photo credit: sergeant killjoy
Map My Run is an absolutely brilliant website for runners, especially for those of us just beginning. It lets you map your run so that you know how many miles you are running. Other features that make this a favorite—type in your city and this website will suggest great runs both on and off trail, keep a training log, find fitness partners and forums, and sign up for races and unique challenges near and far. Full of information and super interactive, Map My Run is a wonderful resource for those who want to make running a part of their daily lifestyle.
photo credit: Pink Sherbet Photography
We live in an unbalanced culture when it comes to weight–some would even go so far as to say schizophrenic. Over 60% of us are overweight or obese and yet our ‘models’ are 23% skinnier than the average woman and our media is obsessed with the current weight crisis of the young hollywood starlet du jour. Even when we try to be healthy we are given to extremes– no carb diets, weight loss pills full of caffeine or worse, working out all the time….it is a fertile breeding ground for dysfunction around food, exercise, and our bodies. Most of us are completely dis-empowered, which only makes it more impossible to treat ourselves well. So how do we fight the power?
Rethinking Perfection: When we hold ourselves to the standards of what we see in movies and magazines we don’t have a chance. These media images are just that: images created with pretty women and a whole lot of lighting, makeup, and airbrushing, used to sell beauty and diet products. There is a different way of understanding beauty, one that respects strength and individuality.
Every single body is different. Let’s start celebrating health instead of perfection. Try eliminating or cutting down on the time spent reading magazines, watching t.v, etc. while finding examples of women of all different sizes and shapes who love their bodies, who are in shape but not malnourished, who treat their bodies as the tools of strength and perseverance that they are.
Understanding Resistance: The more we try to resist thinking about something, the more we think of it. That’s a proven fact. It’s why so many diets that rely on restricting calories, cutting out ‘bad foods’ and generally resisting so much in your life don’t work. Yeah, maybe we lose the weight for a while but eventually it comes back on because we are working from a place of negativity. In reading the blogs and talking to people who have kept the weight off successfully, one common theme keeps coming up: Lifestyle Change. They didn’t see themselves as dieting, rather they saw a life that didn’t work and in which weight was only one symptom of a larger problem. By understanding the reasons behind why we eat, the emotional compulsions and holes that make us fall into cycles of unhealth, we have a better chance of making the changes we need in order to come back to ourselves and be more aware of why we engage in the behaviors we do. So instead of resisting food, try to figure out ways of making whole and healthy foods a part of your life in a way that is sustainable. Take a healthy cooking class, make good substitution for unhealthy or fatty foods, and find fitness that you love (it is possible–whether it’s running, a dance class, simply walking–there is a form of movement out there that you will love, so explore your options!).
It is time to take our bodies and our self esteem back, empower ourselves to make healthy choices, and understand that a healthy body is not a cookie cutter shape–it is your own body in its own top form.
photo credit: lululemon athletica
While talking to a friend recently, she commented on reading a statistic about hollywood stars and their personal trainers–turns out the average star works out with a personal trainer for at least two hours, several days a week. On top of personal chefs, massage and other pampering techniques, is it any wonder they look as fit as they do? It is, after all, part of the job. I have splurged on a personal trainer myself in the past as well as a nutritionist, and it gets results, but what do you do if you don’t have the money to burn? Try these tips on for size!
Virtual Exercise– Look no further than what is right in front of you: yes, your computer. Turns out, you can find all sorts of fitness and diet websites online and many of them are, gasp, free. That’s right, free. And they are personalized to boot. They do everything a personal trainer does–from creating workouts to tracking fitness goals–pretty much everything except yell at you when you are ready to quit–and I’m sure you can find someone to do that for free! Not only that, but several also have pretty cool diet journals that log your nutrition, count your calories, and suggest ways to increase the nutrition in your diet. A few good ones to try?
The virtual trainer at shape.com is as close to a personal trainer as you can get for free, while the diet plans at Spark are stupendous and it’s easy to figure out how many calories are really in your meals at Fit Watch. Finally a great website for learning how to do all those exercises you aren’t quite sure about? Sports Fitness Advisor shows you how to use dumbells with animated muscle men while you can find great printable yoga exercises here, complete with detailed how to.
Team Up– One of the best things about personal trainers is that they demand accountability–you work out because it is expected, you are paying them! A good way to simulate the experience without the cost? Enlist a workout buddy. Here’s what you do: Take a great big jar and every time you meet up at the gym successfully, or in house for workout DVD’s, or for a walk or run put five bucks in (or one or ten or whatever you can afford but that is pushing it). If one of you doesn’t show, the other one gets to keep double your ante (so if you put in five, she gets ten). After a month or so, you can use the money to go out to a great healthy dinner, buy a nice pair of workout pants, or just keep the money again.
