Right Weigh to Weigh in

How to make your weigh in accurate

Life is becoming complicated. Who would've thought there was a right way and a wrong way to do something as simple as weighing yourself?  As is often the case, there's more to this weighing-in than meets the eye.

If the only thing standing between you and physical perfection is the bathroom scale, you're about to discover that the little machine in the corner of your bathroom is no longer the enemy-that is, IF you follow these tips:

• Weigh yourself only once a week-weighing yourself more often than  that, will make you crazy. When weighing multiple times a week, daily, or worst of all, multiple daily weigh-ins, craziness, is almost guaranteed. The scale reflects normal fluctuations in the amount of water retained in your body cavities, circulatory system and tissues (this is especially true for women, who must contend with monthly dipping and surging estrogen levels leading up to and/or during the menstrual cycle that encourage water retention.)

The #1 Way to Develop Sustained, All-Day Energy

I want THAT kind of energy

"I'm facing an energy crisis," my friend said, confessing she was on her third venti dark roast at 10:30 a.m. one recent Saturday morning. Familial obligations meant she'd blown off the gym for the past month. Her physique suffered, but so did her energy levels. A chicken-or-egg scenario resulted: She was too tired to hit the gym, but she lagged energy from hitting Dunkin Donuts rather than dead lifts.

Drinks, supplements, and all sorts of other concoctions promise boundless energy, but the real boost happens after you workout, and you can't put a price on that. You know the immediate rush after a good workout, but that same high-intensity workout can also create all-day energy.

To understand why a workout gives you energy when logic would suggest it costs energy to lift heavy, you need to understand the delicate give-and-take of how muscles use and create energy.

When you exercise, every organ either

The Return of Epsom Salts

Don't look now but you're soaking in it.

“Is there anything I can do for you?” I asked my younger brother, sympathetically, as he lie on the couch; his back “out” again.  “Yes,” he said, “can you pick me up a big bag of Epsom salts?”   

I was impressed that my normally non-compliant brother, who I’ve had to practically beg to do the exercises I taught him to rehabilitate his back, would make the effort to run a bath.  But, I guess pain can be a powerful motivator. 

Many people still think of Epsom salts baths as the decidedly unsophisticated remedy Grandma used to ease her arthritis pain; and while most of the claims for Epsom salts as a cure for arthritis are anecdotal, I was pleased that my brother had discovered this old-school remedy for pain and detoxification.  

There has been a

7 Golden Rules to Gain Control Over the Holidays

Merry Stressmas!

“Don’t judge,” my client said, wandering into my office 15 minutes late. I certainly felt ready to: She had blown off our last two sessions, and truthfully I didn’t expect her to show today.

As she sat down, I noticed she carried a few extra pounds, which she attempted to stealthily conceal beneath a loose-fitting sleeveless Anthropologie dress. Yet my annoyance turned to sympathy as she hurriedly told me her story.

“My mom died earlier this year,” she began. “This was two weeks after I found out my boyfriend of three years was cheating on me. Look, I’ll spare you the pity story. Holidays this year have been brutal for me, a reminder of the pain this year held, and, well, I’ve assuaged my grief with a batch of peppermint bark brownies I baked for my daughter’s school sale.”

I knew what she was going through. I’ve been there, though I chose to drown my sorrows in endless lunges rather than food or alcohol. Regardless of our different approaches, beneath the holiday’s forced cheer lie