The Ninja BL600 Professional Blender

Hey peeps! I’m going to let you in on a little secret here. Once upon a time, I used to have a little side gig doing electronics reviews.

Seriously. I’m not making this up. Televisions; tablets; LCD monitors, laptops; iPod accessories, and kitchen appliances – I reviewed them all. But it was soul-sucking work; I mean, once you’ve written over 20,000 words on all of the latest must-have gadgetry that drives the chaos at the Black Friday sales in the States, you start to wonder if it’s your enthralling descriptions of the products that drives people to beat each other up over a TV that’s 80% off.

So I gave that up. I’d rather write real reviews about the things I love. And my little Ninja BL660 Professional blender is one of them.

My Road To the Ninja Blender

Backstory: I’m hard on blenders (and gas-powered lawn trimmers too, but that’s another story). I am a huge smoothie and mixed drink fan; the family loves them as well. So when the base cracked on my old trusty Black & Decker blender (the one that has 16 different speed settings that pretty much all do the same thing), I went hunting for another one.

I shot out some questions to my friends on Facebook, asking them for recommendations. And a few mentioned the Ninja blender family. I mean, come on – how could a guy NOT buy a blender called “Ninja”? If marketers were on the ball, they’d slap that brand on everything from vacuum cleaners to dish soap and guys would practically be begging to do housework! (Hey marketing pros – you heard it here first. I want my 2% commission.)

Knowing that a bunch of friends were coming over the next night, and that crushed ice and liquor were likely to be involved, I rushed out after work to take stock of the available blenders in my neck of the woods.

I hemmed and hawed for a bit, but there’s three features that led me to get the Ninja BL660 Professional blender:

1. Ice crushing – this thing claims to make snow out of ice in less than 30 seconds. With my old blender, the manual told me I could only crush ice if it was covered by liquid. (I was pretty sure that advice didn’t apply to me. But that also might be why my old blender smelled like ozone and subsequently broke. Ah well.)
2. Individual size carafes – sometimes you just wanna blend something small. It’s all well and good to blend 72oz of healthy smoothies for the family, but you know what kids? Sometimes Mommy and Daddy need to make a special smoothie for themselves with a particular ingredient called “patience juice”. No, you can’t have that kind of juice until you’re 19. Don’t ask why.
3. Controlled pouring – yeah, I know it sounds like a boring feature. But in standard blenders without a special pouring spout, the viscosity of the smoothie causes the liquid to spread out horizontally when you pour, making a huge mess. This causes Mommy and Daddy to grumble about having more cleaning to do and also results in more special “patience juice” being consumed.

The Unboxing of the Ninja Blender

So I brought the thing home and opened it up.

HOLY SWEET MOSES THIS THING HAS NOT ONE, NOT TWO, BUT THREE MOTHERFLIPPING BLADES IN THE CARAFE. That just about made my day. I can see why they call it a Ninja – this is one serious blender that doesn’t mess around.

With the vertically stacked blades that rest about 3 inches apart, it’s no wonder this thing can pulverize ice like it does. In your standard blender with a single blade on the bottom, there’s no way that it can possibly handle a full load of ice, as that design depends on the vortex effect created by the blades to pull things down to the bottom. The three blades on this monster just thrash the hell out of anything that stands in their way.

I also loved that the front control was flat, with sealed touch buttons that could just be wiped clean. Not that I’m a messy blender chef. No way.

Along with the main 72oz main carafe, there’s two smaller 16oz personal size blending carafes with screw-on take along lids. While not quite big enough to create a smoothie to share, the smaller carafes make short work of blending that morning smoothie, even with sticky and crunchy crap in it, like honey poured over ice. Iced honey is enough to bring most blenders to its knees, but the Ninja blender kept chugging along like a champ.

(Aside: Check out the recipe at the end of this article that I stole from an ex-con media celebrity on the Internet. It’s just the right amount of ingredients for a personal size smoothie blend in the Ninja BL660. And that’s a good thing.)

But Will It Blend?

The real test was Saturday night – an occasion which we like to call “Games Night” with our friends from out of town, but which turned into a drink-mixing competition and a late-night philosophical debate. At least that’s what I think happened. The police report might differ slightly.

