The Obesity Epidemic: Hard But Not Hopeless

In a recent New York Times article, a new study was profiled that tracked the contestants from Season 8 of “The Biggest Loser” for six years after leaving the show. The point of the study was to find out what happens to the body after extreme weight loss. What they found was that many of the contestants gained large amounts of weight back and some regained all or more of the weight within the study’s six-year timeframe.

The bomb they dropped: the body will fight to get back to its starting weight using a combination of metabolic slowing, as well as a smattering of hormones and brain chemicals that impact satiety and hunger signals. The results of which, leave the individual constantly ravenous and having to take in considerably fewer calories than expected for their size to compensate for the slower metabolism.

Our Thoughts

Well, #methodfam, we can see how this news can feel disheartening because contestants on “The Biggest Loser” had all the specialists, tools and time to focus on their weight loss; however, they also endured seven hours a day of insane workouts coupled with low calorie dieting. This study, though highly publicized, is just one of many that's continued to surface and suggest that extreme dieting may cause weight gain in the long run.

But!!! This doesn't mean that all hope is lost for the overweight and obese. Rather, it suggests that we may have been thinking about dieting and wellness all wrong.

While scientists are currently researching new medical interventions to combat these bodily responses to weight loss, this study shows us just how little is broadly understood about one of America’s biggest problems. We're a nation struggling with weight and obesity issues, and it affects everyone of all income levels. Maintaining a reasonable weight is really hard in this country because we're surrounded by a food supply littered with processed ingredients on nearly every shelf of every store and on nearly every menu of every restaurant. Even here in San Francisco, lauded as one of the healthiest cities in the country, we have to go out of our way to hunt down clean food. We live in a world where whole foods are the exception, rather than the norm.

If we truly want to help the 68 percent of our population who are currently overweight or obese, we need to demand more from everyone. More education, technology, and resources for doctors so that they can promote wellness more effectively. More resources available via insurance companies for those struggling with their weight. More investment into consumer products that help us understand and alleviate struggles with food. More responsibility from the food industry to create products that promote wellness. And more from Americans themselves to get educated on what's best for their unique body and to apply that information as part of a feasible, long-term lifestyle change.

The obesity epidemic won't be overcome by telling people to go on diets or exercise more. We've been doing that, and it hasn't been working. And, if nothing else, this study shows that it isn't that effective.

Obesity is a serious and complex issue that needs be addressed holistically and individually by everyone involved in feeding and treating Americans. And in doing so, we need to consider all the factors at play. Some of these include:

• What and how we eat
• How hard it is to lose weight and keep it off
• Sleep
• Mindfulness
• Stress
• Hydration
• Mental Health
• Activity
• Genetics
• Gut health

The Problem with Weight Loss as a Goal 

We understand how “The Biggest Loser” is entertaining and inspiring for many. But when you break down the elements, the show also encapsulates the problematic way we address weight loss in this country:

• One former contestant in the Times piece described his pre-show self by using words like monster, subhuman and horrible
• The compulsive calories in, calories out narrative and a low fat, low calorie, boring approach to eating that ignores food quality, flavor and purity
• The trainers who use the contestants’ self-hatred to push them to continue exercising after they’ve just puked in a bucket on national television

While there's still a lot we don't understand about why the body gains and loses fat, we do know that the conventional approach of low calorie and extreme exercise isn't working. When we view food as an inconvenient necessity, view our bodies as an opponent and view ourselves as unlovable, it’s impossible to make any real changes.

In order to reach a place where long-term weight loss is possible, we as a society need to change the dialogue and the approach and shift our priorities to focus on wellness over weight. Embracing wellness will allow more people to realize long-term weight loss and in the process, be exposed to a healthier way of viewing food, their bodies, and themselves.

Here are three ways you can begin embracing wellness today.

1) Enjoy foods you love, that love you back

What we mean when we talk about food here at Methodology:

Food that's raised lovingly, naturally and is served in a pure, unprocessed state in reasonable portions.

A beautiful, nourishing meal that feeds the body and soul and tastes delicious isn't incompatible with weight loss. And it's something every American deserves to enjoy every meal, every day.

Our bodies are a reflection of our lifestyles, and we can't do anything long-term unless we enjoy it. With these principles in mind, we need to accept that we can't just diet to get to a goal weight then go back to eating cookies again. And that we can't lie to ourselves and say that we'll live on salads from now on. We need to take the time to discover foods that we can't wait to eat AND that also help us feel our absolute best.

Because once we regularly eat foods we love and that love us back, miraculous changes unfold and guide us to our ideal weight. Ideal weight meaning what you, at your healthiest, happen to weigh. This isn't a 6-week or even 6-month journey. This is forever. This is life. 

The long and short of it is, to live the full and vibrant lives that we each deserve, we need food that nourishes our soul and our cells.

That means eating reasonable portions of food that's unprocessed, scrumptious, and nourishing and that leaves you feeling both satiated and happy.

2) Treat your body like it's your best friend

Your body performs a bazillion (real, scientific fact) functions a day. It's the ultimate multi-tasker and it does this for you 24/7 until the end of your life. 

We should celebrate and respect our bodies for the beautiful, functional and complex entities that they are. Unique to you, your body comes with its own set of needs and challenges. Your body is your friend and partner in this life and should be treated that way.

When we hate our bodies, and then incidentally, hate ourselves as a consequence, we're out of sync with our bodies.

The "Biggest Loser" study, if nothing else, shows us how powerful our bodies are and how much respect they should be given. Knowing that after extreme weight loss and all the work it entails, your body can flip you the bird and do everything in its power to make you regain the weight, tells you a couple of things:

• Treating your body as defective and evaluating its utility on appearance alone gets you bupkis. If the objective is health and well being, the weight loss will come. It may not be the body you see plastered all over the media, but it will be a more vibrant version of the body you have today.
• Your body doesn’t like to be judged and punished. If you do it anyway, it will let you know its sentiments for a really long time.

So #methodfam, celebrate your bodies for what they do for you, nourish them with what they need, and then love them accordingly. Because if you don’t, it will slash your tires, TP your house and buy a bunch of really expensive shit on Amazon with your credit card.

3) Prioritize and practice self-love every day

PSA: We don’t do body shaming and you shouldn’t either. We hear it’s a gateway drug to self loathing and bad choices. The more you know.

Some of the contestants featured in the Times piece admit that despite all the work they put in on the show, their attitudes and unhealthy food relationships still linger. Our stance is that the root of a lot of health problems stem from a lack of self-love.

