There's something about fall and winter that makes us instantly crave comfort food -- pie, pumpkin loaf, Christmas cookies and cakes. And though it's no longer bikini season (congratulations on surviving this year, by the way), all those high-sugar desserts consumed in ill-advised portions can creep up on you pretty quick.
We talk a lot about Korean skin care. We look to them for the latest and greatest in all things beauty — from the newest rendition of BB cream to the latest way to hydrate skin. But after pilfering products from their medicine cabinets, we might want to raid their refrigerators, too. Studies suggest that their glowing, poreless skin might be less about their revered 10-step skin-care regimen and more a product of their low-glycemic, vegetable- and seafood-based diet.
You can look high and low for a magical pill, squeeze out a few more juice cleanses, or drift from fad diet to fad diet, but at the end of the day, we all know the only way to lose weight is through a healthy diet (or "lifestyle" if you're not a fan of the D word) and exercise.
Want to keep your bikini body intact but don't want to spend the summer sipping light beer? You need to try these amazingly creative (and delicious) options
The best way to ensure that you're eating healthy foods without any bad-for-you additives (refined sugar, salt, etc.) is to cook at home. But eating healthy is already rough. Trading pizza and burritos for spinach salads and cauli-rice stir fry is no small feat. Cooking just adds another element to the entire process -- unless you've got the right equipment.
"Eat clean, train mean," may be a mantra you've pinned multiple times, but outside of Pinterest, the lure of a cheesy, carb-loaded pizza after a long day of work may be nearly impossible to resist -- especially if you have to pass a pizza joint on your way home. The reason? Researchers at Cornell University found that women ate more chocolate when it was nearby and in sight. The good news? Researchers say this same principle applies to good food as well as bad. Keep healthful images close (as in, right on your smartphone) to inspire better habits. Here, the best Instagram accounts you need to follow for serious healthy-eating inspiration (it's food porn you won't feel guilty about recreating).
Whether it's splitting a pizza over episodes of "The Bachelor," going on late night fro-yo runs after a long day, or nursing a hangover together at your favorite brunch spot, food plays a huge part in our friendships. The operative word being huge, since new research suggests your friends are making you fat.
Salt is so in right now -- as in, in everything you eat. As any healthcare professional will tell you, our sodium intake is out of control. Both the American Heart Association and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that Americans are swilling as much as 3,600 milligrams of the stuff a day -- more than double the recommended intake of 1,500 milligrams max. We all might as well be walking around with our own personal salt licks. And surprise, surprise: all that salt is not doing your looks any favors.
"Let thy food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be thy food." So said Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine. With this list of superfoods, you can toss the contents of your medicine cabinet entirely, and rely on your kitchen pantry instead.
Spoiler alert: Crash diets are so 2005. These days, it's all about making healthy-eating habits second nature. But what exactly are healthy habits? With the state of the Standard American Diet (SAD), we wanted to get a fresh perspective that doesn't involve juice cleanses or caveman cuisine.
When you hear the term "emotional eater," what do you usually picture? Probably something straight out of a romantic comedy: A sad sap who just went through a bad breakup, blaring depressing music in the background and shoveling heaping spoonfuls of ice cream into her mouth (straight out of the tub). A good friend may come over eventually, equipped with even more junk food, and the "eat your feelings" mentality continues while the rain pours outside.
When you're sitting down to a meal at one of America's classic chain restaurant establishments, you're probably not looking to skimp on calories. After all, restaurants like The Cheesecake Factory aren't known for hosting Weight Watchers meetings. But do you know just how bad for you a single meal is?
Remember that summer barbecue where you stuffed your face with ribs, potato salad and ice cream and left feeling light, unbloated and without any regrets? Me, either. There's nothing like downing a sodium-bomb burger with a side of coleslaw and potato chips and realizing the gravity of your actions 10 minutes later, while you're nursing a food baby in the hot sun and pulling at your ever-tighter bikini bottoms. Get your grub on, no regrets, with these health-conscious barbecue dishes, which taste great while cutting carbs, fat and calories.
Nothing is more frustrating than sticking diligently to a diet and seeing no results -- or, maybe even worse, seeing awesome results only to plateau a few weeks later. But it can be hard to pinpoint what, exactly, is going wrong. So we chatted with Vandana Sheth, registered dietitian nutritionist and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and Cynthia Sass, MPH, RD, author of the New York Times best seller S.A.S.S! Yourself Slim: Conquer Cravings, Drop Pounds and Lose Inches, to give us the skinny on the surprising mistakes people make on popular diets -- see if one of these sneaky saboteurs is messing with your weight loss goals.
I knew I needed a change when I hopped on the scale a week after Thanksgiving and the number flashed higher than it had ever been. Granted, it was a few days after I had two Thanksgiving dinners in less than 24 hours, but the persistent tightness of my clothing and my general sluggishness suggested that the extra pounds were more than just a few big dinners. After catching a glimpse of myself in the mirror after a shower one night, I thought to myself, 'I can't possibly be pregnant ... right?' Nope. My food baby had just become a permanent fixture.
It's never a big shocker. As the first blasts of cold air swoop in, your clothes lose some wiggle room and your pants require a bit more muscle-power to close. Blame the dryer all you want, but there's just something about Old Man Winter that makes us sluggish, constantly hungry (for all the wrong things), a little pudgier -- and in need of some diet tips that work.
Sometimes advertising agencies produce lame ads (Sit n' Sleep's "Your killing me, Larry" comes to mind). Sometimes -- as with those his/her couples lubricant spots -- they produce provocative/unsavory ones. And, sometimes, just sometimes, they produce simply beautiful, to the point mini-masterpieces.
Considering the fact that some American "cuisine" (Oh, those Golden Arches) has become ubiquitous abroad, it's interesting to learn that there's a long list of foods that are verboten in other countries.
