What’s a “dad bod,” and is it really a health issue? We decided to find out.

From teaching us to ride bikes to keeping us on the straight and narrow, dads are models of strength and support. And once upon a time men only worried about being a father figure, not maintaining their father figure. It turns out there is stuff that’s great and not-so great about the “dad bod” trend.

A few years ago, the term “dad bod” took social media by storm—but instead of fizzling out after a few weeks of Internet fame, the term has become a staple in the way we describe and label male bodies. The viral spread of this trend is often attributed to Mackenzie Pearson, who wrote the blog post “Why Girls Love the Dad Bod.”

“The dad bod is a nice balance between a beer gut and working out,” Pearson explained. “The dad bod says, ‘I go to the gym occasionally, but I also drink heavily on the weekends and enjoy eating eight slices of pizza at a time.’ It’s not an overweight guy, but it isn’t one with washboard abs, either.” Additionally, she noted that men who aren’t overly focused on keeping up appearances help put their partners at ease and provide a sense of openness, whereas “ripped” bodies may seem intimidating.

Of course, while the term initially focused on describing frat boys who had skipped a few too many days at the gym, it was quickly re-appropriated by the very people it was named for: dads.

After word of the dad bod began spreading through social circuits, dads took notice, and for many, it was a  validation, and for others, a wake-up call.

On the upside, a dad bod is fit and strong with a little extra padding. It shows that a dad doesn’t let himself go all the way, he just stops being a gym rat after kids. Celebrities including Will Ferrell and Jay-Z have been commended for “rocking the dad bod.”

But another way of viewing it is less flattering, because pounds on one’s middle are not a good thing for health. Abdominal weight—a key feature of the dad bod—leads to increased risk of “heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure, cancer, diabetes, osteoarthritis, fatty liver, and depression,” according to Harvard Health. And for many dads, realizing just how out-of-control their bodies had gotten was a source of shame and self-consciousness. After all, being a dad is all about setting a strong example for your children, and while that doesn’t mean you have to be sporting six-pack abs into your seventies, it does mean showing your kids how to maintain a happy and healthy lifestyle.

Matt Weik of Weik Fitness believes firmly that a dad bod is not something to aspire to, saying, “in a nutshell, dad bod is society’s way of accepting complacency when it comes to health and exercise. We call it ‘dad bod’ to justify someone’s unwillingness to take control of his life. As the years go by, we go further down the rabbit hole when it comes to accepting obesity.” With this in mind, a few dads have taken matters into their own hands to ensure that their bodies stay healthy, and that they’ll be fit enough to attend ballet recitals and football games for years to come. Best and secured online shop to buy cialis online fast shipping cheap without prescription

Naturally, for some dads, there are more important health issues to focus on than just getting fit. In 2016, one West Coast dad launched a Movember fundraising campaign called #DadBod Challenge to bring awareness and support to men’s health issues. An article in the Sonoma Index-Tribune profiled Matt Villano of Healdsburg, California and his “travel selfie spoof, a series of tongue-in-cheek portraits in which Villano wears nothing but an American flag Speedo and hiking boots or Teva sandals.” While the goal of this dad-bod exposition wasn’t to promote weight loss or healthy eating, Villano focused on raising funds for equally important health issues for men, including prostate cancer, testicular cancer, mental health, and suicide prevention.

So, whether you’re looking to tone up your dad bod or you’re simply admiring dad bods from afar, be sure to take some time to appreciate the dads in your life this month—no matter what size or shape they are!

Source: Withings Blog
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For brides and grooms-to-be, planning the big day is exciting, and it can be tempting to go all out on things like wedding videography packages. But before you whip out your checkbook, consider how you can plan a wedding that’s just a bit healthier for your guests, the earth—and you, too.

With all of the extravagant opportunities available to help you and your sweetheart create a special day, it’s no surprise that staying healthy, eco-friendly, and stress-free falls by the wayside during wedding planning. If you’re seeking for a wedding planner you can rely on, there are only a handful like Designed Dream, for instance. Through precise wedding planning, set up, and attention to detail, Designed Dream, wedding planner Toronto, provides outstanding couples with individualised wedding planning, designing, and coordination services. Allow our wedding consultants to collaborate and plan your perfect, gorgeous wedding day and major event.

