VanDyk Mortgage - August 2020

AUGUST 2020

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REELIN’ IN THE BIG ONE Fishin’ With a Mission to Raise Money for Our Children’s School

the biggest fish in each category. Having Ozzie onboard meant Stefanie and I had our own personal guide to the water. The day started off slowly, but the fish were soon biting! We had a great day on the boat, but some of our best stories come from the last hour of the day. It was about 3 p.m., and the tournament was ending in just one hour. We already had our two trout and two red fish, but we only had one 18-inch snook on the board. We knew we needed a larger snook if we had any hope of winning in that category. Thankfully, Ozzie knew what to do. He maneuvered us to just the right spot and in that last hour, the snook started biting. We ended up catching about six snooks, but Stefanie caught a big snook at a whopping 33 inches! She even caught her biggest trout ever at 23.5 inches. She also managed to catch a nurse shark, and another broke off her line. We weren’t even fishing for sharks!

O ne of the best benefits of living in Southwest Florida is being able to enjoy the water and the fishing. If you know anything about me, then you know I enjoy fishing. I may not be an expert, but it’s a hobby that is really easy to maintain in Florida. I even created a show about it! I invite SWFL locals to join me and a guide on a fishing expedition. (You can check out “Rates and Reels” online — I had to offer a shameless plug.) This past June, my wife and I participated in St. Michael Lutheran School’s annual fundraiser, Fishin’ With a Mission. I’m not much of a tournament fisherman, but since this benefits our children’s school, it’s an event I try to regularly attend and sponsor through VanDyk Mortgage. This year, I decided to treat my wife by hiring local fishing guide Ozzie Fisher to help us find the best spots. In the tournament, we had to fish for snook, redfish, and sea trout. You had to turn in two of each, and the winner would be determined by total inches of all fish. There were also prizes for

Turns out, when we have a guide onboard the boat, we are great at fishing. More specifically,

my wife is an awesome angler. We won third place in the whole tournament, and we had the biggest trout in the tournament. We also won the Calcutta for the longest mangrove snapper. All in all, it was a great day spent on the water with my wife and Ozzie. I can take away two big lessons from our productive day at Fishin’ With a Mission. The first is that you should always hire a guide when you’re fishing somewhere unfamiliar or if you would like to have a great day fishing. Trust the experts. The second is that you should never underestimate your wife’s ability to reel in the big one.

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ARE YOUR THRIFT STORE DONATIONS BEING THROWN AWAY?

subsequently donate unwanted items to charity. However, with the confusion about how long the COVID-19 virus can live on clothing, secondhand shoppers have been staying home, worried about the health risks of buying used goods. Famously, thrift stores still keep unsold goods out of landfills. Up to 75% of Goodwill’s merchandise, for example, isn’t sold in their stores. Instead, it’s sent to discount outlets and then into global markets. However, Mexican traders, who account for 30% of business at thrift stores close to the U.S. southern border, and Kenya, the world’s largest buyer of unsold secondhand clothes, have stopped buying during the economic shutdown. Meanwhile, some good-intentioned Americans are leaving their goods outside thrift stores’ front doors, not realizing that without enough space to house the excess donations, many of these thrift stores will have to pay disposal fees, costing the business potential revenue and sending your items into local landfills. However, Goodwill still wants your donations! You just might have to hold on to your items for a little bit. Check to see if your local thrift stores are open for donations. Many recommend waiting until the influx slows down, but others have expanded their inventory storage and are ready to keep up. Just make sure to follow their guidelines on acceptable items because any broken or worn items only add to their costs. Happy donating!

Are you thinking about donating your kids’ old clothes or that slow cooker you haven’t used in months? Though donating your unwanted items is a great thing to do, amid the pandemic, many people have not considered the future of secondhand shopping and charity-based thrift stores like Goodwill. In 2018, Goodwill funded nearly $5.3 billion in charitable services, like educational assistance, job training, and work placements. But now, Goodwill and similar organizations are facing a unique problem: They’re receiving too many donations. To prevent your items from ending up in a landfill, consider the following before you donate. Under the circumstances, this situation is understandable. Thanks to nationwide stay-at-home orders, many took advantage of their newfound spare time to spring-clean and

National Chefs AppreciationWeek CELEBRATES THOSE WHO BRING COMMUNITIES TOGETHER

this year, it’s August 16–22. Restaurants, patrons, and home cooks alike can show appreciation for the art and dedication chefs bring to their craft every day. Several restaurants across the country celebrate with special events and menus, and patrons flock to their favorite places for great food and company and to support the chefs who bring their communities together.

