If you want to literally carve an inch (or more!) off of each side of your waist, the Woodchop move will be your new best friend.  The Woodchop, as demonstrated in the video below, targets all of your abdominal muscles.  With slow, controlled movement, the woodchop is one of the most effective abdominal moves of all time.  Not only does the Woodchop target abdominal muscles, but it also works the glutes, hamstrings, calves, arms, shoulders, and tops it off with a good cardio burn.  In short, it’s a total body move that burns fat, sculpts muscles, and turns you into the brick house you’ve always wanted to be. 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J3NZEYP1Es

Adults between the ages of nineteen and fifty need 1000 milligrams of calcium per day, which adults aged fifty one and over need to increase their calcium intake to 1200 milligrams per day.

The Top 10 Health Benefits of Kissing…

Have you ever considered the benefits of kissing?  There are many more benefits than you think.  Pucker up and get healthier. 

• Those who kiss their partner goodbye each morning live five years longer than those who don’t.
• Kissing is great for self-esteem. It makes you feel appreciated and helps your state of mind.
• Kissing burns calories, 2-3 calories a minute and can double your metabolic rate. Research claims that three passionate kisses a day (at least lasting 20 seconds each) will cause you to loose an entire extra pound! It’s time to start that kissing diet!
• Kissing is a known stress-reliever. Passionate kissing relieves tension, reduces negative energy and produces a sense of well being, lowering your cortisol ‘stress’ hormone.
• Kissing uses 30 facial muscles and it helps keep the facial muscles tight, preventing baggy cheeks! The tension in the muscles caused by a passionate kiss helps smooth the skin and increases the circulation.
• Kissing is good for the heart, as it creates an adrenaline which causes your heart to pump more blood around your body. Frequent kissing has scientifically been proven to stabilize cardiovascular activity, decrease blood pressure and cholesterol.
• Those who kiss quite frequently are less likely to suffer from stomach, bladder and blood infections.
• During a kiss, natural antibiotics are secreted in the saliva. Also, the saliva contains a type of anesthetic that helps relieve pain.
• Kissing reduces anxiety and stops the ‘noise’ in your mind. It increases the levels of oxytocin, an extremely calming hormone that produces a feeling of peace.
• The endorphins produced by kissing are 200 times more powerful than morphine. [source]

Delicious herbs from our Supernatural Garden.   Fresh chives, Rosemary, Dill and peppers.  They are so easy to grow, and there is always an abundance of fresh herbs from the garden.  Not only are they fab for adding kick to your meals, but there are multiple at home spa recipes you can try to even use more of your herbs.  Brilliant!

People who get inadequate sleep are more vulnerable to infection than those who are well rested.  In one study, researchers injected healthy volunteers with a cold virus.  Those who slept less than 7 hours a night for the previous week were 3 times more likely to develop symptoms than those who got 8 hours or more.   In another study,  people who got only 4 hours sleep for several nights in a row had a weaker immune response to the flu vaccine than those who slept between 7.5 and 8.5 hours. 

Don’t skimp on your sleep.  It’s only going to de-rail you down the line.   People seem to wear sleeping to little or working too hard as a badge of honor.  It’s not.  It’s a sign of being unbalanced.  In actuality, it’s a sign of not handling your life properly.  So the next time you hear someone bragging about how much they work and how little they sleep, let them know they are setting themselves up for failure.  Buy them a box of tissues, because they’ll be needing it for the cold they are about to get.

 I just ordered the new Body By Bethenny yoga DVD on Amazon.  I was all prepared to wait the standard week to receive it by mail, but fortunately, Amazon let me view it for free (after purchase)  immediately…and then stores the video in my Video Library on Amazon’s site.  They also give you the option to send it to TIVO or download it to your computer.  

Kudos to Amazon for not making a girl wait 7-10 business days to start getting a better body.  Cool feature!

Check out the trailer here: 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuAdmYbpUTA

If you feel overwhelmed and stressed on a regular basis, there’s no need to go running for the Prozac.  Your body has a built in mechanism that de-stresses you without pharmaceuticals.  Did you know that deep breathing (at least five seconds in, and five seconds out) can slow your central nervous system and help wash calm over your body and mind?  Simply breathing in and out slowly, with intent, for several minutes does wonders to calm the central nervous system.  Skip the drugs and utilize what your body already has…maybe you just haven’t tapped into yet?

So it’s May here in Cincinnati, otherwise known as zone 6, and everything in my garden and yard is starting to bloom.  It’s such a beautiful time of the year when plants are such a beautiful spring-green.  The rain has been good this season, thus far.  Here’s what’s happening in my yard.  Having luck in your yard this year? 

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Cilantro.  This gorgeous cilantro has taken root and is spreading quickly.  Good thing, because I’ll need at least a cup of this cilantro this evening for a homemade salsa I’m making.  It makes salsa and Pico de Gallo come to life with freshness.

