100 No-Equipment Workouts – by Neila Rey
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For those of us who for whatever reason prefer to exercise at home rather than at the gym, we must make do with what exercise equipment we can reasonably install in our homes. This book deals with that from the ground upwards—literally!
If you have a few square meters of floorspace (and a ceiling that’s not too low, for exercises that involve any kind of jumping), then all 100 of these zero-equipment exercises are at-home options.
As to what kinds of exercises they are, they each marked as being one or both of “cardio” and “strength”.
They’re also marked as being of “difficulty level” 1, 2, or 3, so that someone who hasn’t exercised in a while (or hasn’t exercised like this at all), can know where best to start, and how best to progress.
The exercises come with clear explanations in the text, and clear line-drawing illustrations of how to do each exercise. Really, they could not be clearer; this is top quality pragmatism, and reads like a military manual.
Bottom line: whatever your strength and fitness goals, this book can see you well on your way to them (if not outright get you there already in many cases). It’s also an excellent “all-rounder” for full-body workouts.
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Health Hacks from 20 Doctors
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Doctor Mike’s Approach
You may be used to Tuesday’s expert insights column, where we break down the work or research of a medical expert. Doctor Mike, the creator of the video below, has put us to shame, interviewing 20 experts and condensing it into one, sub 12-minute video.
In short, Doctor Mike has interviewed medical professionals and asked them to share a unique piece of advice, specific to their field, that’s easy to incorporate into your daily routine. He calls them Health Hacks (hey, that sounds similar to our Life Hacks section).
We aren’t going to list out all 20—you’ll have to watch the video for that—but here are a few of our favourites
Toenail Fungus Treatment
Dr. Dana Brems, a podiatrist, reveals that Vicks VapoRub has antifungal properties, and thus can be used on toenails affected by fungus.
Water Intake Myth
Dr. Rena Malik, a urologist, debunks the myth that everyone needs to drink eight glasses of water daily, advising people to drink when thirsty and monitor urine color for hydration.
(You can see what we’ve written on this subject here, as well as here).
Natural Lip Plumper
Dr. Anthony Youn, a plastic surgeon, offers a simple recipe for plumping lips—add a drop or two of food-grade peppermint oil to your lip gloss.
Toothbrushing Technique:
Dr. Winters, an orthodontist, explains that brushing teeth at a 45-degree angle towards the gums is more effective than the common side-to-side method. See our thoughts on this here and here.
Want more tips? Watch them all in the video below:
How was the video? If you’ve discovered any great videos yourself that you’d like to share with fellow 10almonds readers, then please do email them to us!
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10 Tips To Reduce Morning Pain & Stiffness With Arthritis
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Physiotherapist and osteoarthritis specialist Dr. Alyssa Kuhn has professional advice:
Just the tips
We’ll not keep them a mystery; they are:
- Perform movements that target the range of motion in stiff joints, especially in knees and hips, to prevent them from being stuck in limited positions overnight.
- Use relaxation techniques like a hot shower, heating pad, or light reading before bed to reduce muscle tension and stiffness upon waking.
- Manage joint swelling during the day through gentle movement, compression sleeves, and self-massage .
- Maintain a balanced level of activity throughout the day to avoid excessive stiffness from either overactivity or, on the flipside, prolonged inactivity.
- Use pillows to support joints, such as placing one between your knees for hip and knee arthritis, and ensure you have a comfortable pillow for neck support.
- Eat anti-inflammatory foods prioritizing fruits and vegetables to reduce joint stiffness, and avoid foods high in added sugar, trans-fats, and saturated fats.
- Perform simple morning exercises targeting stiff areas to quickly relieve stiffness and ease into your daily routine.
- Engage in strength training exercises 2–3 times per week to build stronger muscles around the joints, which can reduce stiffness and pain.
