FitSugar

Seven Habits of Women Who Don't Get Sick

FitSugar — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 05:30:00 PDT

Nothing is worse than getting a cold or the flu. Sometimes it seems unavoidable, but CNN recently reported on seven habits of women who rarely get sick. I've highlighted some key points in this slideshow, so see for yourself what you may want to do, or pat yourself on the back for those things that you already do.

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Avoid The Monday Blues with Positive Thinking

FitSugar — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 03:30:00 PDT

I know it might seem cliché to admit this but rainy days and Mondays always get me down. They just do. I came across this article recently on the Power of Positive thinking and I thought this might just be the tool I need to help me power through my Monday blues.

While Positive Thinking may sound corny, optimism has been proven to be a healthful mindset. The Mayo Clinic lists the following side effects as some benefits of looking at the glass as half full: decreased negative stress, greater resistance to catching the common cold, a sense of well-being and improved health, reduced risk of coronary artery disease, improved coping ability for women with high-risk pregnancies, and (obviously) better coping skills during hardships. Don't know if Mondays count as hardships, but sometimes it sure feels like they should.

We have all gone through bouts of negative self talk (so many personal sports moments come to mind), and the best way to stop the slow build of pessimism is to practice positive thinking. Sounds easy, but it takes practice to turn lemons into lemonade. The best guideline for eliminating the stream of negative thought is to not say anything to yourself mentally that you wouldn't say out loud to anyone else. Periodically check in with the stream of your thoughts and if they are sour, give them a positive spin. Instead of saying "There is no WAY I have time to do this" try "I think it is time to reevaluate priorities." I am telling you it really does work - see I'm feeling optimistic already.

So tell me - is the glass half full or half empty?

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Nighttime Fasting: A New Way to Lose Weight?

Shape — Thu, 24 May 2012 04:09:52 PDT

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Shape here on FitSugar. This week Shape turns to Cynthia Sass, a registered dietitian with master's degrees in both nutrition science and public health.

If you couldn’t let anything cross your lips from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 a.m., but you were allowed to eat anything you wanted for eight hours a day and still lose weight, would you try it? That’s the apparent bottom line of a rat study published in the journal Cell Metabolism, which recently stirred up the weight loss pot.

Top 50 Summer Diet Foods for Weight Loss

Scientists put groups of mice on different diet regimens for 100 days. One group of rodents ate healthy food while animals in two of the groups chowed down on high-fat, high-calorie feed. Half of the junk food eaters were allowed to munch whenever they wanted to while the others only had access to feed for the eight hours they were most active. The conclusion: even though they ate a fatty diet, the mice who were forced to fast for 16 hours were almost as lean as those who ate the healthy fare. Interestingly, the round the clock junk food eaters became obese and developed health problems, even though they consumed about the same amount of fat and calories as the time-restricted junk food fed mice.

See if a nutritionist thinks nighttime fasting works after the break!

10 Cool Facts About Olfaction

BellaSugar — Thu, 24 May 2012 03:30:00 PDT

We all have a sense of smell, and we all use it constantly, whether we realize it or not. Scents and smell are two of the most important yet often overlooked elements of everyday experience. Want to learn a few truly amazing facts about the things your nose knows? Then just keep reading.

Sugar Inc. Is Looking For 34 Awesome People!

PopSugar — Wed, 23 May 2012 16:30:58 PDT

Sugar Inc. is thriving and growing every day, and we're seeking brilliant minds like yours to join us! We are looking for 34 talented and passionate people to join our 215-person commerce, original content, and global media company in our brand-new NYC office on Park Avenue, our giant new Los Angeles PopSugar Studios in Culver City, and our bustling headquarters in San Francisco.

Are you an Art Director ready to help make our brand even more stunning?
A beauty-obsessed editor ready to join our team as the BellaSugar Editor?
Or maybe you're an energetic Operations Engineer jazzed to help us scale our production platform?

Check out all our open positions on our Careers page, and drop us a line describing why you think you'd be the perfect fit for Sugar Inc.!

Bachelorette Breakdown: The Week's Biggest Whoa!-ments

Maggie Pehanick — Tue, 22 May 2012 09:13:48 PDT

Week two on The Bachelorette brought plenty of action, and I'm not just talking about the chemistry between Emily and Kermit - though that was slightly uncomfortable. No, I'm referring to the first one-on-one dates, the first group date, and all the poolside drama. It looks like we've got a veritable Real Housewives of Charlotte on our hands, only in this case the housewives are men and Botox is replaced by Muscle Milk.

