-
How to Work Out Smarter, Not Harder
Tweet Share on Facebook August 7, 2012 CommentFor those in pursuit of body perfection, twice-a-day workouts are increasingly becoming the status quo, but doing too much can actually derail your training goals.
You've heard the expression,"You can achieve anything if you work hard enough at it." It's certainly true in some pursuits, but in the gym, too much sweat equity is more likely to leave you exhausted and uninspired. Rather than admiring your accomplishments in the mirror, you may find yourself smack in the middle of a physical and mental plateau. Just consider the person at the gym every day, panting and dripping as he talks about his killer workouts, all of which belie a body that looks exactly as it did three months ago. Chances are, after a while, you'll see him less and less.
-
Finding Support For Your Health Goals
Tweet Share on Facebook August 6, 2012 CommentWhen this post goes live, I will celebrate my seventh wedding anniversary. My husband is likely my biggest supporter for everything in life. He has always been there for me, helping to boost my confidence and ease my anxieties, and encouraging me to stay positive and focused on my goals.
No matter how excited you are about creating healthy habits, you need supporters who will be there for you. When you have support, you have people who believe in you—even when you have a hard time believing in yourself. You have people who will be there for you, whether it is your workout buddy who says "sure, I'll meet you at 6 a.m.," or your spouse who offers to watch the kids while you shop for healthy foods.
-
How Gardens Heal Your Body, Mind, and Spirit
Tweet Share on Facebook August 6, 2012 CommentAmidst my whirlwind workday, a sniff of an herb in the garden outside my store reminded me of my grandmother, Cissie, from South Africa, who passed recently. She is the one who started me on the path of becoming a professional urban farmer, gardener, educator, and entrepreneur, and random moments like this strike often. I stood still and allowed the fragrance to envelop me, and to bask in her memory. In that moment of reflection, a calm washed over me, and I knew that, once again, the garden was serving to heal.
The definition of healing is broad and touches many parts of our lives. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, healing means: 1a: to make sound or whole, b: to restore to health; 2a: to cause (an undesirable condition) to be overcome, b: to patch up (a breach or division); 3: to restore to original purity or integrity. Gardens heal in many surprising ways, and it is exciting to see the positive healing effects they are having in places as diverse as corporate headquarters, children's hospitals, senior centers, and city halls. Healing effects can be seen in many ways, including these:
-
Energy Shots in School-Supply Aisles?
Tweet Share on Facebook August 3, 2012 CommentI was astonished last week when I was picking up some last-minute school supplies for my soon-to-be second grader. As I was collecting colored markers and paper, I turned to the buckets filled with glue sticks and pencils, and found a separate bucket full of a popular "energy shot" beverages, strategically placed amidst the school supplies.
-
Eat Your Calories, Don't Drink Them
Tweet Share on Facebook August 2, 2012 CommentWhy bother with ladders and tree-climbing if there are big, juicy apples ripe for the picking directly in front of your eyes? If you're looking for the low-hanging fruit of weight loss, look no further than your liquids.
-
Give Piece a Chance
Tweet Share on Facebook August 2, 2012 CommentLet's face it—size does count! Especially when it comes to food.
Just because a restaurant serves you a steak the size of your plate doesn't mean you actually need that much to keep you content. You might be surprised to find that you'd feel just as satisfied if a third of that steak were cut into bite-size pieces and tossed with colorful veggies.
-
Stop the Excuses: Eat Breakfast
Tweet Share on Facebook August 2, 2012 CommentPicture this: You get up in the morning and need to drive your car to work. But your gas tank is empty, so unfortunately you can't. Now picture yourself getting up and skipping breakfast. How far to you think you will get in your day? I love this analogy because obviously you can't run a car on empty, but most people don't understand that it's the same for our bodies.
-
Brown Bag: Sneak Peek at a Dietitian's Lunch
Tweet Share on Facebook August 2, 2012 CommentPacking a healthy lunch each day can be time-consuming and well, a drag. Between balancing work, having a social life, and spending time with family, I understand how, even with the best of intentions, eating healthfully can be put on the back burner. As a dietitian, people are always asking me what I eat in general—and specifically, for lunch. In this column, you'll get a peek at what myself and members of my nutrition practice, Nutritious Life, are brown-bagging. Here, you'll learn the foods we like to pack up and perhaps pick up some healthful tips.
-
Thinner on Monday: Keep Off Weekend Weight
Tweet Share on Facebook August 1, 2012 CommentYou're only human if, halfway through a workweek, you've already begun a countdown to the weekend. What's not to love? There's extra time to spend with the kids, dining out with friends, and sleeping in. But if you're not careful with your choices, the weekend can really wreak havoc on a waistline. Between Friday happy hours and Sunday brunches, the weekend is jam-packed with opportunities to eat tempting food. Some people use it as the perfect excuse to let their diet slip away. You've worked hard all week to keep your weight in check. From Friday night to Monday morning, keep these 10 tips in mind so you don't end up with more weight than when you started!
1. Don't be a weekend warrior. Putting pressure on yourself to lose weight while trying to enjoy your downtime can potentially stress you out and lead to emotional eating. Take a more realistic approach, and aim to maintain your weight instead of losing it. If you wake up on Monday at the same weight you were when you left the office on Friday, consider yourself a success!
-
With Gadgets Like These, Who Needs Muscles?
Tweet Share on Facebook August 1, 2012 CommentThe time-honored expression for weighing and measuring ourselves against the superficial indications of status among our neighbors and peers is "keeping up with the Joneses." In its most literal sense, the reference means gauging our own worth by comparing what we have to what our neighbors have.
This was always misguided and problematic. Intrinsically, the comparison is based on what is most obvious—things—and so is willfully materialistic. It is about what we see and think we know about our neighbors, rather than what is really going on.
