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Aging is the result of the decline in the two essential life processes of the human body—cellular and hormonal function. Keep this in mind, and make sure you use treatments that address these two all-important instigators of aging. From Bio-Young: Get Younger at a Cellular and Hormonal Level.

Your reward can be fast, visible anti-aging results. Until the age of thirty, the most important anti-aging mechanisms to concentrate on involve cellular function. After this age, and particularly after forty, hormones decline very rapidly, and restoring hormonal function should be your primary focus, while of course keeping cellular function optimal. As you have seen in this book, when you raise hormonal activity in your body, skin, and hair, cellular function should improve, too. You never want to neglect either one of these two vital aspects of anti-aging.

I hope you are excited and encouraged by the range of possibilities that are now available for you to plan your own anti-aging strategies. Just as millions of books are written using only the letters of the alphabet, many possible programs can be designed using the information in this book.

Here are some general guidelines to keep in mind as you make your choices. These are the general areas of concern that bother most women, so I hope they will provide you with useful starting points when you come to design your own program.

• When treating the eye area, make sure that the treatments you apply around your eyes contain a lower concentration of essential oils than your body and hair treatments, and apply them with a gentle touch. Use a third of the essential oil dose recommended for your face, body, or hair when preparing treatments for the delicate area around your eyes.

• Dull, flaky skin benefits from proteasome activation using instant yeast granules and aquaporin balancing using apple cider vinegar.

• Sagging skin needs fibroblast-stimulating help, provided by elastin synthesis enhancers such as dill essential oil.

• Sun damage is treated with amla, gotu kola, rice bran oil, and rosehip oil.

• The thinning skin that comes with declining levels of estrogen responds amazingly well to fennel, sandalwood, or ylang-ylang essential oils, mixed into an oil base.

• Get rid of flab with ginkgo and apple cider vinegar.

• Make your skin smooth, young, and dewy by stimulating skin stem cells with comfrey.

• Make sure your bone structure provides your face and body with youthful support.

• Grow your hair and make it gorgeous with rosemary and eucalyptus essential oils.

Have fun!

The post How to Customize Your Own Anti-Aging Plan appeared first on Tips on Life and Love.

Solving big business problems traditionally consumes both time and manpower, but Jake Knapp found a way to cut down on both. He invented The Sprint, a condensed five-day method of solving tough problems posing a challenge to your business. Knapp explains in his book Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days.

Good ideas are hard to find. And even the best ideas face an uncertain path to real-world success. That’s true whether you’re running a startup, teaching a class, or working inside a large organization.

Execution can be difficult. What’s the most important place to focus your effort, and how do you start? What will your idea look like in real life? Should you assign one smart person to figure it out or have the whole team brainstorm? And how do you know when you’ve got the right solution? How many meetings and discussions does it take before you can be sure? And, once it’s done, will anybody care?

As partners at GV, it’s our mission to help our startups answer these giant questions. We’re not consultants paid by the hour. We’re investors, and we succeed when our companies succeed. To help them solve problems quickly and be self-sufficient, we’ve optimized our sprint process to deliver the best results in the least time. Best of all, the process relies on the people, knowledge, and tools that every team already has.

Working together with our startups in a sprint, we shortcut the endless-debate cycle and compress months of time into a single week.

Instead of waiting to launch a minimal product to understand if an idea is any good, our companies get clear data from a realistic prototype.

The sprint gives our startups a superpower: They can fast-forward into the future to see their finished product and customer reactions, before making any expensive commitments. When a risky idea succeeds in a sprint, the payoff is fantastic. But it’s the failures that, while painful, provide the greatest return on investment. Identifying critical flaws after just five days of work is the height of efficiency. It’s learning the hard way, without the “hard way.”

At GV, we’ve run sprints with companies like Foundation Medicine (makers of advanced cancer diagnostics), Nest (makers of smart home appliances), and Blue Bottle Coffee (makers of, well, coffee). We’ve used sprints to assess the viability of new businesses, to make the first version of new mobile apps, to improve products with millions of users, to define marketing strategies, and to design reports for medical tests. Sprints have been run by investment bankers looking for their next strategy, by the team at Google building the self-driving car, and by high school students working on a big math assignment.

