Source: http://greatist.com/live/too-much-toothpaste?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed_http–greatistcom-

We want to keep our pearly whites shiny and cavity free, so we use a generous amount of toothpaste every time we brush. But the bristles do most of the cleaning, so we’re actually overdoing it when it comes to toothpaste, says Steven Goldberg, a dentist in Manhattan. All you need is a pea-size amount of fluoride toothpaste to get the job done (see Exhibit A below). Kids younger than 6 should use even less—about the size of a grain of rice.

Photo: Katie Manley

The recommendations are smaller for children because there’s concern they may swallow some toothpaste, and in extreme cases, they can experience fluorosis, brown spots on the teeth from too much fluoride. There is no harm if adults use more toothpaste than recommended, says Ana Paula Ferraz-Dougherty, a dentist and spokesperson for the American Dental Association. But as Goldberg points out, a lot of (fairly) expensive toothpaste will go down the drain.

“Using enough toothpaste to cover the entire brush head will only go to waste and be spit out into the sink,” Goldberg says. “Most people are using too much, because they follow what they’ve seen in advertisements and commercials.”

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Source: http://romanfitnesssystems.com/articles/all-nighter/

“I need this done for tomorrow morning, but don’t spend too much time on it. I don’t want you to pull an all-nighter.”

My boss was overly optimistic. That night I pulled my first all-nighter at work. 

I’ve had a handful all-nighters since then, but you always remember your first time.

From sunset to sunrise, I stared at a computer screen trying to do a week’s worth of work before 9:00 AM. My energy spiked and crashed: my work was sloppy, I made silly mistakes, and the next day, I had a killer headache.

That happened over 4 years ago, and I still remember how much it sucked.

Maybe you’ve never had to pull an all-nighter, but you’ve probably worked your fair share of late nights. If you’re tired of feeling like crap when burning the midnight oil, read on to see what I learned for working for 36 hours straight.

The All-Nighter Experiment

A couple weeks ago, I made the decision to have an all-nighter. I’m self-employed so it wasn’t because of a deadline or last-minute fire drill at work; it was an experiment.

I wanted to figure out the best way to have a productive all-nighter.

A lot of my clients work ridiculous hours in careers like finance and law, and the #1 question I get is, “How do I survive the insane hours?  I needed to provide healthy alternatives to the rampant off-label prescription usage happening on Wall Street, and I needed to make sure those alte…

Source: http://www.thefitbits.com/2015/09/national-fitness-day-get-fit-for-free.html

It’s just one week until National Fitness Day, what will you be doing next Wednesday September 9th for the most active day of the year?

All across the UK hundreds of health and fitness sites will be opening their doors offering free events, classes and taster sessions, including everything from Body Pump to Hula Hooping, boxing to free PT sessions.

I’m really excited to be a National Fitness Day ambassador, working with UKactive to help spread the word about all the great opportunities to get fit for free on the day.

Whether you’re a fitness addict like me, have just started exercising or maybe you’re thinking about it but not sure what to try, there’s plenty to be getting involved in. For lots of people, me included, starting to exercise can be daunting and sometimes lonely.

There’s no need to pound the streets alone or hide at the back of a class – the key to enjoying exercise is to find something you LOVE, and some awesome people to do it with. Research shows you’re much more likely to stick at keeping fit if you exercise with a friend, so why not grab a mate and try a class near you.

Visit the National Fitness Day website for more info and to find an event near you. Alternatively, if you’re a gym or health and fitness centre and…

Source: http://www.thefitbits.com/2015/12/strictly-come-skateboarding.html

Thanks to Lululemon for this mantra to live by 🙂

It doesn’t look that scary. Until you step on the board.

I didn’t realise when I started skateboarding just how difficult it is to actually commit to stuff and land a trick. It’s not the same fear I’ve felt when scaling a climbing wall, stepping into the boxing ring, or jumping into deep water. It doesn’t make me cry, or panic, or rush with adrenalin.

It just stops me from trying.
Case in point: A few weeks ago we went to one of Brighton’s quieter skateparks to have a play, and whilst Chris got to work reminding himself how to do ollies and learning how to pump round the bowl, it took me the whole session to grow the balls to skate in from what must’ve been a 4ft ramp. It’s not overly high or intimidating – until I stood on the board at the top of it.

I’ve been skating weekly at Brighton Youth Centre with She Shredders so have got used to one place (with lots of friendly people to help me), and as soon as I put myself in a new environment it all went to shit.

After much faffing I got angry with myself and did it anyway, with varying levels of success:

…

Source: http://zenhabits.net/essential/

By Leo Babauta

I’m so excited to share my new book with you that I’ve been working on for the last few months!

My new book is called Essential Zen Habits: Mastering the Art of Change, Briefly.

It’s a concise guide to changing habits and dealing with struggles. I made it intentionally brief so that you don’t have to dig for the “tell me what to do” bits. It’s mean to get to the point, quickly, with no stories and not many explanations. The “just do this” book you’ve been wanting, to help you take action.

