I consider myself a young nurse—not in age, but in experience. I work for the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority, offering clinical support for frontline public health nursing staff. I’m still learning all the time. And it took me a while to understand that my work, which is all about compassion, empathy and shared responsibility, overlaps with the most beautiful aspects of my Inuit culture.

As an Inuk, I build relationships with people by listening to their stories. We always try to recognize where they are coming from, to find a common understanding with all people we meet. We also build relationships in formal ways, through community, friendships, marriages, and names. I was given a very special name: Tuurngaq. Tuurngaq was a shaman, or a healer, and she was knowledgeable and experienced and very respected. When I was born, my family and those close to Tuurngaq felt that her spirit was in me and gave me her name. This was not a random choice, but one discerned as a community. Her name was a gift, but also a huge responsibility. When you’re given someone’s name, you also inherit all the relationships that come with it. Her family became my family, her supports became my supports. I eventually came to see it as a blessing, but at first, when I would hear: “you’re a healer and you will do amazing things”, I rejected it. I have a strong personality, and like many young people, I didn’t want to be told who I was or what I would become. I needed to find my own way to becoming a healer, and it took some time.

I grew up in Igloolik, a small hamlet in Nunavut with a nursing station. We were a very well family—our interactions with the health centre were minimal. So, I never really paid attention to what nursing looked like in a small community, because my wellness and health support came from within my family. Our mental health needs were met by family and community. We had most of our nutritional needs met by traditional foods. We were physically well because we went camping and hunting. The health care system existed in the background.

When I was 14 years old, I needed an emergency appendectomy, and I spent a week in hospital in Iqaluit. The experience was really strange, very formal and nobody explained anything to me. The doctors and nurses had a to-do list that they executed. I went in sick and came out well. There was no relationship-building.

In contrast, some of my family members had very dark experiences with the health care system, particularly with the TB outbreaks in the North. Boats and planes arrived to scoop up our sick people, many of whom didn’t speak English, and bring them south to sanatoriums without any explanation. This happened to my relatives, just one generation ahead of me. And so, we grew up with fear and distrust of the health care system. You should only interact with it when you’re really sick. And if you make yourself vulnerable to it, you don’t know what will happen to you.

In my early 20s, I lived all over the north doing contract admin work, as my partner’s job allowed us to explore different communities. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do or what I wanted to be. But it was a job doing clerical work at a community health centre that really changed how I understood health care and a nurse’s role in it. I saw how relational and community-oriented the nurses were. How, no matter where they came from, they could really be a part of the community and work closely with Indigenous people.

I began to see that the quality of health care was better in the small communities I visited. Quality of care to me includes relationship, communication and transparency. So, as a patient, I know exactly what I’m going to get when I come in. There’s no mystery. You’re explaining it to me, I’m invested, I’ve made a conscious decision to participate with you. And I’ve given you my consent. There might not be an MRI or a heart surgeon on-site, but if the community health nurse has advanced assessment skills, knows how to set, and respect, limits and boundaries, and teaches community members to make good decisions about their own care and navigate a system that is not structured to support Indigenous people, that’s powerful. Far more powerful than arriving at a large facility in an unfamiliar place where you’re just on someone’s to-do list.

When I saw that work in action I thought, okay, that’s how I can actually be a healer—I could actively pursue community health nursing in remote settings because I wanted to feed and strengthen that service, and I wanted that service to thrive. It made me realize that health and healing can look way different than what I had experienced, and what I had rejected, my whole life.

By the time I started nursing school, at 25, I was ready for the responsibility and the gravity of a nursing career. Everything I had learned and experienced before gave me a nuanced worldview and an understanding of the complexity of being an Indigenous person living with colonial systems. I came to a nursing career wondering, how do we deconstruct those systems and then rebuild them so that they are representative of multiple cultures and multiple belief systems, and make it safer for people in general?

We’re only now trying to catch up on things like informed consent, recognizing disenfranchised folks, honouring people’s gender, honouring people’s language, and the colour of their skin. These are things that we pride ourselves on today, but they didn’t exist a very short time ago. We might have started to change our mindset and update our curriculums, but that change is trying to insert itself into long-standing, anti-Indigenous systems that don’t support it.

If you look at the presence of enforcement in the north—police, military, anybody who has power to enforce laws—that relationship was set up to punish Inuit for being Inuit. And to enforce the other anti-Indigenous systems: education, which was structured around removing children, the most malleable but precious, from their families; the church, whatever church it was, which was trying to teach Inuit that the Inuit way was wrong; and health care as well, where sick and vulnerable children and adults were taken away without offering them or their families the chance to make an informed decision or give consent. And if you didn’t participate in those systems, you were harmed, you were punished or maybe even killed.

