The 2013 New Year's Resolutions!

With the beginning of each year, we open a fresh new page with ourselves. We all make personal goals, projects, or dreams we want to achieve. People committing themselves to a New Year's resolution generally plan to do so for the whole following year.
At this time of the year,we can forget the previous year with all its disappointments or failures and start over with a new hope for the best.

Here is my list of resolutions for 2013:

• Make a lot of new friends
• Be happy
• Less crying/less tears as possible
• Be a better person
• Help people more often
• Close facebook extra accounts
• Visit pyramids
• Get my driving license
• Take a lot of photos out doors
• Get my ICDL
• Get my jewelries fixed and cleaned
• Become healthier
• Achieve my goal weight
• Fix my body and skin
• Treat my hair
• Less drama with my mom
• Replace my black teeth filling with white ones
• Anger management
• Get some adventures
• Join the teachers union
• Sell me blog
• Highlight my hair
• Back to my workouts
• Buy a good quality digital camera.
• Visit London
• Visit new places
• Sponsor an orphan
• More time for charity
• Organize my things( clothes/shoes/jewelries/ purses/wallets/watches/perfumes)
• Be a vegetarian for 30 days
• Organize my computer files and folders
• I will focus more on giving rather than taking.
• I’ll learn from the past, and try to avoid making the same mistakes again.
• spend more time with family
• forgive people who have hurt me

What about your New Year's Resolutions? I'd love to add more for my list!

Happy New Year!

10 Weight-loss Myths!

So much is said about losing weight that it can be hard to sort truth from fiction. Here's the truth about 10 common weight-loss myths.

1. Starving myself is the best way to lose weight
Crash diets are unlikely to result in long-term weight loss. In fact, they can sometimes lead to longer term weight gain. The main problem is that this type of diet is too hard to maintain. Your body will be low on energy, causing you to crave high-fat and high-sugar foods. When you finally give in and eat those foods, you will often eat more calories than you need, causing weight gain.

2. A radical exercise regime is the only way to lose weight
Not true. Sensible weight loss involves making small changes that you can stick to for a long time. That means building regular physical activity into your daily routine. Adults between 19 and 64 should get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity - such as fast walking or cycling -every week, and those who are overweight are likely to need more than this in order to lose weight.

Adults who are overweight are likely to need to do more than the recommended amount of activity in order to lose weight, and this activity should be accompanied by changes to diet.
Recommended physical activity levels for adults

• Adults (19-64 years) should do 150 minutes every week .
• Older adults (65+ years) should do 150 minutes every week, too.

 To shift 450g (1lb) a week, you need to create a calorie deficit - that is, more calories used than consumed - of 500 calories per day. This can be achieved by eating less, moving more, or, best of all, a combination of both.

3. Slimming pills are effective for long-term weight loss
No, they're not. Slimming pills alone will not help you keep the weight off long term. They should only be used when prescribed by a doctor.

4. Healthy foods are more expensive
In fact, healthy foods are not necessarily more expensive than their unhealthy alternatives. You'll typically pay more for a high-fat, high-salt ready meal than you would if you had bought fresh ingredients and made the meal yourself.

5. Foods labelled ‘low fat’ or ‘reduced fat’ are always a healthy choice
Be cautious. Foods labelled 'low fat' have to meet legal criteria to use that label. Labels such as 'reduced fat' do not have to meet the same criteria, and can be misleading. A reduced-fat snack should contain less fat than the full-fat version, but that doesn't automatically make it a healthy choice: it could still contain a lot more fat than, say, a portion of fruit. Low-fat foods also sometimes contain high levels of sugar.

6. Margarine contains less fat than butter
Margarine and butter contain different types of fat. Margarine is usually lower in saturated fat than butter. But it's more likely to contain hydrogenated fats. Hydrogenated fats, also called trans fats, may be more harmful to health than saturated fats. To lose weight, and for heart health, reduce the amount of saturated and hydrogenated fats you eat. If oil in margarine has been hydrogenated, this has to be listed on the ingredient listing on packaging, so check labels carefully.

