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We’ve already ranted and raved about the rising food and dining movements you can expect to see this year—now it’s time to comb through the buzziest healthy eating trends. To help us understand which are actually good for you and which you’re better off skipping, we tapped Margie Saidel, RD, LDN, MPH, vice president of nutrition and sustainability for Chartwells K12. Trends to Try Eating for Physical and Mental Well-Being “Our collective experience with COVID-19 reminds us that both physical and mental health can be transient,” says Saidel....

Stop Making “Mulching Volcanos” A layer of mulch around your trees helps protect them from mower blades and prevents soil from drying out. But piling it up like a volcano around your tree traps moisture against the trunk, which can cause rot. Additionally, when mulch is too deep, it prevents tree roots from getting the oxygen they need. “Always mulch out and not up,” says Daniel S. Bauer, an arborist, and president of Arbor Equity Inc....

With a few watermelon tricks from the National Watermelon Promotion Board and Lee Wroten, vice president of Global Produce Sales in Lakeland, Florida, you’ll know how to pick a perfect watermelon that’s brimming with sweetness and juice. The next time you head to the grocery store or farmers market, keep the four S’s in mind. They’ll help you learn how to pick a ripe watermelon with the best flavor....

While using your credit card does come with benefits, you don’t want to put all your purchases on your credit card and potentially go into debt. Plus, you can keep an eye out for sales and deals over the next few months to get your presents early and make them more thoughtful. If you have been good about saving and sticking to a budget all year, there’s no reason that should go out the window come the holiday season....

Consider a few of these last-minute back-up plans. It comes from the island of Mauritius, just off the coast of Africa, and is much darker than your usual brown sugar variety. As a result, it’s much richer in flavor. You’ll likely notice its delicious caramel flavor and slightly smoky aftertaste, which is why it can be found in everything from ginger cookies to barbecue sauce. One more perk? It’s known for being moister than other sugars, so it won’t clump together when used in baking recipes....

Protein can be found in every cell of your body," says Amy Shapiro, MS, RD, CDN and founder of Real Nutrition. “Eating protein helps to maintain these cells, helps muscle and tissue repair and growth, and aids digestion and hormone balance.” Eating protein can also help you feel full for longer and balance blood sugar levels, which means when you start your day with a high-protein breakfast you can say goodbye to that midmorning energy crash that has you reaching for a second (or third) cup of coffee....

If you’ve ever aspired to have a home that feels finished–one that’s carefully considered and intentionally decorated—then these little decor tips are for you. Here are five simple ways to make every room in your home feel more complete. If you don’t have a green thumb, start with a hard-to-kill houseplant. For extra oomph, consider investing in plants that sit at varying heights, like a pothos that suspends from the ceiling, a towering fiddle leaf fig, or a fern elevated on a plant stand....

I don’t drink coffee, so I’ve become quite the avid hot chocolate drinker. When everyone else is getting coffee and you’re at a coffee shop, it’s just not fun to drink water so I always order a hot chocolate. I’ve had some really good hot chocolates before and some really not great, watered down, ones. I’ll be honest, I regularly grab the hot chocolate mix packets and just make myself a mug at home but there’s just nothing like homemade hot chocolate – not even the packets....

Thankfully, the Environmental Working Group and other eco-friendly surveyors have dug deep into many beauty brands’ ingredients lists—to help us decipher which ones really measure up to those “clean” beauty claims. This list of recommendations will help you upgrade your self-care stock to human-friendly and plastic-free alternatives you can actually afford. Meant to last a month, these bundles are priced at less than $42 each. Old pros know the hidden value of this holistic skin care line’s compounding effects....

1. Rhubarb-Bacon Jam Rhubarb jam uses up extra stalks of this fresh summer veggie (yes, it’s a veggie!), but many jam recipes have tons of extra sugar. But instead of using scoops of sugar, this recipe gets sweeter with a squeeze of maple syrup. Smokey bacon and tart red onion keep this healthy rhubarb recipe from becoming overly sweet, making it great for savory spreads. 2. Paleo Pork and Rhubarb Skillet Fresh rhubarb goes savory in this delicious Paleo dinner recipe....

