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Moves to make you feel 10 years younger

Standing Row

What it does: Focuses on your back again, and here's why: Those muscles are some of the first to lose strength with age, says Stull, and the more back-focused moves you do, the more you'll be able to prevent or counteract that decline. 

How to do it: Using a cable machine with the cables attached at shoulder height (again, if you don't have a cable machine handy, secure a resistance band around some sturdy furniture), face the machine, hold the cable handles and step back a few feet, keeping your feet wider than hip width apart. Squeeze your abs and pull the bands by bringing your shoulder blades together, then pulling with your arms. Return to starting position. Do up to 3 sets of 12 reps. 

Source: Emma Haak

Moves that make you feel 10 years younger

Squat and Row

What it does: It strengths the glutes/quads/hamstrings and all of the muscles in your back. 

How to do it: Grab the handles of a cable machine, with the cables attached at the bottom of the machine, and step back a few feet. (If you don't have access to a cable machine at your gym, you can secure a resistance band around the base of a sturdy piece of furniture at home.) Stand with your feet hip width apart and your toes pointed straight ahead. Extend your arms out in front of you (there should be no slack in the cable or resistance band), shift your hips back and lower down into a half-squat. Press through your heels to come back to standing as you pull the cables toward your rib cage. Do up to 3 sets of 12 reps.

Source: Emma Haak

Moves that make you feel 10 years younger

Squat to Triple Extension

What it does: Works your quads, glutes and calves, the muscles that help you slow down. "Being unable to decelerate is one of the top causes of injury as we age," says Skull. 

How to do it: Stand with your feet hip width apart and toes pointing forward. Lower down 1/3 or 1/4 of the way into a squat, then drive up out of the squat and up onto your toes, like you're doing a calf raise. Instead of holding at the top, immediately drop back down into your squat, hold it for a few seconds, then repeat, for 8 to 10 reps total.

Source: Emma Haak

Moves that make you feel 10 years younger

Standing Wall Slide

What it does: This works on strength and flexibility in your shoulder muscles. 

How to do it: Stand against a wall, with your glutes and the back of your head touching the wall. Keep your arms at your sides as you press the back of your hands and arms against the wall. Maintain that pressure as you slide your arms out wide and up over your head. Bring your arms back down, and repeat for 12 reps, then do two more sets.

Source: Emma Haak

Moves that make you feel 10 years younger

Glute Bridge

What it does: Some of the most noticeable age-related declines in strength happen in the muscles that propel us forward, like the glutes, says Kyle Stull, senior master trainer and faculty instructor for the National Academy of Sports Medicine. In addition to building strength in the glutes, this move also works your core muscles, so you can maintain good posture and balance. 

How to do it: Lie on the ground, hands at your sides, feet on the ground and knees bent at 90-degree angles. Squeeze your core and your glutes to lift your hips toward the ceiling. Try to get them high enough so there's a straight line from your chest to your knees. Hold for 5 seconds, bring your hips back to the floor (still squeezing your core and glutes), and repeat for 12 reps, then do two more sets.

Source: Emma Haak

8 Moves That Make You Feel 10 Years Younger

Hip Flexor/Hamstring/Glute Stretches

What it does: Focuses on tightness in your hip flexors, your hamstrings and your gluten,
which all get tighter and weaker with time (especially if you spend a lot of that time sitting).

How to do it: Find a table that's about hip height (if that's too high for you, it's fine to use a
lower surface, like a chair, at first). Place your right foot on top of it and, keeping your left
foot on the ground and left leg straight, bend your right knee and lean in toward your right
knee, keeping your back straight as you do it. You should feel a stretch in the front of your
left hip. Hold for 10 seconds, then switch sides. Next, grab a chair and place your right foot
 on the seat. Flex your right foot, keep both legs straight and stick your butt out behind you
as you hinge forward from the hip and keep your back straight, folding your torso over your
right leg until you feel a stretch in your right hamstring. Hold for 10 seconds, then switch legs.

