Health, Fashion, Parenting and Women Related Issues

Trip up your wakefulness, and doze off with these handy bedtime snacks (try to stay within 200 calories, and eat about an hour before bedtime). They’re light, but high in carbohydrates, which boost the brain’s sleep chemical (serotonin) without overloading your digestive system.

* The classic PB&J (go easy on the PB, and try it on a rice cake); top off with a glass of low-fat or skim milk or a cup of herbal tea with a combo of chamomile and valerian
* A banana with 1 teaspoon nut butter of your choice
* A small bowl of whole-grain cereal with low-fat or skim milk
* Fruit and cottage cheese
* Whole-wheat crackers and goat cheese
* A homemade oatmeal-raisin cookie with low-fat or skim milk

Although it can take a tremendous amount of self-discipline to avoid taking the bait on days when your child seems determined to trap you in a power struggle, it’s important to do just that and keep your cool. Here’s what you stand to lose if you freak out:

Your credibility as a parent. If you become angry and your child was deliberately seeking that kind of reaction from you, you lose some of your credibility as a parent and tip the power balance in your child’s favor.

Your effectiveness as a parent. You may find yourself giving in to your child to make up for losing your cool. These sorts of flip-flops are confusing to a child and make you a much less effective parent.

Your decision-making abilities. Getting trapped in a power struggle impairs your judgment and makes it difficult for you to make well-reasoned parenting decisions. You may find that you are so busy reacting to your child’s recent behavior that you find it difficult to plan your next parenting move.

Your enjoyment of parenting. You may find yourself feeling increasingly disconnected from your child and increasingly disenchanted with your parenting responsibilities. No one likes to feel as if they are being manipulated, parents included. If you feel like your child has managed to wrestle away some of the power and control that is rightfully yours as a parent, you may be angry at yourself for allowing that to happen and resentful toward your child for gaining the upper hand—something that can put you on the fast-track to parent burnout.

Juggling work and home life robs many of us of restful sleep and leaves us feeling like the walking dead, alternating cups of coffee with cans of Diet Coke — a routine that can definitely unravel a healthy sleep pattern. Here are a few simple tricks from The Mind-Beauty Connection that will get your sleep back on track, so you can get the rest you need to refresh your cells and prepare you for the next day.

Don’t take your to-do list to bed. Jot down tomorrow’s tasks early in the evening, and stick the list in your bag or on the fridge. This can keep you from anxiously making mental notes the minute your head hits the pillow.

Take something. Sometimes, to kick insomnia and get back on a better sleep cycle, all you need is to break the pattern. One cheap, simple method: Take an antihistamine 30 minutes before bed for 1 to 3 nights (regular Benadryl — not a nondrowsy formula — works fine, says Dr. Amy). It makes many people sleepy, and no prescription is needed.

Other people swear that melatonin, the sleep-regulating hormone you can now find in an over-the-counter supplement, helps. But Dr. Wechsler’s not a fan. Why? The amount in different products can vary wildly, despite what’s on the labels. And its long-term safety has yet to be determined. (It’s also highly unlikely that you have a melatonin deficiency; you simply need to establish better sleep habits.) Read more

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9 times out of 10, I think women look best when keeping their hair color close to its natural shade, with a few added highlights to bring out the texture of the cut. This usually compliments your skin tone and eye color etc. Being a brown-eyed brunette, I always figured I’d look foolish as a blond..with dark roots and mismatched eyebrows, I deemed the look as being all wrong. That is, until now. With the new technique of highlighting, called bayalage, I am ready to enter summer with a whole new look of natural sun-kissed highlights. Ok, enhanced-natural.

Gisele Bündchen’s bleached waves generated so much attention, it wasn’t long before celebrities fled to their hair stylist seeking the same multi-tonal do’ So, I wondered…what is this new buzz word ‘balayage’ and what makes it so different?

Balayage, a French word meaning ‘to sweep’ is a new method of highlighting which lightens the hair gradually from root to tip. This technique has shaken the salons from coast to coast because it achieves an ultra-natural effect by mimicing nature’s way of lightening hair. Hair should always be darker on the base of the hair shaft or the root area, rather then having light roots and dark ends. To balayage the hair, a lightening agent is painted on using a brush and paddle in a sweeping motion giving the hair colorist a bit more room to play and less methodical streaks. Foils aren’t used and the precision of the fine-tooth comb weaving in tiny streaks is no longer necessary. The thick mixture of lightener is applied onto a section of hair using one of three paint designs: singles, slants and V’s. The stylist uses a “sweeping” motion to apply lightener from thin at the roots to thicker towards the ends. This provides ultimate control over color application, allows for less outgrowth, much more color contrast within the hair and since the process requires no heat or foils, the hair experiences minimal damage (which is key for those of us with long hair). Read more