The post What Is a Sprint—and How Can It Work for Your Business Challenges? appeared first on Tips on Life and Love.

We did it. Days are finally getting longer, vegetables are beginning to grow, and spring family celebrations are right around the corner. Ditch the comfort food and embrace fresh, seasonal recipes in these 12 cookbooks. Remember what vegetables from a farmer’s market taste like? At this point, neither do we, but we have faith they’re going to be great.

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Everyone Is Italian on Sunday

by Rachael Ray

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“This book is the single most important work of my life. It represents decades of enjoying and working with food and the people I love most in this world.” —Rachael. In Everyone Is Italian on Sunday, Rachael invites you into her home to share her family’s culinary history and the recipes that have shaped her life and career.

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The New Kosher

by Kim Kushner

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Kosher cooking has been redefined for the modern family. The New Kosher is filled with healthy recipes, exquisite flavors, and a fresh sensibility for the modern lifestyle. Emphasizing fast, easy, and delicious dishes for everyday meals and special occasions, this is your comprehensive guide to kosher cooking. Kim Kushner comes from a diverse foodie background and her easygoing, mix and match style has helped her redefine kosher cooking. With over 100 recipes from all over the world, there’s something for everyone in this unique cookbook. Looking for a modern twist on a traditional dish? Try Kim’s sticky date and caramel challah bread pudding, homemade challah with za’atar everything topping, 5-minute sundried tomato hummus or Mediterranean-inspired lentil, carrot and lemon soup. Trying to find a new family favorite? Whip up some coconut- banana muffins with dark chocolate, penne with lemon zest, pine nuts and Parmesan “pesto”, easy dill chicken and stew or a crispy rice cake with saffron crust. Need a dessert everyone will love? You can’t go wrong with recipes like deconstructed s’mores, crunchy-chewy-nutty “health” cookies, miniature peanut butter cups and dark chocolate bark with rose petals, pistachios and walnuts. Warmly written with personal narratives and detailed nuance, Kim’s recipes reflect her experience as a generous instructor who loves to teach and a mom who cooks tasty and nourishing fare for a big family.

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Vegetable of the Day (Williams-Sonoma)

by Kate McMillan

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Williams-Sonoma Vegetable of the Day brings together 365 seasonal recipes, one for every day of the year, in this attractive, practical volume. Each of the 12 chapters opens with a colorful monthly calendar that provides an at-a-glance view of the dishes included. From January to December, you’ll find recipes that suit every occasion, from a weekday family supper or a summer backyard barbecue to a celebratory dinner, and that fit every schedule, from quick sautés to slow braises. Each recipe is accompanied with a note that might describe seasonings or unusual ingredients or offer serving suggestions, ideas for variations and garnishes, or other helpful tips. Many of the recipes are illustrated with full-color photographs to guide you as you cook. But vegetables are more than just great seasonal markers. They are also nutrition superstars, and we all know that we should be eating more of them. This book is packed with inspired recipes that promise to help you do just that. It will encourage you to try vegetables that you have always passed up because you didn’t know how to prepare them, and it will give you new ideas on how to cook old favorites. So, go ahead and open this year-long celebration of vegetables and start cooking.

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Weeknight Vegetarian

by Ivy Manning

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Weeknight Vegetarian shows how to put a delicious, wholesome meatless meal on the table on any schedule. It offers quick, easy, and healthy meatless dinner ideas for any time of the year, with dozens of choices for any occasion. Weeknight Vegetarian shows how to put a tempting meatless meal on the table every night of the week. Using fresh produce, whole grains, vegetable-based protein, and healthy fats as the foundation, author Ivy Manning transforms fresh ingredients into tempting dishes. Organized by season, chapters open with advice about the fresh ingredients and cooking methods best suited to the time of year. Clever tips throughout offer enticing ways to reound out meatless meals, customize recipes to personal tastes, menu planning strategies, and helpful ideas for turning leftovers into new suppers later in the week. With this solution-packed title on the shelf, you’ll have a reliable roadmap for eating well every night, no matter what the day brings.

