Upper and Lower Back

Your back really is one of the workhorses of the human anatomy. Whether its bearing loads bending, stretching or taking the strain of an office where ergonomics doesn’t appear to be in the dictionary, every day brings big challenges. Those challenges are never going to go away, so what you want to do is prepare your back as best you can. By working the muscles in both the upper and lower sections, you will also promote better posture, and this will have a knock-on effect on how the other core areas of your body are handling everyday life.

Let’s start unravelling those knots and stretching your spine by lying flat on the floor, legs slightly apart and out in front of you. Slowly raise your right arm and your left leg out straight, to the same level and hold the position for 5 - 10 seconds before slowly lowering both the floor. Breathe rhythmically for 10 seconds, then repeat the drill with the left arm and the right leg. Aim to complete a series of 10 repetitions over as long a period as it takes. Don’t rush.

Remain Grounded

Initially the action may feel strange and a little unstable, but remember that the two limbs that remain grounded will be providing the stability to execute the drill, so relax, be confident in what you are doing, and keep your neck straight and relaxed.

Remaining flat on your stomach, bring your arms so that your palms are flat to the floor and just in front of the corresponding shoulder. To work on your lower back, push up from the palms so that only the upper body raises off the floor, hold for five seconds, then down, and repeat up to 10 reps.

To work the area around the upper back, stand with the feet a shoulders’ width apart, bend your arms at the elbow so that the backs of the hands are level and facing the top of the shoulders. Make a loose fist and push back with both fists out and around your shoulders so that the arms extend behind the line of the shoulders, thereby squeezing the blade muscles together. Hold for 10 seconds, then return to the original position. Complete 10 reps.

Movements Slow and Steady

Supplement these exercises with some walking and swimming. These extracurricular periods will build on the improved posture that the above drills will promote.

Always remember that although your back feels solid, it is prone to injury, especially as the aging process takes hold. So when exercising or completing floor repetitions, keep your movements slow and steady. Giving your muscles something to think about is one thing, but they’ll quickly tell you when they can do no more. When they do, listen to them. It’s better to cut down on repetitions and continue exercising regularly than succumbing to an injury born of over-enthusiasm.

Don’t forget, too, that stretching exercises are essential before working your back, so some gentle bends from the waist to the floor, hip rotations, marching on the spot while swinging the arms rhythmically, and star jumps will guard against injury. Not only will these routines warm up the muscles but they will also shake loose some of the stress of everyday life that your back soaks up.

Source:- http://www.tonedbody.co.uk/UpperLowerBack.html

Britons Getting Fatter Despite Consuming Fewer Calories

Britons are consuming 600 fewer calories a day but are actually getting fatter because of sedentary jobs and a lack of exercise, a respected think-tank has found.

Despite consuming less fat, sugar and alcohol Britons are getting larger Photo: PA

On average adults weigh up to 30 pounds, 14kg, more than they did 30 years ago despite a 20 per cent drop in daily calorie intake.

Although they are consuming the equivalent of a burger and chips or three pints of Guinness less they are also less active than those of the same age were in the 1980s, the Institute of Fiscal studies claims.

Expanding waist-lines are also explained by the fact that as you get older it is harder to keep your weight down and you become more susceptible as to the effects of some sugars and fats, the five-year study found.

The full study is to be published later this summer, but details disclosed on Monday show that the average adult has cut calorie intake by around 600 a day.

This is almost entirely attributed to better habits in the home, as the amount of calories consumed outside has risen by 15 per cent over the same period.

At home we are opting for cereal over fried breakfast, using semi skimmed milk, eating more fish and less red meat and drinking less alcohol.

But people are also more likely to have a desk job during the day and more likely to spend time in front of a screen when home in the evening.

The average adult is putting on weight at an average of just over half a pound – 0.25kg - a year.

A man in his twenties weighs around 15 lbs, 7kg, more than a man in his twenties three decades earlier, while someone in their 50s weighs 30 lbs more.

Report author Professor Rachel Griffiths told industry journal The Grocer: "The drop in calories consumed would have been expected to have caused a weight loss of 1kg per year over the period."

The IFS will look at why certain age groups are more susceptible to weight gain.