Self-love is all about treating yourself the way you’d treat your best friend, partner in life or your family members. It means giving yourself the gift of patience, accepting yourself as already whole, and extolling your virtues.

Self-love should be practiced across all facets of your life both consistently and consciously. When we love ourselves, we feel complete, whole and deserving of attentive self-care. Self-care is how we can ensure that we are loving ourselves daily and with intention. Removing processed foods, making adequate sleep a priority, and being diligent in managing stress are just a few ways you can practice self-care in your daily life. By making even small changes to your lifestyle, you can realize a dramatically improved sense of wellness.

When it comes to food, the most loving thing you can do for yourself is to get your mind right. By making the effort to establish a healthy, loving relationship with food, you set yourself up for long-term weight loss success. Loving yourself also means having standards. So, getting and staying informed on where your food comes from, how it was raised, how fresh it is and how specific foods affect your unique body, will help you determine the requirements that need to be met before that food goes down the hatch. You may not get your "dream body" but you may experience many other amazing benefits, such as peace of mind, clearer skin, better sleep, more energy, better sex, and more happiness. Any one of those sound pretty good to me.

Remember, hope is not lost. We may not have a magic bullet to weight loss, but your body is incredibly resilient and can perform miracles when you love yourself, nourish yourself, and be patient with yourself.

Wishing you wellness,

Julie + The Methodology Crew

References / Further Reading

Mann, T., Tomiyama, A. J., Westling, E., Lew, A., Samuels, B., & Chatman, J. (2007). Medicare's search for effective obesity treatments: Diets are not the answer.American Psychologist, 62(3), 220-233. doi:10.1037/0003-066x.62.3.220

Field, A. E., Austin, S. B., Taylor, C. B., Malspeis, S., Rosner, B., Rockett, H. R., Colditz, G. A. (2003). Relation Between Dieting and Weight Change Among Preadolescents and Adolescents. Pediatrics, 112(4), 900-906. doi:10.1542/peds.112.4.900

Flegal KM, Carroll MD, Kit BK, Ogden CL. Prevalence of obesity and trends in the distribution of body mass index among US adults, 1999–2010. Journal of the American Medical Association. 2012; 307(5):491–97.

Ebbeling, C. B., Swain, J. F., Feldman, H. A., Wong, W. W., Hachey, D. L., Garcia-Lago, E., & Ludwig, D. S. (2012). Effects of Dietary Composition on Energy Expenditure During Weight-Loss Maintenance. Jama, 307(24). doi:10.1001/jama.2012.6607

Office Pantry Takeover: Why Companies Should Care More about What they Feed their Employees

This is the first in a two-part series about why and how to makeover your office pantry. This piece covers the “why.”

Your company, your health coach?

Who do you think has greater influence over your diet -- your doctor or your employer?

While doctors are able to make recommendations that people generally trust, companies have a power that doctors don’t: your company can control and change your everyday environment. Your “environment,” meaning quite literally, the world that surrounds you at work for 40+ hours a week.

Having the ability to alter your environment is something that makes companies extremely powerful. Because after a doctor, nutritionist, or self-help book makes a suggestion, you’re on your own, walking past your office kitchen and pantry 5+ times a day and eating whatever’s easiest to grab. By 3 PM, it’s dieters gone wild. You know that time of day. You’re tired, in need of a pick-me-up (or nap), and can’t stop yourself from grabbing a cookie or bag of chips. This isn’t your fault. You’re not weak. Willpower is finite for all of us. It starts out strong when your day begins and wears down as the day goes on. It’s even weaker when your energy is crashing.

The environment at work affects your everyday behavior. Your company can design the environment conscientiously by avoiding Doritos, for example. If your team doesn’t have Doritos, then your team won’t eat them. And if your pantry has apples, then guess what? Apples get eaten. Remember that people eat whatever’s most convenient for them. Ease trumps everything else. You don’t need to read a research paper to understand this. I’m sure you live this yourself every day.

This is why the collective power of companies to improve the well-being of millions -- by designing environments that improve the well-being of their employees -- shouldn’t be underestimated or overlooked. It’s probably the most powerful lever we have to shift the diets and lifestyles of our working population -- and even their families.

One of the best ways to for a company to improve its team’s well-being? Stop making your team fight temptation every time they walk by your kitchen. That willpower is better spent on work-related challenges, like patiently waiting for someone to finish their “insightful” comment in a meeting. 

Also related, getting people to change their behaviors and eat healthier is really hard. One of the hardest things in the world, in fact, as evidenced by rising rates of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Today, two in three Americans is overweight or obese and one in ten Americans is diabetic. Every 83 seconds someone in America dies because of the food we eat. We constantly tell people to cook more, move more, eat less. But nothing changes. People will do what’s easiest. We need to accept this and work around it. If we really want to help people, we have to change what’s easiest for them to do. 

This starts with changing their environment. Dozens of books (check out “Mindless Eating” or “The Power of Habit”) have been written by authors way smarter than I am about how it’s nearly impossible to change the way people eat without changing their environments and habits first.

The good news is you, as a company, can change the environment in a hyper efficient way because you only have make a single decision one time to stock your kitchen thoughtfully from now on, with your team’s well-being in mind, and you’ll set every person on your team up to eat better every day. 

As a company, you hold tremendous power and responsibility when it comes to your team’s wellness. In deciding what to put in your pantry, you’re either promoting well-being or making your team sick.

This brings me to my second point. Helping your team eat well isn’t just good for your employees’ health, it’s good for the company’s productivity.

The productivity benefits of clean eating

Food isn’t purely healthy or unhealthy. Like all things in life, it’s a spectrum. The healthier your food is, the better your team will feel and perform.

Think about how you feel after you eat a burrito for lunch then head back to your desk. I’ll admit, while you’re eating it, it feels like heaven on earth. I hear angels singing when I bite into a Mission burrito. But about halfway though? Self-loathing. It’s like, where the nap pod at oh wait we don’t have one will anyone notice if I unbutton my pants for an hour...

Versus how you feel when you eat something nourishing, like roasted chicken and sweet potatoes. Eating the right foods will help you power through your day and tackle every task at your full potential.

Food matters so much more to every aspect of your health than you may realize. Specifically, the quality of each ingredient you eat matters a lot. The higher the quality, the better the tools your body has to look and feel its absolute best every day. Eat junk, feel like junk. Eat nourishing foods, feel energetic, light, and vibrant.

