Fast Food Rules to Follow by DrWeil.com.

Even if you are diligent about packing healthful foods when traveling, or finding restaurants with nutritious choices when eating out, there may be times when your healthy dining options are limited. While I suggest you avoid eating fast food entirely, if you must, please keep the following in mind when ordering:

1. No matter how hungry you are, you are better off ordering a small amount of food and making up for it with healthier foods later. Don't super-size or add on items.
2. Pile on the lettuce, tomato and other vegetables that come with your order, to add some fiber and antioxidants.
3. If you order a salad, choose the low-fat dressing, and add sparingly. One serving of full-fat dressing can be equal to the amount of fat in a cheeseburger!
4. Finally, ask to see a list of the nutritional content of menu items. Some restaurants have them posted- if they don't, ask for them, and ask yourself if you really want to eat there.

For more information on DrWeil.com.

How to Select the Best Children's Bed For Your Child's Bedroom By Amber Lipson Platinum Quality Author

Have you finally (perhaps reluctantly) decided that it's time to move your child out of their crib and onto the next level? Even though you lovingly selected your child's crib and nursery bedding with the utmost care, it may be time to realize that your baby is growing and her bed needs to grow with her. But, don't despair, there are beautiful youth beds and bedding available and now you get to put the same devotion into choosing her big girl bed that you did for her nursery! Here is what you need to know as you shop for your child's 'big kid' bed:

There are basically two styles of youth beds to choose from - toddler beds and twin beds.

Toddler Beds - Toddler beds are low to the floor and sized somewhere in between a twin bed and a crib. They are not only the right size for a toddler or young child, but they also come in a wide variety of designs that will almost guarantee that you'll find just what you're looking for. Toddler beds have become incredibly popular over that past couple years, which has made them incredibly easy to find and at very reasonable prices. Toddler beds can be great for a while, but will have to be replaced as the child grows. This style of youth bed can be found in sturdy wood or metal designs that will last through multiple children and many years.

Twin Beds - Twin beds can be a great choice, but can be a big jump right out of a crib. Most people are familiar with the basics of a twin bed, but thanks to the overwhelming demand, there have been a number of new and innovative designs put on the market in recent years. You can find everything from a traditional slat poster or sleigh style bed, to a whimsical, colorful masterpiece that your child is sure to love. Loft beds, bunk beds, and captain's beds are just a few of the other styles you can choose from. Many of them offer such things as: trundles for your overnight guests, extra storage space for your never-ending supply of clothes and toys, or guard rails to prevent children from falling off during the night.

It doesn't matter if you're looking for a something to match your already existing décor, or one that can be a jumping off point for an entire over-haul, there's something out there that's perfect for you. Keep in mind that shopping for a complete child's bedroom collection that includes a youth bed as well as matching dresser, desk or night table is a way to ensure your child's bedroom décor is coordinated and pleasing. This can save you countless hours of searching for matching pieces elsewhere. Whatever you choose, a youth bed can be a fantastic way to help your little one make a smooth transition from his or her crib to a big-kid bed of their very own.

RosenberryRooms.com is the leading online shop for childrens' furniture, kids art and bedroom décor, offering the largest selection of high-quality childrens' bedroom products. Find everything you need to create a beautiful bedroom for your child at http://www.RosenberryRooms.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Amber_Lipson

All about banana(pisang…)

You'll love this fruit after reading what it does for your health!!!
Never, put your banana in the refrigerator!!!
This is interesting.
After reading this, you'll never look at a banana in the same way again.

Bananas contain three natural sugars - sucrose, fructose and glucose combined with fiber. A banana gives an instant, sustained and substantial boost of energy. Research has proven that just two bananas provide enough energy for a strenuous 90-minute workout. No wonder the banana is the number one fruit with the world's leading athletes. But energy isn't the only way a banana can help us keep fit. It can also help overcome or prevent a substantial number of illnesses and conditions, making it a must to add to our daily diet.

