Shake Up Your Wake Up!

When asking what people normally have for breakfast, an alarming amount of people usually say, “oh, who has time for breakfast?!?” or the occasional “I’m not even that hungry when I wake up”. I mean, everyone has heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day...and they aren’t lying. Breakfast provides your body and brain with fuel after an overnight fast. (hence, the name) Without breakfast, it is equivalent to running on empty, like trying to start a car with no oil. Our bodies need essential nutrients (calcium, iron, vitamins, proteins, fiber) early in the day, to keep your body feeling great the rest of the day. So if you are guilty of the lame generic basic excuse that you ‘don’t have time to eat breakfast’, how about you set your alarm clock 15 minutes earlier...your body can thank me later. Breakfast is necessary for the brain as well, it needs energy in order to function properly!! It has been scientifically proven that those who eat breakfast are more physically active throughout the day compared to those who don't. Research has indicated that breakfast may even enhance memory, attention, the speed of processing information, reasoning, creativity, learning, and verbal abilities. So, yes, roll your eyes all you want...but breakfast is the most important meal!!

GO GREEN

Every year, the Chicago Journeymen Plumbers Union take on the Chicago River for their annual green-tinting event, as they pour loads of green dye into the waters to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day every year. Every year, the Windy City celebrates their annual green dyeing of the Chicago River as thousands of people dressed in their celebratory green gather for holiday festivities, including a parade and Irish-themed food and drinks offered by a slew of different vendors along the Riverwalk, with the bagpipes ringing throughout the town. A boat drops the dye into the water every year, and don’t worry: it’s completely environmentally safe. This tradition in Chicago has been going on ever since 1961 and is a yearly event that people from all over the nation travel to see firsthand. So hey, if you’re looking for a festive way to celebrate the holiday and escape from the drunken college student infested streets of Newark, book your plane ticket to the Windy City today!!

http://chicagoist.com/2016/03/15/video_a_time-lapse_of_the_chicago_r.php

Namaste

Various workout fads come and go as society changes, but no other exercise program has been as long enduring as yoga has. (staying around for over 5,000 years now). Yoga not only burns calories and tones muscles, but provides as a total mind-body workout that combines both strengthening and stretching, with deep breathing/meditation/relaxation. Yoga mainly works on your core, arms, legs, glutes, back, not to mention your mind as well. Here listed are a few different forms of yoga and a brief description of what it is:

• Hatha. The form most often associated with yoga, it combines a series of basic movements with breathing.
• Vinyasa. A series of poses that flow smoothly into one another.
• Power. A faster, higher-intensity practice that builds muscle.
• Ashtanga. A series of poses, combined with a special breathing technique.
• Bikram. Also known as "hot yoga," it's a series of 26 challenging poses performed in a room heated to a high temperature.
• Iyengar. A type of yoga that uses props like blocks, straps, and chairs to help you move your body into the proper alignment.

Yoga is great for beginners, and you should never feel like it’s too late to join now. People of all ages and various fitness levels can do the most basic yoga poses and stretches, so don’t feel intimidated. Yoga can also take place indoor or outdoor, adding to the many benefits of this workout. One local place you can join to participate in yoga in the Newark area, includes a place by the name of ‘Empowered Yoga’, located in the Newark Shopping Center on main street.

Last Child in the Woods

For my AP Environmental class, we were encouraged to read books regarding the relationship between kids in today's society and cellphone use, describing how this impacts their connection towards nature as well. In today’s day and age, everyone know that technology is improving and increasing in popularity by a ridiculous amount. Technology rules our lives: for the most part, everything we do is dependent on our cellphones. The terrible thing is, this is starting at a very young age for kids. Kids are now getting iPhones and Instagrams and Twitters at age 7, when I didn’t even own a flip phone at that age. The early exposure to technology is having a detrimental effect on these kids which Richard Louv emphasizes in his novel, “Last Child in the Woods”. His novel focuses on the staggering divide between the outdoors and children, linking the extreme lack of nature in the lives of today’s wired generation to disturbing childhood trends which include obesity, attention disorders, and depression at surprisingly lower and lower ages. Louv refers to this national epidemic as nature-deficit, the phenomenon of children spending less levels outdoors, which results in a wide range of behavioral problems. Louv brings together a growing body of research that suggest exposure to nature is essential for a healthy childhood development, not to include physical and emotional health of children and adults. He offers practical solutions and simple ways we can fix to heal the broken bond regarding children and lack of nature. This was a great read and extremely informative, I definitely recommend it to anyone interested learning about these topics.