I'm recounting the good times, and the especially bad times, from this week's episode when you

When Emily told Ryan they'd be baking cookies for her daughter's soccer team on the show's first one-on-one date, I was like, Whoa. No doubt this guy thought the only food preparation he'd have to do on The Bachelorette would be stomping his own grapes when producers flew him and his date to the scenic Napa Valley, and even then it would all just be for show and they'd get to drink perfectly aged Merlot by the fire while staring into each other's eyes. Not this season, buddy!
When Ricki showed up in the audience of the group date, I was like, Whoa! Wasn't the whole purpose of bringing the show to Charlotte so that Emily could still maintain some semblance of normalcy in her daughter's life? First she brings Ryan to soccer practice (but makes him wait in the car mere yards away from her daughter) and now this? (Side note: I kept thinking they should have rolled up the tinted window, lest Ricki see the strange man in her mother's car, but then it occurred to me that he might suffocate in the South Carolina heat.) Actually, come to think of it, watching your mom be the ringleader in a variety show starring the Muppets and a dozen suitors (one of which will be your new daddy!) is pretty commonplace nowadays.
Whilst lounging in the hot tub, Kalon let slip that he thought Doug "put being a dad on hold" to be on the show, and Doug was all, Whoa. Despite the fact that Kalon is coming off like a tool and clearly making no friends, Doug overreacted a touch and told him to "check it," but in a much more serious way. Kalon tried to interject, and again Doug was like, "Check it." I believe the phrase he's looking for is actually "Check yourself before you wreck yourself, bro." It also appears that Kalon is no longer "Helicopter Guy" and has now been given the nickname "Chopper," which the guys think is derogatory, but which is actually really cool and something I might try to get my friends to call me.
Meanwhile, Emily went on her date with Joe. The two dined at her local cotillion venue and put their hopes and dreams in the "love clock." After laying out his wishes to come back to Charlotte to marry her, Emily told Joe he wasn't the guy for her, and Joe was like, Whoa. It was brutal, but it was necessary.
After the loads of private time he got with her this week, Ryan still thought it would be kosher to monopolize Emily's time before the final elimination. He did this by writing her a seven-page letter and then making her read it to him out loud. It took 15 minutes, which is about two weeks in Bachelorette hours. This wouldn't be quite so bad if Taylor wasn't awkwardly waiting in the wings, caught in the unfortunate position of either backing down or breaking mid-letter-read. All the guys who were watching from outside were like, Whoa.

Did I miss any whoa!-ments?

Photo courtesy of ABC

How Not to Destroy Your Marriage

The Good Men Project — Fri, 18 May 2012 12:30:42 PDT

We're happy to present this story from one of our favorite sites, The Good Men Project. Today, Mark Tyrrell offers eight relationship tools to make your marriage work.

"All marriages are happy. It's the living together afterward that causes all the trouble." - Raymond Hull

So how do you make your marriage work? Or do you just blindly hope it'll take care of itself?

Think of a hot, successful date with someone you’re attracted to. You have fun, great conversation and more sexual chemistry than a warehouse full of pheromones. You don’t have to “work at” the date because it’s self sustaining. It runs as smoothly as the gliding hand of a classical guitar maestro and you can’t wait for another rendition.

Teenage Dating in a Twilight-Hunger Games World

But marriage, or any long term relationship; well that’s a whole other caboodle.

If we’re not careful, marriage can deteriorate into little more than a torturous assault course; littered with routine boredoms, frustrations and resentments. Couple all that with external pressures and sometimes marriage feels not worth the effort. But there are major benefits to being hitched or committed, other than just a beneficial tax regime.

Healthy marriage; healthy people.

Being happily married bestows heaps of health benefits. You might be forgiven for thinking that if you’re married you don’t live longer it just seems like it but, no, a good marriage really can help you clock up more years (1) and married people are happier (2) even though they don’t always look it from the outside.

But when marriage doesn’t work it can feel being manacled to a maniac, marooned with a misogynist or nailed to a nag. And I don’t care what the studies say, that’s not healthy. You may hear couples say stuff like: “We are making our marriage work!” but how do we do this?

Making it work.

We pay lip service to “working on the marriage” but what is the work we need to do? Marriage vows such as “to love and to cherish” and “forsaking all others, for better or for worse” don’t really tell us how to make it work, although they give us a clue.

Fortunately a ton of research has been done on what to do and not do to make your marriage, or any intimate relationship work. Follow the guidelines here to become “good at marriage."

Tip one: Be romantic but keep it real.

We are all (force?) fed romance in movies and novels. The handsome man gets the beautiful woman. But what I wonder is what happens after our romantic couple ride off into the sunset together? What do they do exactly? Bicker? Moan at one another? Start to ignore each other?

After all that romance, our beautiful couple is bound to have massive expectations of their life together. But when rose tinted expectations clash with day to reality, watch out!

Romance is vital in any relationship. Always seeing the best in your partner helps to keep things intimate and love should be expressed. But if you have been raised on Mills and Boon Romance novels or feel-good movies, then your own romantic expectations can work against the sustainability of your long term relationship.

When day to day life fails to live up to the giddy, heady lust-filled days of the pre-settled down romance people can become angry, even blame one another: “This wasn’t what I signed up for." They find it hard to take the rough with the smooth because they never really figured there would be any rough.

Expectations not diluted with at least a dash of realism can be a royal road to relationship ruin. Your partner may be an angel, but they have feet of clay. You must learn to love those feet or at least accept them a bit!

