We aren’t headed off to college this fall (because we’re full-fledged adults), but we couldn’t help but get a total case of the gimmies when we were scrolling through Urban Outfitter’s On Campus College Checklist.
Luckily, you don’t have to reenroll in school just to go shopping. Here are 10 things you grown-ups might like for your real-life kitchens.
For whatever reason, I always get the jitters before hosting people at my house. Usually it’s for a dinner party or birthday celebration or something similar and more intimate, with close friends. People who aren’t expecting anything out of you except good food and good conversation in other words.
Today’s different.
Today, I’m hosting a group of students and graduates of the Primal Health Coach certification program. These are people who have devoted their time, money, and energy to gain a deep understanding of the Primal Blueprint concepts and to learn how to become effective and successful health coaches.
These are folks who have joined me in my mission to create a global network of coaches to transform the health and wellness of communities around the world using ancestral health principles.
And now, they’re making an even bigger commitment: to the Primal Health Coach Masterclass—a weekend retreat designed to help Primal Health Coach students and graduates break through any barriers they may have and push forward to create the career of their dreams.
As soon as the attendees begin arriving, the jitters melt away. These are my people. They’re here to learn how to translate their passion for Primal living into business and clients, and my team and I are here to show them.
Said team includes:
Christine Hassler, coaching director of the Primal Health Coach program. Christine has spent the last couple decades writing books, giving talks, running retreats, and coaching lives. She’s a coaches’ coach.
Erin Power, head of student/grad support. Erin has 20 years of experience working in marketing, fitness marketing, and fitness coaching. She hits all the bases.
Laura Rupsis, head of admissions and co-owner of Absolution CrossFit in LaGrange, Illinois. She left a lucrative 20-year career in the financial sector to pursue her passion: helping people get strong, fit, and healthy.
Jill Esplin, leader in the personal growth industry and spiritual psychologist.
They’re a formidable bunch.
The day kicks off with a keynote address from yours truly and Christine. We talk about the mindset necessary to be an entrepreneur, the hard work, the pain, and the payoff.
The biggest hurdle for any business owner, coach, trainer, or really anyone offering a piece of themselves up in service of others is how to ask for money. It trips everyone up. Even I get a little trepidatious when I’m about to offer a new product, book, or service. Everyone has that “Am I really worth it?” moment. The brief bout of imposter syndrome that, I think, is a healthy, necessary, and—let’s admit it—unavoidable occurrence in the life of any entrepreneur.
But you have to move past it. And right here, right now, I’m watching 32 people making that leap in real time. Thirty-two people realizing that they aren’t just good enough—they’re better. They understand the material. They hold in their heads the keys to help the people around them achieve better health. It’s a powerful thing, that moment when you understand and accept your power and competency. Feels good.
Like all good events, this one is a great mix of scheduled events and spontaneous interactions. I give my keynote. We have a session on sales tactics, a Q&A with all the coaches, a class on marketing techniques. A constant theme is balancing the passion with the drive to realize that passion and make it a sustainable business. Pairing the dream to reality. The lofty ideals to the mundane day-to-day demands. Nearly every attendee came loaded with the former and seeking clarity on the latter.
Outside the scheduled sessions it’s a whirlwind of energy, a release valve for the flood of information welling up during the talks. You get snippets of conversation so interesting you strain to hear it all. Breakout sessions erupt all around as attendees get together to hash out ideas, schemes, concepts. I’m pulled into one, tell a story about my first client, give some pointers about sales tactics, brainstorm a bit. If you’ve ever read On the Road or any of the other Beat writers’ works, the weekend was full of that same kind of exuberant excitement about life and ideas and dreams. Only instead of whisky and cheap jug wine, we had bottled water and ketones. And instead of rambling monologues, they’re speaking concrete plans of action.
‘
The catered lunches and dinner are fantastic. I always like seeing Primal people realize they’re no longer the weird ones at the dinner table.