Source:- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/wellbeing/diet/10126042/Britons-getting-fatter-despite-consuming-fewer-calories.html

My History Of Being Fat

I was born 10 pounds, 7 ounces; fat from the get-go. There are pictures of my mother pregnant with me, walking around our neighborhood with my costumed brother on Halloween, the day before I was born. She is enormous. I am enormous inside of her. Nobody cares if you’re fat when you’re a baby. They say things like:There’s more of her to love, or Look at those chubby cheeks. And they mean it.

There were years I was an average weight, I think, but I was certainly fat by elementary school. I recall stopping by a friend’s house in the neighborhood once to see if she wanted to play with me, but finding only her mother home. The next day at school, my friend and some of the other little girls in our class laughed as I approached. “What’s so funny?” I said. “I heard you came over yesterday,” she said. “My mother said a husky girl knocked on the door. I asked her what ‘husky’ meant and she said it meant ‘fat’ and then I knew it was you.” Husky, they all laughed at it.

A new vocabulary word for them, but not for me. I knew so many more words than they did. Also, I knew that Husky dogs were from Alaska and had beautiful fur and could race sleds. Why bother sharing information with these girls?

I remember going to a birthday party at another  friend's house and playing a video game, checking out already from the world around me.  I was so chubby that my pants rode down below my waist and my butt crack was revealed.  Some boys stood behind me and shot a water gun at me, down my pants.  I swiveled my head, appalled, and pulled down my shirt.  And then I turned back to the video game and continued to play. I was approaching a high score.

I'm certain that all of this hurt my feelings. I am trying to remember what that pain felt like, but I have been in a perennial state of not letting it bother me for decades. 

Maybe I went home and cried. I wish I could remember. Let’s pretend I went home and cried. It’s probably true. 

In junior high school, in the advanced English class, our teacher engaged us in a verbal exercise. She wanted us to learn about the powers of description. So she had us all stand up in a circle, and everyone had to go around the room and say one word to describe the person standing. Funny, smart, etc. And when it was my turn to stand, a boy named Mark said, “Thunder thighs.” Mark, you idiot, that’s two words. Even now, that’s all I’ve got in terms of a comeback. I was never that good with the burns.

Why was I fat? Where do I start? I was fat because I loved books more than people and instead of playing with other kids, running around and getting exercise, I had my nose stuck in a damn book. I was fat because my parents were a little fat themselves at that point in their lives, and I ate what they ate. I was fat because I was a latchkey kid, so I would go home and eat whatever I could get my hands on in the house. And I was fat because part of me didn’t give a shit; I already lived the life of a mind, and I didn’t care how I appeared to the outside world, so satisfied was I in my imagination. I was fat because I lived in the Midwest in the 1970s and everyone was a little fat then, and only getting fatter.

High school: tits and ass, not-so-fat, but never skinny. I dated very little, and sometimes I cared, and sometimes I didn’t. I started going on runs, right before I went to bed. I liked the way I felt at the end of the run. The streets of the suburbs were quiet at night. I used that time to picture a life anywhere but there. I hated high school. I would feel like a fat girl forever. I think I realized that even then.

College: As much late night drunk eating as my heart desired. Freshman twenty. Also I started smoking weed somewhere in there, and discovered the pleasures of eating while stoned. Every vice begat another. Gateway chub.

And then it was up and down for a decade. I started having sex, and, in my mind, as long as I was having sex, I was attractive, which means I couldn’t be too fat, now could I? Sex as a guideline for physical health. How about that. That’s how I saw it in my twenties. That’s not how I see it now.

It is the year 2000, and I weigh around 200 pounds, a fact of which I am unaware because I never get on a scale. (Although I find it out a few weeks later in the bathroom at my brother’s house, finally too curious to resist.) I am sleeping with a man who is not a very nice man, and perhaps not even particularly attractive, but he is quick-witted and sort of cool, and this covers up the not-nice part of him, at least for a period of time. Also, we are always fucked up in one way or another when we are together, either on booze or drugs, and I am still insistent on proving my own attractiveness to myself by having sex as regularly as possible, even if it is with terrible people. We are lying naked on his couch in his shitty Lower East Side basement apartment, and for some reason he is talking about other women he’s seeing, and I’m starting to feel terrible about myself. It’s this feeling that’s creeping slowly up my spine, an unfolding self-disgust, and then he says to me, “But you know, there’s something about a big girl,” and, after a pause, he pats my ass, and all of a sudden I realize he’s talking about me, I am that big girl.

