A round-up of what we’re reading right now. 

An editor of a luxury magazines claims that the “only good cyclist is a dead one.” Madness ensues. [Via Bike Biz]

Want to be more productive in your job? Get out of the office and start working from home. [Via Wired]

Men vs. women: who is healthier? [Via Organic Authority]

Hear about the study finding “no significant health benefit” to organic food? Here is Michael Pollan’s response. [Via KQED]

Snail shell miniature gardens: yes you will want to make this. [Via Treehugger]

Planning a trip to Portland? Then you will need a guide to the 20 best coffeehouses and roasters. [Via Eater]

Trip planning for river lovers: the top 10 river towns in America. [Via Outside]

Help support art as activism, with a photo exhibit that captures the beauty of real life in Afghanistan. [Via Kickstarter]

If there are still Republicans people out there that are confused about how reproduction works, this video from the 1940s should explain it. [Via The Atlantic]

Co-ops aren’t just for hippies, they’re responsible business models. [Via GOOD]

What does our actual human footprint look like? A visualization of the density levels and population size of 129 metropolitan regions gives us an idea. [Via LSE Cities]

Image: Ian Sane

The post Link Love: The ‘Only Good Cyclist is a Dead One,’ Sex Education from the 1940s, and Why People That Work From Home Are More Productive appeared first on EcoSalon.

Trade the studio for the grass. 

Now that summer is on its way, it’s time to take your indoor fitness routines outdoors. We’ll show you how.

Tip #1:  Grab your mat and get thee to the beach, a park, or a local rooftop.

Few things are more demoralizing than doing sun salutations indoors when the sun is actually out, or spending two hours of your precious summer days within the confines of a studio. Outdoor yoga is already popular in beach towns and tropical destinations, especially at retreats that combine yoga with other outdoor activities, such as surfing, hiking, and kayaking. A quick Google search can help travelers locate appropriate retreats.

For urbanites, many large yoga outfitters and studios now sponsor public outdoor (and free!) classes, and some major cities, like New York City, are getting in on the action. There are also an increasing number of local studios that offer rooftop classes in places void of green space. If you don’t have access to any of these options, you can always grab your mat and take it to your deck or a quiet, flat section of your lawn.

Here are five tips to make your outdoor yoga experience more fun and effective:

Sierra is the magazine of the Sierra Club. Our motto: Explore, Enjoy, and Protect the Planet. Follow Sierra magazine on Twitter.

Image: alainamcbride

The post Take Your Yoga Practice Into the Sun appeared first on EcoSalon.

You’ll have better sex and you can eat as much as you want. 

Living a conscious lifestyle also means living an active lifestyle, and today we’re celebrating National Running Day.

Running often gets a bad name, so if you’re already thinking to yourself, “but I just hate running,” keep reading. There’s no reason to hate a sport that lets you get outside, move your body, meet new people and travel to cool places. Embrace the fact that your body is capable of some pretty amazing things and put it to use. Now.

If there was ever a time to lace up your shoes, grab a friend and hit the trail, it’s today. Need a little inspiration? Here are 14 reasons running is even more amazing than you thought it was, and if you get all the way through them, you’ll see that we’re even giving you a chance to win some new running gear. Lace up.

1. You can rave about how you’re living a low impact lifestyle

No gym membership needed, just yourself, your running clothes and your shoes. It doesn’t get much greener than that.

2. You can feel good about being a foodie

When you’re running regularly, you need to refuel, which means you get to indulge in the most delicious of high protein, high energy dishes. Start the day with a kale, ginger smoothie and baked egg in avocado, pop a few almond, fig energy bites post workout and end the day with a bowl of vegan alfredo. Yes, please.

3. You will save money on therapy and life coaches

Best debrief time? In the middle of a run. Some of the best life analysis comes along when you’re in the middle of breathing fresh air with a clear head.

4. You can get away from your computer and go outside

Instead of sticking to the gym, why not take the time to get outside and enjoy the spring weather and fresh air? Find a trail and get on it.

5. It’s a cheap way to socialize

Skip that post-work session of cocktails and catch up over intervals.

6. You can start citing inspirational quotes

Keep a few on hand so when someone is complaining about how mediocre they have been feeling late you can retort with health-related quotes like:

• To keep the body in good health is a duty, otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear. -Buddha
• The greatest wealth is health. -Virgil
• Health and cheerfulness naturally beget each other. -Joseph Addison

7. You can listen to music that’s so bad it’s good

No one is going to judge your mixtape of 80s aerobic music and dubstep remixes when you’re working out, so make a fun playlist or try one of ours.

8. You will be less stressed than your friends

In a study at the University of Georgia Department of Exercise, researchers showed that an hour of exercise was three times more effective at reducing anxiety than resting. So stop counting to ten and put on your running shoes, because you’re about to be on the path to full-on, blissed out zen.

