About Health

Friday, June 27, 2014

Daniel Radcliffe Says Best Thing Ever About the Friend Zone

Daniel Radcliffe Says Best Thing Ever About the Friend Zone

Can we buy this guy a drink?

Our crush on Daniel Radcliffe goes way back to when he defended Hogwarts against some pretty real stuff. Now, he's defending women against the "friend zone."

While promoting his latest film What If—about whether or not friends can fall in love—Radcliffe told Buzzfeed why he thinks the whole concept of being in the friend zone is kind of bogus:

"The idea of the friend zone is a terrible male idea. Have you ever heard a girl say they're in the friend zone?” he asked. Hm, well, he has a point there. "It's a thing that I think men should be really careful about using.”

He went on to add: "I definitely think the idea of the friend zone is just men going 'This woman won't have sex with me.'" Um, yes.

MORE: 3 Signs You Should Be Single—For Now

Here's the thing: If this phrase was used equally among the sexes, then it might not have such an icky tone to it. But when guys throw it around all the time, the term "friend zone" removes a woman's agency in choosing who she dates or has sex with, and it sounds like she's getting blamed for this platonic situation. Couldn't it just be that there isn't an attraction there, that you're seeing someone else, or—gasp—that you're just not that into them? Plus, the whole friend zone label implies that you can't change your mind about a person, which we all know is false; sometimes the timing just isn't right.

Tell us: What do you think about the term "friend zone." Is it harmless, offensive, or just an oversimplification? Talk back in the comments beow.

MORE: 6 Signs He's Definitely Flirting with You

14 Foods Nutritionists Never Eat

14 Foods Nutritionists Never Eat

Some are in line with what you would expect—but others are pretty shocking.

Many nutritionists will tell you that they're big advocates of the "all foods fit" approach to healthy eating—the idea that even things like cookies, cakes, and candies have a place (albeit in moderation) in an overall healthy diet. That said, there are still foods that they personally wouldn't touch with a 10-foot-stick. Granted, they may be ones that you love and simply couldn't eliminate from your diet altogether—and that's OK.

Still, it's pretty fascinating to get a glimpse into the eating habits of people are who paid to help others eat nutritionally for a living. So we asked several nutritionists to share the foods that they would never, ever eat. Here's what they had to say:

Processed and/or Canned Meat or Cheese
"Processed and/or canned meat or cheese—particularly those that are made with additional thickeners, preservatives, sugar, or a high content of preservatives. Animal products (and food products in general) that have to sit on a shelf inherently require a decent amount of processing to protect against microbial growth and contamination. I'd rather go for the fresh version than eat something high-sodium and preservative-rich (hence why some processed meats have earned their 'mystery meat' name)." —Jaclyn London, M.S., R.D., senior clinical dietician at Mount Sinai Hospital

MORE: 15 Gross Facts You Didn't Know About Processed Meats

Non-Dairy Creamer
"I always avoid non-dairy creamer. It's completely without nutrient density of any kind, and it can increase your risk for heart disease." —Kristin Kirkpatrick, M.S., R.D., a wellness manager at the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute

GMOs
"Genetically modified foods. If it's controversial, I err on the side of caution. Plus, I prefer organic, high-quality foods that are clean and more environmentally sustainable." —Katie Cavuto, M.S., R.D., the dietician for the Phillies and the Flyers

MORE: Frankenfish and the World of Genetically Modified Food

Pepperoni
"I've never been a fan of pepperoni—I personally don't love the taste, but more importantly, I'd much rather top my pizza with nutritious veggies than overly processed meat." —Keri Gans, R.D., author of The Small Change Diet

Diet Soda
"Diet soda. Those who are drinking diet sodas are most likely looking for that sweet taste without the extra sugar and calories. Unfortunately, that sweet taste comes with sugar cravings and increased caloric intake throughout the day. I'd recommend slowly removing diet soda from your diet. If you're looking for an extra boost of caffeine, try green iced tea. Or if you're a bubbly connoisseur, opt for a club soda with a squeeze of lemon or lime. Diet soda is all chemicals and won't help you avoid extra calories in the long run anyway." —Keri Glassman, R.D., Women's Health contributor

