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You’ve likely seen grain bowls in your favorite magazines, food blogs, and on trendy restaurant menus. They always look beautiful and taste so composed and interesting — the exact opposite of how they can come across in real life. So how do they do it? How is it that a dish that’s lauded for its supposed simplicity can seem so tough to pull off in reality?

Grain bowls are a big part of my diet, but like anything, it’s really easy to fall into a rut. And in this season of shorter, darker days I find that food needs to step up to the plate and remain interesting, colorful, and flavorful. So here are a few tips for making grain bowls at home that are just as photogenic as the ones you’re seeing in magazines and just as delicious as the ones from the café down the street.

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Welcome to our Healthy Habit Challenge! Instead of focusing on (impossible-to-keep) New Year’s resolutions, we’re challenging four writers to start a new healthy habit. These challenges aren’t about cutting out sugar or going on a diet, or focused on the negative. They’re about doing something new and good — and making it second-nature.

I’m not what you would call an uninformed consumer — in addition to being budget-conscious basically from birth (thanks, Mom!), I worked at Good Housekeeping for more than four years, writing about products tested by the Good Housekeeping Institute, and have reported on grocery-shopping trends for years. Plus, as a personal trainer and because of a medically necessary diet (womps!), I’m generally pretty good about scanning the nutritional facts and looking for certain things on food labels.

Specifically, I’m really good at looking to see if something contains gluten.

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If you’re like me, cleaning is a great way to spend a Sunday. Or a Saturday. Or even a Friday night! Which is to say that I love cleaning. It makes me feel clear-headed and virtuous and, okay, I’ll be honest, slightly superior. If, on the other hand, you view cleaning as something to get done, not something to relish, you are probably in the majority.

Either way: Cleaning! It’s part of life. (Unless, of course, you pay someone else to do the dirty work, which is totally legit and totally worth it, but that’s another story.) And the question isn’t really whether you enjoy it or not (you should!), but rather how to do it — and, importantly, with what cleaning supplies.

I am a huge fan of bleach (don’t hold it against me; it is in my genes), but I am also a proponent of making use of things I already have. Salt, often combined with oil, is one of my favorite scouring agents. I also rely on baking soda, lemon juice, and vinegar.

Not only are they effective, affordable, and food-safe, but they’re also extremely convenient. In fact, you probably have all of them in your pantry already.

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Avocado toast enthusiasts, rejoice! A delicious eatery dedicated exclusively to the creamy fruit is opening in Amsterdam in the near future. Fittingly called The Avocado Show, the restaurant will open its doors to customers in 2017, reports Metro. Sure, you could just take a trip to one of the many restaurants obsessed with avocado in California, but The Avocado Show promises to go even further in its devotion.

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Weightlifting is enjoying a surge in popularity, but it might not be the best tool for every athlete.

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Looking for a snack that fills you up and fuels you well? The humble hard-boiled egg is a small powerhouse of nutrition, but easily overlooked. We’re upgrading the boiled egg in 10 sexy, spicy, flavor-jammed ways for better snacking.

Sometimes the very best way to upgrade a hard-boiled egg doesn’t involve extra ingredients, but a second round of cooking. It doesn’t matter if you’ve just cooked it, or it was made three days ago — treat your egg to a few minutes in a sizzling hot skillet. You’ll be rewarded with a wholesome snack that boasts a delicate crisp texture on one side, balanced by creamy innards.

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(Image credit: Apartment Therapy )

If you’re a fan of chocolate in every way, shape, and form, then perhaps you’ve given cacao nibs a try. Were you as surprised by them as I was? No, cacao nibs do not taste like my favorite bar of dark chocolate — they are far more bitter!

Essentially unprocessed chocolate, cacao or cocoa nibs are the part of the cocoa bean that are ground up and then sweetened and made into chocolate bars. On their own, they’re crunchy and have the flavor of unsweetened chocolate — extra-bitter and fruity. Since we’re used to eating sweetened chocolate — even the darkest dark chocolate has some sugar in there to balance it out — cacao nibs can come as a bit of a shock.

Write them off then? Oh, no. You see, there’s a way to make them taste pretty fabulous. So fabulous, in fact, that you may find yourself sprinkling them over practically everything that comes out of your kitchen, from ice cream to yogurt to even salad.

