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Researchers from Stony Brook University and Gallup Organization interviewed 340,000 Americans about their mood throughout the week and published their results in the Journal of Positive Psychology. Here’s what they found: Our moods significantly improve on Fridays and get even better on Saturdays and Sundays (no surprise there!). We get less happy when Monday arrives, but our moods stay consistent all week. You read that right: Mood-wise, Monday feels just the same as Thursday to most Americans....

You absolutely can, says Lois Barth, a motivational speaker and life coach in New York City. Whether you’re married, cohabitating, or dating, check out these six tips to keep the Valentine’s mentality going: Make it all about you—some of the time. Add in a few moments of pleasure to your daily routine. “Maybe it’s taking 15 minutes to walk by the water on your lunch hour, or allowing yourself a cat nap,” says Barth....

My challenge as a researcher is finding out how. How do we cultivate the courage to recognize that we are enough—that we are worthy of love, belonging, and joy? What I found changed my life. As I interviewed the research participants and listened to their stories, I realized that they fell into two broad groups: those who feel a deep sense of love and belonging and those who struggle for it....

HOW TO MAKE SUSHI RICE : Smoked trout, egg, horseradish Cooked salmon, shredded carrot, spicy chile sauce Crab, avocado, fresh chiles, sesame seeds Smoked salmon, asparagus, sesame oil Shrimp, avocado, cucumber, scallions, sesame seeds Combos To Try ProteinAllow ½ to ¾ lb of fresh fish or ¼ to ½ lb smoked, cut into bite-size piecesShrimp, cookedSalmon, cookedSalmon, smokedTrout, smokedCrab, tossed with a bit of mayonnaiseOmelet strips (see below)Tuna, cooked or cannedCubed sushi-grade raw tuna or salmonFor 4 servingsVegetablesUse 3 c total (mix and match)*Scallion, slicedCarrot, shreddedDaikon or red radish, shreddedAsparagus, cooked and cut in chunksAvocado, dicedCucumber sticksEnoki or sauteed shiitake mushroomsBlanched spinach with a touch of sesame oilExtrasAs desiredPickled gingerWasabiToasted sesame seeds or black sesame seedsFresh chiles, slicedSoy sauceToasted sesame oil (just a few drops)Spicy chile sauce (see below)Toasted nori stripsMAKE THESE FASTFor spicy chili sauce (like the one in your favorite spicy tuna roll), mix ½ c mayonnaise with 2 Tbsp chili paste, such as Sriracha....

Master Recipe WORK TIME: 20 Minutes / TOTAL TIME: 20 Minutes + Steeping Time / YIELD: 1 C and dry thoroughly 1½ c packed, lightly crushed basil, mint, tarragon, dill, or cilantro. Put the herbs in a wide-mouthed glass jar. WASH in 1 c canola oil or apple-cider or wine vinegar. Close jar. Put in cool, dark place for 2 weeks. Swirl every day to keep leaves moistened. POUR the oil or vinegar into a sealable bottle through a funnel lined with several layers of cheesecloth or a coffee filter to catch the leaves....

I am not convinced. In an attempt to console me, she gives me a “Hanukkah bush”—a 6-inch white plastic treelike thing with red balls. I keep it until I am 12, when I accidentally set it on fire with my hair dryer. Ah, the holidays. Here they come. The impossible mixture of nostalgia for a childhood Christmas or Hanukkah that may—or may not—have been real. The hope that this year the holidays will be different....

After all, energy drinks have a bad rap for good reasons. For starters, most contain far too much caffeine and ridiculous amounts of sugar. Then, there are the special blends of stimulants—natural-sounding ingredients like guarana, carnitine, ginseng, and ginko biloba—that can cause serious side effects when taken in the kind of unknown quantities that are in most energy drinks on the market. “For the most part, there is nothing clean about these drinks,” says Scott Michael Schreiber, DC, a chiropractor and nutritionist in Newark, DE....