Finally, sit on the chair and place your right ankle just above your left knee, with your left foot
 still on the ground. Let your right knee drop toward the ground, feeling the stretch in your
right glute. (You can gently press on your right knee with your hand to deepen the stretch).
Hold for 10 seconds, then switch legs.

Source: Emma Haak

Moves That Make You Feel 10 Years Younger

Cat & Cow/Child's Pose/Bird Dog/Plank

What it does: Stretches out your lower back and strengthens the muscles in your back and core, which get weaker as we get older. Stronger, more-flexible back muscles will help you maintain better posture, says Wilmarth, "which immediately helps you feel younger." 

How to do it: Start in a tabletop position on the ground and squeeze your abs to round your back up toward the sky. Hold for a second, then let gravity pull your stomach toward the floor so your back is arched. Repeat that 5 to 10 times, then sink back into child's pose, keeping your arms outstretched on the ground in front of you and trying to get your forehead and stomach to touch the ground. Hold for 15 seconds. Rise back up into tabletop position and lift your right arm out in front of you and your left leg behind you at the same time, hold for 5 seconds, then switch arms and legs and repeat for a total of 10 reps. Finally, get into a forearm plank position, keeping a straight line from your shoulders to your feet, and hold for 30 seconds.

Source: Emma Haak

Moves That Make You Feel 10 Years Younger

Just because you're not 25 anymore doesn't mean you can't feel strong, lean and limber.

Chin Tuck/Upper Trap Stretch/Shoulder Circles

What it does: This sequence releases tightness in the back of your neck, your shoulders, and the muscles that connect your shoulders to the base of your skull. Not only do these areas get tighter with age, but sitting all day (especially when you're slumped forward) speeds up that process, says Mary Ann Wilmarth, a certified physical therapist and a spokesperson for the American Physical Therapy Association. 

How to do it: While you're sitting in a chair with good posture (shoulders back and down), slide your head back like you're trying to give yourself a double chin. Keep your head there, hold onto the side of the chair with your right hand and tilt your head toward your left shoulder. You should feel a stretch in the right side of your neck. Hold for 10 seconds, then switch sides. Finally, with your chin still tucked, do 5 to 10 backwards shoulder circles. Repeat the sequence 3 to 5 times throughout the day.

Source: Emma Haak

Deepak Chopra: How to Get Out of Sad Gear

The spiritual teacher explains how to cope with temporary or long-term sadness.

We live in a society where a high value is placed on being positive. Yet sometimes this simply isn't possible, and people find themselves facing temporary or long-term sadness. Just telling yourself to "be positive" isn't much help, because moods can have a life of their own. One of the pitfalls of positivity is that people tend to fantasize about a perfect life instead of realistically facing the fact that no life is perfect. Everyone's existence contains challenges, disappointments, frustration and failed expectations. Further, what usually happens is that most of us become passive. We distract ourselves by watching more television or spending more hours on the computer. We wait for sadness to pass and we behave as if nothing bad is going on. Keeping up a good front is important in most people's lives, yet behind the facade can lurk a good deal of fear. Instead of positivity, what's needed is reality. Being realistic means that you drop the main defense that all of us are tempted to employ: denial. The only reason to deny your sadness is if you feel that you can't do anything about it. But there are concrete ways to cope with sadness and gain control over it: 

Step 1: Identifying Your Kind of Sadness 

It's perfectly normal to have sadness in your life. Some kinds, however, can be a cause for concern. If you are feeling sad at this moment—or have been experiencing a down mood for a while—look honestly at your situation. There are three types of sadness most of us fall into: Short-term sadness: This is a passing mood, lasting a few days or, at most, a week. It sometimes has a cause and sometimes not. The best remedy—as we all know but, sadly, often fail to remember—is to lower your stress, go to bed early and get eight hours of uninterrupted sleep, make sure you exercise and break up your normal routine a bit. Boredom, lack of sleep, being too sedentary and excess stress are all associated with a sad mood. 