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Soup in a mug! Is there anything cozier? Nope! Especially not soup in a bowl. It’s the season of soup and I find myself making (and eating) a lot of it at home. When it comes time to serve it, I almost always reach for a mug instead of a bowl. Why would I do such a silly thing? Well, I have three good reasons.

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Inline_The_Power_of_a_Kickoff_PlanYou’re already quite Primal.

You know your way around a grocery store. I mean “around” literally: you know to shop the perimeter.

You’ve struck up relationships with vendors at the farmer’s market. The beet guy had Thanksgiving dinner at your house (being frank, the mashed beets were a bit much).

You read this blog every day, so you’re aware there’s another Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge kicking off next week. If not, read yesterday’s posts in which I give a heads up and ask what 2017 will mean for your life. But if you’re already a devoted Primal adherent, what’s in it for you?

Why You Might Consider a Kick-Start…

1. Everyone falters.

No one’s perfect. Folks slip up. The vast majority of people on a Primal eating plan (or any healthy diet and lifestyle) stray from time to time. Food they’d given up begins reappearing. Old health issues they thought had resolved resurface. Niggling pains, once gone, return to niggle again. People regress toward the mean.

When that happens, something’s gone wrong. But instead of combing through your past to figure out where you went astray, and making a lot of trial and errors in the process, why not start over? That’s where the hard reset comes in. That’s when an elimination program makes perfect sense.

2. Everyone knows less than they think.

No one believes me, but I always use this time of year to participate in the 21-Day Challenge. I do so quietly, without fanfare, but I do it, because I always learn something about myself and the Primal way of living. Me? The guy who wrote the book(s)? Yep. The same holds true for everyone reading this. You know less than you think you do. Believe me.

Participating in a Primal community challenge, elimination program, and/or total reset can—and will—get you back on track by bringing you back to the start of the journey. When you start over and relinquish the story of your supposed expertise, you discover all the things you always needed to learn.

3. Everyone needs someone.

It gets lonely out there. While some people have converted their friends and family to the Primal way or found a group of likeminded individuals, not everyone has Primal “people.” Heck, some people don’t even have a workout buddy.

Contributing to the lack of community is the fact that it’s a busy world out there and folks just don’t have—or make—the time to commiserate in meatspace anymore. Busyness has become a virtue, a status signal. People pride themselves on being too “busy lately” to make plans.

But we need to socialize. We need to bounce ideas off each other. We need to push each other, to congratulate each other, to challenge each other. We need to simply revel in the joy of being in the presence of others. While it’s not quite the same as living in a small village with your extended family or facing down a braying animal with your tribe, participating in a community health challenge like the PB 21-Day gives us similar benefits.

A Kick-Start Can Take Many Forms

You can try an elimination program. The Whole 30 is a famous (and rightly so) example of a Primal-aligned elimination program. Participants pare everything down to the basics to discover how their diet is affecting them, eliminating any potentially problematic foods and then slowly reintroducing them while noting the effects. This equips you with valuable feedback that will assist you going forward. If you’re interested in knowing your food sensitivities, intolerances, or stumbling blocks with any detail, the Whole 30 is probably your best bet.

You can try the total reset. This means starting over from square one, acting like a total newbie. That’s not really acting, either. Because, let’s face it: we’re all newbies in this thing called life. Beginner’s mind, as some would say. No one really knows what they’re doing. Some are stumbling their way through with more grace and aplomb than others, but we all have something to learn.

You can try a community challenge, like the Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge. These are my favorite. I think all resets or elimination programs should include some sort of community participation, simply because we’re social animals who respond best to social pressures. It’s why CrossFit is so successful pairing sound technique and exercise programming with camaraderie.

That said, none of these are mutually exclusive. In fact, I’d suggest you incorporate all three at once for the duration of this challenge. The Whole 30 can be a touchstone for you throughout the PB 21-Day Challenge—and you can structure your entire challenge as a total and utter reset.

As the Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge approaches, what form will it take in your life? What are you hoping to get out of it? What are you hoping to excise from (or add to) your current regimen?

Thanks for reading, everyone. Take care and Grok on!

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The post The Power of a Kick-Off Plan: What Elimination Programs, Total Resets, and Community Challenges Can Do for You appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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Oatmeal is our go-to breakfast all year long, but especially on chilly winter mornings when we crave something warm and comforting. While it’s quite simple to cook, there’s more to making a really good bowl of oatmeal than stirring together the grains and water over heat.

Here are our best tips and tricks to help you cook up a better batch of oatmeal.

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