Food isn’t just about calories and protein and body weight. The nutrients, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and antioxidants in food affect every aspect of how we feel: our energy, our positivity, our sense of peace. When we eat the wrong foods, it can cause problems like fatigue, mental fog, sluggishness, anxiety, and even depression. And when we eat the right foods -- local, whole, sustainable -- we can look and feel our absolute best.

For those of you who like numbers, according to BeWell, a provider of holistic corporate wellness solutions, every $1 you invest in corporate wellness returns $4 in company value. Not a bad ROI.

Of all the wellness initiatives you can invest in, food should be at the top of your list. Yes, even before gym memberships. Because lifting weights won’t do much for you if you’re chomping on cookies all day long. The saying is true: you can’t out-exercise a crappy diet. And we see this all the time at Methodology. Clients can achieve astounding wellness results without having to alter their workout routines at all. Cleaning up your diet really does work wonders.

If companies clean up their pantries in the workplace and companies like mine provide whole, sustainable food outside of work, it won’t be long until the food that improves wellness becomes the most convenient food and we finally see nationwide improvements in quality of life that we all deserve.

Julie Nguyen, Founder and CEO of Methodology, a wellness company focused on clean food delivery.

Pro Tip: How to Heat Your Methodology Meals

Hey #methodfam!

Our talented and super cool teammates Amy Truong and Kevin DeVera put a little video together to give you all the info you need to make your Methodology meals as mouthwateringly perfect as possible.

So much work goes into each meal before it reaches your beautiful hands. Once the meal gets to you, it's totally up to you to put the finishing touches on it. Meaning, if you heat and plate it properly, you'll be in for a real treat. If you overcook your meal and dump it onto a plate, then you're in for a disappointment.

Don't waste your money, food, and time! Check out the video and read the tips below so you can make every Methodology meal a magical moment.

As we mention on all the heating instructions, though meals can be microwaved, we recommend heating your meals on your stovetop whenever you have one available because (1) the meals were designed to be reheated on a stovetop and (2) the food tastes 100x better this way. 

What's the difference? The protein will be juicier and and more flavorful from the searing and browning that happens on the pan. And the veg and starches can cook more evenly as you constantly stir them in the pan and as they cook in and absorb the juices from the protein.

Check out the video to get a demo of how to heat your meals perfectly in a pan.

Here are some additional tips if you really wanna master the art of finishing your meals in a pan:

1 - Make sure your pan is heated to medium before you add oil to it

How will you know if your pan is hot enough? Splash a teaspoon of water on it. If the water bubbles and evaporates, then your pan is ready.

2 - use cooking oil

Don't be afraid to add a tablespoon of healthy cooking oil to your pan. This will keep your food from sticking to the pan and help it sear to lock in flavor. We recommend using pastured ghee, safflower oil, or olive oil for medium heat cooking. Pastured ghee is my personal favorite. Get the huge jar from Amazon. It'll last you a month or more!

3 - Don't let your pan get too hot

If your oil starts smoking, you've turned the heat on too high. Wash your pan and start over again. Rancid oils contain free radicals that cause health problems.

4 - Don't overcook your proteins

Every 30-60 seconds, use a spatula or tongs to lift up a corner of the protein and peek underneath. If it's browned, then it's ready to flip over. Another indicator it's ready is if lifting it off the pan happens easily. Meat that's been seared doesn't stick to the pan as much. As soon as one side of the protein is browned, flip the protein immediately. You want to cook your protein enough to heat it but not so much that it gets overcooked and dry. Our proteins have been prepared medium rare whenever possible to make sure everything's juicy for you when you're done heating it.

5 - Plate like you give a sh*t

You'll feel like royalty if you invest in beautiful stoneware and plate your food creatively. It's totally within budget for most people if you hunt around. Even stores like Marshall's can have gorgeous plates. Remember one of our nutrition principles: food should be nourishing, scrumptious, and BEAUTIFUL. We eat with our eyes first. Give your eyes something that makes you swoon every meal. You deserve it.

Hope you found this info helpful. We really do want you to love every bite of Methodology.

Here's to changing the world one clean bite at a time! :)

Julie Nguyen

Founder & CEO

This week's surprise gift: Longevity 8

Hey #methodfam! Hitting coolers this Monday is the latest Magic Fairy Dust out of the Methodology kitchen: Longevity 8. 

Longevity 8 is made with organic Reishi mushroom, organic raw cacao, and organic dates, three of our favorite, ultra-nourishing ingredients from the Methodology pantry.

I've been experimenting with Reishi in my drinks for the past 2 weeks and just had to share it with all of you. 

Used in Asia for over 2,000 years to boost immunity and slow down aging, Reishi has become my own little miracle mushroom. Did I transform into light and travel the universe for six hours? No. But Reishi is making my skin look younger and brighter.

I started drinking about 1 tablespoon of Reishi mushroom + 2 tablespoons of raw, local honey every night before bed and within two weeks noticed a difference in my complexion. Different enough that people have commented, "You're skin looks great!" Words you never expect to hear after you turn 30. 

So with my huge data set of one I bring you Longevity 8, just in case it fills your life with a little magic, too.  

Mixed in with the Reishi we've added Cacao for an extra boost of polyphenols and granulated dates to make the Reishi more palatable. Reishi tastes like dirt. It's really hard to get down without something sweet to balance it out. 

As the video above explains, just add Longevity 8 to the hot drink of your choice. Any coffee, tea, or even water will do.

We hope Longevity 8 fills you with love and inspires you to learn more about the power and history of plants.

Julie Nguyen

Methodology Founder

3 Good Reasons to Stop Eating "Fat Free"

Below is a post written by Dr. Frank Lipman, MD, leader of the Methodology Health Advisory Board. While we at Methodology try to stay away from one-size-fits all diets, we do notice that many of our clients are pretty fat phobic. Which is TOTALLY understandable after years and years of articles and books telling us that the key to weight loss is a low fat, low calorie diet. I'm hoping that by republishing content like what Frank's written below we can motivate our clients to experiment with different ways of eating that may actually help them feel better, be easy to adopt as a lifelong lifestyle, and help them achieve their wellness goals. If what you've been doing for the past few years -- or even decades -- hasn't been working, please try something new. It's only through self-experimentation that you'll learn which foods help you look and feel your absolute best. Some things may surprise you. I hope your adventure of self-exploration with food is fun and life-changing for you. We're here for you throughout your journey.  - Julie Nguyen, Founder

By Dr. Frank Lipman, MD

After all we’ve learned in recent years about the importance of fat in our diets and its essential role in heart, brain and gut health, I’m still amazed when I see people at the market reach for something on the shelf, then recoil in horror when they realize they’ve picked up the dreaded full-fat version, instead of the fat-free or low-fat they (wrongly) think is better for them.  What most fat-o-phobics don’t realize is, by dropping full-fat like the package is on fire, they’re actually creating more health problems, not solving them.