The final group session is the most powerful. Everything comes to a head, and attendees are mapping their future. Planning the next few moves in concrete terms. It’s real. I see it dawning on their faces. It’s actually happening, provided they just take that next step. Will they? I think so.
Closing ceremonies fast approaching. I’m tearing up a bit on the inside. Maybe outside, too. Whatever. I can’t help it. For me, this is the culmination of something I’ve been dreaming about for a decade: building a team of Primal ambassadors to spread the good word. I’m a big proponent of grass-roots action. I recoil from top-down central planning. So, instead of having the authorities mandate a healthy lifestyle, regular exercise, and a great diet, you give them the tools to figure it out themselves. People don’t respond well to authority. They rebel. They do the opposite of what the authority recommends. And then it gets ugly and counterproductive.
But people respond well to other people meeting them as individuals, granting them the dignity inherent to each of us. You won’t listen to some stuffy government official telling you what to eat, but you will listen to your best friend, your co-worker, your coach. It’s what I’ve always envisioned as the next step forward for this movement, and it’s actually happening. Doesn’t hurt that people are starting businesses and figuring out how to turn profits based on this stuff. In fact, it makes it even better. It makes the movement sustainable and self-perpetuating. Organic, rather than propped up.
The weekend is ending. Hugs and handshakes and back claps everywhere. The folks are filing out. I’m exhausted, but in a good way—how you feel after a long hike. Physically tired, mentally energized. I guess that’s what happens when you spend an entire weekend in a swarm of intelligent, creative, passionate individuals and their ideas, visions, and dreams.
Magic probably isn’t real, but this is about as close as it gets.
We’ll definitely be holding more of these Masterclasses. It was a lot of fun, it was helpful to our attendees, and, selfishly, I found it far more rewarding than I expected. If you want to stay apprised of our plans, or want more information about becoming a Primal Health Coach yourself, head on over here and give it a shot!
Want to make fat loss easier?
Try the Definitive Guide for Troubleshooting Weight Loss for free here.
Conditions that may benefit from medical marijuana
The legal landscape
My experience with medical cannabis
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Chris Kresser: Hey, everybody, welcome to Revolution Health Radio. I’m Chris Kresser. Today, we have a question from Kristen. Let’s give it a listen.
Kristin: Hi, Chris. My name is Kristin and I have a question about medical marijuana. I know it has a huge stigma attached to it, especially in the US, like in the southern parts of the US. But I know that in California it’s legal. Out in Denver it’s legal. And so I was just curious as to what your opinions were on it and if you prescribe it to patients, or if you tend to steer away from that. Does it help or hinder autoimmune diseases? Does it help or hinder cardiovascular disease? I mean those are all questions that I have and I just wanted to know if you had any kind of insight on that or just what your opinion was on it. Thanks.
Chris: Thanks for sending that question in, Kristen. This is a fascinating topic for me, and it’s one I’ve done a lot of research on and we have a growing body of experience with because I’m always interested in treatments that are effective but don’t cause a lot of side effects and have a lot of long-term risks. Let’s start by talking a little bit about some basics—differences between cannabis, CBD, and THC, which a lot of people aren’t familiar with if they haven’t really looked into this in any detail. Then we’ll talk about why medical marijuana is a promising therapeutic application in medicine and for what conditions in particular that it has shown promise for. We’ll talk a little bit about the legal and social environment and some of the charges that that provides and then we’ll talk more specifically about my experience and our experience at CCFM using these approaches.
Confused about medical marijuana? Learn the basics here.
