Nutrition Corner

Our 15 Best Slow-Cooker Dinners for a Healthy Heart: A dinner that supports a healthy heart shouldn't be hard to prepare.

The Best Exercise to Lower Blood Pressure, According to Study: How to lower blood pressure without medication: Wall squat and other isometric exercise is the best way to reduce hypertension, study finds.

Recipe for The Day

Nutritionists Say These 2-Ingredient Bagels Are ‘The Best Breakfast’ For Weight Loss: Discover the 2-ingredient bagels that are 'the best' for weight loss.

Lifestyle & Fitness Focus

Strength Building: 4 Tips to Reach Your Goals Faster

• Designing Your Workout Plan: Creating a balanced workout plan means mixing different exercises that work various muscles. This balance is vital — it helps you build strength evenly and avoid injury.

• Nutrition for Strength: A nutritious diet fuels your strength training. It’s like quality wood to a fire — it keeps it blazing. Pack in proteins; they’re the building blocks for muscle repair. Carbohydrates are your energy source, so don’t skimp on them. And don’t forget healthy fats; they’re vital for overall health.

• Make Time For Rest and Recovery: Rest days are critical to strength building. They allow muscles to repair and grow after the strain of lifting weights or resistance training. Think of rest as part of the workout, not just a break.

• The Role of Mindset in Building Strength: Mindset is everything in strength training. It’s the mental muscle that pushes you to lift one more rep. To stay motivated, set clear, achievable goals. Reward yourself when you hit them. During tough times, remember why you started. Visualize your stronger self.

5 Great Exercises to Ease Depression

• Go for a Run for an All-Natural Mood Boost: The most tangible example of exercise stimulating certain brain chemicals is the runner’s high that many athletes report experiencing once crossing a certain threshold of exertion. Endorphins reduce your perception of pain and trigger a positive feeling in the body.

• Lift Your Mood by Lifting Some Weights: Strength-training exercises also help relieve symptoms of depression, according to an analysis of 21 studies published in 2020. Similarly, another review of studies showed that adults who exercise with weights are less likely to develop depression than those who never exercise with weights.

• Combine Yoga With Other Treatments to Feel Even Better: Practicing yoga is another activity that can ease symptoms of depression, especially when combined with usual treatment, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, according to one study.

• Relieve Stress With Graceful Tai Chi Moves: Like yoga, tai chi is another Eastern tradition that might help ease depression. Specifically, this slow, gentle practice may help reduce stress and relieve symptoms of depression, according to a review of research.

• Walk Regularly to Help Ease the Blues: Simply putting one foot in front of the other may be the trick to feeling better — that’s because walking is an aerobic exercise that’s suited for almost everyone. All it takes is a pair of comfortable, supportive shoes, and you’re ready to go.

4 benefits of being thankful

• Gratitude can help relieve stress: We all deal with stress daily. Research has found that being grateful might keep our minds from getting so worked up worrying about things. When you’re in the middle of a stressful situation, refocusing on what you’re grateful for can calm the body and mind. This reduces the symptoms of stress.

• Gratitude can make you more positive: According to psychologist Dr. Catherine Jackson, gratitude causes the brain to increase the production of dopamine and serotonin.

• Gratitude strengthens your relationships: Relationships, whether romantic, family, or friends, can be full of disappointments. As we grow closer to others, we see their flaws. It can be easy to dwell on these. But an attitude of gratitude allows us to focus more on the good qualities. The more we focus on the good, the more positive attributes we’ll find.

• Gratitude can make you healthier: The more grateful you are, the healthier you feel. Research supports that, too. Those who practice gratitude tend to have better psychological health. Grateful people also involve themselves in healthy activities and are more willing to seek help for health concerns. Additionally, grateful people are more likely to take care of themselves.

Forget Russian twists — 3 standing ab exercises that sculpt your core with one kettlebell

• Standing Kettlebell Suitcase Marches: Suitcase marches (also known as kettlebell hip marches), challenge your core, hips and legs. To do the move, hold a kettlebell by your side with one arm, engage your core and keep your spine long, then raise one knee to hip height. Place your leg down and repeat with the other leg.

• Kettlebell Halos: The halo helps develop shoulder mobility and targets all three shoulder heads, the upper back, arms and core muscles. To do the kettlebell halo, brace your core and keep your spine long while maintaining a soft knee bend. Hold the bell upside down by the horns and grip tight, then raise the weight overhead with elbows bent. From here, rotate the kettlebell in circles around your head, changing direction every time the kettlebell travels in front of you. Avoid arching your back — if this happens, drop down by a few kilos.

• Kettlebell Windmills: Windmills require shoulder and core stability. The single-sided exercise encourages you to build strength on both sides of the body equally. We recommend opting for a light kettlebell that you can control using your weakest arm, then build gradually as you get stronger.

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