There’s no doubt that meditation is the cool thing to do at the moment. TIME Magazine has hailed the “Mindful Revolution,” Google has an in-house mindfulness program, and lists of "outrageously successful" people who meditate regularly make the rounds on my social media feed, including Huffington Post and Thrive Global founder Arianna Huffington who champions its use in the workplace for boosting productivity and the corporate bottom line. There’s also increased interest in mindfulness in scientific circles. Everything from mindfulness for binge-eating, to mindfulness for post traumatic stress is being put to the test and the results are promising. Researchers... Read full article »

I recently read a piece on the Guardian website by journalist Decca Aitkenhead who wrote about her endeavours to eat a plant-based diet. She wrote that her problem with being a vegan wasn’t the diet. It was the identity. “I worry about becoming that person who thinks what they put in their mouth is important enough to merit a significant share of their time and energy every day,” she wrote, adding that she felt that it's borderline narcissistic “to care that much about the purity of one’s digestive system,” and that she felt forced to adopt a new healthy diet... Read full article »

I have a confession to make. Even though I’m a health journalist who extensively researches and writes about the latest science proving there’s a connection between our mind, body and health, and even though I have written an entire chapter in my new book about the importance of sitting less and moving more… I have not been exercising regularly.My second son is now 7-months-old and ever since he was born, my exercise habits have gone out the window. Sure, I’ve been getting out for the odd walk and casually practising some yoga at home. I’ve even been to the occasional... Read full article »

I was giving a talk recently to a group of people interested in hearing more about my road to good health after being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. The audience was made up of people looking for ways to get healthy and find balance in this crazy-busy world. During the question and answer session after my talk, one woman spoke of her difficulties in making healthy choices while holding down a high-stakes, all-or-nothing job. She loved her work but she wanted to know if I thought she needed to quit in order to reclaim her health.I’ve lost count of the... Read full article »

I remember the first time I saw someone working at a stand-up desk. It was 2009 and a colleague had rearranged the furniture in her office and needed some help reconnecting her printer. I noticed that her office makeover involved putting her computer on top of a stack of boxes so that she could work standing up. To be honest, I thought she was a little peculiar. It seemed rather impractical, perhaps even a little silly. I now realise, given that I was spending hours and hours each day sitting in edit suites and at computers, that I was the... Read full article »

I was standing on the side of the road while my three-year-old son was kicking his legs and screaming his lungs out. While Theodore usually loves walking to his childcare centre, on this particular Monday morning he did not want to go to school, and he felt that the whole neighbourhood should know about it. To my mortification someone came out of their house to see what was going on. Another person walking by gave me a strange look. “What is she doing to that poor child?” the look said. With a To-Do list as long as my arm waiting... Read full article »