I'm a Fitness Trainer and I Swear By These 10 At-Home Workouts
Plus learn how to hack your marinara, snag four celebrity-adored recipes, discover what the shape of a bottle of wine can tell you about what's inside, and more.
I hope you all had a rejuvenating and beautiful weekend! I appreciate your patience as I scooted last Monday’s regularly-scheduled What’s Good to this week due to a trip to New York City for a very inspiring Cherry Bombe Jubilee conference. It was such a quick yet cup-filling getaway! Here’s a quick recap and one of my top takeaways.
Since we last connected, I enjoyed several sensational meals out with pals in Manhattan and Des Moines, built countless new muscle cells (see more on this below in “What to Try…”) and was able to geek out about more than 2 dozen story topics, ranging from supplements and Swifties to pasta sauce and plant-based protein.
With a robust round-up of newly-published pieces and an overshare bonus section below, I’ll keep this introduction brief so we can dive right in.
But before we do, as a reminder, What’s Good regularly comes out every 2 weeks. If you’d like to stay in touch in the meantime, please come hang with me on Instagram! There, I share more snapshots of daily life, take you along on my trips, offer product and podcast recommendations and pepper in some silly and hopefully thought-provoking quotes that catch my eye.
What to Read…
One of my remaining 40 before 40 bucket list items is to pass my Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) level 2 award in wine, and I’m so grateful that part of my career allows me to refresh my knowledge about this space—while learning a few new facts, too. I’m having a blast creating a series of new wine explainer pieces for Food & Wine, including two that are already live.
Speaking of series, after interviewing the host of one of my favorite podcasts, Dan Pashman of The Sporkful, I was able to write two stories featuring wisdom from his beautiful new book, Anything’s Pastable. The first is live on BHG now and you can dive in below, the second is coming soon on CNN!
After checking out those stories, keep poking around because I’m revealing a handful of celebrities’ favorite recipes, clearing up misunderstandings about dietary cholesterol, highlighting some of the best plant-based protein sources and explaining why folks on TikTok are washing their pre-shredded cheese (and answering if you should, too).
Food & Wine: How Long Does Wine Last After Opening?
Food & Wine: Here's What the Shape of a Wine Bottle Is Telling You
Better Homes and Gardens: The "Anything's Pastable" Author Elevates Jarred Sauce with These 1-Ingredient Hacks
Better Homes and Gardens: Can You Freeze Cilantro? You Bet—Here Are 3 of the Best Ways
Better Homes and Gardens: Does Olive Oil Go Bad? Yes, But These Tips Will Help Keep it Fresh Longer
Better Homes and Gardens: Does Honey Expire? Not Really—But We’re Revealing Its “Best By” Date
Better Homes and Gardens: Your Cream Cheese Frosting Is Missing These 2 Ingredients, Ina Garten Says
Better Homes and Gardens: Pasta Casserole Recipes For Every Season and Craving
Better Homes and Gardens: Our Best Almond Recipes (They Seriously Make Our Readers Go Nuts)
Better Homes and Gardens: Should You Wash Shredded Cheese for Better Melting? Our Test Kitchen Has Answers
Better Homes and Gardens: The Recipe You Should Make Based on Your Favorite Taylor Swift Album
Allrecipes: Scarlett Johansson Orders This Relatable Comfort Food Wherever She Goes
Allrecipes: Sammy Davis Jr.’s Favorite Comfort Food Is One We Can All Relate To
Allrecipes: Katharine Hepburn’s #1 Trick for the Best Brownies Is Totally Brilliant
Allrecipes: Carol Burnett’s Favorite Cocktail Is as Timeless as She Is
Allrecipes: Pepsi Is Debuting 2 New Flavors That Are Perfect for Summer
Southern Living: Chick-Fil-A Just Revealed An Unexpected Recipe Made With One Of Their Signature Menu Items
Southern Living: The Real Reason Why Chick-Fil-A Is Closed On Sundays
Hone Health: The Best Thyroid Supplements, According to RDs
dsm Magazine: New Chef Blazes a Trail at Trailside Tap
HealthCentral: Chicken or Beef: Which One Has Less Cholesterol?
