Our Chatham Family is Growing!

It isn't often that three employees are expecting at the same time, but that is exactly what we celebrated yesterday at Juniper Village at Chatham!  Residents and staff all pitched in to hold a shower for all three upcoming moms, who were overwhelmed by the turnout.  Come August and September, our community will be welcoming two baby boys and a baby girl to our family, and we can't wait to meet them!!!

June 2017 Events in Chatham, NJ: Live In Wellness

“You are what you eat.” The old adage is now truer than ever. Good health is largely dependent on good nutrition, so much so that doctors trace many physical and emotional ailments back to a diet deficient in vitamins and minerals. Eating a well-balanced diet is a major part of encouraging long life, lowering the incidence of disease, and helping sick people recover. On the flip side, inadequate nutrition and poor quality foods can generally cut life span and open us up to many illnesses and disease. In effect, food is medicine per Webster's definition of medicine: "The science and art dealing with the maintenance of health and the prevention, alleviation, or cure of disease." Food acts as medicine - to maintain, prevent, and treat disease.

With this month’s Alive in All Seasons focus on food, we’d like to give you a prescription for a healthy diet: breakfast daily (do not skip); meals x3 (at least) daily; foods from each of the food groups per meal daily. The food pyramid defines the food groups as grains, vegetables, fruits, dairy and proteins. The amounts vary according to age, sex, height, weight, and physical activity level. Here’s a good guideline to start you on your way. Make half your plate fruits and vegetables. Make half your grains whole grains. Move to low-fat and fat-free dairy. Vary your protein routine and eat and drink the right amount for you.

Join us as we continue our focus on healthy aging by shedding light on our hydration program with healthy snacks and juices, and demonstrate how food and nutrition help us to Live in Wellness from a dietitian’s point of view.

Our fabulous June 2017 events in Chatham, NJ at Juniper Village at Chatham include our:

§  What to Eat because from fueling our growth to helping prevent disease, food – and what we choose to eat – has a big impact on our lives, so join us as nutritionist Jennifer Luster enlightens us on how to eat better and live longer on June 20^th at 6:30 pm.

§  Wine & Cheese a wonderful opportunity to taste and learn about a topic that has been discussed and mulled over for centuries, so join us as Stuart Liss, a sommelier, orchestrates the pairing of wine and cheese because choosing the right combinations can be overwhelming and downright complicated on June 21^st at 6:30 pm.

§  Improve your Digestion with our health and fitness Guru, Greg Quinn,  who returns with a program discussing the natural balance approach of healthy digestion, and many of your questions will be answered concerning your digestive system following the presentation on June 29^th at 2:00 pm.

We look forward to sharing our June 2017 events in Chatham, NJ at Juniper Village at Chatham with you as you Live In Wellness.

A Celebration of Cultures at Juniper Village at Chatham!

We are so fortunate to have such a diverse staff from so many different cultures!!!  To learn more about each other and everyone's background, we invited the staff to do what families traditionally do: share food.  Each staff member brought a dish that was a specialty from their country or culture, and we enjoyed the feast!!!  It was great fun!

We love our Mothers at Juniper Village at Chatham!

Motherhood was celebrated in a big way in Chatham!  The dining room was decorated with pink balloons, pink table linens, and each table had beautiful pink potted hydrangeas as centerpieces.  The meal was delicious; prime rib, stuffed chicken breast, scalloped potatoes and fresh asparagus.  For dessert, a Viennese table was set up with all sorts of pastries.  Every mom was given a fresh rose to take, as they made their way to the afternoon's entertainment.  The day before Mother's Day, we had vendors come in to sell gifts to residents and family members.  Happy Mother's Day to all!!!

Ole!! Happy Cinco de Mayo from Chatham!!!

Our Cinco de Mayo Fiesta was amazing!  The dining room was festively decorated, and residents and staff donned big hats and colorful beads to honor the occasion. For our happy hour, we were entertained by our resident Efren and two other musicians. Instead of the usual fare of wine and cheese, we served margaritas, guacamole, salsa and chips. It was a really good time, and a nice way to welcome the month of May.

May 2017 Events in Chatham, NJ: Grow Strong Daily

Continuing our Spring Alive In All Seasons focus on healthy again, we continue to let wellbeing thrive with a May focus on Fitness. Staying fit throughout all seasons of life is possible and at Juniper we promote fitness every day of the week! We recently shared on our Facebook page a New York Times story, authored by Gretchen Reynolds, providing results from the Mayo Clinic who recently conducted an experiment on the cells of 72 healthy but sedentary men and women who were 30 or younger or older than 64. The volunteers were randomly assigned to a particular exercise regimen. There were some unsurprising differences: The gains in muscle mass and strength were greater for those who exercised only with weights, while interval training had the strongest influence on endurance. But more unexpected results were found in the biopsied muscle cells. It seems as if the decline in the cellular health of muscles associated with aging was “corrected” with exercise, especially if it was intense, says Dr. Sreekumaran Nair, a professor of medicine and an endocrinologist at the Mayo Clinic and the study’s senior author. In fact, older people’s cells responded in some ways more robustly to intense exercise than the cells of the young did. So pick up those weights, get on that bike and remember it’s never too late to benefit from exercise. And if you’re not doing so already, follow us on social media so you don’t miss a thing.

We invite you to Grow Strong Daily along with us with programs such as Fitness Five and our Route 66 Walking Program. Learn more about fitness and keeping your heart healthy at our Heart Healthy Luncheon and educational presentation. Staying fit throughout all seasons of life is possible.

Our fabulous May 2017 events in Chatham, NJ at Juniper Village at Chatham include our:

§  Yoga Series on our great front lawn as we enjoy the relaxing and invigorating stretches of yoga with Jillian Keller as she encourages us to get in touch with our inner selves Every Saturday in May at 9:30 am. (Cost is $4 per participant.)

§  Moses Rocks as we present Peter Small impersonating the man who parted seas for this educational and spiritual presentation about the prophet in Abrahamic religions who, according to the Hebrew Bible, was a former Egyptian prince who later in life became a religious leader on May 4^th at 3:00 pm.

§  Classic Comedy of Radio & TV as Walter Choroszewski presents the history of broadcast comedy from its radio debut in the 1920’s through its Golden Age with Abbott & Costello, Burns & Allen and many more, and concludes with the creation of classic sitcoms including “The Honeymooners” and all-time favorite “I Love Lucy” on May 23^rd at 2:00 pm.

We look forward to sharing our May 2017 events in Chatham, NJ at Juniper Village at Chatham with you as you Grow Strong Daily.

Purple Picnic Day at Chatham a Great Success!!!

What a wonderful afternoon at Juniper Village at Chatham!!!  We held our first annual Purple Picnic Day to raise money for the New Jersey chapter of the Alzheimer's Association, and it was a grand success.  The association provided giveaways for our picnickers in the way of wrist bands, pens, and flyers, along with a display with members from the organization.  Our residents joined in with our purple theme, adorning all shades of the color.  We served blueberry-based smoothies, purple punch, hors d'oeuvres, purple cupcakes, and purple-colored chocolate pretzels.  And we raised $385 for the cause!  This event will surely become a tradition here at Juniper!!!