Lindsey Vonn has always had one of the strongest bodies on the skiing slopes. However, not that she isn't competing professionally anymore, the Olympic gold medal winner has altered her training goals, telling the New York Post's Alexa magazine last week that she's "a lot leaner" now. "I used to do things that were so sport specific, so I had to be bigger," she explained. "But everyone is like, 'Oh my God, you're in the best shape of your life.' It's like yes and no. I'm not training for my sport anymore, I am training to be lean and fit." Last week the 36-year-old revealed in an Instagram story that she is down to her lowest body fat percentage of her life, 15 percentfive percent less than her all-time low of 19 percent during her skiing days. "Different training. Different diet. Crazy!" she explained. Read on for five slides about how she did it.

In her Instagram story, Vonn revealed three healthy and realistic goals. "1) Continue to take care of me," she said. "2) Maintain this clean living (foods, self care and personal growth" and "3) Keep working out because it makes me happy and I feel better when I do it and just ENJOY LIFE!"

Vonn makes sure to document her progress and makes sure to pat herself on the back and celebrate her success. "You can judge me if you want, but I've been working hard in the gym and taking care of me. so I'm going to post some bikini pics because I'm proud of myself," she captioned a recent series of bikini pics. " #beyourself." Keep reading to see what she eats and how she works out.

Vonn previously told People that her "ski season" diet included "a lot of protein and carbs" to stay a healthy weight. However, she recently revealed she has been working with nutritionist Phil Goglia and focuses on drinking a lot of water, eating clean food, and timing her meals. "I try not to eat too much in the morning before I work out," she told Women's Health. "I'm not working out crazy hard, but I notice I feel better; not as weighed down." After her workout, Lindsey eats "egg white omelets with broccoli, chicken, and pepper, and stuff like that." Lunch consists of chicken or salmon with kale or cabbage and dinner is also a mix of protein and veggies: like chicken salad with avocado or a zucchini pasta with bolognese meat sauce. Her favorite snacks are almonds, kiwis, and blueberries.

Just take a glimpse at Vonn's Instagram feed and you can get an idea of how hardcore her strength training workout is. Vonn relies on Gunnar Peterson to kick her butt in the gym. Her workouts are a combo of strength and weight training, using a lot of weighted balls, battle ropes, lifts, squats.

In order to stay motivated and keep her workouts fun, Vonn often opts to exercise alongside a pal. In a recent workout video, the Olympian perfectly executes a variety of moves with her "best friend" supermodel Ashley Graham. Past workout buddies include X-Games skateboarding champ Leticia Bufoni and of course, her trainer, Gunnar.

Even if she can't make it to the gym, Vonn makes sure to get a workout in. During a recent vacay by the sea, she executed some serious weighted squats. And, even at home, she has demonstrated that you don't need a workout room to get your sweat on, using a few simple tools like a medicine ball, a stability ball, and a plyometric box. She also shared this pic of her on the Assault bike.

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Lindsey Vonn Shares Exact Diet That Got Her Into This Bikini | Eat This Not That - Eat This, Not That

When it comes to our bodies, were all vastly different. We have different genetic makeups, we live in different environments, we make different lifestyle choices, etc. So why, some folks ask, should we all follow the same nutritional guidelines if were all starting in such varied places? Enter functional nutrition, a holistic approach to wellness thats an integral part of functional medicine, which well get into later. Read on to learn more about this super-tailored approach to nutrition, how it can benefit you and more.

Rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach, functional nutrition is a more holistic approach to health and wellness and takes into consideration the many factors that affect each individuals choices, from activity levels and food choices to other stress levels and preexisting conditions.

Functional nutrition differs, in a number of ways, from standard nutrition, which ascribes a set of nutrition guidelines that are meant to work for every single person, no matter what. Functional nutrition uses food as a natural medicine to help restore balance, replete nutrient deficiencies, heal the gut, and more. I'd like to talk to a certified nutritionist or dietitian for their take on whether it's nonsense or worth considering.

If were talking pros and cons, the obvious pros of functional nutrition are a nutrition plan tailored to your needs and a focus on overall wellness versus just weight loss. In terms of cons, employing the services of a functional nutritionist (which you can find on sites like Parsley Health) can be more expensive than opting for a plan that isnt custom-made for you.

[Functional medicine is] an individualized, patient-centered, science-based approach that empowers patients and practitioners to work together to address the underlying causes of disease and promote optimal wellness, saysThe Institute for Functional Medicine.Compared to conventional medicine, where theres a doctor for every different organ system (cardiologists for the heart, dermatologists for the skin, etc.), functional medicine takes a look at the body as an interconnected whole. While the conventional model excels at naming and categorizing groups of symptoms into diagnoses, it doesnt help us uncover theroot causeof the symptoms, especially when a single root cause manifests across numerous body systems, says Alexandra Palma, MD, fromParsley Health. In other words, functional medicine takes a more holistic approach in order to focus on the triggers of poor health, whereas conventional medicine tends to focus on the consequences (i.e., symptoms) of poor health.

If you havent guessed, functional nutrition is very much not a diet and doesnt attempt to prescribe a single eating plan or course of action to a whole bunch of people with different needs. As a quick reminder, here are some of the biggest reasons to be wary of any plan that markets itselfeither obviously or sneakilyas a diet.