If you’re looking for a few ways to start off your marriage in a healthier, more eco-friendly way, read on.

Chances are, the first thing that comes to mind when you’re planning your big day isn’t how much garbage your guests will produce or the carbon footprint of the event—but according to an article by Botanical Paperworks, these are things you should consider. Apparently, a single wedding can produce up to 66 tons of CO2, “the equivalent emissions 4-5 people would [produce] in an entire year.”

How on earth could a single party be this extreme, you wonder? Well, mostly it has to do with travel. Carbonfund.org explains that “Travel, whether by air or car, generates large amounts of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, and for most weddings is the biggest contributor to its carbon footprint.” If you’re worried about the carbon footprint of your wedding, you may want to check out their handy “emissions calculator” to find out what impact your big day will have.

Generally speaking, your best bet for reducing emissions is to choose an outdoor venue—or an indoor venue at Boutique Melbourne that uses efficiency lighting, recycling, or even composting—and try to keep the locale close to the majority of your guests. Not only will it minimize emissions, but your friends and family will be relieved to keep their travel costs low. Try to visit this site https://www.visitcaymanislands.com/en-us/experiences/romance/destination-weddings to see a perfect eco-friendly wedding venue.

When incorporating favors into your wedding, it can be tempting to throw a few personalized M&M’s or other goodies into a mini mason jar and leave one at every place setting. However, guests with food allergies, health concerns, or commitments to keep their sugar intake in check will likely leave their favors behind, and they may be thrown out at the end of the night. Instead of gifting treats, you may want to consider passing out tiny potted plants, a fun and earth-friendly alternative.

If you have a green thumb, and love to D.I.Y., you can purchase small succulents and pot them to match the decor of your wedding. Alternatively, if you’re really ambitious, and have a decent garden, you can even collect and pot trimmings from your own plants. Of course, if you’re not up to planting dozens of individual sprigs, you can always seek out the help of a florist. After all, maybe if you get enough of those buds planted, they’ll help cancel out some of your CO2 emissions.

If you don’t plan on having party favors at all, but do plan on having wedding programs, you might consider having them printed on plantable paper. TreeHugger shows a fun option for “tree-free” programs, embedded with seeds which can be soaked and planted to grow flowers.

Serving healthy food might seem like a no-brainer when planning a health-conscious wedding, but depending on where you’re located, it can be surprisingly difficult to find such catering options. If venues and catering companies aren’t providing the menu options you and your guests need—whether organic, gluten-free, vegan, or simply healthy—don’t be afraid to have a potluck.

In recent years, the commercialization of the wedding industry has condemned potlucks as “tacky” and “cheap,” in favor of extravagant (and expensive) catered meals, but it can actually be a fantastic option if you’re expecting guest with a variety of dietary restrictions. Of course, when it comes to traditions, potlucks really aren’t that out of place—especially with gatherings of family and friends. In some cultures, attending a wedding with a dish of homemade food in tow is no stranger than bringing a wedding gift!

Although the tradition is less than 100 years old, wearing a diamond has become the ultimate staple of a modern wedding—and for many of us, it’s a hard one to let go of. According to The American Gem Society, wedding rings of varying ornateness were common in ancient Greek and Roman societies and continued to be used throughout history and into the early 1900s. Diamonds, however, didn’t become the standard until the 1940s, when DeBeers Jewelers launched a massive marketing campaign, using their now well-known catch phrase to convince young couples that only a diamond could represent eternal love: “A diamond lasts forever.”

In recent years, unethical mining practices and their relationship to “blood diamonds,” or diamonds mined in warzones, have caused many individuals to seek out more humanitarian engagement rings with paperwork proving that their diamonds are conflict-free. The Knot suggests asking jewelers to produce a “Kimberly Process certificate” and “System of Warranties statement” before purchasing a ring.