One of the big questions that most practitioners ask is: How do I do this work so that I don’t trigger or re-traumatize the person that I am here to serve or to help? Teachers, nurses, social workers, police, even the media, they all want examples, or even a cookie-cutter answer. But that reverts to a to-do-list approach to a problem. Most Indigenous people I’ve talked to want both parties to approach all of these relationships with an open heart and good intent. It’s such a simple concept, but I think that we don’t realize how powerful it can be. You don’t have to have answers. But your intent should never be, I’m going to fix you. Colonialists have been trying to “fix” us for hundreds of years, and it hasn’t worked.

Relationships are important to all Indigenous cultures. Relationships between their leaders, their elders and their children have to be intact. And anything that we can do within the health care system to honour and foster those relationships will inherently build trust. We can still get our to-do lists done, but they can be informed and defined by the Indigenous community that we’re serving. As a practitioner, you can arrive and just situate yourself. “Hi, I’m a nurse. I’m new here, so I don’t know much about this place, and I don’t know what you need from me, but I’m ready to learn.” If you go into that same setting saying, “I don’t know anything about this place and I’m not going to learn, I’m just going to get my work done,” that doesn’t create trust. And that does not dismantle the negative perceptions these communities have about health care.

Instead, I try to find a way to work together with my patient on whatever is important to them and their community. And sometimes, as the nurse, you are going to bring up something like, if your vaccinations are up to date, that would be helpful for the community. Or if we did this type of screening for these kinds of cancers, that would be really helpful. If everybody came in and did this test, that might help. You can do that teaching, that prevention and early intervention work, once you establish a relationship that leads to trust. And it doesn’t take a long time to create. Sometimes I’ve been in communities for two weeks and because of the way that I approach the work, my patients see that it’s different than what they’ve experienced with other transient nurses. It’s not a new idea. And I don’t take credit for it. But it works.

Next: Meet Sisters Sage, an Indigenous Wellness Brand Reclaiming Smudging

I got my period when I was 11 years old. From the get-go, I got it every 14 days. My family doctor put me on birth control—he said my hormones were out of whack. I stayed on birth control until I was 23. I wanted to try life without it. About a year and a half later, I started getting a sharp, shooting pain in my abdomen, even when it wasn’t my period time. It scared me. My family doctor knew right away that it was endometriosis. I was really lucky in that sense. But the options were the pill or surgery. I didn’t want surgery, so I went back on the pill.

A couple of years later, I started nursing school, and my periods were getting worse. By the time I hit 30, I was missing days of my practicum because I couldn’t get out of bed. An ob-gyn sent me for surgery, which revealed I had endometriosis—they burned off quite a bit of it. By then, I was married and trying to get pregnant, so I stayed off the pill. My periods were still painful. The doctor said that would happen for a few months, but it just got worse. A year and a half after my first surgery, I went in for a second. The surgeon told me that all the endometriosis had already been removed, and I shouldn’t be having pain, but I was barely able to work. At some of the worst times, I’d look at the patients and think, I deserve to be lying down there.

But I just pushed through, and thought, ‘This is the way I have to live’. A friend sent me an article about a New York specialist. That’s where I learned about excision surgery. I had met a patient at work who had endometriosis, and she told me about the [specialized endometriosis clinic at] B.C. Women’s Hospital. I got a referral through my GP to the Centre for Pelvic Pain & Endometriosis, but there was a wait-list just to see someone and another wait-list for excision surgery. I couldn’t wait that long. I ended up flying to the United States for surgery.

I’d also developed adenomyosis, where the endometrium breaks through the muscle wall of the uterus. The surgeon told me to be monitored if I got pregnant naturally, because the pregnancy might not go as long as a normal pregnancy should. But I couldn’t get pregnant naturally. I started IVF but, again, my pain just got so severe when I was off birth control. Eventually, I stopped working.

I ended up having a hysterectomy at 36. I would say life is 50 percent better since the hysterectomy. Not having periods rule me has been life-changing, but I still suffer from endometriosis and have fatigue and nausea from that. I still need to see an excision specialist to remove the endometriosis. I’m still unable to work. I get sick very easily if I eat the wrong thing.

Not being able to get pregnant was one of the most painful journeys, physically and mentally. I battled a lot of depression and anxiety. It affects my husband’s life as well. I know you have to look at your life and think, What can I do moving forward to make myself happy again? Even if I don’t have kids, it’s still worth living.

