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How you spend a day off in the kitchen really boils down to what you’re seeking. Want a chill day full of pampering and relaxation? There are projects, like a recipe for relaxing bath salts, that can help you do just that. Looking for a few recipes that take some time to make and result in something crazy-delicious to eat? We’ve got you covered. Or maybe you want to use that vacation day to whip up a feast for friends and family — after all, sometimes nothing is better than a stress-free day with good company. Whichever it is, there’s a project waiting for you. So the next time a summer Friday rolls around, you know exactly what you’ll be doing.

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Joy Wilson’s blog, Joy the Baker, can be described in two words: inspired and attainable. Part of what makes her recipes so lovely is that they all look and sound exciting, but they aren’t overly complicated or fussy. She’ll walk you through the hard parts. As a result, her recipes are able to feel homey and new at the same time.

So, I had to know: What is the queen of all sweets’ favorite pint of ice cream? Like you’d expect, her answer is pretty perfect.

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I love hearing what people are excited about eating and cooking in their homes — especially during the summer. There are so many ingredients to get inspired by, and so many great recipes that need to be given a shot during the few fleeting months ahead. So, where do you even begin? Do you reach for the berries or the zucchini? Do you fire up the grill for chicken or turn on the oven for a savory galette?

If you, like me, need some direction for the upcoming months, I polled The Kitchn editors to get some inspiration.

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Do you look Primal?

I don’t refer to chiseled abs, prominent shoulder striations, and bulging calves that draw queries from failed actors. I’m not talking about loincloths, or fur togas, or wild unkempt hair and scraggly beards, or any of the other aesthetic choices paleo-reenactors make. In fact, this isn’t about your appearance at all; it’s about how you’re using your eyes to look at the world.

I mean: are you using your eyes in an evolutionarily-congruent fashion? Do you look Primal?

First, let’s explore just how Grok would have used his eyes.

There was closeup looking:

• Tool-making and manipulation.
• Arts, crafts, and jewelry production.
• Preparing the weapons of the hunt. Notching arrows, stringing bows, sharpening axes and blades.
• Starting fires.
• Discerning between edible and inedible plants.

There was far-off looking:

• Gazing at the sunset or sunrise.
• Observing herds and gauging their trajectory.
• Spotting prey off in the distance.
• From a ridge half a mile up regarding the valley below and a path through it to the other side.
• Viewing layers of hills stacked against one another, getting bluer as they stretch toward the horizon.
• Watching birds overhead.

Throughout it all, there was a lot of gaze shifting. There was no staring at a leaf for six unblinking hours straight. Tool production was protracted, but not a daily occurrence. Vision frequently shifted between both near and far objects and back again. The muscles controlling the eye moved—a lot. “Move frequently at a slow pace” applies to the entire body.

How about these days? What’s Ken Korg doing with his eyes?

There’s a lot of closeup looking:

• We’re staring at a smartphone held 12 inches away.
• We’re staring at a computer screen 15-24 inches away.
• We’re looking at flat, linear surfaces. Our eyes don’t have to shift focus. We’re looking at the same flat object for extended periods of time. Even our ancestors doing close up work in the past worked with three dimensional objects, so their focus was slightly shifting all the time.

And we’re doing this for unbroken hours a day. We don’t even blink when looking at a screen. Compared to the 10-20 blinks per minute when looking at the rest of the world around us, when gazing into a screen we blink 2-4 times a minute. We can’t pull away. We can’t avert our gaze, not even for the millisecond it takes to lubricate and irrigate our eyes with a swipe of an eyelid.

There’s some midrange looking:

• We might crane our necks to see the traffic situation past the next car.
• We might squint at the sunset before dropping the sunshade so we can avoid crashing on our commute home.
• We’ll look down the street of our subdivision to see if the garbage truck’s coming.

And as for far-off looking? Beyond the annual camping trip to some gorgeous national park with stunning vistas and occasional forays to the beach or desert or whichever wild locale lies within an hour’s drive, we rarely get the chance to look at objects far off in the distance.

We’re certainly not looking up at the stars. Hell, if we live anywhere near a city, we can’t even see the stars.

Why does this matter?