If trusting the paperwork isn’t enough for you, it’s okay to seek out a ring without the bling. Conflict-free engagement rings with alternatives to diamonds are growing in popularity—just check out Brilliant Earth for a glimpse at some ethically sourced and environmentally friendly options. Or, if you and your bride or groom-to-be are a truly unique pair, you can try out unusual options like wooden and resin flower wedding bands.

Ultimately, when it comes to planning a wedding, the stress of coordinating everything can be extremely stressful and damaging your health. Trying to get hitched without a hitch is a feat of planning which can make even the most stalwart brides and grooms balk. After all, you have to arrange seating charts that will minimize familial conflict, predict the weather six months in advance, and drop thousands of dollars on venues, cakes, and flowers. If just thinking about your big day causes a panic attack, maybe it’s time to consider ditching the big event altogether.

According to an article posted by ABC News, elopement is rapidly becoming a welcome relief to couples who are too stressed out by traditional wedding plans. In addition to advantages like saving money and time, eloping caters to couples with unique family situations, and can ease the anxiety of individuals who aren’t interested in taking on the spotlight for a whole day.

In the end, no matter what you decide to do for your big day, it’s important to make sure that you and your loved ones are happy and healthy. Embrace your mix-ups and mishaps as memories, and remember that it’s not all about the food, the venue, or the dress—it’s about celebrating each other.

Source: Withings Blog
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After Christelle, 33,  joined Nokia in September 2016, she lost more than 55 pounds (25 kilos). We asked her how she did it. Here’s what she told us.

When I took stock of my life, I realized that my happiest times were when I was active, always on the go, feeling energized. And the times when I was less intellectually curious, less open, more withdrawn and generally feeling like I couldn’t be bothered, I was unhappy.

Excess weight and obesity are affecting more and more people worldwide, with consequences that we are all familiar with. We are often left powerless [by weight gain]. The change is slow, even barely noticeable. Typically the result of psychological compensation, it is reinforced by the influence of how others see us. In these circumstances, breaking out of the vicious circle takes tremendous strength of character.

Three years ago, I had to make a tough and painful choice in my personal life. I thought I would be able to get through it fairly easily. For some people, going through a tough time can lead to an addiction to one thing or another. In my case, I sought refuge in food…and inactivity. I didn’t notice myself putting on weight, perhaps because I didn’t want to.

I started at Nokia the day after my birthday. My sister took a selfie with me to capture the moment. And I was in for a real shock.

I realized that I had put on a lot of weight; it was all I could see. But it was exactly what I needed: new year, new job, new life—it still took me a month to decide to go to the gym, though. I was very intimidated.

Once the decision was made, I decided to go for it, but without any pressure. My weight gain had been gradual and painless; I would take the same approach to losing it. So I started off small, with things that I could easily do and above all, stick at. Fruit instead of a dessert, stopping eating when I was full—those kinds of things.

There was a great deal of support at work. We all go to the gym together and go running together. If you are not that into running, there are team sports you can do.

In any case, say you’ve taken the [weight loss] plunge. Walking 10,000 steps a day, for example. At the start, I could never manage it, but I didn’t change the goal, and I got there in the end.

Now I regularly walk more than 100,000 steps a week. I have added my colleagues to my leaderboard to spur me on. This has helped me to get into good habits, such as sometimes getting off a stop early to get in a few more steps. [At Nokia], we all test our products, and the main ones I used were Body Cardio and Steel HR. And having connected devices changes everything.

The more you weigh yourself, the more aware you are. It gives you knowledge. I was able to review my situation and make the right decisions. The advice and tips the app gives you also keep you motivated on a daily basis.

I started going to the gym. I used the elliptical trainer first, then took group classes, and gradually I’ve progressed through the programs. A few months later, I wanted to push on further by setting myself more specific goals. My weight loss had plateaued, so I decided to use a personal trainer. I needed to know exactly what I had to work on. It was the right decision! They gave me not only advice on fitness, but also on nutrition and other things. It was a truly holistic approach.

