Source: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/01/05/461377861/worlds-largest-meatpacking-firm-wants-to-test-out-robot-butchers?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=thesalt

Cattle carcasses hang on hooks inside a cooler at the JBS beef processing plant in Greeley, Colo. JBS employs some 3,000 workers at this plant. The company is looking into ways to automate the art of butchery.

Andy Cross/The Denver Post via Getty Images

Slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants throughout the country employ a lot of people. About a quarter of a million Americans prepare the beef, pork and chicken that ends up on dinner tables. But some of those workers could eventually be replaced by robots. The world’s largest meatpacking company is looking at ways to automate the art of butchery.

Late this fall JBS, the Brazil-based protein powerhouse, bought a controlling share of Scott Technology, a New Zealand-based robotics firm.

While many manuf…

Source: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/01/05/461925691/after-chipotle-outbreaks-will-food-with-integrity-still-resonate?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=thesalt

A sign saying “we hope to be opening soon” is pictured outside a new Chipotle Mexican Grill location at University Village in Seattle in November.

Jason Redmond /AFP/Getty Images

Chipotle Mexican Grill is struggling to convince its customers it’s a safe place to eat, after several outbreaks of foodborne illnesses have sickened hundreds of its customers. But no one thinks the task is going to be easy.

“This is a fairly significant problem for Chipotle,” Timothy Calkins, clinical professor of marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, tells us. While customers are often quick to forgive companies for transgressions, that may not be the case this time, he says.

“The difficult thing for Chipotle is that, it’s not that there was one incident. There have been a number of different incidents,” he says. “And the problem with that is that it creates an overall perception, and it raises questions about safety.”

The once-high-flying restaurant chain has been hit with two separate outbreaks of E. coli over the past three months. The larger one sickened 52 people in October, mostly in Washington and Oregon, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A se…

Source: http://www.sonima.com/yoga/yoga-in-cuba/

Havana is often perceived by Westerners as a time capsule—its side streets adorned with brightly painted cars from the 1950’s. The diversity of the architecture—a mash-up of colonialism, baroque facades, and early 1930’s art deco, lends itself easily to an artist’s eye. Few Americans have wandered there freely, until now.

Diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba were recently restored, and Americans can venture to the small island for a dozen approved purposes, such as professional research, education, and humanitarian work. Yoga is not yet a top draw bringing tourists to the country—studios are nonexistent, more rare than American media, which is still delivered via “El Paquete,” an illegal hard drive—but the practice is alive and well.

Eduardo de Jesus Pimentel Vázquez—more commonly known as Eduardo Pimentel, the “Godfather of Cuban yoga”—has taught over 20,000 practitioners in Havana alone. He teaches daily in various locations, such as a rented veranda of a governmental institution, inside of a theater, at a local martial arts center, or at his own apartment with a maximum capacity of 12 students.

The conditions are minimalist—students rest in Savasana on a small area of tiled floor space, surrounded by empty walls with peeling paint and views of lush, fertile jungle outside. Pimentel dreams of one day selling his apartment for a larger space, …

Source: http://www.livelifeactive.com/2016/01/05/the-bachelor-bracket/

In case any of you ladies (and men too!!) were interested in filling out a Bachelor bracket this year, I figured I’d share it here for you to have.

This is such a fun way to get a little competitive with our favorite show, The Bachelor, all while rooting for our favorite girls and cringing at the train wrecks along the way.

Feel free to forward to a friend who may want to play this season!

…

Source: http://greatist.com/fitness/explosive-bodyweight-exercises?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed_http–greatistcom-

You likely already know about the benefits of bodyweight exercises. No-equipment-needed workouts can build muscle, burn fat, and improve athletic performance, speed, and power.1 Add a jumping element—making the moves plyometric—and you quickly elevate your routine to a whole new level.2

Before starting, keep in mind that plyometric training is not intended for workout newbies or those recovering from injuries. The moves should focus on good form and all-out effort. That’s why it’s best to do these at the start of a workout before muscles fatigue and performance slows.

If you’re new to plyo, focus on three to four moves at the start of your workout (after a warm up); two to three sets; three to five reps per set. Perform the moves two to four times per week, with 48 to 72 hours rest between sessions. Even if you can’t squeeze that in, you may still reap some benefits: One study found that moderate plyo training just twice per week was effective in producing power and strength gains.3 And there’s another bonus: You don’t need any equipment for this.

Check out our list of moves below, plus a quick workout designed exclusively for Greatist by Shaun Jenkins, trainer at YG Studios in New York City. From beginner to advanced, here are 19 awesome strength- and speed-boosting exercises.

