Sighing is a sign of giving up? Who knew?

Psychology Prize

Despite the commonly uttered phrase, we don't really breathe sighs of relief. Neither do we sigh when we're sad, as dictionary definitions would have you believe. In fact, we sigh when we're ready to give up, as was recently discovered by Karl Teigen of the University of Oslo in Norway.

Realizing that no psychologists had ever studied the emotional cause of sighs before, Teigen and his colleagues investigated participants' breathy exhales in a series of experiments. He found that when people saw someone else sigh, they almost always incorrectly assumed that that person was feeling sad. When people sigh themselves, on the other hand, they said it was because they were ready to throw in the towel. In short, regardless of how socially attuned humans are to the thoughts and feelings of others, people completely misinterpret the reason for sighing.

To prove that sighs are tied to frustration and giving up, Teigen did an experiment in which he asked participants to attempt puzzles that were unsolvable. His results? "They tried and they sighed; they tried and they sighed," he told Life's Little Mysteries. The research, published in the Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, earned Teigen the 2011 Ig Nobel Prize.

Holiday eating tips

Get Healthy and Lean with Good Fats (Article) written by Abritt Publishing, 

 Some of the most powerful positive habits for a trim and fit body in your arsenal are the positive habits related to replacing bad fats in your diet with good fats. Most people only think of fat as being a bad thing. In fact, for many years the media has been promoting "fat-free" diets as a more healthy diet.

Just take a look around your local grocery store; you will see lots of products labeled fat free. Do you think all those fat-free products have resulted in thinner Americans? Think again. The percentage of obese people in this country has been rising every year. Americans are now the fattest people on the planet.

The media has gotten it all wrong. Fat can be your friend! There are certain types of fats that are bad for you. They can increase you risk for heart disease while making you fatter at the same time. Other fats are good for your health and can actually help you burn fat and lose weight! Here are just some of the benefits that the positive fat replacement habits will provide to you:

·         Increase the rate that your body burns fat

·         Help you lose weight automatically and keep it off

·         Increase your good cholesterol HDL levels and decrease your bad cholesterol LDL levels

·         Help you to curb your appetite and eat less

·         Decrease your risk for heart attack

·         Help balance your insulin levels

·         Help you convert unwanted body fat into energy

·         Help raise your body's metabolic rate (the rate your body burns calories)

The Bad Fats

The fats that are bad for you are saturated fats and trans fats; these are fats that are found in animal products such as butter, cheese, meats, and also in many of the processed foods that we eat. Numerous studies have shown that a diet high in saturated fats may increase blood levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol and total cholesterol, risk factors for heart disease.

Trans fats are the most dangerous dietary fats on the planet. Trans fats are typically produced by applying an artificial process to vegetable oils. These fats are mostly found in fried foods, margarines, and processed foods like potato chips and crackers. Researchers at Harvard University did a study of 85,095 women who had no previous history of heart disease or stroke. During the years that followed, the fifth of the group that had the highest intake of trans fatty acids had a 50% greater risk for heart disease then the fifth that had the lowest intake of trans fatty acids.

A recent study showed that women who ate more than four teaspoons per day of margarine had a 70% higher risk of cardiovascular disease then those women who seldom ate margarine. Despite lobbying by many consumer groups, trans fat is still not listed on nutritional labels. Do yourself a favor and dump your margarine RIGHT NOW! Replace it with olive oil or the new healthy butter substitutes that do not contain trans fats.

Some researchers have said that as many as 30,000 deaths per year can be attributed to the consumption of trans fat. Reducing or eliminating trans fats from your diet will help to improve your health and the positive habits that follow will help you do just that.

The Good Fats

An example of good fats would be monounsaturated fat, and omega-3 fatty acids. You would find these fats in fish, nuts, olive oil and those kinds of foods, the kind of foods that are very prominent in what is called the Mediterranean diet.

Omega-3 fatty acids -- Flaxseed is a great source of omega-3 fat. More than half the fat contained in flaxseed is omega-3 fatty acid type, an essential fatty acid. There have been numerous studies reporting the health benefits of consuming omega-3 fats. Recent studies suggest that Omega-3 fatty acids which are abundant in flax seed can help protect you from coronary artery disease, stroke, high blood pressure, autoimmune and inflammatory disorders. Studies on the effects of flax seed on breast cancer are now under way. Omega-3s can also help boost your metabolism, helping your body to burn calories faster.You can buy raw flax seed and add it to your cereal or flax seed oil which can be mixed in salads or protein shakes. Any good health food store will carry both

Simple Diet Changes That Pack a Fat-Fighting Punch

Texas A&M University researchers conducted a study to determine what dietary changes resulted in the biggest reduction in fat. During two different 24-hour periods, they asked 5,649 adults to list dietary changes they made in an effort to reduce fat consumption. The researchers then calculated the changes that resulted in the biggest reduction of fat. Combine these simple eating habits with other weight loss habits, and you will see that trim body in the mirror sooner then you think. Here are the results of the study

·         Do not add fat to baked or boiled potatoes.

·         Do not eat fried chicken.

·         Do not eat more than two eggs a week.

·         Do not eat red meat.

Public Safety Prize

The first of a few days of whimsy, take from Life's Little Mysteries. The kind of things that make one wonder at the creativity and wonder of human beings

In the 1960s, John Senders of the University of Toronto in Canada pioneered the study of distraction during driving in an experiment that surely would not get approved today. He built a helmet with a visor that the wearer can move up or down at will, and had people wear the helmet while driving a car. Participants were told to keep the visor down — driving blindly — until they felt the need to see the road in front of them, at which point they would raise the visor until they felt comfortable lowering it again. "Most people would say this was dangerous, but, you see, there were no institutional review boards at the time," Senders told Life's Little Mysteries.

By measuring how much time drivers spent with the visors up and down, and comparing that to the amount of traffic on the road at the time, Senders found that drivers needed to pay more attention to the road, the busier it is. This may be exactly what you would expect — but Senders gathered the data to prove it.

"[The paper] remained essentially unread for 30 years," Senders said. Then, with the invention of cell phones and the driving distractions they presented, someone discovered the paper. For taking risks in order to gain a scientific understanding of how much attention people must pay to road in order to drive safely, Senders was awarded the Ig Nobel Prize for Public Safety.

Live today because tomorrow is not promised

One day a woman's husband died, and on that clear, cold morning, in the warmth of their bedroom, the wife was struck with the pain of learning that sometimes there isn't "anymore".

No more hugs, no more special moments to celebrate together, no more phone calls just to chat, no more "just one minute."

Sometimes, what we care about the most gets all used up and goes away, never to return before we can say good-bye, say "I love you." So while we have it, it's best we love it, care for it, fix it when it's broken and heal it when it's sick.

This is true for marriage.....And old cars... And children with bad report cards, and dogs with bad hips, and aging parents and grandparents. We keep them because they are worth it, because we are worth it.

Some things we keep -- like a best friend who moved away or a sister-in-law after divorce. There are just some things that make us happy, no matter what.

Life is important, like people we know who are special.. And so, we keep them close!

I received this from someone who thought I was a 'keeper'! Then I sent it to the people I think of in the same way... Now it's your turn to tell this to all those people who are "keepers" in your life. Think about this suppose one morning you never wake up, do all your friends know you love them?

Let every one of your friends know you love them. Even if you think they don't love you back. And just in case I'm gone tomorrow:    LOVE YA!!!

Live today because tomorrow is not promised

Need for Validation

The need to criticize simply belies a longing for recognition, appreciation, and validation. 

None of which, however, can be obtained through criticism.