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The Oh She Glows Cookbook: Over 100 Vegan Recipes to Glow from the Inside Out

by Angela Liddon

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After a decade of struggling with an eating disorder and subsisting on diet, low-calorie processed foods, Angela Liddon vowed to get healthy once and for all. Done with feeling sick and tired, she threw out her fat-free butter spray and low-calorie frozen dinners. Instead, Angela embraced whole foods that made her glow from the inside out. But first, she had to learn to cook—and eat—right. Five years ago, Angela started a blog, ohsheglows.com, to spread the word about her journey to health and the powerful transformation that food can make in our lives. Almost overnight, her energy and authenticity attracted readers eager to create their own positive life changes. Today, Oh She Glows attracts millions of visitors every month, making it one of the most popular vegan recipe blogs on the Internet.

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A Girl and Her Greens: Hearty Meals from the Garden

by April Bloomfield and Goode, JJ, EdD.

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A Girl and Her Greens reflects the lighter side of the renowned chef whose name is nearly synonymous with nose-to-tail eating. In recipes such as Pot-Roasted Romanesco Broccoli, Onions with Sage Pesto, and Carrots with Spices, Yogurt, and Orange Blossom Water, April Bloomfield demonstrates the basic principle of her method: that unforgettable food comes out of simple, honest ingredients, an attention to detail, and a love for the sensual pleasures of cooking and eating.

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Joy of Cooking

by Irma S. Rombauer

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Canning hopefuls will find plenty of guidance in this trove of culinary wisdom including chapters on canning, salting, smoking and drying; jellies and preserves; and pickles and relishes. There are also useful tables for processing times, boiling temperatures and moderating the levels of sugar in the preserving syrup.

This classic baking book is chock full of delightful dessert recipes that are perfect for the holidays, including Chocolate Layer Cake with Chocolate Fudge Frosting and Chocolate Dipped Bananas.

Seventy-five years ago, a St. Louis widow named Irma Rombauer took her life savings and self-published a book called The Joy of Cooking. Her daughter Marion tested recipes and made the illustrations, and they sold their mother-daughter project from Irma’s apartment. Today, nine revisions later, the Joy of Cooking—selected by The New York Public Library as one of the 150 most important and influential books of the twentieth century—has taught tens of millions of people to cook, helped feed and delight millions beyond that, answered countless kitchen and food questions, and averted many a cooking crisis.

JOY remains the greatest teaching cookbook ever written. Reference material gives cooks the precise information they need for success. New illustrations focus on techniques, including everything from knife skills to splitting cake layers, setting a table, and making tamales.

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The New Passover Menu

by Paula Shoyer

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Passover is a celebration of freedom—and Paula Shoyer’s innovative Passover collection celebrates culinary freedom, while still honoring the holiday’s dietary rules. Her dishes will set you free, combining all the nostalgic pleasure of family favorites with 65 contemporary creations sure to please a new generation of creative cooks. Covering both seder nights and all eight days of the holiday, Shoyer redefines Passover dining with an updated and global menu that includes Banana Charoset, Peruvian Roast Chicken with Salsa Verde, Moroccan Spiced Short Ribs, Sweet Potato Tzimmis, Eggplant Parmesan, and Frittata with Broccoli and Leeks. And don’t forget the desserts (many gluten-free) that are Shoyer’s speciality, including Triple Chocolate Biscotti, Opera Cake, and Pear Frangipane Tarts. To streamline your planning, there are eight full menus to use as is or to mix and match, along with suggestions for other meals. Passover has never been so easy or delicious!

