Source: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/12/21/460188083/beyond-panettone-5-global-christmas-breads-to-nibble-on?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=thesalt

Panettone may have once sounded exotic, but these days, the dome-shaped Italian fruit bread is readily available on American grocery store shelves. But if you’re ready to expand your repertoire of global holiday breads, there are many more yeasty, doughy traditions to nibble on. And they all remind us how expensive, imported fruits — like Greek currants and Italian candied citrus peel — have long been a part of our most treasured Christmas foods.

Here, a brief tour of five other fruited holiday breads from around the world.

Julekake

Norwegian julekake is made with a sweet dough, rich in eggs and sugar, and filled with candied fruit.

Courtesy of Molly Ingebretsen

Julekake is panettone’s distant Nordic cousin – but with a little bit of tropical zing.

“It’s basically a sweet dough base,” explains Kevin E. Hirman, president of Denny’s 5th Avenue Bakery in Minneapolis, Minn. “Very rich in eggs and sugar, and filled with candied fruit: orange peel, lemon peel, and re…

Source: http://www.thefitbits.com/2015/09/win-2x-race-entries-to-brighton-color.html

I’m really excited about this guys.

As you know, my infatuation for Brighton reaches dizzying heights where running is involved, especially if there’s an opportunity for a right old endorphin binge. Throw in a few rainbows and a massive post-race party and you’ve basically got Nirvana.

Coming back to Brighton on October 10th is the epic, the awesome, Color Run, and I’ve got two race entries to give away.

Hailed the ‘Happiest 5k on the Planet’, I can personally vouch for this as the most fun I’ve ever had running a 5k, ever. If you’d call jumping, skipping and dancing your way round the (untimed) rainbow-coloured course ‘running’, of course.

I don’t need to spell out why this event is so awesome – I’ll let the photos do the talking. It’s not about times, and PBs and pace – show me a race more full of endorphins, smiles and silliness than this. I dare you.

<img alt="FitBits | Brighton Color Run 2014" border="0" height="538" src="http://2…

Source: http://www.sonima.com/fitness/gyrotonic/

For some, Gyrotonic® may as well be the name of some obscure Greek cocktail, not the unusual physical practice that it is. Any teacher of the Gyrotonic Expansion System knows how difficult it is to convey in words what Gyrotonic is and what it offers to someone who has never experienced it. I’ve heard teachers describe it as ‘circular-Pilates’ or, ‘yoga without the poses,’ even I resort to this terminology for brevity’s sake. But, the true definition of Gyrotonic is much more complex. The medium through which Gyrotonic is delivered is similar to that of Pilates in that there are large pieces of specialized apparatuses on which a practitioner can take private sessions with a certified teacher, or use independently. There is even a mat version of the practice, known as Gyrokinesis, which excludes the use of equipment.

Gyrotonic is a progressive body conditioning system created by Juliu Horvath, which employs key principles of swimming, ballet, gymnastics, qi gong, and yoga to work the body in a circular, integrated manner. What’s unique about Gyrotonic and what makes it so challenging is the three-dimensional movement it employs. Many people used to linear exercise systems find it daunting at first because of how much more awareness is required and how little control is initially felt over the body. In addition to the three-dimensionality, the movement is coordinated in rhythm with specific breathing techniques. The c…

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tinybuddha/~3/ZblSXMKTTkw/

Note: This post contains a giveaway. If you’re reading this in your inbox, click here to enter on the site!

When I was a kid, I could color for hours. I could be a little Type-A about it; if I went outside the lines, I would often rip out the page and throw it away, and I may even have yelled, “I hate coloring!” while cursing my imperfection.

But that was a lie—I loved it. So it was only a matter of time before I way lying on my stomach in the living room, humming the Gummy Bears cartoon theme song, and trying again for a crayon masterpiece.

Years later, in my early twenties, I did the exact same thing in my living room while my boyfriend (at the time) played video games. I remember thinking we were both regressing, but I didn’t care.

We’d each battled depression before, and were always on the lookout for something to numb the pain. I don’t think we consciously realized it at the time, but that’s exactly what we were doing right then, in a far healthier way than usual.

There was something so calming about doing these mindless, childlike activities, free from the burden of our usual stresses. Bills were piling up, neither of us had a career path, but for that short time, our minds felt free.

In my late twenties, having lost touch with my colori…

Source: http://greatist.com/move/bodyweight-workout-for-runners?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed_http–greatistcom-

Listen up, runners! You probably know you should do more than endless laps and intervals to stay at the top of your game and prevent injury. But how often are you mixing in a strength routine, yoga class, or spin session? (Yeah, that’s what we thought.)