THC vs CBD
Okay. The terms “marijuana” and “cannabis” both refer to any of the subspecies of the whole, unprocessed, Cannabis sativa plant and its basic extracts. Within that, cannabidiol, or CBD, and delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, are the chemical compounds that are found in cannabis that are our particular medical interest. Now, there are numerous other compounds within cannabis that are still being studied, and some of them have already been shown to have particular effects. But THC and CBD are definitely the ones that we know the most about and have been the most actively studied at this point. This is really important to understand: THC is the psychoactive component of cannabis that’s responsible for much of the high and the changes in perception that people feel when they consume cannabis products. CBD, on the other hand, is not psychoactive and does not produce the physiological responses or the characteristic high that THC does. In fact, pure CBD is available over the counter for this reason because if it doesn’t have any THC in it, then it’s not classified as a drug by the FDA. As you may know, cannabis as a whole and THC are classified as Schedule I substances. That means the FDA considers them to be more dangerous and harmful than a drug like heroin, which is kind of ridiculous, but that’s the way it is right now. We’ll talk a little bit more about that in a bit.
CBD and THC are the main compounds. THC is psychoactive. CBD is not psychoactive. Now, why does marijuana even have a medical use? I mean, for a long time, it was used recreationally and there wasn’t much knowledge of or interest in its medical use, and certainly in some traditional medical systems there was an understanding of that, but here in the West it was thought to be mostly a recreational drug. Early on, it was discovered by cancer patients that cannabis could help with this nausea and other symptoms that people would go through when they were having chemotherapy, and patients were mostly just left to use it illegally if they wanted to use it for that purpose, but it really could have a game-changing effect in those situations. People would have severe loss of appetite, nausea, and just feel absolutely rotten most of the time, but cannabis would enable them to feel much better, not have the nausea, and actually eat and not lose as much weight, which are all very important things when you’re dealing with cancer and when you’re dealing with a treatment that has side effects that are this severe.
Endocannabinoid receptors in the brain
Over time as our understanding began to expand, we started to look at physiological mechanisms for these changes, and we know that the human brain contains endocannabinoid receptors, and cannabinoids can induce either an inhibitory or excitatory response from the affected neuron by acting on these receptors. These receptors bind not only to the chemicals found in cannabis, but also to endogenous compounds, which are compounds that we produce in our own body. There are a lot of known functions of our body’s own internal cannabinoids and endocannabinoid receptors that we can then study as possible therapeutic targets for medical cannabis. These endocannabinoid receptors internally have been linked to the regulation of appetite, which again makes sense given what we just said. Anyone who has consumed cannabis knows that it can produce the munchies, and that’s one of the reasons why these endocannabinoid receptors affect appetite. They affect pain management, neuroprotection, central regulation of motor function, sleep, regulation of nausea and vomiting, so again that explains its effect with chemotherapy patients , neural circuitry, intraocular pressure, memory, tumor growth, and gastrointestinal motility, to name a few. For example, CBD in combination … CBD and THC products have been used successfully in some patients with inflammatory bowel disease, and having multiple bowel movements a day can slow down motility and reduce inflammation in those cases.
There is a specific type of endocannabinoid receptor called CB1. That’s the one that’s known to stimulate appetite and eating behaviors, and it’s the one that’s responsible for the munchies. It’s also the reason that cannabis can be used medically to increase appetites in patients undergoing chemotherapy, as we talked about, and also patients with AIDS and other conditions that reduce appetite. It’s been studied as an appetite stimulant in age-induced anorexia, low appetite in the elderly, which can become a pretty significant problem, and specifically those for Alzheimer’s because that disease can lead to lower appetite or forgetting to eat. There actually is some research suggesting that cannabinoids may be able to slow the disease process of Alzheimer’s by preventing the inflammatory effects induced by beta-amyloid deposition, which is a hallmark of that condition.
Perhaps most interestingly in terms of therapeutic application, endocannabinoid receptors have been shown to reduce pain from a wide variety of causes. For example, we know that the analgesic effects of acetaminophen can be prevented by blocking specific cannabinoid receptors, which suggests that one of the pain-relieving mechanisms of acetaminophen involves cannabinoid receptors, and, of course, also suggests that cannabinoid receptors play a role in pain. Cannabis extracts containing both THC alone and a combination of THC and CBD have been shown to be effective at reducing pain from a number of chronic conditions as well as neuropathic pain. For example, people with MS who use cannabis report a reduction in symptoms including muscle spasticity, pain in the extremities, bowel dysfunction, and walking and balance issues. This could be due to not only cannabis’s role in controlling pain but also its effects on motor function, motor control, and gastrointestinal motility.