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True Food: Seasonal, Sustainable, Simple, Pure

by Andrew Weil, Sam Fox, Michael Stebner

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When Andrew Weil and Sam Fox opened True Food Kitchen, they did so with a two-fold mission: every dish served must not only be delicious but must also promote the diner’s well-being. True Food supports this mission with freshly imagined recipes that are both inviting and easy to make.

Showcasing fresh, high-quality ingredients and simple preparations with robust, satisfying flavors, the book includes more than 125 original recipes from Dr. Weil and chef Michael Stebner, including Spring Salad with Aged Provolone, Curried Cauliflower Soup, Corn-Ricotta Ravioli, Spicy Shrimp and Asian Noodles, Bison Umami Burgers, Chocolate Icebox Tart, and Pomegranate Martini.

Peppered throughout are essays on topics ranging from farmer’s markets to proper proportions to the benefits of an anti-inflammatory diet. True Food offers home cooks of all levels the chance to transform meals into satisfying, wholesome fare.

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Heritage

by Sean Brock

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Sean Brock is the chef behind the game-changing restaurants Husk and McCrady’s, and his first book offers all of his inspired recipes. With a drive to preserve the heritage foods of the South, Brock cooks dishes that are ingredient-driven and reinterpret the flavors of his youth in Appalachia and his adopted hometown of Charleston. The recipes include all the comfort food (think food to eat at home) and high-end restaurant food (fancier dishes when there’s more time to cook) for which he has become so well-known. Brock’s interpretation of Southern favorites like Pickled Shrimp, Hoppin’ John, and Chocolate Alabama Stack Cake sit alongside recipes for Crispy Pig Ear Lettuce Wraps, Slow-Cooked Pork Shoulder with Tomato Gravy, and Baked Sea Island Red Peas. This is a very personal book, with headnotes that explain Brock’s background and give context to his food and essays in which he shares his admiration for the purveyors and ingredients he cherishes.

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The Plantpower Way: Whole Food Plant-Based Recipes and Guidance for The Whole Family

by Rich Roll and Julie Piatt

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Created by renowned vegan ultra-distance athlete and high-profile wellness advocate Rich Roll and his chef wife Julie Piatt, The Plantpower Way shares the joy and vibrant health they and their whole family have experienced living a plant-based lifestyle. Bursting with inspiration, practical guidance, and beautiful four-color photography, The Plantpower Way has more than 120 delicious, easy-to-prepare whole food recipes, including hearty breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, plus healthful and delicious smoothies and juices, and decadent desserts.

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Farmhouse Rules: Simple, Seasonal Meals for the Whole Family

by Nancy Fuller

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Nancy Fuller believes in bringing family together around the table, sharing stories and table manners. Her philosophy is to feed others with delicious, simple meals from the heart. Her straight-shooter approach to cooking will take the hassle out of dinner preparation. Every recipe helps readers to make healthy, authentic cooking their daily standard: From Buttery Braised Radishes to Bacon Wrapped Trout and Johnny’s Carrot Cake, Nancy shows readers how satisfying freshly cooked comfort food can be. She wants to instill pride in the home cook, and this book will help any chef—from beginner to experienced, cook with authentic ingredients for hearty, healthy meals.

The post 12 Great Cookbooks for Spring Celebrations appeared first on Tips on Life and Love.

I live in Los Angeles and am a stay-at-home mom with two children. When my son was starting kindergarten, my husband and I expected certain adjustments for him—separation anxiety, socialization issues, exhaustion from the demands of learning. What we didn’t expect was an adjustment issue of our own: the birthday party predicament.

Having lived in L.A. for a few years prior to kindergarten, we had heard birthday party stories: glamorous, high-powered parents with lots of money, lots of guilt and not much time trying to top each other with piñatas stuffed with $5 dollar bills, swimming pools drained and filled with salt water and barking seals, goodie bags from MOCA! To these people, their child’s birthday party is a tone setter, a first impression that says, “This is who we are and would you like to get your face painted?” But we thought we had avoided all of this.