Restaurants have had an especially tough time staying afloat during the pandemic. Most eateries had to discontinue dine-in service, and those that couldn’t adapt to offering takeout or delivery may still be questioning whether they’ll ever be able to open their doors again. During the pandemic, it became clear to many of us just how important a role our favorite restaurants play in providing not just tasty chow, but also a sense of comfort and community. Celebrating National Chefs Appreciation Week is a great way to let the chefs who run those eateries know just how much they mean to us. What is it? Since the holiday’s inception in 2013, it has most commonly occurred during the third week of August;

How can I celebrate? Now that many restaurants are opening back up for service at a limited capacity, it’s possible to dine in and further support the chefs who make the food you love. But, if you’re still not comfortable eating at a restaurant, there are plenty of other ways to celebrate. Continue having food delivered or picking up curbside from your favorite places. Whether dining in or carrying out, remember to tip well! You can also post about your favorite dishes on social media or leave a glowing review for your favorite eatery on Google or Yelp. The beauty of this holiday is that celebrating includes doing activities you probably already do, so it’s easy to participate. Chefs play a significant role in the evolution of culture, protection of tradition, and construction of community. Their food brings us together, fills our stomachs, and brightens our moods. We may not have fully recognized all they do for us until recently, but now that we have, we can truly celebrate Chefs Appreciation Week to the fullest.

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need to boost your immune system more than other people.”

for a walk. Massages, yoga, meditation, and journaling are also really helpful. There are a lot of healthy coping mechanisms to vent out your stresses.” Chiropractic Care Of course, I couldn’t have Dr. Gindele, a chiropractor, on my show without talking to her about how chiropractic care helps boost the immune system. “Chiropractors work with the nervous system,” she explained. “People think we just rack and crack them, but that’s just the bonus of getting adjusted by a chiropractor. It feels really good and you get to hear some noises. But the reality of it is that we’re using muscle tone and the alignment of the spine to utilize, correct, and optimize your nervous system function so your body can work the best for you.” Dr. Gindele had a lot of great advice, but she emphasizes the fact that we can’t just blindly start taking new supplements and hope it works. “Don’t just fill your body with supplements and stuff,” she warned. “You want to talk to a doctor and find what works best for you or your child’s body.” Remember that none of this is medical advice to help cure or prevent COVID-19. But as stated before, there are a lot of things that we can do to help our immune system. When our immune system is as healthy as can be, we’ll enjoy much better health in the long run.

Exercise Let’s be honest, most of us could stand to exercise more. My job has me at a desk almost all day, so I’m a pretty sedentary person. This lifestyle isn’t great for the immune system. “Think about what you’re doing through the days and the weeks,” Dr. Gindele advised. “How much movement are you getting to your body? It is also immune-boosting, the more that you move.” Vitamins Right away, Dr. Gindele recommended vitamin C. That’s a big one that most people are aware of. “If you’re starting to feel sick, grab some vitamin C,” Dr. Gindele advised. “Vitamin A is also good. You don’t have to take vitamin A. It’s not something that we’re very deficient in. But just supplementing a little extra vitamin A is something that’s really good right now to immune boost with.”

