One of my favourite writers, A.J Jacobs once confessed to having a weakness for dried mangos. He was worried that his daily habit of eating the delicious delicacies was injecting the equivalent of 15 teaspoons of white sugar into his system. In his efforts to dedicate a year of his life to getting healthy, he knew he needed to ditch the sweet treats. He tried several strategies to kick the habit including hiding them, repacking them into individual bags, and staring at a digitally aged picture of himself to make him stop and think, “Should I do this to him?” But... Read full article »

I woke up this morning feeling like crap. I didn’t get enough sleep. It wasn’t because I had sick kids, a work deadline, or even insomnia. My fatigue was self-inflicted. I had stayed up too late watching television. “Urgh,” I thought, as I wrangled my two kids through their breakfast. “There’s no way I’m getting through today uncaffeinated.”The crazy thing is that I fully intended to go to bed early last night. In fact, I was in bed by 9:00pm. But I recently learned that a certain online streaming service is available on my phone and when the one episode... Read full article »

A couple of weeks ago I noticed my Dad was looking particularly trim. Knowing that he works out regularly I asked him what else he had been doing to get such a dramatic result. “I quit sugar,” he proudly announced as he described how the extra pounds he couldn’t shake had practically flown off him.   In this day and age where sugar is hidden in almost everything, quitting the ever-temping saccharine ingredient is no small thing. I was impressed. And, as I’ve written about previously, based on the evidence, I’m in favour of any diet that encourages a diet... Read full article »