Getting Better One Step at a Time
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What Makes Habits Stick?
Habits can help us build a solid foundation of good health, low stress, and readiness to act. For scientists, as Isaac Asimov noted, few discoveries are of the “Eureka!” variety but instead something closer to, “Hmm, that’s funny…” combined with having a sense of good questions to ask to figure out what’s happening. You, too,…
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Are You a Rebel?
When we are trying to establish a new habit, we are often advised to seek accountability partners of some kind. That could be a workout partner, for example, or a family member that you share (healthy) shopping and cooking tasks with. Some people benefit from working with a personal trainer, and others can go it…
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Just Plain Good for You
As winter gives way to spring in the northern latitudes, taking some exercise outside gets a little more appealing. Some people are out there training up, but whatever pace interests you, outdoor exercise is good for both the body and the mind. Image: Cartoon by Leo Cullum, published in the New Yorker
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What Is the Perfect Bicycle?
Meet Denny. Designed in Seattle (where Denny is a name with lots of history), this bike was selected from 5 proposed designs and will be produced in a partnership with Fuji Bikes. The goal was to design the perfect bike for convenient use in cities. Bike innovation has been fairly quiet for a while —…
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Low-Carb Blues
Carb cycling means eating different amounts of carbohydrate day to day — a common pattern is high-fat/low-carbs on rest days and high-carbs/low-fat on “training days.” Many people find it easier to eat fewer calories to support a fat-loss goal if they eat less carbohydrate, but tough workouts may feel too tough when they eat low…
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All Calories Are Equal, but Some Are More Equal Than Others
The human body uses energy and nutrients from foods to do work and to build and repair tissues. If it has extra calories, it stores them as fat. This is normal operations — humans evolved in conditions of modest food security, so it should not surprise us that we are descended from people who made…
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Yard Workout
It’s spring in the Northern hemisphere, and that means getting back out in the yard to clear, trim, plant, and weed. Do you have raised beds for vegetables? It’s a great plan if you have the space. Gardening and yard work can be demanding, with lots of position changes and plenty of muscle groups involved…
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It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s Superfood!
“Superfood” is a marketing term, generally applied to expensive ingredients or foods that are not common in the Western diet, like chia seeds or acai berries. Typical claims for “superfoods” include rapid weight loss and the prevention or cure of disease. The term makes a lot of experts in nutrition crazy, because it encourages magical…
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Is the Gym a Welcoming Environment?
Ask a regular lifter, “Is the gym a welcoming place?” and they may wax poetic about the support and acceptance they find there. Ask a person whose last experience with gym was PE class — which they hated with a passion — and you’ll get a very different answer. The reality contains a little of…