Month: April 2021

Put Your Best Foot Forward with These Foot Care Tips

Jenifer Calandra

Our Military Care Packages Help Your Loved One Keep Going

At My Hero Crate, we’re big believers in efforts that promote overall health and wellness. And because our feet are the foundation of our bodies — quite literally — we think it’s important to help your loved ones in the military take care of theirs.

Make sure they have the tools to take care of their feet by sending them one of our care packages with foot care necessities inside and encourage them to seek help with foot care while they’re deployed, on base, and away from home.

Here’s our not-so-comprehensive but important, basic advice on taking care of your feet. It’s easy, and doesn’t really require any special tools.

Basic Foot Care

For general foot care, follow these tips to help prevent injury, infection, pain, or skin issues. Of course, ask your doctor about your feet if you need medical advice.

-Rucks and other physical activity can leave your feet with cuts, sores, swelling, or even infected toenails. Check your feet every day for signs of injury or infection, especially after performing activities that stress them.

-Clean and moisturize your feet. You don’t need to soak your feet or apply moisturizer between your toes, however, which will dry them out or cause an infection, respectively. Lotion, cream, or even petroleum jelly are all acceptable moisturizers for your feet.

-Keep your toenails trimmed. As your toenails grow, your shoes can apply pressure on them, which makes your feet sore. Trim your nails straight across using a nail clipper. Then, file the corners to prevent ingrowns or pressure on your skin.

-Make sure your boots fit properly. Tight-fitting or even too-loose boots can cause problems, like blisters or chafing.

-Avoid wearing unsupportive shoes, like flip-flops, during your down time. They don’t provide the arch support or stability, and you could risk a strain or other injury. 

Dealing with Corns or Calluses

Corns and calluses are common problems, but they can make walking, marching, and running painful. These hard, thick patches of skin can be caused by your shoes rubbing, pressure from ill-fitting shoes, or from being on your feet for a long period of time. Military members, of course, are prone to these thanks to the nature of their work.

Corns usually form on the top of the foot or on a toe, while calluses are usually on the bottom of your foot. Mild ones don’t require treatment and may heal on their own, especially if you file them gently with a pumice stone while you bathe, apply salicylic acid or corn pads to help dissolve them, and wear thick socks to protect your feet.

If corns or calluses become painful and affect your gait and performance, you should see a physician for treatment. 

Preventing Athlete’s Foot

This condition’s name is a bit of a misnomer, because you don't have to be an athlete to develop it. Athlete’s foot is actually a fungus that loves warm, dark, humid environments, like shared locker room areas. Your feet come in contact with the fungus, and it causes dry skin, itching and burning, inflammation, cracking, scaling, and even blisters. It’s easily spread, and can move to other areas of your body after you scratch your feet, or even via your bedding.

To treat athlete’s foot, you can soak your feet in Epsom salts, or use an over-the-counter anti-fungal cream or powder. Your physician can even prescribe antifungal pills to nip a more stubborn case in the bud.

Because athlete’s foot is so easily spread, you should do your due diligence to prevent yourself from getting it in the first place. Not only should you be washing your feet with soap and water every day, but you should also be certain the areas between your toes are dry before you put on socks and shoes. Never walk barefoot in public places, and choose socks that wick moisture away from the skin. 

Send Your Hero a Pre-Made Military Care Package to Help Them Take Care of Themselves

When your loved one enlisted in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, or National Guard, you probably thought about the types of mail and gifts you would send to them while they were away from home after boot camp. 

Most families soon realize that putting together a really high-quality care package for military members can be tiring, as you tend to have to go from store-to-store to find the items they request or would like. 

My Hero Crate makes it easy with our military-approved care packages that you can order straight from us, with free shipping to your loved one anywhere in the world, including overseas at FPO, DPO, and APO addresses. And you won’t want to miss our monthly care package subscription service, which sends your military hero an all-new care package every month. 

Your gifts help them prioritize self care and remind them of all the people who love them back home. Learn more about our care package subscription service for the military, and place your order today. 

Handling Military-Related Homesickness

Jenifer Calandra

Send an Armed Forces Care Package to Help Cure Your Hero

Military members, their spouses, and their children all end up dealing with feelings of homesickness at some point. Moving from duty station to duty station, traveling for deployment, or simply being assigned to a base far from home or loved ones sparks this sense of loss and distance.

After you’ve been tied to the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marine Corps after a while, you learn how to keep homesickness and its related emotions at bay, until they go away. How you cope with homesickness is dependent upon who you are and your situation — and everyone is different. The feeling is totally normal, and your strategy for dealing with it should be creative and a perfect fit for you. Here are a few methods you can use to help quell the homesick blues.

Meet New People Near You

Building friendships and a support system — even a small one — where you live can help you feel less homesick. This includes if you’re a military spouse, in basic training, or are a deployed military member. Bonding with your unit or other military spouses means you will eventually have plenty of activities to take your mind off the distance between you and where you’re from.

You can meet new friends by attending social events for military members and their families, for starters. Base facilities like the gym can also be a great place to meet people. If you have children and you take them to play on the playground, you may even find like-minded parents looking for friends, too. 

