Author: superspiderclub

For something so sweet, sugar really can be quite awful. That’s because if you’re consuming more than 21 percent of your daily calories from added sugars, you double your risk of death from heart disease compared to people who consume just 10 percent of their calories from added sugars. That’s according to a 2014 study […]

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP

According to a recent study, the percentage of elderly people in American nursing homes who are moderately to severely overweight has climbed to 25%, a dramatic increase from 14% back in 2000. How does this alarming trend affect both health outcomes and care delivery in caregiving settings? Joining Dr. Brian McDonough to discuss this underrecognized issue of obesity in senior populations is Dr. Caroline Cederquist, bariatrics expert and founder of Cederquist Medical Wellness Center in Naples FL. Dr. Cederquist is also co-founder of bistroMD, a company premised on delivering physician-designed gourmet meals to patients for purposes of weight loss and health maintenance.

Our modern work life is stressful, and to make things worse, we tend to prioritize our jobs over self-care. But my career was so intense that I gained a serious amount of weight and endured health problems. Here’s how I put down the cupcakes and laced up my hiking boots in The Episodic Career.

I gained forty pounds in the four years I worked at NPR, which I am still working off. That certainly wasn’t the company’s fault. I haven’t heard of a job yet that doesn’t have potential for stress. In my case, I had to help lead coworkers through editorial and emotional changes, as we lost staff positions and worked for more than a year under rumors that the show might be canceled. In 2009 it ultimately became part of a Great Recession wave of cancellations that took out three NPR shows and dozens of staffers. After the cancellation, I knew I needed to spend some time getting healthier. Yet I didn’t understand until I began researching this book how harmful on-the-job stress is to your physical and mental health. Stress even explained the biological basis of my food cravings.

Once I moved back to New York in 2009, I found a new physician, Dr. Roberta Lee, who’d authored The SuperStress Solution. In it, she wrote of the recent emergence in many developing countries of the same stress- and diet-related illnesses that Westerners have long experienced, such as obesity, diabetes, insomnia, and heart disease.

“Chronic job stress is as bad for you as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day,” Dr. Lee told me. “Your cortisol level rises, and your body goes into fight-or-flight mode.” Cortisol is a steroid hormone that our bodies produce in reaction to stress. It’s a normal part of our physiology, and when we need it as a “spot treatment,” it can be beneficial, giving us energy. But prolonged stress and cortisol production can weaken our immune system, making it harder to recover from illness and injury. Excess, prolonged cortisol also increases our chances of developing osteoporosis, or bone loss, and it can even impair memory.

Sometimes job stress is inevitable, but we can always change how we deal with it. According to Dr. Lee, just taking a five-minute break in the middle of your day—“a walk, or quiet time with no devices” (no smartphone, television, or computer)—can reset your entire system and allow you to be more productive. Stress can cause the body to crave sugars, which exacerbates inflammation and generates layers of belly fat. That’s exactly what happened to me, and because both my mother and grandmother had double knee replacements due to hereditary arthritis (not from their weight), I knew I was headed for joint complications that could greatly diminish my quality of life. This alarming realization pushed me to lose weight and follow Dr. Lee’s advice. I’m certainly no triathlete, but I use my bicycle now for both exercise and transportation, and take time to do high-intensity workouts with a local boot camp. At the height of my job stress, I could have used the calm that follows an intense workout, but I’d convinced myself, quite wrongly, that a cupcake was better for me than a hike. Exercise also produces endorphins, natural pain and stress relievers; and other research shows even a slow, meditative walk in nature without high calorie-burning value is good for our mental health and mood.

The post How To Keep Stress at Bay, No Matter How Crazy Life Gets appeared first on Tips on Life and Love.

There is an obvious economic divide between single women and married women—two incomes are always better than one. But it goes deeper than that; being single simply costs more than being married. From tax breaks to housing costs, our economic system is set up to benefit couples. Find out more about the financial implications for the growing single female population in All The Single Ladies.