It was another few years until I lost the weight. Lost, that’s what it felt like, that it disappeared one day when I wasn’t paying attention, and I never saw where it went. I wasn’t trying to lose weight, but I did. I went away for a summer to the woods in Northern California and started writing my first book. In exchange for a small cottage, I was tasked with taking a giant, cranky Tibetan Mastiff for hikes every day. I was introduced to yoga, and found that I loved it. There was no television, spotty internet access, and my cell phone barely worked. So I wrote. I wrote a collection of stories. I put my entire self into that book. And the book replaced the food. Whatever hole was in me that needed to be filled, writing books, for the most part has filled it. I realize this is not how it works for everyone, but this is how it worked for me.

But here’s the truth: If I could still eat like I did then, I would. I still do sometimes, though rarely. Definitely there are days when I cannot get full enough. But I enjoy being this thinner – but never thin – version of myself. I prefer my clothes fit in a certain way. And yoga and meditation have made me a happier person, stronger, more balanced, more capable of compassion, and a better writer. But most importantly: I want to live a long life. That, more than anything, is why I try to keep my weight in check. I have shit genetics in my family — cancer, heart attacks, all the fun stuff — and I have a lot I want to do over the next forty or fifty years, at the very least a lot of books I want to write, so I try to keep the goddamn weight in check, even when I don’t feel like it.

For the purposes of this piece, I got on the scale in the bathroom at the café near my house this morning. (I don’t have a scale in my house, because what do I need a scale for when I have Amazon numbers to obsess over?) I was at 156 with my clothes on but my shoes off, probably because I ate an entire personal pizza the night before because I found out a certain publication wasn’t going to review my book. (What is it about eating an entire thing, I wonder? Is there a sense of accomplishment? Or perhaps it’s that there’s nothing left behind to remind you of what you just did.)

Maybe tomorrow I’ll weigh 154 if I eat better today, but as of right now I’m three pounds away from being technically overweight, 158 at 5’6” being the danger zone on that chart I found on the internet. So right now I’m fat-adjacent. This is the territory I will travel in for the rest of my life.

Look, I don’t smoke anymore. I don’t do drugs anymore. I don’t date men who are terrible for me. I still like to drink, but I prefer to get up in the morning with a clear head and write my books, so I’m less likely to drink all night long. What I have left is food; that is my vice. And I will always want to eat a pizza when I am feeling rejected. And thus, my history of being fat is my past, present, and future. In the back of my mind, there is always a possibility of return. Fat-adjacency. But I like being responsible to myself. I like taking care of me, as much as I love food. So here I am. Alive.

Jami Attenberg is the author of ‘The Middlesteins,’ a novel about food obsession, families, love, the Midwest, and other important topics.

Source:- http://thehairpin.com/2012/10/my-history-of-being-fat/

Overweight Seen As The Norm, says chief medical officer

Image captionThe number of obese and overweight people has been rising in recent decades

Being overweight is increasingly seen as the norm, England's chief medical officer says.

In her annual report on the state of health, Dame Sally Davies said this was concerning, pointing out many people did not recognise they had a problem.

Parents of overweight children were also failing to spot the signs too, she said.

Dame Sally blamed the way weight was being portrayed by the media and clothes industry.

"I have long been concerned that being underweight is often portrayed as the ideal weight, particularly in the fashion industry. Yet I am increasingly concerned that society may be normalising being overweight.  Larger mannequins are being introduced into clothes shops and "size inflation" means that clothes with the same size label have become larger in recent decades.  "And news stories about weight often feature pictures of severely obese people, which are unrepresentative of the majority of overweight people."

Sugar tax
Dame Sally also reiterated her belief that a sugar tax may be necessary to combat obesity.  At the start of March she told the Health Select Committee it may be needed, although she hoped not.  This caused some controversy as the government's approach has been characterised by working with industry to get them to make food and drink products healthier.  In her report she says this should continue, but if it fails to deliver a tax should be "considered".

She said children and adults of all ages are consuming too much sugar.  Nearly two thirds of adults and a third of children are overweight or obese - classed as a body mass index of above 25. This is about double the numbers in the early 1990s.   But research shows that half of men, a third of women and over three quarters of parents do not recognise weight problems.  Professor Kevin Fenton, of Public Health England, said he agreed with Dame Sally's comments.  "We share her concerns. Overweight and obesity costs the NHS over £5bn each year and is entirely preventable."But Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, said he would have liked Dame Sally to take a tougher approach to sugar.  "The report lets the food and beverage industries off the hook. It gives industry no deadline by which to show improvement with the likely result that her words will be quite ignored. How distressing."

