San Francisco is no doubt one of the United States most attractive and popular cities, given its rich mix of varied cultures and people. With its proximity to Los Angeles and other major cities on the American west coast, San Francisco is also home to a large number of global businesses.Traveling in San Francisco may seem intimidating to many given the steep climbs of its streets, but the trade-off is that you get to experience the beauty of a vast number of world-famous tourist spots and multi-cultural attractions combined with amazing weather and amazing natural beauty.Places like Union Square are bordered by high fashion stores, all the major retailers, as well as up-market hotels, affordable lodging and the occasional cheap deal. One of the biggest attractions in this area is one of the city’s biggest shopping areas, offering delights from various cultures from across the globe. For the business traveler or for family vacations, this place has something for everyone.While staying in such airport hotels, you not only get the advantage of proximity to the airport and affordability, but you also get to be a short distance from the very best shops, restaurants, art galleries, theaters and museums. With so much to do, San Francisco may be called a lot of things, but boring would not be one of them. With a whole gamut of indoor and outdoor activities, a visit to San Francisco has all the potential to be the journey of a lifetime.San Francisco also provides its visitors with a wide variety of accommodation to suit all aesthetic or financial requirements. Hotels near the airport offer incredible convenience primarily because of their proximity to the airport and friendly rates. Arranging your own transportation while staying in airport hotels can yield up to 60% the cost of the expenses made on hotels, which are located in other areas of the city.Hotels near San Francisco attractions like Fisherman’s Wharf might cost you more than a couple of hundred dollars per night. Hotels located in the financial districts would also have similar pricing. To avail lower prices, you can opt for staying in the hotels close to the airport. It may not boast of the proximity to famous landmarks and other attractions, but you can still avail same basic amenities.Many hotels are also competing, which should drive down prices in the near future, allowing you to get the best deal for your hard-earned money. Staying in an airport hotel, especially if you are traveling by air, brings a host of benefits which are vital to your journey like saving on time and not missing flights due to traffic. Such hotels also give their patrons a shuttle service to make sure they catch their flights and their journey starts and ends on the best possible note.
What Are The Greatest Changes In Shopping In Your Lifetime
What are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime? So asked my 9 year old grandson.
As I thought of the question the local Green Grocer came to mind. Because that is what the greatest change in shopping in my lifetime is.
That was the first place to start with the question of what are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime.
Our local green grocer was the most important change in shopping in my lifetime. Beside him was our butcher, a hairdresser and a chemist.
Looking back, we were well catered for as we had quite a few in our suburb. And yes, the greatest changes in shopping in my lifetime were with the small family owned businesses.
Entertainment While Shopping Has Changed
Buying butter was an entertainment in itself.
My sister and I often had to go to a favourite family grocer close by. We were always polite as we asked for a pound or two of butter and other small items.
Out came a big block of wet butter wrapped in grease-proof paper. Brought from the back of the shop, placed on a huge counter top and included two grooved pates.
That was a big change in our shopping in my lifetime… you don’t come across butter bashing nowadays.
Our old friendly Mr. Mahon with the moustache, would cut a square of butter. Lift it to another piece of greaseproof paper with his pates. On it went to the weighing scales, a bit sliced off or added here and there.
Our old grocer would then bash it with gusto, turning it over and over. Upside down and sideways it went, so that it had grooves from the pates, splashes going everywhere, including our faces.
My sister and I thought this was great fun and it always cracked us up. We loved it, as we loved Mahon’s, on the corner, our very favourite grocery shop.
Grocery Shopping
Further afield, we often had to go to another of my mother’s favourite, not so local, green grocer’s. Mr. McKessie, ( spelt phonetically) would take our list, gather the groceries and put them all in a big cardboard box.
And because we were good customers he always delivered them to our house free of charge. But he wasn’t nearly as much fun as old Mr. Mahon. Even so, he was a nice man.