Supplements Dr. Gindele covered a bunch of different supplements during our conversation. I highly recommend listening to the full episode of the podcast to hear what she has to say and which supplements she recommends people take regularly. Some big ones were: zinc, monolaurin, echinacea, calcium, and colloidal silver. Sleep “Good sleep is really important, especially for women. We need to get the right amount of sleep. It’s proven. We literally go crazy when we don’t get enough sleep.” When I asked Dr. Gindele how much sleep we all needed, she explained that there’s really no hard-and-fast rule. Apparently, that eight-hour thing we’ve always been told isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Teenagers need more sleep than adults. Women tend to need more sleep than men. “It varies by age,” Dr. Gindele explained. “But adults shouldn't have less than seven hours of sleep. Aim for seven to nine hours of sleep a night.” Emotional Health Our immune system can benefit from what we put into our bodies, but the immune system also benefits from what

I was also very interested to ask about sunshine and vitamin D.

“You can get vitamin D from the sun,” Dr. Gindele confirmed. “That’s an amazing, beautiful way to get it. Now with everyone out of school, you have more time to get enough vitamin D from the sun … If you can’t spend enough time in the sun, there’s a lot of good liquid vitamin D to help supplement what you need. Even Floridians can be deficient in vitamin D.” If you’re worried that you may have vitamin deficiencies, Dr. Gindele recommends getting your bloodwork done. This will show you anything you may be deficient in.

we do with our bodies. Especially, what we do when faced with a lot of stress. “Emotional health is huge right now,” Dr. Gindele said. “You can take things and take things, but being active about relaxation, stress, and anxiety is huge. Being active is huge for relaxation, and it can be as simple as going

Probiotics We also talked quite a bit about gut health — and I don’t mean a beer gut.

“Probiotics are really important to take every single day,” Dr. Gindele said. “That’s your gut health, and some people say that upward of 90% of your immune system comes from your gut; that’s significant. A probiotic is all the good bacteria. You need that good bacteria in your gut so your army has food.”

Trivia Question: Name two of the three fish required in the 2020 Fishin' With a Mission Tournament.

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Be the first to answer the question on Page 3 by emailing [email protected] and win a gift card!

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Inside This Issue Tim Hart, NMLS #354676 8280 College Parkway Suite #101 Fort Myers, FL 33919 Tim and Stefanie Spend a Great Day Fishing PAGE 1

Give us a call! 239-437-4278 Or visit www.TimHartJr.com

Are Your Thrift Store Donations Being Thrown Away?

Celebrate National Chefs Appreciation Week PAGE 2

Testimonial From the Hart PAGE 3

8 Doctor-Approved Strategies to Boost Your Immune System PAGE 4

Dr. Brie Gindele’s Secrets to Boosting Your Immune System KEEP FEEDING YOUR ARMY

I believe it’s important for us to take active steps to improve and maintain our health. To this end, I invited Dr. Brie Gindele from Gindele Family Chiropractic to speak on my podcast “The Hartbeat Show.” She brought with her a bunch of great strategies for boosting your immune system and staying healthy. Right away, I knew this conversation would be a lot of fun. Dr. Gindele has a really cool way of explaining how the immune system works so that even I understood it. “Your body is like a castle and you have two main types of immune systems,” she explained. “You have your soldiers on the outside who see and remember things. They learn from the first attacks and are ready to fight things off and keep you from getting sick. Then, you have your soldiers on the inside. They can’t see what’s coming, but they’re really big and bad. If something does penetrate and get into your body, they can help you kick it, you’ll just have

some symptoms. But they can’t remember anything long term. You have two different types of soldiers fighting for you, and you need to feed them both.” There’s a lot more we should be doing to take care of our immune system. Or, as Dr. Gindele put it, “We need to feed our armies.” There are some really important immune boosters we need to be paying attention to. Nutrition What are you getting from your diet? Are you eating a well-balanced diet, or are you mostly a fast-food person? What we eat is really important to how our immune system functions. Also important: What we shouldn’t be eating. “Everybody knows that some people are gluten-intolerant,” Dr. Gindele said. “A lot of people say they’re lactose-intolerant. Those are different immune reactions. If you know that you’re dairy- or gluten-intolerant, then you are immunosuppressed to a degree. You

M aintaining good health should always be at the forefront of your mind. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, staying healthy has taken on a whole new meaning. Unfortunately, the only advice we’ve gotten from leaders is: wash your hands, wear a mask, and practice social distancing. That might help avoid the virus, but it has nothing to do with being healthy!

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