Source:- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-26765078

Addictive Personality: Meet Ajay Rochester

This is on the beingfatsuckschannel on YouTube.



Source:- https://www.youtube.com/user/beingfatsuckschannel

On Being Fat

KATHLEEN BROOKS

I am fat. This fact cannot be disputed.

I am also intelligent, educated and successful. To look at me, one might never guess that I am a successful director at a large corporation or that I gave up a child for adoption or that I survived kidney failure and a lifesaving kidney transplant. You probably also would not guess that I speak Arabic and was an interpreter on an archaeology dig in Syria. Would you guess I have been married twice and that I was an accomplished athlete? I have many stories, but because I am fat, you may never know these things about me.

You see, I, like many others like me, endure one of the few remaining acceptable forms of discrimination. Some people may judge me by the way I look and assume that I am stupid, lazy or that I eat chips and ice cream all day. They may also assume I don’t care about myself. They only see the fat. They treat me differently than they treat thinner, more attractive women. I know this because I wasn’t always fat. I, too, was oblivious to fat people and even shared some of these cruel misjudgments toward them. When I resided in a different body, I didn’t know how different my life would be and how different I would feel about myself in a fat body.

My transformation has been remarkable. I went from being a confident, fun, smart and beautiful woman to a fearful and shy resemblance of my former self. I am somehow falling into my dutiful place in the world, trying not to been seen and feeling ashamed of me.

Now, don’t get me wrong; I don’t want to be fat. I want to feel the way I used to feel. I am on a constant diet and trying every new one that comes along. I watch the weight loss shows and fantasize. I exercise with a personal trainer; I obsess over food and how many calories there are. I get creative with vegetables and eat a ton of them. I get discouraged and pick myself up again. But since my transplant and the steroids I take to keep my body from rejecting my new kidney, I can’t seem to lose the weight that I put on since that life-saving surgery. But losing weight is not what this is about.

I am amazed at how inferior I feel now. I feel invisible. People avoid eye contact with me. I am often treated rudely or dismissed. I live in daily fear that my weight will be the thing that results in my long list of fears, which now rule my every thought. I fear things like being let go from my job because “I don’t represent the company well,” or of never finding a man to love me again because I am no longer attractive. I wonder if people are embarrassed to be seen with me. I fear that someone might say something horrible to me like, “stay away from the donuts, fat a**,” or complain loudly that they have to sit next to me on the airplane... again. And yes, the big one, will I die young because of the fat on my body?

Will anyone know the amazing life I have lived and the person that I used to be? Will they know the adventures I have had and people I have met? Amazing experiences like riding horseback Saturday mornings at the Giza pyramids when living in Cairo; being interrogated at gunpoint in Syria; living in Yemen; moving to Egypt as a 13-year-old American; living with lupus, and raising a son by myself. I fear the answer to my questions is no. Just like others that are discriminated against for the color of their skin, many people dismiss me or are rude when they see me in this body. They don’t want to know me because they assume that I am something different than I am. The key difference is there are laws and social pressure against racial discrimination (which is still far too prevalent!). Discriminating against fat people is still socially acceptable, and in fact, it is done all the time.

My dream, of course, is to lose some weight. But, if I continue to be unsuccessful, will I ever been seen and acknowledged again the way I used to be? Will anyone step back and see me, want to know me, or will they just continue to see that I am fat?

Source:- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathleen-brooks/being-fat_b_6097544.html

10 Signs That You Need To Lose Weight

Most of the time people are focused on losing weight because they want to look better. Although that’s a good enough reason for many people, there are other reasons that can benefit anyone who is carrying too much weight. There seems to be a never-ending series of medical research studies coming out that have found new ways our health is damaged by being overweight. There has been a desire to be thin in many societies for a very long time, but now we know there are many more benefits than just looking better. For some people, losing weight can actually prolong their lives. Be on the lookout for the following signs that may be telling you it is time to start thinking about dropping some weight.