It’s on Amazon & the iBooks store:

Essential Zen Habits – paperback edition
Essential Zen Habits in the Kindle store
Essential Zen Habits – iBooks edition

What does this book cover? Here are the key topics:

How to change a habit, using a 6-week process.
Troubleshooting habit changes if you’re having difficulties.
How to change a bad habit (advanced topic).
How to deal with life struggles.
Mindfulness.

This book is very similar to the Zen Habits book I published on Kickstarter last year, but I did three things: 1) I took reader feedback and changed a bunch of things in the book (thank you, readers!); 2) I added some ideas I’ve been practicing with this year; and 3) I changed the format of the book into a very compact “just do this” format based on a post by Derek Sivers.

Here’s a sample of the book (a PDF download).

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Source: http://greatist.com/live/negative-thoughts-toward-others?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed_http–greatistcom-

“He is such a loser,” I thought to myself.

I was at a bar a few weeks ago, talking to my friend Lucy. She’s an incredible writer, but you wouldn’t know it. She never talks about it. She never posts her work on social media. She never brings up any cool projects she’s working on in conversation. She’s what you might call a quiet achiever.

The only problem is that she’s a freelancer. She wants (and needs) all the projects she can get. As I was talking to her about the necessary nature of self-promotion (“It’s the new normal!” “How is anyone going to know about you?” “Stop hiding—you have great work to offer!”), she was opening up to it. Until her new boyfriend, also a writer, said, “Yeah, but Lucy’s understated. She’s not like you, Susie.” Ouch!

After my initial defensiveness wore off, I thought about what he was really saying. One of the greatest things that you can do for yourself in this world is to pay attention not to what people say, but to what they mean. I don’t know exactly what his comment meant, but maybe it was:

I’m too scared to put my creative work “out there,” so why should my girlfriend? We don’t need advice! We are doing fine! Why does someone think we need help? I don’t want Lucy to be too successful and outshine my work. Your boldness in sharing your work irks me. What makes you feel so self-assured about doing it?

Whatever the subtext, the truth is, his comment was not about m…

Source: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/12/22/459382720/how-did-santa-get-hooked-on-cookies-and-milk?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=thesalt

We won’t sugarcoat it: The tradition of children leaving out milk and cookies for Santa Claus isn’t an easy one to trace.

Lew Robertson/Getty Images

You know the Christmas routine: Decorate the tree, wrap gifts and leave out treats for Santa on Christmas Eve.

Marketers and Hollywood reinforce that cookie tradition for us year after year.

This year, in Reddi-wip’s “I Am Not Your Dad” commercial, a father is caught by his son nibbling cookies. In The Santa Clause, a Tim Allen Santa tells a little girl that he can’t eat fattening treats and then returns the next year to find soy milk instead. Macaulay Culkin, as Kevin in Home Alone, leaves out milk and cookies without his parents around to prompt him.

Clint Black even wrote a Christmas song titled “Until Santa’s Gone (Milk and Cookies).”

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Source: http://greatist.com/eat/internet-response-cooking-food-dishwasher?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed_http–greatistcom-

We love whipping up meals in our Crock-Pot, rice cooker, and Vitamix. But a dishwasher? That seems a little outrageous. So when Shape magazine tweeted a story from PureWow titled “5 Foods You Can Cook In Your Dishwasher” the Internet understandably responded with confusion, eye rolls, jokes, and lots and lots of GIFs (see below).

We haven’t tried to make dishwasher salmon or asparagus (we’ll leave that up to you adventurous folks), but very reputable cooking blogs have and claim it works.

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Source: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/12/22/460291977/from-raucous-to-ritzy-a-brief-history-of-christmas-tea?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=thesalt

Carolers sing during Christmas tea at the Drake Hotel in Chicago. In some fancy hotels, Christmas tea has become a refined respite for harried holiday shoppers. But the tradition’s roots are much rowdier: efforts to fight public drunkenness.

Courtesy of the Drake Hotel

Christmas is a time for coming together with family and loved ones. Some 200 years ago, it was also a time to get stinking drunk in public.

“I guess [the way] Christmas used to be celebrated, you’d just get drunk,” says University of California, Santa Barbara historian Erika Rappaport. Indeed, Christmas was one of the few times during the year that working-class men had off, and many would use it to blow their wages drinking and gambling at t…

Source: http://greatist.com/eat/healthy-freezer-meals?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed_http–greatistcom-

The freezer aisle at the grocery store is full of heavily processed food, but that doesn’t mean your freezer has to be. If you carve out a prep day to cook and store make-ahead meals, you’ll have plenty of healthy options that can be reheated in minutes. We’ve got you covered for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Breakfast

Photo: Host the Toast

1. Freezer-Friendly Bagel Bombs

“Bagel bomb” doesn’t exactly sound like a healthy breakfast, but these stuffed bagels (yes, you read that right) deserve a spot in your freezer. (Not to mention: They’re only 240 calories.) You can customize the filling, but make sure to try the everything topping.

2. Breakfast Quesadilla With Cheese, Spinach, and White Beans

Upgrade your breakfast quesadilla with this easy, freezer-ready version. They come packed with protein thanks to the beans and cheese plus a serving of veggie…