The eye isn’t a passive recipient of visual data. The cornea bends and curves accommodate the subject’s proximity.

Gazing at things up close tenses the ciliary, the eye muscle responsible for controlling the shape and curvature of the cornea and focus of the eye. It elongates the eye. Gazing at things off in the distance relaxes the ciliary. Looking at things close up is hard work; it’s like sprinting or lifting weights. Looking at things far away is easy; it’s like taking a leisurely walk. We need both. But, increasingly, we’re only doing the first. And it’s taking a toll.

Myopia is chronic elongation of the eyeball, which focuses the light from far-off objects just in front of the retina rather than directly on it.  This inhibits the eye’s ability to focus on anything but what’s right in front of it. It’s like chronic contraction of any muscle. Eventually, stuff gets locked up. Eventually, positions become default. These days, myopia, or nearsightedness, is the most common eyesight disorder. An estimated 90% of Chinese teens and adults, half of all young adults in Europe and America, and a whopping 96% of 19 year-olds in Seoul, South Korea are nearsighted. Those are astounding numbers.

What can you do? How do you look Primal?

1. Look at something else

Screens fascinate us because they’re always changing, there’s always something new like an email, a Tweet, a hilarious GIF, or an incoming text. We never have to confront the existential dread simmering within if we don’t want to. The screen tempts our desire for novelty without ever really satisfying it. When you’re going through the motions, taking the same route you always take, eating the same meal you always eat, sitting down on the same side of the couch you always sit on, pulling out the phone is the simplest path to novelty. But it’s hell for our eyes, so you need other sources.

2. Forget your phone sometimes

I would say, “Don’t look at your phone so much,” but we’re addicted to the things. That doesn’t work when your physiology compels you to check it and your stress hormones rise because you haven’t looked at it in the last ten minutes. Remove it from the equation by removing it from your person. Go for a walk without burying your face in a screen, grab a coffee and finally start that book you bought three months ago, meet a friend for dinner and chat unencumbered by the nagging presence of your phone. It’s not that hard if you don’t have the thing in the first place.

3. Take your contacts out or remove your glasses sometimes

Long term use of contacts thins the cornea while increasing surface curvature and irregularities. This is a well known but underreported side effect of contact lenses. Akin to protective, restrictive shoes weakening the foot, contacts appear to act as a crutch. That’s not to say they’re not helpful or necessary. But it comes with a cost, like most modern medical interventions.

If you don’t need your contacts or glasses for whatever you’re doing, remove them. Certain situations call for them. But just hanging around? Lots of folks can see up close just fine without their contacts, but because they’re used to wearing them (and removing them is a hassle), they leave them in.

4. Consider lower prescription lenses

Try 0.5 less than you were prescribed. It’ll help your vision but cause less thinning than full prescription. And if commit to it, you may be able to titrate even lower as you get acclimated to the new prescription. Train your eyes.

Todd Becker describes the method in detail.

5. Eat your fish

Omega-3s offer a range of benefits for eye lubrication. They reduce dry eyes in contact wearers, heavy computer users, and rosacea patients.

6. Eat vitamin A

Turns out that carrots really are good for your vision. A 2005 study found that vitamin A from either goat liver, supplements, carrots, fortified rice, or amaranth leaves improves night vision in pregnant women (liver and supplements were most effective). Other studies have found similar results.

Pre-formed vitamin A might be better than vegetable carotenes. Vitamin A, or retinol was discovered after scientists found adding butter or egg yolks to carotenoid-deficient diets prevented blindness in animals. It’s only found in animal products like liver, egg yolks, cod liver oil (also a good source of omega-3s) and grass-fed dairy. Rather than rely on the human body’s often inefficient conversion of carotenoids into retinol, let animals do it for you.

7. Blink

When we’re focusing on something (making a tool, skinning an animal, skewering a Twitter opponent), we stop blinking. But blinking nourishes our eyes and keeps them lubricated. If you’re reading this, you’re probably a frequent user of technology who focuses their eyes and you should probably blink more often. This isn’t easy. You’re gonna have to remind yourself to perform a normally subconscious physiological task.