According to Atlantic writers Christina Campbell and Lisa Arnold, “Marital privilege pervades nearly every facet of our lives.” They found that health, life, home, and car insurance all cost more for single people, and report that “It is not a federal crime for landlords to discriminate against potential renters based on their marital status.” Looking at income tax policy, Social Security, healthcare, and housing costs, Campbell and Arnold found that “in each category, the singles paid or lost more than the marrieds.” At some point in their calculations, the authors confess, “We each wanted to run out and get a husband, stat.”

While single women purchase their own homes at a higher rate than single men, when compared to married adults, the unmarried lag far behind married couples. According to U.S. News & World Report, single people have “the lowest income levels…asset levels…[and] home ownership rates compared to other family structures.”

Anita Hill, who, as a law professor, specializes in issues of housing inequality, argued that housing costs are among the biggest issues facing unmarried women. “We can decide that we’re going to be single,” Hill said, “but we have to figure out how we’re going to be able to put a roof over our heads. We’re making eighty cents for every dollar a man makes. So there is a real issue with more and more women spending over 50 percent of their income on housing.” Economic forces, Hill said, push women “into less independent relationships.”

The post Is Being Single Costing You More? appeared first on Tips on Life and Love.

Wedding season is right around the corner. Are you ready? With today’s ever-increasing expectations of Instagram-ready nuptials, newly engaged couples typically go from zero to panic attack just after the question is popped.

These wedding planning guides are here to help. Written by pros with a sense of style, these books will show you how to achieve the chic ceremony of your dreams within your budget.

×

Loverly Wedding Planner: The Modern Couple’s Guide to Simplified Wedding Planning

by Kellee Khalil

View Details

Planning a wedding can be a bit overwhelming, but with the helpful how-tos and insider advice in this handy guide, you can forget the stress and focus on creating a day that truly reflects you as a couple. The Loverly Wedding Planner has everything you need to navigate the planning process in a way that is simple, meaningful, and really enjoyable.

×

The Lesbian Couple’s Guide to Wedding Planning: Everything You Need to Know About Planning Your Dream Wedding

by Bernadette Coveney Smith

View Details

With same-sex marriage becoming legal in more states, many lesbian couples are making the biggest decision of their lives to get married! In order to ensure the ceremony and reception go off without a hitch, who should they turn to? As the nation’s leading same-sex wedding expert, Bernadette Coveney Smith provides all the essential information that lesbians need in order to have the wedding of their dreams. Coveney Smith gives lesbian couples advice on everything from setting priorities and organizing their budget to involving parents and family (or not!) in the planning process. In this comprehensive 12-month wedding-countdown format, Coveney Smith shows how to plan for a wide range of weddings for all budgets and styles from casual to formal. With more than 125 beautiful color photographs to provide added inspiration, The Lesbian Couple’s Guide to Wedding Planning is the go-to resource for engaged lesbian couples everywhere!

×

Viva el amor: The Latino Wedding Planner, A Practical Guide for Arranging a Traditional Ceremony and a Fabulous Fiesta

by Edna Bautista

View Details

From incorporating family rituals and cultural traditions into your wedding to booking a “heritage honeymoon,” Viva el Amor is the only book that the Latina bride-to-be will need to plan a fabulous fiesta while celebrating the sacred bond of marriage. With the inspiring ideas, realistic timetables, and practical advice of Viva el Amor, brides and their families will discover — and rediscover — the wealth of Latino traditions that add depth and meaning to a wedding ceremony, and find ways to add modern touches.

×

The Knot Ultimate Wedding Planner & Organizer: Worksheets, Checklists, Etiquette, Calendars, and Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

by Carley Roney

View Details

For the first time, the go-to wedding website, The Knot, has compiled all their essential planning tools—and dozens of new ideas—into this beautiful wedding organizer. The Knot Ultimate Wedding Planner & Organizer is an indispensable resource—and a lovely keepsake after the meaningful, joyful, and customized celebration you’re sure to have.