But how did we get here? In a nutshell, about 50 years ago, a deeply flawed, heavily promoted study by an influential physiologist, Ancel Keys, managed to wrongly convince the American Heart Association (AHA) and virtually the entire medical community that saturated fat was to blame for heart disease.

The AHA guidelines that ensued led millions of people down the wrong dietary path and helped give rise to a new profit center within the food industry – the low and fat-free ‘Frankenfood’ business. And though the idea of fat as the root of all evil has long since been debunked in numerous studies – most recently in a 2014 meta-analysis of over 80 studies and a half million subjects which found that thosewho ate more saturated fats did not have more heart disease than those who ate less – the ‘fat equals heart disease’ equation remains ingrained. You better believe the multi-billion dollar Frankenfood industry won’t be disabusing the general public of that notion any time soon. I, however, am happy to!

To my mind, the message is clear: You absolutely do not need to eat low and fat-free foods. You should purge them from your fridge, your diet, and your life – and here’s why:

1. No and Low Fat Foods Help Make You Sick and Fat

Despite decent intentions, all that fat-free living has had the opposite effect on health. Instead of making us healthier, we’ve wound up with an obesity and diabetes epidemic, which many attribute to the no-fat movement’s terrible trade-off –swapping fats for carbohydrates like sugar which stimulates the release of insulin, facilitates fat storage and encourages inflammation throughout the body. Bad news for just about everyone, unless you’re burning a huge amount of carbs, running a lot of 10Ks or plowing the lower forty, sans tractor.

2. Low-fat Foods Rob Your Body of Nutrients

If it’s in a box, bag, can or container, chances are your low or no fat food is also a processed one and processed foods do little to support health, even less when fat is reduced or removed. Then in order to get you to keep buying the stuff, food manufacturers have to replace the removed fat with something else roughly similar in taste to the full-fat version. What fills the big fat void? Health tanking add-ins like sugar, artificial sweeteners, chemical flavorings and preservatives. Your body’s denied the nourishing fat it needs and fed a lot of crap it doesn’t need, making low and no-fat foods the worst of all possible worlds.

What you have to keep in mind is that fats, including saturated fats, are on a mission – they feed your brain, help with vitamin absorption, help build cell membranes – so cutting them down or out altogether limits your body’s ability to nourish, heal and repair itself. And that ridiculous fat-free salad dressing you’ve forced yourself to like (sort of)? It actually inhibits your body’s ability to absorb the nutrients in your salad! Seems a bit crazy, eh? Add a little olive oil however and you’ll get a bigger vitamin-absorbing nutritional bang – and a tastier one at that.

3. Low-fat Foods Don’t Satisfy Hunger

Ever notice how after eating a “lite” or fat-free treat you’re hungry for more ten minutes later? Start by blaming those missing satiating fats and extra sweeteners that get processed into the mix, which spike blood sugar, and cause hunger pangs. Full-fat foods however are satisfyingly tasty and digest more slowly, giving your brain and hunger-regulating hormones more time to register fullness, so you’re less likely to overeat in the meantime.

So, next time, instead of trying to fill up on unsatisfying low or no-fat Franken-snacks, trade up and try loading up on snacks with healthy fats, like a few slices of avocado, a handful of almonds, or a scoop of nut butter. You’ll be fueling your body with healthy nutrients, enabling it to feel fuller for a lot longer than you would after eating a sugary, chemical concoction. Better taste, less hunger, more satiety, no extra sugar or chemical additives? Everybody wins. 

Lifestyle Tips:

If you’ve been on a self-imposed or even doctor-prescribed fat-free regimen for a while now, it’s time to come back to the fold. Here’s a bit of fat for thought:

• Eat real foods. Avoid foods labeled low-fat or no fat – which are also processed ones.
• Eat fat from healthy sources.  My general rule of thumb for fat — if it comes from nature, its probably healthy and if it’s made in a factory, it’s probably not.
• Avoid factory farmed meats. It is not necessarily the meat that is the problem, but what we feed them, inject them with and how the animals are treated.
• Cook with healthy oils. Use olive oil at lower temperatures and avocado oil, coconut oil, butter or ghee at higher temperatures, instead of processed vegetable oils.
• Let go of fat fear — your body needs fat for a strong immune system and to support brain, nerve, heart and gut health.

To learn more about the importance of fat, read my Q & A with Nina Teicholz, author of The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat & Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet.

Your New Year's Challenge

I have a Near Year's challenge for you:

Call your parents, and ask them what they and your grandparents ate when growing up.

You'll be fascinated by what you hear.

When I was home for Christmas, I was with my mom eating rau muong, an Asian vegetable that's really similar to spinach. Rau muong has always been my favorite vegetable on the planet. I can never get enough of it.

As I was eating rau muong, my mom casually mentioned that in the part of Vietnam where her family is from, rau muong grew "like weeds," and since everyone was so poor, they ate A LOT of rau muong. So much so that people in Vietnam even nicknamed people from this region "rau muong."

It's crazy to think that for hundreds of years my ancestors ate a diet heavy in rau muong, and here I am today in 2015 in San Francisco, loving it as though my body can't get enough of it.

This is no coincidence.

Our health and weight are largely determined by our genes, our gut health, and our food.

Because my family has been eating tons of rau muong for generations, my genes have evolved to respond to rau muong. This is why my body wants it so badly even today, even though most Vietnamese people would describe this vegetable as nothing special.

We should all strive to learn about the stories behind food. Food is so much more than calories, vitamins, and minerals. It's your culture, your history.

And your body has inherited wisdom from your ancestors and communicates with you every day about what it needs.

The question is: are you listening?

In 2016, my hope for the #methodfam is that each of you will prioritize self-love.

What does self-love mean as it relates to food?

1 - Self-love is defining your own optimal wellness

I say "your own" because you should define what optimal wellness is for you personally. We don't all need to look like fitness models. We need find the level of wellness that feels right for us given what our priorities and constraints are.