Setting up a “blink alarm” could work, but it’d have to go off every fifteen seconds and would certainly disrupt your work flow. You and a colleague could remind each other to blink, but that’d also be disruptive. Perhaps the simplest and least intrusive reminder is a piece of paper with “blink” written on it attached to your computer.

8. Take frequent vision breaks

Every 20 minutes or so stop what you’re doing and look at something far away. Some people say 20/20/20—every 20 minutes, spend 20 seconds looking at something 20 feet away. Either way works. This allows your eyes to unfocus and relax.

An alarm should work great here. Set it go off every 20 minutes until you get used to the idea. You might make it a walking break while you’re at it, because why not?

9. Wear glasses, not contacts

If you have to wear something for close-up work, choose glasses. Contacts dry the eyes and reduce lubrication/blinking. All this increases eye strain and heightens the unwanted adaptive response of the eye musculature.

10. Keep your screen (or book) at least an arm length’s away

Don’t hunch over your screen. Don’t press your mug against it. Keep it at least an arm’s length from you. Use larger font if you have to; it’s not the size of the font but the physical distance that changes how your eye muscles contract.

11. Take off the shades sometimes

Sunglasses are a fantastic invention. I wear them myself sometimes. But pure unfiltered sunlight itself appears to have beneficial effects on eye health in moderate doses. Don’t go blind. Don’t stare into the sun. However, just like you can expose your skin to sun without getting burnt, you can expose your eyes to sunlight without damaging them. And I strongly suspect you should. Even if it doesn’t improve adult eye health, getting natural sunlight into your retina during the day will improve your sleep and increase your resistance to the circadian-disrupting effects of nighttime blue light.

12. Go outside

The relationship between outdoor time and vision problems is unclear. Whether going outdoors actively improves eyesight, or it improves eyesight because time outdoors is time spent not staring at a screen doesn’t really matter. The fact is when you go outside you’re looking at objects all over the place, both near and far away. You’re getting sunlight into your eyes. You’re getting vitamin D, which could be a proxy for outdoor time and light exposure but is linked to better eyesight. You’re relaxing your eye muscles and practicing “general vision” rather than focusing on a single two dimensional plane 12 inches in front of your face. It’s all good.

13. Look “through” objects

Hold your fist up about a foot from your face and look directly at it. It will obscure whatever lies behind it. Now look “through” it. You’ll suddenly be able to see whatever’s behind your fist. Your fist will appear as a small sliver in the middle of your vision and your eyes will be incredibly soft and relaxed. If you can’t figure this one out, try hidden image stereograms. Hidden image stereograms are tiled patterns that reveal hidden images when you look “through” the stereogram. I remember doing these in grade school. Check out the parallel view, cross view, and magic eye subreddits for some resources.

14. Look at really far-off objects

Anything works. Vistas. Sunsets. Mountains. Climbing a mountain above your city and trying to spot your home. Horizons. Tracking a jet flying overhead.

This post won’t cure blindness, or myopia, or allow you to switch prescriptions. But it may help improve your situation a bit, and it definitely won’t hurt your eyesight or accelerate its degeneration.

Thanks for reading, everyone. Got any more tips? Stories? What’s worked and what hasn’t for your vision?

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It’s a well-known fact that Trader Joe’s has the best snacks. So when the urge to eat outside overtakes you this summer, you don’t need to think twice about heading over to Trader Joe’s for all your bites and nibbles. But how do you choose which snacks to go with? What won’t melt or spoil during the trek over to the park? There are so many options! Don’t worry — we have your back.

Here are the 10 best things you can pick up at Trader Joe’s to eat outside this summer. These snacks are totally portable, easy to munch on, and great for sharing. Did your favorite snack item make the cut?

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We’ve all been there. You get distracted while cooking, and oops — that perfectly season chicken breast turned to leather. If only there was a food that couldn’t be overcooked; a food you could ignore as if it were Kanye West.

Fortunately, science has the answer to your short-attention-span dreams.

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Originally posted at: http://www.nerdfitness.com/

Last month, I saw Larry’s success story posted in the Nerd Fitness Academy private Facebook group. He’s a proud member of the Academy. (Remember on Monday when we told you about all the new workouts, fitness quests, and epic boss battles features?) Click here for a video walkthrough of each section of the Academy.

