Source: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/01/11/462375558/our-favorite-banana-may-be-doomed-can-new-varieties-replace-it?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=thesalt

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Shoppers at the market in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, can choose from many more varieties of banana than what’s available in the average U.S. grocery store.

Dan Charles/NPR
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Source: http://zenhabits.net/declutter-rules/

By Leo Babauta

What would it take to get your life decluttered and organized?

That might be a tall order for many of us, but the truth is, we could do it in bursts and spurts, using a handful of easy-to-follow rules.

The other day I wrote about the idea of setting rules instead of goals … today I want to share a few ideas for rules to help you get decluttered and organized.

I know in my life, going from being overwhelmed with clutter to minimalism was a slow but rewarding journey, and now I feel happy every time I look around and see the lovely space around me.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, I’m here to testify that it’s not impossible, and it just takes some small steps that add up over time.

Here are the rules I suggest — though I don’t suggest adopting them all, and especially not all at once. Try a few out, see how they work for you, then try a few others.

Get yourself organized at the start and end of a day. As you start your work day, write down your 3 Most Important Tasks (MITs). Write down a handful of other things you’d like to do today as well. Clear your desk, get things in order. At the end of each day, tidy things up, check off your list, maybe even get things ready for tomorrow.
When you get up from your desk, put one thing away. Whenever you get up for a glass of water, to go to the bathroom, to take a break … pick up something off your desk and put it away. If your desk is clear, look for somet…

Source: http://www.niashanks.com/fat-loss/

photo: some rights reserved by Chris Morin

Many have already abandoned their “this time is different, this time I’m going to lose fat” New Year’s resolution.

The most likely reason is because the plan they executed was a recycled version of the same ole thing most people do around January 1: go on a strict, all-or-nothing diet coupled with a grueling workout program. This proved to be too impractical, stressful, and even time consuming, so people give up shortly after starting.

There are several reasons why this happens:

Vowed to be “perfect”: people (you?) proclaim to stick to the program without any deviation. Inevitably, life happens, or you just want a damn piece of pizza, you “go off the plan” and feel like a complete failure and give up entirely.
Changed too much at once: do too much too soon and your chances of failure are high.
Focused too much on the goal: most obsess over the final goal (e.g. weigh a certain amount, achieve a certain percentage of body fat). While this may provide short-term motivation, it quickly wanes as the rigid diet and grueling workouts accumulate.

What then is the solution to sustainable fat loss? (The word sustainable is crucial – if you can’t sustain the fat loss, what’s the point?)

The answer …

Source: http://www.sonima.com/videos/access-the-pelvic-floor/

Watch video on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxheDryPF3Y

Within the yoga practice, there are several “locks,” or bandhas, that work to support, structure, and soften any given pose. The root lock, also known as mula bandha, involves accessing and understanding the musculature of the pelvic floor. Accessing the pelvic floor lock is especially helpful in jumping forwards and backwards in the traditional Ashtanga yoga sequence.

Related: A 10-Minute Yoga Class with Sharath Jois

In this video, Jessica Walden, an Ashtanga yoga teacher based in Encinitas, California, explains the importance of using these muscles to access the pelvic floor, and guides us through a short meditation to help access the subtlety of the practice. She then goes on to show how mula bandha can be accessed within various physical postures in the yoga practice.

Photo by: Hailey Wist; Pictured: Sharmila Desai

The post How to Access the Pelvic Floor in Yoga appeared first on Sonima.

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Source: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/01/11/462391470/a-hardier-honeybee-that-fights-back-by-biting-back?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=thesalt

Maryann Frazier, a researcher at Penn State’s Center for Pollinator Research, checks on one of her experimental honeybee hives. Frazier is testing the effects of pesticides on honeybee colonies.

Lou Blouin for NPR

Keeping honeybees healthy has become a challenge for beekeepers. And one main reason why is a threat that’s been wiping out bees since the late 1980s: the varroa mite.

“It’s a parasitic mite that feeds on the blood of adult bees and on the brood. It also transmits virus, and it suppresses the immune system of the bees,” explains Penn State honeybee expert Mary Ann Frazier.

It’s basically like having a six-pound house cat attached to your side, sucking the life out of you. These mites wiped out colonies across the world. And treatments were, and still are, pretty limited. In fact, the …

Source: http://www.fannetasticfood.com/2016/01/11/weekend-adventures-19/

Hi friends! It was a nice and low key weekend here in DC! On Friday, I started the weekend a little early with a late afternoon run with my high school BFF Jenny. As I mentioned before, she had her second child a few months ago and is working to build back up her running endurance as she trains for a March half marathon. We planned to give 6 miles a shot on Friday – and she totally crushed it. Proud of her! It was a rainy and dreary afternoon but getting to spend an hour chatting with my best buddy made the miles fly.

Jenny is in town for a couple more weeks and then heads back to Georgia – I’ll be so sad to see her go!