5 Reasons You Should Be Drinking Canned Wine (if You’re Not Already) If you’ve had reservations about trying canned wine or are just looking for some recommendations from experts, here’s what to know. 1. It’s no longer the new kid on the block. And that’s a good thing.With nearly 20 years on the market—The Family Coppola ushered in the American canned wine era with its Sofia Mini Blanc de Blancs in 2004—winemakers have had time to perform extensive testing and adjusted their processes to ensure canned wine doesn’t taste one bit tinny....

As you probably guessed, we quickly learned that there’s no perfect property out there—not in our price range, not in our desired area, and definitely not in a crazy-competitive, real estate market. Quicker than you can say “dream on,” we downgraded items on our well-intentioned wish list from must-haves (like marble countertops and finished basements) to let’s-try-our-best (like intact window panes and plumbing from this half-century). But when confronted with the reality of, well…reality, there was one real estate pipe dream I refused to give up on: buying an old house....

To get the low down, we checked in with the Insurance Information Institute and several travel industry pros who’ve been there and done that. From where to book (on an aggregator site or directly through the rental car company?) to how to ask for an upgrade (hint: You always should!), here’s how to ensure you snag a good deal on a cheap rental car. Book Directly Check an aggregator site, like Kayak or Skyscanner, for a sense of rates, says Justin Zackham, who wrote the film The Bucket List and is traveling the globe with his wife and kids....

1. Stunning Stair Runners With options as varied as sophisticated tweeds, playful polka dots, saturated hues, and natural fibers, stair runners have won the hearts of homeowners, including more than 56,000 tags on Instagram. And it’s not just because staircases are prime spots to add a little personality. “Aside from an exciting design aesthetic, stair and hall runners add an extra layer of safety on those slippery hardwoods,” says Matt Lovetere, co-founder and CEO of The Carpet Workroom....

Scrubbing Grout Fun fact: Most grout can get cleaned effectively with hot water and a stiff-bristled brush. But really, the big draw here is that cleaning grout takes effort, and since you’re sort of oddly bent over the tub, your core is usually engaged. Hello, physical challenge! Use all that bottled-up rage to get your grout back to its original glory. Vacuuming The heavier your vacuum, the better. Pushing a large, loud machine around the carpet can be surprisingly cathartic....

The tradition is similar to Elf on the Shelf at Christmastime but with way less work for Mom and Dad. Rather than moving an elf to a new location each night, you set up a leprechaun trap the night before St. Patrick’s Day. If you wake up to find gold coins or treasure in the trap, you’ll know you’ve caught a leprechaun. The best part about this tradition is that it can be easily executed by the kids—all you have to do is add the coins once they’re asleep (unless a leprechaun beats you to it)....

Luckily, there are more than a few flight booking sites, apps, and tools that make it so much easier to find good prices on travel. Mostly, these sites leave me feeling much more confident in my purchase; I can rest (and, soon, fly) easy knowing I did everything I could to save money on my flight. Most of these flight booking sites have actual websites, but downloading the apps can get you the best versions....

“Feet take a beating,” says Christopher Neville, PT, PhD, president of the Foot and Ankle Special Interest Group (part of the Academy of Orthopaedic Physical Therapy), and associate professor in the Department of Physical Therapy Education at SUNY Upstate Medical University. “Feet are amazingly resilient, though, with what we put them through every day.” In most cases, sore feet are just that: They’re tired from a long day and they are nothing to worry about....

This may come as a surprise to you: Pumpkin spice has no actual pumpkin flavor. Instead, the flavor we associate with pumpkin baked goods is a mixture of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice used in pumpkin recipes. Individually, each of these spices is quite special on its own, but together, they create a warm and tingling combination that evokes cravings for chilly nights by the campfire and cozy flannel shirts....

With IBS, which stands for Irritable Bowel Syndrome, your large intestine doesn’t function normally, which leads to a variety of unpleasant symptoms. The illness doesn’t spiral into any serious medical conditions, but IBS can heavily impact your quality of life. It’s not unusual for the symptoms of IBS to sideline you from social outings and work. Behind the common cold, IBS is the second most common reason why people call out from work, according to the American College of Gastroenterology(ACG)....