Depression: According to a recent survey undertaken by MIND amongst people suffering from depression, many felt much better after eating a banana. This is because bananas contain tryptophan, a type of protein that the body converts into serotonin, known to make you relax, improve your mood and generally make you feel happier.

PMS: Forget the pills - eat a banana. The vitamin B6 it contains regulates blood glucose levels, which can affect your mood.

Anemia: High in iron, bananas can stimulate the production of hemoglobin in the blood and so helps in cases of anemia.

Blood Pressure: This unique tropical fruit is extremely high in potassium yet low in salt, making it perfect to beat blood pressure. So much so, the US Food and Drug Administration has just allowed the banana industry to make official claims for the fruit's ability to reduce the risk of blood pressure and stroke.

Brain Power: 200 students at a Twickenham (Middlesex) school were helped through their exams this year by eating bananas at breakfast, break, and lunch in a bid to boost their brain power. Research has shown that the potassium-packed fruit can assist learning by making pupils more alert.

Constipation: High in fiber, including bananas in the diet can help restore normal bowel action, helping to overcome the problem without resorting to laxatives.

Hangovers: One of the quickest
ways of curing a hangover is to make a banana milkshake, sweetened with honey. The banana calms the stomach and, with the help of the honey, builds up depleted blood sugar levels, while the milk soothes and re-hydrates your system.

Heartburn: Bananas have a natural antacid effect in the body, so if you suffer from heartburn, try eating a banana for soothing relief.

Morning Sickness: Snacking on bananas between meals helps to keep blood sugar levels up and avoid morning sickness.

Mosquito bites: Before reaching for the insect bite cream, try rubbing the affected area with the inside of a banana skin. Many people find it amazingly successful at reducing swelling and irritation.

Nerves: Bananas are high in B vitamins that help calm the nervous system.

Overweight and at work? Studies at the Institute of Psychology in Austria found pressure at wor k leads to gorging on comfort food like chocolate and crisps. Looking at 5,000 hospital patients, researchers found the most obese were more likely to be in high-pressure jobs. The report concluded that, to avoid panic-induced food cravings, we need to control our blood sugar levels by snacking on high carbohydrate foods every two hours to keep levels steady.

Ulcers: The banana is used as the dietary food against intestinal disorders because of its soft texture and smoothness. It is the only raw fruit that can be eaten without distress in over-chronicler cases. It also neutralizes over-acidity and reduces irritation by coating the lining of the stomach.

Temperature control: Many other cultures see bananas as a "cooling" fruit that can lower both the physical and emotional temperature of expectant mothers. In Thailand , for example, pregnant women eat bananas to ensure their baby is born with a cool temperature.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD): Bananas can help SAD sufferers because they contain the natural mood enhancer tryptophan.

Smoking &Tobacco Use: Bananas can also help people trying to give up smoking. The B6, B12 they contain, as well as the potassium and magnesium found in them, help the body recover from the effects of nicotine withdrawal.

Stress: Potassium is a vital mineral, which helps normalize the heartbeat, sends oxygen to the brain and regulates your body's water balance. When we are stressed, our metabolic rate rises, thereby reducing our potassium levels. These can be rebalanced with the help of a high-potassium banana snack.

Strokes: According to research in The New England Journal of Medicine, eating bananas as part of a regular diet can cut the risk of death by strokes by as much as 40%!

Warts: Those keen on natural alternatives swear that if you want to kill off a wart, take a piece of banana skin and place it on the wart, with the yellow side out. Carefully hold the skin in place with a plaster or surgical tape!

So, a banana really is a natural remedy for many ills. When you compare it to an apple, it has four times the protein, twice the carbohydrate, three times the phosphorus, five times the vitamin A and iron, and twice the other vitamins and minerals. It is also rich in potassium and is one of the best value foods around So maybe its time to change that well-known phrase so that we say, "A banana a day keeps the doctor away!"

