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  • Can You Drink Coffee While Fasting? Yes — But Follow These Tips

    Can You Drink Coffee While Fasting? Yes — But Follow These Tips

    “If you ingest caffeine on an empty stomach, it will have a more potent stimulant effect that will also tend to increase the level of jitteriness that caffeine can produce,” Stanford neuroscientist Andrew Huberman, Ph.D., notes on the Huberman Lab Podcast.

    And some coffee drinkers are going to feel this more than others. “Some people are going to be very sensitive to coffee triggering an insulin response, even if the coffee is black or only has fat but no sugar,” Pedre says. “When the pancreas releases insulin, blood sugar will drop subsequently. And within 30 to 60 minutes of drinking coffee, a blood sugar drop will cause uncomfortable weakness, shaking, and cravings for carbs or sugar.”

    These regular crashes could have long-term impacts. “It may even lead to the overconsumption of calories over the rest of the day,” Pedre says, “which will cause weight gain in most individuals.” 

    If you experience these “crash” symptoms, you may wish to wait until you break your fast to drink your coffee. Alternatively, you could wait until just 30 minutes before you break your fast, Pedre adds. That way you can use food to mitigate any blood sugar plummet. Another potential way to limit a crash is to add MCT oil and ghee to your cuppa. Huberman also says adding 100 mg of L-theanine can offset some of the jitteriness.

    Another potential side effect of drinking coffee on an empty stomach is gastrointestinal upset. “Coffee on an empty stomach can trigger the release of hydrochloric acid33,” Pedre explains, “leading to an acid stomach, heartburn, and acid reflux.” Excessive coffee consumption in a fasted state, over time, can also lead to abdominal pain and nausea, he adds.

    If you have a history of gallbladder attacks, you may wish to avoid coffee, especially on an empty stomach. “Coffee induces the release of a hormone called cholecystokinin34 [CCK],” Seeman adds, “which causes gallbladder contractions. People with underlying gallstones can get symptomatic with ingestion of coffee.”

    Finally, be aware of how much coffee you consume and if you have any restrictions on caffeine intake regarding underlying conditions. “Excessive caffeine intake has risks35, including poor sleep, high blood pressure, headaches, anxiety, and more,” Seeman notes. “The recommended upper limit of caffeine is no more than 400 milligrams per day for adults.”

    Jennifer Chesak

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  • Most Effective Social Media Marketing Tips to Grow Your Business

    Most Effective Social Media Marketing Tips to Grow Your Business

    Image by rawpixel.com on Freepik

    Social media marketing is one of the most effective ways to connect with customers, prospects, and other stakeholders. You can use social media platforms to build relationships, share information, and promote your products and services.

    Though a powerful tool to help you to reach new customers, build your brand, and increase sales, social media marketing is also incredibly time-consuming and can be costly. It would be best if you set a plan from the beginning, both on the strategies to adopt and the financial commitment to put into your campaign.

    While this article guides you on the strategy, Mike Savage in New Canaan can help you formulate a comprehensive financial plan for your campaign, to optimally allocate and utilize your marketing budget. Here are some tips for businesses that want to maximize the effectiveness of their social media strategy.

    Set Strategic Goals and Establish Metrics

    When building your social media marketing strategy, you must consider the campaign’s objectives. That way, you can measure the effectiveness of the campaign and make changes where necessary when you don’t realize the set goals on time.

    Some of the key objectives you can set for your campaign and metrics you can use to measure them include:

    Increasing Your Brand Awareness

    You can use branded search volume to measure the awareness level of your brand. Most SEO tools will show you how often people are searching for a brand name, and you can track when it’s increasing and tell that your campaign is gaining traction.

    Increasing Website Traffic

    You can see how much traffic a particular social media campaign has attracted to your website in your analytics. The best way to see how much traffic the campaign has brought in is to create unique landing pages for the campaign, or using a parameter like an Urchin Tracking Module, to monitor the audience.

    Improving Customer Engagement

    Engagements create buzz around your business and make the audience feel involved. You can track the level of engagement by looking at click-through rates on your social media pages, shares, or retweets, depending on the platform you’re targeting.

    Generate New Customers

    The number of new customers gained through a social media campaign can be hard to measure since social media marketing is usually just one touchpoint in the buyer’s journey. Your best chance at accurately tracking the customers is using multi touch attribution software to monitor the new customers generated by the campaign.

    Identify and Research Your Target Audience

    With well-specified objectives for the campaign, it’s time to define the persona of your target audience. Use current customer data to correctly refine your target customers’ persona. If you don’t have access to such data, seek a comprehensive Customer Data Platform based on real-time findings to help you build accurate personas.

    People are always looking for genuine personal connections on social media, so your interaction with your audience needs to be personalized and targeted. Correctly defining your audience’s demographics, such as location, age, and interests, can be critical to your social media success.

    You need to gather as much information as possible about your audience to create inclusive content. Such information may include the following:

    Their specific age groups: Age is pivotal when defining your audience, as different generations have varied platform preferences and favor certain language styles.

    Their job title: A chief executive would gladly accept a professional connection on a platform like LinkedIn but find a connection of Facebook or Instagram annoying.

    The psychographics of the audience: To ensure you cover every relevant aspect of the audience’s persona, it would help to also include their physiological characteristics in the demographic’s description.

    Choose the Social Media Platform That Aligns With Your Goals

    Most Effective Social Media Marketing Tips

    Image by Freepik

    Social media platforms attract different audiences based on interests, preferences, and trends. The type of business you run and the content you intend to share will play a massive part in the platforms you go for, ensuring it is delivered to the right audience. For example, if you have a retail store or restaurant, it would be wise to focus on Instagram because it is well-known for being used by millennials and young adults who tend to make decisions based on visual images.

    Here’s a breakdown of the various platforms and their most common audience:

    Twitter: 2/3 of the users are male, and 63% are between 35 and 65 years old.

    Instagram: An ideal business with a target audience below 40 years, primarily female. Lifestyle brands and eCommerce stores enjoy enormous success on the platform.

    Facebook: Excellent for brands targeting audiences over 25 years.

    Create Well-Targeted, Engaging, and Compelling Content

    After refining your audience’s persona, it’s time to create compelling content targeted to your audience and likely to sprout engagements. As you create the content, you should remember to:

    Balance the Image and Video Content

    Aim to strike a healthy balance between image and video content as you create the content. While images are easier to make and they grab attention quicker; you can pack more value in videos that can easily convert users to customers, though they are time-consuming and expensive. For Facebook content, for instance, you should aim for about 60-70% images and 15-20% videos. Stories, live videos, links, and texts can occupy the remainder.

    Be Human and Friendly

    People often win through social media during their free time, mainly after a long day of work when tired. Keeping the content lighthearted and easy to consume can help keep them hooked without sounding overly “sales-y”. An empathetic, friendly tone is more likely to resonate with most users, irrespective of the industry you are in and the goals of the content.

    Strike a Content Mix

    Balancing between promotional and educative content is key to attracting followers and keeping them loyal to your brand. It’s challenging to follow a page that’s only about selling their products and services without offering any other value to the audience.

    Aim for an 80/20 balance, with 80% of the content being educational and 20% promotional. Constantly posting how-to guides and answering your audience’s most bugging questions is more likely to lead to success in your efforts to gather and maintain a happy audience.

    Establish and Stick to a Particular Aesthetic for Your Brand

    To make your campaign more impactful, it helps to create a particular vibe that your audience can associate with your brand. Colors communicate different feelings, and you want your brand’s philosophy to align with the visuals you put out to your audience. Think of the perception you wish to the user to have towards your business, whether moody, coastal vibe, mid-century, or even breezy, and match it with the most appropriate colors for the visuals.

    Setup a Social Media Calendar

    Set up a social media calendar based on best practices and when the content will likely be more visible on the platform you post. For instance, Facebook users tend to be more active on weekdays in the morning, between 9:00-11:00 am.

    You can schedule your posts to go live at this time to attract optimum views and engagements. Automate your posts to go to live at the set time to avoid keeping your audience engaged even when you’re not actively involved.

    Audit Your Strategy

    Constantly refer to the goals you created at the beginning of the campaign to gauge the progress of your marketing. Due to the ever-changing social media trends, you should use your analytics to measure the progress of a particular strategy and adjust it when necessary.

    What worked a few months ago may not work now. Therefore, your campaign should be an ongoing project. You should also closely monitor your competitors, and industry leaders and how they are doing that’s bringing them better results, and use it as inspiration for your campaign.

    Social Media Marketing Is Key to Realizing Your Business Goals

    A well-organized social media marketing campaign can help keep existing and new customers engaged, build strong brand awareness, and increase website traffic and sales. Customizing your campaign to suit your customers’ needs can make all the difference. You should gather as much data about your target market as possible before launching and during the campaign.

