What’s Happening: Eat Well, Move Joyfully

Eat less, move more: we all know it’s a simplistic prescription for weight loss, but like so many falsehoods there’s a grain of truth behind it. A better prescription might be “eat well, move joyfully:” focus on food quality instead of cutting calories, and find a physical activity that you actually like doing (not necessarily in a gym). It’s more effective in the long run, and it’s more fun while you’re doing it – and this week, the internet agrees:

• A post at Everyday Paleo explores the danger of eating too few (yes, that’s right, too few) calories. The short story: don’t starve yourself! If you eat 2 eggs fried in coconut oil for breakfast (around 200 calories), a grilled chicken breast on your salad for lunch (around 250 for the chicken), and a palm sized piece of baked salmon for dinner (approximately 300), you’re not eating enough. [EDIT: Everyday Paleo has since taken down this post, so the link no longer works.]

• Vegetables are a huge part of eating well. We posted this week about how vegetables are not the holy grail, but that doesn’t mean they’re not healthy. A new post from Robb Wolf’s site concurs – it explores the value a powerful antioxidant called glutathione, and the benefits of getting it from real foods in the context of a healthy diet and lifestyle:

“Of course supplementation and eating lots of broccoli is not enough on its own. Adequate vitamin D levels are necessary, proper circadian rhythm, and the ability to manage one’s stress appropriately. On top of all that, we need proper digestive function to extract the nutrients from the food.”

If all you have is quarterbacks, even if they’re really great quarterbacks, you still won’t have a working football team. And if all your nutrition comes from vegetables, even if you eat really healthy vegetables, your diet still won’t be complete.

• On the “move more” side of the equation, exercise is important for everyone, but there’s no reason it has to be a chore. The Amazing Spiderman Workout Plan from Nerd Fitness takes advantage of something we all knew how to do years ago, but may have forgotten: playing.

• Another post on play this week, from Angelo Coppola, covered how important it is for kids to get active, unstructured playtime, instead of sedentary entertainment like video games.

• Mark’s Daily Apple also published a guest post on the importance of natural movements (namely, all the things you can’tdo on the leg press). The post features three movements – crawling, balancing, and rolling – that aren’t common in gym workouts, but easy to include in some quality playtime.

• If going to the gym is really your thing, but you’re struggling to find the time or the money, take a look at this post at Paleo Lifestyle Magazine on ways to build CrossFit equipment in your own home.

As the weather slowly starts to warm up, heading out to a park or nature trail (maybe followed up by some chunky fruit popsicles) is a great way to shake things up a little and keep yourself excited about a healthy lifestyle. Do you have a favorite way to move joyfully? Let us know on Facebook or Google+!