5 Reasons to Start Training with Gymnastic Rings

5 Reasons to Start Training with Gymnastic Rings

The end of the year is upon us which means getting through the holidays. How we manage our physical and emotional stress will dictate a happy holiday for sure. Here’s a tip: Try Gymnastic Rings! Not only are they a great way to add something new to your workout routine, they have a lot of benefits too. Check out my top 5 reasons everyone needs a set of rings below. Need a set of your own? I also talk about my top two choices at the end. Continue reading →

6 Amazing Benefits of Drinking Coffee

6 Amazing Benefits of Drinking Coffee

You’ve heard it all before. Yes, the slew of nasty comments from those caffeinated-beverage-naysayers. Coffee will give you bad breath! Coffee will stain your teeth! Coffee will give you adrenal fatigue! Coffee will keep you up all night! Pish, posh. Coffee will give us more time to do important tasks that we likely procrastinated during the daytime. Things like clean our houses, do our laundry, do our taxes, or just peruse Pinterest for hours on end. What if we were to say, “Coffee will improve your overall health!”? That got your attention, didn’t it? Perhaps even the attention of non-coffee drinkers alike.

Humor aside, coffee has some serious benefits. The coffee drinker can reap advantages such as: potential diabetes prevention, liver preservation (especially for the alcohol drinker), improved energy levels and brain function, cardiovascular protection, and more! Without further ado, here are some super amazing benefits of drinking coffee, that make us feel a little less guilty for our supercharged habit. Continue reading →

Tips for a Plastic-Free Holidays

Tips for a Plastic-Free Holidays

Did you know that turkey day is actually a very trashy day? But it doesn’t have to be that way. Too much plastic is needlessly purchased for the holidays. Are you ready to say goodbye to needless plastic this holiday season?

My new book called Say Goodbye To Plastic: A Survival Guide To Plastic-Free Living is packed full of tips to help newcomers to the plastic-free lifestyle as well as inspire practiced veterans to continue to dramatically reduce their holiday waste print. Studies have shown that very year Americans needlessly throw away 25% more trash between Thanksgiving and New Year’s than any other time of year.

Let’s bring on the holiday cheer this year (yes, even in a pandemic) and put the brakes on using and discarding plastic. After all, why pay money for plastic packaging that is destined for disposal when you can save money and our planet by opting for biodegradable solutions and reusables instead. Continue reading →

Easy Ratatouille Stew Recipe

Easy Ratatouille Stew Recipe

Providing vegan alternatives to the sorts of delicious comfort foods that everyone craves, The Dirty Vegan Cookbook, Revised Edition by Catherine Gill makes it easier than ever to live the vegan lifestyle. Self-styled as “vegan junk food”–healthy vegan food that doesn’t skimp on taste–The Dirty Vegan Cookbook is a celebration of all the amazing tastes and dishes available to those on vegan diets. Enjoy a recipe featured in the book below!

 

Some people like to get complicated with recipes like ratatouille, but not me. My approach has always been to create recipes and make dishes that taste fancy, while remaining simple to prepare and serve. With culinary shortcuts and by using certain easy techniques in vegan cooking, I am able to create complex flavors without getting too complicated in the kitchen. Let’s face it: eating and savoring the food that you make, with your guests, is a much more enjoyable use of your time than spending way too many hours in food preparation. This ratatouille recipe tastes so flavorful, and better yet, it pretty much makes itself once you let it simmer. It is also one of those recipes that will fill your house with wonderful and delicious scents. Be careful—you might attract the whole neighborhood with this one! Continue reading →

Zero Waste Tips for Fall Hiking

Zero Waste Tips for Fall Hiking

No matter where you live, there’s something energizing about the fall. School starts, new projects begin, and those lazy summer days are now a distant memory.

There’s no better place to enjoy the changing of the season than on the hiking trail. Breathe in that crisp autumn air all while leaving no trace with our zero-waste tips and tricks offered below. Continue reading →

Vegan Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins Recipe

Vegan Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins Recipe

Providing vegan alternatives to the sorts of delicious comfort foods that everyone craves, The Dirty Vegan Cookbook, Revised Edition by Catherine Gill makes it easier than ever to live the vegan lifestyle. Self-styled as “vegan junk food”–healthy vegan food that doesn’t skimp on taste–The Dirty Vegan Cookbook is a celebration of all the amazing tastes and dishes available to those on vegan diets. Enjoy a recipe featured in the book below!

This recipe was inspired by a muffin I saw in the bakery case at a coffee shop, which a friend of mine would often get with her coffee. I veganized the muffin based on the flavors that she described; having been a former pastry chef and owning my own vegan bakery really comes in handy! When I asked my friend to try my vegan version, she could not believe how much my recipe tasted like the one she would buy at the coffeehouse. Continue reading →

How to Exercise with a Face Mask

How to Exercise with a Face Mask

Burning fitness question of the moment: If you have to wear a mask to work out, what’s the right way to do it? And how to do it with an activity like rowing that’s often high-intensity? Is it even a good idea?

 

Many of us don’t have a choice in the matter. Our gyms have decided that the only way we’re getting back in is if we wear a mask, even while working out. Other gyms and states have decided that wearing a mask while doing the actual workout is optional, although you have to wear one any time you’re not working out.

If you’re a fitness professional, though, it may come down to a choice between putting that mask on and working. The good news is, you don’t have to choose. It IS possible to wear a mask while working out or teaching. We dive in. Continue reading →

Best Way to Warm-Up Before Exercise

Best Way to Warm-Up Before Exercise

Over the past 20-30 years, fitness and sports training programs have evolved in a way that yield exceptional human performance results. You may remember in the 70-80’s, a 4.5 second 40m sprint was unheard of. 300lb football players were non-existent. Now, there are 300lb football players who can run the 40m sprint in 4.6 seconds. The average weight of big players in football is 300+ lbs.

You cannot argue with results! Sports science and training is producing some of the biggest, fastest, and strongest people in human history. Continue reading →