May 05, 2020 at 11:00AM Grace Harry is a joy strategist. Her career in entertainment, which includes the management of Usher (who has graced our pages in a meaningful way before — find that here) and support for artists like Jay-Z and Lauryn Hill, all point to Grace’s unique gift to deeply connect people to their authentic voice. Grace is part of what she calls a “joy revolution”. She is on a mission to help more of us open our hearts and reveal our own light. Skeptical? We get that — which is why we knew we had to run Grace’s story. Somehow, many of us have accumulated deep skepticism, resistance and major blocks to “joy”. Life is hard, and it’s easy to become worn down by the tough things we encounter. We asked Grace to unpack this with us and share more about how we can open up to one of life’s most obvious positivity measures… The Chalkboard: Grace, why do you think we downplay the value of joy so much? It can make many of us uncomfortable or even angry. How did we get here? Grace Harry: People believe that Joy is something elusive or outside of themselves — like happiness. The truth is that Joy is our birthright. As children, we lived In Joy. Around 11, we start seeing adulthood at the end of the free, youthful ‘life tunnel’. Survival traits stemming from social, parental, school and peer pressure all begin to morph us. We become people pleasers, saboteurs and “victims of circumstance”, which
Tag: The Chalkboard
13 Daily Habits That Will Fire Up Your Metabolism
May 05, 2020 at 10:00AM No matter your lifestyle, it’s likely you’re looking to optimize your energy levels. Whether you want to get super-technical with the metabolic calculations below or just pick up a few basic tips to keep your energy high, we’re talking about metabolism-boosting foods and routines that will help you feel your best with our friends at Food Matters. Your metabolism is the sum of the physical and chemical processes that produce energy to allow your body to do all it needs to do. As your metabolism is a whole range of processes producing energy in your body, it needs to be told how fast or slow to do them. To keep your metabolism, and therefore all the processes in your body, running smoothly you need to make sure that you’re giving your body the fuel it needs – energy. Each metabolic process in the body requires energy to occur. In fact 60-70% of your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE), calculated according to your age, gender, weight, height, and physical activity levels, is used up by vital metabolic functions. That’s your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). 13 Daily Habits To Support Your Metabolism There’s a lot of different theories surrounding metabolism. From what it is, ways to boost it, and what lifestyle choices actually make a difference to how it works. So we’ve found out all the essentials you need to know to help make sense of your metabolism! There are some foods that do help to fire up
Surf Cam + A Spicy Marg: Host A Cinco De Mayo Party From Home
May 04, 2020 at 11:30AM It’s Cinco de Mayo On May 5th. If, like most of the world, you’re under quarantine this week, you might be craving a bit of travel and — if you ask us — Cabo San Lucas sounds pretty damn perfect right now. Here’s how to fake out the ultimate, cathartic Cabo experience while still in your sweats. Host – Or Don’t | Consider rounding up the gang for a Zoom call the night of the 5th. We recommend sunset to get the most from our epic resources below. Alternatively, kick back, enjoy a mocktail and just experience a moment of peace and quiet all on your own. Start the playlist | DJ Capri, resident at The Cape in Cabo (with tentative plans to re-open June 10), has created this playlist for all of those celebrating Cinco de Mayo at home this year. Crank it up on Spotify. Pull Up the Cabo Surf Cam | For a mental and visual escape to Baja, check out this live surf cam showcasing the waves at surfer favorite, Monuments Beach. Pull it up anywhere — on your desktop computer, laptop, phone or outdoor projector! Grab the Margarita or Mocktail Ingredients | It takes two to three limes to create the 3 oz. of lime juice required for one fresh margarita (without processed sour mix). Shake the fresh lime juice with 2 oz. of good tequila and a tablespoon of agave nectar. Salt the rim of a glass full of
How To Make Your Own Face Mask Out of a Bandana