Larry’s story put a MASSIVE smile on my face and I knew I had to share his story here with the whole Rebellion.

A year and a half ago, he woke up with such intense pain that he could barely get out of bed.

“The pain came on overnight and it was explosive and everywhere, I thought to myself that this was something that was probably serious and I should find out what is going on.”

6 months of doctors and insurance questions later, and Larry learned he had Rheumatoid Arthritis.

“Drugs ensued and changes happened to my body because of the disease and the medications that I was being prescribed. With the drugs the disease became manageable and I could start living in a world that was not consisting solely of pain and the feeling that I was made of glass and would break with the merest touch.”

This was Larry’s starting point, a point many can relate to: a health problem being the source of a rude awakening. Other than remodeling his house, Larry was living a practically sedentary and unhealthy lifestyle.

But – spoiler alert – things changed. Larry retook control; he lost an enormous amount of body fat and regained that weight as muscle. His body transformed over the course of the year, and eventually he defeated the very disease that served as his signal flare that something needed to change.

Here’s how he did it:

The First Three Months

Where did Larry start? Where would you start if you were approaching a problem you didn’t know much about? Reading!

In the course of trying to get my health together I did what I am sure everybody does, read tons of stuff that doesn’t really touch you or inspire you. Find a lot of crap science, (I am uneducated about fitness but not stupid). See a lot of people that want your money for questionable returns.

Then I came across Nerd Fitness. It informed in a simple and intelligible way that was also made fun, it was apparently what was needed because it put a lot of things into perspective and allowed me to make a path that was genuinely exciting and had me looking forward being a part of something.

But Larry didn’t just read and read (we call it, collecting underpants). He also just started right away, knowing it was going to be a bit… uncomfortable:

Off to the gym we go and embarrassment ensues. So I saw myself as being a strong guy because I did what I thought were strong things like remodeling my house. I was wrong. It turns out that I am not very strong and I had very little stamina.

When I hit the gym my stats were as such. I was just turned 41 years old 5’9″ and I weighed 185 lbs and was considered obese, I smoked and drank alcohol daily and was pretty sedentary as well because I was pretty afraid of pain.

I also learned that I could only do the following, bench press 55 lbs, squat 65 lbs , deadlift 95 lbs, standing row 55 lbs and overhead press 45 lbs. As well as I could only ride on an exercise bike for about 5 minutes at speed before feeling like I was passing out and had to stop.

That’s when Larry stepped up his game. His first reality check was his diagnosis. His second reality check was his first day in the gym. He needed some more help. So he made a mental shift: he was going to make a long term commitment.

He was going to make this investment in himself, despite feeling a bit foolish at being a newbie:

The following day I felt like I had been beaten and kicked to death and my pride was severely wounded. Unfortunately I had no choice but to continue. I decided that this is a long-term 10 year plan into health and fitness.

This is the point that Nerd Fitness started playing a more active role, after I read all of the articles that were available I decided to join The Nerd Fitness Academy. I now had accountability to something other than my wife (also in The Rebellion). With this new tool I could build a plan that was fun but also gave a basic set of information that allowed me to start as well as getting support and inspiration from people in similar circumstances.

This gave me the motivation that I needed to get started and to keep going.

Over the next 3 months I watched what I ate but only moderately and went to the gym regularly, trying to learn more about what I should be doing. There was a lot of pain, in my muscles and my joints but again there is no other option but to continue.

It was during this time that I lost a good chunk of the excess fat while very slowly I was getting stronger. At this point I decided that it was time to stop the smoking and stop drinking and to be more mindful of my consumption of food in relation to my workouts, all of which was harder than I thought. I also started trying to be less sedentary and to spend more time outdoors again.

3 Months later

Three months later, Larry was still going strong, but still had some serious changes to make:

Over the next 3-4 months I continued to go to the gym and leveling up in the Nerd Fitness Academy.

In the beginning I really had no idea what I was doing and just wandered around the gym sorta screwing around with different machines to see what hurt me the least, I figured that at least I was doing something. 

After about a month of this I decided that it was time to move to the free weights, I had spent the previous month reading everything at NF as well as starting to do additional research outside of it as well and I would compare information.

