Are you having a tough time winding down from your day when you hit the sack at night? Sleep expert Dr. Michael J. Breus offers some tips on how you can prepare both body and mind for a good night’s sleep.
Q: Why do we need to power down before we … Read more
Filed under: Health, Healthy Eating, Eat This
Feeling like you could use a boost? Nutritionist Meghan Telpner, who runs a super foods workshop in Toronto, explains the benefits of super foods and how to make your diet more super on a daily basis.
Q: Can you give me some examples of super … Read more
Filed under: Sex, Love & Relationships, How to Be Happy
After baby number two, sex-pert Dr. Trina Read found her sex life way off base. So she and her husband decided to try a six-month sex challenge (she blogged about it on her site) to have sex once a week – no small feat with two small kids and when … Read more
Filed under: Advice, Fitness, Ask a Fitness Expert
Running is a high-impact exercise and strength training exercises can help you avoid injuries and improve your performance. Personal trainer Kathleen Trotter explains, and offers some exercises.
Q: How can strength training improve running … Read more
Filed under: Fitness, Healthy Eating, How I Stay Fit
Randy Boyer, cofounder of NaturallySavvy.com, a website focused on living green and healthy, discusses her love handles, favourite snacks and the importance of showing your kids how to live a healthy life.
Q: What does your exercise routine look like?
A: I love taking classes; that’s my favourite thing to do. I go to the gym three or four times a week, and I love strength-training classes. This morning, I did a boot camp class that was a mix of weights and cardio. I love the loud music, and there are always new classes to try. Now that summer’s here, I also love to take long walks.
Q: Do you make an effort to maintain a healthy diet?
A: Definitely. Our whole family does. My husband and I have always been into exercise and eating well, and my husband works out the way that other people brush their teeth. It’s just a part of our lifestyle; we don’t necessarily think about it, but both of us are extremely conscious about what we eat. I love to cook, but I lean toward recipes that are more whole foods and leaner, and I stay away from cream sauces and things like that.
Continue reading How a Green-Living Enthusiast Stays Fit and Healthy
Filed under: Advice, Health, Healthy Eating, Eat This
Feeling stressed? Andrea Donsky, co-founder of NaturallySavvy.com, explains how to eat to feel great and fight stress.
Q: How can food affect stress levels?
A: Believe it or not, they can. Certain nutrients such as L-Tryptophan are the building blocks for manufacturing serotonin – the feel good chemical – in our brain. Eating foods high in these amino acids, as well as B vitamins, magnesium and omega-3s, can help minimize the body’s reaction to stress.
Q: Do certain foods contribute to stress while others relieve it? And which foods contribute to stress most and which foods minimize stress most?
A: Yes, the foods we consume definitely can help relieve our feelings of stress – or add to them.
The best stress-fighting foods after the jump:
Continue reading Best Stress-Fighting Foods and Ones That Make Things Worse
Filed under: Friends & Family, Advice, Fitness, Ask a Fitness Expert
Are you having a tough time getting motivated to workout? Personal trainer Kathleen Trotter recommends exercising with a buddy to increase accountability, relieve boredom and try some nifty new exercises.
Q: Why do you recommend working out with a … Read more
Filed under: Love & Relationships, Friends & Family, Advice, Happiness
According to a study co-written by Dr. Elizabeth Sharp – “I’m a Loser, I’m Not Married, Let’s All Just Look at Me” – women who are single into their mid-thirties are often made to feel like social pariahs by friends, family and co-workers. (“Why aren’t you married yet?” is a very popular question.) Here, Sharp, a single, 36-year-old associate professor of family studies at Texas Tech University who co-wrote the study explains what she found out about how single women are treated, and how it makes them feel.
Q: Can you explain what you found out by doing the study?
A: The study focused on messages these women got from their social environments. A lot of the messages were pretty pejorative and intrusive, and the major finding was that at this time in their life – ages 28 to 34 – there was a lot of focus on their single status. It underscored their visibility and invisibility. The invisibility is their actual life experience of not being married by a certain age; some people would just assume they had kids because they were 31. Their younger siblings were starting to marry and have kids, and this felt awkward and not natural. They don’t really have any visible role models. As for visibility, they felt like they were under a lot of public scrutiny for being single at their age. Co-workers would ask why they aren’t married. But it’s rare to ask someone why they got married or why they decided to have children. These women were dealing with the assumption that they would be a lot happier if they were married.
Q: Did you ask these women if they wanted to get married?