Yes, you need to be in a caloric deficit to lose weight (translation: you need to burn more calories than you consume) but eating too few calories can wreak havoc on your metabolism.A studypublished in the journalEnvironmental Health and Preventive Medicineexamined the metabolisms of people on severely low-calorie diets versus those on moderately low-calorie diets. Researchers found that subjects on the severely low-calorie diets lost weight at a slower rate. The idea is that, when you severely restrict calories, your body overcompensates by slowing down your metabolism to make the most of the calories youareconsuming.

If youve ever been on a diet, you know its not a super pleasant experience. Youre depriving yourself of calories and the food you actually want to be eating. Stressing about your diet doesnt feel good,andit goes against your progress. Studieslikethis one in the journalAppetitehave found increases in the stress hormone cortisol are linked to overeating. Additionally, increased cortisol levels can also cause your insulin levels to rise and blood sugar to drop, making you crave sugary, fatty foods.

Thinking of food as the enemy takes the pleasure out of an activity that should be pleasurable. It can also lead to disordered eating behaviors. Even diets that are marketed as healthy or wellness-focused could cause a fairly new type of eating disorder, orthorexia. According to theNational Eating Disorder Association, The term orthorexia was coined in 1998 and means an obsession with proper or healthful eating. Although being aware of and concerned with the nutritional quality of the food you eat isnt a problem in and of itself, people with orthorexia become so fixated on so-called healthy eating that they actually damage their own well-being. Instead of labeling foods as good or off-limits, let yourself eat what you want to eat, but do so in moderation.

One of the biggest problems with diets is that they arent a sustainable solution. Its a familiar story: You try so-and-so trendy diet for three months and lose 15 pounds. Youre psyched. After going back to your normal eating patterns, though, the weight creeps back on. Studies have shown time and time again that weight lost via diets is very temporary. A1996 study at Harvard Medical School, for example, surveyed 192 participants during and after a diet program. On average, members of the group lost 49 poundsduringthe diet program. After three years, the mean weight was only modestly less than the group's original weight at the start of the diet. Twelve percent of the subjects maintained 75 percent of their weight loss after leaving the diet program, 57 percent maintained at least 5 percent of the loss and 40 percent gained back more than they had lost during the diet.

A good amount of the time you spend dieting is devoted to ignoring or suppressing your hunger. In the long run, this can make you less responsive to natural hunger cues, which in turn makes it harder for you to listen to your body and regulate your weight. Sandra Aamodt, PhD and the author ofWhy Diets Make Us Fat,told NBC, You become more at risk of emotional eating, eating out of boredom, and are more vulnerable to environmental cues that tell you to eat more than your body actually wants.

RELATED: How to Detox from Sugar (with as Few Withdrawal Symptoms as Possible)

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What Is Functional Nutrition? Everything You Need to Know About This Non-Diet Approach to Healthy Eating - PureWow

Australian actress Margot Robbie may have one of the most fabulous figures in Hollywood, but her approach to diet and fitness is a lot more laid back than expected. The 30-year-old, who is gearing up for her next role as Barbie, reveals all of her health, fitness and wellness secrets in the May issue of Women's Health UK, and according to her, it's all about moderation. Read on to learn how Margot Robbie stays in shape.

Margot knows the importance of a well-balanced diet. "Breakfast is usually porridge, and during the morning I'll have an immunity-boosting smoothie," she reveals about her morning fuel-up routine. 'I'll normally have a chicken salad for lunch, and for dinner I'll tuck into a tuna steak with sweet potato."

While she maintains a healthy diet most of the time, she does enjoy indulging when she dines out. "Food is a big thing for me. I love burgers and fries, which I'll order with a pint of beer. In the US, my favourite meal is a double truffle burger from the American chain Umami Burger: it comes with a truffle cheese fondue, truffle aioli and truffle glaze," she revealed.

Robbie isn't a fan of the gym, but has found more creative ways to stay in shape. "I found boxing sessions and fighting practice for Suicide Squad really fun, but quickly realized I wasn't so much a fan of lifting weights," she admitted.

In order to maintain her figure when she isn't training for a specific role, she relies on exercise that she actually enjoys. "When I'm not preparing for a role, I prefer to do workouts I really like, such as dance classes or playing tennis with friends," she explains. She is also a fan of a very L.A. kind of workout. "[I] really got into Pilates when I moved to L.A. [in 2013] and always feel a lot better after a good stretch."

Robbie makes sure that getting her beauty sleep is a priority, especially because she struggles to wind down with her busy schedule. "I've always found it hard to switch off and go to sleep at the end of the day, especially if I've been working," she admits, revealing that she makes her bedroom "as sleep-friendly as possible" by doing a few things. "I'll put on a face mask, light some nice soothing scented candles and play relaxing music. And if I've had a particularly tough day, I'll run a bath with lots of bubbles and enjoy a cold beer while I soak. Bliss."

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Get Lean After Quarantine classes offered in-person and online starting April 13.

Get Lean After Quarantine or G-LAQ isnt just one more diet and exercise program.

The new offering from Williamsburg-based LWell embraces that most of us set goals to lose an extra 10 pounds or spend 30 minutes a day exercising. We also have intentions on how to go about that but lack the right mindset to ever actually remove those goals from the to-do list.