Peloton: 7 Stability Exercises to Help You Build Functional Strength
Peloton: How to Rehydrate Safely and Quickly, According to Dietitians
Peloton: The 9 Best Plant-Based Protein Sources, According to Dietitians
What to Try…
Sydney Cummings YouTube Channel
In the thick of my eating disorder, I was on a mission to move, eat and exist to be small.
The mental math was almost as exhausting as the brutal physical regimen. Each day, a calculator in my brain was taking note of calories consumed and burned; all with a mission to make the biggest differential between out and in. (ICYMI, that whole calories in vs. calories out philosophy is total B.S.—here’s why.) RIP to all of those many months I wasn’t able to be fully present—mentally and physically—because I was either stressing about what I was going to eat or in the gym pounding away on a treadmill until I reached a certain number that felt like “winning.”
My parents helped me realize the deep hole I fell down, and I was lucky enough to enlist a team of medical experts to help me see the light and eventually, finally, be able to consciously uncouple calorie burning from moving my body.
Now that I was free to choose what felt good rather than was most “efficient,” I proceeded to dabble in a variety of different forms of fitness to find what spoke to my soul and felt most empowering.
Reflecting back on my younger days as a carefree kid, I’ve always loved to move. A living room wasn’t for lounging, it was my dance floor. During and for months after the 1996 Olympics, masking tape stretched across the family room wasn’t just tape, it was a makeshift balance beam for me to tinker around with my twirls and leaps. And the neighborhood pool? You’d find me splashing around and playing Shark and Marco Polo from open to close every day during summer. No wonder I ended up double majoring in magazine journalism and kinesiology.
Once I was at a safe and healthy weight to exercise again after seeking much-needed treatment, I channeled that child-like carefree, joyful nature as I started to dip my toe back in. What followed was like an “Eras Tour” of exercise: Dance video games in my dorm room, running 5Ks to half-marathons, hot yoga, CrossFit, hiking, biking, and after getting certified in personal training and group fitness, teaching everything from HIIT to indoor cycling classes.
I found so much delight in relishing in what my body could do (which is quite miraculous, especially after what I put her through) and how invigorated she could feel, rather than lasering in on what she looked like. It was such a joy to be able to try to help my class attendees to be able to reframe their relationship with movement, too.
Once the pandemic hit, I stepped away from teaching at CycleBar, and was exploring what “city” to visit next on this metaphorical movement tour. I wanted something that helped me maintain—or possibly even grow—the muscle that had finally enabled me to do a pull-up. Whew, I had never felt like more of a badass than when I had that first chin-over-bar moment.
Then I remembered a story I had penned for SHAPE about the 25 best YouTube workout accounts. I scrolled through the options, then tried the one that seemed most aligned with my goals: Sydney Cummings. More than four years later, I’m delighted to share that she’s still my “trainer.”
Sydney is a former collegiate athlete with a perspective that’s all about growth: physically, mentally and emotionally. The way she talks about movement and bodies really speaks to me, and the thousands of workouts she’s programmed, filmed and shared with the world have helped me gain strength and release stress. I look forward to starting my day with one of her routines, and sprinkle in a 20-minute flexibility or mobility sessions every afternoon to move my bones after a few hours of dedicated desk time.
Sydney’s archives include everything from cardio to core to tabata. These days with my growth goals, I’m sticking with routines that focus on strength. (P.S. I also take 1 to 2 full days off per week, because that’s a major factor in gains, too!) Besides her routines, my fitness plan includes al fresco walking, and occasionally hiking and biking.
In tandem with these 15 high-protein foods and eating enough, I have a much different mental and physical frame today than when we started this story, about 20 years ago. I move to play like my younger self, and to build skills that will support vitality for my older self. I move, eat and exist to be solid and strong—inside and out.
I speak from experience from doing these for about 2 years in a one-bedroom apartment: You only need a yoga mat, about 6 feet by 6 feet of space and a set or two of dumbbells to join the party. If you’d like to join me on this joyful, empowering stop of the tour, here are 10 Sydney Cummings workouts I find myself returning to again and again:
I’d love to know: How and why do you move your body?