Triggered sadness: This includes a downturn in mood because something undeniably bad has happened to you, such as losing your job or the death of someone close to you. In such a situation, you will generally know what the trigger is. The problem is that most people feel helpless when they enter extended sadness, even when they know there is a good reason for it. In this case, you need to process your sadness, let nature take its course and share your feelings with someone who can counsel and console you. Bottling up your feelings and feeling victimized are never helpful. Triggered sadness lasts an unpredictable length of time, yet in an emotionally healthy adult, within six months there is a return to the level of emotions that existed before the trigger was set off. 

Depression: If you feel sad, exhausted, helpless, hopeless and unable to sleep, eat or enjoy sex for a period of time lasting more than a few weeks, you should suspect that you are depressed. There is often a trigger for this condition, but it is usually something that you could normally cope with. When coping breaks down, depression takes over. So if you feel that you can't cope, even with minor stress and ordinary setbacks, mild to moderate depression may be indicated. This is a complicated mood disorder that varies from person to person. If you suspect that you or someone close to you is depressed, a doctor's care is needed. 

Step 2: Banishing the Enemies of Happiness 

Let's say that you fall into the first two categories of short-term and triggered sadness (we won't discuss depression here; that must be handled by a health professional). If so, there are things you can do to change the situation. 

It surprises people, but, in fact, the best cure for sadness is happiness. Anything that diminishes your ability to build your own happiness must be avoided or eliminated. For example, don't hitch your happiness to external rewards or postpone being happy until sometime in the future. Don't expect someone else to make you happy. Don't allow your emotions to become habitual and stuck or close yourself off from new experiences. Don't ignore the signals of inner tension and conflict, dwell on the past or live in fear of the future. Most of all: don't equate happiness with momentary pleasure. 

In a consumer-driven society, it's all too easy to fall into all the don'ts on this list, because they share the same element: linking happiness with temporary pleasure and external rewards. Of course, we all live for the pleasure that life brings. No one is saying that you must deny yourself. But the most satisfying project you will ever undertake—and a mark of a complete human being—is to discover how to build a sense of happiness that no one can take away from you, because you have taken total responsibility for it. The journey to such happiness takes a long time, yet every step is one of fulfillment. 

Step 3: Building Well-Being 

Passively accepting your sadness is the same as forgetting to build your own happiness. Happiness is more than a mood. It's a long-lasting state that is more accurately called well-being. Well-being is a balanced state of mind and body that you feel subjectively as contentment, peace of mind and emotional freedom. Well-being opens the door to joy and deep satisfaction with your life. There are practical things you can do to help cultivate it such as: give of yourself (in other words, take care of others, and care for them); work at something you love; set worthy long-range goals that will take years to achieve; be open-minded; learn from the past and then put it behind you; plan for the future without anxiety, fear or dread; nurture close, warm social bonds; and develop emotional resilience. 

Developing emotional resilience is perhaps the most important, because that's the ability to bounce back from bad things in your life. How do you encourage it? By being present with your feelings instead of fearing them, by getting past victimization or "poor me" thinking, by making a plan of action when things go wrong and sticking with it, by associating with people who are emotionally mature and seeking counsel from someone who has managed the same kind of crisis that you now face, by focusing on the times you have survived and thrived in the face of tough circumstances, and by appreciating and rewarding yourself for dealing with your difficulties. 

Working on long-term, emotionally mature happiness is the best way to insulate yourself from downswings in your mood. Sadness comes and goes. Well-being can be made to last a lifetime. It doesn't matter how close you feel to this highly desirable state or how far. For everyone, well-being is a journey. All it requires is the right vision and devotion to personal growth. You have the inner guidance to support you. The secret is committing to that journey and taking those first steps with hope and belief in yourself. 

Source: Oprah

Happy Tuesday

How to Become a Better Spender in 20 Minutes or Less

 

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Spending can be joyful when it's done intentionally, but you need a strategy for the moments when you're operating on autopilot. Being a money manager means going to Target prepared! I'm not talking about austerity. I'm not against spending, or the thrill of buying. I just want you to explore your habits in more depth. When you spend with intention, I hope you'll buy less and save more.

Let's have some fun, shall we? I have a challenge for you.