I wonder why nobody looked at my 11-year-old self and thought, Why is she having periods every 11 to 14 days? For all those years, no one told me anything. I had endometriosis, most likely, and I never knew. An earlier diagnosis and access to specialists could have prevented it from getting this severe. Having more specialized centres would be beneficial, because there are so many of us who need help.

This essay is part of a larger package looking at women’s health gaps in Canada from our June/July 2021 print issue. Read more: 

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Women’s Health Collective Canada Is Addressing the Gap in Women’s Health

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“The Uncertainty Was a Big Piece. And I Couldn’t Get Answers”

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“One Ob-Gyn Diagnosed Me with PCOS. Another Ob-Gyn Said I Didn’t Have It”

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Cherries grown in Canada can be divided into two categories: Sweet (mostly eaten raw) and sour (often baked into crisps and pies)—and both types are packed with impressive nutrients.

Here are some of the amazing health benefits of the delicious summer fruit:

1. Ease aching joints

Cherries’ rich red colour comes from anthocyanins, the antioxidants found in grapes (and red wine) that inhibit enzymes associated with inflammation. So, cherries can help soothe soreness linked to muscle and joint pain.

2. Guard your colon

These mighty fruits contain quercetin, which is a flavonoid with anti-carcinogenic activity. Research in the Journal of Nutrition found quercetin helps prevent damaging lesions thought to be a predictor of tumours from forming in the colon.

3. Control cholesterol

All cherries are high in pectin—a soluble fibre that helps to prevent heart disease by lowering bad cholesterol.

4. Help your eyesight

Sour cherries contain 19 times the amount of beta-carotene found in blueberries. A precursor to vitamin A, it helps maintain eyesight and healthy skin.

5. Improve your sleep

Cherries, part of the stone fruit family that includes apricots, peaches and plums, are one of the few known food sources of melatonin. Refresher: Melatonin is a naturally occurring hormone that helps to regulate the body’s circadian rhythms and sleep patterns, and therefore can help you catch some Z’s.

Convinced? Try our recipe for a sour cherry smoothie.

Corn on the cob is up there in my top ten childhood food memories. In Toronto, street festival or not, chaotic city sidewalks are filled with the smell of sweet and buttery corn cobs cooking on the grill. A local summer snack that is impossible to resist, these curly corn ribs are an ode to this specialty. They’re made with a simple marinade of puréed garlic, then quickly fried until they curl like the limbs of an octopus and served with cilantro-heavy zhoug: a common hot herb sauce served in Yemen, similar to chimichurri but with spices familiar to the Middle East.

Curly Corn Ribs with Fresh Zhoug & Shishito Peppers

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients

Zhoug

• 1 cup fresh cilantro leaves
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• ½ teaspoon ground cumin 4 cloves garlic
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 shishito pepper, seeds removed and roughly chopped
• ¼ cup (60 mL) extra virgin olive oil

Curly Corn Ribs

• 4 cobs corn, husks removed
• 4 cloves garlic, minced to a fine purée
• 4 cups (1 litre) vegetable oil, for frying
• 2 shishito peppers (or jalapeño peppers), seeds removed and thinly sliced, for serving
• 1 teaspoon flaky sea salt, to season

Directions

To a mortar, add the cilantro, cardamom, cumin, garlic, and salt. Begin to grind and crush into a paste with the pestle. Add the shishito pepper and continue grinding. Lastly, pour in the olive oil and mix until a pesto-like consistency has formed. Taste before seasoning with more salt, if needed. Set aside for serving. Extra zhoug can be sealed in a jar or airtight container and stored in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Rub the corn cobs with the minced garlic until every crevice has been coated. Using a sharp chef’s knife, cut the cobs into four quarters lengthwise (see Note). Place the corn cob “ribs” into a large bowl and set on the counter to marinate for a minimum of 1 hour.

Meanwhile, in a large, heavy pot over high, heat the vegetable oil. Once the temperature has reached 360ºF (182ºC), use a slotted spoon to gently submerge the corn “ribs,” one at a time, in the oil (this will avoid any hot splashes). Fry a maximum of four “ribs” at a time. Fry the cobs until they begin to curl and the kernels turn golden brown, 5 to 10 minutes. Once the cobs are ready, use the same slotted spoon to remove the corn. Let the cobs drain on a paper towel–lined plate. Continue this process until all the cobs have been cooked.

Plate cobs with the thinly sliced shishito peppers and large dollops of zhoug. Finish with flaky sea salt, to taste.

Note: The cobs are meant to be quartered, but if you have difficulty, then you need to get your knives sharpened. No need to risk your life; just cook them whole and fry a little longer than suggested, about 15 minutes.

Excerpted from Peak Season by Deirdre Buryk. Copyright © 2022 Deirdre Buryk. Photography © 2021 Janette Downie. Published by Appetite by Random House, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.

