Stepfanie Romine is a writer, recipe developer, published author and certified yoga teacher who has lived--and cooked--on three continents. She currently calls Asheville, North Carolina home. 
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Brittney Lost 100 Pounds and Improved Her Health*
SparkPeople member Brittney (MISSB8604) is featured on Huffington Post this week after losing 100 pounds! Find out how this self-proclaimed theater diva did it.
Check out her story here. (And check out these red-carpet worthy pics of Brittney, too.)
Way to go, Brittney!
Posted 3/26/2013 12:00:00 PM By: : 71 comments 42,093 views
The 13 Best Yoga Poses for Runners
When I first started running, I thought for sure it would be a bad combination with yoga. Running is repetitive, it can be hard on the body, and it's fast.
After my first few runs, I felt sore and tight, despite my thorough stretching session afterwards. I spent all that time practicing yoga to loosen my muscles; it seemed silly to then tighten them up with one little run.
A few runs and a bit of research later, I changed my mind. Running and yoga complement each other quite well, and I don't need to end up sore and tight after my runs.
The breath control (pranayama) we practice in yoga actually helps me keep my breathing even when runs get tough, and it's especially helpful after a hard run. Plus, there is a certain peace that accompanies running (and walking). That repetitive motion allows your mind to clear, and the path that lies before allows your eyes to focus on the horizon. Add some motivating music, and you've got quite the relaxing and stress-relieving workout!
My friend Bob (BOBBYD31) SparkMailed me recently to ask about yoga. He's a runner and, like many of you, battles tight hips and hamstrings. He wanted to try yoga but wasn't sure where to start. I gave him some suggestions for DVDs and books--and did one better. I'm a certified Ashtanga yoga teacher, so I decided to create a routine for him and other runners to help them stretch out after a run and keep his muscles healthy and loose.
Here are a baker's dozen poses to help runners (and cyclists and walkers). Hold each pose for 5 breaths or longer if you'd like. You'll need a mat and a yoga block (or a chair) for these poses.
Posted 3/22/2013 6:00:00 AM By: : 242 comments 389,389 views
3 Tips to Be Happier in Work and in Life
3 Tips to Be Happier in Work and in Life
Great advice from Tiny Buddha that anyone can put into practice.
VIDEO: Fan Accompanies Billy Joel; 'Greatest Moment Of My Life,' He Says
A feel-good story about a young man who wasn't afraid of taking a risk to make a dream come true, from NPR.com.
When Exercise Stresses You Out
For some people, exercise is anything but fun. NYT.com's Well blog examines whether working out when you hate it does more harm than good.
Posted 3/16/2013 6:00:00 AM By: : 10 comments 34,901 views
Learn How Bonnie and Nancy Reached Their Goals*
It's a great week for SparkPeople members! Two of our inspiring Success Stories are in the news for their incredible life changes.
Bonnie (FLYINGB16) lost 142 pounds, and now her story is featured on FamilyCircle.com and in the latest issue of the magazine. Read part of her story here, and pick up the magazine (on newsstands now) to read more!
Nancy (https://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage.asp?id=NANCYANNE55) lost 49 pounds--and is a personal trainer who's had four kids. You can read her story at Shape.com.
Way to go, Bonnie and Nancy!
Posted 3/12/2013 12:00:00 PM By: : 32 comments 48,192 views
7 Homemade Girl Scout Cookie Recipes
I was a Girl Scout all the way through high school graduation. My grandmother and mother were troop leaders, and my mom earned a 25 year award for her commitment to scouting. We love the Girl Scouts in my family.
One of my least favorite parts of scouting was also one of my favorites: the cookies! I detest selling things to this day, so I never won any cookie awards. But I sure did love eating them! Now that I have the metabolism of a 30-something woman rather than a kid, I'm not going to be downing sleeves of Thin Mints like I did back then, but I do still enjoy them.
I just moved to rural North Carolina, where I don't know any Girl Scouts, so there will be no cookies for me this year. I might instead whip up a batch of these Girl Scout clone recipes (with some healthy ingredient swaps, perhaps?). We've rounded up seven homemade Girl Scout cookie recipes!
Posted 2/28/2013 9:00:00 AM By: : 91 comments 171,667 views
How to Fix 17 Basic Cooking Mistakes
The latest, most thought-provoking healthy headlines…
How to Fix 17 Basic Cooking Mistakes
I'm an experienced cook who writes about food for a living, and even I learned a few things from this Real Simple slideshow.
People are focusing more on food quality over just calories
Calories might be king, but more of us are paying attention to the quality of those calories, SmartBrief tells us.
Adults gobbling fewer calories from fast food
Perhaps linked to the previous study, we're bypassing the drive-thru more often, according to USA Today.