Get the rest after the jump!

An Everyday Athlete Is Still an Athlete

espnW — Fri, 18 May 2012 11:59:39 PDT

We are pumped to share one of our fave stories from espnW here on FitSugar!

By Risa Isard

On June 23, 1972, Title IX was signed into law, leveling the playing field for female athletes. To mark the 40th anniversary, espnW explore the impact of this landmark legislation.

You might not know me, but chances are you know someone like me. I'm that girl who grew up playing hoops in the driveway with my dad and brother every night after dinner. The one who played rec soccer for 10 years, starting out on a boys team. The one who persuaded her middle-school gym teacher to let her run the monthly timed mile against boys, then wrote her target time on her arm - in permanent marker. The one who took field day just a little too seriously.

The one who is thankful every day for Title IX.

Counting down the best of the past 40 years

Growing up, I wasn't an elite athlete, but I had passion to spare. I ran, jumped, threw, and kicked on a daily basis and eventually I found my calling in high school track and cross country. I was good (I earned seven varsity letters), but not good enough for the next level.

So when I arrived at Duke nearly four years ago, I found myself wondering something that had never crossed my mind before: was I still an athlete?

Answering that question was no easy task. As I read about various elite athletes, I recognized our shared pasts. Like gymnast Jordyn Wieber, I used to pull old cushions into the middle of the family room and do cartwheels, somersaults, and front handsprings. Like many WNBA stars, I was the only girl in neighborhood basketball games. I lacked their natural ability, but I came to realize that we are connected through dreams and experiences. We all began by thinking of ourselves as athletes and scheduling our lives around sports at a young age. That doesn't just go away.

Read on for more.

Marion Cotillard Talks Rust and Bone and Loving Her Baby Son Marcel

Allie Merriam — Fri, 18 May 2012 08:08:36 PDT

Marion Cotillard is at Cannes this week chatting up her latest movie Rust and Bone. She wore Dior last night for the red carpet premiere of the film, and posed alongside costars Matthias Schoenaerts, young actor Armand Verdure, and director Jacques Audiard. The picture is ready for audiences after Marion and Matthias worked on it together last Fall in the South of France. Marion plays Stéphanie in the film, a killer-whale trainer whose life is changed after a tragic accident. So far, the Rust and Bone reviews are positive.

We caught up with the actress today at a press event this morning. Marion chatted about getting into the mindset to play Stéphanie, as well as about her career. She also touched on how life is different now that she's a mom to 1-year-old Marcel, and whether or not she consults with her husband, director and actor Guillaume Canet, before making a big career decision. Marion also gushed about her Inception and Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan. She said:

On motherhood changing her approach to work: "When I am in the character, it's completely the character. But usually when I work, I create this environment - especially that most of the time I am out of Paris and France - so I can create a new apartment in a new house or a hotel room. I can create a special environment that I need. I will entirely go back to myself when the movie is finished . . . [but during production] someone is sharing my body and is there most of the time. With my son it's impossible to take someone else home . . . There is this human being that I love more than anything, and who needs me."
On consulting with Guillaume before accepting a role: "It's usually all for myself. If I need advice, I will obviously ask the people I love and the people I trust. Usually, I create my own little world and deal with it."
On it being easier to act in French: "To play in French is definitely less demanding than playing in English with Polish accent or Italian or even French accent. Simply because I don't have to think about how I say the words. I don't have to think about, 'Does it sound French?' Because it will obviously sound French! But I love working in English. It's very, very interesting."
On being tough like her character, Stéphanie: "I definitely have strength . . . it would be a long conversation on how strength is manifested in yourself, but there's very few things that - actually I don't think there's one thing I could think about that could put me down."
On working with Christopher Nolan: "I really love this guy. He's so, so smart. He is such an amazing director and author. It's very rare to work with a director in Hollywood, especially on big, big movies like Batman, who not only directs the movie but writes the script. It's very, very unusual . . . It's massive, but it's also very, very intimate. I love this about him. He loves real things, real connections, real feelings."
On using her celebrity to spread awareness about the environment: "If you manage to spread what you think - because you think what you think is right - it's a beautiful thing to meet people who are not aware. Because there are still people who are not aware of what we are going through and what the world is going through. It's a good thing to share, and to change, step by step."

Obama Corrects Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Clarifies His View on Gay Marriage

Annie Scudder — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:35:19 PDT

President Obama came on The View today to talk hot topics, specifically gay marriage. The ladies on the show made for supportive hosts, as even the most conservative of the bunch, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, has voiced support for equal marriage rights in the past. Even so, Elisabeth challenged the president to explain how his position of letting the states define marriage differs from Mitt Romney's. She said, "at this point, you both said leave it to the states to decide." Obama was ready to respond, saying, "Elisabeth, that's actually not true," pointing out that Mitt Romney favors a federal constitutional amendment that would define marriage as between a man and a woman. Obama also promised that gay marriage would provide a big contrast between him and his GOP rival. Watch the clip, and tell us if you think Obama's smart to make gay marriage a campaign issue.