Dare You To...

"Hot Yoga" views sweat as our body's natural healing mechanism.  The yoga practice, performed in a room kept at 95-105 degrees, opens your skin's pores, allowing the release of toxins.  This, combined with special breathing practices, makes for a powerful cleansing practice.


According to Powerflow, some benefits of Hot Yoga (and, in my opinion, yoga in general) include reduced back pain, improved posture, increased energy, lower blood pressure, glowing skin, clearer mind, less cravings for unhealthy habits, and improved reactions to stressors.

I've been enjoying fulfilling my June Goal to do yoga 3x/week via Courtney's Challenge, and morning yoga has become part of my regular routine.  Sooo... when an online coupon showed up in my inbox, I couldn't resist the opportunity to finally try the infamous hot yoga workout.  It was a great deal ($29 for a month of unlimited classes!), so although hot yoga is probably not the kind of thing I'd do on a daily ba…

In the beginning of the month, I signed up for Toni's "Welcome to Summer Virtual 5k", hoping it would motivate me to get running!

Every day this month seemed to be either pouring rain or sweltering heat.Not my cup of tea. So, sadly, most of my runs were on the treadmill.  However, I kept moving, I challenged myself with intervals and steady runs.  Most were in the two- to four-mile range.  Nothing amazing, but decent half-hour workouts.  
Before I knew it, it was time to be running the virtual race!  Wow, June flew by quickly.  (Every month seems to be going by quickly...)  Not wanting to run in 98-degree humidity on Sunday, I went to the gym to complete the run on the treadmill.  Better than nothing, and it turned out, one of my best runs yet.
I stepped on, set the incline to my standard 0.5%, and after a 3-minute walking warm up, set the speed to 6.5 mph and ran.  Now, usually I do 6.0 when I'm planning to just run continuously.  That's my comfortable pace.  Th…

Thanks for your kind words and helpful feedback on my 100th Post!  Don't forget to enter the GIVEAWAY if you haven't, yet.  A lot of you asked for recipes, so I'll be sharing one today.  It's kind of  overdue, because I've been making it repeatedly for four months, now.

The other day, I posted a food photo to Instragram / Twitter and the crowd went wild.


Yum!  What is it?  Where's the recipe?  When am I sharing? I had to laugh a little, because the caption really explained it all: "Salmon avocado slaw."  It's that simple, folks.  Not much else to it but a little dijon mustard and apple cider vinegar.  Combine, mash, and done.  Yet, the inquiries rolled in.  Well, folks, here ya go!  I'm about to give you the inside scoop on my latest favorite mish-mash meal: Tangy Tuna.

It began when I started eating paleo.  I made my own tuna salad-style tuna. It was about two or three hefty servings, and looked something like this:






So quick.  So simple.  So ta…

Have you entered the giveaway yet? 

Today was the summer solstice, and mother nature celebrated with a sudden heat surge.  We saw (and felt) temps in the 90s (which felt far worse with humidity), and tomorrow is predicted to be similar.  What this indicates for the rest of the summer, I don’t know, but this head-first dive into summer heat reminds us that we must be careful when spending time outdoors—ESPECIALLY when working out!


Whether you’re sitting outside to enjoy a meal or you’re out training for a marathon, it’s important to be aware of the sun’s effects on our bodies and how we can prevent it from harming us.So, runners, before you hit the road this week, be sure to get back into the habit of heeding the heat, with these steps:

98... 99...100!! This isDare You To's 100th post, so we're celebrating by SHARING some goodies acquired recently.




First, to demonstrate your loyalty as a reader, you must suffer through an explanation of my workout.  That's right; you've gotta earn your giveaway entries!

On Friday morning, I woke up way too tired.  The night before, even after the interesting and educational Technogel Twitter chat with FitFluential (where we talked all about the importance of sleep quality and quantity, and how Technogel pillows can help with both), I had a miserable night's sleep.  It took me some time to fall asleep, and then I woke at 3-something in the morning, overheated.  After hitting the restroom and turning on a fan, it still took me a while to fall back asleep.  Then, I woke again at 8-something, even though I had not set my alarm and had no reason to be up. Blah.

BUT!  I had to run!  That was the plan, and who knew what the weekend would bring (turns out: not much in the…

As part of my June Goals and the June Yoga Challenge, I've been successfully incorporating yoga into my MORNINGS.  

This was a change for me. Typically, before, this crazy month, I went to yoga regularly at my gym, once on Monday late afternoons and once on Friday mornings.  Being too busy to go to these, and also enjoying the wake-up stretching, I've begun using yoga DVDs at home.  Last week's check-in explains a bit of what I've been up to, but I'll elaborate on the morning routine here.  This week, Sunday and Thursday were the only days where I got a different type of workout in (running and weights), so yoga really carried me this week!  And it's been nice. My body feels good :)

So what yoga have I been doing?  Morning yoga.  Sometimes post-gym. Often in the morning, in my PJs.  It is nice.

In my swag bag from the Fitness Magazine Blogger Meet & Tweet, I received a DVD from element: mind & body, the AM & PM YOGA for beginners.  I didn't know …

The winner of the SlimKicker Challenge & Kitchen Scale Giveaway is Maree!The folks at SlimKicker loved your idea for a daily walk 20 minutes after dinner.  Maree, please email me at dareyoutoblog (at) gmail (dot) com to claim your prize!  Thank you to all who entered -- there were SO many great ideas, and I'll be following up on some of them for future dares ;)
Now for the yummy part: When I promised you a recipe way too long ago, I meant it.


Nothing warms my heart more than readers acting on inspiration from Dare You To.  Just so you know: your tweets, emails, and comments have meant the world, and I encourage you to continue sharing how DYT has inspired you to make positive changes!


When my friend Marcy said, "I WAS INSPIRED BY YOUR BLOG ... to challenge myself and do something new," I knew I had to share her story. 

She was referring to my dare to cook with a new food: Quinoa, and "I invented a recipe tonight" was the subject line in my inbox.

"It'…

Tough Training

Tuesday, I had the opportunity to spend an hour with a trainer at my gym.  I was nervous for being pushed out of my comfort zone, but glad to get out of the rut I've been in with my typical cardio and free-weights routines.  She had me doing plyometric squats, using machines for weight training, and medicine balls to throw around.  Everything was in sets of 15, paired with another move--also 15 sets--and I did two sets of each before moving on.

It was DEFINITELY out of my comfort zone, but helped that she was there to demonstrate the moves, to challenge me to finish the set, and to alternate which muscles were getting used (so that just when I thought I was going to die, we switched to something different that was ready for the challenge.)  It was great learning some new moves and surprising my muscles.  (It's Friday and I'm STILL sore!)

Which do YOU prefer for strength training? Free weights (barbells/dumbells)... pure body weight exercises... or strength tr…