Friday Faves

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Hi hi! Happy Friday! How was the week? I hope you’ve had a great one. I’m so so happy ya’ll enjoyed this week’s podcast episode, too. Thank you so much to those who took a listen!

A huge highlight of my week: watching Liv’s first dance competition of the season. A fun bonus: Madre and Nani came with us to Phoenix! It was their first time watching a competition and it was so amazing having them there to support Liv. It was a quick 24 hour trip and officially started the competition season into Disney parade into recital.. here we go!

While we were in Phoenix, P was here in Tucson living her best life with the Pilot. They had a family day at work, with bounce castles, corn hole, face painting, a video game truck, and lots of delicious food, and then two of her friends came over for a playdate. The only sad news of the weekend is that our beloved Cookie, the hairless guinea pig, has crossed the rainbow bridge. We’re not sure how it happened – it was sudden and he had no signs of health issues. He happily took his Vitamin C from me before we left to Phoenix and was squeaking happily. 🙁 We had a little farewell ceremony in the backyard complete with Josh Groban’s rendition of “Ave Maria.” Rest in peace, Cooker.

Guinea pigs don’t typically like to be alone, so we might explore getting another one from a rescue as a companion to Donut, but the truth is I’m not sure how much longer I want to be on the guinea pig wagon. I do 99% of their care and they’re a LOT of work (they’re messy lil guys!), so we’ll see what we decide to do. If you have any tips, please let me know!

It’s time for the weekly Friday Favs party! This is where I share some of my favorite finds from the week and around the web. I always love to hear about your favorites, so please shout out anything you’re loving in the comments section below!

Friday Faves

Fitness, health, good eats:

I fell in love with Rebbl this past week. Where has it been all of my life?! I went to Whole Foods to get snacks and drinks for us to have at the competition and wasn’t something different than water that was still satisfying. I usually hate bottled protein drinks, but liked the ingredients in this one and decided to give it a try. It was SO good. Like rich chocolate milk but not too sweet. I went back to Whole Foods and got 5 more bottles, including the dark chocolate. Obsessed.

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Cookies and Cream Ice Cream

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This is not your average Cookies and Cream Ice Cream, this isn’t Oreo dust or a few crumbles of cookies, this is nearly an entire package of chocolate sandwich cookies stuffed into a batch of ice cream.

If you love Oreos, you are certain to love this homemade cookies and cream ice cream.

Homemade Cookies and Cream Ice Cream

This is creamy, rich, homemade vanilla ice cream absolutely loaded with chunks of Oreos. Oh, Cookies and Cream Ice Cream, how I love you. Is it the fact that handfuls of my favorite sandwich cookies are crammed into each bowl of creamy ice cream?

Or is it simply that I can never have too many ways to eat Oreos? or is it that I can never have enough recipes for homemade ice cream? Whatever the reason, this is our house’s newest favorite ice cream.

To really take this ice cream over the top, I recommend stirring together a batch of this Homemade Chocolate Sauce while the ice cream is churning.

Chocolate Magic Shell is another favorite topping for ice cream in our house as well. However you serve it, this ice cream is always a treat.

The most popular question I get is whether it’s possible to make ice cream without a machine. The answer is YES. You can make ice cream without a machine. Find the full directions here!

Cookies and Cream Ice Cream

A great many of our favorite ice cream recipes begin with a batch of smooth and creamy vanilla ice cream.

To make the best-ever cookies n cream ice cream, chop up a whole pile of chocolate sandwich cookies while the ice cream is churning. When the ice cream is ready, layer those cookie pieces into a container with the soft ice cream.

All that’s left is to stash the ice cream cookie mixture in the freezer until it’s semi-firm and scoopable. Easy as can be to make and you likely won’t be buying another carton of cookie and cream ice cream from the store anytime soon.

Yes, homemade cookies and cream ice cream really IS that good.

The ultimate cookies and cream ice cream

Are you a desk worker? Try this yoga routine designed to ease aches and pains

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Break up the day and say goodbye to aches and pains, with this exclusive yoga routine designed especially for desk workers

Are you a desk worker? Try this yoga routine designed to ease aches and pains

Backache, shoulder ache, neck ache, wrist ache – sometimes, working at a desk can be, well, a bit of a headache.

A survey conducted by Censuswide found that 81% of UK office workers spend between four and nine hours each day sitting at their desks, which adds up to an average of 67 sedentary days per person each year – a lifestyle that can land you with a range of health issues. And while workplace health and safety guidelines will encourage staff to regularly get up and move, deadlines, workload, and workplace culture can make that difficult, in practice.

“Despite being a yoga teacher, I’m also very guilty of being a desk dweller when I’m not teaching, so I know the feeling all too well,” Iain Ross says. “I have chronically tight shoulders and upper back issues, niggles in the lower back and hips, knee pain… The list could go on.”

According to the Labour Force Survey, 477,000 workers suffer from work-related musculoskeletal disorders, so you’re not alone. And while support from your workplace in the form of ergonomic equipment can go a long way, yoga makes for an effective way to manage aches, pains, soreness, and your mood.

“When it comes to the upper back and shoulders, much of the issue comes from overstretched back muscles and over-contracted chest muscles, usually caused by long periods of time spent hunched over,” Iain explains. “Moving downward through the body, a hunched spine (too much spinal flexion) is a recipe for all kinds of back issues, while underactive and overstretched glutes, plus constant flexion in the hip flexors (the front of the hip and thigh) will definitely cause discomfort and injuries over time.

