When you picture a healthy diet, what do you see? Lots of salads, maybe some smoothies, a little steamed broccoli? It’s easy to guess what you’re not envisioning, though, and that’s sugar. Cookies, cakes, and ice cream are sweetly seductive, but what about naturally sweet eats? Sugar occurs naturally in many foods, including fruit. In fact, because fruit is naturally higher in sugar than, say, vegetables, some popular eating plans (such as Atkins, Paleo, and Keto) strictly limit fruit intake, at least for a period of time.However, fruit is packed with good stuff that many of us don’t get … [Read more...]

How connected are you during your workouts? Life is full of distractions which can get in the way of a solid workout whether you exercise at home or in the gym. TVs, phones, and mental distractions such as work or family stress can leave you with lackluster results in the gym.Cue the mind-muscle connection. Getting rid of distractions allows you to tap into your true strength potential and build quality muscle. Let’s dig into what it means to connect your mind and muscles, plus the best strategies to do so.Unfolding the Mind-Muscle Connection Simply put, the mind-muscle connection … [Read more...]

It seems that everywhere we turn, we’re encouraged to drink more water. That makes sense since adults in America are, on average, chronically dehydrated. So, it comes as little surprise that more and more options for more palatable drinks have bubbled up all over.There are sparkling waters, seltzers and tonic waters, for starters. And then there are soft drinks (both regular and diet), beer, champagne and other sparkling wines. But when it comes to your health how do these bubbly beverages compare to good old still, unflavored water? Is a can of LaCroix seltzer the equivalent of a glass of … [Read more...]

Whether you get the flu shot or not, influenza (commonly called the flu), is all but guaranteed to affect you or someone you know. Flu season in the U.S. generally occurs between October and April. While the exact timing changes—and will depend on how active the virus is in your area—flu season affects a lot of people: 5 to 20 percent of the U.S. population gets the flu each year.Flu symptoms do not change much from year to year, although the strain of the influenza virus that causes the illness often does. If you get the flu, you can expect symptoms including fever, body aches, headache, … [Read more...]

Tired all the time? Join the club.Poll five people and odds are good at least one of them cops to feeling tired. In fact, chronic exhaustion is so pervasive the medical field has coined a new acronym for the condition: TATT, or “tired all the time.”This helps explain why there are countless resources devoted to teaching people how to get better sleep. While that information is hugely important, it’s not the end-all be-all of fatigue. Sometimes, tiredness isn’t the result of poor sleep habits. It can also stem from a variety of conditions that have been proven to zap people of their … [Read more...]

You have a built-in stress reliever, always free and always available: your breath. Fortunately most of the time you don’t need to think about breathing. With no conscious effort, your body keeps the oxygen, carbon dioxide, and pH levels of your blood in balance by varying your breathing rate. However, you have the power to consciously control your breath when you want to, and learning to do so can be an incredible tool for health and wellbeing.For thousands of years, people have learned to control breathing for health and spiritual reasons. In the Indian yogic tradition, breath control is … [Read more...]