I headed home to shower and then Matt and I ended up heading back to Falls Church for dinner – we met up with Jenny and her sister Gretchen and …

Source: http://www.foodpolitics.com/2016/01/the-2015-dietary-guidelines-hidden-advice-about-sugary-drinks-definitely-there-but-hard-to-find/

I’m indebted to Maria Godoy of NPR’s The Salt for pointing out where in the new 2015 Dietary Guidelines you can find advice about cutting down on sugary drinks.  As she puts it, this is easy to miss.

Here’s my wonky analysis.

In my post about the 2015 Dietary Guidelines, I noted that they are unambiguous about the need to reduce added sugars to 10% or less of calories.  But what they say about cutting down on sugary drinks—the leading source of sugars in US diets—is buried deep in the text.  Fortunately, Deborah Noble of slowfoodfast.com has performed a great public service by producing the 2015 Dietary Guidelines in a searchable pdf format.Here’s where to find advice about cutting down on sugary drinks:

The Executive Summary: See under “Cross-Cutting Topics of Public Health Importance:”

Similarly, added sugars should be reduced in the diet and not replaced with low-calorie sweeteners, but rather with healthy options, such as water in place of sugar-sweetened beverages.

Figure 2-10 explains:

The major source of added sugars in typical U.S. diets is beverages, which include soft drinks, fruit drinks, sweetened coffee and tea, energy drinks, alcoholic beverages, and flavored waters.

Reading the Figure tells you that beverages comprise a whopping 47% of added sugars (closer to half if you add in sweetened milks, teas, and coffees).  The text following the Figure says:

Shift t…

Source: http://tonygentilcore.com/2016/01/earn-your-worth-appearance-on-the-super-strength-show/

I was up late last night watching football the Golden Globe awards.

I’m a movie nerd, so I get all jazzed up watching every year and try to play along to see whom I think will win. The Revenant – starring Leonardo DiCaprio – crushed.

It won Best Actor (for Leo), Best Picture (drama), and Best Director (Alejandro Inarritu, who also won last year for Birdman).

It just came out in wide-release this past weekend and I’m heading to an early showing today at noon. Holla!

So that means I have to get my butt in gear this morning if I want to make it. Weights need to be lifted, emails need to be answered, and articles need to be procrastinated on.

I’ll be back tomorrow with some new content, but in the meantime I wanted to share one of my latest appearances on another stellar podcast.

This time around I was invited onto the Super Strength Show hosted by Ray Toulany.

Ray’s an amazing host and has one of THE best voices I have ever heard. I’d pay him to read a phonebook it’s that sultry.

In this episode Ray and I discuss some of the lessons I…

Source: http://www.sonima.com/fitness/exercising-less/

When you’re feeling really amped about a fitness goal, such as a New Year’s resolution to lose the last 10 pounds, it’s easy to get carried away. You might find yourself suddenly ignoring your achy, sore muscles and charging full-speed ahead toward a slimmer, fitter you. In the process of hitting the gym too hard, too often, you begin to risk injury, compromise enjoyment, and inadvertently prolong reaching your goals by giving your mind and body almost zero time to recover between each sweaty session. This classic overzealous mistake that people often make in January is the very reason resolutions die well before the end of the month.

As a longtime avid runner, I have found that when I take more time off, take it easier on long runs, and do less speed work, I am able to run more consistently. When I first adopted this more balanced approach, I transformed my experience with a sport I had practiced for more than 25 years. Not only did I save time and get better results, but also I decreased my chances of burning out, getting hurt, and dreading doing the recreational activity that I love most. Before you fill up your calendar with your favorite fitness classes this year, consider these five ways to achieve more by doing less. You’ll see for yourself how it leads to suprising physical and mental results—not just in January, but throughout the whole year.

1. Carve a stronger core 10 seconds at a t…

Source: http://greatist.com/live/upside-of-breaking-up?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed_http–greatistcom-

Oscar Wilde once said hearts are made to be broken—but that poetic insight doesn’t help ease the pain of another universal truth: Breakups really, really suck.

The pain of calling it quits (or having it called for you) with someone whom you’ve invested time and emotions in—someone whom you’ve planned a future with, even if it’s just trying that new tapas restaurant next weekend—is enough to make even the Tin Man’s absent heart ache.

The worst part about having that intimacy ripped away is the question that lingers: What the hell am I supposed to do now? After a breakup you have three choices, says relationship and breakup expert Susan J. Elliott, author of Getting Back Out There: Successful Dating and Finding Real Love After the Big Breakup.

1. Spend time and energy focusing on your ex, trying to win them back (and possibly succeeding).
2. Go on as if nothing happened, perhaps falling into the first relationship that comes along.
3. Take your time and heal properly, look at what’s happened, learn from it, and find ways to build a new and healthy life.

Not surprisingly, all of our experts are in favor of the last option. (Wait, no option to cry yourself to sleep over rom coms while eating your feelings?)

Your Silver Lining Playbook <img src="http://greatist.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_main/public/young-woman-fence.jpg?itok=CbCE0CRP" alt="The Upside of Breaking Up" class="media-elemen…