Food Friends: Want to eat healthy but don’t have the time? Again enlist friends. Most whole, nutritious meals are easy enough to make for eight, so enlist a friend (or two or three, the more the merrier) and trade off nights. This works best if you live near each other, of course, because you will be making a healthy meal and bringing it over to your friend one night a week. She brings you one another night. If you have a few friends, you can be making a big meal one night a week and eating as if you have a personal chef the rest. Better yet, make it social if you have the time–dinner parties are the best.
photo credit: leoniewise
What do these people have in common: J.K. Rowling, Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey, Winston Churchill, Michael Jordan, Walt Disney, and Henry Ford? Besides being household names, these are only a handful of extremely successful people who credit FAILURE with making them achieve greatness. Yep, failure.
So what, you may ask, does this have to do with health and weight loss? Simply this: The theories and practice of accepting failure can actually contain the seeds of success when it comes to transforming your health and body. This is because failure, scientists are learning, seems to be hardwired in the brain to equal learning–the more wrong we are, the quicker we learn. By utilizing this understanding, we can actually temper ourselves to setbacks and get the most out of them. Here are a few things that failure teaches us:
- Resiliency: Simply put, the more we fail, the more we understand that we are always a work in progress and nothing about our lives is fixed in stone–this includes our bodies, the way we eat, and the way we look. This gives us incredible freedom to change. Instead of beating ourselves up every time we slip up with our diet or because we didn’t know something about what makes us healthy, we see it as a learning opportunity. And the more we learn about ourselves, the more we know in the future what will and won’t work for us. For our brains, failure is all about making our thinking more efficient. So you will learn that eating every three hours doesn’t work for you and move on, each time getting closer to the real changes that will transform your health.
- Opportunity: Successful people are people who have put themselves out there and tried whatever they could get there hands on. They are not more talented, or smarter, or luckier than anybody else–they have simply tried more and different things until something worked. They aren’t afraid of failure, of falling down. They know how to get back up. Apply this to your own life–what would you try if you were not afraid of failing? Just take the example of exercise. We know that it is one of the most important lifestyle choices in being healthy, but it isn’t always easy to find the perfect sport or activity. For those of us who aren’t afraid of failing, trying everything is seen as an opportunity–so get out there and try it–run, bicycle, do aerobics, swim, yoga, rock climb and find what you are passionate about. It’s out there just waiting to transform your life.
- Perspective: Finally, becoming fearless in the face of failure gives us perspective, that is, where we are now is tempered by where we have been and that has the amazing ability of putting our fears, our cravings, and our emotions in their proper place. Perspective soothes our anxieties; it calms us. And when we are calm our emotions cease to rule us. We know that if we slip up and eat junk food we are not bad people, we are simply having an off day and we can recommit ourselves the next day. If we go two weeks without exercising we don’t throw in the towel, we shrug, love ourselves, and get out there at the next opportunity. Perspective allows us to understand that our lives are made up of a million small moments, that we will always fall down, and that it is the getting up that is important, the constant getting back up that makes the difference between an average life and one that is extraordinary.
photo credit: genome4hire
When embracing your own ability and need to fail, think about how children learn. Take running, for example. We are not born with the ability to run, we learn it slowly. First we learn to roll over, then we learn to push ourselves up, then crawl, then stand, then walk, and finally run. Throughout this whole process, we fall down over and over again and over and over again we stand back up and we keep falling now and again throughout our whole lives. So let’s keep the perseverence and innocence of children in everything we do and be willing to put ourselves out there because that is how we learn, always.
photo credit: Miquel, fotos mel.
We all know that eating our fruits and vegetables is the number one way toward improving health and aiding weight loss. Powerhouses of nutrition, fruits and veggies also have high levels of fiber–keeping your stomach full longer and your pipes cleaner. However, not all fruits and veggies are the same–here are some great tips on increasing the nutrient value in your favorite good for you foods:
- Summertime is all about the watermelon. While it has a lot of sugar for a fruit, it is also packed with vitamins. Want to get the most bang for the buck? After you buy the melon, let it sit out on the counter for four or five days. The lycopene and beta-carotene can increase by almost 200%
- It’s true–organic fruits and vegetables contain more vitamins than their genetically modified and conventionally grown alternatives, especially if the organic produce is local. How to make sure the produce is in the right bin? Check the numbers–the first number on the sticker should be 9 if it’s organic, while GMO produce stickers start with an 8Â and conventional begins with a 3 or 4.