Maraschino Cherries
"Maraschino cherries. The added sugar, chemicals, and artificial dyes ruin the health benefits of the naturally delicious fruit." —Michelle Davenport, Ph.D., R.D., a Silicon Valley nutritionist

Cold Cereal and Fat-Free Dairy
"I always avoid cold cereals and fat-free dairy. Most cold cereals are loaded with added sugars and are missing protein and fiber. If I eat that to start, my entire day will be thrown off eating-wise, as I'll be hungry and on a sugar crash within an hour or two. Fat-free dairy is something I avoid whenever possible. It certainly doesn't taste as good as regular dairy products, but mainly because I think fat is a super important part of each meal. Having good-quality diary that's full fat is delicious and nutritious." —Brooke Alpert, M.S., R.D., founder of B Nutritious b-nutritious.com

MORE: 4 Times It's Better to Go with the Full-Fat Version

Soda
"Soda. It's literally liquid candy with absolutely no nutritional value. Why bother?" —Joy Bauer, M.S., R.D., the nutrition and health expert for NBC's TODAY Show and Founder of NourishSnacks

Fluorescent Orange Crunchy Snacks
"Fluorescent orange crunchy snacks. Most chippy packaged foods are an absolute waste of calories and are loaded with chemicals. But any of them that are orange? Well, that pushes yuck over the edge. These are salt, chemical, and artificial color cocktails in a bag! Steer clear." —Keri Glassman, R.D., Women's Health contributor

Artificial Sweeteners
"Artificial sweeteners. I can't bring myself to consume something I know is fake and void of nutrients. Plus, my body doesn't like them." —Katie Cavuto, M.S., R.D., the dietician for the Phillies and the Flyers

MORE: Certain Artificial Sweeteners May be Toxic to Fruit Flies

Bacon
"Unless it finds its way into my Brussels sprouts with my knowing when I'm dining out, bacon is a food that I haven't eaten since I was a child. Its high saturated fat and sodium content has been a huge deterrent for me for years." —Keri Gans, R.D., author of The Small Change Diet

Hot Dogs
"Hot dogs. Processed meat loaded with preservatives and barely any protein? No thanks!" —Joy Bauer, M.S., R.D., the nutrition and health expert for NBC's TODAY Show and Founder of NourishSnacks

Sugary Beverages
"Sugary beverages, like coffee, juice, and tea 'drinks.' I'd rather eat my calories (or save them for a glass of wine!) than drinking calorie-rich, nutrient-poor beverages that don't fill you up." —Jaclyn London, M.S., R.D., senior clinical dietician at Mount Sinai Hospital

MORE: There's HOW Much Sugar in That Coffee?

This New App is Basically a Fitness Tracker for Your Vagina

This New App is Basically a Fitness Tracker for Your Vagina

And your workout rewards include better orgasms

Kegels: We know we should be doing them, but we're usually not. Penciling in your regular workouts can sometimes feel like enough of a chore, so no wonder most women slack off when it comes to toning up below the belt. But here's why you shouldn't skip Kegels: This workout gives you stronger pelvic floor muscles, better orgasms, and you don't even have to get off the couch. Essentially, you just have to remember and motivate yourself to do them.

Well, now there's an app for that. kGoal is a new device and app that teaches you how to perform proper Kegels and tries its best to make it a fun experience. The nifty little tool is being developed by Minna Life, the same company who brought you sex toys like the Limon (check it out, plus 10 more sex toys that need to be on your radar).

MORE: You'll Never Believe What Some Women Are Doing for Better Orgasms

So here's how it works: You insert the thicker pillowy part in your vagina and start squeezing. The app will give you instant biofeedback to let you know how you're doing and it keeps track of your "workouts" so you can see how fit you're getting. They're even working on games you can play. Seriously. Oh, and did we mention you could also choose a setting to give you feedback via vibrations? Just saying, if every fitness tool offered this option, we'd be spending a lot more time at the gym.

