How do you practice self-care? What are some of the things you do to take care of yourself? Perhaps it’s a nice long bath at the end of the day, cooking healthy meals, or going for a walk. These are all good; but maybe that’s not what self care is all about. Real self care doesn’t mean we need to find ways to escape stress and do things that relax us. It also means doing the hard work of facing our problems, instead of avoiding them and finding ways to distract us. Here are some ideas from Psychology Today on what real self-care means.

“Self-care means doing what makes you anxious now, like setting boundaries with tough people, saying no when you don’t want to do something, getting through a tough workout, or telling someone something they don’t want to hear. It means compassionately accepting yourself for who you are instead of burning yourself out trying to be everything to everyone all the time. It’s living your life in a way that...

There’s a reason why we need to reduce clutter in our lives. According to Psychology Today, all this clutter, physical and mental, can interrupt your flow—both your ability to move and your ability to think. In a 2016 study at the University of New Mexico by Catherine Roster and colleagues they examined how clutter compromises an individual’s perception of home, and ultimately feelings of satisfaction with life. The underlying premise of the study was that because many people identify so closely with their home environments, the extent to which it’s cluttered can interfere with the pleasure they experience when being in that environment.

The authors of the New Mexico study concluded that “Clutter is often an insidious and seemingly harmless outgrowth of people’s natural desire to appropriate their personal spaces with possessions… when [clutter] becomes excessive, it can threaten to physically and psychologically entrap a person in...

If you’ve had too much merrymaking during the holidays and would like to unload some of the after effects of lots of feasting, here are some ways to do that safely. Holistic nutritionist JJ Virgin recommends you do this when you’re feeling ready to give your goals that extra push and accelerate fat loss. It’ll also help give you that reboot you need at the beginning of the year.

1. Double Up on Loaded Smoothies
Eating by the plate, sans the plate? With a loaded smoothie, you get the magic trifecta in a fast, portable meal replacement. I want you to break your overnight fast with a loaded smoothie by 9 or 10 a.m. But to really increase your fat-burning results, have a second loaded smoothie in place of lunch or dinner. If you really want to go that extra mile, eliminate fruit in loaded smoothies (except for lemon and lime). This minimizes fructose intake to really accelerate fat loss.

2. Swap (or Minimize) Starchy Carbs With Non-Starchy Veggies
Eating by the plate...

At RISE we focus on small steps that add up to significant results…

...and we’ve found integrating these five foundational tips into your daily routine promises to improve your health, shed unwanted weight and rev up a sluggish metabolism.

#1 Eat a Diet Rich in High-Quality Protein
A diet rich in high-quality protein is a proven way to reduce your cravings and burn extra fat. In fact, research indicates a diet high in quality protein is associated with a lower percentage of belly fat, leading to increased muscle mass and a higher metabolic rate. 

RISE healthy proteins include chicken, turkey, beef, bison, lamb, eggs, wild- caught fish (check out www.seafood.org) and plant-based proteins like lentils, quinoa, tofu, and tempeh. 

#2 Increase Your Intake of Healthy Fats
You may be thinking this seems counterintuitive. However, increasing your intake of healthy fats keeps you fuller for longer periods of time and helps prevent weight gain.

Enjoy a variety of...

We all want to make positive changes in our life, and Dr. Daniel Amen provides an encouraging roadmap of how to reach our goals and make them stick.

“If you have come to the decision that you want to make changes in your life, you probably want them to happen NOW! But after nearly 30 years of helping patients navigate the change process, I have learned that taking a gradual approach is the surest way to success.

So many people try to change all at once, but this almost inevitably invites disappointment and failure. You don't have to change dozens of behaviors at once. Start with a few vital behaviors—the ones that will have the biggest immediate impact—and go from there.

Here are 5 essential tips to retrain your brain to make the long-term changes you want most.

1. Focus on your successes. 
Rather than dwelling on the habits you haven't managed to change yet, focus on the positive steps you have made. Are you drinking more water? Terrific! Are you...

