Let Trolls Eat Cake!

Maria Haymandou’s latest blog post is here!

To say that the Internet has revolutionized global communication is a redundant understatement.  It allows us to work from home, keep in touch with their college friends across the globe and of course ushered in the art of “trolling”, where people post incendiary comments to garner a response.  It’s become a huge part of the Internet world; the comment threads on any news site or YouTube video are filled to the brim with trolls, and in the most recent season of “South Park” trolling was the center of a season-long story arc.  

Trolling can be harmless, but it can also be a problem.  It’s easy to take a lot of the things that trolls say personally, and it plays a large part in the dark world of cyberbullying.  Twitter has been trying to combat the phenomenon, but trying to stop trolls is a difficult, some would say impossible task.  But I recently read about one service in Brooklyn has come up with a new, innovative method.  

“Troll Cakes” allows you to send trolls a custom cake with their hateful comments written on them.  So far, the venture is pretty new; owner Kat Thek started it not even a month ago with no formal pastry training.  Each “cake” is actually a chocolate chip brownie (as far as I can tell not poisoned) decorated with icing and various toppings.  So far the owner has only sent a handful of cakes, but the business is getting bigger.  The cakes come in a box with a printout of the original comments.  For an extra fee, Thek promises to track down the troll’s address and mail it directly to them, but her methods remain clouded in mystery.  

The company is based in Brooklyn, but they’ll ship anywhere in the US.  Thek even offers a deal where you can deliver your “preferred Trump Tweet” to the White House.  So far, a lot of the cakes have been sent to friends as a joke.  You can send them to trolls, or you can also troll your friends with a cake.  If that sounds like a good idea, you can visit the site!

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Stretches With a Tennis Ball

Maria Haymandou’s latest blog post is here!

Stretching out your lower body after a run is an essential part of your workout routine.  And if it isn’t, then you should make it one!  It offers all sorts of benefits, such as the reduction of tightness in your largest muscle groups, relieving potential pains, correcting muscular imbalances and even improving overall technique.  I recently read a post from the British-based blogger “Fitness On Toast” that shared some specific, unique types of stretches that you can try, each one of which uses a tennis ball.  Take a look!  

Gluteus stretch: Lying on your back, bend your knees and place one foot across your thigh.  Then place a tennis ball under the side of your butt cheek with the leg bent resting on the other thigh.  Move the ball around until you find a sore spot, then hold that position for 5-20 seconds.  Once the tension releases, move the ball to another position.  

Calf stretch: Sit upright on the floor with your back straight.  Place your legs straight out in front of you, and sit with your back against the wall.  Place the ball under the calf, and hold each sore spot for 5-20 seconds before moving onto the next sore spot.  

IT-band stretch: Sit on a flat surface on the ground, placing the outside of your thigh on top of the ball.  Hold your thigh gently in place over the ball and apply a tolerable amount of pressure for roughly 5-20 seconds.  Once you feel that the tension has decreased, move the ball to a lower part of the IT-band (this is a narrow band of muscle running on the outside of the thigh).  Repeat this until tension has decreased.

Hip flexors stretch: Lie face down and place your tennis ball under the front of your hip.  Move the ball around until you find a sore spot, and once you do, hold the ball in that position for 5 to 20 seconds or until tension has decreased. 

Hip stretch: Like on the ground on one side, placing your head under some sort of support (foam box, stack of books, pillow, etc).  Place the ball on the side of your hip, and slowly lean into it until you’ve found a sore spot.  Hold it on the sore spot for a few seconds before moving to another spot.  

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Getting Into the Spring Spirit

Maria Haymandou’s latest blog post is here!

As the flip-flopping weather of February and March comes to an end in New York City, plenty of people around me are getting ready for real spring weather; it’s nice out, the cold dips are less severe and less frequent, and restaurants are bringing out their outdoor tables and chairs for brunches.  Spring is traditionally a time for renewal, a “fresh start” if you will.  You can finally start going outside for your workouts, and it’s a great feeling.  Yet sometimes shaking off that winter “sluggishness” can be a bit of a challenge. In that case, here are some ways to refresh yourself, taken from the blog “Fit Bottomed Girls”:

Deep clean: You’ve heard of “Spring cleaning”, before; while it’s never that fun, it’s also pretty satisfying once you’ve finished it.  Most of us spend a lot of our time indoors during the winter, which means our homes tend to get dirty.  This is the best time to get rid of the dust bunnies under your couch and help you enjoy the warm spring days.  

Purge everything: Piggybacking on the above point, winter holidays bring an abundance of goodies and knicknacks that we may not actually need.  Purging all of the forgotten stuff you don’t need any more will not just give you more room, but also mean that you have less to worry about, move or store.  If you’re having trouble figuring out what you want to get rid of, then ask yourself if something you’re holding onto brings you joy.  If the answer is “no”, then get rid of it.