LWells Kacey Gibson, a certified mental performance consultant, will focus on harnessing motivation to stay on track for a goal in a series of classes that begin April 13. Participants can choose to meet in-person or virtually for the eight week program. The in-person sessions will be held at 6 p.m. on Tuesdays beginning April 13 at the Williamsburg Indoor Sports Complex at 5700 Warhill Trail in Williamsburg. Virtual sessions meet in real time via Zoom at 6 p.m. on Wednesdays beginning on April 14.

The one-hour classes will encourage participants to hone in on their own motivation, discover their why and build the confidence to change the familiar narrative. Gibson will also discuss stress management techniques and strategy for a strength-based approach to overcome setbacks. The crux of the classes revolves around acknowledging that these goals continue to reoccur because once a setback gets in the way, many of us give up or give in.

Its not necessarily that people dont know what they should be doing, Gibson said. Many people have a general idea of what the healthy foods are. The problem is they cant harness sustainable long term motivation to stay on track.

Gibson, who routinely works with elite athletes and soldiers, holds a masters in counseling, specializing in sport and health psychology from Adler University. She earned a bachelors in biology from Edinboro University. She ran track and cross country collegiately and completed the Boston Marathon.

Unlike the typical weight loss programs, G-LAQ will largely focus on that mental aspect that keeps us stuck in the same pattern, wishing to go down a pants size or wanting to make cardio a habit.

Most people dont realize that real long-term change happens very slowly, Gibson said. So, its really important for people to understand their motivation. A lot of people think they know what motivates them, but theyre pulling on motivation that doesnt work long term.

No matter how gung-ho we are at the start, the obstacles which can range from injury to a change in work schedule to a childcare hitch often derail the process. Gibson stresses that significant change must include knowing your comfort zone and being able to break out of it to move forward in a positive manner.

When we have the urge to quit, we go back to our traditional way of doing things, she said.

The timing of G-LAQ isnt accidental. With vaccination numbers rising and people looking at the summer and fall with renewed optimism, its a good time to take the necessary strides to make a long-awaited change, Gibson said.

Ive talked to a lot of people who say they forgot to take care of themselves during the pandemic, she added. A lot of people probably used food as comfort, so now they need to figure out their new normal. This is one step to a new normal and figuring out what a healthier lifestyle looks like.

LWells staff also includes registered dietitians-nutritionists, occupational therapists, certified diabetic educators and wellness coaches.

G-LAQ participants can sign up online at lwell.com/glaq or call 833-516-0454 for information. Cost is $399, which can be broken up into two payments.

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Sinead Brophy, a personal trainer and nutrition andhealth coach, writes about the narrative shift in diet culture, as more people learn to listen to and trust their bodies.

I'm celebrating that I havent "worked out" in two months. Given Im a coach, that might come as a surprise. But as the pandemic rolls on, its the kind of narrative-switch many of us are experiencing when it comes to health and fitness.

Diet culture is all around us. Its in Instagram posts, TikTok calorie-counting videos and in the 30-day "Booty Blaster" challenges that we sign up to and give up after day three. It is the voice in our head that still tells us "bread is bad".

There is a societal, collective narrative that tells us that "smaller is better", "leaner is better", "training more is better". And as a coach, it is exhausting to see the amount of time and energy people especially women put into what foods they eat, how much they eat, and how many sessions a week they train.

This has continued in a way even into the pandemic, with many feeling pressured to account for the weight they may have put on, or "use" any freed up time to chase the look they've always wanted.

Mindset shiftBut just as the pandemic worsened the pressure to look a certain way for some, it liberated others from the choke hold of diet culture.

More people are declaring themselves body-positive, anti-diet-culture and inclusive. There seems to be a shift: that, perhaps focusing on sustainable, long-term changes that prioritise our mental and physical wellbeing is the way to go.

Across Instagram and TikTok, more and more content is shifting away from promoting a certain body ideal. Where once we saw a slew of Before and After photos, we now see people sharing and celebrating their stretch marks, their blemishes and their fat rolls. In place of calorie-counting, we see messages of intuitive eating and moving to feel good.

This shift in narrative is helping people especially women release themselves from the shackles of food and exercise rules. The obsession with "good" and "bad" foods can lead to black and white thinking that sucks the joy out of eating.

This polarised approach to food and exercise can result in cycles of overeating, overexercising and feelings of shame and guilt. Similarly the focus on obtaining "perfect health" and wellness can mean some women are consumed by the idea of only eating organic, "clean'' foods.

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Trusting your bodyIn its place, we are now seeing women in Instagram Reels and TikTok videos eating foods that were previously "off-limits" and sharing the message that losing weight is not their sole purpose in life.

Taking a week off from exercising or adjusting your training because you are worn out is the kind of self-care that many women wouldnt have considered even a year ago and now we see the message shared more.

Trusting our bodies plays an essential role in this. Subtle hunger cues like a rumbling stomach are our bodies natural way of telling us that we need to eat.

Many women have shut these signals down through years of dieting and hunger suppressing tricks like chewing gum or drinking coffee. Listening to these cravings for carbohydrates, fats and proteins is healthy because our bodies need a mix of these three macronutrients to thrive.