Anyhow, there I stood, 72 ounces of ice packed into the Ninja blender. My friends stood around, waiting expectantly for me to demonstrate drink-mixing Nirvana after extolling the virtues of this monster machine on Facebook.

I put the lid on, snapped the safety-interlock into place, closed my eyes and whispered quietly, “Don’t let me down, little Ninja.”

WHIIIIZZZZZSHMSHMSHMSHSHZZSHSMSHSMZZZZZ went the Ninja blender…and then all was still. In 20 seconds I had a blender full of crushed  ice — nay SNOW — and my friends erupted in cheers, lifted me on to their shoulders and paraded me around the house, holding the blender high for all too see.

(Okay, well, not exactly. They looked into the top of the blender and said “Wow, that’s pretty impressive!” But my version sounds cooler.)

Unbelievably, the small carafes do an equally great job with shredding ice cubes or frozen fruit — I made a few individual frozen strawberry daiquiris that night as well, and they turned out to be the favourite blender drink of the evening.

Clean up is super-simple too, which is good news when your friends think that 1am is too early to leave a party. The blade assembly lifts out of the main carafe for washing and everything just goes in the dishwasher. Done and done. There’s no gaskets to leak, nothing to fall apart together – just a couple of pieces that are beyond easy to clean.

This is especially handy when you’re making a few personal-size smoothies in a row; the blade assembly can be rinsed really quickly to get ready for the next concoction. Especially given that the Law of Smoothies and Children states that no two children shall ever want the same kind of smoothie together. Ever.

The Bottom Line

The Ninja blender isn’t the cheapest model out there, to be sure, but so far it’s been worth every single penny, and I’m completely happy with it.

The only tricky thing I’ve found is that you can’t easily add ingredients during the blend; you have to stop, remove the safety-interlock handle, pry off the lid, add your ingredients, replace the lid, lock the handle, and then resume the blend. But with three motherflipping blades spinning around in there like a crazed samurai, I don’t blame Euro-Pro for not letting people dangle their fingers through a hole in the top of the lid.

Bottom line? The Ninja BL600 Professional blender is the best blending system I’ve ever owned. Hands down. I suspect you won’t be disappointed either.

If there’s ever a Ninja matching washer and dryer set, you might just find me doing laundry…with a full cup of “patience juice” smoothie by my side.

Cheers,

Here’s that smoothie recipe I mentioned earlier:

Body Moment Ninja Avocado Breakfast Smoothie

• 1/2 avocado
• 1/4 c greek yogurt
• 1/2 banana
• 3/4 c OJ
• 4-5 ice cubes
• 1 tbsp honey

Throw it all in the 16-oz personal size carafe of the Ninja in the order indicated and blend the crap out of it. Soooo good.

To avoid having the honey stick to the side of the carafe, I usually put the ice cubes on top of everything, and drizzle the honey on the ice cubes.

The post Ninja Blender Review – The BL660 Professional appeared first on Body Moment.

Sugar is a case in point. Here’s a little table, sourced from the Canadian Sugar Institute, of the various names, and sources, of basic sugar additives in foods:

Sugars Listed in the Ingredient List	Source of Sugar
Sucrose, sugar, liquid sugar, invert sugar, molasses	Sugar cane or sugar beets
Glucose/fructose, dextrose, corn syrup solids, dextrin	corn
Honey	honey
Maple syrup	Maple sap
(concentrated) fruit juice	Fruits such as pear, apple, or grape for example

If you’re a real food nut, you can dig around through Google search results to find other sweeteners (maltodextrin, for example) that are derived from or related to sugar.

The usual reaction to labelling sugar and sugar-related products in this manner is that food manufacturers are trying to “hide” the fact that their products contain sugar. It’s nothing like that. Sucrose, glucose, fructose, dextrose, dextrin, and all other sweeteners are chemically different form each other; therefore the manufacturer is bound by labelling law to list exactly what went into the product.

Unfortunately, that puts the onus on the consumer to educate themselves about the actual additive behind the label. But that’s the role of  the true Wellness Rebel – to go beyond the surface and take responsibility to dig for the real truth.

However, there’s a minefield to navigate outside of the list of ingredients; there’s the labelling on the front of the package as well. Terms such as “sugar-free” and “reduced-sugar” have their own meaning, as well.