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Parsley.  I haven’t had a chance to plant this outside yet as I’ve only had it a few days, but it looks great sitting in my kitchen windowsill.  I’d let it grow there all season, but I want it to expand.  I’m going to need a lot more than this to make Italian dishes all summer long. 

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Annabelle Hydrangeas.  These will definitely be the sweetheart of my yard when they are in bloom.  They produce enormous white flowers that are between 8-12″ wide!  They also produce lots of flowers.  Perfect if you like having vases of flowers around your house (like I do.)

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Backyard.  The perfect place to be.  I love it here.  I don’t like that all the grass is worn off under the tire swing, but you try keeping 17 neighbor kids out of your yard.  I surrendered.  They have fun, so what’s a little rough spot in your lawn at the end of the day?  There are bigger fish to fry than that.

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Flowering Cherry Blossom Tree.  I planted this about a month ago.  It accepted its chosen location very well, but I am concerned about some of the leaves…note the top right leaf has tiny holes in it, which appears to be from pests.  I will spray it with organic pest killer this weekend. 

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Dwarf Anjou Pear Tree.  Another freshly planted tree, about a month into the ground.  I cannot wait for fresh fruit! 

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Dwarf Granny Smith Apple Tree.   Planted about a month ago, it’s doing a great job of getting rooted in place.  The fruit trees will be treated organically, of course.

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Dwarf Granny Smith Apple Tree.  Up until about four days ago, I thought this tree was dead.  It has been in the ground for over a month without even a sign of life.  Luckily, I waited before I decided to pull it out of the ground.  Four days ago, I noticed these little stubs.  It’s a beautiful thing!

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Inside of composter.  Okay, brace yourself on this one.  This is the inside of my composter.  You’ll find things like a huge tree root system, coffee grounds, celery, salad, leaves, etc.  This will take almost a year to break down and turn into soil.  But think of the organic material I’ll have for next year, and all the garbage I’ll be saving from the landfills. 

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Earth Machine Composter.  This is the what the composter looks like, tucked back into the corner of my yard.  It blends right in behind a pine tree.  Best of all, I’m helping save the Earth.  Love that!

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Bartlett Pear Tree.   It won’t produce fruit this year, but when it does…yum!  Nothing like eating fruit right from the tree when it’s still warm from the sun.

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Rows of  lettuces.  This is new this year, a raised vegetable bed.  These were all planted this past Saturday from seed, and I took these pictures on Thursday evening.  Less than seven days, and they are sprouting already. 

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Raised vegetable bed.  I’m so excited to add this bed to my yard this year.  Because my yard is filled with bunnies and squirrels, growing veggies on the ground in the traditional method is pure hassle.  A raised bed is a great way to keep out pests , to assure your soil is completely organic, and it spares your back when bending over when gardening.  I have rows of designer lettuces, spinach, strawberries, and tomatoes in this bed.

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Stargazer lilies.  These were planted as bulbs, and have been in the ground for about five weeks now.  These will produce sensational Stargazer lilies throughout the summer.  Perfect for cutting and putting in vases around the house.  Gorgeous in bouquets.   Each stem will produce at least a half dozen huge flowers. 

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Rosemary.  Rosemary just screams “put me on some roasted potatoes!”  This herb will spread out and become a wonderful addition to my Mediterranean meals I make this summer.

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Garden Salsa Peppers.  The first peppers are emerging from the baby flower pods.  Last year my garden salsa pepper plant produced tons of peppers.  If they keep on producing abundantly, I have no problems making salsa every weekend!  Bring it!

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Dill.  Okay, so she’s not prettiest girl at the dance.  Dill is not a very attractive herb.  It grows eratically and in awkward shapes.  But, there’s nothing like fresh dill.  It’s superb in dips, in salads, on seafood, and on my infamous cucumber sandwiches.  Delicious when you mix it with lettuces in your salad.

Professional yogis don’t use yoga mats just to keep their feet on a soft surface during yoga postures, they use yoga mats because they are incredibly beneficial to help you stretch further.  Yoga mats, sometimes called sticky mats, are thick rubber-like surfaces, about 4 feet wide, designed to be under foot while you are doing yoga or Pilates workouts. 

When you place your hands and feet on a yoga mat, they almost stick (and sink) into the soft mat, keeping your hands and feet securely firm, with no worry of slipping out of your posture.  They are also fabulous for doing stretches, enabling you to stretch deep into your stretches with your feet and/or hands essentially glued to the mat.  It truly makes a difference in your workouts. 

Also great to stimulate the spine.  How to:  Lay on your back, hold your bent legs to your chest, wrapping your arms around your bent legs, and rock in a boat pose from head to feet.  The thickness of the yoga mat keeps it comfortable for your spine.  It will feel like a back massage!

Kiss the carpet goodbye, and try using a yoga mat during your next yoga/Pilates/stretching session.  It increases your flexibility by 25% to even 50%.  (Those aren’t scientific percentages…it’s just what I can feel in my own workouts.)