We had chosen our son’s school—a low-key Episcopalian one—for its committed teachers, its sweet and polite children, and its uniforms. We saw the uniforms as a great leveler of class and affluence barriers in the land of “I can do anything better than you.” What we didn’t realize was that at school in their light blue shirts and dark blue pants everyone might be equal, but after school, the gloves were off.

The first birthday party we attended was a catered affair in a private room at the House of Blues on Sunset Boulevard—the flagship location of the chain of rock ‘n roll nightclubs. Walking in, I felt slightly guilty about the $9.99 tub of plastic dinosaurs from Ross I had brought as a gift, but I ate a lot of pasta salad and soon I felt better. After the kids had feasted on pizza and chicken, there was a reptile show with iguanas, chameleons, and an absolutely huge snake that was passed around and then placed on a mom’s head. The kids had fun, but for me it was less like a birthday party and more like going out to lunch. I enjoyed sitting on the overstuffed furniture, eating food I didn’t have to cook off a china plate, chatting with the other parents.

But I wondered, who was the party really for? Was all this really necessary? It was probably costing more than my wedding. I mean, my wedding didn’t have valet parking. I also couldn’t help but wonder if, for the kids, the same effect could be achieved with, say, a rented video and a little cereal tossed on the floor.

To compete or not to compete—that was the question we faced for the next few months before our own son’s birthday. Should we pull out all the stops so people wouldn’t think we didn’t care, or, God forbid, we couldn’t spare the money? Or should we just low-key it and blame it on our own Generation X-ness? We agonized over a party at a gym (too expensive), our apartment (too small), our backyard (we didn’t have one). Then we struck upon an idea: bowling and pizza. What could be more wholesome and fun? It even had an anti-establishment, blue-collar feel to it. Bowling and pizza? Three hundred dollars. That nixed that. The money we’d need to even contemplate becoming serious contenders in this contest was being spent on tuition.

In the meantime, the competition was closing in from behind. At party for a friend of my younger child, a petting zoo was set up in the backyard complete with “farmhands” dressed in overalls and red-checked shirts. The children could enter a sparkling clean corral filled with fresh straw and pet bunnies, ducks, and goats while Aaron Copeland’s “Appalachian Spring” played on a boombox. I couldn’t stop thinking about what they had given the animals to keep them from pooping. In that respect, it was certainly unlike any farm I had ever been to. Then I overheard a man reminding a toddler that they had met before in Hawaii while he and her mommy were making Jurassic Park—didn’t she remember? It was at this moment that I grabbed my husband’s arm and told him we had to leave. “The party?” he asked. “No, Los Angeles,” I answered.

Whatever happened to Musical Chairs? Remember when a birthday party was at someone’s house, and they decorated the dining room with crepe paper and balloons, and you played games? Pass the Parcel? Pin the Tail on the Donkey?

We finally decided to have my son’s party at the beach. It was a gorgeous cool February day, and the kids flew kites. My son loved his Pikachu cake that my husband had cleverly crafted and iced a fluorescent yellow. At the very end of the party, a California Grey Whale rose up out of the ocean, shooting spray out of its blowhole. All the kids ran down to the water, screaming and pointing. The whale breached, rolled over and flipped its tail up in the air as if it were waving at the children and wishing my son a happy birthday. There was a stunned silence as everyone absorbed this vision of nature’s power and beauty.

My husband and I looked at each other and smiled. We had pulled it off. Not only had we thrown a terrific party for about 50 bucks, including bagels, cream cheese, fruit salad, cake, and $1.99 kites as party favors, it had all been capped by a perfect moment—a celebrity sighting of one of the largest mammals on earth.

It was a day we would all remember and our son was thrilled. We turned away from the water and walked slowly back up the beach, chatting about how beautiful and rare it was to see a whale. Then one of the dads tapped me on the shoulder. His own child’s birthday was coming up and he wanted to know if I would mind giving him the whale’s card.

The post The Great Conundrum of Planning Children’s Birthday Parties appeared first on Tips on Life and Love.

