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Showing posts from May, 2015

Make Your Gym Habit Stick (Three Tips)

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I used to be a gym rat.  I didn't go every day, but I went several times a week and I stuck to my routine.  After a summer spent outside, dedicated to my running goal, and a fall spent getting and getting over a respiratory infection.... I fell out my gym habit, hard.

My schedule no longer had regular gym days built in, and I lost interest in some of the classes I used to attend religiously.  In December, I was finally able to re-instate my healthy habits, and--so far--I'm meeting my January goal of three workouts weekly.  For this reason, I thought it's the perfect time to discuss ways that I manage to stick to my gym habit, and how you can, too.

Maybe YOU set a new year's resolution to go to the gym more often, try a new type of exercise class, or become a runner.  Whatever your commitment is, here are some tried and true ways to ensure you meet your fitness goals:


Make Your Gym Habit Stick 
with These 3 Tricks:

1. Schedule Your Workouts in your Calendar.  

Treat your …

Find a Wine Tour

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Going to Napa Valley would be a dream.  I've never been!! (Insert distressed emoji here.)

I figured that, here in NYC, my opportunities for a Napa-like experience would be limited.  Sure, there are wine stores that offer tastings (done that!), but the concrete jungle is otherwise nothing like Napa.
Then, my friend Alyssa signed us up for a "Wine and Music Tour" out in Long Island!



It's made just for Manhattanites: a Hampton Luxury Liner charter bus departs from Midtown and drives wine-lovers to three different wineries on the North Fork of Long Island.  Alyssa and I always have a great time together, plus we both love wine.  The day was topped off by the perfect weather--low 70s and clear skies. Couldn't have asked for anything better!

We met up on the corner, chatted our way through the two-hour ride, and stepped out into the sunshine of North Fork.  We'd spend an hour each at the first two wineries, and two hours at the last.


First stop: Osprey's Domin…

Friday Features

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It's been a wonky week. Amazing weekend last weekend (I'll recap soon) followed by an exhausting exhausting/sickly couple days. I'm zonked!  TGIF -- time to catch up on some ZZZs.

It's also FRIDAY Features! Here's some old and some new news and interesting reads!  I saved the best for last, too, so don't miss out:

Personal and Social

Want to understand introverts better--for a friend or for yourself?
This infographic totally made me go "this is me!"
For the why and how of interacting with introvertsclick here to learn more.

Want to sound smarter in your writing?
Skim these 15 Words to Eliminate From Your Vocabulary.

A case study in social media's failure to tell the whole truth,
and the possible implications...
Madison Hollerand's Split Story


Nutrition

This HuffPo piece isn't new news anymore, but worth repeating until people get it:
Eggs Don't Cause Heart Attacks -- Sugar Does by Dr. Mark Hyman

NPR explains why sooo much research on he…

April BirchBox: Unboxing and Review

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Good evening!! IT'S FINALLY SO SPRING AND I'M LOVING IT.

It's already May, I know, but I really wanted to share with you how excited I am about finally signing up for BirchBox last month!!



What is BirchBox?  It's an NYC-based company that curates monthly boxes just for you!  For just $10, you get a few small or sample-size beauty/self-care related items to try out, and if you find something you love, you can order directly through BirchBox. They've got a whole store online with occasional sales and holiday/themed collections. Plus, by shopping through them, you get points (read: credit!) back that you can use toward your future monthly boxes. Win-win.

I've wanted to subscribe for a while now.  I've seen others' boxes and admire all the information and video tutorials that BirchBox puts out online and in social media; I've learned a lot from them!  I have a pretty simple daily routine (some blush and maybe mascara usually suffice), so learning how t…

Re-evaluate the Research

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Earlier this year, NPR published an article entitled:
We Lie About What We Eat and It's Messing Up Science
Dare you to give it a read, and more importantly, take note of its message.

The title really says it all: Research studies are often based on people reporting what they remember eating and doing, but people aren't really all that accurate or honest when answering such questions. The author summarizes a paper from the International Journal of Obesitythat asserts that self-reported data are so poor "that they no longer have a justifiable place in the scientific research."

Flawed data leads to flawed conclusions!  Our "conventional wisdom" about what prevents heart disease, cancer, or diabetes may be wrong.  How can we trust articles claiming "Research finds that..." when the finding is based on faulty self-reported data?

The problem is serious, because it's not just misinforming people who read health news; it's misinforming our policy ad…