Styled and Savored #005

Your weekly curated guide to great finds that make your home life easier, fuller, richer, and happier.

We’re kicking off this week’s edition of Styled & Savored with a focus on your health. We’re just seven weeks into the new year, and hopefully, there are still a few of you out there who are still clinging to your New Year’s fitness resolutions like a fat boy gripping his lunch tray (I’m allowed to say that because I was that fat boy).

If that’s the case, you might’ve seen the latest viral health measuring stick making the rounds. It’s a strength and conditioning drill that some longevity experts say might be a good indicator of how healthy you’ll be when you’re older. The theory goes something like this – you should be able to carry a percentage of your body weight (based on your age and sex) in each hand for one minute. For example, a woman in her forties should be able to carry 75% of her body weight in her hands for a minute, while a man should be able to carry 100%. So, if the woman weighs 140 pounds, she should be able to carry at least 52.5 pounds in each hand for 60 seconds, while a 200-pound man should be able to carry 100 pounds in each hand.

How much weight can you carry in each hand?

You can make nearly any space work as a home gym.

The idea behind this theory (the exercise is called the farmer’s carry, BTW) is that you’ll have stronger bones and be able to perform everyday tasks (like opening a jar) better as you age.

If that’s got you wondering (like it had us wondering) whether or not you could perform said task – and after doing the math having your doubts – then you might want to take the opportunity to peruse this article from the KBH Writing blog on home gym layout ideas. The article explores various options based on your fitness goals, how much you want (or don’t) to invest in exercise equipment, and how much space you have available to dedicate to a home gym. Give it a read, and don’t let those beach-body dreams fall by the wayside.

Living the simple life

Having a fit body is a fantastic goal, but what about your mental and spiritual health? Well, the folks at Elegant Simplicity have you covered with their blog post on simple living in the new year.

They’re big advocates for slowing things down and living a more meaningful life. In today’s world, with its hustle and bustle, the constant bombardment of social media, in-your-face-marketing, and our phones always beeping, ringing, and buzzing, life can become overwhelming unless we take the time to de-stress, de-clutter, and generally keep only the things that truly feed and nourish our souls.

©Anthony Tran

Simple living means different things to different people, but ultimately it’s about focusing on what it is you value most and filling your life with those things and nothing else.

The definition of simple living can be different for everyone. As the article points out, for some it means stripping everything away and focusing on only what is needed. For others, it’s about appreciating the little things like enjoying a morning cup of tea in the quiet hours before the rest of the house wakes up. Still others gain mental clarity by getting their home organized by having a place for everything.

Regardless of what your definition of simple living might be, the blog post sums it up like this, “… ultimately, simple living is knowing what you value. And then, filling your life up with that rather than what some shelter magazine says is trendy or some influencer says worked for them.”

The bottom line is, it’s around this time of year that those newly minted resolutions fall by the wayside, but maybe they wouldn’t if we let go of a bunch of things that distract us, and focus more on the things that keep us fit physically, mentally, and spiritually.

After you’ve nourished the mind, nourish the body

Once you’ve nourished your mind and soul, you still need to feed your body after all those farmer’s carries and home gym workouts. Lucky for you we’ve got a delicious (and healthy) recipe to share from one of our favorite cooking blogs, Girl Carnivore.

While spring is right around the corner, the chilly temps are still lingering – even way down here in Florida – and there’s nothing more comforting for your mind and sustaining for your body than a piping-hot bowl of soup like this recipe for kale and sausage soup.

Kale and sausage soup from Girl Carnivore

A few of the things I love about this recipe is 1) sausage. For my money, there is no more flavorful meat than sausage, and it’s so versatile. If I could just go on a small rant here, there’s all this love for bacon – and don’t get me wrong, bacon is delicious. However, I’ve always preferred sausage in nearly every possible instance. It’s just better. Period.

I said what I said.

And 2) I’m a huge fan of kale. I like it in salads – one day I’ll share my two favorite kale salad recipes – and it lends a nice texture and nutritional bump to dishes like this soup. It’s also very filling while not making you feel heavy.

Plus, you know this soup is only going to get better and better each day after you make it with ingredients like onions, garlic, Italian seasoning, white wine and parmesan cheese.

Get a jump on Spring by re-organizing your closet

As we said above, Spring is just around the corner, and I know some of you are cleaning and organizing fanatics. If bringing order to chaos is your jam, the Yellow Brick Home blog has some excellent tips on closet re-organization with five things you can do in a weekend to tidy and elevate your closet.

Tidy up your closet in a single weekend with these tips from Yellow Brick Home.

The article has some great suggestions on different folding methods to experiment with, how to hang clothes so you can get a complete view of your wardrobe in one glance, as well as how to go about purging old items from your closet, and it even lists accessories that you might find helpful in keeping things neat and tidy.

It may seem strange, but closet organization is something I’m passionate about. When we bought our home many years ago, the master closet had a pretty sketchy shelving system that had obviously not been installed by a professional. One of the first items on our agenda was to take down all the cobbled-together components the previous homeowner put up on the walls of the master closet, repaint and re-carpet, and install a custom closet system we consulted about with a local closet specialist. Let me tell you, it’s one of the best investments we’ve ever made.

First, it allowed us to eliminate the need for standalone chest-of-drawers and dressers because we had multiple drawers installed as part of our closet system. Second, it had multiple levels that allowed us to hang clothes on upper and lower rods. Additionally, little-used items could be stored on high shelves that keep things out of the way but within easy reach to be used as needed. And third, it just made life so much easier because we maximized the space, which meant we could walk into the closet and instantly see everything at a glance. No more digging through layers of clothing or sorting through racks to find that elusive item – because no items were elusive anymore!

Custom closets like this one we installed in one of our custom home builds really make organizing your wardrobe and finding items to wear a breeze.

We installed a similar closet system in one of our new custom builds last year, and the customer just loved it. Since then, we’ve had other customers add a few custom touches to their closets as well.

Do yourself a favor and do some closet organizing before Spring comes and goes. It really goes a long way to helping you keep your sanity, because no one likes a messy closet – it just feels overwhelming – and it makes life a little easier on a daily basis. It’s about living that simple life, remember?

That’s it for this week. Let us know your thoughts about any or all of the featured posts in this edition of Styled & Savored, and tell us what you’d like to see us cover in future editions as well.