Just remember: you aren’t the only one far from home. Others will be looking to make friends with you, so half the work is already done for you! 

Take Leave If You Can

Enlisted military personnel can take leave, if permissible, to visit family members and enjoy a break from work. You can take a short vacation with your family, or spend time at home doing absolutely nothing.

If you take leave to see your family back home, be sure to let everyone know when you’re coming, so you can plan your visits accordingly. You don’t want to use up your leave time only to find out that beloved family members were out of town when you came to see them.

Call, Write, and Send Military Care Packages

While meeting new people can distract you from your feelings of homesickness, it’s OK to think about who’s back home waiting for you. That’s why it’s important to stay connected with those folks who are far away.

Writing letters and making phone calls when possible are two easy ways you can stay in touch with friends and family members you left in your hometown, or back in the States while you’re deployed. You don’t have to have anything specific to talk about; just have a conversation and enjoy hearing each other’s voices.

Writing letters also gives you and your loved ones something to hold onto to get through bouts of homesickness. You can always reread letters when you’re missing your spouse, children, parents, or friends. It’s much harder to replay a phone call.

If your enlisted loved one is sent far from home, sending a care package is a wonderful way not only to show that you care, but also to make sure your hero has everything they need or want. Simple care packages full of snacks or a monthly military subscription box can mean the difference between having a crummy day and having the best day while enlisted so far. My Hero Crate makes it easy to send armed forces care packages; shipping is always free to DPO, FPO, and APO mailing addresses, too. 

Find a New Hobby

Filling your time with something that interests you is a prime way to deal with homesickness. If you’re having fun doing a new activity, you won’t be distracted by how homesick you feel. Eventually, that gnawing feeling will ease up or go away.

If you aren’t sure what hobbies interest you, do a quick internet search for ideas, or talk to people you know about what they like to do in their spare time. Painting, knitting, running, woodworking, or board games all help you pass the time and keep you feeling happy.

We’re More than Military Care Package Experts

At My Hero Crate, we know a thing or two about curating, assembling, and shipping really awesome care packages that you can send to your loved ones. But we also think we give really great advice! For more ideas for issues you face while living on base, while your loved one is deployed, and more, be sure to check out the rest of our blog.

And when you need to send the perfect gift for someone in the military, we’ve got your back!  Browse our full selection of Marine Corps, Army, Navy, or Air Force care packages on our website.

Sustainability and Eco-Friendly Practices at My Hero Crate

Jenifer Calandra

Plus, Learn How Your Hero Can Reuse Our Military Care Package Boxes!

Although it isn’t a federal holiday and it doesn’t get much special recognition, one of our favorite days to celebrate is Earth Day. We love it so much, we’ve ensured we’re celebrating it every day at My Hero Crate, while we carefully design, assemble, and send care packages for service members all over the world.

Within the last year, we’ve made important business decisions to ensure our daily operations align with our belief in the importance of protecting our planet and adopting sustainable practices. Your military hero can, too, by recycling their olive-drab care package box and its tissue paper, or by repurposing them for something awesome.

Armed Forces Care Packages Are Kind to the Planet

In early 2020, we transitioned to sustainable packaging for all our care package packing materials, including stickers, which are printed with soy-based ink, and tissue paper.

We source these materials from a company called no.issue, who produces fully-recyclable packaging certified by the Eco-Alliance and plants trees each time customers place an order for their packaging. Our boxes also are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, which promotes sustainability and restorative practices for forests everywhere. 

Care Package Recipients Can Help Us

When you send a military care package to your loved one in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, National Guard, or Coast Guard, remind them to recycle the box and tissue paper when they’re done enjoying the contents of their gift.

Or, you can give them ideas for how they might repurpose our sturdy care package boxes in their living quarters on or off base. For example, they might use them to:

-Store a first aid kit in their linen closet. Your hero is likely to need bandages for blisters from going on lengthy rucks in their boots. Having a convenient place to keep the necessities makes it easier to start the healing process. Our sturdy camo boxes are perfect for that.

-Keep letters and photographs from home all in one place, inside their footlocker or other dedicated personal storage space.

-Organize their underwear or sock drawer in their bedroom, by using the box to create a divided area for these small clothing items, like Marie Kondo told you to.

-Sort important paperwork, if they have a desk job. Perhaps they’re working on a special project, and they don’t want documents to get lost or end up with a coffee mug ring on them. Our boxes can get the job done.

-Stow away small personal effects so they don’t get lost, like pencils, envelopes, spare eating utensils from MREs, and other mementos.

With a few buddies and some downtime, devise a new game and use the cardboard from the box to create the game board.

Sustainability Efforts at My Hero Crate

Since the birth of our company, our leaders have worked diligently to ensure that all areas of the business adopt sustainable practices to protect the environment, starting with our ordering system, and moving all the way to our behind-the-scenes team members. We’re fully paperless, which means we don’t use tree-based products in our daily office work.