Beginner

<img src="http://greatist.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_main…

Source: http://www.foodpolitics.com/2016/01/rogue-dietary-guidelines/

While we are endlessly waiting for the release of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines, Tamar Haspel and I thought we would jump the gun and write up for the Washington Post what we think most makes sense: How to eat more healthfully, in 6 easy steps.

Here are our Rogue Dietary Guidelines:

Go through the fine print of the omnibus spending bill just passed by Congress, and you’ll see that the 2015 Dietary Guidelines, scheduled for release in — you guessed it — 2015, have been pushed out to 2016. You wouldn’t think that the government’s efforts, every five years, to help Americans eat more healthfully would turn into a political football. But when its appointed scientists reviewed the literature on meat and health, for example, they did something quite radical. They said what they meant with no equivocations: Americans should eat less meat.

As if that were not radical enough — previous committees had pussyfooted with such euphemisms as “choose lean meats to reduce saturated fat” — this committee insisted on an additional reason beyond health: environmental considerations.

The result? Uproar.

Arguments like the ones over the Dietary Guidelines, fueled by lobbyists, politicians and agenda-driven groups, make diet advice seem maddeningly inconsistent, but the fundamentals haven’t changed much at all.

It’s time to take back the process, so we’re going rogue and issuing our own Dietary Guidelines, untainted by industry …

Source: http://tonygentilcore.com/2016/01/layering-the-kettlebell-swing/

The kettlebell swing offers many benefits and can be utilized in many ways.

It’s a fantastic modality to train explosiveness and power (especially as a more “user friendly” alternative to Olympic lifting), it’s a back saver in that 1) when it’s performed correctly it helps to dissociate hip movement from lumbar movement (it’s all about the hinge baby) and 2) even Dr. Stuart McGill agrees that the KB swing is the bombdiggidy1, it serves as an excellent conditioning tool, and it’s one of those things that doesn’t take up too much gym space or equipment.

All you need is a body and a kettlebell.2

The thing is, the kettlebell swing isn’t as intuitive as it looks.

Frankly, more often than not, whenever I watch someone try it (or even coach it), it ends up looking like whateverthefuck dance moves Drake’s doing in his Hotline Bling video.

There’s a lot going on with a swing.

A lot of “things” need to happen and be in working order from a patterning standpoint to perform one competently. And it’s compounded further when we start to factor in load, not to mention the ballistic nature of the movement itself.

Whenever I begin to coach someone up who’s new to the movement (or even if I’m workin…

Source: http://www.fannetasticfood.com/2016/01/05/victorias-secret-sport-clothing-review/

Thank you to Victoria’s Secret for sponsoring this post! While this was a sponsored opportunity from Victoria’s Secret all content and opinions expressed here are my own.

I recently discovered something awesome: Victoria’s Secret now has fitness apparel. Did you guys know this? I didn’t!

 
Above outfit: Knockout Crop in Cold Mountain Glow in the Dark (!) and Seamless Tank in Black Melange (<—on clearance right now)

When Victoria’s Secret reached out to me about trying their sport apparel and promoting an awesome new years deal they’ll be running starting on January 7th (more on that in my follow up post – stay tuned, because it’s AMAZING), I was intrigued. I had a feeling their stuff would be cute, but would it be functional/comfy?

Well, good news: it’s not only insanely cute, but it’s also really comfortable and high quality, too. In fact, I already fell of my new kick scooter (amateur hour over here – don’t worry, I’m a pro now though) and skidded on the pavement in the tights pictured below (the Knockout Tight in a Limited Edition pri…

Source: http://summertomato.com/a-life-changing-but-unsexy-new-years-resolution/

Photo by melodramababs

I know, I know. You’d really love to lose 25 lbs this year so you’re cutting out sugar and signed up for a half marathon this spring. I admire your ambition, and I do hope it works out for you.

Lofty goals make you feel good, like you’re committing to something that will have a real and lasting impact on your life. And the New Year is as good a time as any to set your eyes on greatness.

But as we’re looking for big, meaningful new goals to kickstart the New Year, it’s easy to forget that sometimes it’s the little, unsexy habits that help you make the most progress.

This week, hundreds of new people have signed up for my program Foodist Kitchen that teaches you how to cook without recipes in 30 days. They’ve made the commitment to cook at home more often this year, with the larger goal of eating more healthy, unprocessed foods in general.

In my experience, being able to cook simple, delicious meals at home is the single most important habit for getting healthy and losing weight, so I whole-heartedly support this goal.

And it’s no accident that one of the first activities of the program is identifying your personal barriers to cooking regularly.

Often th…