Expert data nerd Stephen Von Worley has created Beefspace, a great visualization that depicts the density of major fast food chains across the country. Using information from AggData, Von Worley assigned each fast food chain a different color and then plotted the locations.
Here’s how he explains his method:
The colors now represent the three most influential chains at each point, weighted by cumulative force at a 4:2:1 ratio, where black is McDonald
The CoreFit healthy diet… Eating real food. Balancing out your vices with your good choices. Not pretending you need to eat perfectly every second of the day. Giving yourself a break, mentally and physically. Reiterating that food is nourishment for this icy cold day.
-Shayna 
Herbs De Provence Roast Chicken
1 Whole Roasting Chicken
1 lb Whole Organic Carrots, sliced big and chunky
1 lb Whole Organic Celery, sliced in 2-3in segments
2-4 Organic Yellow Onions, peeled and roughly sliced
2-4 Cloves Organic Garlic
2tbsp Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper to taste
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a roasting pan place washed chicken, breast side up, pat with paper towels to dry and cover with 2tbsp olive oil. Massage in and cover chicken. Sprinkle herbs de provence over chicken and salt and pepper. Place cut veggies in and around chicken. Throw in the over for 1-2hrs, 20min/lb.
Use leftover chicken and bones to make chicken soup tomorrow!
Democracy means a lot of things in America; it means we are allowed to make and spend money the way we please. it means we are able to cross financial class barriers and be competitive with our success. and it also means that the majority dictates the larger picture. the larger meaning of what we want to represent to the world. Moving forward, it means keeping the faith.
In life, we also have choices. Personally, professionally, that you “take this obligation to yourself freely,” these carry us forward. Autonomy from the Greek words for “self” and “law” means “one who gives oneself their own law.”
Choose yourself. Choose to invest in yourself and your ideas. With every minor step forward, your subconscious will see the value in making good choices. And the larger democracy of our beliefs will move us forward with or without resistance. No matter what you believe, struggling is always the more difficult proposition. But it usually produces really great results.
By Shayna Robinson, MSPT, PhD
CHICAGO–January is ripe with people trying to sell you something new; how to lose weight in 7 days by standing on your head and eating some obscure fruit one can only attain by trekking through the rain forest in some remote location. Most of these “new” diets have some sort of scientific-sounding “hook” or “secret” that is oftentimes just a re-branding or new packaging of older ideas. Enter The Virgin Diet.
J.J. Virgin–before you make a joke– is a health and fitness expert, and according to her website, “is a Certified Nutrition Specialist, a Certified Health and Fitness Instructor with advanced certifications in Nutrition, Personal Training and Aging and Board Certified in Holistic Nutrition.” She has been a diet and fitness adviser to a number of celebrities including Gene Simmons, Ben Stiller, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Tracie Thoms, Janeane Garofalo, and Brandon Routh.
The “Hook”
The Virgin Diet claims that the weight gain is about inflammation; namely that certain foods interact with our system, stressing it to a point of hormonal release and fat storage. It claims eliminating certain foods, from 7 different groups, will alleviate these symptoms.
The Evidence
About a third of the general population believes that they have food allergies. Research shows that only about 5% actually do. Part of the problem is the confusion about the term food allergy, which is different from a food intolerance or food sensitivity:
It’s no surprise that the 7 foods that Virgin eliminates also happen to be those which are most likely to cause food allergies (peanuts, eggs) or intolerances (soy, dairy, gluten, corn, sugar). If you have a problem with a particular food, eliminating it from your diet will certainly help with the symptoms (like diarrhea or rashes) it is causing.
If you spend an hour a day at the gym and 23 hours dedicated to undoing all that good, you haven’t really made any leeway in the general direction of health. Consider this, the more you indulge your body in the little healthy maneuvers, the easier it will be at the gym. Check out The Perfect Fit Day and try your hand at a little clock work.
8am: Get 8 hours of sleep! Seriously. No I am not kidding. Sleep is one of the most under-utilized methods in training, mostly because you think you are some kind of robot that doesn’t need it. But guess what? Sleep is integral to reducing stress, losing weight and recuperating from the beating you gave your bod the day before.
8:30am: Have breakfast! A big one. Your diet should actually flow the opposite way you are probably used to; biggest meal is brekkie, lunch is second, dinner should be an afterthought. It preps your body for optimal calorie expenditure. Along with breakfast have a cup of coffee–the caffeine jolt amps up your metabolism.
9am: Don’t hang out by the coffee maker chatting, head over to the H20. Ideally you should be drinking half your body weight in ounces of water. Water flushes your system of toxins and hydrates you so you have more energy and as a bonus, you’ll feel more full.
11am: Get up and stretch for a minute. Stretching increases circulation in your body, allowing it to repair itself. Also, drink more H20!
12pm: Lunch! Make sure it’s healthy–something full of good fats (grilled salmon) and antioxidants (spinach). Your midday meal is when you should be taking in lots of leafy greens and bright colored veggies. And don’t wash it down with an alcoholic drink–opt for more H20.
3pm: More stretching and physical activity. Most people are the most productive during the stretch from lunch to 3pm, but this is prime time for your body to digest and utilize those cals. If you are on a roll with whatever you are doing, be a good example to those around you and make sure to get up every 30 minutes or so and stretch/move around a bit.
6pm: If you haven’t already worked out in the morning, this is your last opportunity to get a good 30-60min of physical activity in. I suggest working out in the morning is probably the best time to burn some energy, but anytime you can find the time to be physically active is the right way to judge what’s best for you. Try sprinting on the treadmill, pushups, crunches, planks, lunges, step ups, presses, and squats. These are all exercises that will keep your whole body injury-free.
