When you’re feeling down in the dumps, what do you do? You have two options: keep doing what you’re doing or try one of these happy hacks to bring a smile back to your face and ultimately boost your mood.

Today we’ll be talking about brain health in honor of Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month so if you have a brain, this information is for you!

Your brain is the most complex organ you have and it’s always changing. This process is called brain plasticity. The brain is able to grow new connections and repair broken ones. While changes are normal there are several things we can do each day to stay at the top of our game and maintain brain health as we age.

Happy National Nutrition Month®! This is a great time of year to reevaluate your eating pattern to determine if it’s working for you. Are you getting the healthful foods you need to live your best life?

An eating pattern represents all of the food and drink choices you make from day to day over the course of your lifetime. It’s more important to focus on healthy shifts you can make to your eating pattern than on individual foods. Be careful of fad diets that eliminate entire food groups (more to come on this on future posts!).

Thinking of skipping shoveling after a big snowstorm? I get it – it’s time-consuming, it’s cold, it feels never ending during these Midwest winters, and if you don’t warm up properly (see blog one!), it can leave you feeling sore, or worse: injured!

Here are three heart smar

Instead of saying 'diet', I like to use the term 'eating pattern' which refers to the quantities, proportions, variety, or combinations of different foods and beverages that are habitually consumed over a long period of time. Dietary patterns can help predict health later in life.