there is definitely no shortage of exercise possibilities thanks to hundreds and hundreds of gyms, Yoga Studios, Cycle Bars etc., it can get costly as some memberships have high fees. [Read more…] about How to Stay Fit On a Budget in California

Homeopathy- A Part of German Culture

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Globuli - Homeopathy

The practice of homeopathy is so ingrained in our German culture like recycling and living environmentally friendly in general. After all, the father of homeopathy was a German physician, Samuel Hahnemann.

Yet, in all my years living here in California I have not found a homeopath, who I feel can replace the one I had in Germany. In fact if it’s something critical concerning the health of my family, I will still call mine in Germany for advice over the phone.

Having said this, I must mention that I found a superb chiropractor here in California, who I feel is more on my wave length of addressing my and my family’s health. And…, with amazement I watch how he solves many of our health problems that traditional doctors didn’t seem to find any solution for.

Just for the record I should mention, that I am far away from being a hardcore alternative medicine believer. We do have our traditional family doctors etc., and consult them. Traditional medicine however has so often failed us that I am now turning to seek advice from my alternative medicine sources first before following the almost always more costly advice and likely more invasive methods of my family doctors.

Even though one can find many naturopaths or homeopaths here in California, I often feel their expert knowledge doesn’t match the one of my doctor in Germany. She happens to have a traditional medical degree as an internist in addition to her homeopathic schooling.

But times have changed and alternative and naturopathic medicine enjoy a strong following also here in California. So I figure that I should revise my earlier opinion on alternative medicine providers in California, and vow to renew my research on finding some homeopathic doctors on this side of the world.

Interested in learning more about homeopathic remedies?

Tivoli Rainbow Garden Preschool is hosting a lecture by Jeanette von Johnsbach on “Fit through the Summer with Homeopathic remedies” on Wednesday, June 19, 2013 (Time: 9:30am-11:00am) on the school’s premises: 4051 Tivoli Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90066

Entrance Fee: $20

Please RSVP ilka@tivolikindergartenla.com by Monday, June 17th 2013

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Pilates – A Fitness Technique Invented By A German

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It’s mid-February already! And just in case you are struggling with your New Year’s resolution of living a healthier, more balanced life this year, you are not alone!

January is widely known to be the busiest month in the health and fitness industry. Many gyms actually double their sign-ups during that month. But come February or even March many have given up on their new routine and lost their initial motivation and interest. Keeping up your motivation is important but so is having engaged in the right sport or fitness program in the first place.

There are so many great programs to choose from nowadays. From Yoga to Kick boxing, to Pilates and Pure Barre, just to name some exotic ones as well. Pilates and Pure Barre seem to be leading the line these days, and are part of the “in” fitness programs. While Pure Barre is a fairly new exercise technique, Pilates has been around since the beginning of the 20th century.

Pilates used to be an exclusive training program for the professional dance community to condition dancers, but also to help them when they were injured. Joseph Hubertus Pilates, a German national with Greek roots, had invented and promoted his Pilates method of physical fitness in the early 20th century, and refined his technique after he had left Europe and settled in New York where he founded the first Pilates studio.

According to Wikipedia, Pilates conditions the body helping it “to build flexibility and long, lean muscles, strength and endurance in the legs, abdominals, arms, hips, and back.”   It “… is a method of exercise and physical movement designed to stretch, strengthen, and balance the body.”  (www.pilatesmethodalliance.org/about-pilates)

Having started out as a very special training regimen for only a particular group in its beginnings, Pilates is now widely available, and is being offered at many Fitness studios as well as dedicated Pilates studios. One can find many books on the technique as well, but joining a class definitely helps to get the basics down.

Pilates, Yoga and Co. is of course not to everyone’s liking, and many may just prefer a traditional workout. To keep the momentum going, and not call it quits already early in the year, make it fun and choose doing your workout routine in the outdoors, for example at the beach: Jogging along the sandy beaches or a training session with a personal trainer, who knows you and can work solely on your specific workout needs.   Los Angeles based German fitness coach Christian Klugmann offers exactly this: A training session right at Venice Beach. See for yourself in the RTL – Explosiv interview.

Get inspired and keep these muscles working… Happy February!

More to read up on:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/business/new-years-resolutions-recycled-are-a-boon-for-business.html?pagewanted=all

http://meditationyogapilates.com/joseph-pilates/

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Green Homes – A wave of the future or already a reality?

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– Article by CaliforniaGermans contributor Claudia Gardner

With more and more people living on planet Earth and a major strain on naturalSave Planet Earth resources, home buyers are starting to investigate and want to buy a “green” or eco friendly home.  Some home builders have already started to cater to this need.