    Robert

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  • 7 Mistakes that Kill Any Job Applicant’s Chances

    7 Mistakes that Kill Any Job Applicant’s Chances

    Image by ijeab on Freepik

    Getting invited for job interviews is a significant milestone in the job-hunting process. Whether seeking a career shift or coming fresh out of college, nothing feels better than landing interviews after sending applications to different companies. While receiving invites to job interviews is exciting, it is also an unsettling part of the application process.

    Applicants typically review their role’s job description and proceed to job interviews without further preparation, leading to unsuccessful results. Consequently, interviewers do not call them back for other application stages. For this reason, learning more about the companies you applied to and having the right mindset is crucial.

    Feeling nervous before job interviews is normal, but you cannot allow yourself to succumb to complacency. You need to prepare adequately to boost your chances of acing your interviews.

    Common Job Interview Mistakes Made

    Here are seven errors you should avoid committing before and during job interviews.

    1. Not doing the research before having the job interview

    Coming to a job interview without prior preparation is unimaginable. It is one thing to accept an interview from recruiters and another to answer questions intelligently.

    Before your interview, use your free time to research the company. Know as much as possible about it, including its history, employer branding, major contributions, work culture, and mission vision. Recruiters will appreciate your efforts in learning about their company because it shows you are invested in your application.

    Review your job description thoroughly. Refrain from settling with a general understanding of the role you applied for. Go over the specifics and see which tasks you will likely carry out the most. You must show recruiters you are serious about the job and willing to learn the ropes if they provide training.

    2. Losing sight of your objectives

    Get enough rest the day before your interview to keep your mind sharp. Make sure to get ample sleep to feel fresh and alert the next day. Job interviews require undivided attention and concentration, so avoid sleeping late.

    Listen carefully to the interviewer’s questions on the day of the interview. Give appropriate and intelligent answers. Be engaging throughout the interview. The goal is to show the interviewer how knowledgeable you are about the role you applied for and leave a positive first impression.

    3. Not asking questions

    Job interviews are a two-way street. They are your opportunity to discover more about your role and the company you applied to. Take advantage by asking interviewers about internal work processes. Find out what it is like to work for their company. Learn about their company culture and values.

    Knowing these things will help you see if you should continue or forgo your application.

    4. Skipping job interview practice

    Part of preparing for a job interview is not just doing additional research on the company you applied to and familiarizing yourself with the job role. It is also good to simulate a job interview to help compose your thoughts and answers.

    During your free time, work on answering general and technical questions. Take note of errors to avoid making in the actual interview. Ask someone to observe you and provide feedback on your strengths and weaknesses. The earlier you practice, the better you will handle job interviews.

    5. Using an outdated resume

    Each time you gain new work experience, make sure to fine-tune your resume. Add brief but substantial details regarding new work experiences. Remove past work experiences unrelated to the roles you intend to apply for to make your resume more relevant. Remember, interviewers typically look for candidates with the right work experience.

    6. Wearing inappropriate clothes

    Maintaining professionalism is always a must. This behavior should reflect through your work ethic and how you present yourself. Pick your clothes wisely. Wash and iron them to keep them clean and fresh. Avoid wearing clothes that are revealing or too casual. If the dress code allows it, opt for a smart casual outfit.

    Interviewers will assess you based on how well you answer their questions and how appropriately you dress.

    7. Arriving late for the interview

    Interviewers have a lot on their plate, so you cannot afford to waste their time. Arriving late is more than just an inconvenience for your interviewer. It also shows a lack of professionalism.

    Leave your house early to avoid traffic. Know the address of the company’s office, so you do not get lost on the way. Set a reminder on your phone to keep track of your day. Arriving on time tells the interviewer you are punctual and respect their schedule.

    Go the Extra Mile to Achieve Terrific Interviews

    Job interviews entail tedious preparation. From thoroughly researching companies to understanding the demands of the job positions you are applying for, taking these extra steps means all the difference between good and terrific interviews.

    Remember the interview mistakes above to put yourself on the right track, nail your job interviews, and possibly receive job offers.

    Kass Monzon

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  • 35 Work Smarter, Not Harder Quotes for 2023

    35 Work Smarter, Not Harder Quotes for 2023

    There might be affiliate links on this page, which means we get a small commission of anything you buy. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Please do your own research before making any online purchase.

    Are you ready to start the year with a more intelligence-based strategy?

    Working smarter is all about identifying what delivers best for you and then doing the optimum needed. It’s about using the minimum amount of resources to achieve a maximum of results. In today’s post, these work harder, not smarter quotes will introduce this enlightened way of achieving your objectives.

    Before we get to the quotes, let’s discuss this concept a little bit.

    Why You Should Read Work Smarter, Not Harder Quotes

    Working smarter instead of harder is the way to go whether we’re talking about achieving well-thought-out objectives and goals (sometimes referred to as S.M.A.R.T. goals), about a military completing its mission, or a CEO leading his company into the future.

    Practically every avenue of your life including your career can benefit from working smarter and not harder. So, how do you do it?

    Working smarter involves spending more time planning and strategizing rather than brute forcing your way to success.

    Well-intentioned advice and statements like “work hard and you will succeed” or “just put in the hours” certainly are good and can help, but this advice misses parts of the picture.

    As an individual, a collective, a business, or an organization you have only so much energy, resources, and time to get what you need to be done. Someone can spend hours churning ferociously through busy work. Whereas someone else could spend two hours devising a strategy that will pay off for the next five years.

    These work smarter, not harder quotes will help develop the mental framework you need to approach your tasks intelligently. As you get better at this, you’ll find that the efforts that you’re putting in will yield better and better results.

    35 Work Smarter, Not Harder Quotes for 2023

    1. “You can do anything, but not everything.” – David Allen
    2. “Focus on being productive instead of busy.” –Tim Ferriss
    3. “Start by doing what’s necessary, then what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” – Bruce Lee
    4. “Work hard, and you will earn good rewards. Work smart, and you will earn great rewards. Work hard and work smart,and you will earn extraordinary rewards.” – Matshona Dhliwayo
    1. “While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, the other is busy making mistakes and becoming superior.” – Henry C. Link
    2. “Dissatisfaction and discomfort dominate our brain’s default state, but we can use them to motivate us instead of defeat us.” – Nir Eyal
    3. “Workaholics aren’t heroes. They don’t save the day, they just use it up. The real hero is home because they figured out a faster way.” – Jason Fried
    4. “Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.” – Dale Carnegie
    5. “Work expands to fill the time allotted for it.” – Cyril Northcote Parkinson
    6. “It is not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?” – Henry David Thoreau

    It is not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?” – Henry David Thoreau

    1. “The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” — Stephen Covey
    2. “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” – Abraham Lincoln
    3. “Lost time is never found again.” – Benjamin Franklin
    4. “Working smart is harder than working hard. It’s just less visible, and we care too much about what others see.” – Shane Snow
    5. “Start with good people, lay out the rules, communicate with your employees, motivate them and reward them. If you do all those things effectively, you can’t miss.” – Lee Iacocca
    6. “Efficiency is doing things right. Effectiveness is doing the right things.” – Peter Drucker
    1. “Never mistake motion for action.”- Ernest Hemingway
    2. “Ordinary people think merely of spending time, great people think of using it.” – Arthur Schopenhauer
    3. “Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all.” – Peter Drucker
    4. “Stressing output is the key to improving to productivity, while looking to increase activity can result in just the opposite.” – Andrew Grove
    5. “One must, however, not just work hard. One must work smart. As the saying goes, the efficient person gets the job done right; the effective person gets the right job done.” – Roger Delano Hinkins
    6. “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” – Maya Angelou
    7. “It’s not always that we need to do more but rather that we need to focus on less.” – Nathan W. Morris

    It’s not always that we need to do more but rather that we need to focus on less.” – Nathan W. Morris

    1. “Those who seize the day become seriously rich.” – Richard Koch
    2. “Work hard but work smart. Always. Every day. Nothing is handed to you and nothing is easy. You’re not owed anything… No job or task is too small or beneath you. If you want to get ahead, volunteer to do the things no one else wants to do, and do it better. Be a sponge. Be open and learn.” – Bobbi Brown
    3. “People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.” – Steve Jobs
    4. “You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win.” – Zig Ziglar
    Work Smarter, Not Harder Quotes - “You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win.” - Zig Ziglar | work smarter not harder similar quotes | smarter not harder quotes | work smarter not harder quote meaning #smart #work #worksmarter
    1. “I was lucky. I grew up knowing that hard work and smart work has a greater impact on results than being passionate about something.” –Mark Cuban
    2. “Overcoming procrastination is not – I repeat – not about cramming additional work into your day. Overcoming procrastination is about simplifying your life to make space for the activities that matter most.” – Richie Norton
    3. “You’ve gotta keep control of your time and you can’t unless you say no. You can’t let people set your agenda in life.” – Warren Buffett

    You’ve gotta keep control of your time and you can’t unless you say no. You can’t let people set your agenda in life.” – Warren Buffett

    1. “My motto is to keep it simple stupid, work smart not hard.” – Joe Teti
    2. “Don’t count the days. Make the days count.” – Muhammad Ali
    3. “Work smart. Get things done. No nonsense. Move fast.– Susan Wojcicki
    4. “Plans are nothing; planning is everything.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
    Work Smarter, Not Harder Quotes - “Plans are nothing; planning is everything.” - Dwight D. Eisenhower | why work smarter not harder | smart hard work quotes | working smarter not harder quotes #smartquotes #weeklyquotes #motivational
    1. “Reflect on what you do in a day. You may have never realized how some simple, harmless activities rob you of precious time.” – Vivek Naik

    Final Thoughts on Work Smarter, Not Harder Quotes

    Working smarter is all about using your time well, and focusing on the stuff that has the most impact on your success. It’s about taking time to reflect and revise instead of just mindlessly drudging on and using the time to strategize now that can pay off later.