Find yourself wandering off the beaten path of health and exercise? Consider this: it’s a digital world and we’re relying more and more on mobile devices to keep us in line. These 6 apps are the best solution to keeping on track with your health and fitness goals.
Fooducate
Unless you did a minor in nutrition, fooducate is a great alternative to keeping a personal nutritionist on staff. It lets you scan barcodes at the grocery store, suggesting healthier options and comparing and contrasting different brands. It may even help you to put down those lucky charms.
Walkmeter
Map out your walks, runs or rides with this app through a geo tracking device. It records time, location, distance, speed and elevation–plus it will map it out in Google maps and lets you share it via Facebook or Twitter so you can show off daily to all your friends.
Fit Friendzy
Competitive? Social accountability is trending for fitness. This app lets you share more than 100 challenges ranging from walking 30 min per day to running a marathon with your friends. And hey, when you can beat your friend at staying fit, you both usually win. No pressure.
PostureScreen
Easiest way to look like you’ve lost weight? Improve your posture. Posture Screen uses a few pictures and analyzes your posture, showing you where you can improve. It’s designed primarily for medical professionals, but it’s so intuitive, you’ll be standing up straighter in no time.
Instant Heart Rate
Wouldn’t it be awesome to get a heart rate reading instantly and accurately without the added “bonus” of that annoying strap across your chest? Personally I think those sensors are wonky anyway. In the Instant Heart Rate App, all you have to do is hold your finger over the camera for ten seconds and it gives you an accurate reading. No fuss, no muss.
Sleep Time
On trend for 2013 is sleep; say what you will, but a good nights rest, is and always will be the best way to recover your body from injury. Sleep Time rests peacefully next to you while you count sheep, detecting subtle movements, dutifully counting the minutes you go through each sleep cycles. letting you know, for example, how much high-grade deep sleep you get.
This weekend I was over at my friend John’s condo and he was showing me The Man Who Can Fly–Dean Potter. Dean potter is a phenomenal athlete, mostly known for his free ascents, base jumps and slack lining all over Yosemite National Park and Patagonia. In the video Potter base jumps in a bird like suit off a plank suspended probably thousands of feet into the air without knowing whether or not the flight suit will allow him to descend into a clearing far below. He does not hesitate at the end of the plank, he simply jumps.
What I loved about this video is that Dean Potter is so capable physically of allowing his mind to clearly focus on shutting his intuitive muscles down and allowing for the natural process of movement to occur. He is able to quiet his mind of what he should or should not be doing.
Fast forward today and I am reading an article in the NYTimes called Rethinking Sleep. The author talks about the importance of shutting down our mind in order to get a restful nights sleep. It’s not the hours you get, but the quality. Most people do not get the 8hrs their body requires in order to allow the body to recuperate physically and mentally.
“It seemed that, given a chance to be free of modern life, the body would naturally settle into a split sleep schedule. Subjects grew to like experiencing nighttime in a new way. Once they broke their conception of what form sleep should come in, they looked forward to the time in the middle of the night as a chance for deep thinking of all kinds, whether in the form of self-reflection, getting a jump on the next day or amorous activity.”
Dean Potter has the ability to shut down his intuitive active mind. We should all take this as a cue as to why exercise and conscious physical challenges are important to our sleep cycle which allows our brain to do more deep thinking, self reflection and the important rest it needs to recuperate our body for tomorrow.
As I was thinking about the weekend, the first thing that pops to mind is the bachelorette party and that little dress I have to wear this weekend. To make my body look great I always follow this diet secret:
Watermelon. This week I ate an entire watermelon (which made up for 2-3 midweek meals from tues-thurs). I simply followed a clean diet (protein, veggies and light whole carbs) and then substitute 2-3 of my meals with watermelon. Usually my lunch and afternoon snack. It slims you down quickly because it’s mostly water and simple carbs packed into the fiber of the fruit. This means it regulates your blood sugar and metabolism really efficiently and the water and antioxidants protect against free radicals, aiding in reducing inflammation and making your skin look luminous.
Sweet, juicy watermelon is actually packed with some of the most important antioxidants in nature. Watermelon is an excellent source of vitamin C and a very good source of vitamin A, notably through its concentration of beta-carotene. Pink watermelon is also a source of the potent carotenoid antioxidant, lycopene. These powerful antioxidants travel through the body neutralizing free radicals. Free radicals are substances in the body that can cause a great deal of damage. They are able to oxidize cholesterol, making it stick to blood vessel walls, where it can lead to heart attack or stroke. They can add to the severity of asthma attacks by causing airways to clamp down and close. They can increase the inflammation that occurs in osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis and cause most of the joint damage that occurs in these conditions, and they can damage cells lining the colon, turning them into cancer cells. Fortunately, vitamin C and beta-carotene are very good at getting rid of these harmful molecules and can therefore prevent the damage they would otherwise cause. As a matter of fact, high intakes of vitamin C and beta-carotene have been shown in a number of scientific studies to reduce the risk of heart disease, reduce the airway spasm that occurs in asthma, reduce the risk of colon cancer, and alleviate some of the symptoms of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.A cup of watermelon provides 21% of the daily value for vitamin C, and, through its carotenoids, 17% of the DV for vitamin A.
Want to beat the masses at your next 5k, 10k or half? If you are a competitive runner, you know you get your edge from making incremental improvements in your training. TEMPO RUNS are the solution to a lot of training plateaus because they teach the body how to efficiently metabolize oxygen.
Try this TEMPO RUN and see where you stand:
1. WARM UP for 1 MILE with a JOG pace (40-50% max speed)
2. SPRINT 1 MIN
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