All Things Fresh
So there were very many common services such as home deliveries like:
• Farm eggs
• Fresh vegetables
• Cow’s milk
• Freshly baked bread
• Coal for our open fires
Delivery Services
A man used to come to our house a couple of times a week with farm fresh eggs.
Another used to come every day with fresh vegetables, although my father loved growing his own.
Our milk, topped with beautiful cream, was delivered to our doorstep every single morning.
Unbelievably, come think of it now, our bread came to us in a huge van driven by our “bread-man” named Jerry who became a family friend.
My parents always invited Jerry and his wife to their parties, and there were many during the summer months. Kids and adults all thoroughly enjoyed these times. Alcohol was never included, my parents were teetotallers. Lemonade was a treat, with home made sandwiches and cakes.
The coal-man was another who delivered bags of coal for our open fires. I can still see his sooty face under his tweed cap but I can’t remember his name. We knew them all by name but most of them escape me now.
Mr. Higgins, a service man from the Hoover Company always came to our house to replace our old vacuum cleaner with an updated model.
Our insurance company even sent a man to collect the weekly premium.
People then only paid for their shopping with cash. This in itself has been a huge change in shopping in my lifetime.
In some department stores there was a system whereby the money from the cash registers was transported in a small cylinder on a moving wire track to the central office.
Some Of The Bigger Changes
Some of the bigger changes in shopping were the opening of supermarkets.
• Supermarkets replaced many individual smaller grocery shops. Cash and bank cheques have given way to credit and key cards.
• Internet shopping… the latest trend, but in many minds, doing more harm, to book shops.
• Not many written shopping lists, because mobile phones have taken over.
On a more optimistic note, I hear that book shops are popular again after a decline.
Personal Service Has Most Definitely Changed
So, no one really has to leave home, to purchase almost anything, technology makes it so easy to do online.
And we have a much bigger range of products now, to choose from, and credit cards have given us the greatest ease of payment.
We have longer shopping hours, and weekend shopping. But we have lost the personal service that we oldies had taken for granted and also appreciated.
Because of their frenetic lifestyles, I have heard people say they find shopping very stressful, that is grocery shopping. I’m sure it is when you have to dash home and cook dinner after a days work. I often think there has to be a better, less stressful way.
My mother had the best of both worlds, in the services she had at her disposal. With a full time job looking after 9 people, 7 children plus her and my dad, she was very lucky. Lucky too that she did not have 2 jobs.
Post Workout Nutrition
Just how important it is to fuel yourself after a workout?In my opinion, it depends… it depends on your goals and it also depends highly on how good your nutrition throughout the rest of the day is.Post workout nutrition (PWO) is a much debated topic, some people will swear by the importance of PWO nutrition within 30-40min of finishing a workout, while others will claim it’s not as important as made out to be. In this article I will cover both topics and explain the reasoning behind them.A post-workout meal could be a solid meal or liquid nutrition (meal replacement shake). When it comes to PWO nutrition soon after exercise, liquid nutrition is known to be an easy way to get the nutrients to the muscles quickly while they are highly receptive to it. The theory is that the insulin elevation brought on by a PWO shake will help shuttle carbohydrates and amino acids (proteins) into muscle cells and encourage protein synthesis.If you’re goal is to increase muscle mass, I would recommend a post workout shake within a maximum of 40min of finishing up your exercise session, and following up with a meal 60-90min later. The post workout shake should consist of high GI (Glycemic Index) carbohydrates, protein, micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, enzymes, etc) and should be low in fat.In this case, it’s necessary to consume enough carbohydrates to promote a substantial insulin release, as spiking the insulin hormone will open up the window for carbohydrates and proteins to get into the muscles and start repairing tissue. It’s hard to say exactly how much carbohydrates you should consume, because if you consume too much the excess carbohydrates not used could turn into stored body fat.Research has shown however, that an intake of 0.8 to 1.2 grams per 1kg of body weight (that’s lean body mass), increases the insulin response and accelerates protein/muscle repair. If you want to use this math, I