    Working smarter is all about adopting a mindset willing to change, adapt, and accept some uncertainty. To learn more about a “growth mindset” check out these 27 growth mindset examples to change your beliefs.

    Finally, if you want to use these quotes to make a lasting change to your life, then watch this free video that details the 7-minute habit for planning your day to focus on what’s truly important to you..

    Thanks for reading!

    Tom Smith is a creative writer with over 6 years of professional experience. He discovered the joy of writing after covering some furniture in his childhood home with graffiti. In later years, he got himself a BA in creative writing and hasn’t looked back. After discovering the power of positive thinking and discovering the spiritual side of life, he believes it’s a huge privilege to be able to write about all things personal development.

    work smarter not harder quotes | work smarter not harder quote origin | work smarter not harder meaning

    35 Work Smarter, Not Harder Quotes for 2023

    Thomas Smith

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  • The Truth About Weight Loss, According to Jillian Michaels

    The Truth About Weight Loss, According to Jillian Michaels

    Diet and exercise — the two words that can make us shudder into demotivation and our brains spiral down into a “hell no.” And there’s no shortage of trends out there that support them: keto, Mediterranean, DASH, high-intensity training, low-impact exercise, and the list goes on and on.

    But is there any truth about weight loss that should be highlighted?

    The short answer is yes. With adult obesity in the United States at 41.9%, weight loss is a focus on an episode of The Mindvalley Podcast with renowned fitness expert Jillian Michaels. She weighs in on what’s wrong with the way people lose weight today.

    The thing is, though, it’s not solely about eating right or working out more. Instead, it’s about understanding why weight loss can be difficult for you and how to find the method(s) that works best for your body.

    3 Common Myths About Weight Loss

    Dispelling myths about weight loss can help break the cycle of weight fluctuations. It can also create a culture that encourages people to do their due diligence and research how to eat and exercise for their bodies.

    Jillian covers some big misconceptions about weight loss in a video on her YouTube channel, which you can tune into. But here are three handpicked ones to highlight.

    Myth 1: Fat makes you fat

    Fat often gets a bad rap. For a long time, it was believed that fat causes weight gain.

    You would think ‘oh, fat makes me fat,’ so you buy low-fat food,” says the fitness expert. “But that’s not true. There are many healthy fats out there.

    While saturated and trans fat can contribute to a number of health issues, healthy fats can actually help. These unsaturated fats, according to the Cleveland Clinic, are of two types: monosaturated fat (like avocados, nuts, and seeds) and polyunsaturated fat (like flaxseed, walnuts, and fatty fish).

    There are plenty of benefits that come with consuming these healthy fats and they include:

    • Lowering your risk of heart disease or stroke,
    • Raising the good cholesterol and lowering the bad,
    • Maintaining the health of your cells and brain,
    • Enhancing the absorption of vitamins, like A, D, E, and K,
    • Fighting inflammation, and
    • Reducing your risk of premature death.

    So when it comes down to it, make sure you’re eating healthy fats in your meals.

    Myth 2: You can lose weight without exercise

    It’s all about the calories you take in and the ones you burn. So if you want to lose weight, you need to burn off more calories than you take in. Makes sense, right? 

    But can you do it sans a fitness regimen? You can, according to Jillian, but it’s glacial.

    You can jump on this diet and that diet and this diet and you’ll be discouraged because the results will be very slow,” she explains. “Unless you’re incorporating exercise.

    Simply put, exercise allows you to burn more calories than dieting alone. And so, hiring a personal trainer might be something to consider.

    Myth 3: Hot workouts burn more calories than cold workouts

    It may seem logical that exercising in heat equals weight loss. Sure, it burns calories, but is it the most effective way? Jillian doesn’t seem to think so.

    If we’re talking about efficiency and fat metabolism, they’re far less effective,” she explains. There are studies that suggest so as well. 

    One in particular, as reported in an article on ABC News, looked into long-term cold exposure in mice. The results of the research found that lower temperatures stress the problematic white fat cells. The cells then develop more mitochondria and eventually become beige cells, which burn energy to produce heat when the body’s temperature drops (much like the brown cells).

    While hot workouts do burn calories, it seems that cold workouts burn more.

    A plate of healthy food to dispel the truth about weight loss

    Diet vs. Exercise

    The goal of losing weight is synonymous with dieting and exercising at the same time. While there’s truth in that, the question remains should one take precedence over the other? According to Jillian, the answer is “yes,” but depending on the situation.

    To lose weight

    If you are trying to lose weight, you must exercise,” Jillian emphasizes. And to do so, weight loss is 80% exercise and 20% diet. What this means is that you need to burn more calories than you’re taking in — this is called an “energy deficit.”

    For example, let’s say you’re a 5’1” female looking to get in shape at 40, whose active lifestyle is considered light, you burn around 1,600 calories per day without working out. If you eat at least 1,200 calories per day, then you’ll have an energy deficit of 400 calories. Multiply that by seven (for the number of days in a week) and you get 2,800. 

    Keep in mind that one pound (approximately 0.45 kilograms) is roughly equivalent to 3,500 calories, based on an individual’s body weight, height, age, gender, and average level of activity. So 2,800 calories don’t even shed one pound per week.

    To maintain your weight

    Now, if you’re working on maintaining your weight, then it’s the opposite. Jillian explains that the ratio is 20% exercise and 80% diet. It’s based on this idea: you won’t gain weight if you’re not overeating (with or without exercising).

    Let’s look at the same example above with the 40-year-old female whose metabolic rate is 1,600 calories a day. If she’s consuming 1,600 calories per day without exercising, her weight will remain the same because the same number of calories going in is the same number of calories being burned.

    Understandably, it can get a little much at times — all this diet vs. exercise. The truth about weight loss is that it’s different for everyone and what’s most important is finding what works best for you.

    Tune in to more wisdom on the truth about weight loss on The Mindvalley Podcast:

    How to Lose Weight Effectively: 6 Pro Tips From Mindvalley Experts

    There are numerous effective strategies for losing weight, like reading food labels, drinking plenty of water, being more active, or even hiring a holistic health coach. Those are fantastic advice. 

    However, what do the expert guests and trainers at Mindvalley say? Here are a few tips from them that may help:

    1. Change your relationship with food

    The thing with most diet fads is that it works when a person is following them. Once they get off of it, however, there’s the likelihood of weight coming back on. 

    In fact, one study showed that 40% of its participants gained weight three years after participating in a commercial weight loss program. The culprit? Sedentary lifestyle.

    This has nothing to do with biochemistry, physiology, exercise, calories, food quality, or exercise as Jillian explains in the interview. Instead, it has everything to do with the psychology of it. Just like an addiction.

    When somebody is obese,” she says, “this is not a person who just likes pizza, right? We engage in habits that potentially become self-destructive because, at one time or another, these habits provided us with something very significant.” For example, bonding with our families over a meal or using food to avoid feeling low self-worth.

    Whatever the reason, changing your relationship with food can be a step towards losing weight.

    Jillian Michaels’ tip: Eating less, using common sense with your food choices, and moving more works. … However, the issues that drive somebody to eat more are not resolved, so when that individual is confronted with something challenging or they go back into the same environment, they can regress and go back to those old behaviors.

    Get more insights on the truth about weight loss from Jillian:

    Fitness Star Jillian Michaels on Health Routines

    2. Practice food freedom

    What we might’ve been taught to be healthy may not be healthy at all. 

    Take cereals, for instance. The food industry has us believing that a bowl of cornflakes doused in sugar and flooded with milk is the breakfast of champs. But break it down and all we’re really getting is a temporary glucose spike.

    So how can we combat this? How can we equip ourselves with the knowledge to change how we connect with the things we eat and drink?

    Food freedom, according to Eric Edmeades, founder of WILDFIT® and trainer of Mindvalley’s Quest with the same name. It’s stepping away from the “diet” mentality and eating intuitively instead. He says, “Freedom is not eating whatever you want whenever you want but also not eating what you don’t want when you don’t want.

    Eric Edmeades’ tip: The message here is it’s time for you to to take a look and say really ‘who is responsible for my health?’ and the answer to that is you.

