Much of the advice about healthy living comes down to a simple instruction that in reality can be extremely difficult to follow: everything in moderation.
Okay, but what does that mean? What is moderation?
While it would be nice to spell it out in portion sizes and workout prescriptions, moderation is more challenging than that in practice.
Here is the challenge — moderation is relative.…
A few years ago, I picked up my favorite energy bar and looked at the nutrition facts label.
I had a suspicion about these bars. They advertise simple, natural ingredients, and they are delicious and sweet—a little too sweet. I selected my favorite flavor and looked at the sugar content: eighteen grams.
I find “grams” hard to visualize and without a lot of meaning, so to give myself some context I divided eighteen by four—this is how you convert grams to teaspoons, which is a measurement I can get my head around.…
Want to know how far you’ve come? You need to know where you started.
Self-assessments are an important part of the Whole Life Challenge. Measurements at the beginning let you know what kind of progress you’ve made, and provide an objective picture of your health.
The Whole Life Challenge includes three assessment phases.
It all started with dark chocolate.
I’d read about how dark chocolate can reduce inflammation, lower blood pressure, and raise HDL, or “good” cholesterol, so I began ending the night with a few squares of 85% cacao dark chocolate.
It was good, but not very sweet, so I usually stopped after a few squares. It’s easy to avoid overdoing chocolate with so little sugar.…
Before I had my daughter in 2005, at age 32, I spent my time boxing, surfing, traveling the world as part of my job with a tour operator, and fixing up a dilapidated beach house with my husband. I had lots of fun, but spent very little time doing things for other people.
I made time for my husband, my family, and my friends, but I was mostly able to do what I wanted, when I wanted.…
I looked at the food truck menu, trying to find something to order. I had just started the Whole Life Challenge and was attending an event at my kids’ elementary school. Hamburger, no. Tacos, no. Ahi poke salad — that could work.
I approached the window.
“I’d like an ahi poke salad, no wonton chips please. Also, can you tell me what’s in the dressing?”
The woman looked up from her notepad and fixed me with a glare.…
It’s easy to stay on track when things are going well. When life is predictable, there’s time to plan meals, exercise, meditate, and get enough sleep.
Unfortunately, life is rarely predictable. Even if your sleep, nutrition, and exercise are on point, you might get sick at some point during the eight-week Whole Life Challenge.
This doesn’t mean you have to give up!…
In the early 2000s, the pomegranate was the new super food. This antioxidant-rich miracle fruit was said to improve cardiovascular health, fight prostate cancer, and prevent Alzheimer’s disease. Soon, the refrigerators of most health-conscious people contained POM Wonderful pomegranate juice in those funny, double-bulb shaped bottle.
The Super Food That Wasn’tPOM Wonderful, the company, was founded in 2002 by the billionaire couple Stewart and Linda Rae Resnick.…
Adam Carolla, Loveline host turned podcaster, said something years ago that stuck with me.
He was talking about having kids. Someone asked him if it was fun having kids. He paused, thought for a minute and then said, “No, it’s not fun. It’s better than fun.”
Fun describes things like watching a movie, going to dinner with friends, or jumping on a trampoline.…
I have a little trick I use when facing a task I dread.
If I can’t bear the thought of making yet another salad, or I really, really don’t want to clean the guinea pig’s cage, I set a stopwatch and time how long it actually takes me to complete the task I’ve been avoiding for an hour.
In the case of making a salad, the answer is less than five minutes
“Well, that wasn’t so bad,” I think when I’m done.…
Recently, I came across this short article, Your Body Is Not Your Masterpiece.
“Stop spending all day obsessing, cursing, perfecting your body like it’s all you’ve got to offer the world,” Glennon Doyle Melton wrote in the piece. “Your body is not your offering. It’s just a really amazing instrument, which you can use to create your offering each day.…
If you’ve paid attention to health news in the last few years, you’re aware of the importance of probiotics, or live bacteria and yeast beneficial to your health. A healthy, thriving digestive system is full of this good bacteria, which influences everything from our immune system to our mental health, and of course our digestion.
Many factors can upset the ideal balance of good gut bacteria.…
