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Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
Do you slouch because you're stressed or are you stressed because you slouch?
Scientists are uncovering links between your mood and your posture, and it turns out the two are tied together in powerful ways.
For most of us, that stress-posture question probably works in both directions. But there's a surprising amount of research that shows that how you sit and stand has a pretty big impact on your stress level, self-confidence, and your mood! 
Not only does your posture impact how others see you (happy and confident vs. depressed and guarded), it can play a role in how YOU see the world!
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A woman in a Facebook group I belong to posted a question about how while she feels much better when she eliminates gluten from her diet, she has trouble sticking with it past six weeks.
Initially, she said it's because she craves the density of foods like breads, and get really hungry, but with more investigations, it seems like she's just getting bored with what she perceives as a limited selection of foods that she can eat. This really make me think of how when you change the way you eat, or eliminate certain foods from your diet, you really do feel like there's nothing to eat. Read on. It doesn't have to be that way! 
Do you ever wonder when you should toss the food you've stored in your fridge? I'm not just talking about the things you buy, but also leftovers and the meals you prepare.
How long do they keep, for the best taste and also for safety? Also, have you thought about how you store your leftovers and other food in the fridge or freezer? 
Today, I'll share how long you can keep prepared food and the best way to store it for maximum freshness!
How Long Can You Safely Keep Your Prepped Meals and Other Food?
Just the other day I saw a comparison of portion sizes from today, to 30 years ago. There's a huge difference!
We eat a LOT more than we used to. Our serving sizes have ballooned! 
This looks like a healthy meal, and it is ... but I bet it would still be enough food for most people even if they ate half of the salmon, rice, and apples on the plate. In fact, you could probably get away with just eating the veggies and salmon!
Portion sizes have more than doubled in many cases, for example:
Do you feel like your cravings are a force that needs to be ignored. Or do you feel like your ability or inability to conquer cravings is a result of your willpower or lack thereof?  It's not that simple...and it's not your fault! Cravings are simply your body's way of trying to communicate what it needs. Your body is amazing, listen to it! Instead of feeling bad about your cravings, try deciphering what your body's trying to tell you and try taking action based on what you learn. Take the guilt and self-judgement out of it! 7 Common Sources of CravingsLack of Primary Food Consider that the food you eat is secondary to all of the other parts of your life that feed you, for example, your relationships, career, spirituality, hobbies, and exercise routine. These parts of your life are considered Primary Foods in the Integrative Nutrition world.
Integrative Nutrition bridges the gap between nutrition, or the food you eat, and personal growth and development. Both of these work together to create a healthy lifestyle. As I like to say, you could eat the most perfect diet in the world, but if you're unhappy in the rest of your life, you probably won't feel that healthy. 
How many times do you find yourself walking down the packaged food isle, making decisions based on what the front of the package says? I remember as a kid, the cereal packaging was the worst! Thinking back I can feel the disappointment in my body, when whatever was supposed to be in the package, wasn't. Most often it was the free toy or whatever that was featured prominently on the front, but in reality it wasn't anything like the picture. Or, the nice photo of the cereal with fresh fruit and a beautifully laid out table. "Why doesn't my cereal look like that?"  Processed foods have become even more popular for their convenience and portability. Toaster pastries, tubes of yogurt, cans of soda, individually wrapped slices or pieces of cheese are usually heavily processed and contain various additives and chemicals to preserve their shelf life. What is a habit?A habit is a behavior that's performed automatically. Obviously, habits can be good or bad. This week I'll focus on developing good habits, but note that good habits can replace "bad" habits. In fact, making small, continuous changes create habits that actually stick! That's because they don't require you to completely change everything about your life. They're built up over a longer period of time, which means you learn to manage and maintain them along the way.  In Deepak Chopra's book "Super Genes," he breaks down the lifestyle choices for increasing well-being into easy choices, harder choices, and experimental choices.
Did you know that your body is made up of between 60-75% water? No wonder how much water you drink can affect your health. Too little water can cause dehydration, headaches or fatigue, while too much water can result in mineral imbalances.  1. Being Hydrated Improves Mental Focus and Alertness Water gets nutrients to your brain cells, so dehydration can cause your brain to be a bit sluggish.
Even mild dehydration (1-3% of body weight) can impair mood, memory, and brain function. This fluid loss equals about 1.5-4.5 pounds (0.5-2kg) for a 150 pound (68 kg) person. Reference How much exercise do you *actually* need to get in shape? Twenty minutes three times per week? Half-hour per day? And how much is too much? Do you need to sweat it out for an hour or more every day? Let’s go over the (sometimes) mysterious amount of exercise that is ideal. Ideal for your health and wellness. Ideal for getting into shape. Starting with the minimum.  What's the Minimum Amount of Exercise You Need?
This article was first published March 29, 2017. Since it's been awhile, you may not know that our family of four traveled for ten months through Australia, New Zealand, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Spain, France, Italy, Belgium, Holland, and England.
During our travels we ate many different kinds of foods and experienced the challenges of trying to eat a healthy diet at the same time. Peru was one of the easiest places to feel like I was eating well, and as a result I physically felt great while I was there. If you someday get a chance to go, take it! When I originally wrote this, I did not yet know that my son, ten-years-old at the time, would declare himself vegetarian, just as we were entering Spain. The poor kid ate mostly potatoes in Spain, and we cut our time in Spain shorter than we'd planned so that we could get to the Pizza! His new vegetarianism was probably a combination of seeing meat hanging in open air market, the guinea pigs raised for food, and his best friend at home being vegetarian. He's still vegetarian two years later. Now, our family eats mostly vegetarian at home, but isn't as strict away from home. It's what works for us! 
Grains in Peru
Probably not an Incan Priestess, but I did fall instantly in love with the Peruvian culture. It could have been reading all of those Paddington Bear books. He was from darkest Peru. Or it could have been the Peruvian Dark coffee I used to drink roasted by Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Company.
Or was it the delicious food?
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