Shape your home to support your goals What does it mean to “build a supportive home environment”? 1. Being clear on the priorities and goals that you have for your home environment. How exactly do you want your home to support you? What do you want from your home environment, that you aren't getting from your work or other community? 2. Assessing your current home environment, and how you interact with it. What defines your home? Is it the feeling of certain people, places, t

Act first, get motivated later. There are three big lies about what sustainable exercise and good nutrition are made of. Lie #1: You have to be "inspired" to practice. Lie #2: You should always be "motivated" to practice. Lie #3: "Experts" are always motivated to practice. Lies. Even for healthy-lifestyle pros, there's no such thing as unwavering motivation. You will not always be “motivated” or “inspired”. You will not always feel “flow”. Motivation comes and goes. Some days

1. Eat every 2-3 hours Are you doing this – no matter what? Now, you don’t need to eat a full meal every 2-3 hours but you do need to eat 6-8 meals and snacks that conform to the other rules below. 2. Eat complete, lean protein each time you eat Are you eating something that was an animal or comes from an animal – every time you feed yourself? If not, make the change. Note: If you’re a vegetarian, this rule still applies – you need complete protein and need to find non-animal

Sleep is a wonderful thing. Our lives depend on it. It makes us feel good. Helps us recover. And helps us get leaner, healthier, and stronger. No amount of daytime recovery can substitute for the deeply rejuvenating effects of quality sleep. And sleep often doesn’t come easily. Just like you can't go from deep sleep to high alert first thing in the morning, you need time to transition between the demands of a busy day and unwinding to sleep. To get better sleep, we often need

Match your fitness to your foundation and enjoy As humans, movement is both a birth right and a privilege. Babies squirm and squiggle as soon as possible. Children love to move. For many, between our transition from the playground to the workplace, we forget how much we love to move. We decide that exercise is a chore, or it's something that "other people" are good at. If movement is a chore, making it enjoyable again may be a matter of practicing a mindset shift. Maybe, the

Consistency, Not Compensation You can't outrun a poor diet, so start with a solid foundation of smart eating choices. What's the difference? Consistency is present-focused and forgiving. It means focusing on your personal daily plan of small actions. And it also means knowing that you won't always meet the plan. In those times, focusing on consistency means being strong on forgiveness. Focusing on consistency, you can get restarted as soon as possible. You can be back on-plan

Let’s start with the hard truth You can’t fully control whether you catch a cold, the flu, or COVID-19. You also can’t control how your body will react once it’s exposed to a pathogen. There are many different factors that determine your body’s response. Some you can impact, like nutrient deciencies. Others you can’t do anything about, like your age. But even among the factors you can influence, no single tweak or “hack” can control such a complex system. (Short of a proven v

By John Berardi, PhD, CSCS When emergency strikes, fitness is often the first thing to go. Solution: Stay on track by letting go of "perfection." The PN team shares their strategies for maintaining health and fitness during extra-stressful life transitions. A case of the "what-ifs" When I made up my mind to get in better shape, I started with all the usual worries and stewed in what-ifs. What if I lost my resolve and ate too much, or too fast, or the wrong stuff? What if the