It is important to listen to our bodies when it comes to exercise too. How many times have you forced yourself through a workout when you are exhausted only to injure yourself, lose your period or come out feeling even more depleted?

The female physiology and menstrual cycle is particularly susceptible to stress, either psychological or physical. If we can become more in-tune with how we are feeling, we can better adjust our training sessions to improve our overall health and wellbeing rather than hinder it.

UnlearningThese can be hard lessons to unlearn, and for me, I had to battle through diet-culture, eating disorders*and body dysmorphia to reach this point.

From the age of just 12 I was fixated with losing weight and looking a certain way. I would steal my Mums weight-watcher books and memorise all of the 0-point foods to eat. I ripped out all of the emaciated images of Nicole Richie and Amy Winehouse, idolising their so called "heroin-chic" look.

By age 15, I had spiralled into bulimia which, despite first getting help for at the age of 16, I continued to struggle with up until two years ago.

Although I stopped making myself sick at the age of 21, I purged in other ways, namely through exercise. I would pick the hardest HIIT class and destroy myself no matter how exhausted I was that day. I tried every diet there was: Keto, the Clean Eating Diet, the Cayenne & Lemon Juice Diet, the Fruitarian Diet, I did them all and often under the pretense of 'health.

It consumed me and it consumed my relationships. Movie nights with friends would descend into binging sessions. Meals out with family were to be feared. I refused to wear shorts during the summer and I would cry with envy at the size of my friends legs in comparison to my own.

I am not suggesting that everyone with disordered eating patterns will go on to develop an eating disorder. Eating disorders are complex, psychological disorders that are often a coping mechanism for something else. Nor am I demonising anyone's goal of losing weight or changing their body-composition. I am however, trying to highlight the insidious nature of diet-culture and how it can trick us into not trusting our own bodies.

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This can be a revolutionary and sometimes uncomfortable concept for many of us. So, here are my tips to embrace food and exercise as a way to nourish your body.

1. Ask why?If you feel the pressure to lose weight or look a certain way, ask yourself "why?" Is it because you feel you should or is it for another reason? Then ask, will this 'why add something to your life? For example, are you trying to get fitter and move better so that you can play with your kids? If you cant figure out your 'why or it is causing you a lot of distress, it may be worth speaking to a coach or a therapist.

2.Focus on slow, steady, sustainable changeAs a habit-based coach, I truly believe that long-term sustainable change is much more effective and a more balanced approach than quick-fixes. I help shift my clients focus away from weight-based or appearance-based metrics, and focus more on how they are feeling, their energy, their mood, their menstrual cycle symptoms, and/or their sleep. Often when we focus on these health and wellbeing metrics, our body composition (not weight) can change as a secondary result.

3.Step away from calorie-countingUnless you are a physique competitor or an elite athlete you do not need to be religiously counting calories. I believe that food is so much more than a number; it is something that fuels you, nourishes you, and brings people together.

Getting an idea of how many calories you are eating weekly can be useful every now and again. This is only if it doesnt trigger you, however, as many women are drastically undereating: 1,200 calories is what a 4-8 year-old girl needs not what an active woman needs, which is to 2,000 - 2,500 calories or more depending on their activity level.

Focusing on three to four balanced meals a day centred around mostly whole-foods, with snacks when needed is a much more enjoyable way to approach eating. Or what about learning to eat when you are hungry, stopping when you are full, and eating all foods without guilt?

4.Reframe food and exercise as a way to nourish yourselfAs someone who spent years of her life seeing food as the enemy and exercise purely as a means to punish myself for my failures of sticking to my weight-loss plan, I can tell you that it doesnt work. And if it does, it is short-lived, white-knuckle, every-day-is-battle sort of success, which isnt really a success at all.

Similarly with exercise, are you dragging yourself out of bed to do that gruelling workout you found online that doesnt take into account your training level, work-life balance, or cycle health? Move to feel good, get stronger, and improve your heart health, bone density and mood. There are so many different ways of being active. Bring it back to what you enjoy and your why.

5.Work with a professionalThis whole concept can be scary and unnerving for many of us. We have subtly or not-so-subtly been brainwashed with the idea that we cant be trusted around food and that we need to be in a boot-camp to get results. Yes, accountability helps and that is a large part of what coaches do to support their clients, but is that accountability empowering you with the tools to continue to make long-term, sustainable change to your life after that coach is gone?

Find a coach that aligns with your values and can help you navigate the quagmire of Diet Culture and body-image. And remember, if the thought of loosening the reins even just a little brings an extreme level of distress, or if you or a loved one feel that your focus on exercise and food is impacting your overall quality of life, then it could be worthwhile reaching out to a psychologist or therapist who can help you.

- Written by Sinead Brophy

*For more information visit Bodywhys.ie, phone their helpline on 1890 200 444 or email alex@bodywhys.ie.

The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RT.

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According to previous studies, youth who are obese when they begin chemotherapy are more than twice as likely to have remaining cancer cells after 1 month of treatment compared to their lean counterparts.

Research conducted at the Cancer and Blood Disease Institute at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles indicates that modest changes in diet and exercise can greatly increase survival in youth treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common childhood cancer.