- Ensure you get 7–8 hours of restful sleep, as poor sleep can increase stiffness and pain sensitivity the next day. 10almonds note: we realize there’s a degree of “catch 22” here, but we’re simply reporting her advice. Of course, do what you can to prioritize being able to get the best quality sleep you can.
- Perform gentle movements or stretches before bed to keep joints limber, focusing on exercises that feel comfortable and soothing.
For more on each of these plus some visual demonstrations, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like to read:
- Avoiding/Managing Osteoarthritis
- Avoiding/Managing Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Managing Chronic Pain (Realistically!)
Take care!
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“You Just Need to Lose Weight” And 19 Other Myths About Fat People – by Aubrey Gordon
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We’ve previously reviewed another book by this author, “What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat”, and this time, she’s doing some important mythbusting.
The titular “you just need to lose weight” is a commonly-taken easy-out for many doctors, to avoid having to dispense actual treatment for an actual condition. Whether or not weight loss would help in a given situation is often immaterial; “kicking the can down the road” is the goal.
Most of the book is divided into 20 chapters, each of them devoted to debunking one myth. Think of it like 10almonds’ “Mythbusting Friday” edition (indeed, we did one about obesity), but with an entire book, and as much room as she needs to provide much more detail than we can ever get into in a single article.
And far from being a mere polemic, she does indeed provide that detail—this is clearly a very well-researched book, above and beyond the author’s own personal experience. Further, all the key points are illustrated and articulated clearly, making the book’s ideas very comprehensible.
The style is pop-science, but with frequent bibliographical references for relevant sources.
Bottom line: for some readers, this book will come as a great validation; for others, it may be eye-opening. Either way, it’s a very worthwhile read.
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The Obesity Code – by Dr. Jason Fung
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Firstly, if you have already read Dr. Fung’s other book, The Diabetes Code, which we reviewed a little while ago, you can probably skip this one. It has mostly the same information, presented with a different focus.
While The Diabetes Code assumes you are diabetic, or prediabetic, or concerned about avoiding/reversing those conditions, The Obesity Code assumes you are obese, or heading in that direction, or otherwise are concerned about avoiding/reversing obesity.
What it’s not, though, is a weight loss book. Will it help if you want to lose weight? Yes, absolutely. But there is no talk here of weight loss goals, nor any motivational coaching, nor week-by-week plans, etc.
Instead, it’s more an informative textbook. With exactly the sort of philosophy we like here at 10almonds: putting information into people’s hands, so everyone can make the best decisions for themselves, rather than blindly following someone else’s program.
Dr. Fung explains why various dieting approaches don’t work, and how we can work around such things as our genetics, as well as most external factors except for poverty. He also talks us through how to change our body’s insulin response, and get our body working more like a lean machine and less like a larder for hard times.
Bottom line: this is a no-frills explanation of why your body does what it does when it comes to fat storage, and how to make it behave differently about that.
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The Gym For Your Mental Health
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Getting The Most Out Of Therapy
If you’ve never had therapy, what image do you have of it? Perhaps you imagine a bearded and bespectacled man in a suit, impassively making notes on a clipboard. Perhaps you imagine an empathetic woman, with tissues and camomile tea on standby.
The reality is: the experience of therapy can vary, a lot.
In its results, too! Sometimes we may try therapy and think “well that was a waste of time and money”. Sometimes we may try therapy and it’ll change our life.
So… Is there any way to make it less of a lottery?
First: knowledge is power
And while the therapist-client relationship certainly shouldn’t be a power struggle, you do want to be empowered.
So, read about different styles of therapy, and also, read some how-to guides for self-therapy. We’ve recommended some before in previous editions of 10almonds; you can check those books out here:
- How to Be Your Own Therapist: Boost your mood and reduce your anxiety in 10 minutes a day – by Owen O’Kane
- You Are the One You’ve Been Waiting For: Applying Internal Family Systems to Intimate Relationships – by Dr. Richard Schwartz
- DBT Made Simple: A Step-by-Step Guide to Dialectical Behavior Therapy – by Sheri van Dijk
- How to Do the Work: Recognize Your Patterns, Heal from Your Past, and Create Your Self – by Dr. Nicole LaPera
This will serve two purposes:
- You’ll know what to expect out of a therapist
- You can more efficiently “get to work” in therapy
It also, of course, could help you already, without even going to therapy!
