Struggling to get through the holidays? Not quite sure how to have more energy? I hear you.

The days are short (but thankfully starting to get longer again) and in spite of it being the holiday season, there doesn’t seem to be nearly enough good cheer going around. It’s a result of overwork, overstress, and not enough energy. Too much to do – and not nearly enough time to do it.

To help you get through the holidays and feel great heading into 2012, put these 19 energy boosters into practice. [Read more...]

Tweet

Wrist braces have their place – but on your wrists for 10 hours a day is not one of them.

They are a great idea for things like snowboarding, skateboarding, and rollerblading, where the risk of falling and shattering your wrist is very real – and where you wear them for short periods of time.

But, when you wear them day in and day out, they do more harm than good. As Inigo Montoya would say, “let me explain…” [Read more...]

Tweet

You see it in advertisements all the time, “product x contains 172% of the recommended daily allowance of these essential nutrients.” It’s like a tacit endorsement that whatever you are taking is going to keep you healthy.

But, did you ever stop to think about what the RDA guideline is and where it came from? And exactly what “recommended” means?

I didn’t either until recently. And when I found out I was nothing short of floored.

History of the RDA

The RDA was created during World War II when President Franklin D. Roosevelt called a National Nutrition Council for Defense. This council was called directly in response to the high rates of malnutrition in the country, which was a legitimate national security concern. While this may sound laughable now, in the decades immediately prior to calling the council, the rate of rickets was 75% in NYC infants, scurvy was a very real problem, and sizable segments of the population were found with various nutritional deficiencies. [Read more...]

Tweet

Visual what?

Visual hygiene. You shower and brush your teeth every day – that is basic bodily and oral hygiene. But, what about your eyes? Other than maybe putting on a pair of glasses or putting in contacts and the periodic trip to the optometrist, what do you really do for them?

Not nearly as much as they do for you.

Your eyes are the primary way your body takes in information about, well, everything. Right now I know it’s an usually sunny day for being December in Seattle, that I really need to go out and do some yardwork, the puppy is eating the plants (again), and that my email inbox overfloweth.

I need my eyes to tell me that that shirt is NOT a good color on me, to know that I’m going in to the ladies room and not the men’s room when I’m out and about, that I need to quickly walk around the corner because my old boss (who I didn’t like) is just up the street, and that cute guy across the bar is checking me out. Without my eyes, I wouldn’t know any of that.

A quick visual anatomy lesson

The eyes are each controlled by six muscles – they control how the eyeball moves up, down, left right, etc. As well as how quickly it can shift focus and how well it can track objects. It is then up to our brain to interpret that information, but it’s all garbage in, garbage out. Give the brain bad information, and it can’t possibly make a great choice.

And, like the rest of the body, those muscles are meant to move. Staring at the computer screen, TV, or portable device for too many hours on end leads to muscular fatigue and the other muscles simply forget how to work. Put all of that together, and we become less capable. Full stop.  [Read more...]

Tweet