Home Workouts, Increasing Motivation, and Dietary Cholesterol

Nutrition Corner

Now is the FDA’s pivotal moment to address nutrition security

How to incorporate avocado into your daily diet for weight loss

Recipe for The Day

Sticky pork belly with ginger and honey tomatoes recipe: The tomatoes in this dish have the perfect combination of salt, acid, heat and sweetness that makes you want to mop up every last drop.

Lifestyle & Fitness Focus

7 Tips For Working Out At Home When You Have No Motivation

• Have a Ritual: Even if you only have a few feet of physical space to work with, you can still create the emotional space for these pre-workout rituals.

• Stick To A Bodyweight Program: Remind yourself that bodyweight training at home doesn’t have to mean you leave your training splits behind.

• Phone A Friend: Pick a yoga video, get your friend the link, dial them up on Google Hangouts, and… do some yoga together. Or some at-home strength training — whatever floats both of your boats.

• Try An Online Class (No… Really.): If you’re a lifter by nature, the idea of taking an online workout class might be… unappealing. But group fitness classes have a truckload of benefits for lifters.

• Use An App: Be gentle with yourself and enjoy the benefits of a program being all laid out for you.

• Make A List Of 10-Minute AMRAPs: It can be a lot easier to convince yourself to move if you promise yourself it won’t last a long time. The intensity of a quick AMRAP (as many rounds/reps as possible) can be hard to imagine when you don’t even want to get up to grab more water for yourself.

• Don’t Work Out (But Maybe Get Some Sunlight): More often than not, the moment I step outside, I feel at least a little better.

5 Ways to Increase Motivation

• Go Back to “Why”: Focusing on a dull task doesn’t make it any more attractive. Zooming out and asking yourself why you are bothering in the first place will make it more appealing.

• Adopt Five Minutes Strategy: Instead of exhausting yourself with work all at once, you can work towards your goals by adopting a five minutes strategy. Start working for five minutes, then take a short break. Often that little push will be enough to get you going.

• Move Around: Exercise brings levels of mental clarity like nothing else. If you can’t go to the gym, follow home workout videos on YouTube or stream fitness classes on apps like Peloton. If you prefer doing cardio outdoors, go for a run.

• Find the Next Step: If it seems impossible to work on a project for you, you can try to focus on the next immediate step.

• Find Your Itch: What is keeping you from working? Don’t let the itch continue without isolating it and removing the problem. Are you unmotivated because you feel overwhelmed, tired, afraid, restless, or angry? Maybe it is because you aren’t sure you have time or you haven’t finished your delegated tasks yet.

Maitake Mushroom’s Three Benefits (and Why You Need it!)

• Vitamin D: Maitake mushrooms are a natural source of vitamin D, but the amount can vary due to growing conditions, sun exposure, and maturity. When Maitake mushrooms are exposed to sunlight or ultraviolet (UV) light during their growth, they can synthesize vitamin D. It’s kind of like what human skin does when exposed to sunlight. The type of vitamin D found in fungi is D2 rather than D3.

• Phosphorus: Maitake mushrooms also have phosphorus. Our body uses this essential mineral for lots of different physiological processes. A few examples include bone health, energy metabolism, cell membrane structure, and DNA/RNA synthesis.

• Potassium: Potassium is present in most plants and fungi and is crucial for the human diet. This essential mineral plays an important role in maintaining health, including fluid balance.

5 Must-Do Lower Back Exercises to Build Strength and Stability

• 45 Degree Extension: The low back and the hips work in tandem, and this exercise emulates that. The key to allowing the hip to engage is ensuring that you maintain a bit of rigidity through the spine. Focus on not allowing your spine to round out so that almost all of your movement comes through low back and hip extension.

• Bird Dog: There's value in simplicity. This is a simple movement that may not look like much, but it creates great baseline strength throughout the lower back. This will build stability throughout the spine and low back, ultimately allowing you to perform more athletically in other movements.

• Good Morning: The good morning is a hip-hinging motion that will place significant stress on the lower back when loaded up with a barbell or kettlebell. As you descend down, the low back has to work extra hard to maintain control of the force pressing against your mid-back by the weight. Similar to the bird dog, take these slow and steady to get a feel for loading weight.

• Romanian Deadlift: This is where things pop up a notch. We're going from loading just a little bit to being able to move big weight to build strength. The lowest portion of the movement, when the hips are flexed backwards, is when the most stress will hit the low back.

• Kettlebell Swing: The lower back supports more than just slow, steady lifts. Many quicker movements depend on it as well.