“So, the key is to open the chest and heart space while strengthening the back, and to activate the glutes while lengthening the hip flexors,” Iain says. “This is somewhat oversimplifying things of course, but stick to this as a guideline and you won’t go far wrong.”

Over to you

When working at a desk, try this five-minute sequence, created for you by Iain Ross:

1. Seated breathing (pranayama)

One super effective yet extremely simple way to open up space around the chest and the ribs is through deep breathing. There’s more to this than simply taking a couple of breaths, though! Breathe consciously and with awareness for at least one minute.

Start by sitting up straight in your chair, without leaning back or hunching over. Imagine trying to align your head at the very top of your spine while someone pulls a long thread out through the crown of your head. Ever so slightly tuck your chin towards your chest to lengthen the back of the neck. From here focus solely on your breath, allowing each inhale to become deeper. Imagine you’re trying to fill the lungs from the bottom to the top, front to back, and side to side.

It can help to place one hand on the heart space and one on the belly, so you can physically feel your hands move away from you as your breath deepens.

2. Heart chakra kriya

Kriya roughly translates as ‘cleansing’, and this is a gorgeous, traditional

What is cognitive bias? The halo effect and horn effect

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How often do you go on first impressions? Have you ever made a snap judgement about someone? You could be falling victim to cognitive bias

What is cognitive bias? The halo effect and horn effect

You might have heard the expression, ‘the first impression is the last impression’, meaning it’s hard to change an opinion of someone once it’s formed. Sometimes, we make quick decisions about people and without realising we rely on biases to do this.

The ‘halo or horn effect’ is a cognitive bias where our impression of someone influences how we feel about their overall character. Our brains are trying to categorise copious amounts of information based on previous experiences and memories. But sometimes this isn’t so reliable and we make a biased positive or negative opinion of someone. An easy example to highlight how we might do this is by putting more trust in someone who is an authority figure than someone who is not.

What is the ‘halo effect’?

The ‘halo effect’ is an unconscious bias in which our impression of a person influences how we feel and think about their character. It says that a positive impression of someone in a single area positively influences our feelings of that person in other areas. Kathryn Wheeler at Happiful explains the origins of the halo effect in her article, What is the halo or horn effect and how does it affect workplace culture?

“The concept has its origins in the work of 1920s American psychologist Edward Thorndike. In an experiment, Thorndike asked commanding officers to rate the physique, intelligence, leadership, and character traits of soldiers, before having any interactions with them. What he saw was that when the officer gave a soldier a high rating in one category, they tended to also give them high ratings in the others, too. He named this the ‘halo effect’.”

The expression ‘halo’ refers to the concept sometimes found in religious art, meaning we see that person in an overly positive light. Once the ‘halo effect’ has a good grip on us, it’s difficult to think in a neutral way when evaluating others. One common example of this is when we judge someone’s character based on how attractive we find them. Some people believe that attractiveness affects how we perceive that person’s personality. Certain marketing campaigns use this idea to help sell products. The opposite of this is making negative assumptions about someone’s personality based on how unattractive you may find them. This is known as the ‘horn effect’.

What is the ‘horn effect’?

The ‘horn effect’ is the other side of the coin, when a negative impression of someone in a single area, negatively influences our feelings of that person in all other areas. As with the ‘halo effect’, our brains can go into time-saving mode, making snap judgements based on experiences and memories. Even what mood we are in that day can influence the way we unconsciously categorise someone. It can show up in many ways: when choosing which products to buy, who to vote for, who you want to be friends with, who to date, and where to liv

Simple Homemade Chocolate Sauce

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You only need a few ingredients to make this Homemade Chocolate Sauce and it tastes better than any chocolate syrup you can buy at the store. Smooth, sweet, and incredibly chocolate-y, this is the chocolate sauce I tried for years to make.

Homemade Chocolate Sauce really is better than store bought! get the EASY recipe at barefeetinthekitchen.com

Along with all the ice cream that everyone is making, this copycat Hershey’s syrup has become one of the most popular recipes on the website over the past few months. It’s been fun to see what we can make from home instead of immediately running to the store.

Homemade Chocolate Sauce

When I first made this, I wanted a simple homemade chocolate syrup similar to Hershey’s syrup; something that I could use to make chocolate milk for my boys or use as an ice cream topping.

Over the past few years, I’ve made numerous chocolate sauces: rich creamy hot fudge sauces and basic melted chocolate sauces (i.e. Homemade Magic Shell).

Top your ice cream with homemade chocolate sauce for an awesome treat!

I ran across this chocolate sauce recipe many years ago and tried it within a few days of finding the recipe. This was exactly what I wanted!

The sauce is not overly sweet and it is smooth and rich in flavor. This is even better than the Hershey’s syrup that I remember. I am excited to have this in the refrigerator now and I can hardly wait to make a treat with it after dinner tonight!

How To Make Chocolate Syrup

When I found this recipe for homemade chocolate sauce, it was almost too simple to believe. No fancy ingredients, no dairy, just sugar, cocoa powder, and water. A pinch of salt and a tiny splash of vanilla finish it off perfectly.

This sauce tastes like Hershey’s syrup, only better. The fact it’s so incredibly easy to make means there is almost always a jar of this chocolate syrup in my refrigerator.

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