Lifestyle

Good news for anyone who wants to get in better shape: If you have a smartphone and can download apps, you already have a tiny personal trainer in your pocket, ready to motivate, inspire and help you work through any rough patches along the way.

While you’re shopping for your child’s new swimsuits, you’re probably most focused on finding a style they like – emblazoned with action figures or Disney icons. But there is an important factor that you may not be giving enough attention to, and one that significantly factors into water safety: The visibility of the swimsuit, should your child go underwater. • The color of your child’s bathing suit may be more important than you realize. Alive Solutions, a company that specializes in aquatic safety, training, and risk assessment, tested 14 swimsuits in varying colors first in a pool and then in a lake and the results of the test may shock you. • Most swimsuit colors virtually disappear or appear to be a cluster of leaves or debris – not a struggling child – when only 18 inches below the surface of the water. Visibility continues to decrease exponentially with any sort of water agitation, like in a moderately-active swimming pool or water park, or in a lake or ocean with any amount of wave activity.

A concussion, also known as a mild traumatic brain injury, is much more common in sport than you may imagine. A concussion is caused by a force to the head, such as a knock or whiplash movement. It can happen with a fall off a bike, a slip while on roller blades or a trip on the tennis court. It causes a shake to the brain inside the skull, which means brain cells get disturbed and stretched.

Gardening in the shade is often thought of as a Sisyphean endeavor, swimming upstream against all odds with limited plant choices and no hope for color. But that notion couldn’t be further from the truth.

Madeira is a semi-tropical island floating in the Atlantic, part of Portugal though a distant 669 miles from the mainland. Pristine black sand beaches, green mountains and a patchwork of hiking paths are a dream for nature lovers. Its remote location offers a sense of safety and seclusion that’s a balm for these times. • Visitors seeking outdoor adventures will find many, while those craving rest and relaxation on a beautiful beach or a stroll around a cosmopolitan capital will be equally satisfied. Travelers who live to eat will find fantastic island-grown produce and fresh fish. • A near-perfect climate and hospitable locals who speak English almost as well as their native Portuguese are perks. Nonstop flights from New York City can get you there in six hours. • Here’s our guide to the best things to do on Madeira.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Rose Schweikhart hoists a glass of Madden’s No. 1. h Converting a century-old, grand bathhouse into Superior Bathhouse Brewery was not easy, but Schweikhart like the city itself has been successful at changing. The brewery and city developed to meet the evolving tastes of generations of people who come to this intriguing destination. h Madden’s No. 1, one of 18 beers brewed at Superior, is named after Owney “The Killer” Madden, a gangster, who fled New York in 1935 to settle here. Locals like to say those were the days when Hot Springs was Las Vegas before Las Vegas. h Gangsters like Lucky Luciano and Al Capone visited. So did movie stars like Mae West and George Raft.

The annual sunflower (Helianthus annus) has a long history in North America, with evidence of its cultivation for food, ceremonial and medical use by Native Americans dating back to at least 1,000 B.C.

In Luke 9:57-62, Jesus talks to three men about following Him (the mark of a Christian). One guy says he needs to go live his life and after his father passes away he will start to follow Jesus. Another says he needs to go home and get things in order and then he will start to follow Jesus. And yet another says he needs 5-star accommodations when on the road with Jesus in order to follow. The point is it doesn’t work that way — delayed obedience is still disobedience. You either follow when Jesus calls you or you don’t.