We all know that exercise is important. But if you aren’t used to maintaining a routine, it can be tricky to know where to start. We answer your top exercise-related questions to help you get started – without splashing out on an expensive gym membership

Whether you’re looking to refocus on your exercise routine to help reach a specific goal, or are hoping to start living a healthier lifestyle, finding ways to exercise in your already busy schedule can be tough. Not to mention ensuring you’re in the right place mentally to move past the initial excitement and create a sustainable routine that works for you.

It can be easy to fall into the ‘New Year, new you’ mentality. As a new year approaches, setting resolutions can feel uplifting, encouraging, and like a big motivator. What better way to start the year, than with a big change? But the thing is, this all-or-nothing mentality can be more harmful than good.

According to research, just 16% of us stick to our New Year’s resolutions. Experts believe that this is often due to us focusing on a specific outcome – “I’ll reach X weight next year!” or “I want to be a size X by this time next year!” This can result in us treating our goal as a sprint rather than a marathon, meaning we ignore or underestimate the time, effort, willpower, and continued effort we need to put in to turn our end goals into an attainable, achievable, sustainable process.

Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapist and Hypnotherapy Directory member, Morag Stevenson, explains more.

“A resolution is a new habit that we want to create. To make your resolution stick, you need to understand how to shift a new habit from a wishy-washy thing that might or might not happen to a firmly rooted routine in your life. What could make the difference? What could help you not only start a new habit but stick to it? Be precise, be clear, and be realistic.”

So before you get started on your journey to exercising more, it’s worth asking yourself: Why do I want to do this? What do I hope to achieve? And how am I going to measure my success? Having smaller, attainable milestones towards a larger goal can be a big help in keeping motivation high.

Why is exercising important?

Exercise is essential at every stage of our lives. Regular physical activity can improve your physical and mental health, reduce your risk of developing serious health conditions, help you to manage, maintain, or gain weight, as well as strengthening your bones and muscles. Exercising can lower your risk of early death by up to 30% according to the NHS. And best of all? It doesn’t have to cost a thing.

Regular exercise provides a huge range of benefits. From boosting your self-esteem, mood, overall energy levels, and quality of sleep, to reducing your risk of stress, clinical depression, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and dementia – exercise can feel intimidating, but the benefits are substantial.

It’s recommended that adults try to do something active every day. Over the course of

LSF 30 Fitness Challenge

It’s 2023 and we are about to jump into a brand new year full of new opportunities – you just have to say yes! And girl ,if 2023 fitness goals are on your mind, I’ve got you. This is your guide to the LSF 30 Fitness Challenge

I designed the LSF 30 challenge to help you build healthy routines, reset, lose weight, learn to fuel your body and give you the tools you need to CHOOSE YOU in 2023!

Your LSF 30 Routine

I wanted to give you some really amazing resources to help you throughout the next 30 days.

Below you’ll find a breakdown of how your app workouts work, the LIVE workout schedule, a Healthy Swaps Guide and a simple routine builder so you can jot down the healthy habits you want to add in daily!

Stop doing the same old sh*t.

If you want things to change YOU need to change. Change the way you think, your habits, how you spend your time and your ideas of who you were last year. It’s a new day and change means we’re growing.

Spend time today thinking about how you want to FEEL about yourself and your life at the end of these 30 days!

Get & Stay Motivated

It’s one thing to think about what you want and a whole other thing to actually make it happen.

We all start out the ye

Spiced pear oatmeal full of rolled oats, cooked pears, cinnamon, brown sugar, and butter is a weekday breakfast delight.

Pear Oatmeal

A steamy bowl of fragrant oatmeal is a must on a cold morning. Oatmeal is the breakfast equivalent of a hearty soup when it comes to warming your entire body and fueling the belly when the temperature drops to chillier temperatures.

We have always been a family that enjoys waking up to a pot of oatmeal simmering on the stove for breakfast. But it wasn’t until moving to the midwest from Arizona that I fully understood its warming powers.

Warm spiced pear oatmeal with cinnamon, nuts, and brown sugar has the power to pull my flannel pajamaed kids out of bed. It is an easy oatmeal to make on the stovetop and leftovers heat right up in the microwave.

When making pear oatmeal I tend to go light on the brown sugar. Depending on the variety, pears have so much natural sweetness to them.

I wait until just before serving and top each serving with a teaspoon or two of brown sugar to melt with the butter for a delicious combination to mix into each bowl.

For most fruit desserts, pears included, I rarely peel the fruit. I’ve found that in most cases, the peels soften enough they don’t bother us a bit and we are happy to include them in the recipes.

Check out the best-ever peach cobbler and this peach oatmeal for proof of that.

However, in this recipe, because I like the pears to retain their fresh flavors, I don’t cook them in the oatmeal for more than a few moments to warm them. It’s worth a few minutes of effort to quickly peel them and avoid any tough peels in the oatmeal.

That said, if pear peels don’t bother you a bit? Feel free to skip that step.

