Most people want to develop good habits like doing yoga before work, eating breakfast and saying "hello" to the elderly neighbor they see each morning. However, intending to pick up such habits and actually performing them are two totally different stories. Sometimes it seems like bad habits, like smoking or eating sweets every day, are easier to keep.
Fortunately, you can alter your behavior and integrate healthy lifestyle choices into your routine. Here are some tips for picking up good habits: Fit it Into Your Existing Schedule If your goal is to get up early every morning to jog, but you're a night person, you have an uphill battle ahead of you. Instead of forcing yourself into a new schedule, place your new habits into a pattern that already works for you. In the case of the night owl turned fitness guru, consider running after work instead of before it. Take a look at your current schedule and see where that new habit of yours will fit. Replace the Bad with the Good Some of the habits you want to end or change take up prime slots in your daily schedule. Make the most of that situation by switching them with good habits. For instance, if you like to eat a bowl of ice cream after dinner while watching TV, get rid of the extra sugar and eat healthy alternatives. Cut up an apple and dip it in peanut butter. Or, nom on homemade real-fruit popsicles -- you'll satisfy your sweet tooth, but in a way that won't spike your blood sugar and negatively affect your weight. Think of it this way: You're finding better ways to address a need. Most habits form because you needed something (a way to relax, for example). Your good habits can and should address those needs -- that way, you're more likely to stick to them and avoid sliding into your old ways. Choose Small Commitments Initially, taking on huge new habits is daunting and could cause you to fall off the wagon. For instance, waking up at 5 a.m. to run when you normally get up at 7 a.m. is a big undertaking. Start small. Commit to waking up earlier -- that's it. You may end up running anyway! Simplify Your Choices The more decisions you have to make in a day, the more tired you become mentally. That means that by the end of the day, you don't have the energy for decision-making. Being drained makes slipping into old, bad habits and avoiding working on new ones easier, so pare down your options. For example, only stock your apartment with healthy snacks. When you come home after work, you won't have the option to reach for sugary treats. Set Up Your Space for Success Your apartment is where you spend most of your time, and it's the most comfortable environment you occupy. For this reason, it can be your greatest ally or enemy. Make sure your apartment becomes the former by arranging your space around your new habit. Only store healthy food in the fridge, keep your blinds open so morning sunlight wakes you up or designate a spot for exercising. No matter what good habit you want to form, you can devise a way to ensure your apartment makes the process easier. Find a Friend Forming habits is easier when you have an accountability partner, someone who will kick you into gear. While not all habits are ideal for working with another person, many are. For instance, going to the gym, cooking healthy meals and saving money are all doable when you have a friend, roommate, or significant other who will try to do the same. Schedule check-ins in which you talk about your progress and motivate each other. Who knows, pumping up your friend may also boost your enthusiasm. Introducing good habits that benefit your life may be challenging, but it's doable. Use these tips to get your habit to stick. |
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Healthy Living - How to Pick Up Good Habits
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Healthy Living - Getting to Serenity: 10 Daily Habits for Inner Peace
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Healthy Living - Being a 'Morning Person' Can Help Keep You Healthy
Early to bed, early to rise...
Back in grade school, Benjamin Franklin's old saying seemed like a sly attempt to get us to stop complaining about bedtime. But it turns out Ben was right -- at least about it making us healthy. If you're a "night person," this is going to be hard to hear. But a new study has found that night people are at higher risk for several unhealthy conditions. And this is true regardless of the number of hours they sleep. The study, conducted in Korea, looked at 1,620 participants between the ages of 47 and 59. They were identified as "morning chronotypes" (go to bed and get up early), "evening chronotypes" (go to bed later and get up later), or neither (people who fall somewhere in the middle and don't identify with either extreme). Then researchers compared the health of the morning and evening groups. They found that: • Female evening chronotypes tended to have more abdominal fat and an increased risk of metabolic syndrome (a condition associated with the development of cardiovascular disease and diabetes). • Male evening chronotypes overall had higher rates of diabetes and sarcopenia (a condition in which the body's muscle mass slowly declines). • Evening chronotypes, though typically younger than morning chronotypes, generally had a higher percentage of body fat and higher blood triglyceride levels. Even adjusting for age and lifestyle differences such as exercise, drug and alcohol consumption, and so on, the late risers were less healthy overall. So what's the takeaway? If you're a morning person, give yourself a pat on the back. If you aren't, try becoming one. Here are some strategies: • Decide a standard time you want to get up every day and start making yourself get up then. Set your alarm for that time, and don't hit the snooze button. Even on weekends don't sleep in too much. • Have a target bedtime as well. After a few days of getting up early, going to bed earlier