I spent the next 6 months working on my fundamental strength with the 5 big lifts (squats, deadlifts, overhead presses, bench presses, barbell rows). I moved from 6 days a week to just 3 days a week. 

When the summer came I made another tweak to my program: I was in the gym 4 days a week and during the off days was doing calisthenics. This also lasted for about a month. It was at this point that I realized that I was doing the same thing as I did in the beginning and was really just screwing around and not being focused.

So I went back to just doing the big lifts 3 days a week after work with the odd accessory work or mild cardio thrown in just for a little variety. My off days are for doing fun things that get my body moving and trying to be outside as much as possible. I decide that at this point I want to be strong so I start focusing on that in my workouts and get rid of all the extraneous things that I had been doing, otherwise known as suffering from *%ckarounditis (Sorry for the censor, Larry, the Obligators made us!).

I bet we can all relate to Larry’s early gym experience. When we don’t really know what we’re doing, we bounce from exercise to exercise, machine to machine, with no real strategy When we aren’t focusing on the big wins – the stuff that plays a huge role in our success or failure – it’s easy to get distracted by the fun but less effective stuff.

That’s the basis behind the 80/20 rule and focusing on big wins: by just getting a few big things right (like getting very strong at certain lifts), you can set yourself up for success with relatively simple plan (the type of plans we have in the Nerd Fitness Academy).

After six months, Larry then successfully made some healthy changes to his diet and had an honest conversation with himself about how what he was putting in his body.

I was mostly an unhealthy pescetarian for 23 years. Many years of Taco Bell later, I finally made a change….. I started to eat what is considered a normal amount of food for a guy my size.

This in conjunction with getting most of the food from the fruit and veg section of the market for a change (plus lifting), meant that I dropped the weight gained from the medication I was on.

Months 6-12

Larry found himself getting stronger and stronger, and his body was changing. This motivated him to start to dial in his diet even more. In his words, he knew his diet was the key to “feed the growing muscles.”

After the first couple of months I paid more attention to the type and quality of food that I was eating, boosted protein, as well as multivitamins to make up for my pescetarian diet. I also decided to begin Intermittent Fasting as I was never really a morning eater. Around this time I started carb loading, but didn’t like how the diet made me feel and noticed increased inflammation, so I tried a ketogenic diet.

I increased my total calories to 2800 to be above my maintenance of 2500. I am at the gym 4 days a week and working out for about an hour and 10 minutes.I am trying to be more mindful of my time and to take a little more time for myself and to be appreciative of all that I have. During this time I have been riding the bike and began kayaking as well. I have gone camping with friends and loved ones as well as some rock climbing thrown in so that I have more outdoors.

Thanks to his increased focus on a healthy relationship with food, and his weight fluctuated naturally between 165 lbs. and 170 lbs. Some months he decided he wanted to trim up, and he cut his calories down to 1600, while other months he increased his calorie intake to 4,000 on workout days, and 2,800 on off days.

In short, Larry put a plan in place, listened to his body, and started eating in a way that lined up his goals. He realized that nutrition was a major piece of the puzzle, and if he was going to spend all that time in the gym, eating right made sure that wasn’t not time wasted.

Larry Today

The cool thing about this story? Larry only has “before” and “during” photos, because his journey is never-ending.

There’s no “after” when he gets to go back eating like crap and not exercising…this is just the new Larry. This new Larry makes healthy decisions and gets strong as hell. He’s on a 10-year plan so he doesn’t freak out from day or day or week to week if he doesn’t see DRASTIC changes. He knows it’s going to take a long time, and he’s okay with that – every day is just like the day before: get stronger and eat according to plan.

While he used to struggle lifting anything heavier heavier than 50-75lbs, today he is squatting and deadlifting 295, and benching 175 for reps! He’s also tackling the exercise bike for a full 60 minutes.

And maybe the best news? That medical diagnosis of Rheumatoid Arthritis? Well…

I am happy with where this adventure has taken me and I look forward to the next 9 years of my 10 year plan. On the overall health front, I was told that all of my lab’s for the last 6 months have been normal which means that the disease is in remission.