The challenges of cannabis research
Let’s talk a little bit about what the research shows so far about the promise of medical cannabis, and keep in mind that it’s quite amazing that the research we have already shows these impacts because the ability to research cannabis has been extremely limited by its classification as a Schedule 1 substance. That means that only a few universities are authorized to do this research, and there’s only one legal source in the whole United States from which they can obtain cannabis to perform medical research.
There are a number of significant roadblocks that are limiting our ability to understand the effects of medical cannabis, and that was starting to get better under the previous administration, but with Jeff Sessions’s phobia of medical marijuana and his desire to crackdown on enforcement, it seems like if he is able to follow through, that’s going to get worse rather than better over the next period of time that this current administration persists. That’s really bad news for medical cannabis research.
I think we need much more rather than less research on these compounds because they can have a game-changing effect on a number of conditions for which conventional medicine does not have much to offer. It appears to do that without causing significant side effects and risks in most cases. It’s crazy to me that we would not be spending more time and energy and money investigating this as a therapeutic approach. If you’re a skeptic, you might wonder if one reason for that is that cannabis is a whole plant and cannot be patented, and although it’s possible to develop drugs based on cannabis compounds that have unique features that are patentable, cannabis as a whole can’t be patented, and pharmaceutical companies may not be very interested. All of the funding and money that goes into doing this kind of research is not available because the pharmaceutical companies, there’s no benefit for them on the other end of that. This just highlights a number of problems we have with our current medical and research system.
Conditions that may benefit from medical marijuana
Anyhow, back to the conditions that have already been identified in the medical literature in terms of a potential benefit from medical cannabis. PTSD is a big one. PTSD is a growing problem, and again there just are not very many good options for people with PTSD in the conventional medical world. There is a drug that has been created, a cannabinoid drug for the treatment of anorexia and nausea among cancer and AIDS patients and that has been associated with a reduction in the intensity of nightmares in a majority of PTSD patients that were surveyed. New Mexico was the first state to allow the usage of medical cannabis to treat PTSD, and the one study that they did there revealed a 75 percent reduction in symptoms among patients with PTSD. You do not see that with any conventional treatment. This is a pretty remarkable effect, and again one would think we should be studying this more rather than less.
Cancer is another interesting application. I already mentioned that cannabis and then nabilone, that cannabinoid drug, and dronabinol, which is another cannabinoid drug, have all been approved for the treatment of anorexia, cachexia, nausea, and vomiting in cancer patients undergoing chemo, and that’s been happening since the ’80s. But there’s new research that has suggested even more exciting use of cannabis for cancer patients, which is that cannabis may actually be able to treat the cancer cells themselves. Cannabinoids induce cell death, inhibit cell growth, and slow metastasis in tumor cells without harming the surrounding non-cancerous cells, which is, of course, the shangri-la when it comes to successful cancer treatments, as finding something that harms cancer cells but doesn’t harm non-cancerous cells. In one mouse model, pure THC and CBD were shown to prime glioma cells, which are cells found in a certain type of brain cancer for radiation therapy, making them more sensitive to it and to the radiation and more effectively treated by it.
There’s not enough published research yet on cannabis and cancer. I would love to see more. I can tell you anecdotally that I know of several patients and centers that are using high-dose medical cannabis too and have—at least anecdotally, again these results have not been published, so we need to take it with a grain of salt—but some patients with stage four inoperable cancers who really have few other options have tried very-high-dose cannabis products and have actually reversed their cancer to the point where it wasn’t visible on the scan and they were declared to be cancer free, at least temporarily, by their doctor. This is the sort of thing that is not supposed to be possible. It defies our current understanding of cancer and cancer treatment. Again, I want to be clear here that those results were not published. We need to take them with a grain of salt. There’s a lot of snake oil peddled out there in terms of cancer and things that are promised to treat, reverse cancer, and eliminate cancer, so I think we always have to be careful in evaluating these kinds of claims, but the mechanisms do make sense. There is research to support them, and some of these stories are coming from people that I know and trust. It’s very interesting to me, especially given the rise in cancer, the fact that it’s likely to be become the number one cause of death in the next several years and that the conventional treatments are really lacking at this point.