9. There’s this thing called “Runner’s High”

It feels good, is scientifically proven and is perfectly legal.

10. You can start making excuses for travel

Catch the running bug and you’ll find yourself researching running events around the country. And with running series like Color Run and travel companies like Running Away, which specializes in trips for runners, you’ll soon have a packed running calendar that just might take you all the way around the world.

11. You’ll look better online

Muddy shoe photos on Instagram? So hot right now.

12. You can change the world

Or at least support and organization that is changing the world. There are plenty of charity running events out there, find one and go.

13. You’ll have better sex

There is plenty of scientific research to back this up, but who needs it? You know perfectly well that when you’re feeling good about yourself and your body, the rest comes naturally.

14. Running tights feel simply amazing

You can finally stop feeling guilty about wearing those workout clothes in public, because this time around, you actually did just finish up a run. If you have never felt the super power of running tights, it’s time to start. And wasn’t it about time you looked good in spandex? We say yes.

In celebration of National Running Day, we’re giving away a running outfit from Moving Comfort, complete with two of their sleekest sustainable items: a pair of Momentum Shorts made with 86% recycled polyester and the Juno Bra, whose cups are made with SCafe, a fabric that uses recycled coffee grounds to move moisture.

To enter to win, tell us your favorite reason to run! Comments must be posted by June 12, 2012 11pm PST to be entered.

Image: informatique

The post 14 Reasons Running is Going to Be Your New Favorite Sport appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnA stove, a tent and a sunset is the formula for appreciating simple food.

Mediocre wine is excellent if you have a view, coffee is exponentially more delicious when brewed after a night in a tent, and trail mix can compete with the fanciest hors d’oeuvre when you’re in the middle of a hike. It’s simple: food always tastes better outdoors.

I was thinking of this in the process of drinking a mug of wine, overlooking a horizon of red rock formations last week. Dirtbags, sunsets and merlot do go hand in hand after all.

I was on the tail end of a trip and my father insisted I take a few days off the grid and get outside. Fathers often know best, so I accepted his invitation and was soon in one of my favorite landscapes of North America, the slickrock country of Southeastern Utah, peppered with canyons, arches and beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

Three days of hiking and sleeping under the stars requires fuel, and while for many food is an afterthought, for me it’s the number two priority, second only to water.

There is a certain formula to food when you’re camping. Keep it simple. Invest in good peanut butter. Always have some fresh fruit that can last a few days. This was all instilled in me as a small child, growing up spending summers in a tent across the Pacific Northwest.

The memory of hot chocolate on brisk summer mornings in some far off campground are still clear in my mind. My father would fuel up our old Svea stove, mom would create some fancy one-pot concoction – there is a family standard recipe of couscous with pine nuts and dried apricots that I first remember eating on the Oregon coast – and we would pull out our blue and red checkered tablecloth, intended only for outdoor eating occasions. There was a process; we didn’t leave good food when we left the house, we carried it, and a routine dedicated to appreciating good food, with us.

That process quickly wore off on me, making quesadillas on a kayaking trip at the age of ten that has become another standard family backcountry recipe. Which meant my father was overjoyed when I busted out a new rendition on this recent trip with a sauteed portobello, sweet potato, red pepper combination. But it’s not because I’m a foodie-freak that’s packing a kit of sea salt and fancy spices (although I do believe in always having curry powder and cinnamon along) that food in the outdoors is good. It’s because it’s simple.

Be it on a camping trip or on a picnic, we all have strong attachments to eating outdoors. The second it gets warm we flock to outdoor patios and plan picnics. Think about your favorite moments from last summer and I’ll bet one of them involves an outdoor meal. There is an undeniable connection between food and being outside that not only gives us time to appreciate nature, but makes food taste better in the process. Dig out an apple and peanut butter from your backpack on a hike and it will most certainly taste better than it does when you’re in front of your computer in need of an afternoon snack.

But why does food taste better outdoors? Because in our everyday lives, we are removed from the effort that is involved in food and when we’re outdoors, we’re reminded of what that process looks and feels like.

There was a time when we were responsible for hunting our own food, whittling spearheads out of rock and chasing wild animals in nothing but our bare feet. We foraged for edible plants. Later we industrialized the process, but were still responsible for running farms, waking before dawn to milk the cows and living in rhythm with the seasons as we tilled our own land.

Nowadays, the large majority of us are almost completely detached from that process. Our meat comes on styrofoam beds wrapped in plastic, our milk in cartons and our salad from an aisle that’s doused with refreshing water at regular intervals. Besides the actual preparation of a meal, our most “laborious” moments come from a trip to the grocery story, and if we’re feeling extra lazy, eating can be as simple as picking up the phone, dialing a number and rummaging through your wallet to make sure you have enough cash when the delivery person shows up.