May 04, 2020 at 10:44AM Face masks are required in seven states right now for all visits to essential businesses or while using public transportation. Here in LA, we see that even joggers are donning masks for their morning runs. While there are some great options for purchase out there, we now know how to make a face mask from a bandana and a couple of hair ties. Happily, bandanas and scarves have been trending over the last few years and many of us happen to have a good collection on hand. If that’s you, we’ve got simple instructions for you here below. If DIY is not your style and you are looking to buy a face mask pre-made, we encourage you to buy a small batch from Citizens of Humanity, one of our favorite LA-based denim brands. In March, the luxury denim brand completely switched gears in order to produce washable cotton masks, supplying them to hospitals, health care workers, essential workers, farmers, food vendors, markets, children’s advocacy groups and government offices across California and DC — impressive and commendable. on Face Mask safety For COVID-19 According the the CDC, all cloth face masks should… – fit snugly but comfortably against the side of the face – be secured with ties or ear loops – include multiple layers of fabric – allow for breathing without restriction – be able to be laundered and machine dried without damage or change to shape How To Make a Face Mask From a Bandana Bandanas
7 Stretches To Keep Your Body Happy + Pain-Free While WFH
May 01, 2020 at 11:34AM Stretching is like drinking water. No one needs to tell us that it’s good for us — it’s just so gosh darn boring that sometimes we forget! That said, while working from home and managing a home-centric schedule, we’ve learned that the little things add up. Small, healthy habits shape our mood and sense of well-being from hour to hour. Below is a stretching routine designed by a biomechanics sports therapist for those of us working from home. The series of gentle exercises is designed to combat the negative side effects of increased sitting and screen time: – necks straining to lean towards screens – backs losing their natural curve due to sitting posture – tight chest muscles from arm keyboard positions – shortened hip flexors from legs being bent for a prolonged time The routine caught our attention for a strange reason: the first stretch is incredibly simple — and incredibly unflattering. We may not have the guts to use this therapy in a more social office environment, so we’re taking advantage of our private office digs to get that double chin-inducing, yet super-satisfying stretch in. We were introduced to therapist, Brian Hoke through Vionic, the makers of orthotic support shoes like these, that don’t look like anything our grandmothers might wear. A Stretching Routine for WFH Hoke suggests doing the below stretches once for every three hours of sitting, holding the correct position for 15 seconds and repeating each stretch 3-5 times For the
13 Ways To Looks Pretty At Home Without Being Too Extra
May 01, 2020 at 11:00AM If you’re swimming in extra time at home (*insert sound of young moms everywhere laughing*), there has never been a better time to try out strange beauty experiments and YouTube tutorials. In fact, if you’re getting less sun exposure than usual, it could be the perfect time to break out a chemical peel treatment that would normally require sunscreen afterward (Drunk Elephant’s Baby Facial is a top pick!) If you’re hanging out at home and have forgotten what it feels like to gloss things up a bit, try breaking out a few simple beauty tricks to lift your mood. Do it for yourself. Do it for your cat. Or do it for your family who — at some point this month — has peacefully accepted your descent into some form of non-showering couch troll. Step One: Take a shower. (And if you still haven’t learned to dry brush first, learn how to here.) Step Two: Try a face mask. This doesn’t need to be a morning long ordeal. Our favorite lately is packed with caffeine and provides a profound anti-inflammatory effect in just ten minutes. Keep the gel mask in the fridge for the most refreshing mini-facial ever. Step Three: Rinse off, oil up and get our your gua sha stone. When we swear our love for a gua sha routine, we’re not joking around. This self-massage routine will calm and soothe you while waking up the circulation in your face and neck in something
The Most Delicious Seed-Based Salad Dressing (You’ll Make This For Life)
April 30, 2020 at 11:26AM One of our favorite plant-based cookbooks authors, Meredith Baird-Figone has been cooking up a storm on Instagram. In her IGTV series, the Quarantine Kitchen, we’ve been learning to use simple fresh veggies and pantry staples to whip up recipes so good we can hardly believe it. As a long-time proponent of the raw food diet, we knew Meredith had some great recipes for healthy, plant-based sauces and dressings up her sleeve. We asked her to share an IGTV with us and her shaved veggie salad with seed-based dressing did not disappoint. Watch it here! You’re going to want to bookmark this one — this is the kind of dressing recipe that’ll makes just about anything you’ve got in the kitchen taste like a million bucks. To make easy work of the thinly sliced veggies in the salad, use a peeler like this one. Once you get the hang of quickly shaving veggies in this way, they are a quick way to improve quick salads and bowls of every kind. This dressing is good with virtually anything. You can add some dulse or nori to give it a caesar dressing flavor as well. SIMPLE SHAVED VEGETABLE SALAD WITH CREAMY PUMPKIN SEED DRESSING Salad // Shave or thinly slice as many vegetables as you want. Zucchini, radishes, carrots, beets, celery are all great options. Toss with a little lemon juice, and as many herbs as you’d like. Dressing // 1 cup pumpkin seeds, sunflower, hemp or sesame seeds