    Discover more about food freedom with Eric:

    This Is the Revolutionary Human Diet That STICKS! | Eric Edmeades

    3. Make intermittent fasting a habit

    One way to lose weight is simply by changing when you eat, according to Ronan Diego, head of health and fitness at Mindvalley. This is what intermittent fasting is all about — and science is showing that it’s effective.

    A 2018 study by the University of Surrey took two groups of people — one was put on a traditional diet, and the other continued eating what they normally eat but had breakfast a little later than usual and dinner a little earlier. They found that after 12 weeks, “body weight and energy intake decreased in the [second group].

    It’s important to note, though, that intermittent fasting for women is a bit different than for men. There are a few things to keep in mind, especially hormonally. So for women, it’s essential to find balance, decide on a feeding window, and eliminate unwanted stressors.

    Ronan Diego’s tip:If you want to give intermittent fasting a try, here’s an overview: start by 12 hours. You don’t need to go all the way to 16 [hours] because it’s not only a physiological change but it’s also a habit change. So take it slow and improve it, increase it more or less one to two hours every one to two weeks.”

    Learn more about intermittent fasting with Ronan:

    The First Thing You Should Do to Lose Fat, Just for the Health of It | Ronan Oliveira

    4. Get enough sleep

    Several studies have shown a link between sleep deprivation and obesity. For example, a 2014 study published in BMC Public Health analyzed the association between the two in the U.S. adult population between 1977 and 2009. It found that “inadequate sleep was associated with overweight and obesity for each available year.

    According to Dr. Michael Breus, a.k.a. the Sleep Doctor, when you start losing sleep, several things start to happen in your body:

    • Cortisol levels elevate,
    • Appetite increases,
    • Metabolism slows down,
    • Hunger increases, and
    • Cravings start to happen.

    Sleep is a natural weight manager,” says Dr. Breus in his The Mastery of Sleep Quest on Mindvalley. So one truth about weight loss is to make sure you know how to get more deep sleep.

    Dr. Michael Breus’ tip: Evaluate the relationship between your sleep and your hunger levels. Really start to think about that. Do you notice an increase in cravings on the days when you sleep less? If you do, make sure that you write it down.

    Find out some sleep hacks with Dr. Breus:

    How to Sleep Better by Doing These 4 Hacks | Dr. Michael Breus

    5. Exercise before (or after) you eat

    If you exercise before you eat, you’ll actually enhance your body’s ability to be able to maintain a normal blood glucose response after you eat,” says Ben Greenfield, biohacker and trainer of Mindvalley’s The Longevity Blueprint Quest. And how long would you need to do it for? Thirty seconds, he adds.

    What’s more, taking a walk after a meal can also bolster weight loss. A 2011 study published in the International Journal of General Medicine examined the effects of a brisk walk right after a meal. Their results found that it “leads to more weight loss than does walking for 30 minutes beginning one hour after a meal has been consumed.

    Ben Greenfield’s tip:The idea is, for me, when I know I’m going to be eating a large meal or eating a lot of carbohydrates or having dinner or really having any meal at all, I’ll just go out of my way to drop and do some push-ups.

    Understand more about the concept with Ben:

    How 30 Seconds of Exercise Can Help You Live Longer | Ben Greenfield

    6. Maintain a regular fitness routine

    Our bodies are designed to move,” says Ronan Diego, who’s also the trainer of Mindvalley’s 10X Quest. So now, back to this idea: losing weight is 80% exercise and 20% diet. It’s only fitting to make exercise part of your daily habits.

    But what if you just don’t have the time? Any health coaching program will tell you the same thing: find ways to stay active and make it a habit. 

    Taking a phone call? Walk while you talk. Live in a walk-up? Take the stairs. Have a desk job? Take moments to stand while you work.

    The truth about weight loss is to make it a habit to keep moving and stay active. And when you’re able to do so, you can level up to 10X, Mindvalley’s fitness program that activates your muscles’ adaptive response, transforming your body to be fitter and stronger.

    Ronan Diego’s tip: The effort that I made is to build the habits. … That’s where you put your effort. And then, you outsource your success to them.

    Get inspired by Ronan’s healthy habits:

    These 12 Healthy Habits Can Completely Transform Your Life | Ronan Oliveira

    Your Greatness Knows No Limits

    The truth about weight loss is not merely to help you look good, but it’s to help you feel good as well. When you feel strong physically, you feel stronger in other facets of your life. 

    You can absolutely try the next exercise or diet trend. However, if you want guidance from experts who’ve created programs based on scientific research, you can find them at Mindvalley. From finding food freedom with Eric Edmeades to learning how to biohack your body with Ben Greenfield to getting fitter and stronger with Ronan Diego.

    What’s more, you can level up your own expertise by becoming a Certified 10X Coach. You’ll learn how to:

    • Facilitate impactful health and fitness transformations
    • Upgrade your skillset or grow your business
    • Make a more positive impact through your work and abilities

    Forget that “new you” motto. Instead, be the better, fitter, and stronger you.

    Welcome in.

    Tatiana Azman

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  • Why Every Successful Business Needs a Co-founder

    Why Every Successful Business Needs a Co-founder

    What does it take to start a super-successful business that could one day hit that billion-dollar valuation mark?

    A great idea? 

    An insane work ethic? 

    The ability to read markets and understand consumer needs and desires? 

    The answer is all of the above. 

    But there’s another thing to consider: how many people does it take to start that super-successful business?

    In other words, if your long-term vision is to become the CEO of a startup unicorn, can you do it all alone or do you need a helping hand from one or more co-founders? 

    That’s the big question OnDeck decided to unpack in its latest study on entrepreneurship. 

    Using data gathered from business leaders and specialist online sources, it breaks down everything you need to know about starting a business with a co-founder or going solo.

    The study outlines some of the big data points regarding businesses with co-founders. 

    For example, did you know that…

    • 8 out of 10 billion dollar businesses started in the last 17 years have two or more co-founders.
    • Businesses with co-founders grow 3X faster than startups run by a single person.
    • Nearly 15% of start-ups with a single owner fail because the founder doesn’t have the skills or knowledge to do everything themselves.

    Partnering with a co-founder might be the best option if you want to plan for long-term business success. But that doesn’t mean it’s an easy option.

    Ego clashes, equity splits, and power struggles are just a few of the things you need to navigate when working with a co-founder.

    That’s why OnDeck added a breakdown of the biggest co-partner challenges, including how to overcome them.

    And if you still decide to go alone, then this study has got you covered. The last section is a step-by-step guide on what to expect and how to succeed when running a business as a single founder.

     

    Ashley Murphy

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  • How Our Story Ends (and How to Begin Rewriting It): Richard Powers on Planetary Death and Life as Our Force of Resistance

    How Our Story Ends (and How to Begin Rewriting It): Richard Powers on Planetary Death and Life as Our Force of Resistance

    In a universe governed by randomness and impartial laws, chance has been kind to us — a kindness so immense it feels like a benediction. Here we are, drifting through the austere blackness of pure spacetime on a planet just the right distance from its home star to have an atmosphere and water and warmth for life. And what life! A cornucopia of creatures moving through lushness beyond measure, born of blue oceans and shimmering shores.

    It didn’t have to exist, not one bit of it — not the oceans, not the redwoods, not the octopus, not the miracle of consciousness that turns back on itself to stand wonder-smitten by the majesty of it all. And yet here it is and here we are, children of the flowers, captives of this wonderland, lulled by habit and hubris into dishonoring our benediction by forgetting the staggering improbability of it all.

    Richard Powers extends an uncommonly beautiful invitation to unforgetting in his novel Bewilderment (public library) — the story of an astrobiologist father searching for habitable worlds beyond our Solar System and his sensitive son lovesick for Earth.

    Art by Sophie Blackall from If You Come to Earth

    A generation after the Nobel-winning Polish poet Wisława Szymborska’s poem “Cosmic Ball” eulogized the Fermi paradox — the mournful question of where, if all probability points to the existence of life elsewhere in the universe, that other life is — Powers wrests poetry from this great puzzlement of science:

    There was a planet that couldn’t figure out where everyone was. It died of loneliness. That happened billions of times in our galaxy alone.

    In the novel, another world, Earthlike but further along the evolutionary cycles of the universe, becomes a lens on our own — both on the precariousness of life and on its persistence: life as a force of resistance to entropy. Much like Kepler used the imaginative trope of lunar beings to awaken earthlings to the realities of our own world in the first work of true science fiction, Powers uses the fate of that other world to jolt us awake to the improbable wonder of our own:

    The first time Thea died, a comet tore off a third of the planet and turned it into a moon. Nothing on Tedia survived. After tens of millions of years, the atmosphere came back, water flowed again, and life sparked a second time. Cells learned that symbiotic trick of how to combine. Large creatures spread once more into every niche of the planet. Then a distant gamma ray burst dissolved Tedia’s ozone shield and ultraviolet radiation killed most everything. Patches of life survived in the deepest oceans, so this time it was faster coming back. Ingenious forests set out again across the continents. A hundred million years after that, just as a species of cetacean was beginning to make tools and art, a neighborhood star system supernovaed, and Tedia had to start again. The problem was that the planet lay too near the galactic center, packed in too closely to the calamities of other stars. Extinction would never be far away. But there were periods of grace, between the devastations. Forty resets in, the calm lasted long enough for civilization to take hold. Intelligent bear-people built villages and mastered agriculture. They harnessed steam, channeled electricity, learned and built simple machines. But when their archaeologists revealed how often the world ended, and their astronomers figured out why, society broke down and destroyed itself, millennia before the next supernova would have. This, too, happened again and again.

