When I was in college, I would come home at the end of the semester, crawl into my parents’ king-sized bed and watch TV for three straight days. I would get up only to eat and, at the end of the day, wander into my own room to sleep. Though I never gave it conscious thought, intuitively, I knew that my body and my mind needed the rest.

Guess what? We still need rest. We still need days when we commit to nothing, accomplish nothing and do nothing. Or, at least the days when we don’t feel any pressure to commit to anything, accomplish anything or do anything. Leave your hair in a bun. Treat your kids to a “no rules” day.

Stay in your pajamas.

The holidays are around the corner and we are all scurrying around like crazy. Baking cookies. Wrapping gifts. Struggling to find the perfect present for great aunt Matilda. Hoping that this will be the holiday that makes our children’s dreams come true. What gets lost in the holiday shuffle amidst Christmas carols, tinsel and wrapping paper, is us. Here are nine ways to hold on to your sanity, your self, and your intentions as we barrel into the holiday home stretch.

Last summer, I was at the beach watching a dad take his three-year-old into the ocean. As soon as the little boy touched the water, he was off, his little arms and legs motoring. Within seconds, he was five feet away. The dad tore off his t-shirt, tossed it to the beach and went after his bobbing toddler. The shirt landed on the beach, so close to the water’s edge that one big wave was sure to sweep it away. I got up from my beach chair, grabbed the dad’s t-shirt and moved it out of the reach of the coming tide.

I love dark chocolate. And I believe, based on everything I've read, that dark chocolate is good for you. So usually, when I want a piece of dark chocolate, I eat a piece of dark chocolate. But. There is a downside. Here's what happened this past Friday.

I am not a nutritionist. Or a doctor. Or a chemist, biologist or diet expert. But I am a student of nutrition and, after decades of reading everything I can get my hands on and tinkering with my own nutrition and wellness, I know what works for me and I’ve learned that a whole lot of what works for me works for others.

So here are my nine nutrition hacks. Nine things that work for me. They won’t all work for you. But some will. 

Do you consider yourself to be a grateful person and say “thank you” regularly? If so, you likely are already seeing the benefits.

Here are 9 of our favorite reasons to adopt an attitude of gratitude:

My daughter likes her bananas green. Once they turn yellow, she declares them mushy and inedible. My son and I both prefer our bananas fully ripe and yellow. This means that when we go to the grocery store, we are likely to buy two different bunches of bananas: one green and one yellow. Now here’s the tricky part: we have one large beautiful wooden fruit bowl that sits on our counter, typically filled with apples and bananas and oranges and, come summer, nectarines. But if we put both bunches of bananas next to each other in the fruit bowl, my daughter's green bananas quickly turn yellow.

The world can be changed by little acts of kindness because small acts have a ripple effect and little changes, compounded over time, can have a massive impact. And when your children see you commit daily acts of kindness, taking care of yourself, being kind to others, you teach them by example.

Here are 9 ways to change the world today.

I wish I could do it for you. I really do. But I can't.

I can educate you with the knowledge about why a regular walking practice is so very important, and impactful, to your health and wellness.

I can provide you with tools to help you track, measure and improve your performance.

I can remind you that you are worth a 30-minute daily investment and that you will be a better partner, parent and person if you take that time for you.

But I can't lace up your sneakers for you.

It’s no secret I LOVE photography. I picked up a camera because I wanted to take those professional level crisp, clear, bright, “perfect” photos of my family.

I quickly learned life as a busy mom is in a word....exhausting and less than perfect.

Moms are overwhelmed, stressed, worried that we're not living up to our own high expectations. Not to mention we’re bombarded daily with a Facebook feed of photos with everyone else's highlight reel.

We all know that walking is good for us physically, but have you ever considered what it can do for your mental health?

Here are just 6 mental health benefits of walking:

f you don’t know where you are going, you are likely to get lost. So the first step in accomplishing your goals is defining your goals. And that’s not as easy, nor intuitive, as it sounds.

Effective goal setting takes practice. Here’s how

This morning, I was on a content planning call with the 99 Walks’ team and this question came up: what does it mean to “step into your own power?” Wow, what a good question. Though this list is certainly not complete, stepping into your own power includes:

Occasionally, fear is awesome. Occasionally, it keeps us from doing really, really stupid things. But more often than not, fear keeps us from doing really, really awesome things.

I was afraid to quit my lawyer job, move to the beach and start a business (what if the business failed which, by the way, the first business did, spectacularly). I was afraid to have a baby (I can’t even begin to list my becoming-a-mom fears).

We’d like to think we know a thing or two about walking. But we also know how to have fun! Put them together, and what do you get? Nine of our favorite fun facts about walking!

The 99 Walks’ theme for September is Be Bold so we thought we’d kick off the month by featuring six of the boldest women we could think of. Women who bucked convention, took chances, did extraordinary things and changed the world.

I'm writing this from a very uncomfortable seat in the New Orleans Airport at 7:00 a.m. I've already been here for close to an hour because the airport shuttle service insisted on picking me up more than three hours before my flight. Across the way from me are two men whose heads keep bobbing as they fall asleep and jerk themselves awake.

We’ve all heard them. All of the myths, stories, and instructions about drinking water. How much you need to drink. When you need to drink it and what you need to drink. Well, we’ve done some research for you and here are the top five myths about drinking water.

Most days go like this. Wake up at 5:00. Flip coffee pot to “on.” Let dog out. Empty dishwasher. Sit for a 10-minute meditation. Move to the kitchen table, make an entry in my gratitude journal, read five pages of whatever book I am reading. Write a minimum of 600 words. Text my dad. Make my daughter’s lunch for school, blend up a morning smoothie, wake the kids, and see them off to school.

Wake up. Repeat

When we launched 99 Walks in January, we were concerned that people weren’t going to be up for walking in the cold. But we’ve heard from so many members that walking in the heat of summer the real challenge. But hot weather is no excuse to sit home! Read on for our five tips for summer walking.