Blog Posts by Intent.com

"One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well." - Virginia Wolf

Love and love-making are in the air with Valentine's Day fast approaching, and foods with aphrodisiac properties are a unique way to spice up your date night.

Natural aphrodisiacs have been used for centuries in European, Asiatic, and Arabic cultures. Everything from chocolate to honey to vanilla have been said to increase sexual desire.

Taste and smell are powerful senses that can affect our hormones, which are at the heart of our libido. Stress and tension can also diminish libido. Finding a balance between simultaneously relaxed and stimulated mental and physical states creates the perfect backdrop for romance.

Ginger has been valued over cultures and centuries as a powerful aphrodisiac and fertility enhancer. Called "The Universal Medicine" in Ayurveda, lovers have long relied on ginger's internal fire-enhancing properties to heat things up.

Using ginger in foods,

Now that the hype of New Year's resolutions has faded, the real work begins. Avoid injury and burnout bybeach workout keeping your muscles rested and recovered. Keep your metabolism working at its full potential naturally, and your body healthy and fit well into the new year.

Ginger (Zingiber officinale) has long been used in Ayurveda to stoke the digestive system. Due to its yang properties of warming and stimulating, it's thought to enhance the fire in the body. Everything from the digestive system to blood circulation to energizing the body internally.

Ginger for Sore Muscles:

If you don't have time for a long Epsom salt bath to soothe your muscles and mind, consider a hot cup of ginger tea after dinner or a refreshing ginger lemonade after your daily workout.

In two double-blind, placebo-controlled studies, subjects were tested for muscle pain after exercising and taking 2 grams of ginger versus a placebo. The study concluded that daily supplementation with ginger reduced muscle

By Monique Minahan

When I first started practicing yoga, I was still digging my way out of a deep cavern of grief.

Something about this unusual method of twists, turns, and upside-downs kept calling me back. I didn't know what it was initially, but as I began to settle into my body, things began to shift in my life.

I think of it as going from a paralyzed life to a walking life. If you are already able to walk and then begin to run, that's liberating. If you are paralyzed and then begin to walk, that's a miracle.

This was my experience with the power and patience of yoga. Learning how to walk into my life, transition from grief to peace, and eventually to happiness.

The peace and happiness we access on our mats is no accident. Although many write it off as just another exercise-induced dopamine high, yoga goes deeper than that.

The mind-body connection created in yoga facilitates change at a cellular level. Cellular memory is the idea that our bodies hold our

fluHere in the U.S., we've entered an early and unexpected flu season, with most of the country experiencing high levels of flu-like illness.

Influenza is a virus, and once contracted you may experience a variety of symptoms that range from mild to severe. Common symptoms are a dry cough, fever, body aches, chills, and headache.

While the flu can often go away on its own within 7 to 10 days, there are two choices for speeding up recovery. Antiviral medicine targets the virus itself, while over the counter and complementary treatments can offer relief for the symptoms while the body's immune system heals itself.

But the best defense to the flu is a strong immune system.

Our immune systems are a perfectly integrated network of cells and organs that together defend against disease. The human body naturally manufactures antibodies as part of our immune systems that assist in destroying abnormal or foreign cells. If your immune system is weak, however, it will not be able to

By Monique Minahan

"The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself." - Benjamin Franklin

This is the intro line from the movie, Happy.

happyHappiness and how to achieve it are becoming increasingly popular, interesting, and relevant topics. And for good reason.

Statistical, scientific information and research on happiness, why it matters, and how to attain it are becoming hard to ignore, dismiss, or write off as soft science.

Ask yourself this: Are you happy?

It's a rhetorical question, so you can answer honestly.

Whether your answer is yes or no, ask yourself, Why? Why are you happy? Why aren't you happy? There's no right or wrong answer. There's just your answer.

This compelling picture is for anyone who thinks they're happy; anyone who's ever been depressed; anyone who's tasted happiness and then watched it slip out of their fingers; anyone who feels like they've spent their whole life chasing

By Monique Minahan

hot honey lemonHerbal remedies are at the root of modern-day medicine. For example, aspirin originated from willow bark and morphine from the opium poppy.

Although modern medicine continues to take leaps and strides in significant areas of disease and illness, there are many simple remedies we can implement into our lifestyle that may ward off future diseases.

One of the easiest (and delicious) natural remedies available to us is green tea.

Here's a few significant ways green tea can impact your health, inside and out:

The polyphenols present in green tea may help prevent and repair damage from sun exposure by fighting free radicals that damage cells.

This is significant because of the domino effect that starts with UV radiation. UV radiation can damage DNA, which can then cause immune system suppression, which may create a risk for developing skin cancer.

Many studies are producing convincing evidence that the major polyphenol in green tea, EGCG (

By Monique Minahan

lightOur yoga practice is a multifaceted gem. It's like a prism that reflects a different color depending on how the light hits it. Our practice can reflect back to us different emotions, feelings, or thoughts depending on how we approach it.

Yoga can draw out parts of ourselves we know exist but have difficulty accessing at times, such as strength, flexibility, balance, trust, love, and gratitude.

These are often physical traits we tap into on our yoga mat. Interestingly, we often find after practicing that we have access to them on a mental and emotional level as well.

I first noticed this transformative quality of yoga while practicing backbends. The steadiness and strength they require revealed to me the power and the past housed in my back body. The more I allowed this opening process physically, the more I was able to allow myself to open more fully to the people in my life. Seeing this natural evolution, I started adding intention to the mix.

By Monique Minahan

With the long holiday break coming up, it's a great time to rethink what your kids are eating at school.

The prevalence of childhood obesity has tripled among youth ages 6-19 in the past 30 years. Obesity that starts in childhood can extend into adulthood and can increase risks for a number of health problems.

The National Institutes of Health has actively been addressing this issue since 2005 through We Can!® (Ways to Enhance Children's Activity & Nutrition). We Can!® is a science-based, national education program that aims to help children maintain a healthy weight in a number of ways.

Whether you're looking for ways to add variety to your child's lunches in the new year or need ideas on how to start sending healthy foods to school that your child will eat, here's some suggestions on where to start:

Go, Slow, Whoa. This catchy slogan from We Can!® makes choosing foods for your kids easy. Not all fruits and vegetables are created equal, so