Grow an herb garden: This might sound a bit cliché, but growing an herb garden is a great spring activity; it offers you an excuse to go outside, connect with nature and get some sun.  It also lets you cultivate spices that can really improve your cooking.  

Unplug: Most of us depend on technology for work, planning or keeping in touch with our high school friends, but often times that technology also serves as a major distraction.  Nonetheless, unplugging for at least

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Urban Workout Tips

Maria Haymandou’s latest blog post is here!

New York has a lot of things, but there’s one thing it certainly doesn’t have: space.  That can make it hard to get in an effective workout, especially considering that gyms like Equinox and the NYHRC aren’t cheap.  Yet even if you don’t have a gym membership, there are still plenty of ways to get a great “urban workout”.  I recently read an article that shared some tips.  While the article was more geared towards Colorado, these tips are just as relevant in New York City.  Here’s what it had to say:

Go to the park: New York might be crowded and filled with people, but it’s also got plenty of parks.  But don’t stop with just running the length of the park; many of these parks have playgrounds as well, which feature plenty of equipment for a full-body workout.  For example, you can use the monkey bars, experimenting with speed and even practicing pull-ups.  Use benches as well to do step-ups or box jumps.  As long as you use your imagination, there’s an endless number of exercises you can try out at the park.

Bodyweight exercises: Luckily, bodyweight exercises don’t require much room; you don’t even need access to a park!  You can do them just as easily at home, on the street or pretty much anywhere you want to.  Tuck-jumps, push-ups, lunges and wall-sits are all easy to learn, if you haven’t done them already, and can be done in even the smallest studio apartment without rearranging too much furniture.  

HIIT it: HIIT stands for “high-intensity interval training”.  It’s one of the best ways to get the most out of your workout, and you don’t even have to go to the gym.  Simply alternate periods of high-intensity work with periods of lower intensity effort.  For example, try bursts of sprinting followed by slow jogs, or maybe bodyweight exercises separated by short rest periods.  

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The Benefits of Sleep

Maria Haymandou’s latest blog post is here!

When you’re a lawyer, you spend a lot of sleepless nights poring over law books and court documents.  So it’s hard for me to say “you should be sleeping!” when I myself don’t practice what I preach, but it’s hard to not emphasize the importance that sleeping plays in overall health.  Even though sleep used to be ignored, recent studies have looked at its benefits.  Here are a few of them:

Sleeping improves memory: During sleep, your mind undergoes a process known as “consolidation”, where you strengthen memories or “practice” skills that you learned while awake.  Your brain also helps reorganize and restructure these, which could result in more creativity by strengthening the emotional components of memory.  So if you’re trying to remember some legal cases, and think of creative ways to use them in an argument, you’ll do better after a good night’s sleep.  

Sleeping is linked with longevity: Too much or too little sleep is linked with a shorter lifespan, although whether that’s a cause or effect isn’t yet clear.  Sleeping also helps curb inflammation, which is linked to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, arthritis and premature aging.  

Sleeping gives you energy: A study from Stanford University found that college football players who tried to sleep at least 10 hours every night for seven to eight weeks were able to improve their average sprint time and stamina.  Similar studies done with tennis players and swimmers found the same results.  

Sleeping improves your grades: A 2010 study in the journal Sleep found that children between the ages of 10 and 16 who have sleep disordered breathing (snoring, sleep apnea, etc) are more likely to have problems with attention and learning.  In another study, college students who didn’t get enough sleep had worse grades.

Sleep sharpens your attention: A lack of sleep can result in ADHD-like symptoms in children.  A 2009 study in the journal Pediatrics found that children aged seven and eight who got under eight hours a sleep a night were more likely to be hyperactive, inattentive and impulsive.  

Sleep improves your weight: Researchers at the University of Chicago discovered that well-rested dieters lost more fat than those who were sleep-deprived.  Dieters in the study also felt more hungry when they got less sleep.  

Sleep lowers stress: Sleep has been known to reduce levels of stress, giving people better control of their blood pressure as well.  It’s also believed that sleep affects cholesterol levels, which plays a significant role in heart disease.

Sleep helps you avoid accidents: Drowsy driving is just as bad, if not worse, than drunk driving, and in 2009 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that it accounted for the highest number of fatal crashes.  Lack of sleep for just one night can be as detrimental to your driving as booze.  

Sleep helps fight depression: A lack of sleep can contribute to depression, and a good night’s sleep can do wonders in helping somebody decrease their anxiety.  Good sleep means more emotional stability.  It’s all about finding a balance; so that means don’t try to make up for lost time on the weekends!

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Sticking With Your Fitness Resolutions

Maria Haymandou’s latest blog post is here!