PASS IT ON TO YOUR FRIENDS
PS: Bananas must be the reason monkeys are so happy all the time! I will add one here; want a quick shine on our shoes?? Take the INSIDE of the banana skin, and rub directly on the shoe...polish with dry cloth. Amazing fruit!

How to Stay Motivated With Your Fitness and Weight Loss Goals

Tips from Oprah's trainer , Fitness Guru - Bob Greene

1. Ease Into Weight Loss

When most people decide to lose weight, they typically go cold turkey on the Chunky Monkey and chips and dive right into a Spartan menu highlighting vegetables and cottage cheese, determined to do an overnight overhaul of their diet.

Wrong approach, Greene says. Gradual is better. "Don't radically change your entire diet overnight," Greene says. Phase in healthier foods a little at a time.

"Don't give up all your comfort foods at once, and don't look at snacks as foods that get you into trouble," Greene says. Eating right can and should include snacks, he says. "Snacks are effective weight loss tools. They bridge hunger and help you not to overdo it at a meal."

2. Skip the Scale

It's a knee-jerk reaction. You've been on a diet for oh, 24 hours, and you're eager to see your progress. Of course, you'll weigh in.

Think again, Greene says. "Stay off the scale for the first month to six weeks," Greene suggests. This will be a challenge, he knows, for most people, who can't wait to see the pounds drop off quickly.

But the scale actually gives you a somewhat inaccurate idea of what is going on -- you may have lost water weight only, for instance, or you may get discouraged if the downward slide is not as great as you hoped for.

If you are dying for feedback on how your weight loss goals are shaping up, focus on how your clothes fit, Greene suggests.

3. Shift the Diet Focus

"Instead of focusing on cutting calories [only], which drops your metabolism, focus more on activity levels," Greene says. "It's the bigger of the two." Activity burns calories. Exercise such as weight training also builds lean muscle, boosting your metabolism long-term. So it offers a short-term and long-term advantage to meeting your fitness goals and your weight loss goals, Greene says.

Although many people plan to diet first, then incorporate exercise, Greene says if you have to do them one at a time, try making exercise a habit first, then focus on cutting calories.

4. Make Your Workout a Meditation

It's easily done, Greene says, just by listening to great music when you walk or jog, for instance. If you are on a treadmill, watch a show you enjoy.

Find an exercise that takes your mind off the exercise, such as being in a beautiful outdoor setting. "When Oprah and I meet in Hawaii and we are hiking, it's hard work going up the mountain but it's joyful," he says.

5. Build Exercise Into Your Life Creatively

One of Greene's business partners built a desk on his treadmill, taking phone calls and working while he works out. "He's writing, he is making his marketing calls, and he is on the treadmill," Greene says.

Greene adapted the idea himself. "I was training for a cross country ride, and had the phone by my indoor bike," he says.

Those examples are extreme, Greene says, but it can get you thinking about weaving exercise in when you have even a few spare minutes throughout the day. The more you do that, the more you can expect to meet your fitness goals.

6. Focus on the Outcome

Focus on how you know you will feel when you're done with your workout. "Everybody loves exercise when it's done," Greene says with a laugh.

"Focus on the effects," he says. He doesn't just mean tighter muscles or flatter abs. "I've never had anybody say they don't feel better, sleep better, after exercising," he says.

Top 10 Reasons to Turn Off Your TV

From Mark Stibich, Ph.D.,

Turning off your television will gain you, on average, about 4 hours per day. Imagine if you took that time to exercise, give your brain a workout and develop strong relationships. Not only would you be adding years to your life, you would become more interesting, energetic, and fun. So take the plunge and try not watching TV for a week. At first it will be strange and awkward, but stick with it and soon you will love all the extra time.

1. Television Eats Your Time

The average U.S. adult watches more than 4 hours of television a day. That's 25 percent of waking time spent every day. Imagine if you suddenly had 25 percent more time -- that's three extra months per year! You could get in all your exercise, cook your meals from scratch and still have time left over to write a novel.