    “Planetary System, Eclipse of the Sun, the Moon, the Zodiacal Light, Meteoric Shower” by Levi Walter Yaggy. (Available as a print, as a face mask, and as stationery cards.)

    Hinting at this eternal dialogue between nature and human nature, Powers considers the time arrow of the mind, reminding us that curiosity and all the tendrils of human longing exist only for as long as we ourselves exist; lest we forget, life as we know it — as we are it — is but “a flash in the pan, a few moments in the vast unfolding of time and space in the cosmos.” He writes:

    Light travels at three hundred thousand kilometers a second. It takes ninety-three billion years to cross from one end of space to the other, past black holes and pulsars and quasars, neutron and preon and quark stars, metallics and blue stragglers, binaries and triple-star systems, globular and hypercompact clusters, coronal, tidal, and halo galaxies, reflection and plerion nebulae, stellar, interstellar, and intergalactic disks, dark matter and energy, cosmic dust and filaments and voids, all spun from the laws folded up into vibrations far smaller than the smallest units we have names for. The universe is a living thing, and my son wants to take me for a quick look around while there’s still time.

    Set a half-tone up the scale of time from the menacing tritone of our present predicament, the novel paints a world for which time has run out in order to awaken a world, this world, teetering on the event horizon of too late. The story ends with that rarest and most beautiful of compositional triumphs — a requiem that is also a clarion call:

    Oh, this planet was a good one. And we, too, were good, as good as the burn of the sun and the rain’s sting and the smell of living soil, the all-over song of endless solutions signing the air of a changing world that by every calculation ought never to have been.

    Complement with Richard Powers on how to live with bewilderment, then revisit Lewis Thomas’s almost unbearably wonder-full meditation on our destiny as the fragile species and Rachel Carson on wonder as the antidote to self-destruction.

    Maria Popova

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  • 6 Habits To Give Up If You Want To Sleep Better This Year

    6 Habits To Give Up If You Want To Sleep Better This Year

    Looking at the bright, blue-tinted light of screens can negatively impact sleep quality3 by suppressing the production of melatonin—the “hormone of darkness” that signals bedtime.

    Since we hold cellphones so close to our faces, they can be even more stimulating than other devices. “Even though the amount of light coming out of [phones] isn’t huge, it’s all going right into our eyes,” Michael Grandner, Ph.D., the director of the Sleep and Health Research Program at the University of Arizona, previously told mindbodygreen. Not to mention, phones are tiny portals to distressing news, urgent emails, and other triggers that can raise our stress levels before bed.

    What to do instead: Aim to turn off your phone and other electronics at least an hour before you want to be asleep in the new year. Setting a recurring “bedtime alarm” might help you adopt this new habit. Replace scrolling with journaling, reading a book that isn’t too stimulating, or writing down your to-do’s for the next day (a sleep psychologist-approved ritual!).

    Emma Loewe

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  • Topical Lip Filler: Is It Legit? Plus, The Best Products

    Topical Lip Filler: Is It Legit? Plus, The Best Products

    Now, the significant caveat: These lip treatments aren’t a one-and-done type of product (nor is anything at-home friendly, really). That being said, the glorious plumping effect will stick around if you regularly use these treatments. 

    “Most topical lip plumpers give hydration, which can claim plumper lips after using. The more hydrated the lips are, the better, and collagen will help to keep the skin on lips looking less deflated looking,” medical esthetician and founder of JTAV Clinical Skin Care Joie Tavernise explains.

    So if you’re working toward generally hydrated, healthy lips, you may start to see those plumping effects stick around. “Healthy skin is more resilient to damage from external factors, and therefore able to repair itself more readily and protect itself over time,” Marcus adds. “In this way, hyaluronic acid can have lasting effects on the appearance of the skin.”

    Think of it like a supercharged skin care product: Sure, the results aren’t permanent after just one use, but you can achieve lasting results if you stay dedicated to the cause. And if you’ve tried countless plumping products without noticeable results, let this be your final shot—you can see the shocking before and after photos on the Ourself product page here for even more proof. What’s more, some products contain naturally-derived lip color enhancers, meaning your lips will appear fuller and more pigmented, sans makeup. 

    It’s worth noting that these products can be pretty pricey—not as much as the cost of most injections, but it’s still important to keep that in mind.

    All of this to say: If you’ve been considering lip fillers for some time but you’re not sure if you want to go through with it, you may want to start with an at-home plumping product. Especially when paired with a juicy gloss, you might be surprised at just how powerful these supercharged formulas can be. Who knows? Maybe your thirsty lips just needed some proper hydration. 

    Hannah Frye

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  • A Concealer Trick To Cover Up Age Spots Without Looking Cakey

    A Concealer Trick To Cover Up Age Spots Without Looking Cakey

    Concealer is a do-it-all makeup product (IMO), but that doesn’t mean one single formula should carry all the weight. Meaning? You should use more than one concealer shade on different regions of your face! Your skin, after all, contains a range of shades and undertones, and simply swiping on the same formula may make your complexion fall flat. 

    Don’t just take my word for it: “The color you need to match your forehead will probably be a slightly different shade than that of your cheek or nose,” iconic makeup artist and brand founder of Jones Road Beauty Bobbi Brown shares on an episode of Clean Beauty School. In fact, some beauty fans will even use multiple different shades of concealer in lieu of foundation to contour, highlight, and cover up blemishes. To each their own—but if you’re hoping to disguise dark spots of any kind, you’ll want to consider your shade selection very closely.

    See, you shouldn’t just grab the same concealer you use for your under-eyes and dab it on your blemishes. “If you used the shade you used for your under-eyes on any other part of the face, it would make that area stand out instead of blend in,” Brown adds. You might think a lighter shade would, well, lighten up the dark spot, but trust us—it will only make the discoloration more apparent. 

    Rather, choose your true shade match or even half a shade darker than your usual foundation; that will actually help the spot fade into your skin. Kosas Revealer Concealer is my personal go-to formula (and the brand has 28 shades for you to choose from), or feel free to browse our curated favorites concealer here

    From there, make sure you’re very precise with the product and try not to cover outside the discoloration. You might even want to use a fine-tipped brush to apply, wait a couple of seconds for the formula to oxidize, then fluff the edges into the skin. Follow up with a touch of setting powder, if you’re concerned about long-wear. 

    And there you have it! For what it’s worth, this is a universal tip for those with any sort of discoloration, not just age spots. As someone in her twenties who isn’t too concerned with fine lines and sunspots (yet), I swear by this trick to disguise stubborn bouts of post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation. “Dark spots” is an umbrella term used to describe any discolored marks, but this one concealer trick can hide them all in just a snap. 

    Jamie Schneider

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  • Getaway Ready With This Winter Travel Capsule Wardrobe

    Getaway Ready With This Winter Travel Capsule Wardrobe

    Winter is the perfect time to plan a getaway.

    And travel is all about the experience—not just the destination, but also the journey.

    But what about what you wear?

    It’s easy to get caught up in packing for your trip and forget about what you’re going to wear once you arrive at your destination.

    The solution?

    A travel capsule wardrobe!

    Capsule wardrobes are collections of highly versatile pieces that can be mixed and matched to create different looks.

    They’re great because they’ll help keep your suitcase organized and under control, while also keeping your style focused and streamlined.

    The best part is that it doesn’t matter where you’re going—this outfit will work anywhere!

    How Do You Make A Travel Capsule Wardrobe?

    You’ve heard of the term “capsule wardrobe,” but what does it really mean and how can you make one?

    A capsule wardrobe is a small collection of clothing that you can mix and match to create a variety of outfits.

    The goal is to eliminate unnecessary clothes, so you can focus on items that are versatile, comfortable, and easy to wear.

    Here are three tips for making your own capsule wardrobe:

    1) Pick Your Favorite Colors And Patterns

    Winter Travel Capsule Wardrobe - A woman can be seen in the picture. She has both her hands on her waist. She has a long, curly hair. Strips of colorful light is reflected on her. The wall behind her is white.

    In order to make a capsule wardrobe, you have to start by picking your favorite colors and patterns.

    This is the best way for you to start building your wardrobe because it will help you determine which clothes are worth keeping and which ones should go.

    You should also consider how much time you want to spend on getting ready in the morning.

    If you’re someone who likes to take their time getting dressed and applying makeup, then it’s probably best if you stick with neutral colors.