will begin to feel more natural because your body will be tired. Tune into your body. (Incidentally, research suggests that going to bed by 10 p.m. is optimal because some of the best sleep happens between 10 and midnight.) • Turn off all electronic screens at least an hour before bedtime • Design a relaxing evening routine that gets you in the sleep mode. This might include dimming the lights and reading a print book in bed for half an hour. You might also drink a calming tea or take a warm bath. • Make your bedroom a tranquil place. Keep it clutter free, and get shades or curtains that effectively block the light at night. • Get out of bed quickly in the morning and start moving. A workout such as stretching, walking, or yoga will help wake and energize you. • Create a morning routine you enjoy and that sets you up for a good day. This could be a few minutes of meditation, keeping a gratitude journal, or even just drinking a cup of coffee while staring at a pleasant view. In general, all the things that support you to feel better during the day -- exercise, a healthy diet, a positive attitude -- help you to sleep better as well. If you're a night person, don't spend one minute feeling bad about it. Instead, just start playing with this pattern. At first, it might take discipline. But before long, having time to unwind in the evening and to get centered and energized in the morning might feel like a real treat. |
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Alibaba Apologizes For Want Ad Seeking Candidates Who Resemble Porn Star
Today, in questionable HR decisions:
Alibaba has apologized and pulled a job ad seeking a "programmer encouragement specialist." Requirements for the since-deleted position, as translated by Quartz, include an "adequately stunning" appearance and someone who might be an "open-minded lolita" like adult film star Sora Aoi or the South Korean actress Song Hye-kyo. The person in the position would be responsible for encouraging and inspiring programmers and engineers to do their best work, including waking them up for early morning meetings, the posting read. While the company promptly removed the ad, eagle-eyed readers grabbed a screenshot, which has reverberated around Twitter and the Chinese social media site Sina Weibo:
The e-commerce giant told Bloomberg the description intended to be humorous. It has since reposted an amended listing that removes references to Sora Aoi and encourages both male and female candidates to apply. "We apologize to anyone offended by this ad," a company representative told Bloomberg. "Alibaba is committed to providing equal opportunity and fair treatment to all employees on the basis of merit, without discrimination." |
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Nepal Earthquake Death Toll Passes 7,000
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Teacher Testifies So Dzhokhar Tsarnaev 'Knows That Someone Cares About Him'
BOSTON -- One of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's former middle school teachers wrote on Facebook this week that "I still love him" even though the convicted Boston Marathon bomber "did the unforgivable."
It was the second time that Becki Norris spoke up for Tsarnaev, 21, on Wednesday. Earlier that day, the current Community Charter School of Cambridge principal testified in Tsarnaev's trial that when he was her seventh- and eighth-grade student, he was "a really hard-working, smart kid" with a seemingly bright future in front of him. Tsarnaev's life, of course, went in a vastly different direction than what Norris had forecast. He and his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, detonated two bombs that killed three and wounded 264 others at the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013, and days later killed a police officer across the Charles River in Cambridge. "Over the past two years, I've discovered the painful truth that when you care deeply for someone, that doesn't stop even if they do unfathomably horrible things," Norris wrote on Facebook. "Yes, he did the unforgivable. And yes, I still love him. And -- this one is hard to fathom, I know -- he still needs love." Her words qualified as a rare public display of support for Tsarnaev, one of the country's most vilified criminals. She sensed that many people might be puzzled by her position. "Ask yourself what you would think or do if someone you loved and cared about walked far, far down a deadly path," she said. Norris' entire message appears below beneath a photo of her notorious former pupil as a baby-faced youngster holding her newborn daughter. In at least one other example, a witness described on Facebook her intense feelings toward Tsarnaev -- though they were less complimentary. Bombing victim Rebekah Gregory shared a widely circulated letter denouncing Tsarnaev as "a coward" who wouldn't make eye contact with her while she testified in March about losing her leg from the attack. "[N]ow to me you're a nobody," Gregory wrote, "and it is official that you have lost." The defense team is trying to save Tsarnaev from the death penalty. After a jury convicted him on 30 charges on April 8, the trial entered the penalty phase in which the same jurors will either sentence him to be executed or imprisoned without the possibility of parole. The prosecution has already made its case for the death penalty. The defense has tried to convince jurors not to execute Tsarnaev, saying Tamerlan -- who died in a shootout with Watertown, Massachusetts, police -- was the mastermind of the bombing and coerced his younger brother into taking part. Lawyers for Tsarnaev put several of his other teachers in the witness box, as well as two friends from University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, where he'd faltered academically but maintained a reputation as kind and generous friend. Relatives flown in from Russia are expected to testify on Monday. Tsarnaev was one of the best students and athletes in the Cambridge charter school until his mother removed him because of a dispute about the school uniform, Norris testified. From the stand, Norris made eye contact with Tsarnaev and they even smiled at each other "He was already rightly found guilty. I testified to help the jury see why he might be spared the death penalty. I also hoped to show him, in spite of what he's done, that someone cares about him as a person," Norris wrote. "I don't expect to ever see him again. I will hold onto those moments, and I hope he does too." This is Dzhokhar, holding my daughter at 10 days old. He's known to many as the younger (and surviving) Boston Bomber.... |