The Canadian Sugar Institute offers this guide to package labelling claims, and what the requirements are behind those claims:

Sugar – Related Claims	Regulations
sugar-free, free of sugar, no sugar, 0 sugar, zero sugar, without sugar, contains no sugar, sugarless	Contains < 0.5 g sugars per reference amount and “free of energy” (< 5 cal per reference amount).
reduced in sugar, reduced sugar, sugar-reduced, less sugar, lower sugar, lower in sugar	Compared to a similar reference food, contains > 25% less sugars and > 5 g less sugars/reference amount.
lower in sugar, less sugar, lower sugar	Compared to a reference food of the same food group, contains > 25% less sugars and > 5 g less sugars/reference amount.
no added sugar, no sugar added, without added sugar	Contains no added sugars, no ingredients containing added sugars or ingredients that contain sugars that substitute for added sugars.
unsweetened	Meets requirements for “no added sugar” and contains no sweeteners.

Well, the table certainly tries to be helpful, I’ll give it that. Although some of the wording is a little obtuse: “Contains no…ingredients that that contain sugars that substitute for added sugars”. I’m still not quite sure about that one.

I’ve read through the site, and honestly I find it a little disturbing that the Institute – which has an interest in the marketing and production of sugar – also provides pages for consumers, educators, and health professionals on topics such as weight management, dental health, and healthy eating guidelines.

Is it just me or do I sense a conflict of interest with this approach? Leave your thoughts in the comment area below!

The post The Many Names of Sugar appeared first on Body Moment.

I used to think that I was a pretty educated food consumer, but these sugar-containing foods are the latest ones I’ve come across that make me scratch my head in wonder:

• Miracle Whip dressing
• turkey kolbassa sausage
• processed deli ham, salami, and pepperoni

I’ve found that I need to be rather resourceful when working around sugar-containing foods. Bread’s a pretty easy one to manage – I have long been a fan of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes that only contains flour, yeast, water and salt. However, there are some tricky foods where there aren’t any quick and easy alternatives on the grocery store shelf:

• Pretty much every commercial salad dressing contains sugar in some form, so I’ve resorted to lime juice and freshly ground pepper on my salads, which is unexpectedly good.
• Burger toppings are tricky; ketchup and relish are loaded with sugar. I’ve used hummus as a very tasty burger topping.
• I made my own mayonnaise for my burger this past weekend; although it was a bit thin, it still was very tasty. Just be sure to not keep any leftovers; mayonnaise is made with raw eggs, so it’s best to only make what you need and throw the rest out.
• Cookies and other baked goods are tricky; but my friend Jen passed on a completely delicious cookie recipe that is sweetened with real maple syrup and is also egg-free!

I’ve been experimenting with substituting molasses in place of sugar for my baking with…mixed results. But that’s destined for another blog post.

Keep the sugar-free recipes coming, peeps! I can’t wait to try them!

Cheers,

The post Sugar: The Sneaky Ingredient appeared first on Body Moment.

For those of you who still participate in Lenten Fasts, I’ve chosen this year to avoid refined sugars in my diet for the next forty days or so.

That means:

• no white sugar,
• no foods containing sugar, and
• no foods containing glucose-fructose (HFCS, in other words)

I’m still on the fence about whether honey and maple syrup really count as refined sugars or not; I know what Wikipedia says about unrefined sugars, but honey and maple syrup are still concentrated sugars. I’m not sure if I’ll avoid the honey this trip, even knowing of the potential health benefits of honey.

It’s turning out to be a lot harder than I originally thought.

On day 1 I was enjoying some ketchup on my dinner, but all of a sudden I panicked and looked at the back of the bottle. I’d forgotten that sugar was listed as one of the ingredients. Shoot. I wasn’t even 24 hours into my challenge and I’d already screwed up!

So I’ve been even  more anal about reading the food labels of the things I consume. So far, here’s a list of the items I normally enjoy on a day-to-day basis that, surprisingly, contain added sugar:

• Mango Lime Salsa
• Fully-cooked prepared meatballs (really?)
• Flour tortillas (REALLY? Come ON!)

I usually claim to be a fairly well-educated food consumer, but these caught me off guard. The regular chunky salsa I keep in the fridge doesn’t have any added sugar. Why you’d add sugar to meatballs is beyond me, and the presence of sugar in a FLAT, unleavened flour tortilla seems ridiculous.