MS is another condition, multiple sclerosis, that’s shown to benefit from cannabis. As I mentioned, the studies have found that it can provide relief from multiple symptoms of MS including spasticity, pain, and motor function and control. In humans with MS, both whole-plant cannabis-based medicine and extracts combining THC and CBD have been shown to reduce the number of spastic episodes and pain. The importance there is that spasticity is one of the most common symptoms of MS, and yet it’s one of the ones that’s most poorly treated by conventional drugs or treatment options that are available. That’s what makes cannabis exciting for that condition.
Finally, epilepsy. We have to talk about that because cannabis has been used for millennia in the treatment of epilepsy. You can see it mentioned in ancient texts, but it’s only been recently investigated for safety and efficacy in humans. In particular, that research is focused on cannabis use for childhood epilepsy that’s shown resistance to current treatments. You may know that some of the conventional treatments for epilepsy in kids caused brutal side effects, which in some ways can be worse than the disease itself. The results for cannabinoids in animal models of epilepsy have been mixed, but CBD has been associated with a decrease in seizure frequency in a recent human study among participants with childhood-onset treatment-resistant epilepsy. Anecdotally again, I know that several parents and kids both within our CCFM practice and outside have had some pretty remarkable results with cannabis, CBD and THC combination products in kids. That, together with a ketogenic, very-low-carb diet, has been an absolute game changer for some of these kids. They’re able to completely get off their medications, the anti-seizure drugs which can be so brutal for these kids. It restores their appetite. It allows them to function normally in their life, and it’s, like I said, can just be an incredible game changer for not only the kids but for their whole family.
Those are the conditions that have been best studied so far, but there are many, many other therapeutic complications because when you understand the mechanisms, cannabis can be anti-inflammatory, it can be analgesic, it can be anti-anxiolytic. It can be antianxiety, it can help with depression, it can help with appetite. It can be a miracle for sleep in some cases for patients who have intractable insomnia that doesn’t respond to any other treatment. Taking cannabis oil or capsules that have a longer half-life than either CBD alone or some combination of CBD and THC can work where nothing else works. Given that cannabis is anti-inflammatory, and given the fact that most modern disease is inflammatory in origin, then we may surmise that cannabis could have a wide range of therapeutic applications far beyond what we’ve just talked about in terms of the four main areas. If that’s the case and if the research environment allows this, we’re going to see a lot more studies that link cannabis to benefits and other conditions for which it hasn’t yet been studied.
The legal landscape
That leads us to the legal and social environment. As many of you know, cannabis is has been legalized in some states for medical use and has also been legalized for recreational use in a smaller number of states. Federally, cannabis is still classified as a Schedule I drug, and although the stigma has gone down, particularly in those states where it’s used medically and now legal recreationally, there’s still quite a bit of that on a national basis. Now, especially with the current administration, there’s a growing question of what’s going to happen and when federal and state laws conflict. Federal laws definitely trump state laws when it comes to drugs, and there is always the possibility that federal authorities would step in and prosecute people on a state level despite marijuana being legal on the state level. In the Obama administration, there was an agreement that that wasn’t going to happen, but now Jeff Sessions is actively working to repeal that agreement so that the federal government can start prosecuting marijuana infractions and shutting down dispensaries on the state level.