Next: These Smoky Apricot BBQ Sticky Ribs Will Be a Guest Favourite

First, take heart: Even the pros can find themselves wedged deep in a cooking rut sometimes. Ever since having her now six-year-old son, who’s still shying away from big flavours, food writer Anna Jones—of the single-pan supper cookbook One: Pot, Pan, Planet—says she’s become a bit more indecisive in the kitchen. (Her solution? Take a break and just order some take out.) New York Times staffer Eric Kim, who wrote the cookbook Korean American, knows he’s in a rut when, well, the food tastes bad. And Top Chef Canada star Adrian Forte, author of Yawd, admits that if he’s angry or sad, it’s showing up on the plate.

But getting stuck can lead to unexpected inspiration. When he was trying to add Caribbean flare to classic Filipino adobo, Forte struggled to hit the right note of flavours. It was only after he reached for that staple of Canadian pantries—a bottle of maple syrup—that he found his way through the recipe. Jones was reheating some leftover stove-top dal in the oven when she realized she’d hit upon a far better preparation. “I fell in love with the texture of baked dal,” she says. “It’s without question one of my favourite dishes in the book.”

One sneaky way to nudge yourself out of a cooking rut is to switch up a key ingredient or two. Among its 75 recipes for pasta, udon, pho and laksa, Mike and Stephanie Le’s That Noodle Life offers 10 ways to spice up instant ramen. Ali Slagle, of the reassuringly titled I Dream of Dinner (so You Don’t Have To), loves Laotian-style larb for its variability—she’s swapped the ground chicken in her recipe for “edamame, mushrooms, cauliflower, tofu or tempeh, fresh or canned fish, eggs, sausage and other things I’m forgetting.” Or just ease yourself into something new: Kim has a whole chapter in his cookbook on TV dinners. “These recipes have been the most popular, I think, because they’re so chill,” he says. (People often post photos of the jalapeno-marinated chicken tacos; each time he sees one, Kim immediately wants to eat it.)

Still, ruts have their upside. “If you can improve the dish, that’s a win,” Mike Le says. “But even if you don’t, getting better at cooking a dish is never a bad thing either.”

Next: 16 Berry Recipes to Make This Season

“While getting dressed one day, my underwear felt a little snugger around my left leg than normal,” remembers Calgary’s Janet Dagenais, a make-up artist and mom of four. “When I reached down to feel where the elastic on my underwear rested in the groin area, I felt a lump the size of a large egg.” Concerned, she went to see her doctor and had an ultrasound and a biopsy. “My doctor called me a week later and told me that I had melanoma.”

For most people, spending unprotected time in the sun—especially as a child—is the primary cause of melanoma. And that’s why Neutrogena® is promoting the importance of daily sunscreen use and has created the Skin Self-Exam Tool to help make sure Canadians of all ages take steps to protect their skin this summer. “According to the World Health Organization, 85 per cent of melanomas among Canadian men and women over 30 years old are attributed to UV radiation exposure,” says Dr. Renita Ahluwalia, lead dermatologist at the Canadian Dermatology Centre. “A single blistering sunburn before age 20 increases the risk of developing melanoma late in life.”

The first step is prevention

“You are responsible for taking care of yourself,” Janet stresses. “There is no excuse for being sunburned. Consider it life or potential death.” And that’s true no matter your age or skin tone. (Even dark skin needs sun protection!)

Here are Dr. Ahluwalia’s top tips for preventing skin cancer:

• Avoid peak hours of the sun (from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.) when the UV index is the highest.
• Wear a hat to protect your scalp and shade your face. (Janet also sprays her scalp with sunscreen like Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Body Mist.)
• Wear sunscreen like Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Dry-Touch Lotion on your face and body (even on cloudy days) and be sure to apply it liberally to your kids. “Look for a sunscreen that is broad-spectrum, meaning it will protect you from UVB and UVA rays,” says Dr. Ahluwalia. “The proper amount is shot glass amount for the body and a teaspoon amount for the face.” The Canadian Dermatology Association recommends a minimum of SPF 30.
• Find a sunscreen formula that suits you. There are all different types, whether you like a mist, easy-to-tote stick, lightweight water gel or moisturizing face serum. The best format is the one that you’ll actually use.
• Wear sunglasses to protect your eyes.
• Wear sun-protective clothing, ideally with UPF 50.

Why early diagnosis matters

Prevention is just the first step. Step two is watching for abnormalities in your skin. “Melanoma can spread to the lymph nodes and other organs,” says Dr. Ahluwalia. “When caught late, melanoma can be deadly. But when caught early, the prognosis of melanoma and other types of skin cancer is excellent.” In fact, it’s almost 100 per cent.