Every time you send a care package to your military member at home or overseas, you’re supporting our efforts to create a healthier Earth. Thank you for doing your part.

Learn More

For more information on green ideas and our Eco-Alliance packaging, visit www.noissue.co, or contact our customer service team if you have any questions. 

Introducing Think Jerky, Our New Brand Partner

Jenifer Calandra

Find Their Products in an Upcoming Military Care Package

We love the idea of incorporating healthier, high-protein snacks in our armed forces care packages because they’ll help nourish hungry heroes as they work hard on base or during deployment. So you can imagine how excited and proud we are to be partnering with American company Think Jerky!

Why Think Jerky is Special

Did you know that most jerky products you find at your local store are high in sugars? That’s what sets Think Jerky apart; it’s both healthy and delicious, and doesn’t include the “bad” parts of other store-bought jerkies.

Think Jerky uses only restaurant-quality, sustainable, 100% grass-fed beef or free-range turkey in their jerky, and never adds any hormones, antibiotics, or genetically modified ingredients. Every turkey or beef jerky product, including the jerky sticks, is gluten free, too, making them a wonderful option for military members sticking to a special diet, like paleo.

One of our favorite parts of Think Jerky products is that we can read and understand every ingredient on the ingredient list. In fact, the Classic Beef Jerky has just eight ingredients, all of which you could find in your own kitchen! Your hero will know exactly what they’re putting into their body, and you can take pride in knowing that you’re sending the very best military care package from My Hero Crate for your loved one in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, National Guard, or Coast Guard.

Our Army Care Packages Include Think Jerky (And They’re For Every Other Military Branch, Too)

Would your beloved service member want to try a Think Jerky product in their next military care package from you? Order them our Sweet & Salty Care Package, which will include Think Jerky beef jerky effective immediately! We think your hero will love the tasty steak flavor with chef-curated spices in flavors like Classic, Sesame Teriyaki, and Sweet Chipotle.

We’ll also be including them periodically in our military care package subscription service, so if you’re sending your hero a monthly service member care package, then they’ll get Think Jerky products to try (and love), too!

Send your hero a care package with Think Jerky today.

Self Care Ideas for Military Spouses

Jenifer Calandra

Reduce Stress and Refresh Your Mind, Body, and Spirit with These Ideas

It can be hard to focus on yourself when your life gets crazy. Perhaps your spouse is deployed, and you’re shouldering the responsibility of working, taking care of the home, raising children, and dealing with all the household issues as they arise.

But even though you’re busy, it’s important that you stop and take some time to practice self care. It will help keep your spirits up, keep you feeling positive, and give you a burst of energy you definitely need as you face down the next big thing you have to handle. 

Try these ideas for self care, and take time out for yourself.

-“Borrow” your child’s coloring books and color a few pages. You’d be surprised how relaxing it is!

-Choose healthier snack options, and encourage your family to make better food choices, too. You can help your service member make good snack choices by sending our April self-care themed subscription box from My Hero Crate.

-Take an extra-long shower and use your favorite and best soaps and scrubs. You deserve it.

-If the weather is nice, take a walk. Bring along a friend or your kids to burn off a little extra energy.

-Visit a state park and go hiking.

-Have a dance party in your living room. Pick out only your favorite songs and get moving.

-Take a yoga class or meditation class on base, or watch an instructional video on YouTube to learn how.

-Go to bed early or on time every night. You’ll be surprised at how much more well-rested you’ll feel.

-Watch your favorite movie or TV show, alone, with no interruptions.

-Utilize on-base hourly child care and spend an afternoon of “you time” doing whatever you want.

-Read a book for fun.

-Get a salon haircut and blow dry.

-Go shopping and pick out something for yourself.

-Volunteer for a cause you support.

-Drink water throughout the day instead of tea or soda. Invest in a nice water bottle that you can carry around with you.

-Try aromatherapy, using your favorite lotions scented with essential oils, like the one in our April military subscription box.

-Pay yourself a compliment every time you have a negative thought about yourself.

-Hug a stuffed animal.

-Take your lunch break outside.

-Clean your bedroom.

-Ban smartphones for an afternoon. Put yours in a drawer and ignore it!

-Spend quality time with your pet.

-Watch a favorite cartoon from your childhood. You can probably find some episodes for free on your favorite streaming service!

-Write your military hero a letter and drop it in the mail.

-Take time off from cooking and order a pizza for dinner one night this week.

-Refresh a room in your home with small upgrades, like a new bath mat in the bathroom, a new set of curtains in the bedroom, and a scented candle for the living room.

-Do some arts and crafts! Try your hand at junk journaling, scrapbooking, painting, knitting, embroidery, and more.

Spread Self Care to Your Loved on in the Armed Forces

Just as self care is important to you, while you’re at home, it’s also important for your military member, wherever they are in the world.

That’s why My Hero Crate is pleased to announce that our April military gift box is full of items that make self care accessible and easy. Your hero will feel their stress melt away, even for a moment, as they enjoy the gift you sent them! And shipping is always free to APO, DPO, and FPO addresses.

Send a monthly care package to your military hero.

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