The NIH is providing funding to 40 active projects in the category of therapeutic cannabinoid research and this is good. I’m glad to see this, but we definitely need more research, given the promising roles that cannabis has shown and all the conditions that we’ve talked about, again, many of which don’t have effective treatments available in a conventional medical paradigm. It’s a tricky legal and social environment. If you live in a state like California, as I do, where both medical and recreational marijuana have been legalized, there are a lot of options for using this kind of treatment, and there are some really exciting groups like Constance Therapeutics in San Francisco that are taking almost like a biotech-level, pharmaceutical-grade approach to medical cannabis. They’re controlling the process from seed to application. All organic seed, and they’re specializing in cultivating particular strains and ratios and blends for particular conditions. They’re doing a lot of testing to determine which strains and which blends work best for which applications and they’re approaching it in a very serious way and having some pretty incredible results.
Working with a company like that on therapeutic medical cannabis is very different, of course, from just going down to a local dispensary that is mostly catering to people who want to use it recreationally, where you don’t really know much about the quality of the product or the strains that are involved in and how you don’t really get any coaching or support on how to use it, which a company like Constance Therapeutics provides for all of the people that they work with. That’s one of the challenges with utilizing this as a therapy is that it’s kind of the Wild West, where patients are left to try to figure out all of these questions on their own when they may not really have the training or expertise or understanding of this space to be able to do that. Still, a lot of people have been able to navigate that, if possible, and if you live in a state where it’s legal, I definitely recommend working with a practitioner who is knowledgeable about these different questions and can refer you to a dispensary that has quality control where you know what you’re getting and you know you’re getting a high-quality product. But even in places where that’s not available, the safety of cannabis suggests that if you’re able to do some research and find a relatively good product, particularly CBD-only products, which are legal and can be purchased over the counter via the internet in all 50 states, I would say it’s certainly worth a try if you’re dealing with any of these conditions, or your kids are. It’s still a good idea to work with someone who is knowledgeable about therapeutic use of CBD, but that’s readily available to anybody in any state, at least at this point.
Again, the current administration might change that, and I hope if any new laws come up or proposals come up to do that, if you believe in the potential of this approach, that you’ll write or call your congressman, your senator, and express your desire to see more research and more of a free flow of ideas and information and laws that support the use of medical cannabis because I think it’s a really important area to focus on in the coming years.
My experience with medical cannabis
I just want to say a few brief words about our own experience with this at CCFM, our clinic. We have been increasingly using a wide variety of medical cannabis applications, anything from pure CBD, which again our patients can just buy over the counter, to using medical cannabis products that require prescription. I should have pointed that out earlier, but even in states, at least for now, where recreational cannabis is legal, like in California, that hasn’t fully settled, then yes, so patients who are going to use products that have any THC in them have to get a prescription and a medical marijuana letter from a physician. In some cases, when we’re recommending THC and CBD blends, a practitioner from our clinic will write a prescription, and then we can send them to a place like Constance Therapeutics or other medically minded dispensaries, and they suggest a particular strain and a particular ratio of THC to CBD and then a particular dosage based on their conditions.
The things that I’ve seen it be extremely helpful for, insomnia is probably top of the list, like I mentioned. It can be a game changer for anxiety in some cases, although I want to at least point out that in a small number of cases, it can have a paradoxical effect and even increase anxiety, especially if someone is not familiar with cannabis and has never used it before. It can again—a game changer for cancer support, increasing appetite, reducing nausea. I’ve seen it be very helpful for migraines, for inflammatory bowel disease, and the whole range of autoimmune diseases that are autoimmune and inflammatory. I’ve seen both CBD and CBD-THC products be extremely helpful for chronic, intractable pain, especially as cannabis products have allowed some patients to get off painkillers that they’ve been using for many years, which, as I’m sure you know, can cause a lot of adverse effects. Digestive problems like IBS, and particularly diarrhea-predominant IBS, can be helped tremendously by medical cannabis products. Those are the main ones that we use it for. There are others, but it’s really promising. All of the clinicians at CCFM are excited about it and have seen good results. It’s something definitely worth exploring.
