A Big, Healthy Salad to Lighten Up Your Diet for Spring
Health, Healthy Eating, Holistic Recipe
Feeling the need to shed a few winter pounds or just lighten your diet after a season of hearty meals? Many of us do feel that way as spring approaches, and there is something to be said for changing one's diet to reflect nature and so now is a great time to eat lighter and add more raw and fresh food to help the body naturally detox. We you get a hankering for a big healthy salad, remember that the brighter, more colourful vegetables you use, the more phytonutrients (chemical compounds in food with medicinal qualities) you'll get into your system. There are thousands of phytonutrients and scientists are still discovering new ones and what medicinal effects they have on your body.
For example, did you know that garlic is anti-fungal, anti-microbial, anti-cancer and immunity-boosting? The "stink" in garlic is literally the medicinal component (phytonutrient) and it works by increasing the production of the enzymes that rid the body of carcinogens BEFORE they cause a cell to mutate.
Keep your cells healthy with this spring salad recipe after the jump
Bored With Your Weight Routine? Try a Series of Lunges, Squats and Planks
Advice, Fitness, Ask a Fitness Expert
Dear Sarah, I am shift worker and often hit my 24-hour gym around midnight. I have been lifting weights using my gyms 'fit fix' circuit (a series of weight machines that isolate each muscle group), as well as running on the treadmill. Quite frankly, I am bored and find it takes too long to perform these exercises. What else can I do? There are no classes at midnight!
Yolanda
Dear Yolanda,
Isolation exercises such as leg press and bicep curls on machines can definitely get boring. It sounds like you are ready to mix up your workout and I suggest trying compound exercises.
Compound exercises move the body through more than one joint. This means that you do several moves in the same exercise, thus giving your body a greater challenge and intensifying your workout. For example, you can do a squat that uses quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, calves, abs and lower back muscles and also bends your hip, ankle, and knee joints. By comparison, a seated leg extension (weight machine found in most gyms) only moves your knee joint and works mostly your quadriceps.
How to Stop Being Angry and Get Closure: Five Steps
Love & Relationships, Advice, How to Be Happy
After a breakup, or following a reorientation of any kind of relationship, it can be tough to know what to do with the big jumble of emotions filling your head. Where do you start to move forward and how can you accept these big new changes? We asked Lissa Coffey, author of Closure and the Law of Relationship: Endings as New Beginnings, to explain what closure is and how you can use affirmations to move forward without anger.
Q: What is closure?
A: Closure is resolution. It's tying up any loose ends. It's replacing resentment or anger or any ill feelings with gratitude. It's that feeling that there are no unanswered questions, and that you've learned from the experience and are a better person for it. We know we have closure when we have gratitude for all of it, no matter what has happened.
Are You Eating Enough 'Real Food'?
Health, Healthy Eating, How I Stay Fit
You might think your fridge and pantry are stocked with healthy items, but are you eating enough "real food." We asked Dana Joy Altman, founder of the blog Real Food Rehab, to explain how eating real food changed her life and to dispense some advice on how to eat better.Q: Why did you start Real Food Rehab?
A: I started Real Food Rehab with a desire to help people make a pleasurable transition from processed foods back to real foods and do it in a way that didn't feel oppressive. I wanted to approach it without judgment and without "shoulds." I also had a strong desire to write in my own voice. I had been doing PR and writing branding copy for years - essentially furthering other people's creative projects, when what I really wanted to do was further my own. It was liberating to finally be able to do that. Over time, I also decided it was important for me to write about my own process in discovering how to be the most authentic version of myself that I could be, so I incorporate lots of ideas on how to live a richer and more fulfilling life.
Q: What do you mean when you say "real food"?
Exercise and Weight Loss: You Need More Than You Might Think to Lose Weight
Advice, Happiness, Health, Fitness, Fit Family Guy
Last Sunday, a friend emailed me this article titled: "The workout: An exercise in futility?" The story quotes Eric Ravussin, director of the Nutrition Obesity Research Centre at the Pennington Biomedical Research Centre in Baton Rouge, La., who casts doubt on exercise as a weight loss tool. It's the not first time I've heard this argument.
The article reads:
"Eric Ravussin, who is recognized internationally for his work in obesity and diabetes, says the amount of exercise needed to cause significant weight loss is more than most free-living individuals are capable of undertaking. In general, he says, that holds for anyone who has stepped onto a treadmill hoping to lose weight. "But it is more true for the obese because they could never achieve the level of exercise which could make a dent in weight loss."
To start, I'll admit that I'm a big fan of Dr. Bouchard (the executive director of Ravussin's research centre) who is also quoted in the article and who disagreed with these assertions stating that exercise is far from useless. However, there are parts of the article that I agree with, such as most people over-estimating how many calories they burn during exercise and this generating a feeling that they then "deserve" to indulge in more calories. I also agree that many people don't like the idea of long, frequent and intense bouts of exercise. Nevertheless, I don't agree with the overall conclusions of Dr. Ravussin because they ignore the larger picture and mentality that people need to adopt in order to be successful at significant and sustained weight loss.