1. Difficult Exercise

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Anyone who really cares about their health should be exercising. There really is no replacement for it. if you have found it uncomfortable and difficult to complete your exercise routine because of your size, it’s definitely time to get serious about losing some weight. Exercising when you are overweight could put a greater strain on your heart and make it a bit more risky than it is for someone who is considered a normal weight.

2. Snoring

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If you find that you are snoring a lot more and a lot louder than you used to, it definitely could be a sign that your weight is becoming a problem. Snoring can disrupt your sleep even when you are not aware of it, and chances are good that you’ll not feel fully rested when you wake up. Excess fat that tends to accumulate around the neck can make your airway smaller, which can lead to increased snoring and even sleep apnea, which can become life-threatening.

3. Soreness

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In some cases, excess weight can cause various places to feel sensitive and more likely to become sore to the touch. Inflammation can affect the fatty tissues that are just below the skin’s surface which causes this condition. Losing some weight can help alleviate this problem.

4. Feeling Tired

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Feeling worn out all the time is another thing excessive weight can cause. Inflammation is the culprit here again, and it happens due to all that excess weight. If you find yourself feeling exhausted when you are just doing things you have always done, like walking up stairs or walking your dog, it’s a sign that extra weight is putting too much strain on your body.

5. Always Hungry

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This can certainly happen if you are going too heavy on the junk food, which is notoriously bad for keeping you feeling full, but it could also be a sign of type 2 diabetes, which is something that should surely get you to pay attention to your health. Other signs that diabetes may be developing are tingling, or numbness in your extremities, blurry vision and increased urination. Diabetes is a scary word to many people, but type 2 diabetes can often be reversed through weight loss and diet if someone is serious about improving their health.

6. High Cholesterol and High Blood Pressure

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These are two potentially deadly problems that can have a very serious impact on your health. The good news is that both of these conditions can very often be reversed through lifestyle changes much like type 2 diabetes. Much of the time, even modest weight loss can improve upon or reverse these conditions.

7. The Bulge

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If your waist is larger than 35 inches, there’s a good chance that you have too much belly fat, and recent research has found that to be a significant health risk. Using the “above 35” number doesn’t work for everyone, since people come in all different shapes and sizes, but it could be a hint that your weight is something you need to think more about. Excess weight around the midsection can contribute to your likelihood of having serious problems like heart attack, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure.

8. Family History

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Too much fat can lead to the production of more estrogen, which is believed to be linked to breast cancer. Having a parent or grandparent who had cancer increases your risk even without regard for excess weight. Losing weight is certainly no guarantee that your cancer risk will be reduced, but most experts believe that keeping your weight under control can be a benefit.

9. Pain

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If you start experiencing pain in areas such as your knees, hips and back, it could be due to the strain excessive weight is causing on those areas. Forcing your joints to support extra weight can actually wear them down, and with time it could make treatments like hip or knee replacement necessary.

10. History of Weight Gain

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While it’s certainly natural and expected for a person to gain weight as they develop from childhood, into their teens and then into adulthood, there should be a time in your life when your weight stabilizes, and does not continue to increase. if you have been steadily gaining weight every year even after reaching adulthood, there’s a good chance that you are overweight or soon will be.

Source:- http://thinkingabouthealth.com/healthy-eating/10-signs-that-you-need-to-lose-weight/

How Can I Learn To Dress Better?

Dear Lifehacker,
I admit that I'm not the snappiest dresser. I know how to keep my clothes clean and ironed and whatnot, but I don't always know what I should wear and I don't look quite as neat and professional as my friends and coworkers. How can I learn to dress better?

Sincerely,
Schlemiel in Seattle

Dear Schlemiel,
This is one of those things many people learn growing up, but if you missed out on that exposure, learning later in life isn't as easy and straightforward. The upside is that most of what you need to learn is observational, and you have hundreds of examples around you every day to learn from. Before you start looking at other people's clothing choices, start by looking at your own.

Perform a Wardrobe Audit

Before you go out to buy anything new, the first place you should go shopping is your own closet. If you're an adult with a job, you're probably covered for at least three situations: work, social outings, and lazy home clothes. Some of your clothes may serve multiple purposes (for example, the jeans you go out in may be comfortable enough to watch Netflix in), but you can probably put together outfits for at least these situations.

