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Back in 2003, a global movement called Meatless Monday called on people to abstain from eating meat once a week. An initiative created between The Monday Campaigns and the Center for a Livable Future (CLF) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the goal was two-fold: to better our health and improve our environment.

Critics and skeptics have often questioned how effective Meatless Monday is in the big picture, but a new report from The Atlantic manages to provide some perspective about how what we choose to eat can influence the planet.

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Unlike stone fruits and berries, which greet you with their sweet fragrance and have easy-to-examine flesh, buying a watermelon can feel like a leap of faith when you don’t know what to look for. Instead of just picking up the melon at the top of the pile, here are five things to check for to ensure you bring home a juicy, flavorful watermelon.

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(Image credit: Joe Lingeman)

Making jam is one of the surest ways to preserve summer into the winter. At its most basic, jam is nothing more than fruit and sugar cooked down until fragrant, flavorful, thick, and spreadable. But not all fruit has enough natural pectin to set into a jam with just sugar. That’s when commercial pectin can help a home canner out.

So let’s talk about what pectin does for jam and how to use four of the most common types of pectin on the market.

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(Image credit: Erika Tracy)

From Apartment Therapy → The Book That Changed My Perspective on Homekeeping

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Frozen dumplings are one of my freezer secret weapons. They can be a hearty snack, quick appetizer when friends drop by, or even the star of a dinner stir-fry. Whether they’re little Japanese gyoza or Chinese potstickers, all are welcome freezer staples to me. Now how about giving them the soup treatment? This sour-spicy soup, inspired by Thai tom kha gai soup, combines broth with creamy coconut milk, lots of ginger and lime zest for zing, pepper flakes for spiciness, frozen dumplings, and veggies for a soup hearty enough to be a full meal when that wonton soup craving hits. Oh, and it comes together in just about 15 minutes!

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We use parchment paper for all sorts of things around here at Kitchn. We use it to make muffin liners, bake granola, line cake pans, make fish en papillote, and so much more.

Sometimes, though, we find parchment paper rolls to be way too annoying to deal with. For one, many boxes don’t come with the necessary serrated metal cutter (to make the box more easily recyclable) and we always end up with messy edges or ripping out too much at a time. Also, the parchment paper tends to keep its rolled-up shape once you finally do rip a piece off the roll, which makes it hard to, say, line a flat baking sheet.

That’s why I, personally, don’t use the rolls.

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Yaphet Kotto is one of the most recognizable actors of his generation. The screen legend portrayed a Bond villain in Live and Let Die, the tragic Moorish commander in Shakespeare’s Othello, and a crew member devoured by an ET is Ridley Scott’s sci-fi classic Alien. Kotto’s off-screen life has been pretty interesting too. As the […]

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(Image credit: Susanna Hopler)

Welcome to Kitchn’s new series My Favorite Healthy Recipes, where we show you how real people around the country (and even world) eat “healthy,” however they choose to define that for themselves. Maybe you’ll even find a few recipes to add to your own meal plan.

Name: Jennifer Price
Location: London, Ontario, Canada
Age: 32
Occupation: Stay-at-home mom with part-time odd jobs
Number of people in household: 4 (myself, husband, and two sons, 3.5 and 1.5)

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Chances are, you have no shortage of Mason jars in your kitchen. Whether you use them as drinking glasses, containers to tote layered salads to work, pantry organizers, or whatever else, you have a ton of Mason jars and those two-piece lids all over the place, right? We thought so.

Turns out, though, you’re missing one key thing.

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So, a little bit about my background: I am a 44-year-old former Marine, who worked as a police officer in Buffalo, NY for about twelve years. During that time, I obtained my B.S. in Criminal Justice, and then my law degree, all while working full-time. I entered the practice of law in 2005, and I’m still plugging away.

I initially became interested in weight lifting/body building when I was a Marine and police officer, but that all took a back seat during law school, due to working full-time. I was in the worst shape of my life during this period, and really didn’t get back into gear until about 2009, when I started running.

In 2010, I did my first half marathon, and then in 2013 my first full marathon. I entered the world of triathlon in 2014, and I’ve never looked back. I often tell people, that if running were equated to cocaine, then triathlon would be crack! Sorry, police humor, I guess! I did my first half-iron in 2014, full distance IMs in Muskoka (2015) and Boulder (2016); with many half irons, olympic and sprint distance races scattered throughout.

I found MDA/PB through Primal Endurance; which I picked up as an audiobook last September for a business trip. I originally grabbed it because I’m always interested in new training methods and techniques. Little did I know, it would change my life in such profound ways. At first, the diet stuff sounded far-fetched; eat lots of fat to get skinny—right!!! However, the more I listened, the more it made sense. I am a big believer in evolutionary adaptations as it relates to biological attributes (i.e. “Born to Run”—our evolution as hunter gatherers). So, the idea that the diets of our ancient ancestors certainly did not contain the crap found in the vast majority of the SAD diet today makes complete sense.

The other thing that really caught my attention was the Primal Endurance declaration: “Why do so many endurance athletes have excess body fat?!” Yes—why??!! I trained my tail off between 2015 and 2016 for back-to-back Ironman races, and yet raced both events at 167lbs (off season I was usually about 175lbs). By the way, 167lbs was the lowest I had ever been since before I graduated from high school; and before Primal Endurance. When I finished the book, I made a promise to commit to the PB/PE diet and training right after Thanksgiving weekend (for obvious reasons).

Fast forward to the present. I am a 150lb lean and mean endurance machine. I’ve already set a new bike PR twice at the half-iron distance, and have my eyes on a new half marathon PR and half iron total PR this fall. I broke a toe a few weeks ago, so I haven’t been able to really see the results of my training in the run. I can say my overall pace per mile at heart rate has dropped significantly since last fall, so I am optimistic.

Most importantly though, is that I feel amazing; both mentally and physically. I feel light on my feet, and mentally sharp (kind of important in my line of work!), and I don’t have those old post-lunch sugar crashes, where I want to crawl under my desk and take a nap. I owe it all to Primal Blueprint and Primal Endurance! I’ve attached two pictures as demonstrative evidence; the first is from last December (about 178lbs), and the second was taken back in May (about 152lbs). Wow!

Mark, thank you so much for this gift of lifestyle and fitness. I have spread the word through my triathlon club, and “converted” a few people already.

For anyone reading this that may be on the fence: Take that first step and change your life! It may not be easy, but you have everything to lose (weight & poor health), and everything to gain (good health & endurance)! Isn’t that worth it?

Sincerely, Keith Vona

The post I’m a Lean and Mean Endurance Machine! appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.