This experiment isn't designed to reactivate your money story. When you hit those rough patches—and you will—observe, breathe, and keep going. Don't indulge the drama. By the end of the exercise, you will have a very good idea of where all that money goes and how to make mindful changes to your spending.

Ready to play?

Challenge: What Did You Buy in the Past Three Days?

From memory first, think about where you've been the last three days. Did you drive anywhere or take the train? Were you at work, with kids, friends, or family? Did you eat at home or at a restaurant?

Write down what you bought and how much it cost (exclude fixed expenses like bills). Don't get lost in the rabbit hole of analysis. Include food, groceries, transportation, a pack of gum, emergency mascara, new sunglasses because you left yours on the train, iTunes or Amazon purchases.

Now, log in to your accounts and see how close you are to what you wrote down from memory. What have you learned about how much you spend and why?

It's enlightening to see where your money goes. When you write down what you spend, you start to see how often you spend on impulse. Who are you as a spender? That's what we're investigating. It's a key exercise that gives you deeper insights into your own habits and mind-set around spending.

Remember, Money Buddhas don't judge. They just observe. Humans have known for thousands of years that material gain does not create happiness. Austerity doesn't, either. Padded savings accounts? Ecstasy. I swear.

Source: Amanda Steinberg

You're worth it!

Treat yourself to some pretty flowers, you're worth it!

3 Low-Calorie Herbs and Spices Snacks for a Healthier and Slimmer Body

More and more people are starting to eat healthy - not just to lose weight but also to maintain a stronger body. If you're new to this lifestyle, it's easy to get bored with portioned meat, steamed vegetables and low-fat everything. Jazz up your healthy dishes with the kick of natural spices and the delicious flavor of fresh herbs. Snack on these 3 low-calories herbs and spices recipes and you'll know how good healthy eating is!

Creamy Cilantro Pizza

What you need:

• 1/2 bunch cilantro
• 3/4 cup ground lamb
• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon non-fat plain Greek yogurt
• 2 green chiles, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 teaspoons canola or grapeseed oil
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds, toasted and coarsely ground
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted and coarsely ground
• Handful of mozzarella cheese
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 3 pieces frozen naan, thawed

Heat oil in a small pan over medium heat and cook onion and garlic until tender. Stir in ground lamb, toasted coriander and cumin seeds, salt and pepper. Cook for 6-8 minutes or when lamb is cooked through. Remove from heat and set aside. Mix together cilantro, 1/4 cup yogurt, green chiles and water in a blender (season with salt and pepper if desired) and process until smooth. Divide the cilantro-yogurt sauce among naan followed by cooked lamb then top with mozzarella cheese. Bake in a pre-heated oven (450F) until cheese starts to bubble. Garnish with remaining yogurt, raw onion and cilantro leaves.

Basil and Lavender Fruit Bowl

What you need:

• 2 peaches, diced
• 1 cup grapes
• 1 cup watermelon cubes
• 1/2 cup blueberries
• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon dried lavender buds
• 1/2 teaspoon finely minced fresh sweet basil

Heat the lime juice and the honey over medium heat in a small saucepan. Stir until well-combined. Remove from heat when heated through then add lavender buds and basil leaves. Set aside and let sit for 8 to 10 minutes. Place peaches, grapes, watermelon cubes and blueberries in a large bowl and pour basil and lavender syrup over fruits.

Healthy Herb Summer Salad

What you need:

• 2 ears corn, husked and cooked
• 12 lettuce leaves
• 2 limes, juiced
• 1 bunch scallions, trimmed and thinly slices
• 1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
• 1/2 onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
• 1/2 cup feta cheese
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• Freshly ground pepper

In a medium bowl, mix together scallions, cilantro, parsley, lime juice and olive oil. Strip the corn from the cob carefully using a sharp knife and add the kernels to the herb mixture. Stir until all ingredients are well-combined. Divide the mixture into 12 and scoop into lettuce leaves. Top with feta cheese and season with ground pepper.

Eating nutritious hasn't been this good - try these amazing low-calorie herbs and spices snacks for a healthier and slimmer body!

Source: Adrian T Cheng