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“Instagram butt” or Anterior Pelvic Tilt?

Published on April 14, 2021April 13, 2021 by everydaygoodstuffLeave a comment

Ever see someone do something and you say to yourself “that can’t be good right?” An easy example is a guy lifting a heavy thing, with bad posture, and doing a twisting motion. On instinct alone, you know it’s just not right. But what about something more subtle?

Ever see someone pose or walk with their booty with a little extra “pop”? Not sure if “Instagram butt” is a coined phrase, but that’s what I’m referring to here. Prized by many of the world’s Kim K followers, could the elevated derriere really be a Kracken, as yet unleashed? Let’s analyze: I read that our sedentary lifestyles can promote a posture that can make our glutes and abs weaker, while making other muscles tighter. The result is the Anterior Pelvic Tilt, where the front of your pelvis is rotated down, while the back of the pelvis is rotated up. Yes, it sounds exactly like what “Instagram butt” looks like. See the image showing regular posture compared to an exaggerated Anterior Pelvic Tilt posture. While an excessively curved spine might be the modern definition of “hot” (like the “good ole days” foot binding in Japan and the Victorian era faint-inducing corsets), the possible damage to your lumbar vertebrae might not be worth it. At best, sticking your booty out will do nothing. At worst, your lumbar vertebra will grind down and possibly require spinal fusion surgery to lock them in place.

I’m neither the fashion police, nor a doctor, but if you want a healthier spine (and better fitness while you’re at it), then there are a couple of exercises that can help you get your pelvis back into alignment: Glute Bridges will strengthen those butt muscles which will rotate the back of your pelvis down, while Dead Bugs will strengthen your abs and pull the front of your pelvis up. Please see the demonstrations of these exercises in our previous posts for guidance on doing them.

Happy Fitness everyone!

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Want to make your ground beef less fatty? It’s super easy!

Published on April 13, 2021April 11, 2021 by everydaygoodstuffLeave a comment

Ground beef and other meats often have a high fat content. Perhaps they have more fat than what you need. Browning and draining the meat gets a lot of fat and water out. If we are talking about 80/20 ground beef then 4 ounces of raw meat becomes 3 ounces cooked and loses 68 calories from 7.6 grams fat just from regular draining. To get even more out is really easy! Put a paper towel on your plate, place the meat on it and use your spatula to move the meat around a bit to let the paper towel do its job of absorbing. When you toss that paper towel away, you’ll feel how heavy it is with that extra liquid. It should save you about an extra 40 fat calories from 4.5 grams fat!

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Do more of what you love

Published on April 12, 2021April 15, 2021 by everydaygoodstuffLeave a comment

“Growth is painful. Change is painful. But nothing is as painful as staying stuck somewhere you don’t belong.” -Mandy Hale

Recently, my family and I were playing the lottery. The jackpot was some crazy amount. I can’t remember the amount but it was enough money that if you won you could instantly quit your job and be set for life. Before the winning numbers were read aloud we all had a conversation about what our new life would be like. Where would we want to live, what type of house would we want, etc. It was my turn and after some thought about my house and where I would like to live…I thought about my job. Most people’s first thought is probably about quitting which seems fun to be able to spend each day doing whatever you want, whenever you want but…when I thought about it I didn’t want to quit my job. I have always been fortunate to work in places that I enjoyed going to everyday. If I won the lottery I would love the peace of mind it would bring but I wouldn’t want to quit my job. If you won the lottery would you quit your job? Do you enjoy going to work each day? When you think about the job you are doing right now…is it fulfilling and does it bring you joy? If not…what would you rather be doing? What type of atmosphere would you prefer to work in? Like Mandy Hale said above “nothing is as painful as staying stuck somewhere you don’t belong”. It might be hard to make a job change but if you don’t try looking you can never make a change at all. Look at the job postings. See what’s out there. Try interviewing. You don’t have to take the job if it’s not for you. But, trying is the first step. When you do something you enjoy every day it makes such a difference. It’s hard to make a change. It’s scary to make a change. But, it’s worse to stay where you aren’t happy. Where you aren’t respected. Where you aren’t fulfilled. Being mindful at work is being happy with what you are doing. If you are at work and you are thinking about other things that make you happy then you’re enjoying those things that you are thinking about more than your job. Mindfulness is essential if you want to enjoy your job. It’s easy to make an excuse and not try, but today is a fresh new week…so try taking a step forward for yourself. Take a moment and look at those job postings. See what’s out there! You never know what you might stumble upon…

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8 is great!