Second: begin with the end in mind
A person who does not know what they want to get out of therapy, will likely not get much out of therapy. Or rather, their first task will be to figure that out. So, figure it out in advance, if you can.
Maybe you have a problem that has a specific name, for example poor self-esteem, anxiety, stress, depression, trauma, neuroticism, phobia, etc.
This isn’t Alcoholics Anonymous, and in this case you don’t want a lifetime of “Hello, my name is ______ and I have ______”, if you can help it.
So, what do you want?
- Maybe you want to be able to go to social events without feeling anxious
- Maybe you want your relationship(s) to be more secure and fulfilling
- Maybe you want to no longer have nightmares about that traumatic thing
- Maybe you want to be able to greet each day’s tasks with confidence and without overwhelm
…etc.
A good therapist will help you to set such goals (if you haven’t already), and attain them.
If you’re going the self-therapy route, then this is your job now!
It will probably start with the question: imagine that everything currently troubling you is now healed.
What would that look like, to you?
Third: get a good match for you
Unless you are going entirely the self-therapy route (which can work for some), you will want a therapist who’s a good match for you.
It may take a degree of “suck it and see” trial runs before you find the right one, but that takes time and money, so you’ll want to streamline the process as much as you can. If you do this well, you may be able to find a good therapist for you first time.
For this, personal recommendations (such as from friends) may help more than exmaining academic and institutional affiliations.
Yes, you want a well-qualified therapist who is a member in good standing of a respectable regulated body… but whether your therapist is easy for you to “get on with” will matter at least as much as whether their approach is psychodynamic, or 4th wave CBT, or IFS, or whatever seems popular in your time and place.
Bear in mind:
- Some therapists are specialized in helping with some kinds of things and not others. It will obviously help if the therapist you choose is specialized in the thing you are seeking help for.
- Some therapists may be able to relate to you better (or not), based on simple factors of who they are. To this end, while your therapist certainly doesn’t have to be a mirror image of you, factors like age, gender, race, etc can be relevant and may be worth considering, depending on what you are seeking help with, and what factors impact that thing.
Prefer keeping things to yourself?
Therapy isn’t for everyone, but having a good relationship with oneself definitely is. You might want to invest in one of the books whose reviews we linked above, and you might also get value from previous Psychology Sunday articles, which you can find in our archive (every seventh edition here has a Psychology Sunday main feature):
Click Here To Check Out The 10almonds Archive
To borrow the catchphrase of Dr. Kirk Honda (a therapist and therapy educator with decades of experience):
❝Take care of yourself, because you deserve it; you really, really do.❞
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The Plant-Based Diet Revolution – by Dr. Alan Desomond
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Is this just another gut-healthy cooking guide? Not entirely…
For a start, it’s not just about giving you a healthy gut; it also covers a healthy heart and a healthy brain. There’s lots of science in here!
It’s also aimed as a transitional guide to eating more plants and fewer animal products, if you so choose. And if you don’t so choose, at least having the flexibility to cook both ways.
The recipes themselves (organized into basics, breakfasts, lunches, mains, desserts) are clear and easy while also being calculated to please readers (and their families) who are used to eating more meat. There are, for instance, plenty of healthy proteins, healthy fats, and comfort foods.
The “28 days” of the title refers to a meal plan using the recipes from the book; it’s not a big feature of the book though, so use it or don’t, but the cooking advice itself is more than worth the price of the book and the recipes are certainly great.
Bottom line: if you’re thinking of taking a “Meatless Mondays” approach to making your diet healthier, this book can help you do that in style!
Click here to check out The Plant-Based Diet Revolution, and upgrade your culinary repertoire!
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