MORE: The Better Sex Workout

The device is still in development, but you can check out their Kickstarter page here.

Tell us: Would you use a workout tool to tone your vagina? Do you think it would help you remember to do Kegels? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

MORE: 7 Exercises for Better Sex

7 Ways to Get out of Work Earlier Today

7 Ways to Get out of Work Earlier Today

Expert tips to get you focused and out the door faster

When it comes to pesky work distractions, you know the usual culprits: your buzzing inbox, beeping cell phone, and the weekly meeting that never ends. A new survey by CareerBuilder polled workers on the biggest nine-to-five productivity killers and found that these time wasters—and a few others—top the list of things keeping you at work longer than you need to be there.

For the survey, CareerBuilder asked more than 5,000 hiring managers, human resource professionals, and full-time employees from various industries to name the biggest productivity wreckers. Cell phones came in first, followed by gossip, the Internet, snack and smoke breaks, noisy coworkers, meetings, e-mail, co-workers who drop by, and co-workers who put calls on speaker phone.

We spoke with career experts about how to prevent these time suckers from prolonging your day—so you can head home ASAP.

Give Yourself a Hard Stop Time
To get out of work earlier than you usually do, it's important to give yourself a hard stopping point, says Joel Garfinkle, author of Getting Ahead: Three Steps to Take Your Career to the Next Level. Otherwise you might never get out of there. Make sure it's realistic; for example example, if you always find yourself at the office until after 8 p.m., you might want to first experiment with establishing a hard out at 7:30. After you set a stopping point, create an alarm or notification one hour before that time. Use that hour to wrap up whatever you're working on and check in with your co-workers and boss. Beside helping you stay committed to getting out earlier, setting a stopping point for yourself helps you stay motivated, focused, and productive throughout the day.

Isolate Your Cell Phone
It may seem obvious that to keep yourself from getting distracted, you should avoid your phone. But then again, this was the top productivity killer named in the survey—so ignoring texts and calls is clearly easier said than done. To make your phone far less tempting, Cali Yost Williams, a workplace strategist and author of Tweak It: Make What Matters to You Happen Every Day, recommends putting it in a drawer or place that's far from where you sit. The idea is that it should take some effort to go check it so you're less likely to pick up your phone every time you get a notification or text. If you use your phone for work, consider setting a special ringtone for calls from your boss or clients. Then, only answer your phone if you hear that sound. Your Tinder matches will still be waiting for you later—we pr omise.

Make Time to Clear Your Head
When you want to get out the door, you might think that your need to cut out all idle time from your schedule. But get this: Cutting out short mental breaks might actually make you less productive. Andrea Kay, a career consultant and author of Works a Bitch and Then You Make it Work, says that these brief intermissions for stretching, walking, or just stepping away from your desk help to give your brain a break and let you return to your work with new energy and a fresh perspective. In fact, Garfinkle recommends working in 90 minute bursts or "sprints" with short breaks in between; it can enable you to get more done because your mind has a chance to relax and refocus again, which can keep you from making silly mi stakes or getting frustrated.

Put Up a De Facto 'Do Not Disturb' Sign
To keep co-workers from dropping by and distracting you during crunch time, come up with a signal to indicate that you are in the zone, suggests Yost. Whether it's popping a red sticky note on your computer, wearing a pair of headphones, or closing your office door, these will keep well-meaning colleagues from breaking your concentration.

Take a Break from E-mail
No matter what you're doing, when your e-mail chime dings, it instantly takes your mind off your work and into your inbox, says Yost. Although answering an e-mail or two while working on a project might seem harmless, she says that when you switch from an assignment to your e-mail back to your assignment, it takes a lot of brainpower to get reoriented. And that brainpower takes precious time that you probably don't have. To combat this pesky problem, carve out two to three 30-minute blocks a day when you won't check your e-mail at all. Whether that means you set your e-mail chime to silent or you close it altogether for a while, use those e-mail-free minutes to plow through work that needs your full attention.

