BuzzSugar

10 Big Screen Best Friends Who Turned Into More

BuzzSugar — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 15:00:54 PDT

In this Friday's Friends with Benefits, two pals decide to use each other for sex, until deeper feelings get in the way. Not that they should be surprised; if they had watched any of these films, then they certainly would've known the outcome to their little experiment. May we present exhibit A: onscreen buddies who went from platonic to romantic. Take a look!

Buzz Gift Guide: Awesome Teen Girl

BuzzSugar — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 07:30:26 PST

I'm kicking off my holiday gift guide with some suggestions for all the clued-in teenage girls in your life.

If the awesome teen you're shopping for is a fan of the sudsy TV series Gossip Girl but hasn't gotten into the book series, you might want to pick up this boxed set of the first three books. (If they're already rabid fans, consider the recently released prequel).

I am well out of my teen years, but still completely entertained by 13 Going on 30. It's adorable and funny and has a pretty good message for the teens: be yourself, and the rest will follow. Also, I'm not ashamed to admit that I checked out the special features on this DVD and re-discovered the greatness that is the video for Pat Benatar's "Love Is a Battlefield." Seriously, you have to check it out because really, sometimes the best self-defense a girl has is a good hard shoulder shimmy.

And even though it was on TV more than a decade ago, I don't think you can go wrong with the new My So-Called Life boxed set. After all, the joys and pains of high school are much the same in any era.

A Doctor Dishes: Which "Superfoods" Are Worth the Cost?

LearnVest — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:15:00 PST

We're thrilled to present this smart LearnVest story here on Savvy!

Most people you speak to these days are trying to stretch every dollar as far as possible - even the ones they spend buying apples and oranges.

Food prices are expected to increase yet again this year, and food manufacturers are making portions smaller without reducing prices. Not surprisingly, a recent Rasmussen poll found that 93 percent of adults report paying more for groceries now than they did a year ago.

So how can we supercharge our grocery dollars and get them to do overtime for us?

Yes, some foods are obviously a better nutritional deal than others (think apples vs. potato chips), but there’s another class of foods that blows the rest of the field away in terms of nutrients and health-protecting qualities: superfoods.

Superfoods can help prevent diabetes and heart disease, repair damage to your body’s cells, and more. But before you go piling them into your cart, know that some superfoods are better nutritional bargains than others. As a doctor and a mom, I’ve sleuthed out which ones are worth the extra cost in terms of their long-term health benefits. Below is the scoop on which ones may help you age better, ward off cancer, and more.

What to Know Before Buying Superfoods

Before we dive into what to buy, there are a few important things to remember about consuming these foods:

Eating foods fresh and in their natural state, especially fruits and vegetables (rather than in pill or powder supplement form), usually allows us to absorb the greatest amount of their nutrients. The way a superfood is processed or cooked can significantly lower its antioxidant content.
If the superfood can’t be eaten fresh, look for easy and appetizing recipes containing it. No matter how “super” a superfood may be, if you don’t know how to cook it, you’ll probably let it go to waste.

Are Superfoods "Good Buys" If I’m Shopping on a Budget?

Read on to find out.

4 Lazy Moves That Boost Your Health

Prevention — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 04:05:16 PST

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Prevention here on FitSugar!

You don’t have to go on a deprivation diet or spend hours exercising to ward off disease and be your healthiest self! Instead, try these supersimple tips
By the editors of Prevention

Staying healthy can feel like so much, well, work (think: logging hours at the gym and whipping up nutritious meals from scratch). However, there are plenty of small moves that you can make in your everyday life that will have big health benefits. We’ve rounded up 15 practically zero-effort ways to fight disease, whittle your waist, lower stress, and more. Bonus: many of these good-for-you moves feel good, too. So say sayonara to the old adage “no pain, no gain” and try these tips today.

Lazy Move No. 1: Protect Your Ticker by Snoozing
Need a good excuse to grab your comfiest set of pajamas and hit the sack? Skimping on shut-eye may do more than make you cranky or unproductive - it also boosts your risk of a heart attack. According to one Norwegian study, people who reported that they did not wake up feeling refreshed in the morning had a 27 percent higher risk of a heart attack, those who had trouble staying asleep almost every night in the last month had a 30 percent higher risk, and those who had trouble falling asleep almost every night in the last month had odds that jumped to 45 percent.