However, being well-dressed starts with being prepared for a situation. Few people you see who look great in their outfits started by hitting the store right before they arrived. Do a review of your closet. Ask yourself if you would be ready, right now, to dress for the following type of events:

• Weddings
• Funerals
• Job interviews
• Black tie events
• Dressy restaurant outings
• Birthday/graduation/anniversary parties

This list is by no means comprehensive, but as an adult (particularly if you're young), you can probably expect to be invited to at least a couple of the things on this list—if not all of them—in a given year. Do you have clothing appropriate for each of the events? If not, start picking out specific events you want or need to be prepared for and start there.

Learn the Basics For Specific Situations

There are certain basics that apply to any situation. Here is a non-comprehensive list of the basics you should cover:

• Buy clothes that fit. Often, it can feel better to wear clothes that are a bit bigger on you than you would normally wear. However, if you wear pants with a 36" waist and you get something with a 38", it will look loose and frumpy.
• Wear things that you're comfortable with. Part of the reason you wear nicer clothes, aside from fitting in with your current event, is to boost confidence. If you can't enjoy how you look, or your clothes don't feel natural, you'll fidget, squirm, and grimace your way to undoing all your hard work.
• Never wear white after Labor Day. Or do. Either way. As you learn more, you'll soon discover that there are rules that are made to be broken.

Once you've narrowed down which occasions you want to focus on first, you can start tracking down outfits for specific events. Is a suit overkill for a job interview? What type of dress should you wear to a wedding? How much do you have to spend on dinner before jeans are no longer okay? Ask these questions on a case by case basis.

Once you narrow down which situations you want to dress for, you can start searching for appropriate looks. The sources for these won't always be the same. For example, you can find advice on how to dress for work right here on Lifehacker, but you may have to turn to other sites for the perfect dress to wear to the club.

Over time, the skills and tricks you learn for one outfit will carry over to other situations. Don't overwhelm yourself by trying to buy hundreds of dollars worth of clothes for every possible event that you don't even know you're going to yet. Get clothes for the dinner date you're going on next week and the experience you get there will inform what type of shoes you should wear to the office.

Find a Mentor or Group of People to Provide Feedback

No amount of Googling will tell you that you look good. Your body is unique and there are dozens of factors that can make an outfit that looks fantastic on one person look horrible on another (or vice versa). Your best shot at looking great is to have someone personally look at how clothes fit you. The more experience that person has with making fashion decisions, the better.

If you can't find someone to help coach you, there are still options. Reddit has dedicated subreddits devoted to helping both men and women get their questions answered, as well as post pictures to ask for feedback. There are also apps and sites like Fashism that exist solely to share outfits and get opinions or inspiration.

If you're not comfortable with sharing pictures of yourself online (and have some cash to spare), you can hire a personal shopper. In some cases, their whole job is to find the clothes you're looking for and bring them to you, but others will walk you through the process and provide feedback. Alternatively, if you want to save that money, you can ask employees at clothing stores for feedback. Don't take up all their time—most of them have plenty of other duties to tend to—but if you go to any type of dedicated outlets, many employees are not only inclined to have an eye for what looks good, but some of them are there specifically to help you find something that works for you.

Read Fashion Sites (and Keep Reading)

Once you've got the basics down, you can start getting into the nuance of your wardrobe. This is where specialized sites and publications for men andwomen can be useful in keeping up to date on style changes over time. While you may have been able to get with wearing overalls with one strap unbuckled in the 90s, you couldn't pull that off today. Fashion evolves over time. Keeping up with current trends—to a certain extent, at least—is just another part of the process.

Also keep in mind that every publication you subscribe to will have its own particular style. Check out a few magazines and sites and see how much their style relates to your own. Don't just dive in to the first publication with Robert Downey Jr. on the cover (mostly because you can't pull off what he can...he's Iron Man), but instead find something that offers tips in the style you're looking for.

More importantly, though, find resources for a style you like and can be comfortable in and continue in that vein. Don't just grab the first copy of GQ you can find and buy whatever Bryan Cranston is wearing. Your wardrobe needs to be a reflection of your personal style, as well as being something that you can feel good in.

Also, remember the cardinal rules in any kind of etiquette: follow the host and don't deviate too much from the crowd. If you're looking to dress for work, find out how your boss dresses (as well as seasoned coworkers who are on your level). If you're going to a wedding, you don't want to upstage the bride and groom, but you should fit in with most of the guests. When you've got that down, and you can be happy with what you see in the mirror, you're already ahead of the curve.