Diet And Acne: For A Clearer Complexion, Cut The Empty Carbs
When your mom told you to lay off the junk food to get rid of zits, she might have been partially right, NPR's The Salt blog says.
Posted 2/24/2013 6:00:00 AM By: : 4 comments 23,942 views
What Women Really Need to Know about Heart Health
Editor's Note: February is Heart Health month, aimed at bringing awareness to the #1 killer in America. Today we're sharing an interview with Dr. Patrice Desvigne-Nickens on behalf of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and The Heart Truth®. Dr. Desvigne-Nickens answered our questions via email.
DailySpark: How early should women start to take steps to protect their heart health?
Dr. Desvigne-Nickens: Women need to take steps at every age to protect their heart health. Heart disease can begin early, even in the teen years, and it is important for women and girls at all ages to know about heart disease and follow a healthy lifestyle. Women in their 20s and 30s should take action to reduce their risk of developing heart disease.
DailySpark: What are the top lifestyle changes women can make to ensure their hearts stay healthy?
Dr. Desvigne-Nickens: Most heart disease risk factors are preventable or controllable by making healthy lifestyle changes, including: stopping smoking, being physically active, following a healthy diet, and maintaining a healthy weight. Additional risk factors that you can prevent and control include: high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, and high blood sugar or diabetes. These conditions are silent (that is you don’t have any symptoms) so you must talk with your physician and know your numbers. High blood pressure, high blood cholesterol and high blood sugar are often treatable with healthy lifestyle but may require medical prescriptions.
DailySpark: Which habits harm our hearts the most?
Dr. Desvigne-Nickens: Smoking, letting high blood pressure and high cholesterol go untreated, being overweight or obese, not being physically active, and not managing diabetes all can contribute to increasing a person’s risk for heart disease.
It is especially important to understand that that having more than one risk factor or condition multiplies your risk of developing heart disease. Having one risk factor doubles your risk for disease; having two risks quadruples your risk for developing disease; having three risks increases risk by tenfold. Don’t choose among risk factors, take charge and control your risks. You can reduce your risk for heart disease by over 80% by controlling risk factors and a healthy lifestyle.
DailySpark: How much impact does weight have on heart health?
Posted 2/22/2013 12:00:00 PM By: : 4 comments 22,277 views
Losing 178 Pounds 'Saved My Life'!*
It's a great week for SparkPeople's Success Stories! Our members have been featured in two major magazines. First, we shared Megen's story, and today we have news about Pam Holmes (MAGGIEROSEBOWL), who started her weight loss journey at 328 pounds and 58 years old. Just over a year later, she hit her goal of 160, then kept going. Now she's at 150 pounds!
Posted 2/22/2013 6:00:00 AM By: : 96 comments 67,583 views
Find Out How Megen Lost Half Her Body Weight*
Pick up a copy of the March issue Health magazine (with Jillian Michaels on the cover) to read how SparkPeople member Megen Karlinsey (MERTNESS) lost 150 pounds! Find out how this Washington schoolteacher, who once weighed 300 pounds, beat her sugar addiction and broke the cycle of emotional eating.
Way to go, Megen!
Posted 2/19/2013 2:00:00 PM By: : 48 comments 42,725 views
7 Reasons You Can Feel Good about Eating Chocolate Today
Chances are good that you'll encounter chocolate at some point today. Chocolate has earned a bad rap as a guilty pleasure, but this superfood has some pretty amazing health benefits. We think you should feel good about eating chocolate--the dark variety, in moderate portions. Here's why:
1. Chocolate contains more than 300 chemicals, including phenyethylamine, an amphetamine-like substance that simulates the feeling of falling in love. Is there any more appropriate day than today to eat a treat that makes you feel like you're in love?
2. If you're feeling a bit glum, chocolate can boost your spirits and dull your pain, thanks to b-endorphin, a naturally occurring chemical similar to opium.
Posted 2/14/2013 6:00:00 AM By: : 33 comments 24,935 views
This Year, Be Your Own Valentine
I'm a perfectionist, and I don't like to trouble other people with my problems. As a result, I'm sometimes quite hard on myself. Recently, I found myself in quite a jam, and I had no choice but to call a friend for help. I braced myself for her reaction. Rather than judge me, she was gentle and kind.
Her generosity, compassion and kindness were a wake-up call to me. I was shocked--not by her behavior, but by my reaction. And I vowed to go easier on myself.
A few nights later, I was reading the Pema Chodron book "Comfortable with Uncertainty: 108 Teachings on Cultivating Fearlessness and Compassion." I seem to stumble upon Pema's teachings when I am most in need of guidance. That night I reread teaching #15, Not Causing Harm. This excerpt is what seemed prophetic:"It's a lifetime's journey to relate honestly to the immediacy of our experience and to respect ourselves not to judge it. As we become more wholehearted in this journey of gentle honesty, it comes as a shock to realize how much we've blinded ourselves to the ways in which we cause harm." (Emphasis mine.)