What is a true “green” home?  It is a home that is built with the intent to save money for the home buyer and at the same time save the environment. When constructing green, a careful choice of environmentally preferred building materials is adopted.  The preference is to use products that are processed and manufactured locally to avoid greater energy use for transportation and to cause less air pollution and therefore to reduce global warming.  Materials used in the construction are more durable and therefore require less replacement in the future.

Real Estate Developer Steven Blanchard has received the Platinum award for Orange County’s first custom home rated by the US Green Building Council Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design. The Orange County native began planning his green home from the scratch over two years ago and then spent a year actually building the house. It is a 5000 sq. ft, 7 bedroom home with golf course view.  Steven Blanchard’s objective was to build Orange County’s first true green home. Here are some of the features that made him the first homeowner in Orange County to win the nations’ highest rating under the LEED green-building program:

  • Home orientation to capture maximum sun light for solar heating.
  • Photovoltaic cells that provide 90%of energy to run the home.
  • Filters that pump shower and bath water back for irrigation of toilets and water recycling.
  • Features to stop water, air, radon and insect infiltration
  • Durable materials chosen to minimize replacement waste and cost
  • Use of engineered lumber from small trees, stronger than conventional
  • Ventilation offers high indoor air quality and low cost of cooling
  • High efficiency air conditioner, filters
  • Highly insulated walls and windows
  • Radiant barrier installed under reflective color metal roofing
  • Native landscape that requires no water.
  • Low-flow plumbing fixtures and high efficiency appliances
  • Tankless water heaters installed near point of use
  • Energy Star® Advanced Lighting Package installed with many LED fixtures.
This article is part of CaliforniaGermans’  monthly column on Real Estate in California. We would love to hear from you and get your feedback.  Please let us know what kind of concerns with the housing market you might have or what Real Estate question is on your mind.  What would you like to have discussed in more detail in this section?  Send us a comment or an email to CaliforniaGermans@gmail.com
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CLAUDIA GARDNER has a professional background in Real Estate and a bachelors degree in Business Administration. Raised by German parents in Brazil, she is fluent in German, Portuguese, English and Spanish. Claudia has lived in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa for the last 34 year and loves selling real estate and helping people with all their real estate needs. More  up to date information on California housing can be found on her e-newsletter:http://claudiagardner.housingtrendsenewsletter.com or on her website www.OChomerun.com
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Health Insurance in the US

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Finding the right health insurance in the US can be quite some challenge. If you are employed by a company and are part of a company group policy you are one of the lucky ones. But if you are self-employed and need to find health insurance that is somehow affordable and covers the whole family, it can become a critical endeavor. Especially if one of the family members happens to have asthma, which is apparently considered a chronic condition, you might run into some problems.

This is at least what I am experiencing at the moment. While everyone else in the family got accepted by the plan I had chosen, my child with asthma got rejected and is still without any insurance. Now, here I go again hitting the on-line road to finding some acceptable insurance that will be okay with the pre-condition of my teenager.  My Health Insurance Odyssey is far from over yet, it seems.

The article”Resources for the uninsured” by David Colker in the LA Times of June 21, mentions different options of what to do when being in this dilemma of trying to find a health insurance to cover you. One is apparently the web site of Healthy City, where one can find “…a search-able database of hundreds of organizations that provide various kinds of preventive, dental and eye care at no or low cost.” Check out www.healthycity.org. A child with a chronic condition can either “…stay on group coverage through COBRA, even if your COBRA eligibility has expired or can get coverage through the State Children’s Health Insurance Program”, according to Kathy M. Kristof’s article “Strike quickly to use COBRA”, also in the same edition of the LA Times.

I will be on my way to checking through this jungle of premiums, deductibles, Co-insurance and Out-of-pocket limits, since a teenager walking around without health insurance is a scary thought to me. How much easier it seems to me was it to have health insurance in ‘Good old Germany’. I don’t recall any of these hassles. You had one insurance that covered everything,  from preventive care to visits at your dentist and optometrist and no-one was rejected for having a pre-condition.

Here are some more resources on finding the ‘perfect’ health insurance: Check out www.ehealthinsurance.com or some of the county services below:

Los Angeles: www.ladhs.org/wps/portal/Patient ; Orange County: http://egov.ocgov.com/ocgov/Health (click on “Clinics & Hospital Locations”); Riverside County: www.rcrmc.org; San Bernadino County: www.arrowheadmedcenter.org; Ventura County: wwwvchca.org/mc ;

The Partnership for Prescription Assistance program, www.helpingpatients.org , can help find reduced-cost or even free programs to get your medications.

Let’s see what the new health insurance plan by President Obama will have to offer. Hopefully it can make some difference.

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