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In this expert column, we’re exploring self-care in leadership – AKA, how to take care of yourself when you’re used to putting everyone and everything else first

Look at some of the top leadership traits and you’ll see an impressive list of qualities; dependable, decisive, innovative, risk-taking, solutions-focused, confident, and empathetic, to name a few. Leaders are the people we depend on in both our professional and personal lives, and it’s due to these qualities that many of us look to leaders for a sense of security, direction, and stability.

Some of the most revered leaders have a sense of duty, often to the point of selflessness – think Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr. These great leaders may be exceptional examples, but I’m sure we can think of people in our day-to-day lives who exude such admirable qualities as well. However, what happens on the other side of that coin, when empathy, a sense of duty, and responsibility for others’ welfare comes at the expense of a leader’s own wellbeing?

Many of the people I work with, as a nutritional therapist and wellness coach, are leaders in their careers, and leaders in their businesses. Irrespective of the initial health issue that needs attention, a common area that comes up in the course of our working together, in addition to nutrition, is self-care, stress management, and sleep.

According to Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, a record 12.6% of UK adults were in the first three months of running a business or were already running a new business in 2021 – the highest figure since the study was first conducted in 1999. With the rise of the side hustle, and the number of people starting businesses at an unprecedented high, it naturally follows that stress and fatigue may feature, and that self-care falls to the back of the to-do list. Look online and you’ll see content on both productivity and toxic productivity, but less on self-care as a leader. Whatever side of the fence you sit on, it’s true to say that being a leader at work, or the leader of a new business, comes with putting other things before yourself, often to the detriment of long-term health and wellbeing.

So how can leaders, particularly those with a side hustle or new business, support their health and wellbeing?

Plan to eat well

When the days are long and the calendar is longer, it’s unlikely that cooking up a nutritious meal is at the top of your priority list at the end of a busy day. Temptation and availability make it easy to grab and go, or to order in, while some people may skip meals altogether. Being tired, and hungry in addition, means that we’re less likely to make the best choices. Save yourself the brain power and plan what you’ll eat in advance. I advise my clients to take a realistic look at their diaries. If it’s showing a distinct lack of time for cooking, it may be worth meal planning in advance, including deciding what you’ll eat, where you’ll get your dish from, and being confident that it’ll provide a balanced meal option. This might mean meal prepping ahead of time, using a meal delivery service, or having a go-to list of restaurants that you can rely on to provide balanced meals when you’re in a rut.

Sleep well

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Want to know how to make gooey, soft, and chewy Rice Krispie Treats?

Whether you’re serving them after dinner, taking them to a potluck, or simply making them for a fun snack with your kids after school, find out how to make rice crispy treats that turn out perfectly every time!

Gooey Rice Krispie Treats

Which is it? Rice Crispy Treats or Rice Krispy Treats? Rice Crispies or Rice Krispies? I go back and forth as I’m guessing you all do as well. Luckily, we all know how delicious they are, regardless of how you spell the name!

If you spend any time with me on Instagram, you may have noticed that I’ve been on a wee bit of a homemade rice crispy treats kick lately.

Chocolate-drizzled peanut butter cup rice crispy treats, coconut rice crispy treats, even rice crispy treat ice cream – yes, I went there and it was AMAZING!

Add some chocolate-covered pretzels or really mix things up with these chocolate peanut butter bites, classic rice crispy treats, and ooey-gooey marshmallow-filled soft rice crispy treats; it’s hard to find home style rice crispy treats that I won’t eat.

I like Rice Krispie Treats that are soft enough to pull apart with my fingers, the day after making them, after they’ve been sitting out on the counter. 

Gooey rice krispy treats aren’t complicated. You probably made the original rice Krispies treat recipe at least a time or two when you were a kid. While I’d never turn down anyone else’s rice crispy treats recipe, I’m kind of picky about my own.

This gooey recipe krispie treats recipe delivers soft and chewy rice crispie treats with plenty of ooey-gooey marshmallow goodness. I want to taste the sweet and sticky marshmallows in each and every bite of my treats.

I’ve tested this recipe by leaving the sliced rice krispy treats on a plate for 48 hours and they remained chewy and not at all hard. (The only thing hard was not eating the entire batch in the first 24 hours after baking them. Lord knows how little self-control I have when it comes to Rice Crispy Treats of all kinds.)

I don’t like my rice krispy treats to scrape the roof of my mouth or become crunchy. So, in short, gooey rice crispy treats = my happy place.

How to Make Rice Crispy Treats

This recipe–it is THE recipe, the only Rice Krispie Treats recipe you ever need. Once you learn how to make rice crispy treats like these, you’ll never go back. No other recipe can compare, I promise.

Have I convinced you yet?

In a nutshell, take the original recipe off the side of the cereal box, add more butter, add way more marshmallows, and there you have it. It isn’t complicated, but oh, it makes me so very happy to have perfectly soft rice crispy treats