To our knowledge, this is the first study to show that by limiting calories and increasing exercise we can make chemotherapy more effective in eliminating leukemia cells within the first month of therapy, decreasing the chances of disease relapse in children and adolescents, said principal investigator Etan Orgel, MD, MS, director of the Medical Supportive Care Service in the Cancer and Blood Disease Institute at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, in a press release.

According to previous studies, youth who are obese when they begin chemotherapy are more than twice as likely to have remaining cancer cells after 1 month of treatment compared to their lean counterparts. The research team worked with registered dietitians and physical therapists who created personalized diet and exercise plans for 40 patients between 10 and 21 years of age with newly diagnosed leukemia.

The investigators found that patients who reduced their caloric intake by at least 10% and began a modest exercise regimen beginning at diagnosis were approximately 70% less likely to have remaining leukemia cells in their bone marrow 1 month after beginning chemotherapy compared to previously treated patients who did not participate in the diet and exercise intervention.

This is proof of concept that it is possible to increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy without adding other medications and their potential side effects, Orgel said in a press release. This short-term intervention is inexpensive and easily available to providers and families everywhere.

In addition, the investigators found that by limiting fat, patients had decreased insulin resistance as well as increased levels of adiponectin, a metabolic hormone associated with glucose regulation. Identification of these potential biomarkers paves the way to using this intervention to impact other types of cancer, according to the study authors.

Changing diet and exercise made the chemotherapy work betterthats the big news of this study. But we also need to figure out how, said Steven Mittelman, MD, PhD, chief of Pediatric Endocrinology at UCLA Mattel Childrens Hospital and member of UCLAs Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, in a press release. Understanding the biological changes responsible for this effect will help us make these interventions even better.

REFERENCE

Diet + exercise + chemo = increased survival in youth with leukemia. Childrens Hospital Los Angeles. Published April 1, 2021. Accessed April 2, 2021. https://www.chla.org/press-release/diet-exercise-chemo-increased-survival-youth-leukemia

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Diet, Exercise With Chemotherapy Leads to Increased Survival in Youth With Leukemia - Pharmacy Times

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has just been for a swim. Not in a heated indoor pool, silly - those are for wimps, and anyway theyre still closed due to Covid. Instead, the celebrity chef-cum-television star-cum-campaigner has become one of those cold water swimming people.

He started two years ago with the gateway drug of cold showers and baths, and has since graduated to the real deal.

Ive already been in the pond this morning, which is currently about seven degrees, he tells me over Skype from his East Devon home. Its quite nippy.

I am happy to take his word for this. Hes now wrapped in a chunky cardigan and thermals, thawing out near the wood burning stove in his garden office while evangelising about how his morning ritual provides a connection with nature as well as this extraordinary buzz.

He adds: Ill be shedding my thermals at some point shortly.

Whether or not cold water immersion appeals (it doesnt), the Fearnley-Whittingstall pandemic set-up sounds enviable. Beneath beautiful big skies, hes been growing his own vegetables, rearing livestock and exploring wild flowers, while the rest of us dragged ourselves daily around the local park with grim determination before returning to our screens. He even makes home-schooling the youngest of his four children, aged 11, sound fun.

Its been great, he says.

Sorry, what?

Im perhaps slightly guilty of tailoring lessons to some of my own passions and pleasures, but I got stuck into the maths homework as well.

Hes been good about the drinking, too, avoiding alcohol two or three nights a week (sometimes even more), and has managed not to gain any lockdown weight (nor, he admits, lose any).

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Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall: 'Britain needs to be put on a diet as a matter of urgency' - Telegraph.co.uk

Not only can late-snacking derail your weight loss goals, but it also may negatively impact your productivity at work.

A new study published in the Journal of Applied Psychologyfound that people who reported eating unhealthy snacks, particularly late at night, struggled to be a team player at work the following day. For the study, researchers at North Carolina State University asked 97 full-time employees in the U.S. to answer a series of questions three times a day for 10 days straight.

Participants answered questions about how they felt emotionally and physically before the workday began and by day's end, they answered questions on what they accomplished. Then, before they went to bed, subjects recorded what they ate and drank after work. (Related: 15 Underrated Weight Loss Tips That Actually Work).

For the purpose of this study, "unhealthy eating" was used to describe moments where subjects felt like they'd overindulged in food or drink, had too much junk food in particular, or had too many late-night snacks. What the researchers found? Those who participated in unhealthy eating behaviors were more likely to report having physical and emotional issues the next morning.

Common physical complaints included headache, stomachache, and diarrhea. Mentally, participants who engorged the night prior said they felt guilty and or even ashamed about what they ate.Even more interesting, these people also reported changes in their behavior at work, saying they had less inclination to help colleagues go the "extra mile."

Instead, participants who engaged in unhealthy eating behaviors felt more comfortable withdrawing, meaning they avoided work-related situations despite being at the workplace.

"The big takeaway here is that we now know unhealthy eating can have almost immediate effects on workplace performance," Seonghee "Sophia" Cho, the corresponding author of the study and an assistant professor of psychology at North Carolina State University, said in a statement.

"However, we can also say that there is no single 'healthy' diet, and healthy eating isn't just about nutritional content. It may be influenced by an individual's dietary needs, or even by when and how they're eating, instead of what they're eating."