However, 21 per cent of early-stage melanomas went undiagnosed globally during the pandemic because so many professional skin-check appointments were cancelled due to COVID-19 lockdowns. In Canada, 1,999 melanomas have missed early diagnosis since the start of the pandemic.

Performing self-checks at home

Melanoma is one of the most common types of cancer among Canadians aged 15 to 49, but it can affect anyone, no matter their age, race or sex. That means it’s important for everyone to check their skin for signs of skin cancer. That’s why Neutrogena® launched their Skin Self-Exam tool—so Canadians can educate themselves and learn to perform skin checks at home. It includes steps, helpful information and images of the ABCDEs of melanoma:

• A for asymmetry
• B for border irregularity
• C for multiple colours
• D for large diameter
• E for evolving (meaning the spot or mole has changed)

Add this tool into your monthly routine. If melanoma ends up being part of your story, you’ll have a better chance of catching it early.

When it’s time to see a doctor

There are some instances where you’ll need to do more than just examine your skin at home. In these instances, book an appointment with your family doctor or, ideally, get a referral to a dermatologist:

• If you notice anything unusual during a self-exam
• If you have a family history of melanoma
• If you’ve spent significant time in the sun
• If you have a personal history of melanoma or skin cancer

“As a child I had numerous sunburns that blistered,” says Janet. “I’m fearful now that I will develop melanoma on my back, shoulders or head. I’m grateful that I see a dermatologist often to catch it early if it happens to show up in a new location.”

Your routine can make a difference

By wearing sunscreen every day and performing monthly self-exams, you have a good chance of preventing skin cancer—or catching it early if it pops up. And that’s very, very good news.

Want to learn more about the importance of sun protection and the dangers of melanoma?

Neutrogena® has partnered with Melanoma Canada (MC) to spread awareness about the importance of protecting your skin this summer. Check out the new self-exam tool and visit neutrogena.ca to purchase sunscreens or learn more about the formulas that will work best for you.

Whether you’re walking around the city or exploring the great outdoors, finding a stylish but supportive sandal can be a huge challenge. Along with warmer weather, clear skies and longer days, the summertime heat can also lead to foot problems like blisters, corns, tendonitis and plantar fasciitis.

So, how do you keep your feet comfortable while still looking stylish? We spoke with Dr. Amandeep Randhawa, a Vancouver-based podiatrist at Metro Vancouver Podiatry, to find the best sandals for summer.

(Related: 7 Beauty Products That Will Tend to All Your Foot Woes This Summer )

What are some common summer feet problems?

According to Randhawa, there are two types of summer feet problems: skin issues and problems with the tissues and tendons.

Skin issues include cracked dry skin, blisters and corns—all of which are super common in the summer because of the combination of heat, sweat and friction. These problems are also exacerbated by ill-fitting shoes.

Issues like tendonitis and plantar fasciitis also become more common in the summertime. Tendonitis, which is the inflammation of the tendons (most commonly the Achilles tendon which runs along the back of your foot, above the heel) is a common foot injury that spikes in the summer thanks to a more active lifestyle in the warmer months. “People who don’t usually play sports all of a sudden become active in the summer,” says Randhawa. “So they’ll injure themselves.” The same cause is behind plantar fasciitis, the inflammation of a thick band of tissue that runs across the bottom of your feet and can cause stabbing pain when walking. Both problems get worse when you don’t have comfortable sandals.

(Related: 7 Shoe Mistakes You’re Making That Hurt Your Feet)

What style of sandal will keep me comfortable all day?

While Randhawa doesn’t endorse any particular style, shape or brand, she does note that there are a few components to look for when shopping for summer sandals.

First, you want to make sure your shoe has a short, supportive heel. “People always say that flat shoes are better, but they could potentially be worse,” Randhawa says. “You don’t want to wear a stiletto or something, but having a little bit of heel support and arch support is important.”

In terms of what to look for in the heel, Randhawa suggests something that’s one to two centimeters high and the sandal should have a deep heel cup to cradle your foot.

Then, make sure your foot is stable in the sandal—this will make the shoe more supportive and comfortable, and will also cut down on blister-causing friction. Randhawa suggests finding a shoe with a strap around your ankle (or at least a slingback) and says the shoe should have at least two straps holding the top of your foot in. That way, there’s less of a chance the sandal will flip off or trip you.

(Related: 7 Foot Peel Masks, Available in Canada, for Softer Feet)

What materials should I look for?

