Tag: skills
-
The Sports Bra
The Sports Bra When I got my first sports bra, I had a few days where I just gave up and took a nap before I got the darn thing off. I even considered using an Ace bandage instead — and felt lucky I was small enough to get away with that. Happily times have…
-
Oops
Having a big food day once in a while is no problem, but this comic from Sarah C Andersen shows the all-too-familiar pattern of just feeling dragged along, not even enjoying what you’re eating. While overeating might just be an occasional thing, eating on autopilot, or mindlessly, can feel bad for many reasons and is…
-
Healthy Eating Is Also About “How Much”
Peanut butter and similar foods are very calorie dense. You may want to use a teaspoon rather than a tablespoon to make it easier to measure portions. Every day we see claims for super foods and “healthy options,” but foods that are healthful can still be eaten to excess. This isn’t a moral thing –…
-
Walk Right for Your Blood Type
One of the odder diet claims out there is that there is an optimal way to eat depending on blood type. It makes no scientific sense, and there is no evidence to support it. It was bundled up with some claims about exercise, also with no support. There are a few ways to “walk right,”…
-
Is Breakfast the Most Important Meal of the Day?
Over the last few decades, claims have grown up around breakfast — notably that people who eat “a good breakfast” have all kinds of good outcomes, like easier weight control and better metabolic function. There isn’t a lot of great science on this, because studies are notoriously bad at food tracking, but there’s also no…
-
“I’ll start, just not right now.”
It’s easy to get overwhelmed or tired or frustrated, to wonder if you’re doing the right thing, and wait until you have the perfect plan and plenty of time to focus on it. Don’t. Do something small. Once a week, if that’s all you can manage for now. A glass of water when you were…
-
Snackcercise!
Miss Piggy got in on the aerobics craze in 1982 with her own special take, featuring this item from her workout album. This was in a simpler time, before Cookie Monster was limited mainly to fruits and vegetables. Nowadays, banana splits are, I’m sure, strictly a “sometimes move.” Still from the video for one of…
-
Rude Treadmills
Dr Lahiri of The Mindy Project is offended when the treadmill asks her how much she weighs, but it thinks it has a good reason. It’s planning to use that information to estimate calories burned during the session. Unfortunately, calorie burn varies so much from person to person that the simple physics-based calculations gym machines…
-
The Habit Loop and the Golden Rule
In The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg talks extensively about the “habit loop” and the “golden rule” of habit change: a habit has a trigger, a routine (the habit itself), and a reward. The trigger is sometimes referred to as an anchor (as in, “when I wake up, I always…”), and the reward may be,…