The standard “lose weight, be healthy” is a popular New Year’s resolution.  Yet it’s a resolution that’s broken just about as much as it’s promised.  It’s hard to keep up a fitness plan when the enthusiasm wanes in the face of time commitments and the realization that waking up at 6 in the morning to visit the gym doesn’t always make for an ideal morning.  Here are ten ways you can keep your health and fitness plan in place, taken from an article I read on wikiHow:

Make it a part of your schedule: Make working out as important to your daily schedule as everything else, and write it into your calendar.  This helps keep your fitness plan in place.  

Plan the best time of day: If you go when the gym is less crowded, then you’ll be more relaxed about keeping up with your routine.  Not only that, but you won’t find yourself waiting in line to use a machine.

Don’t overdo it: If you make your workout too intense, you’ll come out of it hurting and aching, which will make you dread going back.  Start your workouts out at about 20 minutes to an hour.  And of course don’t forget to stretch before starting.  

Set achievable goals that gradually grow: Setting concrete goals makes them more reachable, and helps encourage you to keep going.  Once you’ve achieved these goals, set your next goals a bit higher.  

Keep a fitness diary: Include not just what you do at the gym, but also what you’re eating, so you can see what works and what doesn’t.  This will let you adjust your workout to focus on problem areas.  

Vary your exercises: Mix it up; maybe do aerobics one day and treadmill the next.  Try to mix up your weight routine as well to make sure you use all your muscles.  

Get a buddy: Getting somebody to come with you offers some social interaction and encouragement when you feel like giving up.  It also keeps you accountable.  

Try a personal trainer: Start by developing a health and fitness routine with your personal trainer to watch and encourage you to keep going.  

Make yourself go religiously (at least at the beginning): It takes a while to see results, so if you keep that in your mind, then you’ll be more likely to stick with it.  They say it takes four weeks before you notice a change, six weeks before your friends notice and eight weeks before everybody else does.  

Find a way to get back into things if you face a setback: Most people drop their health and fitness routines when they miss workouts.  So make sure you go back as soon as possible and keep going.  

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Sizzle Pie Coming To Bushwick

Maria Haymandou’s latest blog post is here!

Although it’s Italian in origin, pizza’s real home is arguably across the Atlantic in New York City.  The loyalties of some may lie elsewhere, but all New Yorkers know that the best pizza can be found within the five boroughs.  You can find pizza on every corner, ranging from the more sitdown establishments to dollar slice joints.  New York is so proud of its pizza that other varieties, such as the white clam made famous in New Haven or the deep dish known to Chicagoans, can seldom be found in New York, and even if they are, they’re often greeted with hostility.  Take, for example, the Pizzeria Uno in the Upper West Side, which most New Yorkers disdain almost as much as Times Square and is only in existence because its location across from the Museum of Natural History makes it ideal for tourists who don’t want to wait in line for Shake Shack.  

But with that being said, it looks like foreign pizza is coming to Brooklyn.  Namely, the Oregon-based Sizzle Pie, a heavy metal-themed chain that can be found throughout the Pacific Northwest, will be opening a location in Bushwick.  Yet how Sizzle Pie can compete with such legendary Bushwick pizza institutions like Roberta’s has yet to be seen.  Sizzle Pie serves vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free pizzas, along with a beer and wine menu.  For a style of food where two of the main ingredients are cheese and dough, gluten-free vegan pizza is an interesting gimmick, without a doubt, but it isn’t new, especially in a hipster neighborhood like Bushwick.

Portland Eater presented details of the plan presented by owners Matt Jacobson and Mikey McKennedy after reading news of the expansion in the publication Pizza Today.  Also, the fact that Pizza Today is a publication seriously made my day.  

Sizzle Pie’s new New York location will require new permits and plenty of work before it can finally open, which the owners estimate could take between six to nine months, if not even longer.

If you’d like to learn more, you can click here!

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Anton’s Dumplings

Maria Haymandou’s latest blog post is here!

Dumplings are a cross-cultural culinary phenomenon, and come in all forms.  Whether they’re pierogis in Greenpoint, soup dumplings in Chinatown or artisanal vegan potstickers in Williamsburg, they can be found all over the city.  While pierogis are the most famous Eastern European dumpling, Belarusian-born Anton Yelyashkevich is trying to change that with his food truck outside the W4th subway station, “Anton’s Dumplings”.  The food truck serves the traditional Russian dumpling pelmeni, which cost $6 for a “small” and $11 for a “large”.  They offer such fillings as Siberian (a traditional Russian mixture of beef and pork), chicken and potato.