Foot problems like blisters and corns are caused by friction and certain materials can worsen these skin issues. Randhawa says that the most important thing to consider when looking at a sandal’s material is everything that touches your foot, not just what’s inside the shoe. On top of materials that won’t add friction, look out for materials that are stiff enough to provide heel and arch support.

Generally, Randhawa suggests going with a sole (or insole, depending on what sort of sandal you’re looking at) that’s made with cork or EVA (ethylene-vinyl acetate). These materials are light and can provide a bit of a bounce and shock absorption when you walk. For the top of the shoe (whether you’re going with a style that covers your foot on top, or something that has straps), Randhawa says that suede is a great choice since it can help absorb moisture and keep you comfortable.

Are there certain summer sandal styles I should totally avoid?

According to Randhawa, flip-flops can cause all sorts of problems because they lack support and destabilize your feet. “They make the feet go flip and flop,” she says. In particular, those classic go-to flimsy flip-flops are awful for your feet because they don’t offer any ankle or heel support—which can lead to foot pain or injuries like tendonitis.

“If you’re going out to the pool and you’re just going to be wearing them for a short amount of time, flip-flops are fine,” says Randhawa. But, if you’re planning on walking around or doing something active, she suggests wearing a solid, stable running shoe.

(Related: Homemade Foot Scrubs: 8 Recipes to Pamper Tired Feet)

I’m already having foot problems! How can I find relief?

For foot pain that’s caused by something like tendonitis, the best thing you can do is pre-empt any injuries by stretching before heading out for the day. Randhawa suggests focusing the stretching action on your calves and the bottom of your foot. If you’re already feeling sore, try freezing a water bottle and rolling your foot over it for some relief. “The rolling helps stretch out the fascia and the muscles while the ice will calm down inflammation,” she says.

For skin problems like corns and callouses, Randhawa strongly suggests not using over-the-counter removal products. Instead, she advises sticking with a good ol’fashioned pumice stone to gently scrub problem areas down. For blisters, Randhawa says the worst thing you can do is pop it. “Just let it heal and cover it with a loose band-aid,” she says.

As someone who’s plagued with foot issues year-round (which tend to flare up in the summer when I decide that “yeah, flip flops are good for this hike”), I’ve already got a few podiatrist-approved summer sandal options in my shopping cart that are sure to keep my comfortable all season long. And, if all else fails, I can always go back to my trusty sneakers.

Now that you know how to find comfortable summer sandals, learn how to relieve foot pain with home remedies.

Resistance bands are a seriously underrated piece of equipment: They’re affordable, weigh next to nothing and are easy to tote around. Plus, you can use them on virtually every part of your body, so these stretchy bands are a must-have for any home gym, especially if you’re working with a tiny space.

Resistance bands are also great for proprioception, or our body’s awareness of where we are in space, says Toronto-based physiotherapist Surabhi Veitch. “If someone is really struggling to connect with their core or feel their butt during a workout, we can use resistance bands to promote the feeling of that muscle being used so that the person can start connecting with that area of the body.”

Like with dumbbells and other weights, integrating resistance bands into your exercise routine can lend more, well, resistance to your strength training, tearing your muscles more and making them stronger. When you do strength exercises, you’re creating microtears in your muscles. When this happens, your body sends more blood and nutrients to the area and this helps repair and strengthen your muscles. However, because resistance bands maintain constant tension on your muscles as you move through an exercise, they actually create more muscle growth. Basically, dumbbells and free weights generate resistance with gravity, so they’re most effective when you do downward motions (think bicep curls). Meanwhile, resistance bands rely on their own elasticity to create resistance, so they’re effective on multiple planes of movement.

A common place to use your resistance bands is in training your chest muscles (a.k.a. your pectoral muscles or pecs). Your pecs help with any pressing movements, like pushing open doors or pushing yourself up off the floor. Plus, your chest muscles stabilize your shoulders and shoulder blades, which protects you against injuries and aids in maintaining a healthy posture. When your pecs are healthy and strong, it helps you stay upright and not hunch forward.

“Typically, if you’re working on the chest, you want to focus on pushing,” says Ivana Sy, a registered kinesiologist. A chest press is one of the simplest chest strengthening workouts you can do with a band. In this case, all you need is a chair (or something to tie your band to) and your trusty band. Another pec workout to try with a resistance band is a pec fly . On top of being a great chest strengthening move, pec flies open up your chest muscles, which can help reduce back pain and increase range of motion. To strengthen your shoulders along with your pecs, Veitch suggests a move called Free the Bird.

These exercises are beginner-friendly, you can use any resistance band to do them. If you want to level up, Sy recommends just using a “heavier” band, meaning a band that provides more resistance. It’s the equivalent of picking up a heavier dumbbell.