2 - Self-love is avoiding any form of cookie cutter dieting

If you've gained weight over the holidays, just go back to your old routine and your body will bounce back. Don't do anything extreme this January by restricting your calories. Only adopt changes to your diet that you can see yourself not only doing for years but LOVING to do for years. This is what it means to make a lifestyle change from a place of self-love and self-care and avoiding feelings of deprivation and stress.

3 - Self-love is learning about how different foods make you feel and eating with intention

Before you eat something, take a moment to think about what you're doing. How will I feel if I eat this? How do I deserve to feel? How do I want to feel?

4 - Self-love is avoiding extremes

All or nothing dieting is one of the main reasons why so many people struggle with their weight and wellness. Avoid extremes that make you feel stressed. Avoid telling yourself you absolutely can't have a specific food ever, which only makes you even more obsessed with that food. Instead, live with an awareness that you can have what you want in moderation but that you choose to nourish your body with the right foods most of the time.

5 - Self-love is loving yourself as you are

There's a weight that your body wants to be (known as your "set point"), and when you learn how to give your body what it wants, you'll achieve that weight. This weight may or may not match like the idealized bodies you see in the media, but it doesn't mean there's anything wrong with that weight. You're already whole, complete, and beautiful, regardless of what you weigh.

Now FaceTime your folks and talk to them about what your family has eaten growing up!

Wishing you a vibrant, loving 2016!

How we work with our clients to evolve and improve our menu

We take menu development, food ratings, and recipe iteration really seriously here. Because we want every meal to feel like a delightful, loving gift to yourself. Clean eating should be a lifestyle that brings you joy, not deprivation or stress.

Here's a behind-the-scenes scoop on how we work with our clients to continuously improve our recipes.

First, we gather food ratings from our clients and team

Every week, we sit down as a team and taste every single meal together. This is extremely, uncomfortably filling. I'm usually screaming, "Too full...can't breathe!" by around meal 6 out of 12. But we suck it up and knock it out! 

And every week we ask our clients to rate their meals. They also give us qualitative feedback on what they'd like to see improve.

Second, find ways to improve every dish

Based on feedback on every meal, we talk about what we liked, what we didn't like, what we can do better. Emphasis on what we can do better . And we think about every dimension: taste, smell, plating, texture, color, creativity, and nutrient density. 

In other words, we're asking questions like:

• What superfoods or medicinal herbs can we add to this dish to make it even more nourishing?
• How do we make this dish more colorful so people are more excited to eat it?
• What do we want people to smell when they first open the lid?
• How can we rearrange the elements in the container so that everything is more user-friendly and easy to plate?
• How can we improve the consistency of the sauce?
• What creative surprises can we add to this dish that makes it even more comforting and special and that no one else is doing?

Third, make a concrete plan for change

Based on all our dialogue, our executive chefs make a list of what to do differently the next time their teams execute on a dish.

No dish should be prepared the exact same way again. Because no dish is ever perfect. Well unless it actually averaged a 5.0 rating, but that hasn't happened yet. Chefs will be poppin bottles for sure if it ever does!

Fourth, get more feedback. Forever.

We track the ratings for each meal over time and make sure every dish is getting better in both menu design and execution over time. We never stop measuring and never assume we've nailed anything forever.

So why do we keep changing things?

Because we value continuous improvement in all areas of our product and lives. I'm sure you can relate to this. You're probably the same way, which is what drew you to us. You see food as something that solves more than just hunger. You see food as nourishment and the building blocks for an optimally functioning body and life. 

Since launching, we've tested over 500 recipes. I dunno how many services can say that. And I hope you taste this difference in the quality of our food.

We aim to serve you the most luscious, beautiful, creative, clean, comfort food in the world. Food so good you rarely wanna eat anything else because it makes your taste buds sing and leaves you feeling vibrant, sexy, and happy. That's when food becomes life-changing, and that's what our standard for food is.

How to Create a Morning Ritual that Helps You Kick Ass

By Julie Nguyen, Methodology CEO & Founder

I'm a creature of habit, and I worship at the altar of routines. I don't care how boring or predictable that makes me. I have routines for my morning, my evening, my day, my month. Everything's prioritized, compartmentalized, and planned. I never leave anything to luck or hard work. I know exactly what my top goals are at any given time. If I come across as intense, it's because I AM INTENSE. 

I'm gonna share my Morning Ritual framework because of all my routines this one is the most important. Because consistently starting off your days on the right foot is key to achieving your goals. Also, I've noticed that a lot of people who find their way to Methodology are struggling with self-love. Creating a morning routine that puts yourself first every day is a great way to nourish your mind, body, and spirit. You deserve to be taken care of every morning, so why not give it to yourself?

For inspiration from others, check out examples from Tim Ferris and Dave Asprey. 

Morning Ritual Framework

I always approach things with frameworks. This forces me to be results-oriented and strategic as opposed to tactically doing a bunch of random shit. I tend to naturally operate tactically as a get-shit-done-insanely-fast kind of person, and frameworks force me out of that to a higher level of operating.

Anyone who's worked with me is pretty familiar with the general framework I apply to all my projects: goals, background research, strategies, tactics. 

I've noticed that a lot of people are naturally good at thinking this way. One sign you're one of these people is if you're someone who's good at winning games. Or, if you've lost pretty much every chess or Monopoly game you've ever played, you probably need to consciously force yourself to operate with a framework.

Goals

Setting clear goals for what you want to get out of your morning ritual will keep you true to what you really need. So you won't get distracted by chasing crazy trends that have nothing to do with what really matters to you. For example, if you read somewhere that you should "lift every morning" but you're at a time in your life when you need to relieve stress and the idea of lifting stresses you out, then maybe you should be doing something else, like yoga.

Take a few moments to write down 3-4 goals that are really important to you right now. Really think about why each goal is important to you, so that it's clear why these goals really matter.

My current goals for my morning ritual:

• Goal 1: Go into the day feeling loving and energized to give to others
• Goal 2: Feel energetic and able to focus until my next feeding ie lunch
• Goal 3: Maintain body fat

These goals are based on where I am in my life right now. I'm trying to get Methodology off the ground. I think of it as a business based on nurturing others, so I want to be in touch with my loving side so that I can give love to my team who can in turn give love to our clients. I also need to be able to focus on work for hours at a time, so I need to feel energized and alert. Lastly, I'm really happy with my body right now. Having more muscle or less fat doesn't really matter to me as much as just generally feeling energetic and happy, so I just want to make sure that my body composition stays about the same.