7. Carbohydrates make you put on weight
Eaten in the right quantities, carbohydrates will not cause weight gain. A 2003 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine concluded that dieters on the best-known low-carb diet, the Atkins diet, tended to lose weight not because they ate fewer carbohydrates, but simply because they ate less overall. Eat wholegrain and wholemeal carbohydrates such as brown rice and wholemeal bread, and don't fry starchy foods when trying to lose weight.

8. Cutting out all snacks can help you lose weight
Snacking isn't the problem when trying to lose weight: it's the type of snack. Many people need a snack in between meals to maintain energy levels, especially if they have an active lifestyle. Choose fruit or vegetables instead of crisps, chocolate and other snacks that are high in sugar or saturated fat.

9. Drinking water helps you lose weight
Water does not cause you to lose weight, but it does keep you hydrated, and might help you snack less. Water is essential for good health and wellbeing. Sometimes thirst can be mistaken for hunger; if you're thirsty you may snack more. Drink around two litres of fluid a day.

10. Skipping meals is a good way to lose weight
Skipping meals is not a good idea. To lose weight and keep it off, you have to reduce the amount of calories you consume, or increase the calories you burn through exercise. But skipping meals altogether can result in tiredness and poor nutrition. You will also be more likely to snack on high-fat and high-sugar foods, which could result in weight gain

Source

10 Tips for Making Your Child Fall Asleep Faster!

After a long day, many of us can hardly wait for our little angels to go to sleep. But what if yours take forever to get to la-la land? Here are 10 tips to help your toddlers learn to fall asleep faster and on their own.

1.  Avoid feeding your children big meals close to bedtime, and don't give them anything containing caffeine less than six hours before bedtime.
2. After dinner, avoid all stimulating activities and Warn your children that bedtime is in five minutes, or give them a choice: "Do you want to go to bed now or in five minutes?" but do this only once.
3. Establish a Consistent Routine:  Among the first steps in helping your child fall asleep is cueing that it’s bedtime. Follow the “3Bs” bedtime routine: bath, book, bed — in the same order, at the same time each night. Try to make sure your children eat dinner at the same time, play a little ( again; NOT stimulating activities) after they’ve eaten, and then wind down with the first B. Avoid scary stories or TV shows. It's better to read a favorite book every night than a new one because it's familiar.
4. Try a 'Cry It Out' (CIO) Method: Although it’s controversial but give it a try and let your children cry it out as soon as you sense that they are old enough to start falling asleep on their own. “I know how hard it is to let them cry. I've done it with all [of] mine and my partner often had to physically stop me from going up and picking them back up. But it does work,”
5.  Avoid singing or rocking your children to sleep, because if they wake in the middle of the night they may need you to sing or rock them back to sleep, a condition known as sleep-onset association disorder. (If you have already been doing this, try to phase this behavior out gradually.) Instead, have them get used to falling asleep with a transitional object, like a favorite blanket or stuffed animal.
6. Make sure your child is comfortable. Clothes and blankets should not restrict movement, and the bedroom temperature shouldn't be too warm or too cold.
7. If your child calls for you after you've left his room, wait a few moments before responding. This will remind him that he should be asleep, and it'll give him the chance to soothe himself and even fall back asleep while he is waiting for you.
8. If your child comes out of his room after you've put him to bed, walk him back and gently but firmly remind him that it's bedtime.
9. Give your child tools to overcome his worries. These can include a flashlight, a spray bottle filled with "monster spray" or a large stuffed animal to "protect" him.
10. Set up a reward system. Each night your child goes to bed on time and stays there all night, he gets a star. After three stars, give him a prize.

Additionally, what works one month may change as your child grows. Keep working at a style of night-time parenting that fits the temperament of your baby and your own lifestyle. If it's working, stick with it. If it's not, be open to trying other nighttime parenting styles.

Have a nice day! :)