I think I’ll be looking for some help from you guys in the next little while for some recipes to satisfy my sweet tooth. I love fruit, but sometimes I want to chow down on something that closely resembles a cookie, but doesn’t have a bunch of white sugar in it. This could be tricky.

Do you have any favourite recipes to share that are sugar-free? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below!

Cheers,

The post Giving up Refined Sugars appeared first on Body Moment.

A lot of the application of self-determination focuses on the positive side of things – being able to motivate yourself toward your goal, and to measure your own level of success in the mechanisms that you employ to reach that goal.

However, sometimes reaching your goal isn’t so much a matter of “I think I can, I think I can”, but rather “I think I can’t, I think I can’t”. This is particularly true when you are reaching for goals that depend on regular refusal of temptation – losing weight is the first, and most common one, that springs to mind. In order to reach that elusive goal weight, you need to regularly refuse the many delicious temptations that seem to surround us these days.

These types of mechanisms for goal-reaching can feel incredibly negative; you feel like you are in a constant state of refusal. You know that you want that piece of pie, but you know in your head that you can’t have that piece of pie – or suffer the consequences. What to do?

The answer may simply lie in how you talk to yourself.

A recent study from the University of Houston authored by V. Patrick and H. Hagtvedt titled “‘I Don’t’ versus ‘I Can’t’: When Empowered Refusal Motivates Goal-Directed Behavior“, suggests that using the correct language in your self-talk can have a significant influence on your success in reaching your goals.

Four separate studies were undertaken, and in each study the subjects were presented with a scenario that involved denial as a mechanism to achieve the specific goal laid out in the study. One group was coached on using empowering language to stay focused on the goal, such as “I don’t eat ice cream” or “I don’t skip my workouts”.

The other group was coached on using extrinsically motivating language such as “I can’t eat ice cream” or “I can’t skip my workout”. When a control group was involved, they were given the time-worn advice to suck it up and just do it.

The results are quite stunning, especially in the third study which tracked a group of women in their twenties and thirties who were prompted to submit daily diary entries on their health and wellness goals.

In this study, only one out of ten participants who were coached to use “I can’t” language completed their diary entries for the full ten days. The control group only saw three out of ten participants complete their diary entries for the entire 10 days, while the third group, coached to frame their self-talk using ” I don’t” messages, saw a full 8 out of 10 participants complete their diary entries the full ten days.

It’s a simple test that tells an interesting story about self-motivation and the language we use.

The “I don’t” language framework seems to support the competence pillar of self-determination. Competence is about owning and mastering the task at hand. When you say “I don’t”, you take responsibility for your choice and cast your refusal to give in to temptation as a personal quality.

In contrast, when you state that you “can’t” do something, you slough off the reason for your actions to an external force, and suddenly the motivator for your actions is external – and your desire to succeed nosedives.

I think it’s an interesting study, and I plan to give this a try in my long term goal planning.

The authors of the study also note that for very short goals, such as weighing-in at Weight Watchers in a few days, the “I can’t” frameworks might give temporary results, and might be more compelling than the longer-term intrinsic “I don’t” framework. But for lasting change, it seems like modifying the way in which we speak to ourselves might make the difference between success – and having to start over again.

Cheers,

The post Self-Empowerment: “I can’t” versus “I don’t” appeared first on Body Moment.

You Are Your Own Gym – on your mobile!

My little internet hamsters have been reporting back to me that a lot of you are searching for “You Are Your Own Gym app reviews”. Since the authors have updated the app, I thought I would take the time to post an updated review!

(Haven’t yet read the first review? It gives a lot of background of the program and the book – you will want to check it out as well!)

Okay, first things first.  The app is based on the book of the same name – “You Are Your Own Gym“, and it is unique in that it stands alone as a fitness app, as well as a companion to the book. I will definitely suggest that you buy the book as well if you are serious about following the You Are Your Own Gym program, since it really discusses the philosophy of the whole bodyweight movement, as well as nutrition and workout safety.

However, if you are a rebel and want to forge ahead with the app, here’s what you can expect!

The app has been significantly reworked, and many fantastic features have been added. Let’s go through them one at a time.