Note that your goals can change over time. My personal goals right now are different from what they were a few months ago. There have been times in my life where I really wanted to get physically stronger by building muscle. There have been other times when I wanted to get lean for an event. There have been times when I needed to grieve because of a really challenging life event.

Whatever your goals are, remember that you should think of goals that are meaningful to you right now and know that you can change them whenever you need to. After all, this morning ritual is for you and no one else.

Background Research

Before you set your strategies, do some background research to learn about all the different things you could do to accomplish my goals.

This is a time to reflect about your personal needs and what's worked or hasn't worked for you in the past.

Look at your goals and create a list of questions you need to answer for yourself.

Examples of the questions I asked myself that were related to my goals:

• What makes me feel loving?
• What gives me energy?
• What helps me focus better?
• What hurts my focus?
• What makes me feel tired?
• What keeps me lean?
• What makes me gain weight?

 

Strategies

Based on your answers to your background research questions, decide on some strategies that guide your decision-making about which tactics would be best for your.

Basically, you want to come up with over-arching strategies that help you come up with tactics and decide which tactics to try, prioritize, or ignore.

I decided on this strategy for myself: love yourself first so you have more love to give to others. In other words, I really wanted my morning ritual to become a self-love and self-care routine that put me in touch with my loving and empathetic side. 

 

Tactics

Based on your strategy and the answers to all of your research questions, pick tactics targeted toward each of your goals.

Here's what this process looked like for me. 

Goal 1: Go into the day feeling loving and energized to give to others

• Journal every morning. Try writing by hand vs. typing and see which feels better. Write about things you're grateful for. Express your feelings. Figure out the ideal number of pages to write, enough to feel like I've let it all out but not so much that I'm rambling about stupid shit.
• Wake up without an alarm clock. Wake up when my body tells me I've had enough sleep. Build a life where this is possible, whether that means going to bed earlier or creating a work schedule that's flexible.
• Find products that make me feel nourished. Like organic products that I know are good for me.

Goal 2: Feel energetic and able to focus until my next feeding ie lunch

• Avoid eating too many carbs. Too many carbs make me feel lethargic.
• Avoid sugar. I always crash after eating sugar.
• Eat lots of protein and fat. Eating both together always keeps me satisfied for a long time.
• Avoid caffeine. It makes me jittery, anxious, and unable to focus.
• Eat foods that maximize nutrients.
• Eat something that's fast and easy to prepare so I can prep it no matter how busy I am.
• If possible, choose products with good shelf life so I can stock up and make sure I always have my necessary supplies on hand.

Goal 3: Maintain or decrease body fat

• I've experimented with every macro ratio under the sun and found that for me personally keeping my carbs for the day at around 20-30 grams is ideal, along with 1-2 meals a week where I'll spike my carbs.
• Keep carbs at zero in the morning to give myself cushion to have carbs at night. Because often I have to eat carbs at night for social or work reasons. Also, I've found that eating carbs at night helps me sleep better, which in turn helps me maintain a healthier weight.
• Eat enough protein to not lose muscle mass. Find high-quality, clean protein sources.

Based on that process above, here's the Morning Ritual that I created for myself and currently use.

My Morning Ritual (the first 2 hours of my day)

Remember: I'm not telling you you should do any of these things. If you've read everything or at least reasonably skimmed what I've said above, it should be clear how my ritual relates back to my goals and my personal needs. Your goals and personal needs are different, so your morning ritual should be different as well.

1 - Wake up naturally (5 minutes)

Waking up without an alarm clock is one way I know I've gotten enough sleep. So I never set an alarm or schedule anything in the morning that would require me to set an alarm. I know most of us don't have the luxury of doing this, but I do and I take full advantage of it because it ensures I wake up feeling vibrant and energized every day.

After waking, I quickly check my phone, but only to see if any emergencies have come up. My team knows how to flag these for me, so it's not like I have to skim every email. Generally I check my SMS, not my email. And they know to only SMS me about TRUE emergencies. Something I would personally absolutely have to deal with immediately, not shit that can wait until it's the right time. That stuff goes in an email for me to deal with during the blocks of my day when I check email. Fortunately, 99.9% of the time there are no true emergencies, so I put my phone away pretty quickly.

2 - Make my hygiene routine a nourishing experience (20 minutes)

I brush my teeth. I wash my face with Grown Alchemist's organic face cleanser. For everything else (shampoo, body wash, conditioner), I'm a big fan of Aesop. 

Using products like these are one of the ways I nourish myself. It's like starting every morning with a spa treatment. I find it soothes and comforts me to feel, touch, and smell these products. And I love knowing that there's nothing in them that could be harming my health without my knowing it. For example, you don't have to eat gluten for gluten to get into your body. If your shampoo contains gluten, then you'll absorb gluten into your body. Things that you put on your skin eventually make their way into your body, so choose products that only contain ingredients that are not only safe but nourishing to your body. Like essential oils. There are websites that specialize in doing this research for you, like ewg.org.

 

3 - Make and drink a Bulletproof cacao (20 minutes)

It takes me only 5 minutes to make this drink every morning, then I spend about 15 minutes savoring it. And all I need is a Vitamix and a handful of ingredients, all of which are non-perishable so I can always keep them in stock.

I love Bulletproof cacao because it keeps me feeling full, focused, and energized until lunch. Since I'm super sensitive to and can't have caffeine, I opt for ultra-nourishing cacao rather than use coffee in the conventional Bulletproof coffee. Cacao is a true superfood if you're willing to let go of your fear of fat and embrace a world where you maximize nutrients and minerals. All chocolate is made from cacao beans, and all the antioxidant value, mineral benefits, and neurotransmitter rejuvenating properties are found in original cacao. No need for the sugar, dairy, soy lecithin, and other bullshit that's usually found in chocolate. Bulletproof makes an awesome cacao that I occasionally use, but right now I'm shaving down bricks of cacao that I purchased from a shaman in Guatemala. I find that this cacao gives me a spiritual boost that I don't feel in other cacao. Whether this is true or placebo, I don't care because I'm feeling amazing, folks!

I add a bunch of things to my cacao to spruce it up, including organic cayenne pepper and organic Saigon cinnamon, so that my drink gives me a feeling of warmth. Also, these spices have their own health benefits and don't detract from the healthiness of the drink at all. 