Sincerely,
Lifehacker

Photos by Magnus D, bpsusf, and Will.

Source:- http://lifehacker.com/how-can-i-learn-to-dress-better-1215111190

10 Scientifically Proven Ways To Be Incredibly Happy

It's easy to think of happiness as a result, but happiness is also a driver.

One example: While I'm definitely into finding ways to improve personal productivity (whether a one-day burst, or a lifetime, or things you should not do every day), probably the best way to be more productive is to just be happier. Happy people accomplish more.

Easier said than done though, right?

Actually, many changes are easy. Here are 10 science-based ways to be happier from Belle Beth Cooper, Content Crafter at Buffer, the social media management tool that lets you schedule, automate, and analyze social media updates.

Here's Beth:

1. Exercise: 7 Minutes Could Be Enough

Think exercise is something you don't have time for? Think again. Check out the  7 minute workout mentioned in The New York Times. That's a workout any of us can fit into our schedules.

Exercise has such a profound effect on our happiness and well-being that it is an effective strategy for overcoming depression. In a study cited in Shawn Achor's book The Happiness Advantage, three groups of patients treated their depression with medication, exercise, or a combination of the two. The results of this study are surprising: Although all three groups experienced similar improvements in their happiness levels early on, the follow-up assessments proved to be radically different:

The groups were then tested six months later to assess their relapse rate. Of those who had taken the medication alone, 38 percent had slipped back into depression. Those in the combination group were doing only slightly better, with a 31 percent relapse rate. The biggest shock, though, came from the exercise group: Their relapse rate was only 9 percent.

You don't have to be depressed to benefit from exercise, though. Exercise can help you relax, increase your brain power, and even improve your body image, even if you don't lose any weight.

We've explored exercise in depth before, and looked at what it does to our brains, such as releasing proteins and endorphins that make us feel happier.

A study in the Journal of Health Psychology found that people who exercised felt better about their bodies even when they saw no physical changes:

Body weight, shape and body image were assessed in 16 males and 18 females before and after both 6 × 40 minutes exercising and 6 × 40 minutes reading. Over both conditions, body weight and shape did not change. Various aspects of body image, however, improved after exercise compared to before.

Yep: Even if your actual appearance doesn't change, how you feel about your body does change.

2. Sleep More: You'll Be Less Sensitive to Negative Emotions

We know that sleep helps our body recover from the day and repair itself and that it helps us focus and be more productive. It turns out sleep is also important for happiness.

In NurtureShock, Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman explain how sleep affects positivity:

Negative stimuli get processed by the amygdala; positive or neutral memories gets processed by the hippocampus. Sleep deprivation hits the hippocampus harder than the amygdala. The result is that sleep-deprived people fail to recall pleasant memories yet recall gloomy memories just fine.

In one experiment by Walker, sleep-deprived college students tried to memorize a list of words. They could remember 81% of the words with a negative connotation, like "cancer." But they could remember only 31% of the words with a positive or neutral connotation, like "sunshine" or "basket."

The BPS Research Digest explores another study that proves sleep affects our sensitivity to negative emotions. Using a facial recognition task throughout the course of a day, researchers studied how sensitive participants were to positive and negative emotions. Those who worked through the afternoon without taking a nap became more sensitive to negative emotions like fear and anger.

Using a face recognition task, here we demonstrate an amplified reactivity to anger and fear emotions across the day, without sleep. However, an intervening nap blocked and even reversed this negative emotional reactivity to anger and fear while conversely enhancing ratings of positive (happy) expressions.

Of course, how well (and how long) you sleep will probably affect how you feel when you wake up, which can make a difference to your whole day.

Another study tested how employees' moods when they started work in the morning affected their entire work day.

Researchers found that employees' moods when they clocked in tended to affect how they felt the rest of the day. Early mood was linked to their perceptions of customers and to how they reacted to customers' moods.

And most importantly to managers, employee mood had a clear impact on performance, including both how much work employees did and how well they did it.

3. Spend More Time With Friends/Family: Money Can't Buy You Happiness

Staying in touch with friends and family is one of the top five regrets of the dying.

If you want more evidence that time with friends is beneficial for you, research proves it can make you happier right now, too.

Social time is highly valuable when it comes to improving our happiness, even for introverts. Several studies have found that time spent with friends and family makes a big difference to how happy we feel.