Subjects who were better able to cope with stress didn't suffer from as many adverse side effects from healthy eating as those who were a bit more emotionally volatile. Overall, those who overindulged in either food or alcohol (or both) the night before work reported notable changes in how they behaved at work the next day.

For tips on healthier things to eat when that urge to eat in late at night strikes, be sure to check out 15 Healthy Late Night Snacks for When the Midnight Munchies Hit.

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One Major Side Effect of Late-Night Snacking, Says a New Study | Eat This Not That - Eat This, Not That

A FEW YEARS AGO, The New Yorker ran an essay entitled Anorexia, the Impossible Subject, an autobiography-meets-literature-review of the disorder. The critic dubbed anorexia an impossible subject because any writing about anorexia makes it more interesting than it really is. If we want to protect young girls pliant brains and bodies from self-starvation many writers professed purpose for committing hundreds of pages to the subject then wed paint anorexics as they are: slowly suicidal obsessives who avoid other people and expend ninety-five per cent of their mental energy counting the calories in green vegetables. Two years later, a different critic, in an essay in Slate, declared anorexia the enemy of writing. And then, two years after that, a third critic, in another New Yorker piece, criticized filmmakers tendency, in movies on the subject, to draw from the poisonous worship of bodily discipline and deprivation that already surrounds young women to fascinate viewers. She goes on to wonder if its even possible to make responsible art about anorexia. Two writers with novels coming out this winter didnt heed these warnings to avoid the subject, and one of them proves that anorexia actually can be fodder for interesting writing.

Ill start with that book. Scarlett Thomass Oligarchy originally published in 2019 in the UK and out now in paperback from Counterpoint follows a crew of long-limbed, rich 15-year-olds at a British boarding school. In one dorm, theres Tiffanie (the hot French one), Bianca (a looming skeleton), Rachel (huge and doughy), Lissa (greasy), and Donya (unremarkable). Then, theres our protagonist Tash, the new girl, fresh off the plane from Russia where her absentee oligarch dad suddenly entered her life and promptly shipped her off to Britain. At school, she adjusts quickly: she grows just as bored and morose as her roommates. Their parents barely call. Their dowdy teachers silo them away from the boys at the brother school across the lake. The headmaster limits their wi-fi to one hour a day and pares down the endless web with parental controls until its basically useless. Theyre the boarders, the imprisoned. So, whats a group of over-surveilled, underloved teenage girls who want to learn everything but know close to nothing supposed to do? Invent and follow new diets, of course. Heres Tashs: no farmed fish, any meat at all. Any dairy at all. [] Tomatoes. Aubergines. Any nightshade fruit at all. Sure, theres little logic behind the cans and cannots, but theres even less logic behind the arbitrary rules parents and teachers impose.

Only silent, sullen Bianca actually sticks to the diets, crumbling her dessert into tiny pieces that she feeds to the birds. Bianca hides her bony body under knee-length skirts. Still, the girls can see her brittle talon arms. Biancas severe frame reflects a sense of peril lurking in the school. Will their go-to snack, meat paste, add inches to their hips? If it doesnt, could it infect their brains with mad cow disease? At first, the threat of something sinister seems like wishful thinking, adolescent girls desperately forcing drama into their mundane countryside days. But these girls arent simply prone to hyperbole. One night around bedtime, Bianca goes to the headmasters house for a late-night scolding (she cussed out the ballet teacher who claimed she was too thin to dance). A few days later, Dr. Moone calls at the dorm. They all expect their own scolding. Instead, he tells them, Bianca is dead she drowned herself in the lake.

The school supplies no real explanation for how or when Bianca went from the headmasters house to the bottom of the lake the headmaster tentatively brands it an anorexia-driven suicide. Tash thinks: what, Bianca walked anorexically past the lake and then slipped anorexically into it? As the girls invent theories and pass around their wisdom as whispered gossip, someone else dies their beloved biology teacher, Dr. Morgan. By suicide, in the same lake. One mysterious death could be a fluke, but two makes it a pattern. This twist swiftly redeems the teens. Dont disregard the shallow girls hunches: they obsess over nothing, until it suddenly proves to be something. It also orients the reader to the girls true danger: theyre trapped and controlled by drab, nefarious adults who stockpile secrets.

The double suicide turns the novel into a thriller. Tiffanie and Tash dont believe the headmasters far-fetched explanation for Dr. Morgans death (he allegedly hoarded nudes of underage girls, including ones of Tash and Tiff, and, when confronted by the school, drowned himself out of shame, or fear, or something). While Tash determines to solve the mystery of why the headmaster lied, the other students mourn their teachers death it turns out that even the most heartless of the girls actually loved Dr. Morgan, although of course no one can love him now. As the girls grieve silently and puzzle over the deaths, they get serious about their diets. Rachel, one of the chubbier girls in the class, returns from winter break much thinner. The other girls watch her at meals, fascinated by someone with a plan, a girl who lives by a set of rules they can identify and mimic. Plus, she looks amazing. Tiffanie stops eating carbs. Lissa aims to lose so much weight that shell be hospitalized before her sisters wedding. Eventually, no one eats anything, at least not in public. They all cry. They say bitchy things, point out their friends cellulite. Everyone has sort of flopped. They are hanging over their chairs like old coats.

