The new year is here (can you believe it?!), and so is our New Year's Wellness issue. Get ready for fitness tips and talk of vegetarianism and other fitness-y things. We've all heard the usual health tips—drink water, exercise, eat healthy and less. But here are a few lesser-known fitness tips.
A 20- to 30-minute nap increases your awareness and improves your mood as well as general performance. (source: sleepfoundation.org)
"No pain, no gain" is a stupid phrase. Don't exercise to the point where it hurts. A little discomfort is sometimes inevitable, but pain is often an indicator of an exhausted muscle or torn ligament. (source: today.com)
Eat chocolate! Dark chocolate, that is. You'll improve your workout by as much as 50 percent. (source: thedailybeast.com)
Listen to music while exercising, but make sure it's energetic. One study found that exercisers improved their performance by at least 15 percent and wanted to work out longer by exercising in time to music. (source: thedailybeast.com)
Eat spicy foods. Spiciness slows down your food intake (mostly because your mouth is burning), and the capsaicin in peppers increases your metabolism. (source: besthealthmag.ca)
Eat food on a blue plate. Studies have shown that people who use blue plates tend to eat less. I could imagine a laundry list of reasons why this works—the fact that blue is a soothing color, or the fact that nothing grown in nature is truly blue. Either way, go buy some dark blue plates and grab some yummies.
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