    These colors can be worn with any outfit or color scheme.

    2) Choose A Few Neutral Basics

    Winter Travel Capsule Wardrobe - This is a picture of someone’s table. The table has a map. On the map is a cup of coffee. The person is planning where to go next. Money can be seen on the right side.

    Your wardrobe can be really versatile if you focus on neutral colors.

    If you have a lot of basic pieces, you can mix and match them to create different outfits.

    Neutral colors are more forgiving for mistakes when pairing items together.

    3) Focus On Quality Over Quantity

    Winter Travel Capsule Wardrobe - A man is standing in the picture. He is wearing a jacket. It looks like he is testing the jacket’s quality. Water is being thrown towards him. The jacket is waterproof.

    A capsule wardrobe is a collection of clothes that you can mix and match to create dozens of outfits.

    It’s not just about having a lot of clothes—it’s about having the right clothes.

    The first step in making your own capsule wardrobe is to focus on quality over quantity.

    You can’t build a great capsule wardrobe if you’re filling it with cheap, low-quality items that will fall apart after a few wears.

    Instead, make sure that every single item in your closet is well-made, fits well, and flatters your body type.

    Once you’ve got the basics down, it’s time to start mixing and matching!

    If you have one piece of clothing in each color family, then you can create dozens of outfits by combining those colors in different ways.

    How Do You Build A Winter Capsule Wardrobe?

    Winter Travel Capsule Wardrobe - There are two persons in the picture. They are wearing thick clothes. The weather is very cold. They are skiing. They have their tools in her hands.

    Building a winter capsule wardrobe can be a great way to save money, time, and energy.

    It also makes it easier to get dressed in the morning.

    The key to building a successful winter capsule wardrobe is knowing your own personal style and making sure that each piece works with everything else.

    For example, if you like classic pieces that are always in style, your wardrobe will be easier to build.

    You can buy timeless pieces that will get you through different seasons without having to make any adjustments.

    If you prefer bolder styles that are trendier, then you’ll have more options available for building your winter capsule wardrobe.

    Through this, it will be easier for you to find pieces that match what’s trendy right now.

    You can also mix and match trends with classic pieces from your closet.

    In order to build an effective winter capsule wardrobe, it’s important not only to know how many pieces of clothing are needed.

    But also where they should go – whether they’re hanging up or folded neatly inside drawers or cabinets.

    How Should I Pack For A 10-Day Winter Trip?

    Winter Travel Capsule Wardrobe - A man is standing in the picture. He looks like he is going somewhere far. He has a backpack and two bags for each of his hands. He is wearing glasses. He looks excited.

    You’re about to embark on a 10-day winter trip.

    You want to make sure you pack the right stuff, so you can enjoy the trip and not worry about what you need to bring.

    So here are five things that you should definitely bring along:

    1) A Warm Coat

    Winter Travel Capsule Wardrobe - A woman is posing in the picture. She lifted both her hands. She is wearing a warm coat. She is looking at her left. She is wearing a black boots.

    If I’m going on a 10-day trip to the mountains, I want to make sure I have everything I need.

    If I got my winter clothes, what else should I bring?

    I think a warm coat is essential.

    If you’re going to be spending time outdoors, you don’t want to get cold!

    You’ll also want some gloves and a hat for when it’s really cold outside.

    2) Gloves

    Winter Travel Capsule Wardrobe - A woman looks very happy in the picture. The weather is cold. She is outside her house. She covers her face with her hands. She is wearing a gray gloves.

    When you’re traveling, you want to make sure that you have all the essentials.

    And if you’re heading out for a winter trip, then the first thing on your list should be gloves.

    You don’t want your hands to freeze off in the cold!

    If possible, pack a pair of gloves for each member of your party.

    This way, if someone loses their gloves or leaves them at home by accident, there will be a backup pair waiting for them when they get to their destination.

    3) A Scarf

    Winter Travel Capsule Wardrobe - Two women can be seen in this picture. The one on the right side is older. She is showing the other woman something on her phone. They have different paper bags with them. They look very happy.

    A scarf is a must-have item on any winter trip.

    It’s versatile, can be worn in multiple ways, and also serves as an excellent way to keep warm.

    A scarf can be worn as a headband, neck warmer, or even a hat!

    You can wear it across your face to protect yourself from the wind or snow.

    You can also wrap it around your neck to keep you warm when not wearing a jacket or coat.

    4) A Hat

    Winter Travel Capsule Wardrobe - A man is posing in the picture. He has his left hand on his hat. He is wearing thick clothes. His hair is long and curly. He is holding a camera on his right hand.

    A hat is a great thing to pack for your 10-day winter trip, especially if you’re going somewhere cold.

    It will help protect your ears and head from the elements, keeping you warm and comfortable while you’re out and about.

    5) A Pair Of Boots

    Winter Travel Capsule Wardrobe - This is a picture of a pair of boots. The color is brown. It has a very beautiful design. It is placed on a chair. On the chair, is a pillow, too.

    A pair of boots is a must-have item for a winter trip.

    They are the best way to keep your feet warm and dry, which is especially important when you’re out in snowy conditions.

    You want to make sure that your boots are waterproof, as well as insulated so they will keep your feet warm.

    How Should I Dress For Winter Travel?

    Winter Travel Capsule Wardrobe - A woman is standing in the picture. She is calling a cab. She looks very fashionable in her clothes. She has a blue hat on. She is also wearing a warm coat.

    It’s that time of year again: the holidays are upon us, and you’re probably planning to travel.

    Whether you’re headed to see family or checking out a new city, your outfit is key.

    So how should you dress for winter travel?

    Here are some tips to help you keep warm and look great while you’re out.

    1) Layer Up

    Winter Travel Capsule Wardrobe - This is a picture of clothing. They are organized together. They are placed on top of each other. They looked really warm. The light comes from the sun.

    The best way to dress for winter travel is to layer up.

    You can always remove layers if you get too hot, but it’s hard to put them back on if you’re already cold.

    So when you pack for your trip, bring a few options.

    Base layer: This is the layer closest to your skin and will help keep you warm by trapping heat next to your body.

    Mid-layers: Mid-layers are usually made of fleece or wool, and they help trap heat in their own pockets.

    These can be worn under your outerwear or on top of it.

    You may want multiple mid-layers if you plan on doing lots of outdoor activities during your trip.

    Outer layer: The outer layer is what covers everything else—it keeps wind and moisture out, so make sure that this layer is waterproof!

    2) Choose Fabrics Carefully

    Winter Travel Capsule Wardrobe - A woman is choosing between two tops in the picture. She is wearing a warm, yellow top and jeans. She has a watch on her left hand. Her hair is on a bun. The window is closed.

    After all, the wrong fabric can make you feel like you’re wearing a sleeping bag.

    You don’t want to be cold when you travel, so choose fabrics carefully.

    Don’t just go by the price tag—you could end up with something that’s going to make you feel like you’re wearing a sleeping bag.

    Instead, look for fabrics that are lightweight but still keep you warm.

    Wool is always a good choice, as is fleece or cashmere.

    3) Keep It Simple!

    Winter Travel Capsule Wardrobe - Someone has organized the scarves. They looked really warm. They are placed on a chair. The chair is made up of wood. They are baskets behind the scarves.

    The best way to dress for winter travel is to keep it simple.

    You don’t want to be weighed down by bulky clothing and accessories, especially if you’re going to be traveling through a lot of airports.

    It’s important that you stay warm, but it’s also important that you can move around comfortably.

    So make sure your clothes are lightweight, breathable, and packable.

    And when it comes to accessories like hats, gloves, and scarves—you know the drill.

    Bring only what you need so you can store the rest in your carry-on luggage instead of having to carry them around in your backpack all day long!

    Start Building Your Capsule Wardrobe Now!

    Are you ready to start building your capsule wardrobe?

    You’re not alone!

    If you’ve been searching for a way to simplify your life and reduce clutter, a capsule wardrobe is just what you need.

    It’s time to get rid of the items that are taking up space in your closet, but never get worn—and then fill it with only the pieces that make you feel like your best self.

    In my free capsule wardrobe guide, I’ll walk through all the steps of building a capsule wardrobe.

    So what are you waiting for?

    Download now!

    Alison’s Notebook

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  • How To Work With The Year’s First Full Moon, From Astrologers

    How To Work With The Year’s First Full Moon, From Astrologers

    As the AstroTwins previously wrote for mbg, Cancer itself is ruled by the moon, so a Cancer full moon will indeed feel extra intense. To that end, they say, it represents the waters of the womb, and so water rituals would be a fitting way to embody this energy. “Take a bubble bath, honor the women in your life, and most importantly, nurture yourself,” they add.

    And speaking of bubble baths, you could take it a step further and use your bath to connect with the water element and the moon even further. “Connect with lunar energy by submerging yourself in water, draw a healing bath around the time of the full moon, and gather your favorite salts, crystals, and candles,” the twins suggest.

