Megan McMorris

Chad Crigger spent a lot of time in the local hospital as a child in his hometown of Charleston, West Virginia. It wasn’t due to chronic illness, however, he was simply tagging along with his parents while they worked. His mother was a nurse, and his father was a surgeon.
“Whether doing rounds with my dad or hanging out at the nursing station with my mo...

HOME ALONE
Does your pet have separation anxiety? Purdue experts share their tips.

At first glance, you won’t notice anything terribly different while perusing the produce aisle. But a closer look may have you doing a double-take. Hybrid fruits, with names like pluots, limequats and peacharines, sound like something out of a science fiction movie. But it turns out the trendy produce actually dates back to the 18th century. Here’s the lowdown on the hybrid fruits you’re likely to find at your local supermarket, what they can do for your health and the best ways to enjoy them...

At first glance, the start times of most marathons—around 9 a.m. or 10 a.m.—seem easy enough. But when you factor in travel and wait time, runners often have to leave their home or hotel rooms before dawn to get to the start. That leaves typical sleep schedules in the dust.
“I had four races last year and all of them required getting up as early as 3:30 a.m.,” Joe English, elite-level master’s multi-sport athlete and former national coach for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team-In-Traini...

Don't sweat it: Our money experts divulge their favorite summer-bill secrets.
Summertime and the living is easy…until you open the bills, that is. Between blasting the AC and overdoing water consumption, those seemingly innocent warmer-month habits have a way of adding up. Before you open another bill, though, first shift your attitude about saving, advises Prudential’s financial wellness advocate Tiffany Aliche, aka The Budgetnista. “I don’t believe in being overly restrictive when it comes ...

We get it: You don't always have time to whip up a nutritious breakfast. Most days, in fact, if your breakfast doesn't have a grab-and-go appeal, you may (gasp!) skip it altogether. That's where the freezer aisle can come in handy. By making the right choices, you can find convenient and flavorful meals to kickstart your day. We've perused the aisles for you and selected the best breakfast choices.
Banish the notion that fresh fruit is more nutritious than frozen. "Frozen fruit has equal nutr...

In this alternate reality we're all currently living in thanks to COVID-19, grocery shopping has certainly taken on new meaning. For one thing, our food needs have gone up — quite a bit. Between kids home from school, and most of us now working at home, we're preparing most, if not all, of our meals in one place.
"We live in a culture right now where we typically aren't preparing three meals a day from our home, so this whole new mindset is tipping people on end because people aren't necessar...

Well Fed
Strong? Happy? Confident? Alert? Give yourself a head start by matching your breakfast to your mood du jour.
It's no secret that certain foods have the ability to alter your mood. According to a study in the British Journal of Health and Psychology, participants reported a better mood on the days they ate seven to eight fruits and vegetables than when they didn't eat any.
"We all know intuitively that when you eat better, you feel better, but in addition to that, we're now learning t...

The Quarantine 15 may be getting a little too real. These at-home measuring techniques will help you size yourself up.
Medical ReviewerRodrigo Barros, M.D., Ph.D.
So, we heard you’ve been stress-eating a little bit lately. (Who hasn’t?!) A lot of us are home more all of a sudden, and we’re a little too conveniently located near our fridge for one thing. And instead of walking down the hall to chat with our coworkers, these days we’re barely budging from our Zoom squares. Plus think fast: When...

By Megan McMorris
When Marko Johnson opened MuddWorks coffee roastery on NE 70th and Glisan in November 2019, his plan was to focus on wholesale roasting first, retail second.
Plans during 2020 have had a funny way of changing though.
“When the rumblings of COVID-19 started happening, it was unknown what I was going to do,” recounts Johnson. “Things were changing by the day. You can’t be business as usual anymore; you need to be flexible to survive.”
His solution: open his doors to the public...

By Megan McMorris
I first visited Taylor Court Grocery hoping to sweet-talk my way into a job. It didn’t work. Little did I realize, Mel Hafsos and Errol Carlson have famously manned their store personally since 1996.
Even though they weren’t hiring, they weren’t going to get rid of me that easily and the store quickly became a part of my routine.
With Mel cheerfully stocking the shelves and Errol chatting with customers behind the counter, the business and life partners made “picking up a fe...

By Megan McMorris
As the world’s gears are slowly starting to turn again, it’s almost hard to imagine what things were like just one year ago – streets eerily empty; restaurants and bars shuttered; traffic nearly nonexistent and Zoom Happy Hours versus hugs.
Meanwhile, other signs of life were taking their place: sidewalk chalk; kids playing outside; teddy bears in windows; neighbors stopping to linger and chat over their fences and exuberant dogs salivating at the sudden extra time with thei...

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If one of your goals is to improve your ability to cruise up a hill or sprint to win a race, you might do lower-body moves in the gym to build strength, such as squats and lunges. That’s helpful, of course, but another way to crank out higher watts with ease is to focus on training your muscle power.
Consider muscle power the ability to mesh strength and speed. While muscular...

The change. Kinda sounds like a low-budget horror film, doesn’t it? (Cue the screeching violins.) But let’s skip the suspense: All we’re talking about here is menopause, a normal phase of adult life marked by a predictable pattern of hormonal shifts—and for some people, shifts on the scale, as well.