It makes sense, of course; polite conversation doesn’t exactly lend itself to discussing the ins and outs (well, mostly outs) of your gut. But not talking about it means neglecting your gut health: A full 38% of women graded themselves a C, D, or F on their digestive health maintenance. And half have no idea how probiotics work. (Curious? Here’s a handy guide on how probiotics and prebiotics gussy up your gut....

At the request of her husband and family, Krentcil, 44, decided to accept an offer from Dana Ramos, author of The Skin Regime, for an eight-week anti-aging skin boot camp. The first step in the makeover—no surprise here—was to have Krentcil stop tanning, something that went better than expected, says Ramos. “As soon as I told her she could still wear dark makeup, she was in.” Then Ramos visited Krentcil at her home in New Jersey to get a first-hand look at her skin-care routine....

There’s no reason to avoid doing any health research online. In fact, new research suggests that it can actually empower some patients: A study published in the latest Journal of Communication found that cancer patients who used the web to inquire about their health experienced a reduction in “cancer fatalism” and a boost in positivity. But the information we find can have a huge impact on whether web research helps, or hinders, our health, says Scott Prince, Chief of the Online Information Branch at the National Institutes of Health....

Learn more about the 400 Calorie Fix App Wherever you eat, from restaurants to fast food to grab-and-go snacks, counting calories is not required! We did the math for you and found hundreds of 400-calorie meals. Now you can go anywhere and feel confident that there are plenty of options for you to enjoy. Just bring your iPhone and use this app! Learn more about the Flat Belly Diet Meal Maker App This app features over 100 delicious belly-flattening recipes....

The Orthotripsy Option Sock It to ‘Em

Jackson’s fit-and-firm tips…1. Change up your routine often: “I don’t like to work out, and I get bored easily,” Jackson says. “Tony [her trainer] is great. He comes up with something new all the time. When I’m getting ready for a tour, I’ll work out with the dancers to build my endurance. He’ll put us in teams, and we’ll do all sorts of drills and races. Everybody is drenched with sweat before we start one dance step....

“From what I can tell, it seems like the younger generation—women in their 20s and 30s—are leading this new interest in menstrual cups,” says Taraneh Shirazian, director of global health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. (Shirazian is not affiliated with the Lily Cup.) A menstrual cup is a washable, reusable alternative to tampons or pads. Made of flexible medical-grade silicone, the Lily Cup Compact can fold down into a small disk-shaped case for carrying around....

MORE: 6 Ways To Ease Your Foot Pain While Watching TV While you may have been able to ignore any discomfort these shoes caused you in the past, age-related foot changes can make the pain less tolerable now. “When you’re in your 40s, the fat pads in your feet gradually start to get thinner, so you have less natural cushioning than you once did,” Sutera explains. While this loss is inevitable, making better footwear choices can help minimize aches and pains....

Remember when you had to walk into the gas station to pay? When delivery pizza wasn’t an option? When you mowed your own lawn? When you had to get off the couch to change the channel? These are just a few of the tasks that are becoming obsolete and depriving us of physical activity. If you add up all the extra calories you could burn just from doing a few things that involve actually moving, you could lose up to 38 lb in a year!...

But here’s something that’s not: It doesn’t have to be so hard. By taking small steps, you can tackle your own weight crisis one day at a time—and see a huge payoff. Here are three strategies from the experts featured in The Weight of the Nation. Think 5%. Nearly a quarter of Americans have fatty livers, which means excess weight is messing with the organ that plays a key role in the metabolic problems associated with obesity, says Samuel Klein, MD, Director of the Weight Management Program at the Washington University School of Medicine....

With the help of friend and health coach Lisa Davis, Bracco came up with a plan to start fresh. Thanks to a 14-day cleanse and a commitment to clean eating, Bracco shed those 35 pounds in a year—and has kept ’em off. Now, she says, she’s still turning heads at 60. “Some people measure getting older as a losing proposition,” she writes in her new book, To The Fullest (published by Rodale, which also publishes Prevention)....