Published on April 9, 2021April 4, 2021 by everydaygoodstuffLeave a comment

Our little Daisy turned 8 this past week! We sang happy birthday to her and gave her a few presents…one gift was from her daycare! The day before her birthday she went to her favorite doggie daycare called Wag Central to hang out with her friends and get a bath! We discovered this wonderful place when we moved to town and we are so fortunate that it’s nearby! It is incredibly clean, spacious, offers all kinds of classes, has a swimming pool, a groomer and a cute retail shop and doggie cafe! It is pretty incredible! I am glad that daycare helps her socialize with other dogs too! When she attends they always text me a photo of her during the day…I attached one here of her actually smiling! If you have a local doggie daycare consider bringing your dog…there are so many benefits. We’ve been taking her once a week. Daisy used to be reluctant to go inside but now she runs in and when I pick her up she is fully tired from all the fun she had all day long! Makes my ❤️ happy!!

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Give it a go

Published on April 8, 2021April 4, 2021 by everydaygoodstuffLeave a comment

I see people ask how one starts on the path of healthy living and eating nutritiously (mainly for the purpose of losing weight). I think it has to grow from within yourself if it is going to work. It’s an organic growth that starts with the idea of wanting something. Maybe it won’t work the first time, but if you try it enough, something will catch and then you will be on your way. I remember hearing that it takes an average of seven attempts to quit smoking for one to actually succeed. I don’t know if this is a real statistic. I do like the notion that if you keep doing something, then at some point probability glances your way, favorably, and you succeed. So don’t give up. Keep trying. Have faith in yourself until it works.

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Dead bugs can be fun…

Published on April 7, 2021April 4, 2021 by everydaygoodstuffLeave a comment

No, this is not a childlike sense of wonder upon finding a pill bug. I am talking about a good core and ab exercise which is called the “Dead Bug” and it is kind of fun to do.

Lie back on a mat. Stretch your arms straight up to the sky and legs up with knees bent at 90 degrees. This is the starting position. Now extend your left arm above your head to get it parallel to the floor while straightening your right leg down to get it parallel to the floor. Then bring them back to the starting position. Now do the same for the right arm and left leg and together that’s one rep. Repeat that 12 times to make a set. Aim for 4 sets, taking 30 seconds to 1 minute rest between sets.

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The rice cake: made better with chocolate?

Published on April 6, 2021April 4, 2021 by everydaygoodstuffLeave a comment

What fitness endeavor hasn’t eventually come across the rice cake? It is simple, low calorie, crunchy and tasty. Its most subtle and perhaps most important point of appeal for the fitness minded is that there is a lot of it to munch on for so few calories. In other words it is high on the, “best bang for your buck,” scale of snack satisfaction. Enter Quaker’s Chocolate Rice Cakes. Like many products, they look chocolatey and boast chocolate pieces in them (each cake is 60 calories, with 1g protein, 1g fat and 12g carbs). Quaker does it differently and their execution is spot on. The chocolate flavor is just right for the rice cake, but the real finesse is from the chocolate pieces. They are not merely the random flat broken pieces or chunks that you see in many other snacks. They are small peppercorn-sized pebbles that have just the right toothy bite and burst of sweetness. They are sometimes alone and sometimes clustered, giving variety to each encounter. Their distribution and amount on the cake is good too – never just on one side or otherwise absent. Our family is constantly fighting over them and we can’t seem to keep enough in the pantry. Well done Quaker!