But user beware: There are some things to watch out for when working with resistance bands. First, if you have a latex allergy, opt for ones made from rubber or cloth. Veitch also recommends wearing something that covers your arms when using resistance bands, which will protect your arm hair from being tugged on by the band, especially if your band isn’t covered with fabric. To that end, tie your hair back so it doesn’t get in the way or stuck to the band, which can really hurt. If you have grip issues or a hand injury, opt for a band with handles, says Veitch. And if you have higher blood pressure, Veitch suggests working out one side at a time: “That can prevent a big increase in blood pressure during exercise.” Finally, bands can snap while you’re using them, so be mindful of overstretching to avoid a painful elastic band slap, especially with pets or kids nearby. While it should burn a little when you work them, improving your chest strength should never feel painful.

Try these chest stretches

Chest press

Start seated in a sturdy chair with your resistance band looped around the chair’s back. Grab both sides of your band with your hands and, starting with your arms bent and hands at shoulder height, slowly push forward by straightening your arms. Imagine you’re pushing open a really heavy door. Slowly return your arms to the starting position and repeat.

Pec fly

Holding the band in front of you, with your hands facing each other and arms straight, slowly pull your hands apart. Try to get your arms in a “T” position. Once you’ve gone as far as you comfortably can, slowly return to the starting position and repeat.

Free the Bird

Start by stepping on one end of your band with one foot to anchor it to the floor. Then, grab the other side of the band with your opposite hand (e.g. if you’re stepping on it with your right foot, use your left hand). Starting about waist-high, slowly raise your hand up and out diagonally, as if releasing a bird into the sky.

Next: 3 Moves to Stretch and Strengthen Your Glutes After Sitting All Day

Cereal has come a long way since the 1950s; yes, it is still processed, and doesn’t grow on a tree, but the contents have improved a lot. Many have fewer additives (like preservatives, added colour and binders), and there are lots of products made with less sugar and 100 percent whole grains.

There are two kinds of people in the world; sugar-cereal people and fibre-cereal people. One is looking for taste and possibly health benefits; the other is looking for anything their kids will eat! It is possible to find a cereal that makes both types of people happy. Here are a few tips to help you navigate this aisle of boxed energy.

(Related: Healthy Homemade Cereal With Walnuts, Oats and Apricots)

Look for lots of fibre

Breakfast is a great time of day to up your fibre intake. The recommended amount of fibre is 25g per day for women and 38g per day for men, and most people are not hitting these targets. Fibre is important for digestion, lowering cholesterol and helping to control blood sugar. (Here are other reasons to increase your fibre intake.)

There are two kinds of fibre: soluble and insoluble. Soluble fibre helps to slow down digestion by forming a gel in your intestines, which slows blood sugar absorption and can lower LDL (‘bad’) cholesterol. Insoluble fibre acts as a bulking agent and keeps things moving through your digestive system, which helps keep your bowel movements regular. Both are important and often present in breakfast cereals that contain high-fibre ingredients such as bran, whole grains, and oats. Some also contain high-fibre nuts, or add in some extra psyllium or flax to give even more of a boost. If the product contains at least 4g of fibre per serving, that’s a decent choice. On the nutrition facts panel, look for least 15 percent daily value fibre per serving.

Look for a well-ordered ingredients list

The ingredient list on a box of cereal is a LOT more important than the nutrition facts panel. Why? Because while there is always a margin of error when a product is analyzed for the nutrition label, if an ingredient is listed, it’s in there! And the ingredients are listed in descending order, meaning the first ingredient listed is what makes up most of the cereal.

As an example, if the first ingredient is cornmeal, then most of the cereal is cornmeal. Or if the first or even third ingredient is sugar, then it means there’s a lot of sugar in there.

The top of the list should include ingredients that are 100 percent whole grains, or unprocessed whole oats. Whole grains contain more fibre and protein. This includes whole wheat, barley, oats, buckwheat or rye, which are all great high-fibre choices.

Keep sugar as low as you can go

We certainly don’t need to seek out sugar, it finds us easily enough. Breakfast cereals are notorious for high sugar content. Some are even marketed to kids for this exact reason. But sometimes it can be difficult to gauge sugar content by looking at the label. We don’t have a daily amount of sugar we need to get everyday, which is why you won’t see a percent value on the nutrition facts panel. Added sugar in adults and children’s’ diets is linked to several health issues such as type 2 diabetes and fatty liver disease.