Okay. That’s it for today. Again, send us your questions at chriskresser.com/podcastquestion. Thank you, Kristen, for sending this one in. I know a lot of listeners are going to be interested in it, and I hope you all have a great weekend. I’ll talk to you soon.
The days seem long (to parents, anyway!), but the months of summer are short. Before you know it, school will be back in session and caregivers everywhere will be racking their brains over how to get kids to eat healthy snacks instead of just trading them for fidget spinners. But the kids aren’t the only ones who need a little pick-me-up during snack time — teachers need to keep up their energy, and the same ol’ apple day after day gets a little boring.
Here are a few favorite teacher hacks, so those educators get their protein, carb, and occasional caffeine fix throughout the day.
I genuinely enjoy to going to the gym and lifting some heavy weights and look forward to it most days.
However, once in a while I wake up to a beautiful, sunny day, and I just want to be outside. The thought of staying indoors when it’s so gorgeous out there just isn’t appealing. I have a few options when I feel like this. I could ignore my feelings and the beautiful day and force myself to go train at the gym, or I could skip training altogether and just go enjoy the great outdoors.
There’s nothing wrong with either of these options. However, on days like these, I prefer to implement a third option. I like to take my workout outdoors where I can get the best of both worlds: enjoy the sunshine and beautiful skies and get my sweat on!
No special equipment is needed to get the job done, either. Just take your body (and a water bottle!) to your backyard or the nearest park — with or without the kids, if you have ’em — and get down to business with one of these three quick and effective workouts:
Remember to warm up first!
Before beginning your workout, start with a quick warm-up by completing two rounds of the following movements, performing each movement for approximately 30 seconds:
After a quick warm-up, complete 4-5 rounds of the following circuit, working with intensity and resting when needed.
Curtsy Lunge to Lateral Lunge x10 per leg
Walk-Out Push-Up x10
Alternating Leg V-Up x10 per leg
Jump Squat x20
If jump squats aren’t your jam, try bodyweight squats instead. Additionally, if you prefer to work your core without the sit-up variation, sub with side planks for 15 to 30 seconds per side.
No-Equipment Outdoor Workout 2:
After a quick warm-up, complete 4-5 rounds of the following circuit, working with intensity and resting when needed.
Push-Up x10
Walking Lunge x10 per leg
Tricep Dip* x15
Bodyweight Step-Up x10 per leg
200-meter sprint
If you don’t have access to a track or a field to easily measure distance, you can perform 20-second sprints using a timer or stopwatch.
* A note about tricep dips: If you have cranky shoulders and the position of the tricep dips doesn’t feel good, perform the push-ups as close-grip push-ups instead, and leave the dips out of this circuit altogether.
No-Equipment Outdoor Workout 3:
After a quick warm-up, complete 4-5 rounds of the following circuit, performing an exercise for 40 seconds, then resting 20 seconds before moving on to the next exercise:
Alternating Reverse Lunge
Push-Up
Bicycle Crunch
Mountain Climber
You can modify your push-ups by using a bench to do incline push-ups (easier) or you can put your feet on the bench for decline push-ups (harder). If you prefer to work your core without the sit-up variation, perform side planks for 15 to 30 seconds per side.
What else can you do outside with no equipment?
If you’re exercising at a park and have access to monkey bars, a pull-up bar, or even a railing, you can add pull-ups or chin-ups, inverted rows, or timed chin-up holds or hollow hangs to any of the circuits in these workouts.
Get some vitamin D and some fitness with one of these three workouts. You’ll be feeling amazing from both, the exercise and the time spent outside — talk about an endorphin kick! Not to mention, these no-equipment, super efficient workouts are also a great way to add a little fitness to your day when you’re vacationing or traveling.
When you’re done with your workout, take a moment to relax, cool down, and enjoy some warm sunshine on your skin — and selfie!