You have decided to go for it. You have talked to your doctor, cleared your cupboards, and had some tests done. As you will soon discover, the Blood Sugar Diet isn’t quite as tough as you may fear. Yes, you are going to be living on 800 calories a day for the next few weeks, but your body should adapt reasonably quickly.

Below are guidelines of what to expect at certain check points during the diet.

The First 2 Weeks
Once you’ve started, you will find that you begin to lose weight fast. Some of it will be fat, but initially you will also be passing a lot of urine. It is essential that you drink at least two to three quarts of calorie-free fluid a day or you will become constipated and get headaches. What you drink is up to you, as long as it doesn’t contain calories. It could be ordinary tap water.

If you are not thrilled with plain water, try disguising it by adding a squeeze of lemon or lime, or fresh mint and cucumber. I love seltzer with lots of ice and lemon, fruit-flavored tea, and the occasional coffee (with only a splash of milk). Some people like drinking hot water; oddly enough, there is evidence that heat alone can soothe hunger. Drink zero-calorie sodas if you must. But avoid fruit juice and smoothies.

The first two weeks are likely to be the toughest, as your body adapts to fewer calories, but this should in turn lead to some dramatic changes.

The 4-Week Review
The next key moment in your dieting odyssey will be the four-week review. By now you will be halfway through the diet, and hopefully things are going well. You will have lost a lot of weight, with much of it coming off your waist. Your blood sugars will be starting to stabilize at close to normal levels. Your sugar cravings will likely be much reduced. And ideally you should revisit your doctor to repeat blood tests and scans, if you’ve previously done them.

So, what changes can you realistically expect to see in your weight and blood sugars by the end of four weeks? Well, in Dr. Taylor’s original study, his volunteers, who started out at over 200 pounds, had lost an average of 22 pounds by the end of four weeks, most of it fat. They had also lost nearly 3 inches from their waist. Everyone reported feeling better, sleeping better, and being more active. Blood pressure and cholesterol levels also improved across the board.

At the End of 8 Weeks
By the end of the eight-week diet, if not before, you will see some big changes in your body shape and biochemistry. You should be sleeping better and feeling a real sense of achievement.

Perhaps you need to buy some new clothes to fit your new, slimmer self; maybe you stop and look in mirrors to admire the difference. So pull out that old photo. Take a new one. Post them on Facebook or Twitter.

By the end of eight weeks most people will have reached their targets, but some won’t. Perhaps you have more weight to lose; maybe your blood sugar or A1C results have not improved as much as you’d hoped for. If you feel you are heading in the right direction but are just not quite there yet, I suggest that rather than continue eating 800 calories every day, you move to the more flexible 5:2 approach

The Blood Sugar Way of Life
As I’m sure you know, many people who go on a diet end up gaining back some, if not most, of the weight they have so painfully lost. But this is not inevitable. The main thing you have to do is create a lifestyle you can stick to. If this involves avoiding all your favorite foods and running twenty miles a day, then it will fail. Be realistic.

Don’t despair. Lots of others have lost weight and kept it off. I lost 20 pounds three years ago, and occasionally I put a couple of pounds back on. But I find I can rapidly lose them again. I’m sure the main reason I’ve succeeded in keeping off the weight is because I’ve gone from gorging on sugary carbs to following a Mediterranean-style eating plan. That, along with increased activity and practicing mindfulness, has helped me keep diabetes at bay. The following are a few other things I’ve found useful and which are now a way of life for me. They are based on numerous conversations with diet experts.

• Try to sit down at the kitchen table for every meal. If you eat on the run or in front of the TV, you will eat badly and go on eating well beyond the point that you would normally feel full. We pay little attention to what we are eating when we are distracted.

• Try to eat slowly. It takes time for the food you eat to reach the parts of your small intestine where cells release a hormone, PYY, that tells your brain, I’m full. That’s why you will eat less if you eat slowly.

• Eat a lot of soup. It is filling, cheap, and practical.

• Don’t drink lots of alcohol. Alcohol contains plenty of calories and makes you disinhibited, so you are more likely to snack. I have switched to drinking red wine and try to drink only when I am eating. I also leave the bottle on the other side of the room because I know that I am less likely to fill my glass regularly if I have to get up.