- Get the most bang for your buck by incorporating the most nutritious vegetables into your diet. Here are the top ten super food vegetables: Kale, broccoli, brussels sprouts, green and red peppers, cauliflower, garlic and onions, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, green peas, and carrots.
- Sprouts are a wonderful and nutrient rich addition to a healthy diet. They are packed full of enzymes, chlorofyll, minerals, vitamin A, and potassium. Sprouts are also easy to grow at home, can be eaten in salads, sandwiches, and on top of soups and stir fry. There are dozens of kinds of sprouts, from spicy to sweet and they are such a powerhouse food for the body that they help you feel full and satisfied longer than most other kinds of food.
- When cooking veggies, instead of heavy sauces or a ton of salt, try using a squeeze of lemon or a dash of champagne vinegar. These acids break down certain chemicals in food, making them much more flavorful -you’ll be surprised by how tasty your dishes are without the fat and sodium.
photo credit: Vanessa Roanhorse
By now it’s obvious that we believe whole, unprocessed foods to be an integral part of a healthy diet, but here’s another reason to ditch the packaged foods–even those that claim to be ‘diet’ or ‘healthy’ or ‘low in fat’: it seems that additives and food enhancers so common in these products actually are making us fat, not to mention causing a wide range of health problems. Yep, it’s true. And many of these additives, because they can be manufactured from natural products, slip right under the radar and into many ‘health’ foods that claim ‘all natural’ status. So make a list of the following names and scan the ingredients of your favorite foods for likely offenders–or better yet, skip buying anything with an ingredient list that you can’t pronounce. When it comes to food, simpler is most often better!
MSG: Ah, this one has been on the offenders list for years, primarily for giving people headaches, but this flavor enhancer, the most popular in the world, is now suspected to cause weight gain, according to scientists. Mono Sodium Glutamate has been shown to cause obesity in lab rats by damaging the appetite regulation center located in the hypothalamus area of the brain, thus causing resistance to Leptin, the hormone that tells us how much to eat. It’s a pretty good bet that if something has MSG in it, it probably is not very good for you, as MSG is typically used to make unpalatable foods more appealing–it does this by releasing more dopamine into the brain, tricking you into a sense of well-being. Besides weight gain, MSG is also thought to cause a rash of other problems including liver inflammation. Since MSG is a natural substance, it can be snuck into many foods you wouldn’t think would have it and this practice is condoned by the FDA–it pays to read the labels. Other names MSG goes by in food products– hydrolyzed vegetable protein, autolyzed vegetable protein, textured vegetable protein, hydrolyzed yeast extract, autolyzed yeast extract, plant protein extract, sodium caseinate, calcium caseinate, yeast extract, textured whey protein, and textured soy protein, spice, and yes, even the words natural flavor.
Aspartame: This is one sugar substitute that is surprisingly still found in everything from chewing gum to diet sodas. Like MSG, Aspartame is an excitotoxin, meaning that it causes the brain’s neurons to be overexcited, causing early cellular death. It is suspected of causing weight gain by destabilizing blood sugar, making us crave sweets, and making us retain water and look bloated. Of course, that’s not all– the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a list of 61 reported adverse reactions including: chest pains,depression asthma, arthritis, migraine headaches, insomnia, seizures, tremors, and dizziness. Time to ditch the diet soda along with the full sugar versions.
Pesticides: Along with chemicals in our detergents and plastics, the pesticide residue on our fruits and vegetables–as well as on the corn used in many packaged products and in high fructose corn syrup–is now being studied and tested with the preliminary theory that it is causing the rapid weight gain seen in the last twenty years. Many pesticides end up in our liver, disrupting the function of our metabolism and endocrine system, especially our thyroids and many mimic hormones that cause the body to gain weight and/or increase appetite. While eating organic is more expensive, the health benefits are numerous–organic food contains more vitamins and minerals than conventional food.
photo credit: Uwe Hermann
The sugar stacks website is as straightforward as they come and extremely beneficial for showing just how much sugar is in popular beverages, fruits, sauces, vegetables etc. While telling us that something has 39 grams of sugar in it means very little, showing you with the equivalent stack of sugar cubes is shocking in the extreme and may make you rethink that innocent little can of soda. Check it out and prepare to curtail your sugar consumption!