For years, the Mediterranean diet has been applauded for its health benefits. But a study published Monday in the International Journal of Epidemiology made some interesting findings about the disconnect in who reaps the benefits of the diet. Specifically, the study found those with higher education or more income benefit from the diet, which reduces the risk of cardiovascular issues.
Depending on the people you work with, the office refrigerator might not be a safe place for your lunch. (How anyone can “mistake” your lovingly assembled kale salad for their #saddesklunch is beyond us!) Or maybe your job has you on the road most of the day, driving back and forth to appointments, and you don’t have fridge access? Or maybe you just have a long commute? You need a lunch box that’ll keep your food cold. Like, really cold. For a long time.
These lunch boxes will keep their cool until you’re ready to eat.
Nothing makes me feel like more of a breakfast or dinner hero than remembering that I have jars of boozy bacon jam in the fridge. This rich spread could turn a sleeve of stale crackers into a pretty stellar dinner, but when you fold it into warm pasta with fresh corn, sweet tomatoes, and basil, or mix it with maple syrup for pancakes, then you’ll feel like giving yourself a gold star for having the foresight to make it.
Boozy bacon jam is also a practical way to preserve bacon that might need using up. You cook the bacon, caramelize some onions, and hold the two together with a little maple syrup, a decent amount of bourbon, and a splash of vinegar. The resulting spread is chunky, with plenty of smoky, savory flavor and back notes of sweetness and bourbon. Making bacon jam is the greatest gift you can give to your future self.
School lunch packing season is upon us. Whether you started this week like some of us in the South or have a few more weeks to go, it’s not too early to be thinking about school snacks. Our school asks us to send one snack to school and they provide an afternoon snack — usually a piece of fruit or dry cereal — so I like to get creative with my school snacks. This sort of zest for snack making will wear off by May, but here are 1o creative, easy-to-make-and-pack snacks that are perfect for school lunch.
When it comes to flavored seltzer water, there aren’t a lot of surprises. Most brands have citrus flavors like lemon and orange, berry flavors like raspberry or cranberry, and maybe even one curveball flavor like passionfruit. But Massachusetts-based Polar Beverages is adding three limited-edition flavors to its lineup that have mythical vibes to them.
For now classes are 6pm and 640pm at 2840 Wildwood st in the Boise Cloggers studio.
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Warrior Fit Testimonials
First, I want to say thank you for convincing me to do Tabata! I was struggling to lose weight and Finally I found something that helped! I really appreciate your coaching! - Craig T.
Ever since I was convinced to do Tabata I have seen huge results, I lost 6 pounds and gained energy in the first 3 weeks. I have been working out for 3 months before I decided to do Tabata and I struggled to lose weight.
At first I thought "How am I losing weight by bringing my heart rate up then cooling down then bringing it up again?" I don’t know how it works but it does!
Thank you!! - Theresa F.
The first day of Tabata, I wondered WHAT AM I DOING - I AM 56 !! Five weeks later I knew that it was what I needed. I learned that I could push myself well beyond my comfort zone and feel good later. I have a marked improvement in physical as well as emotional endurance. - Lyn C.
When I was first told about Tabata I was very excited from the word go, however that excitement stemmed from the fact that I had no clue what it meant. I missed the first week of class b/c I was traveling for work so when I came in during the 2nd week I had some making it up to do.
It was hard at first b/c my body wasn't used to working out at such a fast pace, but once I got into a rhythm I started to feel very good. These classes are no joke. If you stick with it you will leave there feeling stronger, healthier and overall better about yourself and what you've accomplished.
I would recommend these classes to anyone. Darrin is a great trainer and he'll keep you going with his energy.
- Jami L.
Warriors Fit Audio
Warrior Fit uses High Intensity Music to get ya Moooovin' So we can all "Get Our Sweat On"
The link below will give ya a freeee shot at Audible plus a couple audio books just to try it out and if you haven't used audio books on your commutes you are missing out. Get pumped up before you get to where you are going and exercise your mind. I use it Everyday. Go get yours now!