would recommend 0.8g of carbohydrates per 1kg of lean body weight, unless you have done a really long intense training session, in which case you may feel better consuming more.It’s also important to include micronutrients in your initial post-workout nutrition, as the micronutrients help in the transportation of protein to muscles, and dramatically enhances the rate of repair of muscle tissue (as there are more nutrients the body needs and can use). In addition, during a workout session, the body’s immune system gets damaged and increasing the micronutrient consumption post-workout and during the rest of the day, will help boost the immune system back to optimal/above optimal levels.Make sure though that your workout is worth it. A 30min high intensity session probably won’t bring your glycogen levels down low enough for them to need to be replaced. If you have a high GI post workout drink and your glycogen levels aren’t lowered, chances are you’re probably just going to spike your insulin levels higher than they need to be to contribute to long term health benefits, and as a result you will store fat.Now, if your goal is to reduce body fat then there is a whole other side to the PWO nutrition story, and that is to not have PWO nutrition directly after a workout session, but to fast (not eat) for 1.5-2hrs after your session.The main factor to keep in mind here is what nutrition you are eating during the day, if you are providing your body with efficient amounts of protein, carbohydrates, fats and micronutrients during the day, a post-workout nutrition shake/meal isn’t all that necessary especially if the body composition goal in mind it to reduce stored body fat.I will only recommend fasting after a workout if you have an extremely good diet throughout the day (meaning you are providing your body with efficient amounts of protein, carbohydrates, fats and micronutrients), as this nutrition alone should be enough for the body to repair itself after a workout, leaving a post-workout nutrition shake/meal becoming not all that necessary, especially if the body composition goal in mind it to reduce stored body fat.If the day’s nutrition is solid, I see no reason why muscle repair and performance goals would be affected by a lack of initial post-workout nutrition. If you do not eat a good diet however, then you just won’t be fueling your body correctly for this to take place.The idea of a post workout fast isn’t to starve yourself in order to reduce your total calorie intake, the idea however is too delay the meal in order too obtain the benefits of fasting without the calorie deficit. Calorie depriving is a whole different topic all together, but in short, calorie depriving is not good for you in the long term.A 1.5-2hr fasting window after a workout will require the body to burn up energy; if there is no energy coming in through food consumption, the body will look elsewhere, and the number one place for that is stored body fat. Hence the reason the post-workout fast can be quite beneficial to those wanting to reduce body fat.So make sure your diet is good, which it should be anyway if you are wanting to achieve optimal health and performance. Un-fortunately I know too many people who believe they eat really well, but in reality have a very poor diet in regards to nutritional quality and quantity. So here are some quick pointers on determining whether or not your diet will balance up a post workout fast;If you don’t feed your body bad foods (i.e. grains, starches, sugar, processed foods) instead of real food, you are most likely eating healthy and your body is running effectively. On a more thorough note though, when it comes to looking into your diet on a daily basis, if you eat the following, you are definitely on your way to good heath;
Eat at least 1.2g protein per Kg of lean muscle mass
Obtain carbohydrate sources from fruits and vegetables
Consume omega3 fish oil everyday
Consume enough calories for your body to function properly
Be consistent with good nutrition
If you are un-sure about the quality of your meals and your nutrition, monitor it for a week and look over it, measure and write down the food you eat, you may be surprised at what you are actually eating.In conclusion, if you want to lean out, delaying your PWO nutrition could be a good option. But if you want to put on muscle mass or have just completed a long workout where your glycogen levels are low, a PWO nutrition shake may become pretty important.And if you’re still un-certain as to what to do, play around with what happens to your body composition when having a PWO shake Vs not having one, then make a decision. There are many studies out there which will show benefits in both of these situations, but its best if you take a personal approach on the situation and see what works best for you, as there isn’t a single protocol that works well for everyone.