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    LIVESTRONG.COM

    LIVESTRONG.COM

  • The 5 Biggest Healthy-Cooking Mistakes

    When you make the decision to eat a healthier diet, the prospect of cooking wholesome, nutritious meals at home can be a major change: You want to eat right, but you don't want the same bland, boring meals every day. While some healthy home-cooking practices follow common sense, such as steaming vegetables instead of sauteing them in gobs of oil, others can be a bit murkier. But don't fret. By avoiding some common healthy-cooking mistakes and dispelling some of the misconceptions about eating right at home, you can create interesting, tasty meals that will tickle the taste buds.

  • More Than Meets the Eye

    Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the ... healthiest eater of them all? Beauty product sales in the United States rose 7 percent to $1.5 billion between January and July 2010, as reported in "The Seattle Times." And women invest an estimated 3,276 hours applying makeup and dressing to look their best throughout their lifetimes, according to a study commissioned by Australian beauty company Skinbliss. Current research indicates, though, that your appearance is influenced by more than just your makeup techniques, jeans brand or eye cream. ...

  • Who Pole Dances Anyway?

    Sometimes going to the gym can feel like an unbearable chore, schlepping yourself and your gym bag into the place for the same boring workout you did the day before and the day before that. It doesn't help that you haven't seen the results you were hoping for or that you spend the entire workout looking forward to the end of it. Perhaps what you need is a challenge, something that doesn't involve complicated machines, bulky equipment or boring repetitions. A distinctive fitness experience like this does exist, and it requires only yourself, a positive attitude and ... a pole. ...

  • Venerable & Valuable: Christie Rampone

    Stress brings tension, anxiety and worry. But breathe in deeply and often these negative feelings are relieved. Now take a look in a dictionary. You'll find that "to breathe in" once meant "to inspire."

  • The Best Exercises You're Not Doing

    It's been said that human beings are creatures of habit, always following a predictable ebb and flow in life. Whether it's watching the same television shows on a weekly basis, eating at the same restaurants or putting the left sock on before the right, we generally don't like to stray too far from business as usual. When it comes to our exercise routines, the script is much the same: We stick with what we're good at and what's easy, often performing the same mundane exercises in the same order. ...

  • Nourish Your Body, Nurture Yourself

    "Man is what he eats." First published in an essay in 1863, this statement by German philosopher Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach has become the mantra of modern-day fitness and nutrition gurus in describing the effect that food has on your body: Eat healthy foods, become physically healthy. But your dietary habits can affect far more than your physical self -- they can make or break your self-esteem.

  • Small Changes Can Yield Big Results

    Quit cold turkey. Run a marathon. Cut out carbohydrates. Reduce calorie intake by half. You may believe that drastic changes are the only ways to achieve the results you want, but that's hardly the case. "When changes are too big, they may be too overwhelming," said registered dietitian Ellie Krieger, author of "Small Changes, Big Results: A 12-Week Action Plan to a Better Life." "People don't want to start, or they don't know where to begin so they don't at all." Small lifestyle changes are easier to achieve and maintain. ...

  • Brown Bag Makeovers

    Bringing lunch from home saves you money, helps you avoid the lunch-hour crowds and is an excellent way to ensure you're getting a nutritious meal. "Healthy brown-bag meals can reduce fat, calories and sodium in our diets, improving overall health," said Amber Massey, a Dallas-based registered dietitian and food blogger. But let's face it, the typical brown-bag lunch is a little, or maybe a lot, boring -- especially when you keep pulling the same foods from your brown bag day after day. However, it doesn't have to be that way. ...

  • Find Your Motivation

    Though they may have you subconsciously biting your nails, lighting up after lunch or grabbing one more fistful of fries, your bad habits didn't start out bad. There was motivation behind them. "All habits -- even bad habits -- start out as true friends. They help, or helped, us deal with something," said Meg Selig, a counselor and author of "Changepower! 37 Secrets to Habit Change Success." Many habits help us regulate our moods, she says, so changing could leave us without a way to feel good. When you "want" chocolate to "feel better," for example, you don't really want chocolate. ...

  • 8 Foods You Should Avoid

    Some of the rules of a healthy diet are fairly obvious -- steer clear of fast food joints, say "no" to fried foods, and keep the chips and cookies to a minimum. Unfortunately, eating smart involves more than just avoiding notoriously unhealthy foods. Lurking behind the facade of words like "organic," "fat-free" and "natural" is a whole slew of foods that can kill a diet and pack on the calories. So here's a warning for any well-intentioned healthy eater: Just because it sounds nutritious, doesn't mean a food is actually good for you.