The school hires Tony and Dominic, two Scottish therapists who look like pedophiles, to run militarized group therapy sessions in which they force the girls to share their [r]eally, really real worst memories of food. If a girl insists that she doesnt binge, purge, or starve, the therapists declare her defensiveness the ultimate evidence that she is very sick in the head. These scenes verge on schlock the meathead therapists are a bit too brainless but they culminate in a point. Mindlessly diagnosing every girl with an eating disorder placates the teachers and helps the girls not at all. Two people inexplicably died in the same lake and all these girls got was the same bland psychiatric diagnosis.

Following girls who purposely starve themselves into a stupor could easily become grating, but it never does in Oligarchy. We stick with the girls through various diets, when their weight swings up and down and back up again because Thomas laces the lowest of lows with the enduring allure of not eating, taunting the reader with the hopes that keep the girls shaving off calories. Take Rachel; when she gains two pounds, she looks down at the number on the scale, sobs, then wonders if she could cry it all out. That it is, of course, herself her skin and bones and muscles but it feels like some foreign substance hijacking her carefully cultivated frame. She cuts her calories down to 500 a day. Only then, does the weight start to shift again to declare itself beaten and slink back off to wherever it came from Its a victory against some horrible error in biology that prevents her from being that is, appearing as the person shes supposed to be. Its only two pounds, but the moment feels devastating, not ridiculous, because Thomas neither conceals nor qualifies just how good Rachel thinks she will feel if she dropped the weight. Once she loses another stone, shell get her belly button pierced with a silver dreamcatcher crystal belly bar. For the first time ever, she knows that something like that could be hers. Thomass girls remain compelling because they so badly want whatever thinness offers that the origin or soundness of the impulse is beside the point.

Which brings me to the other novel Milk Fed by Melissa Broder, published in February by Scribner. The novel follows another Rachel, a 24-year-old talent agency assistant in Los Angeles. She spends her days calculating, then recalculating, the calories she will eat, planning when she will eat them, stretching out the actual eating process, and then burning off those calories on a stationary bike. Heres her lunch routine: a double turkey salad from Subway (no dressing), consumed alone, outside (to protect her habits from the employees wandering eyes). She caps this off with frozen yogurt, either from Yogurt World (a self-serve place where she can control her portions) or Yo!Good (better yogurt and fewer calories), also consumed outside, alone. She inherited this preoccupation with calories from her overbearing mother, the high priestess of food who always preached to abstain, abstain abstain. Rachels therapist prescribes a communication detox 90 days without talking to her mother. Hungry, lonely, and neglected on day seven, Rachel drags herself into Yo!Good and discovers that her usual frozen yogurt server, a gangly, mute boy, has been replaced by zaftig 21-year-old Miriam. Shes immediately taken with Miriam because it was as though she didnt know or care she was fat. In need of a substitute mom, Rachel interprets Miriams insistence on overfilling her frozen yogurt cups and ladling on-the-house full-fat fudge over the top as some version of love or, at the very least, some much-needed affection.

Far more forcefully than in Oligarchy, anorexia here is pinned on the parents: Rachel points to maternal neglect as the obvious origin of her eating problems. This very neat line from a bad relationship with mom to a bad relationship with food flattens Rachel but not in the way she wants. Broder relies on hyperbole to inflate anorexia into pure horror, the grim aftermath of a central childhood trauma. Free food at work is an avalanche of vegan donuts that threatened to suffocate me. At lunch, a client extended a basket of carbs threateningly close to my head and the overdressed arugula salad was but a slippery cadaver: death by oil, goodbye. Comparing an oily salad to death doesnt illuminate why eating oil feels deathly but, rather, sets up Rachels fear of fat as an obvious, borderline ridiculous neurosis. This melodrama (Broder often describes eating as like dying) simplifies Rachels psyche a terrible mother inflicted a terrible eating disorder that makes Rachel terribly miserable. Simple problems require simple solutions. Suddenly, theres a stranger who all but forces Rachel to fill her taut tummy, supplies her with so many sweets that her hunger doesnt just subside but disappears. And so Rachel keeps returning to Yo!Good, despite her years-long diet, to visit the doting Jewish mother she always wanted. Halfway into the novel, when she briefly sleeps with Miriam, Rachel improbably starts eating in the way she imagined normal people ate: three squares, some snacks, whatever I wanted, really, with a feeling of impunity, and without bingeing to the point of illness.

Broder seems too intent on proving that anorexia is bad. That 2013 New Yorker critic called anorexia an impossible subject in part because refusing food at the expense of bodily function is not an easy addiction to convey. Constantly playing up anorexia as totally grotesque and bizarre doesnt convey the appeal of starving, which is essential to understanding why Rachel would do something like scarf down a diet protein bar in the bathroom stall (next to someone defecating) at a work party. Broder evokes the appeal of starving in a few throwaway lines, cycling through vague, psychologist-supplied wisdoms about why girls go anorexic. Skinny girls seem cocooned by an absence of flesh from judgment, hurt, or shame, [w]hile the algebraic formula was imperfect, it allowed me some illusion of control, and I wanted to be perfect. And by perfect, I meant less. It sounds like WebMDs anorexia summary: symptoms include feelings of inadequacy, low self-esteem, anxiety, anger, or loneliness, people with anorexia often use food and eating as a way to gain a sense of control, and they tend to be perfectionists. Its a one-size-fits-all explanation that feels hollow and turns Rachel into an anorexic cribbed from the DSM rather than a character in a novel.

