It goes without saying that keeping yourself and your family healthy through the holiday season in Greenville, SC can be a challenge. When you combine chillier temps, housebound days, year-end deadlines and pre-holiday preparation – not to mention kids passing around colds at school like they’re playing “Hot Potato” – you can end up spending the holidays under the covers. No matter how many inherent seasonal risk factors you face, there are ways to prepare for and get through the season virtually unscathed. Here are a few tips to help make you the pinnacle of health and wellness during the holidays! Consider ‘sticking it’ to The Flu. Flu shots seem to be available at practically every drug store or pharmacy in Greenville. Discuss with your doctor the pros and cons of flu shots for yourself and your family. Get some zzz’s. The holiday hustle and bustle can interfere with normal sleep patterns, yet sleep is essential to health and healing. Prioritize getting enough sleep – or taking a quick nap – despite your busy schedule. Fill the fridge. It’s easy to allow your pantry to start looking like a sweet shop as the holidays near. Take care to stock your refrigerator and cabinets with healthy snacks and ingredients for balanced meals. Think fruit, nuts, lower-calorie snacks, veggies and lean proteins. Get real. Emotional health is important, too, so be realistic about what can be expected through the season. Just because it’s the holidays doesn’t mean that Aunt Zoe and Uncle Andrew from Virginia will finally mend their rocky relationship. Keep moving. Despite the many holiday temptations to just relax, don’t give in to being a couch potato. Get to the gym or yoga studio, go for a walk at one of the many amazing parks in Greenville, jump on the treadmill or dance. The important thing is to just move!

Earlier this summer, in mid-June, the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act, confirming that the purpose of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is to improve the healthcare market and not leave people uninsured.

Insurance is very abstract until you need it, minus that pesky bill that comes reminding you at every renewal. Then, when you do need it there is that blasted deductible. Can be very frustrating. Insurance is about managing risk. How much risk do you want to maintain and how much do you want to transfer to the insurance company. Your deductible is the measured amount that you are still willing to take on yourself. When I meet with clients we look at a couple of factors: What is your disposable income in order to financially replace money spent on a deductible? What does your emergency savings account look like? How much will it save on your insurance premium by taking a higher deductible and is it worth it? Choosing your deductible directly relates to how much money you have in your emergency account and how long it would take to replace this amount if spent. Just renewing your insurance year after year without review can be dangerous to your fanancial stability. If your agent is not asking you about your deductilbles you should be asking him/her.