×

A Practical Wedding: Creative Ideas for Planning a Beautiful, Affordable, and Meaningful Celebration

by Meg Keene

View Details

Getting engaged is exhilarating…until it sets in that a wedding costs three times what you thought, and takes five to ten times the effort it reasonably should. And then there are the expectations: from calligraphy invitations to satin chair-covers, all those things that Must Be Done or everyone will be Horribly Offended. Or will they?

A Practical Wedding helps you create the wedding you want—without going broke or crazy in the process. After all, what really matters on your wedding day, what you’ll remember ‘til you’re old and gray, is not so much how it looked as how it felt.

×

Getting Groomed: The Ultimate Wedding Planner for Gay Grooms

by Jason Mitchell

View Details

Finally, a fun wedding organizer for gay grooms! Packaged in a sleek two-ring binder that will slip easily into a messenger bag or briefcase, this planner covers every aspect of the event so the big day goes off without a hitch. Focusing on the details of the celebration and steering away from the politics of gay marriage, Getting Groomed offers a refreshing approach to readers planning a wedding or commitment ceremony. Couples will learn how to set a budget, organize the guest list, design invitations, dress and style for the big day, and much more. With fill-in worksheets, pockets for stashing important forms and contracts, a master timeline, and plenty of wit and charm, this elegant planner is the resource—and perfect gift—for stylish grooms-to-be.

×

Williams-Sonoma Bride & Groom Entertaining

by Brigit Binns

View Details

Designed to help newlyweds entertain happily ever after, this inspiring book makes an ideal wedding or bridal shower gift. It’s organized in three parts – parties, outdoor entertaining and special occasions – and lavishly photographed. The 60 recipes are geared toward young newlyweds, and each of the 12 menus features a detailed work plan accompanied by wine-pairing suggestions and advice on party organization and table decorations. Informative introductory sections cover all the basics, from event planning and invitations to the fundamentals of table setting. A Williams-Sonoma exclusive.

×

The Groom’s Instruction Manual: How to Survive and Possibly Even Enjoy the Most Bewildering Ceremony Known to Man

by Shandon Fowler, Paul Kepple

View Details

Gone are the days when you could sit back and let your fiancée plan the entire wedding. Today’s grooms have countless tasks to perform, from hiring the entertainment and planning the rehearsal dinner to buying the wedding bands and comforting hysterical family members.

Fortunately, The Groom’s Instruction Manual is here to answer all of your most challenging questions: How do I handle feuding relatives? What should I look for in a good wedding photographer? Why does my fiancee seem stressed out all the time? Whatever your concerns, you’ll find the answers here—courtesy of author and veteran groom Shandon Fowler.

×

New Jewish Wedding, Revised

by Anita Diamant

View Details

The definitive, completely up-to-date guide to planning a Jewish wedding. Since its original publication in 1986, The New Jewish Wedding has become required reading, assigned to engaged couples by Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist rabbis alike. In this new revision, Anita Diamant, one of the most respected writers of guides to Jewish life, continues to offer step-by-step guidance to planning the ceremony and the party that follows — from hiring a rabbi and wording the invitation to organizing a processional and hiring a caterer. Complete, authoritative, and indispensable, The New Jewish Wedding is a must-have resource for anyone who wants a wedding that combines spiritual meaning and joyous celebration.

×

The Bride’s Essential Wedding Planner: Deluxe Edition

by Amy Nebens, Greg Stadler

View Details

Filled with everything a modern bride needs to organize her perfect big day, The Bride’s Essential Wedding Planner is like having your own personal wedding consultant. It contains a wealth of completely up-to-date information about the entire planning process: checklists for every step, interview questions for potential service providers, worksheets to record vendor services and costs, DIY and money-saving hints, at-a-glance advice, a 16-month fill-in calendar, sleeves to hold business cards, guest list and seating chart organizers, pockets on all tab dividers, and more!

The post Wedding Planning 101: Best Bridal Books appeared first on Tips on Life and Love.