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Plant a mindful garden

Published on April 5, 2021April 4, 2021 by everydaygoodstuffLeave a comment

Happy Monday y’all! Thought we would start off today with a little inspiration! I love this quote from Jackie Trottmann…

Your mind is a garden. Your thoughts are the seeds. You can grow flowers. Or you can grow weeds.

I believe in karma. Karma roughly translates to action. Like causes produce like effects. I’ve had good karma days and bad karma days. What I throw out into the universe seems to always come back to me. Hence, why I believe in karma. Do you believe? Do you ever do something good for someone and something good comes back to you in return? Or are you ever aggravated and say something not so nice to someone and then a minute later stub your toe? Something along those lines? This kind of stuff always happens to me. I think it’s the universes way of keeping us in line hahaha

I love this quote and hope it helps you to be mindful of the thoughts and actions you send out today. Don’t plant any seeds of doubt or negativity in your mind. Plant some hopefulness and happiness and cultivate some positivity! Same with food…you can eat a bunch of junk food with ingredients you can’t pronounce and drink sodas with all kinds of chemicals or you can put some healthy food in your body and reap the benefits of healthy fats, protein and fiber to name a few. Feed your mind and body and soul today and grow some flowers of your own!

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Happy Easter, Happy Spring, Happy Happy Everything!

Published on April 2, 2021April 1, 2021 by everydaygoodstuffLeave a comment

Easter baskets, chocolate bunnies, colored eggs, pretty dresses & fancy shoes were some of the things my girls looked forward to each Easter! When my girls were little we probably went to 3-5 egg hunts each year. I know…it’s a lot! The girls had a blast though! I would plan something holiday related to do each weekend leading up to Easter. We loved the New Canaan Nature Center’s egg hunt and the town of Rowayton, CT has a good one too but that was geared towards real little kids. The Young Women’s League of New Canaan puts on a fantastic celebration at Waveny Park with bounce houses, the Easter bunny, a huge egg hunt, a bake sale and face painting. We attended one event where a helicopter dropped thousands of eggs onto a field but it was sort of chaotic and not geared for little ones. I always kept my eye out for local fun events via marypoppins.com, the local paper, libraries and ctparent.com to name just a few!

Here are some pics from one of our previous Easter celebrations. Party City has always been my local go to, I also like Michaels, Palmers in Darien, Etsy and Ebay is my favorite for my daughter’s outfits! Do you have a favorite crafty way that you incorporate into your holiday? Drop a line or share a pic! I’d love to see it! Wishing you all an egg-citing day!!

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A helping hand!

Published on April 1, 2021March 28, 2021 by everydaygoodstuffLeave a comment

If you ever get an opportunity to volunteer for any of your kids school activities I would definitely recommend it! Way back when my daughter was in the Girl Scouts…well, Daisies that is…the troop needed 2 leaders. I was reluctant to volunteer because I was worried that I had no idea what I was doing and I wasn’t sure that I would be able to find the extra time to do what was needed to be done. But, I decided to volunteer and I was so glad that I did! I was able to get to know my daughter’s friends a little bit better, I enjoyed planning fun activities for the girls (and they seemed to really love what we planned) and it was nice to spend some extra time with my daughter too! I’m not going to lie…sometimes it was tough fitting in the extra time to plan and prepare for the meetings but it was so rewarding in the end.

Take the opportunity when you can to pitch in and go the extra mile. It is so easy to drop your child off to an activity and pick them up when it’s over and go on with your day. But, I can tell you from experience that when we planned activities and parents would come in to help out… their children were so happy to see them!! And it was so helpful to us to have parent volunteers as an extra set of hands to help out. Even if you can only volunteer in a small way it sets a wonderful example for your children that volunteering and giving a helping hand is what you do when you live in a community. Another added bonus is that it is a great way to meet other people in your community. I am pretty introverted and it really helped me to get to know the other parents better by talking to them at the pick up or working with them on projects. Setting that example early on plants a seed so that one day when your kids are in your shoes they will instinctively help out!