Top Lifestyle News

Oct 11, 2026 - Lifestyle

A life coach has helpfully pointed out that we’re all chief executives of our own existence. So let’s start enjoying the perksTo-do lists are done, apparently: the latest tactic to motivate and galvanise yourself is a “CEO hour”. The rationale for this method, courtesy of career and life coach Eva Katzler, is that you are the chief executive officer of your own existence, so you should routinely sit down and check in, just as they do in other businesses, reflecting on the past week and setting intentions for the next. Regularly having a formal meeting with yourself may be the kind of behaviour that makes people start worrying about you, particularly if you power dress for the occasion, but at least you can be sure you’ll get all the best biscuits.Katzler is against the to-do list because she sees it as “our fast track to feeling like we’re completely out of control, because we can never get through it. When you never get that sense of achievement, what you’re left with is a feeling of failure.” Continue reading...

Oct 11, 2026 - Lifestyle

Whey protein powder is everywhere, but which ones will you savor and which will you choke down? The Guardian staff glugged them all so you don’t have toThe best (and worst) instant coffee, protein bar or chocolate barsSign up for the Filter US newsletter, your weekly guide to buying fewer, better thingsProteinmaxxing has gotten out of hand. It’s in everything from ice-cream to yogurt – yes, our protein has extra protein in it now. GLP-1 weight loss drugs are in part to blame; as Americans eat less overall, protein intake becomes more essential. And whey protein in particular has taken off.The side effect: a price hike for whey protein concentrates as much as fivefold as demand sharply increased in the past few years, as we reported. In other words, whey protein powders are more expensive than ever. Continue reading...

Oct 11, 2026 - Lifestyle

I was standing at the traffic lights with the weight of the world on my shoulders when a man approached. He will probably never know the impact he had on my lifeRead more in the kindness of strangers seriesMy cousin had recently died in a terrible accident and I had been the one who had to identify the body. It was one of the darkest periods of my life, on seemingly every front: I was in the midst of a divorce; it was during the global financial crisis and the company I worked for was badly struggling, making every day feel heavy with uncertainty and stress. Everything was a mess and I was emotionally exhausted.One morning during rush hour, I stood at the traffic lights waiting to cross on my way to the office. I was lost in my thoughts but must have looked like I had the weight of the world on my shoulders, because something unexpected happened. Continue reading...

Oct 11, 2026 - Lifestyle

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical conceptsThis week’s question: Why is a child saying ‘Na-na, na-na-na!’ so annoying?Why are national anthems almost always orchestral? When – and by whom – was it decided that brass and strings best represent a country’s identity? Where are the power-pop or folk varieties? Ross Gomes, by emailSend new questions to [email protected]. Continue reading...

Oct 11, 2026 - Lifestyle

From ‘has flat buttocks’ to ‘likes brunettes with muscles’, the retailer’s About You pages offer some remarkable insights into customers’ lives and tastes. Naturally, I rushed to check out mine …There’s been a disturbing development in the surveillance capitalism space for me and other Amazon users: we can now find out exactly what the site thinks about us. The tax-agnostic shopping behemoth launched an “About You” function, which allows shoppers to see what assumptions and beliefs it has gathered from our purchases, in May, but last week things got interesting. Threads user Megan Montgomery found her “About You” page, and discovered Amazon thinks she “has flat buttocks”, prompting other shoppers to post the implacably devastating verdicts they uncovered: “husband has skinny legs”; “likes brunettes with muscles”; “cusses when scared”; “cannot keep real plants alive”; “too short to reach into a 40in-deep box” and “treats cats as biological children”. A TikTok user says hers includes “has a bad father”.By their fruits shall ye know them, if by “fruits” you mean compression socks, shapewear, cat carriers and self-help guides. Obviously, this is bad, but it’s a well-deserved kind of bad – we’ve sacrificed privacy for convenience and this is the result. It’s also bleakly funny, so just as obviously, I was over there like a ferret up a trouser leg to find out what the stuff Amazon has delivered here over the years has caused it to deduce about my household. The results were disappointing. You don’t need a particularly sophisticated algorithm to deduce “likely lives in York”; “feeds wild birds consistently” (not in summer! I follow RSPB guidance!) and “cycles recreationally” (absolutely not, but I live with a multi-bike-owning MAMNILYBOROD – that’s “middle-aged man not in Lycra yet because of risk of divorce”). Continue reading...