• Keep tempting foods out of the house or out of sight. In a fascinating study Cornell University researchers found they could predict family’s weight by the foods left out and visible. If breakfast cereals, for example, were visible, then the owners were on average 21 pounds heavier than people in households where the cereals were tucked away.

• Know your weaknesses. Mine is toast. So I keep unsalted nuts by the toaster, so when I am tempted to snack on toast and jam, I eat nuts instead.

• Wear a belt. One of the surest ways of telling that you are putting on unhealthy fat is when your belt starts to feel tight again.

The post How to Have Success on the 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet appeared first on Tips on Life and Love.

Exercise is hugely important for health, particularly if you have difficulty controlling your blood sugar levels. As we have seen, the starting point for most Type 2 diabetes is insulin resistance, a condition in which your body stops responding to insulin, forcing your pancreas to produce ever larger amounts of it. And the quickest and most effective way to reduce insulin resistance is to do more exercise.

The problem is that many people find doing exercise tedious or unpleasant. In this post, I present the strength training portion of my program that will give you the maximum benefit in the minimum time.

Up until you’re 30, your muscles get bigger. Then, if you don’t use them, they get smaller. You can lose 5 percent of your muscle mass every decade from age 30 onward.

To keep your muscles, you have to do some form of resistance training. You could go to the gym, or try what I do, which is a simple regime designed to be done anytime, anyplace, anywhere. With my plan you exercise as many major muscle groups as possible, and alternate between them, so the ones not being worked get a bit of a rest. I start with push-ups (working the upper body), then follow these with something that works the core (abdominal crunches) or the legs (squats).

What I do is based on a paper in the American College of Sports Medicine’s Health and Fitness Journal, and I do it at least three times a week, first thing in the morning. It only takes a few minutes. My favorite exercises are push-ups, squats, abdominal crunches, the biceps curl, and the plank.

Push-ups. Get into a push-up position with the palms of your hands under your shoulders and the balls of your feet touching the ground. Keep your body straight. Lower your body till your elbows form a 90-degree angle and then push up. If you find this too hard, do it with your knees on the ground.

Squats. Stand with feet apart. Bend from the hips, keeping your weight on your heels. Make sure your back is straight. Keep bending until the legs are at a 90-degree angle—imagine you are preparing to sit in a chair. Push back up without bending your back. Squats work the biggest muscles in your body. If you want to make this harder, add weights.

Crunches. Lie on your back with knees bent, feet flat on the floor, and your hands by the side of your head. Curl up your upper body without lifting your lower back off the floor. Make sure your chin is tucked in toward your chest. When your shoulders and upper back are lifted off the floor, curl back down.

Biceps curls. This requires a small handheld weight. Stand with feet apart and hands by your side, with one hand clutching the small weight. Then, with your arm kept by your side, raise your hand by bending your elbow. Transfer the weight to your other hand and repeat.

Plank. Lie on the floor and then raise yourself onto your forearms and toes so that your body forms a straight line from head to toe. Make sure your midsection doesn’t rise or drop. Squeeze your buttocks and hold the position for as long as possible. Remember, this position should never cause pain in the lower back.

I suggest you start in week one of the diet by doing one set of 10 repetitions of each of these (with 20-second holds on the planks): 10 push-ups, 10 squats, 10 crunches, 10 biceps curls, and 10 planks. Do this three times in the first week.

Aim for two sets of 10 repetitions in the second week, and three sets by the fourth week.

The post 5 Exercises Essential to Your Health appeared first on Tips on Life and Love.

This year we’re getting a head start on the Easter Bunny’s to-do list and offering a wonderful prize pack for kids 4 and up. Enter for a chance to win by clicking on the graphic below. Hop to it!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Prizes include a 3-book set from our partners at Downtown Bookworks and PBS Kids, plus Hide N Squeak Eggs and a cute little basket you can use to collect toys long after the bunny hits the trail.

