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Showing posts from February 28, 2019

The Friday 5

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Hi, friends! We made it to Friday! Hooray!! I felt like this week really dragged, but now the weekend is so close, I can taste it! 🙂 Speaking of which, we have a fun weekend planned – starting with swim lessons at Goldfish followed by a Quinn and Mumma CAVA date for lunch. We’re both obsessed! 🙂 So, on Saturday, Mal has a school activity, so Quinn and I are going to visit the “old gym” (aka CrossFit). Quinn has actually brought up the old gym a few times in recent weeks, saying that he wants to visit. I guess he misses his CrossFit friends like we miss ours. I’m definitely looking forward to working out and seeing friends on Saturday. It’s been WAY too long! After CrossFit, we need to take Murphy for a check up at the vet. He has an ulcer on one of his eyes that’s just not healing. We’re trying a stronger eye drop and antibiotics, so, hopefully, he receives a clean bill of health. On Saturday night, we have plans with friends. On Sunday, Papi and Lori are coming to babysit Quinn

Glute and Hamstring Workout

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Jessica Gouthro from Paleohacks is joining us today to offer tips for strengthening glutes and hamstrings without traditional gym equipment. Enjoy, everyone. Strong glutes and hamstrings are more than just nice-looking legs and a booty. The glutes and hamstrings are the strongest muscles in our skeletal muscular system. When we strengthen these muscles, we can prevent strain and injury while also enjoying a greater ability to squat deeper, lunge pain-free, push heavy objects, run faster and jump higher. To best train those glutes and hamstrings, you’ll want to emphasize both leg curling (knee bending) and hip extension (or straightening) actions for balanced training. One of the best exercises that do this is the glute ham raise, or GHR. Very few exercises can isolate the hamstrings and glutes without top-loading excess weight on the spine or testing your grip strength with a loaded barbell. Although you may think this exercise looks easy in comparison to a Barbell Romanian Deadl

Food in America compared to the U.K. (Why is it so different?)

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Want to know what really opened up my eyes to how food companies exploit us? I spent years investigating the differences between European and American food products, and what I found disgusted me. A college buddy of mine decided to go live in London for a few years. While she was there, I often had her go to Tesco and other European grocery stores to take pictures of the ingredient lists for me and send me boxes of products. I’d compare them with the same brand of American products side-by-side and saw completely different ingredient lists. Companies like Kraft-Heinz, Kellogg’s, PepsiCo, and Quaker sell safer, better products oversees while making inferior versions to sell to Americans. The evidence of this runs the gamut from fast food places to boxed cake mix to cereal to candy and even oatmeal— you can’t escape it. This is what set me down the path of advocating for change in the food system and I’ve never looked back.  Here are 6 American products that are completely differen

Five Ways To Stay Energized In Winter

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We have had some truly warm and beautiful days this month. 70-degree weather in February is truly a gift. It made me think about how easy it is to maintain energy and positivity with warm weather and how difficult it can be during the winter.  My dietetic intern, Emily, and I were both complaining about these harsh winter days of rain, gray clouds, and cold and how they zap our energy. Of course this led to a discussion on a few things we both do to stay warm and happy in the winter and they are:  1. Hydrate With Everything But Ice Water In the summer our bodies crave fluids due to the heat and the need to cool down. During the winter, we may not feel as thirsty, but our bodies need just as much fluid as they do in the summer (sometimes I feel even thirstier in the winter!) Mild dehydration can lead to impaired brain function, affect mood, and make you feel sluggish. Dehydration can also, oddly, make you feel hungry, and this might be why some of us put on some winter weight. Maki