While Pelmeni are popular among the Russian community in Brighton Beach (Skovorodka serves the best, in my opinion), they’re still a relatively new phenomenon everywhere else in the city.  A lot of New Yorkers don’t understand the concept of pelmeni, therefore the truck offers free samples.  Educating patrons on the pelmeni allows them to start talking to people and showing that Anton’s is a fun company as opposed to any other food cart.  Back in the colder months, they had a promotional offer where you would get free pelmeni if you ate them shirtless.  

There are all sorts of toppings offered for the pelmeni, the most popular being the traditional sour cream and scallions, just like they’re served in Brighton Beach.  Some other toppings include soy sauce, sriracha and teriyaki.  All of these toppings are free, apart from a $1 dousing of smoked gouda.  

While it started out looking like just any regular novelty, Anton’s Dumplings has slowly gained popularity, and has even earned the attention of the New York Times.  Yelyashkevich and the head chef have been testing all sorts of meal combinations, such as the “Drunk Russian” – hangover essentials on top of dumplings – on Saturday nights.  The food truck can be found outside the West 4th station Tuesday – Thursday 12 pm – 11 pm and Fridays and Saturdays 12 pm – 2 am.  

If you’d like to learn more, you can click here!

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Workouts For Your Mindset

Maria Haymandou’s latest blog post is here!

Everybody has a different approach to doing things, and that includes fitness.  While some of us are more comfortable with a well-structured routine, others would prefer a more free-form approach, and others like to mix it up even more.  All of these approaches can be successful, yet you need to adopt an effective routine to get the best results.  I recently came across an article that analyzes the different mindsets for exercise, their pros and cons and what you can do to make the best out of them.

Fixed planning mindset

People with this sort of mindset tend to be happier knowing what they’re supposed to do every day, and make plans to stick to this schedule.  When we automate our approach to life, we use fewer cognitive resources, which allows you to keep on track in the face of adversity.  Yet if you can’t reach your goals, with this mindset you’ll be particularly upset if you can’t meet your goals.

Without flexibility, your plans might fracture, so if that happens make sure you have alternate plans.  For example, if you miss your morning workout, give yourself permission to do something different instead of feeling frustrated.  Embrace a change of plans as a good way to mix things up and give yourself a break.  If you prefer to be “perfect”, then have compassion with yourself when things go awry, which can help you stay motivated to continue.

Flexible planning mindset

Studies show that people who can be flexible with their behavioral plans and goals tend to be better at managing themselves over time.  It’s also linked to being happier and healthier, and is thought to reflect a more committed and values-based approach to goals.  Yet if you take flexibility too far, plans can easily fall apart before you even make them.  And needing to plan a completely different workout at a different time every day uses a ton of cognitive resources, which can become overwhelming and freeze you in indecision.

Try to make one firm physical activity plan for the week.  Whatever you plan, commit to it as a chance to learn and evaluate how it goes, and use the new data for future workout routines.

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Working Out This Winter

Maria Haymandou’s latest blog post is here!

Without a gym membership, it can be easy to feel lost with staying shape this winter.  Skiing and ice hockey can be fun, but they’re costly and require plenty of travel, training and planning.  But don’t let any of that discourage you, because all you need is some basic equipment and a bit of creativity to stay in shape this winter.  Here are some low-cost ideas to keep fit outside of the gym this winter, from an article I found on active.com:

Stairs: Running or walking up and down the stairs in your home or apartment building can be a great high-intensity cardio and leg workout.  For those starting out, you can try to add walking intervals for every few hours.  For example, leave the stairwell and walk the length of the hallway and back before starting up again.

Ice skating: This is a great aerobic and social workout, that you can do free of charge in some areas.  Even if you can’t do triple axels, you can still pick up the pace and get your heart pumping, while skating backwards can help you work your muscles in unique ways.

Indoor sports: Try joining a team or individual sports program; competition levels can range from recreational to expert.  The most cost-effective programs are typically run by local municipalities where gym space at a local school or community center is secured and people can drop in for a game.

Mall walking: If it’s too cold to walk outdoors, then take a stop at your local mall and walk there.  A brisk one-hour walk can burn 300 to 400 calories for the average person.  If the mall has multiple levels, try climbing stairs or walking up escalators.

Home workouts: YouTube has plenty of indoor aerobic routines that can pay off when lack of space is an issue.  If you have weights, resistance bands, a skipping rope, stability ball, trampoline or other equipment, then that can be used for a great full-body workout.

Dancing: For more fun and less structure, find your favorite dance song and get jiggy with it.  Dancing to your favorite songs from “back in the day” is a great quick workout right there.

Active TV viewing: If you don’t want to miss your favorite TV show, you can try jogging, skipping, push ups and squats while you’re watching it.

Snow sprints: Find an open field with some water-resistant shoes and an appropriate number of layers.  Since ice doesn’t tend to form on grass, running on a field of fresh fallen snow is usually safe, so try running, jogging, jumping and playing in the snow.

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