Manage Your Meetings
If you have a meeting that is notorious for running long, it could be cutting some serious work time out of your day. Yost says there are a few things you can do to prevent them from running over. First, when you get the meeting request or it's the day before the reoccurring meeting, ask the organizer if they have a basic outline for what you'll be discussing. If they don't, offer to create one to help your group stay on track. And what if the person running the meeting isn't interested in taking you up on your offer? If it's possible, tell the organizer that you have a hard stop when the meeting is scheduled to finish.

Let Some Work Go
Sometimes you just need to pull a Frozen and "Let it go." Garfinkle says that occasionally you need to make peace with the fact that you might not get everything finished that you wanted to. It's important to give yourself permission to come back to an assignment the next workday because without it, you can become overwhelmed, make silly mistakes, or get sick—which would really put a damper on your productivity, says Garfinkle. Just tell yourself that you did the best you could and it will still be there to work on tomorrow.

Check Out the New Scandal Collection from The Limited—It's Inspired by Olivia Pope!

Check Out the New Scandal Collection from The Limited—It's Inspired by Olivia Pope!

Soon you really can be a gladiator in a suit.

Your fall work wardrobe? It's handled.

This September, you'll be able to Olivia Pope-ify your closet by shopping the Scandal collection at The Limited. Every one of the 42 pieces in the fall collection, which is inspired by the ABC show, is the result of a collaboration between The Limited's head of design Elliot Staples, Scandal costume designer Lyn Paolo, and—get this—Kerry Washington herself.

"The whole team took great care in creating a collection that reflects Olivia Pope's unique style," said Paolo in a press release. You'll be able to shop tailored wide-leg trousers, of course, as well as jackets, blouses, and outerwear.

What's not a scandal about the collection? The prices. Pieces will start at $49 and cap off at $248, according to Women's Wear Daily.

Eye sketches from the forthcoming collection below, and tell us in the comments: Will you shop this new line in the fall?

Courtesy of The Limited

MORE: 11 Ways to Be More Like Olivia Pope

'I Couldn't Have Done This Without Him': How a Husband and Wife Lost a Combined 113 Pounds Together

'I Couldn't Have Done This Without Him': How a Husband and Wife Lost a Combined 113 Pounds Together

Sometimes there's no better motivator than your partner.

Sheila
Before: 278 pounds
After: 226 pounds

Walter
Before: 244 pounds
After: 183 pounds

The Lifestyle
For married couple Walter Dietrich, 58, and Sheila Kemper Dietrich, 57, from Boulder, Colorado, food has always been about more than just fuel. Since both have jobs and their three children, the duo found themselves turning to food for relief and joy, too.

Walter loved cooking with butter—he makes a mean hollandaise sauce, says Sheila—and indulging in wine before and during dinner. But it was his late-night cravings that really caused his weight to creep up. "I would sneak down right before bed and have some sort of snack—like chips and sour cream or crackers and cheese," says Walter. "I've been overweight for a long time," he says. "But I always saw myself as husky or large." As for Sheila, she'd serve herself a mini meal before eating another dish with her family. "I would graze while I was fixing a meal," she says. "It was probably one of my worst habits."

Both say that they were "active"—walking regularly—but neither really committed to workouts that left their hearts pumping or caused them to break a sweat. At their heaviest—about three to four years ago—Walter, who's 6'1," weighed 244 pounds. And the 5'11" Sheila clocked in at 278 pounds.

The Change
Before moving west, Sheila worked as the executive director of the American Heart Association in Denver, which really opened her eyes to the health concerns related to obesity—especially for her children. "When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said we're now living in a generation where parents are going to outlive their kids because of obesity, I got mad," she says. "No mom ever [wants that to happen]." One pediatrician she worked with even said nowadays, children as young as 14 have the heart health of 40-year-olds. After taking a year to research all the available data about how to get healthy and lose weight, Sheila wanted to start her transformation. As for Walter, he decided to tag along on Sheila's mission to be supportive—he never really expected he'd shed pounds, too.

