Reading and Listening

Book Report: State Change by Robin Berzin

You may know we are big proponents of adopting functional medicine and food sensitivity testing into your personal health care management. I and many on the Kosterina team have been long time disciples of Parsley Health -- so when Parsley Founder, Robin Berzin, wrote a book, I jumped at the chance to get an advance copy.

Reading and Listening

Book Report: The Pegan Diet, Part 2

In last week's newsletter, we talked about a new book by one of our favorite functional medicine doctors, Dr. Mark Hyman, that's all about the ideal healthy lifestyle: The Pegan Diet. 

Reading and Listening

Book Report: The Pegan Diet

Have you ever heard of the Pegan Diet? If you haven't, don't feel like you're out of the loop. The term ‘pegan’ was coined by Dr. Mark Hyman, a well-known functional medicine doctor, who is a favorite in the Kosterina household. 

Reading and Listening

10 Wellness Podcasts for Ongoing Inspiration

I have an insatiable appetite for podcasts. I know many of us still may not be doing much commuting but I find podcasts liven up down time spent brushing teeth, getting dressed, driving or going on walks.

Reading and Listening

Change Your Mind About Stress

What’s your relationship with stress? It turns out, the way you think about stress can really determine the effect it has on you.  In her Ted Talk, health psychologist and author, Dr. Kelly McGonigal, cites an eight-year longitudinal research study

Reading and Listening

9 Healthy Eating Tips for your Back Pocket

I feel that constantly reading and listening to expert information on nutrition and wellness helps me stay on track with my own habits. On the latest episode of the Sakara Life podcast, the company’s founders spoke at length about food acting not just as calories and fuel but as information for our bodies. 

Reading and Listening

How one woman drove massive change

The more I dive deeper into learning about our food system, unfortunately, the more that I feel this problem is too big for any one person to solve. When I read about the intertwined issues with industrial farms, our food systems and the subsequent health crises going on in America, I want to give up. The problem seems just too complicated to make the massive change it needs. 

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J. Lo says consistency is the key

So they say that you can’t out-exercise a bad diet. And they’re right. Ninety percent of our focus really should be on food for optimal health. But what about a good diet with nightly Almond Butter & Vanilla dark chocolate bars? Or the occasional 3 serving bag of Dang rice crisps? (So good, btw). Can I out-exercise that? If food is most important to maintaining a healthy weight, do we really need to workout at all? If so, how long do we need to work out for? And what’s the best type of workout? So many questions.

Reading and Listening

Fixing our Food System

In the Kosterina household, we are disciples of revolutionary functional medicine doctor, Dr. Mark Hyman. I've spoken about Dr. Hyman's work here before, but I am deep into his latest book (like, with underlining and highlighting and everything).

Reading and Listening

Vitamin C for Good Skin?

We often only hear about Vitamin C in relation to immunity and busting that tough-to-beat cold but I recently heard one of my favorite health experts talking about Vitamin C for youthful-looking skin.

Reading and Listening

Intermittent fasting - How, When & Why?

If you've ever heard the term 'intermittent fasting' and your mind is immediately flooded with confusion, you're not alone. This concept has been floating around the wellness world for the past few years, but it begs a few questions for us regular folks: Is it simply just skipping breakfast? 

Reading and Listening

The Case for Cold Showers

So, my husband, Kosta (who put the “Kos" in Kosterina), likes to say that with wellness knowledge, he’s often a year ahead of me. He certainly is an early adopter and I’ll often dismiss his wellness practices as ridiculous, unnecessary or extreme, only to come around to the idea months later after learning more.

Reading and Listening

Personal Quarterly Offsites

There is so much I want to do in life. Between work, family and self-care it sometimes feels like I'm just staying afloat and not progressing. Can you relate? Recently, on the Tim Ferriss podcast I heard a piece of advice from the author, Greg McKeown that really resonated with me: take personal quarterly offsites.

Reading and Listening

Small Changes For A Healthier Planet

We know that fighting climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our generation. So what shifts can we make in our everyday lives to better the planet?

Reading and Listening

Meditation for High Performance

After hearing Emily Fletcher on a podcast, I read her book: Stress Less, Accomplish More: Meditation for Extraordinary Performance. I thought I’d share some of the takeaways and learnings with you here as I work through her method. 

Reading and Listening

In the name of Natural Deodorant

Last year, I heard Birchbox founder, Katia Beauchamp, speak at a beauty industry event. She was talking about the shift in beauty towards more natural beauty products and then got on the topic of deodorant. 

Reading and Listening

The Magic Pill: A Food Documentary

This week I watched one of those terrifying food documentaries on Netflix that overwhelm you by discussing how broken and criminal our food industry is in this country. This one was called The Magic Pill and focused on nutritional ketosis and its benefits.

Reading and Listening

Our favorite wellness podcasts

I’m really into podcasts lately. Whether you travel to work by car, by train or by foot, podcasts are a great way to make dead commuting time productive, educational and actually enjoyable. 

Reading and Listening

Autophagy: Bio-Hacking Your Brain For A Longer Life

Autophagy is a Greek word and the literal translation is “self eating”. For all of us non-technical folks, autophagy is the process of the body cleansing itself (an innate recycling program turning old cells into new healthy cells)

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What is 'Leaky Gut' and Why Should I Care?

Did you know that some types of bacteria are good for you? I know, it sounds counterintuitive - especially because we're told to get rid of "germs" all the time. 

Reading and Listening

We Were Wrong About Eggs...

Remember how for the past couple decades we were told to eat tasteless egg white omelettes? Well it turns out that eggs, including the yolk, are pretty healthy. 

Reading and Listening

7 Podcasts For Foodies

Even if you’ve never listened to a podcast before, you’ve probably heard of popular ones like Serial or This American Life.