Report: Instagram is the Worst App for Young People’s Mental Health

A report titled #StatusOfMind was done by the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH). They surveyed 1,500 young people about social media. Of the five social media platforms that were included in the survey, Instagram was found to have the worst effect on young people’s mental health. The #StatusOfMind report examined both the positive, and the negative, effects that social media has on young people’s health. The report included Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Snapchat. The report asked 1,500 young people, who were between the ages of 14 and 24 to rank what extent different social media platforms impacted certain … Continue reading

Be More Compassionate at Work

People who are under a great deal of stress tend to forget to be nice to their coworkers. This is a very human reaction to being tense, overwhelmed, or scared about the future. One way to make your workplace less awful is to be more compassionate at work. If you really don’t feel like it – then it is even more important that you rediscover your compassion. Times are tough. You and your coworkers might be struggling to finish a big project in the days before its deadline. There might be quotas that each worker must achieve. Someone calls in … Continue reading

Random Offers from Annie’s, IHOP, Gorton’s, and More!

Every so often, I clean out my inbox and find all kinds of deals and “limited time offers”. This time, I also found some information about contests and sweepstakes. Here is a collection of random deals and offers that are going on right now. IHOP is doing the “IHOP Melt Away, Getaway Sweepstakes” right now. When I think of IHOP, the first thing that comes to mind are pancakes, not a vacation. However, the sweepstakes is connected with Grand Pineapple Beach Resorts, “the Authentic Caribbean Vacation for Everyone”, so there really is a vacation to be had! There are two … Continue reading

Give Yourself the Gift of Love This Valentine’s Day

Most of us associate Valentine’s Day with the receiving or giving of gifts to others.  How about making this year one about giving the greatest gift of all?  I’m talking about a gift that begins with you…loving yourself enough to make some important lifestyle changes. Now that the New Year isn’t feeling so new anymore, many of us start to lose grip on the goals and resolutions we set.  The energy and enthusiasm we felt in the beginning of the year to exercise more and eat less has started to wane. In fact, some people might even be suffering from … Continue reading

Doofy Husbands

Have you ever heard of doofy husbands?  They’re the guys in commercials who are always incapable of doing anything around the house.  They try to do the laundry, clean a room, or cook a meal, always to hilarious failure.  Their long-suffering wives come into the room and shake their heads, then proceed to use whatever product is being shilled to accomplish the task with ease. The concept of doofy husbands is problematic for a couple reasons: it doesn’t give men enough credit, and it perpetuates the idea that men aren’t good at performing many household, traditionally feminine tasks.  It implies … Continue reading

Sitting Can Kill You

Just when you start to feel pretty good about your health, a new study comes along to smash it all to smithereens.  Apparently, exercising isn’t enough if you sit on your bottom for more than six hours a day. After doing some quick calculations I realized this is the case for me.  Like millions of others, I have a desk job.  So I am pretty much forced to sit. Not only are they saying it’s bad for your health.  It could even be killing you! Why?  Our bodies go into shutdown mode when we are sitting.  Doing this for long … Continue reading

Does Your Kid Fake Bake?

Hi.  My name is Michele and I am a tanaholic. I’ve suffered with tanorexia for decades, thanks in large part to being born and raised in Hawaii. Thirty plus years and countless sunburns later I can only hope that my daughter doesn’t end up suffering from the same condition. Living in northern Wisconsin she has a good chance of escaping the same fate as her mother.  Then again, she could end up just like me if she gets hooked on reality television beauty shows. According to a new study, college students who watch reality beauty shows are at least twice … Continue reading

Protecting Your Eyes

One of my favorite journalists – heck, who am I kidding? – my favorite journalist, Anderson Cooper, suffered temporary blindness this past week. Did he have some genetic condition that caused this blindness?  Did he splash something in his eye?  No, Cooper sunburned his eyes while in Portugal. Sunburned his eyes?  Just the mere thought of that makes my eyes squint in horror! Awakened by pain, Cooper originally dismissed it as sand in his eyes.  But, he realized when he was blind that it was something more serious.  Cooper lost his eyesight for 36 hours. That must have been pretty … Continue reading

Don’t Feed Your Pets Leftovers from Thanksgiving

Yesterday was Thanksgiving. Today, many of us have lots of delicious leftovers to eat. Don’t feed the leftovers to your pets! People food can make pets really sick. VPI has a list of holiday-related medical conditions that you definitely don’t want your pet to suffer with! It can be very tempting to feed your dog or cat some leftovers from Thanksgiving dinner. Many pets will beg for food every time your family eat dinner, (even when it isn’t Thanksgiving). Some pet owners do give in and will toss their dog or cat some people food to eat. Got more leftovers … Continue reading

Listen to Your Head

So often we hear the phrase, “listen to your heart,” but sometimes it is more important to listen to your head. I recently got out of a relationship where I let my heart get the better of me. I was hearing all the things I wanted to hear, yet my head kept telling me something wasn’t right. There were warning signs left and right, but I shoved them aside because I didn’t want to believe that they were there. I was too caught up in what my heart was feeling that I failed to listen to what my head was … Continue reading