Eat What You Want: A Drool-Worthy Dinner From Gaby Dalkin’s Latest Cookbook
April 30, 2020 at 10:51AM Gaby Dalkin is the down to earth chef and recipe developer behind What’s Gaby Cooking. Gaby’s third cookbook, Eat What You Want debuted this week and she had us at the title. Healthful eating has come a long way in the last decade, thanks to so many chefs, bloggers and home cooks applying their best culinary efforts to direct our population in a healthy direction that is also enjoyable. Try Gaby’s bowl recipe below for perfect proof of what modern, healthy cooking looks like. Feeling lazy? Just make the dressing, keep it in the fridge and pour it over just about everything you eat this week! Cauliflower Shawarma Bowl Serves: 4 I originally came up with this recipe as a side dish, serving the cauliflower on its own, because it really is that good. It has all the rich, crispy flavor of a meat- based shawarma, which is perfect for a Middle Eastern street food–style bowl with fresh veggies, hummus, feta, and tahini dressing. Serve it with pita chips and you have yourself a meal. Ingredients: 2 pounds (910 g) cauliflower florets 1 tablespoon ground turmeric 1 tablespoon ground cumin 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper 1 teaspoon ground coriander 1 teaspoon paprika ¼ cup (60 ml) olive oil 1 cup (240 g) hummus (page 51) 1 cup (55 g) shredded romaine lettuce 1 cup (95 g) shredded purple cabbage 1 cup (145 g)
Deliciously Ella’s Quinoa + Cacao Crispy Treats
April 28, 2020 at 10:50AM These quinoa crispy treats from Ella are so simple and perfect for making at home right now, we knew we had to share again! We’re just five ingredients and a blink away from the dessert dupe of our childhood dreams. Chocolatey, gluten-free and completely addictive, these puffed quinoa crispy treats from our October Guest Editor, Deliciously Ella, are everything! This Brit just seems to understand just what we want to eat, perfecting the healthy “girl food” genre to a tee! Grab her cookbook, try this recipe and please let us know how it turned out for you (or DM us when they’re ready and we’ll pop by…) So these little treats are quite a revelation! They take 5 minutes to make and 10 minutes to set, so they’re the best easy dessert or snack to throw together when you’re pressed on time or seriously craving a sweet snack and need it pronto! Think of them as a healthy take on tradition rice crispy treats – although don’t worry they don’t taste healthy at all. They taste totally rich, chocolatey and indulgent. Rice crispy treats were my absolute favourite childhood dessert, so this recipe makes me especially happy! There are so few ingredients in these too, which makes them so simple to make. You just need five ingredients: raw cacao, almond butter, coconut oil, maple syrup and puffed/popped quinoa. With the quinoa pops you can either buy popped quinoa – it’s pretty
A Toolkit For Dealing with Tough Changes
April 29, 2020 at 11:00AM As celeb holistic health coach, Koya Webb says below, many of life’s big changes are celebrated, but others are far more difficult and too often we deal with them alone. Lately, the world has been churning with change and that has left some of us grasping for tools and the strength to adjust in good emotional, physical and mental health. We loved learning through this toolkit inspired by Koya’s timely new book, Let Your Fears Make You Fierce… A Tool Kit for Dealing With Tough Changes Life is filled with major changes. There are the changes we look forward to – such as turning the magical age of 18, moving into a new home you love, or a long-awaited pregnancy. And sometimes, the changes are a bit tougher. Whether experiencing a job loss, income decrease, a death or health concerns for yourself or a loved one – our lives are often marked by tough changes. I remember when I experienced a major change in the form of what could’ve been a career-ending track injury. At the time, I was at the peak of my career and even had a chance of going to the Olympics. Track and field was what I ate, slept and breathed; so much of my identity was tied to the sport. And thus, when I found myself sidelined, I was heartbroken. What if I can never run track again? What am I going to do with my life? What is my purpose? How do