The main screen offers several options:

• Start Working Out – this gives you several options for working out, including your standard 10-week program based on Mark Lauren’s YAYOG workouts; quick workouts for when you’re pressed for time; as well as the option to create your own  workout from scratch.
• Exercises – here you can view every single exercise included in the program – and then some! The exercises are categorized by Push, Pull, Legs, Core, Whole Body, or you can browse the whole list of exercises available to you.
• History – view your saved workouts which are organized by date.
• Settings – does what it says on the tin and lets you change multiple aspects of the app.
• The Book – gives a bit of background on the book behind the app, and provides links to buy the book, which is highly recommended.
• Connect – provides you with links to MarkLauren.com, where there is a very active forum of YAYOG fans (look for me, I’m crispy8888), as well as links to YAYOG on Facebook and Twitter.

All of the Workout Options in YAYOG!

The workout options on the “Start Working Out” screen are great – I used to follow Mark’s standard 10-week programs diligently, but after about 6 months, I needed to modify some of the exercises due to injury (and to be honest, some of the exercises get pretty old after 6 months or so, like Let Me Ins!).

The app makes this incredibly easy to do; you can modify any of the workouts in any of the programs – so if you like a stock program but just want to swap in one or more exercises, you just need to tap and hold on an exercise in the list, where you can change the variation or difficulty of the exercise, or even swap in another one altogether.

Or, if you’re hardcore like me, you can totally build your own workout from scratch – so if you want to build a big, 30-minute Core exercise routine to look good in that Speedo this summer – you can do this as well. I love this feature, and I can save as many different workouts as I want. I have a workout for Arms and Chest, a Core Workout, and a Legs workout that I return to repeatedly.

Don’t like the standard workouts? Build your own!

When I’m pressed for time, I find the pre-configured Quick Exercises really handy, as I can pick a Circuit workout in durations from 2 to 10 minutes, depending on how much time I have available. You can also choose the difficulty level – and again, if you need to swap exercises in and out, you can do so.

Pressed for time? Try a quick workout!

Where this update really shines is that not only is each exercise described step-by-step in picture, there is also an optional video component available for download which shows Mark himself demonstrating proper form and technique for each of the exercises.

Videos make it *so* much easier to do the exercises correctly!

This is beyond awesome – my biggest beef with workout books and apps is that there is no one there to show you how the moves fit together in dynamic form. YAYOG solves this problem really really well. Although the add-on is pretty big (500+ MB!), it’s invaluable to have in your arsenal. Plus it’s free to anyone who has already purchased the app.

All exercise programs and circuits in this app have a countdown timer with voice-over that tells you when to start, when there are 30 seconds remaining in your exercise, and when to stop. I love this feature as well, because I typically have my mobile up on a shelf out of harm’s way so that I don’t fall or step on it during my routine, and I can’t see the  countdown clock most of the time.

I can’t say enough good things about the YAYOG program – but I know that if you want to form some life-long good habits when it comes to exercising – and avoiding excuses – then You Are Your Own Gym is the way to go.

If you’re REALLY serious about YAYOG, grab the book – it’s available from Amazon.  The book and the app are excellent companions for each other.

The You Are Your Own Gym is available both from Google Play and from the App Store. Don’t be a cheap bastard; shell out the two bucks and I know that you’ll love it.

Cheers,

The post You Are Your Own Gym – Updated App Review! appeared first on Body Moment.

Yeah, it’s that time again. Time to make some resolutions to lose some weight, to get fit, eat right, so on and so forth.

However, my favourite little webcomic, XKCD, had this to say about resolutions:

XKCD truly understands the whole “resolution” thing.

You know, I’ve been mulling the whole idea of creating effective personal change. I’ve been plugging away at the book and at a new mobile app I’m developing to help track my mental state throughout the day, to help identify my peak periods of productivity. And the more that I work on these various projects, the more I realize that cycles or loops are really a basic part of the human condition.

Think about it for a minute. Any “personal improvement” project you’ve ever started probably had the following pattern or rhythm:

1. Start new habits with the best of intentions
2. Stay on track for a while
3. Wobble a bit as you lose your focus
4. Curse yourself as you completely fall off the wagon
5. Take a break, and then start back at Step 1.

What if maybe – just maybe – we need to embrace that cycle instead of cursing it?

Really. I’m serious. Stop laughing.

The longer I hang around on this planet, the more I realize that humans are great at sabotaging themselves. We inevitably will “fail”, yet each and every time that we start our plans anew, we declare solemnly “THIS time will be different”.