Their first plan of action: fix their relationship with food. They stocked up on fresh fruits and veggies and lean meat. Then in 2011, Sheila and Walter created Livliga—plates, bowls, mugs, and glasses that use strategic (and pretty!) designs to help you consume healthy portions of each food group. "We were becoming more aware of portion control and satisfaction," says Walter. "This wasn't a restricted diet, and we never felt deprived."

MORE: 19 Ways to Measure Perfect and Healthy Portion Sizes

To fuel their weight loss even more, Sheila and Walter added more exercise to their daily lives—but we're not just talking about hitting their local YMCA five days a week for an hour each day (which they do). They're both major advocates of staying active outside, particularly through hiking and biking. "I was never into cycling because I was so big," says Sheila. "But now we go on biking adventures." Recently, the pair went to Minneapolis and explored the city on bikes, estimating that they logged between 15 and 20 miles. "We're many years older at this point, and we're having fun getting healthy," says Sheila. "We're becoming jocks in our fifties!"

MORE: 5 Research-Backed Health Benefits of Biking

While they still plan to lose more weight, Sheila and Walter have shed a combined total of 113 pounds so far.

The Reward
Walter has lost 14 inches from his waist—going from a 48 to a 34, which he's very proud of. "[Clothes] feel so much better," he says. And body aches that used to bother Walter—such as kinks in his shoulders and knees because of his weight—have practically disappeared.

Sheila says she's happy that she can fly in an airplane and not feel uncomfortable about her seating arrangements. "When I was large, it was so embarrassing," she says. "When you're the biggest one in the row, you feel like you're taking up more room." Now that she's lighter, she fits better in the seat and has plenty of room to adjust her seatbelt around her waist. It's little wins like this, says Sheila, that make all of the effort so worthwhile.

Sheila and Walter's Tips
Forgive yourself for mistakes. "We all have days when we screw up—but we shouldn't obsess over it. Acknowledge that it happened, and know that this one bump hasn't messed up your entire life."
Keep track of your progress. "We have to be more mindful if we want to lose weight. We tend to overestimate how much exercise we really do—that's why I'm glad we have Fitbits to help. Food journals really make a difference, too."
Become a planner. "We really think about what meals we're going to eat ahead of time. If we eat out with friends, we tell the restaurant to box up half of it ahead of time so that when it appears on the table, we have much more appropriate portions."
Have a buddy. You knew this one was coming, right? "It's not competitive—it's supportive."

MORE: The Weight-Loss Mistake You've Been Making

How Your Food Impacts Your Vagina

How Your Food Impacts Your Vagina

Get ready for seriously surprising intel.

Ever nosh on asparagus to have your hoo-ha—and we're not just talking your pee—smell funny? Well, that's one way to think about that whole "you are what you eat" connection. And it turns out, for women, it's a pretty important one.

Healthy vaginas have a naturally acidic pH, as well as a host of healthy bacteria that ward off infections and keep everything humming along as designed, says Mary Rosser, M.D., Ph.D., ob-gyn at Montefiore Medical Center in New York.

But the foods you eat can influence that pH, changing the way your nether region smells (and even tastes). For instance, spices, onions, garlic, red meat, dairy, asparagus, broccoli, and alcohol can all affect the natural balance you’ve got going on, while fruits and fruit juices may turn things especially sweet, Rosser says. But whatever the effect, it will only last for two to three days after you eat your fill.

MORE: This Is What Happens When Women Look At Their Vaginas for the First Time

So when it comes to eating for two (you and your vagina, that is), she suggests filling up on fresh fruits, veggies, whole grains, and plenty of water. And if you like Greek yogurt, all the better. "Yogurt with live and active cultures are probiotics and may be involved in helping the vagina maintain a healthy acidic pH and balance," she says.

MORE: 10 Wonderful Things You Should Know About Your Vagina

And finally, you may want to cut back on sugar for your vagina's sake: Women with uncontrolled high blood sugar due to diabetes may be at an increased risk for yeast infections, says Rosser.

MORE: What Do You Think a "Normal" Woman Looks Like Down There?