For many of us, eating well is a process with a big learning curve. We aren’t taught what is truly healthy for us and sometimes it takes a while to wean ourselves off packaged and processed food. The benefits, however, of making a slow transistion to eating whole and healthy foods are numerous–including the fact that we are taking the time to find out what foods taste good to us and organically including them in our lives as opposed to the more common crash dieting and sudden extreme food changes that are part and parcel of our culture’s dysfunction around food and health. With this in mind, the act of substituting food that we love but that isn’t so good for us with healthy alternatives is a great way to start this process–Here are five easy changes to make in your diet that can improve your health and waistline:
photo credit: thebittenword.com
Yogurt: One great superfood, plain yogurt has such balanced amounts of carbs, fat, and protein that it can satiate you while keeping blood sugar levels stable for hours. In a study from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, subjects on a low-calorie diet that included yogurt lost 61 percent more fat overall and 81 percent more belly fat than people on a similar plan but without yogurt. The key here is to stick with plain, organic yogurt as sweetened yogurt can have more sugar than ice cream. Good substitutions:
- Yogurt makes a great substitue for sour cream and mayo in dips and as a topping for potatoes, soups, and mexican food.
- Craving something sweet? I like to take plain yogurt, add some berries and a small amount of honey, maple syrup, or stevia and mix it all up. A great substitute for ice cream.
Almond Butter: This is a no brainer, if you can’t keep your hands away from the peanut butter. Almond butter tastes just as rich and tasty but is much better for you. Studies have shown that eating bread with almond butter lowers the glycemic index of the bread, even white bread, so that it keeps blood sugar levels from spiking. Almonds are also a great source of protein, amino acids, and vitamins. They are great for digestion and help keep the body from becoming too acidic. Good substitutions:
- On bread and crackers instead of peanut butter
- Add to oatmeal for protein
- Make a sauce for stir fried veggies and serve with brown rice.
photo credit: mynameisharsha
Quinoa: This Peruvian superfood is high in both fiber (2.5 grams in 1/2 a cup) and protein as well as a nearly complete source of amino acids. It keeps you full longer than pasta or rice, is versatile, and a pot will stay fresh all week. Substitutions to try:
- Instead of rice with stirfry, fish, or meat.
- Added to salads
- Eaten often in Peru as a morning cereal with a bit of milk and honey or chopped fruit and nuts.
Sardines: With levels of mercury rocketing sky high in tuna and many wild fish and pollution concerns with farmed fish, sardines are a natural and super healthy answer. Packed full of omega 3 fatty acids and extremely high in calcium, sardines are also low on the food and mercury chain. Many people shy away from sardines because they taste ‘fishy’ but this can be solved by soaking them in milk for an hour or so. Substitutions:
- Instead of anchovies in dressings, in ceasar salads, and on pizza.
- Use chopped sardines in place of tuna in cold and hot sandwiches.
photo credit: rvacapinta
Berries: Most especially, blueberries and goji berries are the best fruits to be eating right now. Blueberries are high in antioxidants and fiber, while goji berries contain 18 amino acids, making them a great source of protein and more beta carotene than carrots. No fail substitutions:
- Instead of bananas in your cereal or oatmeal, try blueberries. Unlike bananas which can spike blood sugar, blueberries help keep insulin levels stable while providing a wide range of nutrients.
- Add dried goji berries to a mixture of nuts for stamina boosting trail mix or add them to green tea for tartness, eating them after you have finished the tea.
photo credit: Taras Kalapun
So many people think that the way to lose weight is to cut all fat out of their diet, but this is definitely the wrong approach. Your body needs fat: not only does it make food taste good, it helps us produce the right levels of hormones, protects our immune systems, makes our skin, hair and nails look their best, protects your internal organs, gives you energy, and can even help you lose weight by making you feel more satiated, sooner. However, as most of us probably know, there are good fats and bad fats. The worst fats are partially hydrogenated oils–manufactured so that some of the saturated fat has been taken out. These trans fats are bad for the body and cause heart disease. The best types of fat are unsaturated–mono and polyunsaturated fats, especially omega 3 fatty acids which help protect the heart and lower cholesterol and are found in coldwater fish, flaxseeds, and walnuts. Cooking with oil is one of those things that makes the difference between food that is bland and food that really tastes great. It is also a great way to get healthy fats in your diet. The best oils to cook with?
Olive Oil: Great for dips, salad dressing, and anything uncooked, however at high temperatures, olive oil breaks down and the fats oxidise, lowering the health benefits. Uncooked, this is one of the best oils out there for you. It is good for digestion, lowers cholesterol, and helps prevent colon cancer. Stick with high-quality extra-virgin oils so that you know they have been as minimally processed as possible. Experiment with different regions and types of oil to find the tastiest one for your palette.