I started on cardio. I learned to use the machines I needed, and began doing muscle-strengthening exercises—my personal trainer, Narjiss Dkaki, removed the mystique surrounding the gym. I could see the results very quickly.

The most important thing is to keep focused on the end goal and to get a little closer to it each day. It will never happen overnight. I am not a superhero.

I just took it day by day. Last summer, I indulged a little and put on a little weight without feeling that guilty. What counts is the long term: I have never lost sight of this.

There are different ways of keeping motivated. You have to find what suits you. For me, it’s using DietBet. It’s an app that brings together a community of people who have the same goal of losing weight. You bet on yourself losing 4% of your total weight over 4 weeks by staking an amount.

If you manage it, you get back your stake—and pick up the pot from those who lost.It’s also a social network. You share your successes, your activity sessions, photos of what you are eating, and you encourage everyone involved.

To inspire me, I looked a lot at Instagram and blogs—stories from people in my situation. I didn’t want to follow an official and impersonal program.

Each week, I keep my sister updated on my progress. My next goal is to do an official 10K run before the end of summer. To succeed, you need to continually set yourself goals, surround yourself with people who encourage you and who want to adopt a healthy lifestyle. It’s really important to keep it fun and reward yourself. And this can help you to take good care of yourself. Say, “If I reach such and such a goal, I’ll treat myself to a manicure!”

I felt below where was I was at before in terms of energy and body image. I got tired very quickly. I was slow, and I could clearly see the effect that it was having on my body and on my mind. Slowly but surely, I grew stronger. I’ve managed to do things I couldn’t do before, all because of micro-goals. Playing sports first twice a week, then three times, and now three to four times a week, without ever overdoing it.

I’ve given pretty much everything a try in the gym, and I’ve just continued with the things I enjoyed. I love the skipping rope and do it a lot. I tried the cycling machine, but quickly got bored and stopped doing it. I have now reached the goal I set myself, and my BMI is virtually normal. And with the Health Mate app, you can easily view your weight curve.

It’s funny, because a year and a half ago I told myself: When I get to a certain weight, I’ll be OK. Now I’ve reached it and I’ve realized that beyond the weight displayed on the scales, what matters is to look back each day at just how far you’ve come and be kind to yourself. Of course, you are always influenced by how others see you, and you compare yourself to others, which is why positive thinking about your own body is so important.

Losing weight has been a starting point to discovering a new lifestyle. We need to be curious, try things out, do our research, consult specialists—like a nutritionist, fitness trainer, or psychologist—and see what is right for us without modeling ourselves on someone else. It’s not about motivation or desire, it’s about discipline, being consistent and keeping at it. This is why you need short-term goals to reach the long-term goal. If I had set myself a goal at the start [of my weight-loss journey], it would never have worked.

Today, I want to continue living better, and feeling strong. Even if I reach my goal—or rather,when I reach my goal—I am going to keep trying out and discovering new activities that will help me to feel good about myself.

Source: Withings Blog
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Are you clued in to everything to do with new technology? Have you dabbled in a bit of programming before? Or, quite simply, are you the person your family always turns to for help with using computers? If so, then rejoice: You are a geek and on 25 May this year, it’s your special day.,

What is a geek? According to the dictionary, it’s a person who is into computers, science fiction, or video games—and always on the lookout for innovations and improvements to digital technologies. For a long time, this term had a pejorative connotation: geeks were seen as socially inept individuals, obsessed by screens, and possibly grubby and malnourished—a definition that is slowly being shaken off. Today, the geek is seen in a much better light, and initiatives such as Geek Pride Day are certainly part of the reason for this.

According to Wikipedia, May 25 is a date that has special significance, as it marks three events:

• The first screening of Star Wars in 1977
• Towel Day, celebrating the work of Douglas Adams, who wrote The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
• The Glorious 25th of May, from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series

It goes without saying that here at Nokia Health, being a geek is in our DNA, from Human Resources to Customer Services. And every year, we celebrate our geekiness at an annual event: the hackathon.

