For A Good Workout, Great Music is Necessary

Great Music = Good Workout!
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I don’t know about you, but for me great music can be the difference between a good and a bad workout. Going for a run is nice and all that, but with music it feels inspiring. Lifting weights (for me) is incredibly boring, but add in some intense music and I feel way more powerful.

I recently joined a yoga studio, and one of the deciding factors was that this yoga studio in particular plays great music at a healthy volume.  I’m not talking about your normal flowy yoga music. I’m talking about Radiohead, Daft Punk, and a multitude of other music. It makes me feel strong, inspired, and ready to push myself. Sit me in a hot yoga studio without music, and I’m far less excited.

Running to a great song makes me feel inspired.
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For me, the best music to work out to falls in one of two categories: current musical obsessions (Ellie Goulding, Robyn, Lindsey Stirling) and music from my teenage years (Blink-182, Foo Fighters, Third Eye Blind). Sometimes the two categories cross over, if I still listen to the same band from back then (Radiohead, Daft Punk, Muse). And sometimes I just like some random song—this often happens with electronic music, since I don’t generally listen to that genre as a whole (I’m very picky when it comes to liking techno).

What kind of music gets you up and moving? Is it heavy metal? Hard rock? Pop? Techno? Dubstep? 90s? We all have our different musical tastes and preferences, but I’m always looking to add new tunes to my repertoire. Share your favorite tunes and artists in the comments!

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5 “Healthy” Snack Foods to Avoid

Don’t you just hate it when you’re trying to be healthy and then someone tells you what you’re eating isn’t as good for you as you thought it was? Well, I’m sorry to be that person today—but it’s a job someone has to do. The problem with the food industry is that it wants you to want their food—and today that means marketing anything that can be as “healthy,” even when it might be just the opposite.

Instead of flavored yogurt, buy plain Greek yogurt and add
honey or fresh fruit.
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Sure, there are foods that fall on one side or the other—wonderfully healthy or terribly unhealthy. For those black-and-white cases, it’s easy to follow the rules. Unfortunately, most foods fall somewhere in between, in a gray area that makes it easy for food companies to twist healthfulness to their whimsy.

Flavored yogurt,such as Yoplait and other brands, might seem like a good choice at the store, but let’s take a second look. Looking at the back label might reveal a relatively low calorie and fat count, but check out the sugars, too. Flavored yogurt often contains up to 30 grams of sugar in one cup, which (by the way) is the entire recommended daily allowance for most women.

As an alternative, buy plain Greek yogurt (lots more protein, anyway) and flavor it with fresh fruit like bananas or strawberries, honey, or cinnamon.

Instant oatmealis something I ate for years thinking it was super healthy. While it isn’t unhealthy, it’s super processed (for faster cooking), has a high glycemic index and your body digests it very quickly—meaning you won’t be held over until lunchtime. Try steel-cut oats instead. Not only do they taste better (in my humble opinion), but they’re also way better for you. They take a while to cook, but they also keep for up to a week in the fridge.

Instead of instant oats, try steel-cut oats.
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My favorite is slow-cooking steel-cut oats with chopped apples and a little cinnamon. Naturally sweet, it’s a delicious start to the morning (and I won’t get hungry an hour later!).

Packaged egg whites generally have less than half of the amount of protein of a whole egg. They also often contain artificial ingredients like maltodextrin, which is a sweetener, and are missing crucial healthy ingredients like choline and lutein. Stick with a whole protein-rich egg—just don’t overdo it!

Bottled salad dressing can really ruin a wonderfully healthy salad. Bottled dressings and sauces often contain high amounts of sugar, especially in the “low-fat” versions. If you’re cooking meat, try a dry-rub powder instead or make your own dressing at home—sans sugar.

Sugar-free protein / granola bars may be getting their flavors from other places. It’s better to have a bar that’s naturally low in sugar with a few ingredients than one that contains a whole laundry list of unpronounceable names but no sugar. Sorbitol is a common ingredient in sugar-free bars, and it’s hard for your body to break down and can cause bloating.

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Fitness Tip: Do What’s YOU

What makes you happy? Do that.
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I have some confessions to make: I hate lifting weights. I hate doing pushups. I hate working out while I’m isolated.

I don’t “do” treadmills; I prefer going for a jog around the neighborhood. When it’s just me, it’s a 50/50 whether I will follow through with a workout; but when I have a workout buddy, I’ll happily go 99% of the time. 

Does the fact that I have all these dislikes mean that I just need to suck it up and adjust my attitude? I don’t think so. I think it means my body and mind are trying to tell me something.

You see, I have a philosophy on how to live life: happy. If a workout makes me miserable and I have to force myself to do it five days a week, that’s five hours of happiness that I’ve cheated myself out of. The solution lies in finding the activity that’s right for me. Something I can enjoy. Something that makes me happy. Something that makes me love myself, not something that makes me miserable.

I do hot yoga because it makes me happy <3
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If you follow me on Twitter, you might have seen my tweet earlier about my newfound love of hot yoga. I’ve posted about it before, and I finally tried it last week—and let me tell you, I’m completely hooked. In a week I’ve been back three times, and I’ve no intention of slowing down. The best part is, I absolutely love it. I love the challenge, the group mentality, the calming effect, and hell, even the heat and sweat.

Is hot yoga right for everyone? Maybe not (although I do suggest trying it sometime). But I do believe that there is something out there for everyone, if not many things for everyone. Some people get in shape doing one specific type of workout, and others mix it up to keep things interesting—do whatever works best for you!