I read that passage several times, each time pausing to reflect on how I do this in my life. In an effort to be a more mindful person, I qualified and judged myself rather than employing gentle honesty.
Since then I've made a concerted effort to go easier on myself, to observe rather than judge my actions, and to treat myself the way my friend treated me, and the way I treat those I love: with gentle honesty.
As we prepare to celebrate the day that we traditionally express love to others, let us take the time to express our love for ourselves. After all, the relationship we have with ourselves is our most valuable yet the one to which many of us devote the least amount of effort.
Posted 2/7/2013 6:00:00 PM By: : 53 comments 22,545 views
Success Story: Using Food to Fuel Fitness*
You've peeked inside at the delectable recipes in "The SparkPeople Cookbook: Love Your Food, Lose the Weight." But unlike in other cookbooks, ours contains much, much more--including the stories of SparkPeople members just like you who lost weight and kept it off using Chef Meg's recipes and the lessons we share in "The SparkPeople Cookbook." Today we're sharing Tara's story.
Tara (HALLELUL), a clerical worker for a Cincinnati-based nonprofit organization, has an infectious laugh and a smile that lights up her face. She was a member of our Ditch the Diet Taste Test. When Tara found she didn’t have the energy to keep up with the rest of the congregation in church, she knew she needed to lose weight. Motivation came from a friendly competition in her church and SparkPeople helped her to meet her goals. Now, she’s not only enthusiastically praising the Lord on Sundays, but she completed her first marathon in 2010.
I used to say I had “sweet teeth” not just one sweet tooth. My nickname was Froot Loop. I would literally bring an empty margarine tub of the sugary cereal to work with me and snack on it all day. Now I’ve replaced that with Kashi’s Go Lean cereal. Not only do I really like it, but it’s also healthy for me so I don’t have to feel guilty eating it. Of course I eat it in moderation—about a serving size (1 or 2) and not a tub.
It’s taken me a little more than a year to lose the weight, but I’ve reached my goal since participating in the Ditch the Diet Taste Test! Cooking has been so important to my success. I’ve been hearing more and more about “superfoods” and knowing how to properly incorporate them into a meal each day makes me feel good. I now know that I’m doing what I can to ward off sickness and fuel my body for the all-important “playtime” (which it what I call exercise).
Posted 1/31/2013 6:00:00 AM By: : 31 comments 28,931 views
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Poll: Is 'Shame' a Helpful Weight-Loss Motivator?
A prominent bioethicist is making headlines this week with his unconventional (and, some say, mean-spirited) plan to curb obesity rates and related health-care costs. Dr. Daniel Callahan recommends taking a tactic similar to one that was employed in the fight against smoking: attaching a social stigma to it. Callanan, who at age 82 is not overweight but was a smoker, proposed in a new report that strong social pressure could be brought against those who are overweight. He says that it worked for smoking and could work for obesity, too, but his opponents are calling it "fat-shaming" and bullying.
In the abstract of his report, he poses some heavy questions: "How far can government and business go in trying to change behavior that harms health, what are the limits of market freedom for industry, and how do we look upon our bodies and judge those of others?" We'd like to know what you think. Would that work? Did you ever feel shamed because of your weight? What was your reaction?
Posted 1/28/2013 6:00:00 PM By: : 221 comments 29,098 views
6 Fun Facts about Peanut Butter
Did you know today is National Peanut Butter Day?
In honor of our favorite nut butter day, we decided to share some fun facts with you. Read on for a super-cool graphic, our best peanut butter recipes, and a poll with an urgent question: chunky or creamy?
Posted 1/24/2013 6:00:00 AM By: : 142 comments 80,538 views
10 Recipes So Good You Won't Believe They're Good for You
When Chef Meg and I started planning the recipe list for "The SparkPeople Cookbook: Love Your Food, Lose the Weight," we had a few criteria in mind. They had to be healthy, since this would be a SparkPeople cookbook, and they had to be easy, since even Chef Meg doesn't spend hours in the kitchen when she's not teaching chefs how to cook. Most importantly they had to be delicious. We banned bland food and ditched the diet. Together we created 150 meals and recipes ready in 30 minutes or less that use real foods like butter, bacon, and chocolate (not all together!).
With this cookbook you can eat the foods you love while losing weight--and you don't have to deprive yourself! You can eat like a chef without spending hours in the kitchen. And you can learn how to get the entire family excited about eating right (there's even a section on getting kids in the kitchen and teaching them to cook).
Posted 1/17/2013 6:00:00 AM By: : 34 comments 52,799 views
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