    As you bathe, they recommend saying your full moon intentions aloud while you’re relaxing in the tub, and visualizing the full moon restoring every cell of your body. And don’t forget to make some moon water if that’s something you’re into!

    Lastly, as one of the potentially loneliest full moons of the year, the twins note that January’s full moon, also known as the “Wolf Moon,” is a great time to “hang out with your own ‘wolf pack’ and let out a collective howl.” (Full moon circle, anyone?)

    Sarah Regan

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  • This Bestselling & Beauty-Editor-Approved Hand Cream Is Back In Stock

    This Bestselling & Beauty-Editor-Approved Hand Cream Is Back In Stock

    Oh how my hands have missed our postbiotic hand cream.

    Alexandra Engler

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  • FREE Keto Diet Plans UK – 6 Easy plans for beginners

    FREE Keto Diet Plans UK – 6 Easy plans for beginners

    The Keto diet has been a real game changer for my husband recently and has helped him lose over two and a half stone in under a year. He has tried many diets over the years but this one really worked for him so I wanted to share some of this information with you. If you are looking to lose weight using the a particular diet it’s sometimes hard to know where to start, so I have collected a few FREE Keto Diet Plans UK that I have come across to save you some time.

    What is a Ketogenic (Keto) Diet?

    The ketogenic diet is a very low carb, high fat diet that shares many similarities with the Atkins and low carb diets. It involves drastically reducing carbohydrate intake and replacing it with fat. This reduction in carbs puts your body into a metabolic state called ketosis.

    When this happens, your body becomes incredibly efficient at burning fat for energy. It also turns fat into ketones in the liver, which can supply energy for the brain.

    Ketogenic diets can cause significant reductions in blood sugar and insulin levels. This, along with the increased ketones, has some health benefits.”  Healthline.com

    How to start a keto diet for free

    We started using an app called Carb Manager – Keto Tracker, which is a great way of keeping track of what you are eating. I felt like I needed to lose a few pounds too, so we both started this together. This app definitely takes the stress out of working out what you can and can’t eat.

    It has the capability of scanning bar codes on food packaging and it then tells you whether that food is suitable or not. Once you have used it for a while you get in a natural rhythm of your own and probably won’t need it anymore but it’s a real help at the beginning.

    Have a look and see what you think. I found it on the Iphone App Store. If you don’t have and Apple phone you can also find it in the Google Play store.

    If you don’t want to go it alone using this app then there are a number of great FREE Keto Diet Plans for the UK available on line.

    Here is a selection for you to get you started. Hopefully you will find one here that suits you.

    FREE Keto Diet Plans UK

    1.

    Training Express – Keto Diet for Beginners

    Screen shot of training express Keto diet plans for beginners

    “In this article, I’ll walk you through the ins and outs of the Keto Diet and what things to know about the Keto diet for beginners. This is going to be the first guide to assist you in your fitness goal.”

    2.

    The Express – Keto diet: The simple seven day Keto meal plan for beginners – is it good for weight loss?

    Website screen shot showing seven day Keto meal plans for beginners

    “When beginning a diet, it’s often best not to overcomplicate things. If a slimmer is looking for a plan that helps with losing weight, burning fat or improving health, there is one particular diet plan that is perfect, the Keto, or Ketogenic, diet, especially when looking to drop weight quickly.”

    3.

    Moatfield.co.uk – 40 Day Low Carb Challenge

    Moatfield website showing 40 day low carb challenge

    “Kick-starting a new diet can be daunting, especially if you are going at it alone. There are so many benefits to using a support network or finding a diet buddy. Not only can you share your experience and progress, but you can also swap tips and advice and be there through tough times. Don’t worry if your friends and family aren’t quite convinced or keen to start the same diet as you. There is a whole community of low carb fanatics out there, old and new, ready to communicate and encourage others. Why not try using the low carb community to find support and stay motivated. As the saying goes, there is strength in numbers.”

    4.

    Holland & Barrett – Keto Diet Plan For Beginners

    Keto diet plan from Holland & Barrett

    “First, let’s take a quick look at the basics of a keto diet and what it involves.

    If you want to know all the ins and outs, be sure to check out our Health Hub articles, What is the keto diet? and What is ketosis?

    In a nutshell, a ketogenic plan aims to push your body into ketosis, a natural occurrence whereby it switches from burning sugar (glucose) to burning fat.

    We can encourage the body to go into ketosis naturally by limiting the amount of sugar we consume.

    Unfortunately for any bread and pasta lovers out there, this involves severely cutting the amount of carbohydrates in our diet.”

    5.

    Diet Doctor – 14-day Keto Diet Meal Plan

    Diet Doctor 14 day Keto diet plan screen shot of website

    “Here are two weeks of delicious, easy recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And you don’t even need to count carbs! Each week features a variety of keto dishes that will automatically keep you below 20 grams of net carbs per day.

    In the first week, you’ll get to feast on some of our all-time most popular keto recipes. Note: If you don’t like certain recipes or don’t have the ingredients on hand, you can always replace them with recipes that fit your preferences. “

    6.

    Slimfast – 7 Day Keto Meal Plan Guide

    Website screen shot of Slimfast 7 day Keto meal plan

    “Planning your week is the first step to success. Knowing what’s on the menu for the day will help you stay the course and achieve your Keto goals. We have everything you need to fuel your Keto Lifestyle, from snack ideas to tasty Keto friendly recipes. Check out our week one meal plan guide below.”

    Hopefully you have managed to find a plan here that will work for you. I wish you good luck with it and hope you have as much success as we did. Don’t forget, it’s not easy but if you stick with it you will see results.

    Please share this post with your friends if you feel they may find it useful. Thanks.

    READ MORE>>

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    rachelmills7

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  • 20 Advanced Mac Keyboard Shortcuts to Improve Your Workflow

    20 Advanced Mac Keyboard Shortcuts to Improve Your Workflow

    Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

    Want to use your Mac as an advanced user? Hotkeys or shortcuts are indispensable assistants during daily work with it. With their help, you can speed up the execution of almost any task. For example, you can quickly open and close windows, create screenshots, switch between open programs, interact with folders, and so on.

    What do you need for this? If you want to be more efficient, then you should definitely check out the most useful keyboard shortcuts. Next, you will learn about 20 important keyboard shortcuts that will allow you to be not only an advanced user but also to simplify many operations. Let’s get started.

    Top 20 Mac Keyboard Shortcuts Which Will Help You Become an Advanced User and Facilitate Many Processes

    20 Advanced Mac Keyboard Shortcuts

    Image by Markus Spiske from Pixabay

    There is no need to use the PC mouse, and the availability of a lot of shortcuts can prove it. So, would you like to get a list of the most useful keyboard shortcuts to make your interaction with the PC easier? There are a lot of useful shortcuts that you will definitely like. Below you will find the top 20 keyboard shortcuts that will be useful if you want to improve your productivity and make it easier to perform many operations. Check out the list below.

    1. Command + Space Bar

    This combination allows you to open the Spotlight function to find the files you need on your computer or the Internet. However, this function has many more possibilities, such as performing mathematical operations, checking the weather forecast, and so on.

    2. Command + Tab

    This keyboard shortcut allows you to switch between the apps you are using. You should press this combination to move from one open app to another. This is especially helpful when there are a lot of open windows.

    3. Cmd + Tab + left/right arrows

    The above combination requires constant pressing to navigate through open apps. However, when you have a lot of open apps, this may not be very convenient. Therefore, you can hold down the Cmd key and use the left/right arrows to navigate through the apps.

    4. Ctrl + W

    If you need to close a window but not close the whole app, then this combination is what you need. You can selectively close windows and leave open the ones you need. However, it is vital to know that if you test this key combination in the Chrome browser, the current tab will be closed.

    5. Ctrl + left/right arrows

    With this keyboard shortcut, you will be able to navigate between desktops. This is especially true if you work with multiple monitors. In this case, the desktops will change only on the current screen.

    6. Ctrl + L

    If you need a combination that will allow you to quickly navigate to new sites or search in a tab, then this is what you need.

    7. Ctrl + Н

    If you need to quickly open multiple windows, then this combination will allow you to do it with “one” press.

    8. Cmd + Shift + N

    With this combination, you can open a new private or incognito window that won’t show up in your search history.

    9. Ctrl + Y

    With this keyboard shortcut, you can open browsing history. If you use Chrome, it will open as a new tab. If you use Safari, then the history will be displayed on the current tab.

    10. Fn + Delete

    You can use these keyboard shortcuts to delete the text before the cursor.

    11. Ctrl + K

    If you need to quickly insert a hyperlink, you can use this combination. That is, you will be able to paste a URL and associate it with the selected words.

    12. Command + Shift + 3

    This keyboard shortcut will allow you to take a screenshot of your screen and save it to a dedicated folder.

    13. Command + Shift + 3 + Ctrl

    This is an addition to the above keyboard shortcut. That is, you can send a screenshot not to a folder but to the clipboard.