I also add pastured ghee and Bulletproof's Brain Octane as a source of healthy fats. You can read more about this on the Bulletproof blog, but, in short, grass-fed ghee and MCT oil are loaded with saturated fatty acids that are ideal for satiating you and reducing food cravings. But you don't have to believe me. Just try it for yourself one day if you're curious. I used to eat huge breakfasts and be hungry again by 10 or 11, but now I can just make myself a Bulletproof cacao at around 8 AM and not eat again until 12 PM. Getting enough high-quality fat is key to this. Also, the cacao is primarily fat, so the drink would be almost completely composed of fat except that I add collagen. Which brings me to my last step.

I add Bulletproof or grass-fed collagen as a clean source of protein because I've tested my drink with and without collagen and found that unless I add collagen I'm hungry again after about 3 hours. The collagen helps me make it through to lunch. Also, we just don't eat enough collagen. Collagen is what's released when you simmer bones for several hours, but I don't get around to drinking broth every day (even though we brew it freshly here in the Methodology kitchen). So adding this boost of collagen helps me make sure I'm getting the amino acids and nutrients I need for my muscles, bone, skin, teeth, hair, and joints. I usually use the Bulletproof collagen, but if I'm feeling extra poor (startup founder, remember?) I'll get Great Lakes gelatin because they source from cows grass fed in Argentina.

Anyway, here are the steps for how I make my Bulletproof cacao!

Boil 1.25 cups of filtered water. While water is boiling, prepare other ingredients.

Shave 1 ounce of cacao and add to blender.

Measure 1 teaspoon of organic cayenne and add to blender.

Measure 1 teaspoon of organic Saigon cinnamon and add to blender.

Measure 1 tablespoon of pastured ghee and add to blender. If I'm feeling very hungry add an additional tablespoon.

Measure 1 tablespoon of Brain Octane and add to blender. 

Blend on low and slowly increase to blending on high until ghee is totally broken down. Then lower speed and add 2 tablespoons of grass-fed collagen.

Pour and serve. Enjoy hot. For those of you who are new to cacao without sugar, be forewarned that it's quite bitter, but this taste will grow on you!

 

4 - Journal by hand (35 minutes)

When I journal, I write 2-3 pages about anything. Whatever I want. I'm pretty much doing Morning Pages, which you may have read about elsewhere. Except I often try to include two things in my entries: (1) make a list, however short, of the things I feel grateful for at the moment and (2) write out positive affirmations.

When I first started journaling it felt like a pain in the ass. My hand was cramping like crazy because I wasn't used to writing by hand. I didn't know what to say, so it took me two hours just to fill two pages. I kept doing other shit like checking my iPhone to distract myself from the boredom, which only made the whole thing take longer.

Then, after about a week, I started to look forward to it.

I found that making lists of what I was grateful for made me feel more loving and happy. It was worth it to spend ten minutes of my day thinking deeply about what I was grateful for that day. And often when I was grateful for a person, I'd make sure to email, text, or call that person to express to them that I felt grateful for them and why. I do this so regularly now that if I died today I'd have no regrets about my communication with the people I care about. They all know how much they mean to me and why.

I also found that my thoughts became more organized. My days used to be scattered with random anxious thoughts that would interrupt me throughout the day. With journaling, through the process of writing them out, these thoughts end up getting organized and I come up with a conclusion or action item. Sometimes it's "this isn't important, so I'm going to forget about this." Other times it's "this is important, and I'm going to add this to my to do list for next week."

For positive affirmations, the practice of writing them out religiously reminded me that I should not only think about my affirmations but visualize myself doing them. My affirmations change over time depending on what I want to develop. They're always stated in the present tense as positive statements so that my subconscious can understand them. In other words "I am an inspiring, empathetic leader" and not "I'll become an inspiring, empathetic leader." And, as advised in the book 59 Seconds: Change your Life in Under a Minute, my affirmations involve specific plans and actions I want to take.

The overall journaling experience helps me go into my day feeling focused, organized, thoughtful, loving, and happy. 

5 - Make a "top 3 priorities" list (10 minutes)

I review my To Do List, which I keep in Evernote, and look at what's on it for the next week.

Based on what's coming up and what's important, I make a list of the 3 things I ABSOLUTELY must accomplish today.

Then I move other To Do's back if I think they won't get touched based on my top 3 priorities. Moving things back or deciding not to do them helps me manage my stress and feel optimistic about what's ahead. I know going into each day that I have enough time to tackle the 3 things I need to tackle and that I'm okay with not touching the other things on my list if I can't get to them.

6 - Try not to look like ass (30 minutes)

Before I started Methodology, I used to love getting dressed up every day. I lived for it. It was my favorite part of my morning. 

Then when I started Methodology and got slammed with 120+ hour work weeks, I let a lot of self-care fall to the wayside. I went from Rouland Mouret sheath dresses to baggy sweatpants every day. 

Eventually I realized that looking like ass made me feel like ass. So now I make it a point to wear something that's comfortable but cute enough to look put together. You know, look like I give a fuck. Because whether we like it or not people will judge us based on how we look, and if I look like I can't take care of myself, why would anyone believe I can take care of a business?

Now go forth and create your own Morning Ritual

I hope you're feeling inspired to create your own morning ritual. Take your time on it and evolve it as your needs change. It's a beautiful and easy way to start each day with self-love.

Remember that the most important person for you to love and ensure feels loved is yourself. It's okay to spend an hour every morning (or 2 hours in my case) saying, "Screw everyone else. I'm gonna do me." Because when you feel loved and energized, you can accomplish anything. 

P.S. I was not paid by any of these brands to write about them. Though that would have been sweet. 

11 Clues You're Eating Too Many Carbs

Although, it’s quite debatable whether carbohydrates are essential for human nutrition, for most people, they’re the fuel their body runs on. For some folks, going on an extreme low-carb or no-carb diet causes them to have barely enough energy to hoist a coffee cup in the morning. At the opposite end of the scale, the folks who over-do it on carbs, even the good ones, end up having a negative impact on things like mood, weight, energy, digestion, immunity and more.

In my practice, I would say most people (but not all) seem to eat more carbs than their metabolism can handle.

How to locate the healthy middle ground? Listen to your body and learn what it needs. Granted it can be challenging at first to have to pay such close attention. But with practice, your body will teach you how to truly nourish it — not just mindlessly feed it.