Jessica Alba mixes up her workouts.
Image:Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com 

I was just reading about a woman named Kelly O’Malley Mattone, M.D. She was trained at Mount Sinai, owns her own Boutique Cosmetic Practice called O_MD Med Studio, and is married to Carl Mattone, a successful real estate mogul in New York. But what caught my eye about her was her pursuit of passion. She ice skates, kick boxes, rock climbs, skis, plays tennis, and loves ballroom dance. What’s more is that she’s opening up her own ballroom dance and fitness studio to share that love with others. To me, she’s a great example of figuring out what it is that you love and then just going for it.

Another great example is Jessica Alba. She mixes up her workout routine with a variety of workouts, from Bootcamps to the gym to swimming to yoga. She also constantly eats “clean” all the time. She also founded The Honest Company, which specializes in baby, bath & body, cleaning, and health & wellness products that are safe to use in the home and around children.

What are you passionate about? Is it running, lifting weights, doing yoga or pilates, dancing, playing sports, or something else? If you don’t know, find out! It will make leading a healthy, happy life so much easier. 

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Scrap the Bagel and Grab A… Doughnut?

So this is happening.

Dunkin’ Donuts has announced that it will be adding a new menu item to its breakfast offerings: the doughnut breakfast sandwich. Yes, you heard that right—the doughnutbreakfast sandwich. And no, it’s not just doughnuts and jelly; it’s an actual breakfast sandwich, but the "bread" is a glazed doughnut rather than a bagel or english muffin. This thing has eggs. It has bacon. It comes with hash browns on the side. It’s legit, and it sounds totally disgusting.

At least they're not fully frosted doughnuts?
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I like doughnuts, I like eggs, and I like bacon, but this new “sandwich” just makes me shake my head ruefully. This is why we’re struggling with obesity here in the U.S. and in many other countries. Why do we have to drown everything in oil and sugar, frying it just to be sure? Can’t we just save doughnuts and other sugary desserts for once-in-a-while snacks? Why do we have to add them to every meal?

I’ll concede that for people who normally just grab a doughnut or two with coffee for breakfast, this is probably a better choice than their normal meal—since it adds some much-needed protein and probably means they’ll eat at least one fewer doughnuts. If this were an in-betweener type of meal that was set up to wean people off of doughnuts and onto real food, it would have some merit to it. But I get the feeling it’s not one more way to get the good stuff it—it’s one more way to get the bad stuff in.

I’ll quit my whining for one moment to point out that the new sandwich does actually have fewer calories (360 calories) than the chain’s turkey sausage sandwich (390 calories). However, it also probably has a load more sugar, which in my book is far worse than a few more calories.

To be honest, it probably doesn’t taste too bad. Bacon goes well with sweet things, as do eggs. But the real problem is that, once again, a fast food chain is promoting the kind of eating that is causing major health problems.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. Obesity is the #2 cause of preventable death in the United States. According to Get Fit America, there are 58 million people in the U.S. who are overweight, 40 million of which are obese. Three million of those are morbidly obese. Eight out of 10 people over the age of 25 are overweight, and nearly 80% of Americans don’t meet basic activity level recommendations.

Those are frightening statistics.

And this new gimmick is only going to contribute more to them. I understand that Dunkin’ Donuts is not meant to be healthy food, nor will it ever be. It is a doughnut shop, and its specialty is just that. I respect that, and hey, I eat my weekly doughnut with delight (yay Fridays!). What bothers me is the fact that the company is making what should be a special treat into something that seems like it’s okay to eat every day, when it is anything but.

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Learning To Love Your Body

One of the things women seem to have the hardest time with is loving their bodies. We beat ourselves up, always finding something to criticize or be unhappy with. I have one friend who is constantly dieting and beating herself up if she slips up and eats a cookie one day. She doesn’t need to lose weight, but she is so afraid of gaining weight that she gives herself a huge guilt trip over every little thing.

I think she’s beautiful, but she finds a million tiny things to pick apart and feel bad about.

Unfortunately, my friend is just one example. The vast majority of women are unhappy with their bodies for one reason or another. Did you know that only 4% of women around the world believe they are beautiful? I don’t know about you, but I look around me every day and I see far more beautiful people than four percent.

Do you think you are beautiful? I'm still working on it, but I'm believing myself a little more every day.

When will we free ourselves from these oppressing standards of "beauty?"
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The problem is that we are holding ourselves to unrealistic standards of beauty, and many women lack the self-confidence to believe in themselves and their beauty. 

Late last month, the New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center held a spring luncheon to benefit the hospital’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The luncheon was attended by New York “it” girls like Lauren Santo Domingo, Sofía Sanchez Barrenechea, and Fabiola Beracasa and hosted a panel discussion called “Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: A Conversation About Beauty and Self Image.”

The panel conversation included Dr. Gail Saltz and Dr. Amy Wechsler. “Today’s women are under extraordinary pressure to look physically beautiful and physically young in a way that, frankly, is inconsistent with real life,” said Saltz. “And they’re supposed to look that way while being the superwoman mom who takes care of her family and has a great career.”

So how do we, as women, start treating ourselves better?

In an interview with TODAY, Saltz said it all starts with loving your body—even if it isn’t perfect (whose is?). The trick is everything in moderation. “Rather than starving and exercising like mad I advocate eating sensibly and in a healthy way,” she says, “and learning new skills that are physical, yet suit your personality.”

Essentially, everyone is different. Yes, we all should be active, but it should be in a way we enjoy—why kill yourself doing exercise you hate every day? If running isn’t your thing, try something else, like yoga, dancing, golf, tennis, rock climbing, hiking, or any number of things.

“Spend a day adding up how many minutes you spend criticizing yourself and then ask yourself if there is some other way you would rather be spending that time,” Saltz advises.

What could you do with your extra time?

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