Twenty Ways to Sleep Better Every Night

Some researchers speculate that insomnia might trigger your body to release more of the stress hormone cortisol. High levels of cortisol have been linked with high blood pressure and diabetes, which are both risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Plus when you’re exhausted, you may be more likely to make unhealthy choices that up your heart disease risk, such as skipping your workout or reaching for fatty or sugary snacks for a quick energy fix.

Keep reading for three more lazy ways to improve your health.

Truffle Mac and Cheese

OnSugar Blog — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:55:45 PST

Winter's prime time for comfort foods, and what could be more reassuring on a bleak day than truffle mac and cheese? Cooking in Pajamas expounds.

You could go to a restaurant and pay $15 for a bowl of this decadent pasta, or simply make it at home for a fraction of the price. That's right. You can make this at home for a surprisingly reasonable price. The secret is truffle oil.

The use of truffle oil has become controversial in culinary circles. Ask any chef what they think of truffle oil, and they will most likely turn up their noses and declare it to be an unacceptable substitute to the real thing. One of the biggest reasons for this is that many truffle oils on the market do not contain any actual truffles. They use a synthetic ingredient to duplicate the aroma of the truffle, but their are a few brands that contain natural truffle to infuse the oil.

Keep reading for her truffle macaroni and cheese secrets.

8 Small Ways to Lose Big Pounds in 2012

Prevention — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 04:06:22 PST

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Prevention here on FitSugar!

Quadruple your weight loss by making one easy tweak to your routine per week
By Alyssa Shaffer

If your goal is to lose weight and exercise more, forget the deprivation diet and marathon workouts. New research shows that taking baby steps - not giant leaps -is the best way to get lasting results. A study published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine found that participants who made one small, potentially permanent change in their food choices and/or physical activity each week (such as drinking one fewer can of soda or walking five more minutes each day) lost more than twice as much belly fat, two and half more inches off their waistlines, and about four times more weight during a four-month program, compared with those who followed traditional calorie-restriction and physical-activity guidelines.

"When you focus on just a couple of small changes at a time, you begin to ingrain some healthy habits that last for a lifetime, rather than trying an all-or-nothing approach that more often than not fails because it's too hard to follow," says Lesley Lutes, PhD, an assistant professor in the department of psychology at East Carolina University. We've uncovered these simple steps (with proven results) to help you move more, eat less, and look and feel better than ever. Add just one or two a week to your regular routine and you can lose nearly three inches off your waistline and be about 10 pounds lighter come in a few months. Even better: Once these healthy habits become second nature, they'll benefit you for a lifetime.

1. Pick Up a Pen After Every Meal
Mindlessly munching on a bag of chips could result in easily polishing off the whole thing; write down how much you've eaten and you're more likely to practice portion control. Keeping a food log helps control extra calories in two ways: the combination of plain old reality check (I just ate 30 minutes ago!) and awareness that what you're putting in your mouth will soon be recorded for posterity. In a recent study, people who kept a food journal lost twice as much weight as those who didn't. When they combined it with a moderate diet and exercise plan, they lost an average of 13 pounds in 6 months. Journaling also gives you insight on your eating habits, says Lutes. Do you skip meals? Eat the same during the week as on the weekend? Binge when you're feeling stressed? "Knowing your routine helps you figure out what changes are right for you," she adds.

Avoid these 14 "health food" diet disasters.

2. Limit High-Fat Foods to One Per Week
Tag the high-fat/high-calorie foods that are typically your favorites (our top five: cookies, candy, ice cream, potato chips, and fries) and gradually downshift. "If you're eating six of these foods a week, try to go down to five," says Lutes. Each week, drop another until you're at no more than one or two; at the same time, add in a good-for-you choice like baby carrots, sautéed broccoli, oranges, and other fresh fruits and veggies.

Keep reading for more simple tip to help you lose big.

A Reader Recipe: Roasted Ham and Split Pea Soup

Fit Community — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 00:05:27 PST

Split pea soup is a good way to get that much-needed fiber. FitSugar reader For the Love of Fiber shared this roasted ham and split pea soup recipe in our Healthy Recipe group.