To start the process of listening to and interpreting what your body really needs, take this simple Carb Quiz, answering “yes” or “no” to each one, and track your responses:

1. Do you gain weight easily when your diet includes a lot of “healthy” carbs such as whole grains, legumes, fresh fruit?
2. Do you feel tired or sleepy shortly after consuming carbohydrates?
3. Do you feel foggy-headed after meals?
4. Do you frequently crave sweets?
5. Do you frequently crave starchy foods?
6. Do you have a difficult time controlling how much sugar or carbs you eat?
7. Does your weight fluctuate easily?
8. Do you have dramatic energy ups and downs throughout the day?
9. Do you feel light-headed or irritable when you’re hungry?
10. Do you tend to gain weight in your face and around your abdomen, more so than on your hips and thighs?
11. Do you turn to sweets or carbs when you’re feeling anxious, tired, or depressed?

If you answered “yes” to three or more of these questions, you may be eating more carbs than your system can handle or process efficiently.

To combat the negative effects, your first order of business is to cut out the sweet and starchy “white” and refined foods. If you’ve already done that, take it a step further. Try cutting back or avoiding all grains, including whole grains, legumes, as well as high-sugar fresh fruits. If you must have a treat, a small daily amount of low-sugar berries like blueberries may be okay for you — but you’ll have to monitor how your body reacts to know for sure.

Next, you’ll need to experiment a bit to find the right amount of carbs for your body, and to find out how your life circumstances affect your ability to tolerate carbs. Stress, sleep, exercise, and other factors can all affect your tolerance, so you’ll need to find your individual balance and tipping points.

For example, you may be able to enjoy oatmeal and bananas for a relaxed Sunday brunch but need to avoid them on high-stress workdays. Perhaps you can manage sweet potatoes for dinner on a day when you’ve had good sleep but might feel better if you switch to broccoli or cauliflower after a sleepless night of dealing with a colicky baby. By tuning into how carbs are interacting with what’s going on in your life, you’ll be able to zero in on the carb balance that makes you feel energetic, calm and craving-free.

If you don’t have the bandwidth initially to closely monitor how carbs are effecting you every time you eat them, then you may find it simpler — or perhaps necessary — to cut out high-carb foods altogether for two weeks and see how you feel.

So, are you ready to take on the carb monster? Here are three ways to rise to the challenge:

Start fresh. Cut out all sugars and grains for two weeks, including brown rice, corn, oats, and even quinoa. Let your grain-free experience help guide you towards finding the right carb level for you.

Eat more green leafy vegetables and healthy fats. These foods will fill you up while providing you with vital nutrients. You’ll have a better chance of finding your healthiest level of grains if you’re also getting enough other types of food.

Exercise. You might be able to tolerate more carbs if you give your body the vigorous movement that it craves. A sedentary life and a high-grain diet burdens your body with the worst of both worlds.

Lastly, no matter where you fall on the carb spectrum, don’t forget to inspire your palate. For a few delicious ways to manage your carbs wisely take a look at Low-Carb Swaps and dig in!

Dr. Frank Lipman

4 Fantastic Health Benefits of Meditation

Meditation is one of the most beneficial practices one can engage in, and just about everyone knows they should make time for it. Meditation has a wonderfully calming effect on the body and mind, and encourages a less stressed, more peaceful and aware state of being. Unfortunately though, most people get swept up in life’s frantic pace, more urgent matters come up and thoughts of meditation go out the window. But not making time for meditation is a real loss for your health. If you’re one of those who can never seem to find the time, here are four simple health-boosting reasons why I urge you to get into a meditation groove without further delay – your health depends on it!

1. Meditation Chemically Boosts Happiness, Curbs Anxiety and Cuts Pain

Meditation encourages the release of mood-boosting endorphins into the bloodstream, which in turn increases feelings of well-being. Those biochemically-induced good feelings spill over into other areas of your emotional life, helping make regular meditators calmer, more empathetic, slower to anger and less likely to sweat the small stuff. According to the Journal of Neuroscience, meditation also delivers powerful pain-relieving chemicals to the brain – making the practice something of a DIY pain-buster. For many of my patients, particularly the city-dwellers, a meditation practice can be an especially helpful way to combat stress and/or anxiety, enabling them to carve out a slice of serenity in the middle of urban chaos, or where ever they may find themselves.

2. Meditation Lowers Blood Pressure, Stroke and Heart Disease Risk

When it comes to meditation’s impact on health, the news is all good, especially when it comes to lowering blood pressure, stroke and heart disease risk. Even the ultra-conservative minds at the American Medical Association have come out in favor of meditation, having recently issued areport stating that “transcendental meditation (TM) may be considered as an alternative approach to lowering both systolic and diastolic blood pressure in people with high blood pressure.” When blood pressure is lowered, stroke and heart attack risk follows suit.

3. Meditation Slows Aging Brain and Keeps Chromosomes Young

In recent years, a number of studies have suggested that meditation can help slow aging in the place where we fear it most – the brain. A new study by UCLA researchers concluded “that meditation appeared to help preserve the brain’s gray matter, the tissue that contains neurons. ” Which means, the more gray matter can retain with help from a meditation practice, the less neurological trouble you’re likely to have down the road.  That should inspire even the most time-pressed among us to give this incredibly important practice a closer look. Still on the fence? Then consider this: another study out of UC Davis showed that meditation stimulates telomerase activity, which keeps your chromosomes young and is linked to longer life expectancy. 

4. Meditation Helps Sleep Come More Easily – Or Perks You Up in a Pinch

A racing mind and body wracked with tension is not going to drift off to dreamland without a fight. Don’t fight, don’t medicate – meditate instead. Doing so will quiet the mind, relax the body and prepare you for rest. In this soothed state, it will be lot easier to drift off. Studies show that once snoozing is under way, meditators enjoy boosted slow-wave sleep patterns, which translates to better sleep and less insomnia. On nights when sleep is elusive, try meditating lying down to help you nod off. Even if you don’t fall asleep right away, you will be giving your body some of the restorative brain and body benefits of meditation – so it’s worth doing. Need a boost during the day? Meditation can help here too – there’s evidence that meditation may be even better than napping. When researchers compared the alertness of students who were asked to sleep, watch television or meditate, guess who came out on top? It was the meditators, scored 10% higher on the alertness scale than the non-meditators.

So, are you ready to get serious about incorporating more meditation into your life? Then be sure to check out Kerry Bajaj’s post How to Start Your Meditation Practice for ideas and resources to help get you started.

Dr. Frank Lipman, Methodology Health Advisory Board