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South Korea Confirms NYU Student Is Detained In North Korea
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The Quest for Asia's Next Manufacturing Miracle
As thousands of government, business and civil society leaders from across Asia descend on Baku, Azerbaijan for the annual Asian Development Bank meetings this weekend, countries in the region are consumed with how to sustain growth as some of the region's biggest economies -- China, Japan and Indonesia -- slow down. Many Asian nations are turning to manufacturing as a way to fuel growth and create more, and potentially better quality, jobs -- especially for their bulging youth populations. Their resolve is strengthened by prospects of closer regional integration and trade agreements, such as the Trans Pacific Partnership. But newly emerging economies cannot use the 20th century success of Asian Tigers as a model. A 21st century manufacturing miracle calls for a different strategy. Today, global competition is fiercer than ever. More countries are playing the manufacturing game, and Asia's more developed economies, such as China, are already formidable players, having claimed their stake in elaborate supply chains. Developing and emerging economies accounted for 32 percent of global manufacturing value-added in 2010. Of this, Asia-Pacific countries accounted for 21.7 percent, with China's share at 15.3 percent in 2010. Countries like China and South Korea rode the wave of economic liberalization and the revolution in information and communication technologies to transform their manufacturing sectors. For emerging economies now embarking on the same path, there is no watershed economic reform or revolutionary technology that they can leverage to enter an already competitive landscape. What's more, weak aggregate demand in developed economies throws up another barrier to export-led growth. So, what will it take for a country like India -- which launched its "Make in India" campaign last autumn -- or Myanmar -- the world's newest frontier market -- to become an industrial powerhouse in the 21st century? Asian leaders in newly emerging markets must continue to prioritize the fundamentals -- attract capital and technological investment and improve infrastructure -- while also diversifying their manufacturing sectors, skilling their workforces, and enabling a healthy industrial relations system. Massive deployment of labor in one low-skilled sector like garments may have kick-started industrial revolutions in 20th century Asia, but such a strategy is now outdated. For one, diverse economies are more resilient in the face of economic shocks. Moreover, lack of diversity produces an oversupply of labor in one sector, depressing working conditions and wages. It is unsurprising then that in Bangladesh, where 80 percent of exports come from a single industry (garments), wages and working conditions are among the worst in the world. Countries with a diversified manufacturing sector tend to offer higher wages and clearer pathways of upward mobility for workers. Better-paid, economically mobile workers promote domestic consumption, further expanding opportunity for businesses and reducing dependence on exports. But diversification can only happen if countries make significant investments in upgrading the skills of their workforces. In some of Asia's most ambitious emerging economies, the percentage of the labor force that is formally trained remains extremely low: only 2.2 percent of Cambodian and 6.4 percent of Vietnamese students in secondary schools are receiving vocational education. Policymakers in Asia must also focus on building a well functioning industrial relations system. In many newly emerging economies, the proliferation of thousands of unions has muddled workers' voices. Countries should encourage the development of large, legitimate trade unions that truly represent workers' interests and engage productively with employers, rather than stamping out strikes in the fear that they will drive away business. Governments, business and civil society must work together to create an Asian model of German codetermination -- where employers and employees negotiate fairly and unions hold seats on corporate boards. In their quest for the next manufacturing miracle, leaders of newly emerging Asian economies have an opportunity to fashion a new, 21st century economic model for the continent -- one based on a diverse manufacturing sector, a skilled workforce, and a new deal between business and labor. -- The JustJobs Network is a global think tank focused on finding evidence-based solutions to global employment challenges. It hosted a seminar at this year's ADB meetings entitled, "From Factory Floor to the Middle Class: Does Labor-Intensive Manufacturing Promote Economic Mobility?" Sabina Dewan is Executive Director of the JustJobs Network and Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. @sabinadewan Gregory Randolph is Deputy Director of the JustJobs Network. @justjobsproject |
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Merkel Says Germans Can Never Forget Horrors Inflicted At Nazi Death Camps
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