But this time won’t be different. It will be the same as last time. You’ll muck up. The reality of the human condition is that you will “fail” again, and again, and again.

The fact that people do this to themselves hundreds of times in their lives leads me to posit the statement below:

What if we started out on our personal improvement journey with a PLAN to fail – and fail often?

It’s not as crazy as it seems. One of the best principles of successful people is that they learn to “fail early, and fail often”. If you build in the expectation, and capacity for “failure”, then you already have a plan “b” – or at least you’re expecting to have to create a plan “b” on the fly when the need arises.

I’ve realized that in my case, three to four weeks is about the maximum amount of time that I can stick to ANYTHING (writing, eating right, exercising, or even keeping this blog alive).

So I think I’m going to take a little different approach to my resolutions this year. I’m going to give myself three weeks at a maximum to work on any one of my health-related resolutions.

Once the three-week point hits, I’m going to drastically change up whatever I’m working on and move to something completely different. Bodyweight exercises for the first three weeks – then flip to kickboxing cardio sessions.  Food journal for a few weeks, then switch to a primal diet.

I’m excited about this approach, as I think there’s a lot of merit in it. I’ll be writing about it as I go along; I’d be interested to see what your experience is with your resolutions. Leave me a note in the comments below.

Cheers,

The post New Year, New Resolutions, New Approach appeared first on Body Moment.

It’s funny — sometimes the best books about fitness and wellness aren’t about fitness and wellness at all.

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle is a book that I’ve had on my reading list a long time. I really wish I’d read it sooner. Like, about 15 years ago.

Generally, the book is an exploration of the philosophy of the present moment. Tolle argues that our minds spend a good deal of time living both in the past and in the present; guilt and regret are the symptoms of living in the past, while anxiety and fear come from living too far in the future.

The way to enlightenment, Tolle explains, is not to live in your head, but to live in your body. Your mind has no concept of the present moment; only by focusing your consciousness on your physical being can you truly learn to live in the moment and be rid of that which impacts you negatively.

Does that sound like a lot of new-age hocus-pocus? Perhaps. Tolle does spend a fair amount of time crossing into the spiritual realm and discussing certain aspects of various followings such as Zen, Buddhism, and Christianity, but in actual fact, the lessons he teaches in the book can be followed even without being a part of such a group.

I think the book is best appreciated when you read it for the small statements and ideas that affect you in a profound manner; statements that make you suddenly see things in an incredibly different light.

There were a lot of statements that really resonated with me. I’ll go over some of them in detail in the sections below, in the hope that you’ll find one or more of them as motivating as I did:

“Is there any scientific evidence for this? Try it out and you will be the evidence.”

If I could only take one sentence (okay, technically two) from this book, it would be this one. Despite whatever you may read, whatever you may hear, whatever you may be told, only you, and you alone, can determine if any path in life is right for you. Don’t succumb to the fear that people have told you it won’t work; try it for yourself. You really won’t know unless you try, for trying is how true learning happens.

“Failure lies concealed in every success, and success in every failure. In this world, which is to say on the level of form, everybody “fails” sooner or later, of course, and every achievement eventually comes to naught. All forms are impermanent.”

This is true in so many ways. This harkens back to the Wellness Rebel attitude that there is no such thing as failure, and that once you embrace that concept, you’ll feel that fear fall away as you become empowered and emboldened to take on new challenges.

There is only learning and growing in this life; you aren’t a failure when things don’t go according to plan. You’ve just learned a valuable lesson about what doesn’t work. Feel the pain of the lesson and use it as a tool to help you work towards a solution that does work.

“Dissolution is needed for new growth to happen. One cannot happen without the other.”

This is a direct follow-on to the concept above. Things cannot stay constant and static in our lives. Change is real. Change is hard. But change is necessary. I have a saying that “you are a different person every day of your life” and it’s true.

Accept that nothing, absolutely nothing will ever stay constant in your life, and just as muscle fibres need to be broken down to allow the muscles to rebuild and strengthen, so do the fibres of our lives need to be pulled apart from time to time to allow us to regenerate and reform the parts of our lives that need work.

“The mind, conditioned as it is by the past, always seeks to recreate what it knows and is familiar with. Even if it is painful, at least it is familiar.”