    14. Command + Shift + 4

    If you need to take a screenshot of a specific area of the screen, then you can do this using the above keyboard shortcut.

    15. Command + Shift + Del

    With this command, you can empty the bin. Before that, you need to open Finder.

    16. Command + Shift + G

    This combination allows you to enter the path to a folder and quickly access it.

    17. Command + Shift + V

    If you are an active Safari user, then it allows you to copy and paste data without the need for prior formatting.

    18. Command + Z

    With this key combination, you can undo the previous action on your computer.

    19. Command + Shift + Z

    If you need to repeat some action, then you can use a combination of these keys. Also, it allows you to redo the last change that was undone on your computer.

    20. Command + Control + Q

    If you urgently need to interrupt your work on the computer and close access to it, then you can use this key combination. With this key combination, your computer screen will be locked, and then a password will be requested to unlock it. In this case, all your open windows and programs will not be closed. So, this is a good emergency combination that can help to save your data from others.

    Don’t Stop on the Above List

    In fact, the list of useful hotkeys is not limited to the above. So, don’t stop to study this question. For example, each app can have its own combinations that will make their use more efficient. To do this, you need to study the menu of each app in order to find combinations for effective use.

    Therefore, it is worth exploring all the possibilities for those tools that are important for your work. Well, the combinations described above are universal for Mac users.

    Wrapping Up

    So, now you are aware of the top Mac keyboard shortcuts that will help you to be an advanced user. Just use the above arsenal of useful keyboard shortcuts. It is time to try out these Mac keyboard shortcuts in practice and make the use of your computer more efficient.

    Christine Tomas

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  • The Age-Defying Secrets Summit Starts Soon — Here’s The 101

    The Age-Defying Secrets Summit Starts Soon — Here’s The 101

    Thanks to renowned nutrition experts like Joel Fuhrman, M.D., ancient medicine researchers like Nick Polizzi, sleep specialists like ​​Michael Breus, M.D., heart disease researchers like Beverly Yates, M.D., and brain health experts like Daniel Amen, M.D., this expert-led program will help you dive much deeper into the science of longevity—far beyond surface-level tips and tricks (though you’ll collect those along the way, too).

    After this summit, you’ll have a better understanding of what to eat for a longer life, how to exercise to extend your able-bodied years, which herbs can help you feel better right now and for years to come, how to actually get better sleep, how to keep your brain happy, and ultimately, how to tend to your body on a daily basis—plus, why all of this matters to your overall wellbeing. 

    Hannah Frye

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  • A Dating Coach’s Top Tips For Getting More Likes On The Apps

    A Dating Coach’s Top Tips For Getting More Likes On The Apps

    The name of the dating game this year is “authenticity” for a couple reasons. For one thing, it’s always worth it to stay true to yourself. But on top of that, you also want people you’re actually interested in to swipe left on you—and the best way to do that, Artschwager says, is to own who you are unapologetically.

    Whether it’s a picture of you that you think really captures your spirit, a prompt about your favorite hobbies or interests, or even coming right out and saying, “I’m looking for a long-term relationship,” the people that align with what you’re putting out there are going to be the ones matching with you.

    “There can be kind of shielding or discomfort around those things—old programming that if you put these things on your profile you’ll appear more needy in some capacity—but I view it as really embodying and emboldening our desires,” Artschwager adds.

    Sarah Regan

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  • The Best Online Therapy Services Of 2023 + Expert Advice On What To Ask

    The Best Online Therapy Services Of 2023 + Expert Advice On What To Ask

    As with in-person mental healthcare, there are many types of certifications to look out for when searching for a therapist online. Below, find a breakdown of the different types of therapists.

    Licensed professional counselors (LPC): These therapists have a Master’s degree in counseling and can help with many issues—including substance abuse, behavioral concerns, and mental health struggles—but they may not have as much training in mental health as an LMHC.

    Licensed mental health counselors (LMHC): Licensed mental health counselors can address a number of concerns, such as depression, anxiety, stress management, addiction, and more. These professionals have completed licensure requirements (such as exams, supervised fieldwork, etc.) and cannot prescribe medication but can offer counseling and diagnosis.

    Marriage and family therapists (LMFT, MFT): The “L” represents completion of licensure requirements such as exams and supervised fieldwork. Marriage and family therapists typically work with couples and families, and cannot prescribe medication but can provide counseling and diagnosis.

    Social workers (LCSW, MSW, LGSW, LCSW, LMSW, LCSW-C, LISW, LSW): Any social workers with an “L” in front of their title have completed licensure exams and fieldwork qualifications. Social workers cannot prescribe medications, but can provide counseling and diagnosis.

    Psychologists (PhD, PsyD, EdD, MA, or MS): Have completed a PhD, PsyD, EdD, or Master’s program in psychology, including extensive clinical field experience. Psychologists have many different specialties and cannot prescribe medications.

    Psychiatrists (MDs or DOs): Psychiatrists have a medical degree and can diagnose conditions and prescribe medication, as well as provide various forms of psychotherapy.

    Carleigh Ferrante

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  • How I’m Easing Into 2023 – The Blissful Mind

    How I’m Easing Into 2023 – The Blissful Mind

    Last Updated on January 4, 2023

    Have new years resolutions ever really worked?

    I haven’t set new years resolutions in years, perhaps because one overarching goal for the year feels close-minded to me.

    How can I possibly predict that I’ll still want that one goal in even a few months’ time?

    My ever-changing mind simply says, “that’s a good joke.”

    Though I do believe in the power of goal setting (as I’ve written about many times before), I’ve been resistant to jumping into it right away this year.

    Usually, I’d map out everything I’d like to accomplish, but I’ve been feeling the urge to take things a little slower.

    If you’ve been feeling a similar kind of way, here’s how you can ease into the year with flexible expectations.

    Entering 2023 with ease


    This time of year is riddled with other people sharing their tips to help you ‘get ahead of 99% of other people’ in the new year.

    But I don’t want to get ahead of anyone else.

    That’s not how I measure success.

    I just want to (gently) get ahead of my past self.

    I could feel bad about wanting to go slow, wondering if there’s something wrong with me because I don’t know my goals just yet. Like it’s my fault that I’m not ambitious, organized, or motivated enough.

    But apparently, I’m not in the minority in wanting to go slow. I’ve been seeing a general pushback against setting goals, and there’s an overarching message from others along the lines of ‘don’t worry if you haven’t set goals just yet‘.

    Maybe it’s just the circles I’m in, but everyone seems to be anti-resolution these days (which I’m not mad about at all).

    Perhaps it’s because goals are automatically associated with the hustle, and people are tired of always pushing for the next thing.

    We need to shift away from the old way of doing things and realize that slow growth is still growth.

    It’s better to move towards goals with intention, rather than rushing simply just to get them done.

    Related Post: 5 Tips to Pause Hustle Mode and Slow Down

    Choose a word and focus areas


    For the time being, I’m using words of the year as my anchors.

    I recommend Susannah Conway’s workbook for choosing which words to use.

    The words I’ve chosen for this year are pursue, presence, and connect.

    Here’s what they mean to me:

    1. Pursue: to put effort into the things I want to do, even when it feels scary
    2. Presence: to bring more mindfulness to the things I do
    3. Connect: to find ways to connect with like-minded people

    I’ve also pinpointed a few areas of life that I’d like to focus on for the year: career, mindfulness/spirituality, and community.

    These go hand in hand with the words I’ve chosen.

    I’m going to give myself time to figure out what I’d like out of these areas, then focus on 1-2 smaller goals for each per quarter/season.

    If you want to figure out which areas of life to choose, try going through this wellness wheel exercise.

    And if you’re not sure of anything you want just yet, spend time away from the distractions of what other people are doing. Find ways to connect with yourself so you can come back to your own guidance.

    Don’t rush to set goals if you’re not sure of them just yet – start with your focus areas and words to guide you.

    How are you easing into the new year?

    Catherine Beard

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  • Does Protein Make You Gain Weight? What Experts Want You To Know

    Does Protein Make You Gain Weight? What Experts Want You To Know

    However, several studies32 have found that consistent protein intake throughout the day is more important for gaining muscle, promoting recovery, maximizing performance, and losing weight.

    To optimize MPS, aim to consume 25 to 30 grams of high-quality protein21 during two or three meals throughout the day. This amount has been found sufficient for both younger and healthy older adults.

    “In general, the first meal of the day after a nighttime fasting period is the most important for MPS,” says Layman. “However, if you’re eating a low protein diet (only 50 to 60 grams per day), getting at least one meal up around 40 grams is critical. If you have a higher protein intake (around 100 grams per day), it’s best to distribute the protein. The first and last meals will greatly benefit muscle growth.”

    “Eating a high-protein meal every four to six hours during feeding windows will maintain your body in an anabolic state with ongoing muscle protein synthesis,” Lyon explains. “The first and last meals of the day are most important because they’re when you break your overnight fasting period and prepare your body for sleep, where you do most of your repair and regenerate activities.”

    Adam Meyer

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