Aim for less than 8 grams per serving. Serving sizes can be deceiving (who has ever eaten a ¼ cup of granola?!) so make sure you calculate the total in an average serving. For example, if a ½ cup of cereal is 8 grams of sugar, but you eat 1 cup, then you are really consuming 16 grams of added sugar. Virtually all cereals will have some source of sweet, whether added sugars, raisins or other dried fruits, so aim to get a lower number if you can. High fibre cereals with some added sugars are an even better choice, to slow the sugar released into the bloodstream.

Sugar goes by many names on the label; glucose, cane sugar, organic sugar, fructose, high-fructose corn syrup, brown rice syrup, inverted sugars, raisins and dried fruit are all forms of sugar that can be added to cereal.

(Learn what happens to your body when you stop eating sugar.)

Know what else to look for

Cereal can be a source of many other important vitamins and nutrients due to the fortification of some flours. Some cereals have higher protein content with nuts or whole grains, which helps to keep you full. These can also be good and excellent sources of calcium, iron and B12 which are bonuses for kids. Many whole grains contain other important B-vitamins and potassium.

Unfortunately, there are still many cereals that are marketed to children that use colours and characters to mask poorly made food. Food colours and additives have been linked to hyperactivity and disturbed behaviours in children who are sensitive to them. It is a common myth that sugar alone is the culprit of “hyperactivity in kids;” many industrial ingredients are at play, since they are eaten together and not in isolation. Watch out for cereals with higher daily values (15 percent or higher) of saturated fat or sodium.

Don’t be fooled: gluten-free, organic or expensive does not always equal better

There are many cereals targeted for people with allergies or other special diets. These might contain modified or gluten-free ingredients, but these aren’t necessarily “healthier” by definition. Ultimately, you should still follow the ingredient list and the numbers on the nutrition facts panel. These cereals may still be low in fibre, nutrients and contain high amounts of sugar. Foods that are specifically marketed as organic are not necessarily healthier either for the same reasons, and can also have the same or more sugar than other cereals.

So, is there ONE ultimate cereal?

The answer is yes, and it starts with an “o” but isn’t in the shape of one. If there was an Olympics of cereal, steel-cut oats would be the gold-medal winner. Oatmeal porridge is versatile and comes in many forms from instant to steel-cut. The less processed the better. Oats are nourishing, full of beta-glucan fibre for helping to lower cholesterol and blood sugars, and can be dressed up a million ways; try peanut butter and chopped apples, or maple-syrup and walnuts. A bowl is full of not one, but two very beneficial fibres, vitamins, minerals and served warm to soothe the gut. Nothing quite “sticks to your ribs” as a bowl of piping hot oatmeal porridge, especially on a cold winter day. (Try our banana overnight oats.)

The reality of modern life for many people, especially working parents, means cereal will have a place in your pantry. The good news is products are being made that include lots of fibre, without unwanted chemicals and lower amount of sugar, so you have a choice.

Nishta Saxena is a registered dietician and nutrition educator based in Toronto.

Next: 16 Healthy, Energy-Boosting Breakfast Recipes

Peaches are a quintessential summer fruit, and as you’ll see in this dish, this is the time of year to remind yourself that simple food is best. The secret to a good peach salad is to use fruit at its peak ripeness—as is the case in July in Ontario. A ripe peach gives a little when squeezed, and when the sun is high in the sky, a peach will set off a sweet fragrance. That is how you know your peach is ready. But who needs all of those details when the best test is to taste it? Bite into one and let the juice spill down your chin, onto your fingers, and down your forearm.

Here we lay a bed of peach slices across a plate as if they were a picnic blanket bracing the very large misshapen ball of burrata that is to be cut down the centre, only to let cream ooze out onto each slice. Finish with a scoop of vinegary pink pickled onions and brighten the dish with a bit of fresh basil to clean the palate. I like freestone peaches (easy to remove from the pit) for slicing and clingstone for handheld eating, but when given no choice, the ripest of any variety will taste best. This salad is spectacular on its own, but it goes well with a nice barbecue dinner.

Peach, Burrata & Basil Salad

Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 10 peaches, stoned and sliced 20 fresh basil leaves
• 1 ball burrata (8.8 ounces/250 grams)
• 3 tablespoons quick pickled onions, including the brine
• Flaky sea salt or finishing salt and freshly cracked black pepper
• 3 tablespoons good-quality extra virgin olive oil

Directions

Decorate a serving plate with the peach slices and basil leaves. Top with the burrata and pickled onions, along with a spoonful or two of the pickling brine. Season with salt and pepper, then drizzle with olive oil and serve.

Excerpted from Peak Season by Deirdre Buryk. Copyright © 2022 Deirdre Buryk. Photography © 2021 Janette Downie. Published by Appetite by Random House, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.

Next: A Summer Rainbow Ratatouille Recipe That Pairs Well With a Crusty Baguette