We return to bad habits and bad situations repeatedly in our life because they are familiar. We know, intellectually, that these things are bad for us, but we seek them out in times of trouble because our mind, when stressed, would rather return to what is familiar than seek out something unknown.

Recognizing this behaviour for what it is is key to helping us understand why we backslide into familiar territory when trying to effect change in our lives. Make it a habit to embrace and accept the unknown.

I could go on; these are only a few of the lessons that I took away from the book.

I will stress that this is not a practical “how-to” book that tells you how to achieve your inner Nirvana. Rather, I consider it a catalyst to help you think about your wellness journey, and your life, in a manner unlike anything you have experienced before.

Being in the here and now is not so much about assuming the lotus position and chanting “Om”; it’s really about understanding how our minds are conditioned since birth to function in a certain way, and how to work that to your advantage.

In short? I highly recommend The Power of Now for those who are interested in really shaking up their beliefs about their mind-body connection, and the reason why we do the things we do. Just keep an open mind and take away from it the bits that really inspire you.

The post The Power Of Now – Book Review appeared first on Body Moment.

That’s why I was so excited to see the picture and the caption below from my good friend Meghan, who is a wonderful embodiment of the phrase “No Excuses”:

Today I added a new exerciser to my routine. It is for those days I don’t want to leave the house… or even wear pants. I put my laptop on the table at the top of the stairs and then proceed to walk UP and then DOWN the stairs for a whole episode of something I really want to watch. At the moment I can only manage a sit-com, roughly 22 mins ’cause there are no commercials but I am hoping to work up to a full episode of The West Wing.

I’m a big fan of using stairs as part of my fitness routine, but this goes WAY beyond anything I’ve done before. It’s ingenious on two levels; one, it makes use of a great piece of “equipment” that most people have in their homes, and two, you’re earning that TV time with every step.

Gravity is one of the cheapest, and most effective, resistance trainers out there. With each step you take up the staircase or up the hill, you’re lifting almost your entire body weight with each step. It’s a great example of making thousands of little actions add up over the course of time.

By my rough calculations, that’s well over a thousand steps – 500 up and 500 down – so you’re burning around 250 calories for that ONE episode of watching TV. Pretty decent tradeoff, I must say.

How do you keep fit inside, when the wintr’y winds blow?

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Well, it doesn’t look like the NHL hockey season is going to start anytime soon — so in order to keep you entertained, I’m bringing you a brand-new season of Body Moment posts, guest articles, book reviews, and program evaluations! Yeah baby! I though you’d be excited about that!

First, a few housekeeping things that I just haven’t had time to take care of while I was on my summer break:

YAYOG Book Giveaway Winner!

The winner of the “You Are Your Own Gym” book giveaway was faithful reader Anita C.! The YAYOG book is now another great part of her personal inventory of health resources. Thanks Anita – and thanks to all who entered!

Restarting Old Habits

I’m also getting back into my regular exercise program, after leaving it on the back burner for the summer. Not that I was sedentary all summer – there was lots going on!

I mentioned to my wife that they should have a chopping machine at the gym — I recently felled three trees in the backyard and manually chopped the stumps out with my axe. That’s a hell of a arms and shoulders workout!

I admit that I find it really easy to slip back into my exercise habits, but I know that many others don’t. I’ll get a series of articles going on “getting back on the wagon” for all those who want to start their New Year’s Resolutions early!

More Digital Products

I’ve spent a good part of the summer break thinking about some really neat things that I can offer to the Body Moment Community; I have a few that are already in the works, including finishing off “The Wellness Rebel Manifesto”.

However, I’ll need your help and input — I’ll be looking for some volunteers to test-drive these products! Stay tuned!

 An In-depth Look at Gyms

My amazing wife has just recently joined a gym, which has us talking a lot about the pros and cons of gym memberships, and going to the gym in general. I’ll be working on a few pieces that take a good hard look at gyms, their membership practices, and whether or not a gym is the right choice for you.

…And Much, Much More

Oh, peeps, I have so many ideas for this coming year that my notebook runneth over. I’m really excited about what the next year of Body Moment will bring! I note that I’ve TOTALLY missed the one-year anniversary of Body Moment, so maybe we’ll have a big 13-month anniversary party instead!

Until next time!

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