  • Skinny Girl Lunch Ideas

    For many, lunch surpasses breakfast as the most important meal of the day. Lunch is a chance for the body and brain to refuel and get ready for whatever the remainder of the day has to bring. A midday meal should fill you up without being too heavy, and it should include just the right balance of nutrients to ward off the 2 p.m. slump --- sometimes easier said than done. Quick, simple, low-calorie meals will keep you energized and keep your healthy eating habits on track.

  • Avoid the Weight Gain Trap

    The never-ending fight against weight gain sometimes seems like a lost battle. One minute you're devastating the competition -- eating healthy and fighting off junk-food cravings. The next, you're back on the ropes, muttering to yourself, "I can't believe I ate that whole thing." For some, it's emotions and circumstances that can wreak havoc on a diet, whether it's a breakup, stress or pure boredom. For others, it's a never-ending cycle of new diets that promise results too good to be true and abs that look airbrushed. No matter what trap you find yourself in, there's always a way out.

  • Dieting Blues

    If you are among the 68 percent of overweight Americans, dieting may seem like your gateway to happiness. The media touts headlines about the population's perpetual weight gain and associated risks. Perhaps your doctor gives you knowing looks or a heart-to-heart each time you step on the scale. And don't forget the billboards, movies and magazines that praise the latest diet techniques particular A-list celebrities credit for their slender thighs or washboard abs. "Yes," you may think to yourself, "if I just shed the pounds, health, happiness and all of my dreams will be achieved. ...

  • When Good Foods Go Bad

    It's a popular proverb: An apple a day keeps the doctor away. But what happens when, instead of that one apple, you eat 3 lbs. of the fruit? Can there be too much of a good thing? Sarah Krieger, a registered dietitian in St. Petersburg, Florida, and a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, thinks so. She says that everything, even the nutritious foods, should be eaten in moderation. "More of anything is not always the answer," Krieger said. "Not picking on apples, it could be anything. It could be pears." While some foods are healthy for you, "more" does not always mean "better. ...

  • What Do the Dietary Pros Eat?

    The root word, "diet," in the term dietetics has acquired a four-letter-word connotation in the United States, and the term "nutritionist" can raise notions of dietary perfection, restriction or bionic willpower. But dietetics, or the science of nutrition, seldom relates to going "on a diet."While f

  • Giving Bloat the Boot

    I ignored the first warning sign. It happens to everyone, I thought. Your body just changes as it gets older. I slid the dress back down below my hips, the unclosable zipper hanging open like a gaping wound. The second warning was harder to ignore. During my yearly check-up, the nurse put me on a scale. I blinked twice when I saw the result. I was 32 years old, 5 feet 4 inches tall, 137 pounds and in the worst shape of my life. My doctor gave me a lecture. Ten more pounds, she said, and I would be classified as overweight according to the Body Mass Index scale. ...

  • PMS SOS! Can Diet Help?

    You know those days -- when you feel more like Eeyore than Tigger, when your abdomen feels like a gargantuan balloon that you wish would just drift away. Premenstrual syndrome is not an illness, but a natural condition characterized by at least one of 150 potential symptoms in most menstruating women, according to "Women's Health" magazine. For the majority of women who face PMS, symptoms are tolerable but bothersome. ...

  • 5 Foods that Keep You Thin

    Take a look around any book store, and you'll find dozens of diet books lining the shelves. Despite their bright and cheerful covers, with their positive, upbeat claims, many of them are filled with information that promotes all the wrong messages."The word 'diet' is negative and implies people can

  • A Runner's Guide to Eating

    A tall, cold glass of chocolate milk, the drink many associate with fond childhood memories, is perhaps one of the healthiest to have after a vigorous run. For runners -- or anyone who engages in regular workouts -- knowing what to consume and when to consume it is essential to get the most out of any physical activity.

  • How to Not Be Intimidated in the Gym

    For some, the hardest part of working out is not the cardio, the leg presses or even the spinning classes -- it's walking into the gym. People may think health clubs are filled with incredible hulks and smiling supermodels, surrounded by mysterious, sinister-looking weights and machines. In other words, the gym can be intimidating. But don't let it stop you. Five fitness experts offer surefire suggestions on how to better understand and enjoy the gym and make it a welcome part of your fitness program. Where to Start?