Continue reading How Single Woman Over 30 are Made to Feel Inferior
Filed under: Sex, Love & Relationships, Advice, Fitness, Ask a Fitness Expert
Personal trainer Greg Peterson has a new book, Sexual Fitness: The Workout Guide to Better Sex, and here he explains why focusing on certain exercises and areas of the body can heat things up in the bedroom. (And help you to not lose your balance … Read more
Filed under: Advice, Happiness, How to Be Happy
James Baraz, co-author (with Shoshana Alexander) of Awakening Joy: 10 Steps That Will Put You on the Road to Real Happiness, believes that happiness is a choice we can all actively make. Here, he discusses the connection between Buddhist principles … Read more
Filed under: Advice, Happiness, Health, Healthy Eating, How to Be Happy
Do you find yourself looking to a cup of coffee or glass of red wine when you are feeling down in the dumps? According to nutritionist Patrick Holford, author of The 10 Secrets of 100% Healthy People, the best way to feel happy is to encourage … Read more
Filed under: Advice, Health, Healthy Eating, Eat This
Annie B. Bond’s new book, True Food: 8 Simple Steps to a New You, explores how wildly disjointed our eating habits have become with what our bodies actually need. Here, Bond explains what “true food” is, whether you should eat locally and why you … Read more
Filed under: Sex, Advice, Health, How to Be Happy
Are you tired of pleading for sex with that lump of blankets lying next to you in bed? We asked sexpert Teesha Morgan to offer some insight into why your partner may have lost his libido, how you can coax it back and when you should call it quits. … Read more
Filed under: Love & Relationships, Advice, Happiness, How to Be Happy
The end of Stacy Morrison’s marriage came as a shock – to her. But as the editor-in-chief of Redbook magazine reports in her new book, Falling Apart in One Piece: One Optimist’s Journey Through the Hell of Divorce, instead of wallowing (too long) in self-pity and bitterness, she decided to take a high road and rebuild a “connected breakup” with her now ex-husband. Here, she describes why she decided to get past the anger, hold onto the best parts of the past, and create a more peaceful life for her son.
Q: How did you marriage end? Were you surprised?
A: One beautiful spring evening, as I was making dinner, my husband let out a big sigh. When I turned to him to ask what was wrong, he said, “I’m done.” Meaning done with our marriage. It came out of the blue, but as I later discovered, it’s hard to know which pebble that trips you up in your marriage is the iceberg, with something huge and immovable lurking underneath, the thing that can foretell the end of your marriage.
Q: Tell me about the somewhat unconventional arrangement you came to post-divorce. Why does it work for you?
Continue reading Divorce Advice: How Optimism Helped One Woman in Heartbreak Hell
Filed under: Sex, Advice, Healthy Eating, Eat This
In 101 Optimal Life Foods, registered dietitian David Grotto explores how what you eat can affect every aspect of your health – including your ability to get pregnant. Here, Grotto explains the connection between nutrition and fertility and offers an eating plan to increase your odds of conceiving quickly.
Q: What is the connection between nutrition and fertility/infertility?
A: Adequate nutrition is needed for egg and sperm production as well as proper hormone balance needed for a fertile environment. Five to ten percent of women of reproductive age suffer from polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), which is a condition of excess androgen production and affects menses. But following a diet that improves insulin resistance and targets belly fat has been shown to improve fertility. Optimal foods for fighting PCOS include salmon, walnuts and almonds, whole grains, fruits, veggies, lean proteins, dairy, plant sterols ( pistachios, quinoa, benecol spread), dark chocolate, red wine and concord grape juice. Cinnamon can also lower insulin resistance.
Q: What kinds of foods should a woman eat to optimize her chances of conceiving?
Continue reading How to Get Pregnant: Foods to Increase Your Fertility
Filed under: Sex, Love & Relationships, Advice, How to Be Happy
One of the most common issues that arises in a long-term committed relationship is a decreased frequency of sex – maybe you couldn’t keep your hands off each other for the first several months or even years and now you both just want to go to sleep. … Read more
Filed under: Advice, Happiness, Health, How to Be Happy
Are you feeling tense, overwhelmed and even a little miserable thanks to a variety of daily stresses? Consider trying meditation. According to Leonor Mowry, owner of Village Yoga in Toronto, even five minutes a day of meditation can improve your quality of life by allowing you to feel both calmer and more joyful. Keep reading for an introduction to meditation and an easy exercise for beginners.
Q: What is meditation?
A: It’s really, really simple. It’s a practice to cultivate inner stillness – and that’s it. Physically, more often than not, most types of meditation suggest that you have a nice, long, elongated fully or unsupported spine with shoulders relaxed. So you’re often cross-legged or in a lotus or half-lotus position. You’re usually sitting, but there’s also standing meditation and walking meditation and meditation in motion (yoga).
Q: How can practicing meditation improve someone’s life?
Continue reading How to Be Happier and Calmer? Try Meditation
Filed under: Advice, Healthy Eating, How to Be Happy
In The Art of Overeating, psychologist Leslie Landis employs a humorous tone of reverse psychology to draw attention to some of the bad habits chronic overeaters develop. (For example: “Never share. OPPOSITE ADVICE: Always share. Whenever … Read more
Filed under: Advice, Health, Healthy Eating, How I Stay Fit
Psychologist Dr. Susan Albers, author of Eating Mindfully and 50 Ways to Soothe Yourself Without Food, has been advising patients to stop eating to bury their emotions and instead develop healthy, deliberate habits. Here, she explains how she stays … Read more