I think this might be the healthiest breakfast you could have, and it goes from fridge to plate in less than ten minutes. After a bowlful you’ll feel like a superhero all day! Eating this for breakfast also means that, before you’ve even started your day, you’ve had four great portions of veggies, which is awesome. From Deliciously Ella Every Day.

If I’m not especially hungry, I love eating this just as it is, but on hungry mornings or for busy days I add some br ead (which is why I’ve put the recipe in this section) and, when I’m feeling like a total goddess, I add sauerkraut on the side for probiotic goodness!

Serves 1

2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 garlic cloves, crushed salt and pepper
6 cremini mushrooms, very finely sliced
10 cherry tomatoes (halved or quartered if large)
juice of 1 lemon
2 ounces spinach
1/2 avocado

Pour the olive oil into a frying pan and add the cayenne pepper, oregano, thyme, garlic, salt and black pepper. Let it heat and develop its fragrance for 2 minutes.

Add the mushrooms, tomatoes and half the lemon juice and let everything cook for about 3 minutes, at which point the veg should have softened.

Stir in the spinach and let it wilt for another minute or so.

Pile the vegetables from the pan onto a plate—or a piece of toast—and slice the avocado on top.

Drizzle the remaining lemon juice over the avocado and sprinkle with a little salt and pepper to serve.

Tweak It
Make this as a weekend brunch for all your friends and family. If they or you eat eggs, then enjoy some poached eggs with it. I do this at home and everyone loves it!

The post Deliciously Ella Every Day Recipe: The Perfect Garden Fry-Up appeared first on Tips on Life and Love.

Finding work has never been easy, but today we face the additional challenge of having too much technology. Do job-hunting web sites make a difference, or is networking still the best way to find a new position? How do less tech-savvy job seekers stay relevant and put their best foot forward? Learn more in The Episodic Career.

Just as America’s labor market has changed, so has job search. Twenty-five years ago, there was no online job search. Today there are dozens of sites that enable you to look for opportunity, including Monster, Indeed, and Simply Hired. Often, sites give headhunters and recruiters the opportunity to look for you, as they sort through the millions of profiles on the current big dog of job networking, LinkedIn. Networking—both online and off—is more important than ever. But it’s also fraught with questions: How do we gain access to people who can help us if they are busy, powerful, or hard to reach? And how do the biases that exist in everyday life factor into online search?

For example, while I was giving a speech at the University of Texas at Austin, a woman told me she didn’t want to put up a LinkedIn profile because she thought her job history and photo would open her up to age discrimination. She asked me if she should lie about her age. I told that her rather than do that, put up a truthful but youthful-looking picture and consider compressing her job history to just the past few years. That’s not lying, but it’s creative. Others might disagree. In the end, when you walk through the door for an interview, you will have to disclose more about yourself, and you will be judged partly on your appearance. But at least you will have gotten through the door and, hopefully, be able to make a clear case why you are valuable at any age (or race, gender, and so on).

Not everything has changed. There are still some very traditional Help Wanted signs in store windows—plus newspaper classifieds, industry conferences where headhunters solicit résumés, and civil service exams. But the rise of the internet has altered job search forever, just as it’s changed our world forever. Employment figures are improving at the time I’m completing this book, but there are still roughly twice as many job seekers as there are jobs available. Some jobs that get listed are essentially filled already, because someone has an inside track on the job. No matter how many résumés the company gets, sometimes because it has to list it as a formality, the person hiring already has his or her mind set on an internal or external candidate.

The post Get It: The Best Modern Job Hunting Methods appeared first on Tips on Life and Love.

We are giving away FREE Advocare Spark products.  Just comment on this post to be entered to WIN!  We will pick a winner in May 1, 2016. Product Info:AdvoCare Spark® is a unique multi-nutrient system that was developed as a nutritional source of energy and enhanced mental focus.* It’s sugar free with more than 20 […]

Overview Plexus Slim is a powdered dietary supplement that claims to help with weight loss. A major pro of this supplement it that it is stimulant and thermogenic free, and contains all natural ingredients. This means that it may be a safer option for diabetics and those who are stimulant sensitive. To use Plexus Slim, […]