Bike to Work Day is Friday, May 17. A record number of 12,000 commuters have registered for the annual event that encourages bicycling as a green commute option. Photograph by Melissa Romero.
A record-high 12,000 commuters in Washington have already signed up for Friday’s Bike to Work Day, an annual event that promotes bicycling as a green commute option.
Bikers are welcome to go by any of the 70 pit stops in DC, Maryland, and Virginia for refreshments, entertainment, and prizes. Various elected officials will be at the stops, including Mayor Vincent Gray at Freedom Plaza and DC City Council member Tommy Wells at Mount Vernon Square.
You can get toned arms in a three-step workout that takes less than five minutes of your time. Photograph courtesy of Shutterstock.
Last week we shared local personal trainers’ favorite arm exercises, from pushups to pullups. This week, trainer Laurent Amzallag has put some of his favorite arm-toning exercises—tricep dips and bicep curls included—into one super-quick strength session. Tack it onto your next workout and feel the burn.
A study published earlier this year found that social media is a powerful weight-loss tool. Researchers found that obese men and women who had a support system through Twitter were more likely to lose weight. While weight loss isn’t everyone’s goal, being fit and healthy is something we can all benefit from. That’s why we love to follow these 14 DC folks on Instagram as they share their passion for fitness, health, and nutrition. We hope they’ll also inspire you to stay fit, eat right, and live smart.
Sarah Waybright founded WhyFoodWorks as a way to show others how it’s possible to eat healthy “without sacrificing taste or [spending] hours in the kitchen.” Her own diet is built around produce and protein, and you’ll never catch her munching diet foods or gulping down energy drinks. When she’s not hosting her interactive dinner parties, you’ll find her unwinding at yoga class, running, hiking, or savoring her daily piece of chocolate.
Breakfast: Coffee with whole milk and a teaspoon of sugar, a cup of plain Greek yogurt, raspberries, and chia seeds. “It fits my 5 Rules for a Healthy Breakfast with the fewest ingredients and least effort possible!”
In an op-ed in the New York Times today, Jolie wrote that she has a “faulty” BRCA1 gene, which greatly increases her risk of developing both breast and ovarian cancers. Earlier this year she underwent three months of medical procedures involving the mastectomies. Her risk of developing breast cancer has now dropped to 5 percent.
Jolie is not alone in her decision to undergo a double mastectomy. The number of women with early-stage breast cancer who have had double mastectomies has increased by more than 150 percent between 1998 and 2003, according to a study presented at an American Society of Clinical Oncology conference. That includes prominent Washington women. In July 2011 The Washingtonian wrote about George Washington University’s chief of breast surgery, Christy Teal, and her decision to undergo a prophylactic double mastectomy—despite not having the gene that increases one’s risk.
A new report issued by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations says that beetles are the most consumed insects in the world. Caterpillars, bees, wasps, ants, cicadas, and planthoppers are also popular. Photograph courtesy of Shutterstock.
We should welcome the 2013 cicada season with open, er, mouths. At least, that’s what the United Nations recommends in its report released today, which states that insects are a readily available, yet often ignored, source of nutritious and protein-rich food.
While the thought of eating a grasshopper or beetles may cue our gag reflex in the US, insects are part of the traditional diet of at least 2 billion people, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN. More than 1,900 types of insect in the world are edible. The following types of insects are the most consumed:
Sundevich's food truck relies solely on local businesses for their sandwiches' ingredients. Plenty of other food trucks are also local-minded and eco-friendly. Photograph by Scott Suchman.
A while back we featured ten of the healthiest food trucks in DC, with some of our favorites such as TaKorean and Hula Girl making the list. But that was almost a year ago, and since then we’ve deemed plenty more trucks worthy of the list.
For local fare . . .
Sundevich
The Shaw sandwich shop’s food truck relies solely on local businesses for ingredients. Sandwiches are made with baguettes from a local bakery and fixins from local farms. Since the food is so fresh, it runs out quickly, so be sure to get in line early.
Easy, healthy recipes like local dietitian Katie Heddleston's oatmeal berry muffin will impress even Mom this Mother's Day. Photograph by Heddleston.
There are plenty of places to take your mom for brunch this Mother’s Day. But if she’d rather spend some quality time at home with the family, make sure she doesn’t lift a finger this Sunday by whipping up these healthy, super-simple brunch recipes.
High-intensity interval training has been proven to burn fat quickly in a short amount of time. Photographs courtesy of the American College of Sports Medicine's Health and Fitness Journal.
A workout recently published in the American College of Sports Medicine’s Health and Fitness Journal isn’t exactly groundbreaking, but we busy Washingtonians may appreciate that it takes just seven minutes, requires barely any equipment, and works the entire body. Now there really are no excuses.
Using high-intensity circuit training, the workout is designed for ultimate fat-burning while performing 12 exercises for 30 seconds each. The fitness trainers who created the workout note that it’s not the best way to gain “absolute” strength, power, or endurance—but if you’re crunched for time, it will serve you well.
Judge Lee F. Satterfield, chief judge of the Superior Court of DC, suffered a stroke in November 2011. Almost two years later, he's healthy and grateful that his colleagues recognized the symptoms of stroke before he did. Photograph courtesy of GW Hospital.
DC Superior Court chief judge Lee F. Satterfield began the morning of November 28, 2011, with “a pretty good headache.”
“I thought it had to do with all the things I had to do that day, and I hadn’t eaten breakfast,” he recalls. On the agenda for Satterfield: delivering a eulogy at funeral for a former chief judge in Silver Spring, followed by an afternoon meeting back at his DC office.
But the headache only worsened as the day continued. It was his colleague who finally noticed something odd about Satterfield during their meeting. “Are you okay?” she asked him.
“I just assumed I was speaking normally,” Satterfield says, when in fact, the chief judge had begun to speak “unusually.” He felt an odd sensation on the left side of his body. “It wasn’t numbness—I don’t know how to explain it. But it just didn’t feel right.”