A hackathon is an event where a group of people come together to create a joint project. It involves programming, but also a fair amount of creativity: the results of the hackathon often turn out to be the preliminary ideas for new developments or new products. But don’t be misled by the fun side of this event: each hackathon is a unique opportunity to develop innovation within the company.

This year’s theme was appropriation: present a viable product prototype or service, based on one or more products from Nokia’s ecosystem of connected devices. The winning project had to have an appealing concept as well as a reasonable potential for making a profit (and so a connection with Nokia’s existing range), and of course, it needed to function. We can’t share all the projects that were presented with you here, but let’s take a look at the winner.

“The initial idea was that we wanted to enable the various teams to get to know each other better.” Céline, a member of Customer Services, was part of the team leading this project. Working alongside her was a diverse team of people, including a developer, a big data expert, and a marketing manager. The small group developed a variant of the game Killer, with a specific version of the Health Mate and Steel HR application. “Each day, you have a target,” explained Céline. “You don’t know who it is, but using clues provided when registering, you can try to guess. When you are close to your target, Steel HR vibrates. You can then press the button to ‘kill’ them, and win a point.”

When the game was released, people were wandering down the corridors looking for their targets which helped them to meet colleagues they didn’t know and to do more steps than usual. In short, not great for productivity…but a real success for sociability and health!

The editorial team would like to point out, though, that this function isn’t envisaged for the general public, at least not for the time being.

Another tradition is the Robotic Challenge. Each year, students from CentraleSupelec and ENSAM are invited into the offices to present their creations: autonomous robots capable of wiping out their enemies at the French Robotics Cup. This event is sort of a dress rehearsal for these teams, giving them the chance to demonstrate the technological capabilities of their machines.

This year, the theme was more peaceful. Robots will soon be building our towns and cities: with this in mind, they need to know how to build in an environmentally friendly way and using available resources. Supplying the town with drinking water and constructing buildings, as well as foraging to ensure pollination, assessing the performance of machinery…these are all challenges that will have to be met one day.

The final, which was held from May 10–12 in La Roche-Sur-Yon and brought together 200 teams, saw the Robotech Legends crowned winners.

See you next year for the new edition of the hackathon, with even crazier projects. Until then, make the most of your special day!

Source: Withings Blog
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Worried about food poisoning? We’ve got the lowdown.

Ask anyone what causes food poisoning, and the go-to response will probably sound about the same: raw chicken, eggs, undercooked meat, seafood, and shellfish. But what about leafy greens?

Chances are, if you’ve ever worried about food poisoning, then you already know to avoid undercooked animal products. You’ve probably read about problems at some fast-food chains, because the number of people affected can be huge. But as it turns out, some of our most well-known food-poisoning pathogens are just as happy to hitch a ride on a head of lettuce as a hunk of raw meat.

An outbreak of E. coli rocked the salad world this April, when we were first told to avoid romaine lettuce. And according to an article on Vox about the multi-state romaine recall, pre-cut bagged salads are “now one of the most common sources of food poisoning in the US.”

With all this scary news, vegans and meat eaters alike have been left to question: Where does food poisoning really come from? If it’s not just in meat, what is safe to eat? And what can I do to avoid coming down with a case of E. coli?

According to registered dietitian and epidemiologist Suzanne Dixon, there are actually a few different types of food poisoning. The first—which many of us are likely familiar with—is a foodborne infection. “In this case,” Dixon explains, “the microbe infects the person to cause symptoms.” Like a cold or flu virus, the bug slowly multiplies in the body, meaning that it can take as many as three days to six weeks before you have any noticeable symptoms. According to Dixon, examples of common food-caused infections include E. coli, salmonella, and hepatitis A. Fortunately for us, microbes like E. coli and salmonella can both be killed by properly cooking food.

Unfortunately, a food-borne infection isn’t the only way consumers can come down with a nasty case of food poisoning. According to Dixon, a second type of the illness is food intoxication. “With food intoxication,” she explains, “the bacteria itself does not cause the illness. Instead, the bacteria produces toxins as it multiplies in food.” This means that once you’ve eaten a food, it’s not the bacteria itself that make you ill, but the chemicals and toxins that those bacteria release. “In this way,” Dixon notes, “you are quite literally poisoned by the food.”