We’ve gleaned some great tips from Dr. Aviva Romm, a Yale trained MD, specializing in all areas of women’s health (and not to worry to all the men reading this, her practical tips will apply to you as well!)

We all know it’s essential to bring some form of relaxation into our daily lives in order to achieve the well-being we all desire. Volumes have been written about relaxation, meditation, and mindfulness, but here are a few fantastic tips from Dr. Romm to replenish and repair… 

Cave Proactively
When you hit the wall of overwhelm, stop everything. Unplug. Step away from your cell phone, stay off the internet, turn off alarms and notifications, and take some time to be a human being — not a “human doing.” It takes downtime for productivity to blossom, clarity to return, and your mood to smooth out. It could be a minute, an hour, or a vacation! But when you need it: cave.

Take a Bath
Before you go to bed, or anytime you need to...

In his book, Spontaneous Happiness, Dr. Andrew Weil writes about lifestyle practices that can help people achieve and maintain happy lives. His practices are designed to help people reach and maintain a state of contentment and serenity. From there, a person can still experience appropriate emotional highs and lows, but knows that he or she will soon return to a balanced state.

We love his summary of 9 lifestyle practices that will greatly benefit all who follow them, and be especially helpful to those who struggle with mild to moderate depression. 

1. Exercise
“Human bodies are designed for regular physical activity. The sedentary nature of much of modern life probably plays a significant role in the epidemic incidence of depression today. Many studies show that depressed patients who stick to a regimen of aerobic exercise improve as much as those treated with medication. Exercise also appears to prevent depression and improve mood in healthy people.  Many...

In Michael Pollan’s great little book, Food Rules, he lays out a diet paradigm that any Functional Medicine practitioner or wellness coach would heartily endorse…

Eat food. 
Mostly plants.
Not too much.

With these six words, he encapsulates so much of what we know about the benefits of eating a healthy diet. Today we want to focus on the middle two words, “mostly plants”, and share some incredible insights on the topic by our dear friend and colleague Dr. Mark Hyman.

“We all know that veggies are good for us, and most of us know we ought to eat more of them than we do. Vegetables are the ultimate low-calorie, high-nutrient foods. They are filled with antioxidants, minerals, and vitamins that we need to optimize our health. Moreover, they provide a myriad of health benefits like:

• Improving gut health. Veggies are a great source of dietary fiber, which helps food pass through your gut easier and may also improve the body’s...

We all want strategies of how to keep our hunger at bay, maximize our metabolism and to be fully satisfied in the process. And thankfully it doesn't mean maintaining willpower of steel or depriving yourself. With these seven strategies from Nutrition and Fitness Expert JJ Virgin, you have everything you need to get the results you desire.

“Manufacturers have conditioned us to believe that even the slightest degree of hunger means we should run to eat something. As a result, we habitually reach for something at the slightest whim—usually a high sugar impact snack.

It isn’t just big food corporations that are promoting that graze-all-day mentality. Some people in the nutrition and fitness world still promote this myth that we should be grazing from the moment we wake up till when we doze off.

Trust me, you shouldn't be. If you eat a meal and feel the need to snack a few hours later, I encourage you to look carefully at what you’re eating. When you’re...

We’ve been obsessed over the past years to learn everything we can about the science of behavior change. From all our work with the Daniel Plan and in the Corporate arena, it’s been a central focus. Why? We want to soak up the wisdom, and then impart those life-giving learnings with YOU!

Bottom line, when we find important keys to lasting change it’s a treasure to be able to share those…

...in fact it’s one of our greatest joys!

So this week we wanted to feature an excerpt from the bestselling book Atomic Habits by James Clear, as it is one of the best texts on how to transform our lives one simple step at a time. It’s been transformative for us and we know it can be for you as well.

"We all want to become better people — stronger and healthier, more creative and more skilled, a better friend or family member.

But even if we get really inspired and start doing things better, it's tough to actually stick to new behaviors. It's more...