Luckily, running coach and Mile High Run Club instructor Luke Lombardo has a fill-in-the-gaps solution: a bodyweight-only no-nonsense workout that helps build strength. You’ll start with a sprint, then move into some classics go-tos for a full-body workout that lasts just 15 minutes. Try this outdoors or in a gym using a treadmill. Either will have you sweating in no time.

…

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/yogadork/dwhv/~3/OcFLIOltlM4/

What says mother-daughter bonding like a little acro yoga? Fans of Lena Dunham’s hit show Girls will get a chance to see Hannah Horvath and her mom Loreen, played by Becky Ann Baker, pair up for some high-flying feats of acrobatic yoga partnering in order to work through some issues. Balancing on each other’s limbs is one […]

You’re reading Hannah And Her Mom Do Acro Yoga In New Season Of ‘Girls’ by YogaDork. Follow YogaDork on Twitter and Facebook.

…

Source: http://www.thefitbits.com/2015/09/training-brain-to-eat-healthily-part-1.html

In 2015 our average attention span is just eight seconds. Eight bloody seconds. That’s less than the humble goldfish (which is nine, if you’re interested).

As a digital marketer, this presents an exciting daily challenge – creating content, in a world with so much stimulus, that captures and keeps the attention of various audiences. Campaigns that keep attention enough to elicit an emotional response – whether that’s to like, comment or share a piece of content, take part in a competition, use a hashtag or follow a brand.

As a human – it presents a daily bombardment of information and distraction. 

I’ve spent most of today sitting about on the internet, scrolling endlessly through people’s lives, lying in wait for the next notification to reel me in, reading up on cat behavioural traits, browsing recipes, looking for races to do, reading blogs and various articles on nothing in particular.

Basically doing everything but what I planned to do today.

When I finally started to write I ended up straddling two blog posts simultaneously, not able to decide which to focus on.

Then I told everyone on Twitter about it and urgently went looking for this:

Sometimes, it’s impossible for me to focus on one thing at a t…

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tinybuddha/~3/ST3DFlqpjX4/

“Make ‘Let go of control’ your mantra today.” ~Tiny Buddha’s 365 Tiny Love Challenges #177

When the phone call came I was thousands of miles from home. My father was suddenly ill, admitted to the hospital. I was a medical doctor by then, and I felt a foreboding.

My mind went back to my childhood.

Imagine being a little child in a dark room. Every small noise evokes images of vicious monsters lurking in the night. They draw nearer.

You cry out, “Daddy!” And cry out once more. Then your hero comes to the rescue.

Your father shuffles in half-asleep, picks you up, and pats you to sleep. All terrors dispelled, you feel invincible in your father’s arms. That’s one of my earliest memories.

That feeling of utter safety and joy in my father’s arms was deeply imprinted in me. I said to my wife, “I don’t want to lose him!” He wasn’t very old, my mother had just retired, and they intended to travel the world together.

Only months earlier I had taken our daughter to visit him. His first grandchild had thrilled him beyond description. He gazed at her adoringly as she fell asleep, bought a parrot in a cage to amuse her, clowned around to keep her laughing, and generally behaved as if he was high on love.

Now we had a b…

Source: http://www.theminimalists.com/mlml/

By Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus · Follow: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram

A year after we started our website we published our first book, Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life. Five years later, we decided to update Minimalism—not only with a beautiful new cover, but every single page is refined.

This book has been a long time in the making. Its initial iteration, conceived in 2010 and completed in March 2011, was a 300-page how-to guide called Minimalism in 21 Days. A 300-page book about becoming a minimalist? This didn’t feel right to us. How could a book about minimalism—a book about reducing life’s excess—be 300 pages? We could almost taste the irony. Don’t get us wrong: it was a good book, far better than most drivel you’ll find on the Internet. But because we didn’t feel it was a great book, and because it lacked a necessary brevity, we did what any responsible authors would’ve done: we scrapped the entire project, published an attenuated version of Minimalism in 21 Days for free on our website, and started over with a blank page. It was difficult, but it felt like the only genuine way to create a meaningful book.

The result was the first edition of Minimalism: Live a Meani…

Source: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/12/20/460488236/oh-bring-us-some-wait-what-is-figgy-pudding?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=thesalt

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“Figgy pudding” is a traditional Christmas desserts that normally contains no figs — and isn’t what Americans usually mean by “pudding.”

Edward Shaw/iStockphoto

This holiday season, one popular Christmas carol has been raising some questions here at NPR headquarters. Namely:

“Oh, bring us some figgy pudding, oh, bring us some figgy pudding, oh — “

Wait. What is figgy pudding?

First of all, it’s “absolutely delicious,” says…