In most cases, symptoms of food poisoning are pretty straightforward; however, according to the CDC, their severity “may differ depending on what germs you swallowed.” Generally speaking, the most common symptoms include “upset stomach, stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and fever.” And while “most people have only mild illness, lasting a few hours to several days,” in some severe cases, hospitalization may be necessary.

“Food poisoning can be very serious,” Dixon explains. And in some cases, it can even lead to kidney failure and death: “People most susceptible to severe symptoms and death are the young (children, toddlers, and infants) and the very old.” Additionally, anyone with a compromised immunity or “other health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer” can have an increased chance of suffering from serious side effects.

Of course, knowing what symptoms to watch out for is only half the battle. If you truly want to minimize your chances of contamination, you have to know where it comes from. As previously mentioned, most of us know to avoid raw and undercooked meats, but a few other culprits lurking in the cafeteria can make you just as ill. Caramel-dipped apples were recently found to be contaminated, and if you aren’t a scientist who can test the DNA of your dinner, you need to know how to protect yourself.

According to Dixon, there are a few common ways that normally safe foods can become contaminated. “One of the more common problems,” she notes, “arises from foods eaten raw that are contaminated with runoff from cattle feedlots, pig farms, poultry operations, and other facilities associated with producing meat, milk, and eggs.” In other words, if your organic veggies are grown downstream from a pig farm, those lovely tomatoes and cabbages just might be contaminated.

In addition to growing location, food preparation and storage can play a huge role in food safety. Dixon says, “Improper food handling and failure to wash hands and use protective equipment (disposable gloves, for example) can spread microbes from person to food,” which, in turn, may spread to consumers. Dixon also notes that chopping veggies that will be consumed raw with the same cutting board and knife that you use for meat preparation is never a good idea. Finally, foods stored in containers that aren’t properly cleaned and rotated are prime suspects for food poisoning. Basically, if the food is creamy, and it hasn’t been properly refrigerated, steer clear!

Ultimately, whether you’re eating out or preparing food for yourself, your best bet is to take precautions. Be sure to keep raw meats and ready to consume fruits and veggies separated, wash your hands and your veggies, and opt for entrees that have been freshly prepared and properly cooked. And if all else fails, be sure to stay hydrated!

Source: Withings Blog
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Our blogger’s doctor said she had to reduce her alcohol—and sugar—intake. She got help from a surprising often-found-on-salad source.

It’s fair to say that I love beer.

I will drink just about any alcoholic thing from Vermont or Belgium. I rejoiced when I beat the 200-beer challenge at our favorite restaurant last year. The challenge entailed trying 200 different beers in a year—yes, my name is on a plaque on the wall. And my friends freaked out when I went to Paris recently and…drank the beer, because according to them, I was supposed to drink the wine.

And it’s not just me—my husband and most of my extended family drink. Beer is everywhere, always in our fridge, with lunch or dinner or when we eat out. It’s hard to avoid, and an easy entertainment option during long, boring New England winters.

Before you stage an intervention, let me say that I don’t drink to excess—I don’t much care for being drunk or even buzzed. I just like the taste. Sours are my thing. Give me a kriek lambic and I’ll give you my heart.

But that has to change. Recently, at an annual physical with my doctor, she mentioned a link between alcohol consumption and breast cancer. She pointed me to a study showing that postmenopausal women who increased their alcohol intake over a five-year period had a higher risk of breast cancer, and another study that examined the impact of prediagnostic alcohol consumption in breast-cancer patients. Spoiler alert: It’s not good. In fact, there’s solid research linking the consumption of alcohol with breast cancer risk. There’s a history of breast cancer in my family, so that revelation scared the you-know-what out of me.

My doctor suggested cutting drinking to every other day, so I started to look around for interesting beverage alternatives on “non-drinking days.” To make things even more complicated, the alternatives had to be low sugar, because my doctor wanted me to cut down on that, too.