The doctor also told me to lay off the remaining medication and if everything is good at our next appointment, then he would recommend staying off the meds unless I have a flare.

So apparently due to all the changes that I have made in the past 2 years I am now at the point where I am just a very healthy guy. I am very happy with how this is turning out. Good job, me! I owe a great deal of thanks to those of you at Nerd Fitness as you helped start me on this path. I know that I have a long slow path still ahead of me but I plan to keep my head down and keep on moving forward.

When we asked Larry about what else has changed in his life, he realized that while the physique and medical issue going away is great, it wasn’t the biggest thing:

The most fundamental change has been in the mind and my perception of myself and others and the desire to have everyone find the same thing that I have found in this path that I have chosen.

Not to mention that other people see me differently than before because I have more presence physically than I did before.

Larry’s outlook is simply different: he didn’t go into this expecting a quick change. He knows he’s there for the long haul. That’s why he told himself upfront that he was working to change over TEN YEARS! Not 30 days. Not two weeks before the beach. But a real, lasting change.

Why Larry Was Successful

Larry lost weight, gained muscle, and dramatically changed his physique. By his own account his most dramatic change wasn’t even physical – it was his mindset and how he relates to others.

That’s the type of comic book level change we all hope for, but so few achieve. How did he do it?

Larry got started right away, and made changes as he went.  He made major changes to his diet months and months in. He didn’t use an excuse of needing learn more in order to delay and delay. He started with the knowledge he had, did the best he could, and learned as he went. He wasn’t afraid to look stupid and learned along the way. (That’s how we all do it!)

Larry had a program, and he followed it. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to your workout and your nutrition. Your body is an incredibly complex thing, and beginners who try to plan their own workouts often leave huge gaps in programming. Following a basic beginner plan in order to learn the ropes, and guarantee success (if you actually do it). Stop piecing together workouts from magazines and blog posts. Pick a strategy and follow it!

Larry experimented and tweaked based on what he liked. Not only did Larry tinker with his workouts as he became more knowledgeable, he tried a wide variety of diet strategies too. When he tried carb loading and he didn’t like it, he switched. He moved into a more ketogenic diet, and he tweaked his calorie intake several times throughout his journey. This isn’t just about experimenting and finding what works for you. It’s about becoming the source of your own authority, about taking ownership over your success and being the one to make changes if need be. That’s an epic change.

Larry emphasized regular strength training. If you are trying to build muscle and lose fat, strength training combined with better food decisions is the best path in our opinion. If you aren’t currently strength training, it might be time for you to give it a try. You can even start with bodyweight exercises like push-ups and squats in your living room.

Larry took photos and tracked his progress. How else do you know if you’re succeeding if you don’t have something to compare yourself against? Take a photo (one profile view and one looking straight into camera) today, and another every month after now. As an overachiever who loved data, he also used a food tracker to keep himself in line on the calories and macros. He weighed himself each week and documented that in a spreadsheet, along with all other measurements. Larry became a videogame character, watching his experience bar rise and could celebrate small victories and improvements. The more data you can track for yourself, the easier it will be to tell if you’re on the right path or if you need to course-correct.

Larry answered the call. When Larry had a health issue – a giant red flag appear in his life screaming “something isn’t right; something needs to change!” – he did something. He got started. He didn’t let this new health issue demoralize him or turn into an excuse to go grab a pint of ice cream and commiserate. Instead, he seized the call to arms and dedicated himself to making a real change.

Your call to action doesn’t have to be a new chronic health issue. In fact, it shouldn’t be.

Let THIS article be your call to action on your hero’s journey.

I loved sharing Larry’s story with you today for this reason – I love that members of our community can help inspire each other – the Rebellion pulling itself up by its bootstraps.  I love people that take imperfect action: course correct along the way, and keep hustling.

No quick fixes, just a lifelong journey. Will you heed the call?

-Steve

PS: I’m proud that Larry is a member of the Nerd Fitness Academy and used its philosophy and community to help him transform his life in many ways.

Later this week we’re increasing the price of the Academy, so if you’re on the fence now might be a great time to join! It comes with a 60-day money back guarantee in case you want to give it a shot!

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From Apartment Therapy → 5 Essential Rules for Surviving in a Small Kitchen

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