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“Before everyone are life and death. Whichever they choose will be given to them.” —Sirach

After being burned on 100% of my body nearly 30 years ago, I needed this reminder, but more importantly I think it is a reminder we all need each and every day. We must choose to not just be awake, but to truly live.

My challenge to you today is one that shares hope, possibility, empowerment, and life and allows you to inspire all those around you to not just get out of bed each day, but to instead be On Fire for their lives.

Watch the video and Live Inspired.

The post Which Do You Choose: Life or Death? Fire or Water? appeared first on Tips on Life and Love.

The Mediterranean diet has become incredibly popular ever since studies showed it can significantly cut your risk of heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and possibly Alzheimer’s.

It’s a diet that emphasizes the importance of eating fruit, vegetables, oily fish, nuts, and olive oil. Yogurt and cheese are warmly embraced, as is a glass of red wine at the end of the day (though this is optional). There are carbs in this diet, but the sort that your body takes longer to break down and absorb. That means legumes (beans and lentils), not pasta, rice, or potatoes. I think it is a fantastically healthful and tasty way to eat. It takes many of the best features of a low-carb diet and makes them more palatable.

Indeed, the Mediterranean diet is the crux of the Blood Sugar Diet. Below are three recipes, one for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, to show how much 800 calories really is. It’s more than you might think but less than you’re used to. The key to this diet is that every single mouthful packs a punch. And it scores high on what dieticians call the satiety factor—the feeling of fullness after eating that suppresses the urge to eat between meals. You should feel satisfied by smaller portions and won’t stay forever hungry and preoccupied by food. As you watch the weight fall off you will get a lot of positive reinforcement to keep you going.

Below are some sample recipes from my book to demonstrate how filling 800 calories really can be! Try these recipes, and see how satisfying the meals can be!

Portobello “Toast” with Goat Cheese and Pine Nuts
150 CALORIES
SERVES 1

2 Portobello mushrooms
Drizzle of olive oil
Salt and black pepper
1 1/2 ounces goat cheese
1 tablespoon pine nuts
1 handful snipped chives

Preheat the broiler. Place the mushrooms on a baking sheet, drizzle with the oil, and season with a pinch of salt and plenty of pepper. Broil for 3 minutes.

Remove the mushrooms from the broiler, top with the cheese, and sprinkle with the pine nuts. Return to the broiler for 2 minutes more. Remove from the broiler and sprinkle on the chives.

Skinny Spicy Bean Burgers
280 CALORIES
SERVES 2

4 mushrooms
1 handful cilantro
14 ounces canned cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
14 ounces canned kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 egg
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 chile, finely sliced
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon chili powder or a few drops of Tabasco sauce
Flour
Olive oil
Bag of salad greens
1 tomato, sliced

Place the mushrooms and cilantro in a food processor and process until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.

Add the beans and egg and blend together to form a chunky mixture. Stir in the rest of the ingredients.

Dust your hands with flour and shape the mixture into 4 burger patties.

Heat a drizzle of oil in a large pan and fry the burgers over medium heat until brown and hot all the way through.

Serve with handfuls of salad greens and thick slices of the tomato.

Zucchini Ribbons with Shrimp
390 CALORIES
SERVES 2

1 large or 2 small leeks, thickly sliced
1 zucchini, spiralized or cut into ribbons with a peeler
1-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1/2 red chile, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon olive oil
7 ounces shrimp
7 ounces canned cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
Salt and black pepper
2 handfuls cilantro, chopped

Steam the leeks for 4 to 5 minutes, until tender, adding the zucchini for the final 2 minutes. Set aside.

Using a food processor or a mortar and pestle, make a paste with the ginger, chile, garlic, and lemon juice.

Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat, add the paste, and sauté for a couple of minutes.

Add the shrimp and beans and cook for 10 minutes, until the shrimp are pink and cooked through. Add the leeks and zucchini to the pan and toss.

Season with salt and pepper and then top with the cilantro before serving.

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