Take the first time Rachel eats one of Miriams caloric sundaes in lieu of half-filled, fat-free froyo. Rachel cant determine the calories in the peanuts, fudge, and strawberry syrup so she resolves to bury it under more food, otherwise known as a binge. Before she inaugurates this binge with a slice of carrot cake, she likens the impulse to cutting off my head because of a headache. This habit Broders undermining of the allure of starving and binging with didactic asides that prove Rachel knows her habits are wrong and silly alienates us from the character. Rachels relentless awareness of her diets misguidedness an awareness that the young girls in Oligarchy lack thwarts the sense of longing and danger that presumably prompted a diet in the first place, making her behavior inscrutable. I dont understand why she endured these years of starving and binging if she never even believed, however navely, in some payoff.

The girls we follow in Oligarchy arent obsessed with being pro-ana or anti-ana they are obsessed with what they want. They dont always know what they want, or why they want it. But Thomas doesnt ignore or justify their desires, which is why the girls desperation e.g., subsisting only on pineapple isnt irritating or pitiable. Broders almost exclusive focus on the woes of anorexia doesnt make her book responsible, a cautionary tale about eating disorders; rather, it estranges us from the protagonist. Marya Hornbachers 1998 memoir Wasted now the anorexia ur-text summarizes the anorexic impulse like this: I remember wanting. And I remember being at once afraid and ashamed that I wanted. The only reason the fear and shame hold any weight is because they qualify something that is so plainly, so clearly wanted.

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Fear of Wanting - lareviewofbooks - lareviewofbooks

Last month marked the one-year anniversary of Gov. Gavin Newsoms first stay-at-home order to try to thwart the coronavirus as it took hold in California.

As I look back over the past year I realize that, while there has been a strong focus on mask wearing, social distancing and getting vaccinated, we have not received any information or health education on how to stay healthy and fit.

Perhaps this would be understandable at the beginning of the pandemic, since we did not know how lifestyle-based approaches would affect outcomes for this pathogen. However, now there is plenty of research to support the premise that exercise, real food and a healthy lifestyle are critically important in reducing our susceptibility.

Just last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a study that found almost 80 percent of those who died from COVID-19 were overweight or obese. And according to the latest statistics, 42 percent of the U.S. population is considered obese!

For decades, health-care professionals have cautioned people about the dangers of obesity. But those warnings have been largely ignored.

There could not be a better time than right now for public health to step up and educate the masses on what a healthy lifestyle looks like. COVID-19 is a much needed wakeup call for an overweight and out-of-shape America!

Everyone knows that exercise promotes good health. Countless studies have shown that people who work out are less likely than sedentary people to develop numerous health problems, including obesity, diabetes and hypertension, the most prevalent comorbiditiesassociated with COVID-19.

One of the greatest benefits of exercise is how it affects metabolism. Metabolism is the set of cellular mechanisms that generate energy from the food we eat and the oxygen we breathe in order to power every cell in the body, including the immune system. When these energy-producing pathways are running smoothly we have optimal metabolic health.

Beyond exercise, the Paleo diet has been shown to be effective in providing long-term weight loss, reductions in blood pressure and even reversal of type-2 diabetes.

The Paleo diet is primarily anti-inflammatory; it is naturally low in carbohydrates, high in omega-3s and low in omega-6s, which makes it very effective for reducing inflammation. This diet consists of a variety of nutrient dense foods such as grass-fed meats, wild seafood and shellfish, fruits and vegetables, and nuts and seeds.

Others may benefit from the low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet. With a keto diet, you drastically reduce your carbohydrate intake and replace it with healthy fats like coconut oil, olive oil, avocados, nuts, and the fats from fish, eggs and grass-fed meat.

Reducing your carbohydrates puts your body into ketosis, a metabolic state where your energy comes from ketone bodies instead of glucose.

The ketogenic diet is a natural way to recalibrate your bodys metabolism and dramatically improve its overall ability to function. In following the diet, your body will reward you by feeling and performing better, while dropping unnecessary body fat fast.

Time-restricted eating is another dietary approach that aims to help you lose weight and boost metabolic health. Time-restricted eating is a form of intermittent fasting in which you compress your food intake into a certain number of hours each day. People who practice time-restricted eating typically eat during an 8-12-hour window and fast the remaining 12-16 hours.

From an evolutionary perspective, time-restricted eating makes sense because early humans did not have access to food all day long as we do today in our modern world. Thus, eating without periods of fasting, which occurred naturally when food was scarce, may lead to disruption of the circadian rhythm and contribute to obesity and metabolic disease, over time.

Santa Barbara fitness professional Mikki Reilly is the owner of Fitness Transform and the author of Your Primal Body: The Paleo Way to Living, Lean, Fit and Healthy at Any Age. She can be contacted at [emailprotected]. The opinions expressed are her own.

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Mikki Reilly: In Fight Against COVID-19, Dont Ignore Exercise, Diet and a Healthy Lifestyle - Noozhawk