Exercise is not a panacea for weight loss. At least not exercise in the manner that most people view it. Most people think if they do 20 minutes, three times a week at a moderate intensity then they are going to lose lots of weight (think Bowflex commercial).
Healthy Carbs, Look Slim Without Dieting, Why You Should Eat Beans...
Each morning, we dish out a few links we love. Would you rather have surgery than lose weight the hard way? Amazingly, 80 percent of women will answer that with a resounding yes.
Not all carbs are evil -- here's a list of some healthy and tasty carbs that you can totally enjoy on a regular basis.
Sure, they're not the sexiest food around but beans deserve some respect, if only for their amazing health properties.
How can you look slim without dieting? According to one style expert, looking thin is all about what you're wearing.
Going shopping this week? Give your grocery cart a makeover with these tips.
Chlorella: A Superfood Great for Detoxing and Healing
Health, Healthy Eating, Eat This
The fact that St. Patrick's Day is just around the corner provides two great reasons to write about chlorella. 1. This superfood is the greenest of greens. 2. It's a great detoxifer and thus, if you are into green beer, you might benefit from a dose of it the morning after St. Patrick's Day.Chlorella is a single-celled, fresh water algae that is sold in dried form as a powder you can add to water or a smoothie, or put into capsules to be taken as a supplement. And let me tell you, this is one food deserving of the name superfood.
Interest in chlorella first appeared in the late 1930's when researchers were looking for a cheap, nutrient-dense whole food source to accommodate the expected massive population boom to follow in decades to come. Because of expected food shortages, chlorella looked like it could become a viable primary food source for the population since meat is costly and took up too much space. Why was chlorella such an attractive food in this context?
Warrior II: A Yoga Pose to Keep You Grounded and Give You Courage
Happiness, Health, Fitness, Fit Yoga
One of my very favourite poses to do when I'm on my yoga mat is Virabhadrasana II (Warrior II). The pose at first glance may look like a piece of cake, but just like many yoga poses, there's a lot more going on in the body than you might think. Warrior II strengthens the legs and ankles, the groin, chest, lungs and shoulders, and it stimulates the abdominal organs.
The definition of a warrior is one who is engaged in or experienced in battle, which makes one wonder how Warrior II end up being a name for a yoga pose when yoga is all about non-violence? But, upon further reflection, it's actually quite fitting as the pose teaches us to not only be warriors on our mats, but off our mats too. Let me explain.
The warrior series (Warrior I, II, III) reminds me of the Warrior Arjuna and the great teachings of the Bhagavad Gita; a sacred Hindu scripture that portrays the dialogue between Arjuna and the Lord Krishna on the battlefield. It is a beautiful story that offers life lessons of courage and finding our inner center.
A warrior is one who exemplifies courage. In the Bhagavad Gita, in order for Arjuna to win the battle, he first and foremost must have faith. We learn that in order to accomplish anything of significance in life, we must have faith in ourselves. The battle in the Bhagavad Gita represents our inner struggles, and as warriors, we must have the courage to persevere through any challenges we face. We must keep our hearts open, and our faith strong, as we can not reap the benefits of yoga if we are forcing or holding tension in a pose, as much as we can not truly be happy if we are submitting to our fears.
How Mantra Chanting in Yoga Class Can Improve Your Life
Teaching yoga to a new group of students, I'm always weary of chanting something as simple as 'OM' at the end of the class. There are always those students who won't do it, for fear you might actually hear their voice, or those who think that chanting is "too spiritual." If you've never chanted before, why not give it at least one try? Once you realize the great health benefits that come along with mantra chanting, you'll be chanting your heart out day and night!What Is a Mantra?
A mantra is simply a sound, syllable, word, or group of words repeated; it literally means to vibrate the mind. Mantras are of Sanskrit origin and have a powerful meaning behind them. It is for this reason, when we chant mantras, that they instill positive thoughts in our minds. We may not know what we are chanting, but that's OK -- it still has an effect on our overall well-being. Each mantra we chant has a different sound and vibration, which in turn has a different effect on a specific part of the body.
Why in the World Are You Still Not Exercising?!
Advice, Happiness, Health, Fitness
Mankind has been searching for the fountain of youth for centuries, but as it turns out it's been within our reach all along. And it needn't cost you a penny -- all it takes is a little hard work. As the New York Times reported recently, the secret to longevity is simple: Get moving. Exercise is the only proven way to slow down the aging process and keep you healthy well into your golden years. It seems the only question left to ask it this: Why aren't you doing it?
"Physical inactivity is one of the strongest predictors of unsuccessful aging for older adults and is perhaps the root cause of many unnecessary and premature admissions to long-term care," two prominent geriatricians wrote in a recent edition of the Archive of Internal Medicine. They went on to point out that exercise can help fight and prevent myriad diseases and conditions, including cancer, osteoarthritis, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, dementia and more. Plus, it's the only thing that can help you trump the recently-discovered obesity gene.