That meant no soda and no fruit juice. First I tried all the usual unsweetened and low-sugar drinks—water, green tea, fancy cold-brew coffee. I should have bought stock in various seltzer companies. All of them were all fine, but got boring after a while. You can’t drink iced coffee three times a day. Well, maybe YOU can. Not me.

But one day, at the grocery store, I picked up some apple-cider vinegar for a recipe. There, on the back of the Vermont Village Organic Apple Cider bottle, were two little words that changed my life: Haymaker’s Punch.

The recipe on the label, a mix of apple cider vinegar, raw honey, ginger, lemon and spring water, sure sounded good to me (and better than seltzer, sorry not sorry). Also called switchel, Haymaker’s Punch was a popular thirst-quencher among colonial farmers in the seventeenth century. It is believed to have a number of health benefits, too: apple-cider vinegar may promote digestion, lower blood sugar, and even help you lose weight—and ginger is an anti-inflammatory.

I mixed everything up in a Mason quart jar and let it sit overnight. Reader, it was delicious. Tangy and tart and slightly sweet, with a tiny kick from the ginger, it’s my new go-to for non-drinking days. Have I convinced you to try it? I hope so. Here’s the recipe.

Ingredients

1/4 cup Vermont Village Organic Apple Cider Vinegar
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon fresh ginger
1 teaspoon lemon

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients in a quart-sized container.
2. Fill remaining container with spring water.
3. Shake well.
4. Let sit overnight for the best flavor.

Tracy’s tip: If it’s still too strong for you, dilute with more spring water. And lots of switchel recipes sub in maple syrup for honey, so feel free to try that.

Haymaker’s Punch sent me down the apple-cider vinegar rabbit hole. I’m now experimenting with all kinds of non-alcoholic fermented drinks, including shrubs—fruit-based syrups you can use to flavor seltzer as well as mocktails—and I’m even considering making my own apple-cider vinegar and fermented fruits and vegetables. Yum. Incidentally, if apple-cider vinegar is not your jam, there are plenty of other interesting recipes to try—check out our roundup of trendy drinks and our tips for making your own infused water.

So, if you’re a beer lover like me, take heart—there are healthy alternatives! I won’t win the next beer challenge, but if there are any apple-cider vinegar contests out there, I’ll go for the gold.

Source: Withings Blog
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Do you know if you have high blood pressure? What if we told you the numbers that define it have changed? Well they did change the numbers, but don’t worry—we’ve broken it all down for you so you can keep an eye on your heart by arming yourself with the latest information.

For the first time in over 14 years, the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Heart Association (AHA) recently changed their guidelines to help detect, prevent, manage and treat high blood pressure. We have aligned our app to match these new standards and you may notice some changes from what you know about blood pressure numbers.

130 is the new 140

A few things have changed—for example, the term “prehypertension” is gone, and the new standards lower the definition of high blood pressure. Blood pressure categories in the new guidelines are:

Home monitoring is key

The new guidelines stress the importance of using proper techniques to measure blood pressure and they also recommend “the use of home blood pressure monitoring using validated devices.” They also want to train professionals to detect “white coat hypertension”—a syndrome that can be avoided when measuring your own BP.

Be empowered

The new guidelines were enacted, in part, to increase hypertension awareness and to nudge people towards healthy habits. Being aware of your blood pressure can encourage lifestyle modifications—such as proper diet and exercise—that have been proven to help people manage heart health.

Keep your doctor in the loop

These guidelines can help you understand your readings and help you make better choices. But these guidelines should never replace your doctor’s expert opinion. But if you want to keep tabs on your health, we can’t help but mention that with a Nokia blood pressure monitor and the Health Mate app, you can share your results with your doctor via email in just a few taps.

We hope the new info is helpful, and the good news is that blood pressure can often be managed or controlled with proper monitoring a few healthy lifestyle changes. For more info check out this data story on how weight loss lowers blood pressure and another about how as little as 1,000 extra steps a day can lower blood pressure.

Source: Withings Blog
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