Over a lifetime, an 80-year-old person would have watched 116,800 hours of television, compared to only 98,000 hours of work. As a nation, adults watch 880 million hours of television every day or 321 billion hours per year. Whew! Imagine what could get done if we all just stopped watching TV.

2. Television Makes You Stressed

With the average of four hours a day gone, it's no wonder everyone is feeling stressed out and overwhelmed. We put aside paying bills, finishing projects, making phone calls and cleaning our homes to watch TV. We feel overwhelmed because of all the things we should be doing (exercising, spending time with family, eating right) go undone.

And when we feel overwhelmed, tired, and exhausted we don't have energy to anything but -- you guessed it -- watch TV. It is a dreadful cycle. So take a break from TV for a week and see what happens to your life.

3. Television Makes You Overweight

Eating while distracted limits your ability to assess how much you have consumed. According to Eliot Blass at the University of Massachusetts , people eat between 31 and 74 percent more calories while watching TV.

This could add, on average, about 300 calories extra per TV meal. Now consider that at least 40 percent of families watch TV while eating dinner. It becomes clear that TV is a big part of the obesity epidemic in the U.S. and that TV, in fact, makes you gain weight.

4. Television Makes You Uninteresting

Many people have whole conversations that are recaps of TV programs, sporting events and sitcoms. When asked about their real lives, there is little or nothing to report and no stories to tell (except the TV shows they have watched).

Life is too interesting and wonderful to spend your time either watching TV or recapping television to your friends. Find something interesting to do: volunteer, read, paint -- anything but watch more TV.

5. Television Ruins Your Relationships

A television is turned on an average of 7 hours and 40 minutes per day in many U.S. households. With the TV on that much, there is little time for you and your significant other or children to spend time together, share experiences, and develop deeper relationships.

Sitting together and watching TV does not grow a relationship. Turn that TV off and find something to do together -- cooking, exercising, taking a walk, anything.

6. Television is Not Relaxation

TV is the opposite of exercise. If you are watching TV you are usually sitting, reclining or lying down. You are burning as few calories as possible. All that extra food you eat while watching TV does not get burned off. Your brain goes into a lull.

But you are not relaxing -- your mind is still receiving stimuli from the TV, you are processing information and reacting emotionally. Have you ever found yourself thinking about TV characters? Do you ever dream about TV shows? These are signs that the brain is working hard to process all the TV you have been watching.

7. Television Loses Opportunities

If you are sitting and watching TV, nothing new or exciting is going to happen to you. New opportunities and ideas come from being out in the world, talking to people, and reading interesting things.

Watching TV isolates you. Nothing is going to change in your world if you are watching TV. Turn off the TV, go out into the world, talk to people, and see what happens.

8. Television is Addictive

Television can become addictive. Signs of TV addiction include:

using the TV to calm down

not being able to control your viewing

feeling angry or disappointed in how much TV you watched

feeling on edge if kept from watching

feeling a loss of control while watching

If the idea of giving up TV for a week is horrifying, you may be addicted to television. Luckily, TV addiction is a habit and not a physical addiction like smoking. You should be able to control it once you are aware of the problem and make a decision to change.

9. Television Makes You Buy Things

By age 65, the average American has seen 2 million commercials. Your knowledge of products and brands comes from these TV commercials. Your perception of what you need also comes from these commercials.

If you didn't know that your iPod could talk to your running shoes, you wouldn't feel like your current shoes are too low-tech. If you didn't know about vacuums that never lose suction, your current vacuum would seem fine. Our perception of need is determined by what we see. Need less by watching less TV.

10. Television Costs Money

A basic cable package costs $43 per month and many packages cost much more than that. That comes to at least $500 a year spent on TV. For that much money you could: buy a membership to every museum or zoo in your town, get a gym membership, buy a nice bicycle, invest it every year for 10 years at 10 percent interest and have more than $10,000.

Sources: TvTurnOff.org; US Census Bureau http://longevity.about.com/od/lifelongrelationships/tp/Turn_Off_TV.htm