Add a dose of the outdoors into that equation and things immediately change.

If you’re backpacking, you have to haul your food by your own means. If you’re car camping, you have to get creative with what you’re making and do without the usual luxuries of running water and a large stove. Eating outdoors forces us to think more about what we’re eating and truly engage with the process of putting it on the table. We’re still not taking on the labors of working the farm or hunting our own food, but things that are simple and require little thought at home suddenly require more work and attention.

Even boiling water, normally a task we do at home, sleepy-eyed and barely conscious, takes more thought than usual. Because we can’t just open the refrigerator or pantry, instead of mindlessly consuming, in the outdoors, we think about meal times in a different way. We revert to something more fundamental, breathing fresh air and eating food that we put work into making, two activities that are basic, yet essential to our well-being. We’re not texting, we’re not tweeting, we’re not analyzing, we’re just eating.

Food tastes better outdoors because we simplify. We take down all the walls that our everyday routines require us to put up, and we enjoy food for food’s sake.

A worn tablecloth. A spork. A bowl of sauteed vegetables. A group of friends taking the time to reconnect. A view. A sunset. A dinner with no distractions. That’s even better than the best food truck.

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s weekly column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground, discovering what’s new and different in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to the culinary avant garde.

Images: Anna Brones

The post Foodie Underground: The Beauty of Eating Outdoors appeared first on EcoSalon.

Soot, screeching sirens and forbidding skyscrapers; is this your definition of the big city? Think again. The urban landscape might seem like the epicenter of everything that’s wrong with the world, but in fact cities are where some of the most interesting components of the green movement are currently taking place.

With everything from urban farms and electric cars, large cities are surprisingly livable, and now there’s another trend on the rise: urban hiking. Living the city life has long been equated with staying indoors and neglecting to feed our human need for spending time in nature, but the onslaught of urban hiking tours is showing us that it is in fact possible to get outside, be active and explore new places in the process.

What is Urban Hiking?

Forget the days of mindlessly jumping in a taxi to go from point A to point B. Urban hiking is all about planning, executing and enjoying the journey, another great example of slow travel. According to the Urban Dictionary, urban hiking is “the exploration of diverse urban environments on foot.” Conservation and travel groups alike promote urban hiking, as it not only gets people outdoors and active, but also allows them to explore the ins and outs of urban landscapes.

Choose a Theme

The key to a great urban hike is planning. Pick a theme to your hike so you can choose specific points of interest to visit. This allows you to explore a certain aspect of the city you’re in and makes it easier to plan an itinerary. Here are some possible themes to consider:

1. Local food – Find three restaurants or cafes that all focus on serving local food and plan for an appetizer at each.
2. Markets – Markets abound in big cities – Paris and San Francisco in particular come to mind – and offer everything from local foods to crafts. Pick out a few you want to explore and track your route.
3. Parks – For a more natural experience, explore the green spaces that your urban environment has to offer. Choose a few within a walkable distance and pack a picnic item for each.
4. Architecture – Explore the designs and spaces that make the city that you’re in unique. Cities like Los Angeles have already started offering architecture-inspired guided urban hikes.
5. Art galleries – If you want a chicer urban hike, give it an art theme. Many cities offer an Art Walk on a certain night of the month. This is a great chance to plan a quick and easy urban hike itinerary. Plot out some of your favorite galleries that you want to check out and end the evening with a glass of wine at a local bistro.

Planning your route

Easy tools like Google’s pedometer will help you track how far you will be walking. Plan realistically; if you’re going with a group of friends, you’ll go at a slower pace than you expect. Assume you’ll cover about one or two miles per hour. A great day trip could be 5 or 6 miles with several stopping points incorporated, keeping you active but also ensuring that the day is enjoyable.

Be sure to bring

Just because you’re in the city doesn’t mean you can throw traditional hiking rules of thumb out the window. Carry a bottle of water and some healthy organic nuts or dried fruit to snack on.

If you’re planning on making stop off at a cafe, bring your reusable thermos or mug. And just in case you come across a to-die-for item in an unknown corner boutique, make sure you’ve got a reusable bag on hand.

Resources

If you’re looking for urban hiking suggestions, tourism websites are a great place to start, and many have suggested routes if you don’t want to plan your own. Guidebooks that have walking tour routes are also a great resource.

But remember, the best part about urban hikes are that you can tailor them to explore all the things that you’re interested in, so don’t be afraid to break out of the box!

Do you have a favorite urban hike? Tell us about it!

Image: brartist

The post The City Girl’s Guide to Urban Hiking appeared first on EcoSalon.