The other night I found myself doing something out of the norm. I was making a nice dinner of vegetable lentil soup with a mixed green salad and had an “ah ha” moment. I realized I was acting out a great diet trick. I had decided to make my salad first, then put all the ingredients back in the fridge. I sat down to eat it and then brought my awareness to how full my stomach was. If I was still hungry I’d go make the pre-planned soup, but if I was satisfied that’d be it.

Portion control is a huge part in any nutrition plan. Eating a variety of whole foods, while keeping the amount of food reasonable, is key to losing weight and establishing healthy lifelong eating habits. By preparing one course or part of a dish at a time you can watch portion control and get in tune with how your stomach is really feeeling. The time lapse between eating and preparing allows the stomach to digest and send the “full” signal to the brain.

To finish my story, I was still hungry after finishing my dinner salad, but ended up making a smaller bowl of soup than I would have if I had prepared both dishes at the same time. Try it! Your stomach just might surprise you!

Sometime I wonder what it would be like if we had a manual for life. Complete with instructions on how to find “the one”, how to raise a family, how to meet friends, how to be successful, how to be HAPPY! If there was such a manual I don’t know if I would even use it. Part of what makes life so amazing is that you can’t plan, predict, or be guided through it. It is ever evolving and we must learn to adapt. We find ourselves in a tireless pursuit to understand all there is to know in life, but sometimes we need to bask in the mystery and just enjoy being alive.

But…just in case you need a little motivation or inspiration to get you through, the Dalai Lama has created some insightful and truly powerful instructions for life.

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.

19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

All year we work hard to maintain our fitness routine- even waking up super early or taking a precious hour out of our hectic schedules- but it’s often the first thing to go during the hustle and bustle of the holidays. Staying active is key to sleeping more soundly, handling stress better, keeping weight off, suppressing appetite, and managing moods, all things we need the most over the holidays. As the second part of Epic Self’s holiday survival guide, here are some fun ways to stay on track and still have the time (and energy!) for all that shopping.

1. Change Your Definition: If your typical workout routine is an hour at the gym three times a week, or walking to a yoga class every other day and think that’s all that counts as exercise, you’re missing out! Several holiday activities are major calorie burners and those absolutely count. Carrying several shopping bags and walking all over town is a workout all in its self! And shopping is just the beginning… between all the wrapping, chopping, mixing, lifting, and decorating it’s hard not to break a sweat. Also try to incorporate exercise with your holiday to-do list, like riding your bike to pick up some items at the grocery store.

2. Consider Shorter Workouts: A lot of us feel that if we can’t squeeze in an hour workout than we might as well forgo it all together. Smaller amounts of time might feel like a waste of time, but they definitely add up. If you can’t find an hour to hit the gym, try running with the dog for 15-20 minutes in the morning, do some lunges in the kitchen and have a snowball fight! You could also try wearing a pedometer throughout the day so you can track how many calories your burning with all the festivities.

3. Have A Blast: There is no reason to run to the gym, lift weights and hit the miserable Stairmaster when all you want is to be with your family and friends. Get creative and cook up some fun ways to break a sweat with those you love. You could organize a scavenger hunt, go for a hike, or get the whole gang to walk to look at holiday lights.

4. Try Something New: To stay motivated treat yourself to a fun new class or type of exercise. Slip on those heels and head to that salsa class you’ve been dying to try, or jump into that Bikram yoga class to sweat out any toxins. Go indoor rock climbing with a friend or learn to snowboard.

5. Make It Matter: Look at exercise as a way to take a break from the holiday chaos instead of adding to your stress levels. Taking time out for a mindful workout is a great way to de-stress and clear you head. Meaningful walks with your mom or yoga class with a dear friend are a perfect way to connect and still stay active.

6. Set Goals: Plan ahead for the season. Set goals and pinpoint what usually gets in the way of exercise. During this time of year don’t be too hard on yourself, and stay flexible. Set reasonable goals that you are actually able to fit in and feel good about. If your normal regiment is 1 hour, five days a week, reduce it to 1 hour, 3 days a week. Sanity is important! Especially when you’ve got the in-laws to deal with.

7. Reap The Benefits: Energy begets energy and the only way to stay up all night joking and laughing with your loved ones is to keep it up. I don’t think anyone has ever regretted going to the gym or breaking a sweat. Exercising feels good and gives you much needed energy for this fun and crazy time of year.

Suddenly the dreaded holiday weight gain is no longer that menacing. These 7 Stay Active Solutions mixed with Part 1: 7 Tips For Mindful Eating, complete my holiday survival guide and hopefully will make this season one to remember! Happy Holidays!

It’s roller time again, and this week I’m highlighting my utmost favorite roller massage, the low back and sacrum roll out! Last week we all reduced tons of tension and found more flexibility in the upper back, but now we’ll hit it where it really hurts.

As someone who used to suffer from chronic low back pain, I can attest to this roll out’s fabulous benefits. Here I am demonstrating how it’s done:

-Lying on your back with knees bent, lift up your hips and place the roller under your pelvis. The roller should sit on your sacrum above your tailbone, but not too high as to rest on the lumbar vertebrae.
-You upper body should be resting on your shoulder blades with abdominals pulled into create a curve in the spine. The key here is to prevent arching the low back.
-Bring your knees into your chest so they are stacked over the hips and roller. Hands to the end of the roller to keep it from slipping.
-From here hold your knees together and make circles with the knees. Reverse the circle and repeat. Rock side to side and back and forth. Whatever feels good to you.

Heaven, right?!

Bonus Stretch: Bring both knees into the chest and extend the legs straight holding onto ankles. Pull the ankles and use your abdominals to lift the pelvis off the roller and legs parallel to the floor. This will stretch out the hamstrings and low back as well as create deep hip flexion, all which are important to low back health. Flex the feet for more of a stretch.

Couple this massage with abdominal work and you’ll be on your way to a pain free low back. If your back is still bugging you try this sacrum massage with a partner!

Stay tuned for more Roll It Out easy massages!

In the ever increasing search for the next viable fuel option, corn and soy based ethanol’s have been the leaders in bio-fuel. That is until now! Soy and corn based fuels aren’t that promising…seeing as we would have to some how pull a lot of land out of nowhere to support the country’s fuel demands, among other environmental no-no’s. Luckily, innovators in the field are seeking other alternatives, including the huge potential of using algae.

So that green sludge that grows on my fish tank could actually create enough fuel for a Porsche? Apparently, hell yeah! Algae are one of the fastest growing “plants” in the world. Just one acre of algae can produce as much fuel in 10 days as the same amount of corn or soy could in a year. The oil the algae produce can then be harvested and converted into biodiesel. While the algae’s carbohydrate content can be fermented into ethanol. Both are much cleaner-burning fuels than petroleum-based diesel or gas.

Massachusetts-based GreenFuel Technologies has decided to reap the benefits of the CO2 loving blob, and taken it a step further by placing their algae farms near smoke-stacks to reduce emissions from the stacks during the growing process. So the green goo takes a bite out of global warming emissions before it even gets pumped into a gas tank. Brilliant!

I just had to share….seriously how cool is this?! Besides, we all want to breath cleaner air, and pay less for gas!