Coconut Oil: Not all saturated fats are bad for you! Coconut oil has been proven to be one that has an amazing amount of health benefits. Apart from being a great oil to cook with, fairly cheap and long-lasting, coconut oil is full of lauric, capric and caprylic acid. These acids help with stress relief, lowering cholesterol, weight loss, strengthening the immune system, strengthening the kidneys, bones and heart, and even prevent cancer, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Coconut oil has antimicrobial, antioxidant, antifungal and antibacterial properties that make is a sort of wonder oil. It is also rich, filling, and great tasting.
photo credit: Gret@Lorenz
Canola Oil: Like olive oil, canola oil is a monounsaturated fat. It is versatile–you can use it in pretty much everything and like olive oil, it helps lower cholesterol and prevents heart disease. It also contains omega 3 fatty acids. Make sure that the canola oil that you use is organic, as pesticides can accumulate in oils easily.
Butter: Sometimes there is no substitute for good ol’ butter. Especially not the partially hydrogenated margarines that became popular in last fifty years or so. If picking between the two, pick butter. It contains vitamin A which is good for the kidneys and thyroid, trace minerals like selenium, and good cholesterol.
Moderation, of course, is the key for all of this. Fats have a proper place in the diet but should be kept at 30% or so of your daily intake. Remember oils and fats are complements to the good healthy veggies, grain, and lean proteins, used to enhance their flavor and make our bodies and minds rich and luminescent.
photo credit: Robert S. Donovan
photo credit: Looking Glass
The skin is our largest organ, and yet it is one that so many of us forget to take care of as well as we should. We douse it with fragrances, lotions, and other beauty products that contain an amazing amount of chemicals, many of which have been proven to cause cancer (like parabens for example). The best way to nourish our skin is the same way we nourish the rest of our body–from the inside out, with fresh fruits and vegetables and plenty of good fats. There are also several ways to feed your skin from the outside too that are easy, cheap, and all natural:
Body Brushing: A wonderful way to detox your body, great for your lymph system, nervous and circulatory systems, dry body brushing is best done once a day to three times a week, preferably before taking a bath or shower. Using a loofah or natural bristle brush, and start at your feet. Brush toward the heart in circular movements for five minutes. After a few sessions you will notice a more natural glow to your skin, increased vitality, and a sense of invigoration, especially if done in the morning.
Masks: Our skin loves good food. Some wonderful masks that help nourish the face:
For dry/ sensitive skin: 1/2 an avocado mashed and mixed with ground oatmeal. The fat from the avocado nourishes the skin while the oatmeal soothes it.
For oily skin:Â a mixture of french green clay and pulverized strawberries or cranberries act to draw out impurities while giving your skin the astringent benefits it so needs.
For normal skin: A pina colada for the face! crushed pineapple and banana work wonders–the acid in the pineapple exfoliates the skin while the banana soothes and tightens.
Sea Salt Scrubs: These are yet another great exfoliant for all skin types. Adding a bit of almond oil to the salt keeps it smooth and glowing. The salt helps relax muscles and detoxes the skin. Adding herbs to the scrub is great too–lavendar to soothe, lemon or mint to invigorate, a pinch of cayenne on a cold day to warm you up, rosemary or calendula flowers to heal rashes or other skin problems.
Bug Spray: As the summer months approach, our thoughts turn to mosquitos and how to prevent their nasty little bites. Most bug repellents are literally awful for you. Natural prevention is the best recourse–taking 3 or 4 capsules of garlic and 100mg of vitamin B1 create a smell that repells mosquitos while avoiding sugar and fruit juice, to which mosquitos are naturally attracted can cut down on your victimization. Using certain essential oils—such as eucalyptus, lemon balm, pennyroyal, citronella, tea tree, and geranium also makes effective bug sprays. Simply add a mixture of the above to a water/witch hazel (3 parts water to 1 part witch hazel) solution and transfer to a spray bottle. Several naturopaths say using these oils works as well as commercial mosquito repellent.
Baths: Warm baths are highly underrated. They soften the skin, relax the muscles and release stress from the body, mind, and emotions. Plus you can add all sorts of wonderful things to them– milk to soften skin, sea salt to soothe sore muscles, a tea of herbs such as lavender, mint, rose petals, chamomile, lemongrass, orange rinds to leave you smelling sweet and and all natural.
photo credit: Dennis Wong
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