If you were like me and roasted a dee-lish (and pasture-raised) ham on Christmas, save the ham bone (and some of the meat) for a body and soul-warming pot of split pea soup. This soup is amazing in so many ways:

It’s absolutely delicious – Really and truly. It warms you from head to toe on a cold Winter’s day or evening.
Filling – Really, filling. This soup packs a whopping does of fiber in each serving (21 grams) and protein (32 grams), which keeps you fuller, longer.
Glycemic-friendly – The soluble fiber content in split peas (16 grams/serving) slows sugar absorption, which eliminates those nasty spikes (followed by the inevitable crash). Diabetics, take note.
Low calorie – For those counting, each serving comes in under 400.
Nutrient-dense – Not only do you get the amazing benefits from the ham-bone and (hopefully) chicken-bone broth (rich in calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, and other trace minerals, as well as glucosamine and chondroiton), split peas are a fantastic source of potassium, which is superb for heart health (coupled with fiber, of course!), and iron and zinc, two essential nutrients for building your immunity, which is critical in the coming months, when flu and cold season really peaks.

If after all of these pros, you still can’t get past the green hue, put on a blindfold and go to town. You will thank me later.

See the recipe after the break!

Fact or Fiction: Working Out in the Cold Burns More Calories

Jenny Sugar — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 01:25:45 PST

You may have heard that exercising in the cold burns more calories than exercising in moderate temps, but is this a fact or myth? It's sensible to assume that the effort it takes to warm up your body burns more calories, but it's not as simple as that. Keep reading to find out how exercising in the cold affects calorie burn.

Shivering does burn calories - that involuntary tensing of muscles to warm the body burns about 200 for every 30 minutes. So if you're not wearing enough layers and you're cold while working out in low temps, your body burns more calories to keep warm. In a study of "scantily clad" exercisers, the participants burned 13 percent more calories in the cold than when they performed the same type of exercise at room temperature (450 compared to 400). But don't take the above to mean that you should dress in less to increase calorie burn. It's important to dress appropriately to both protect your skin and to prevent hypothermia.

Keep reading to find out if breathing cold air increases calorie burn.

The Most-Overlooked Tax Deductions

Kiplinger — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 16:50:44 PST

We're thrilled to present this smart Kiplinger story here on Savvy!

Every year, the IRS dutifully reports the most common blunders that taxpayers make on their returns. And every year, at or near the top of the “oops” list is forgetting to enter their Social Security number at the top of the tax form - or making a mistake when entering those nine digits.

But think about it for a minute: Do you think that’s the most common mistake . . . or simply the easiest to notice?

One thing we know for sure is that the opportunity to make mistakes is almost unlimited, and missed deductions can be the most costly. About 45 million of us itemize on our 1040s - claiming more than $1 trillion worth of deductions. That’s right: $1,000,000,000,000, a number rarely spoken out loud until Congress started tying itself up in knots trying to deal with the budget deficit and national debt.

Another 92 million taxpayers claim about $700 billion worth using standard deductions - and some of you who take the easy way out probably shortchange yourselves. (If you turned 65 in 2011, remember that you now deserve a bigger standard deduction than the younger folks.)

Yes, friends, tax time is a dangerous time. It’s all too easy to miss a trick and pay too much. Years ago, the fellow who ran the IRS at the time told Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine that he figured millions of taxpayers overpay their taxes every year by overlooking just one of the money-savers listed below

6 Questions to Find the Best City For Generation Y

Kiplinger — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 03:05:51 PST

We're thrilled to present this smart Kiplinger story here on Savvy!

As young adults, many of us enjoy a unique time in our lives when we can relocate wherever we like. We’re often free from any significant ties, such as kids or a mortgage, that can tether us to a certain location. Plus, with the technological advances of the past decade, we need not fear losing touch with family and friends; we can stay connected with the touch of a button - regardless of distance.

So when the world is your oyster, how do you decide in which part to settle? Here are six questions to ask when figuring out which city is best for you:

Will I find good work there?

In today's tough market, Generation Y has had a particularly difficult time finding and keeping a job: While the job market struggles to regain its footing, with the national unemployment rate at 9.5% as of June, 25- to 34-year-olds suffer joblessness at a 10.3% rate, and 20- to 24-year-olds are unemployed at a staggering 15.3% rate. But some areas have held up better against the recession. Austin, Tex., Salt Lake City and Washington, D.C., for example, have experienced lower unemployment than the rest of the country.

Jobs in certain industries are more prevalent in some areas. For example, if you’re interested in politics, the nation’s capital is the obvious choice. Or if you aspire to “make it work” as fashion’s next hot designer, the Big Apple might suit you best. If you have no particular trade in mind yet, look to big cities with opportunities in a wide range of fields. (For career ideas that promise a bright future, see 13 Careers for the Next Decade.)

Read on for more.