11 mistakes women make in middle age

Let’s not kid ourselves. Getting older is a drag, and middle age is particularly fraught with tension.

Do the sexy clothes you wore in the past now seem just plain wrong? Will smoky eye makeup that looks great on 19-year-olds make you appear just plain crazy?

Part of the problem is that aging often requires change, but most women don’t want to move to a frumpy town called Middle Age, where sensible shoes and boring clothes are de rigueur.

Here are the 11 most common mistakes aging women make—and how to avoid them.

Not realizing you need to change

The biggest mistake women make is not doing anything at all. Hair, makeup, and clothing that made you look fantastic in your younger years, often won’t cut it as you grow older.

If Abortion Were Illegal: A Glimpse of the Reality

Imagine getting pregnant, only to be diagnosed with cancer. Now imagine it getting worse. Much worse.

In a story that should give women everywhere pause, Michelle Harte was forced to travel out of the country to have an abortion because she was living in Ireland, where the law only allows abortion in cases where a hospital has determined a mother's life is at risk if she continues with the pregnancy. Ironically, her own doctors had advised her to terminate to proceed with cancer treatments, but the ethics committee that had final say on her abortion said no.

By the time all was said and done, the delay in cancer treatment allowed the disease to spread in her body. She's now been declared "terminally ill." If she dies, she'll leave behind her daughter, motherless.

The Many Dangers Of Second Hand Smoke

Almost everyone is exposed to the secondary smoke. Each year thousands of nonsmoking adults die of lung cancer as a result of breathing second hand smoke from others’ cigarettes.

These people die because they were repeatedly poisoned by the smoke without their consent. In other words they are MURDERED except that the acts by the smokers are legal!

Second hand smoke is a combination of poisonous gases, liquids and breathable particles that are harmful to your health. A nonsmoker breathing second hand smoke can be exposed to 40000 different chemicals, 50 of which are associated with or known to cause cancer.

Best Cold and Flu Relief on the Market

Along with holiday cheer, this time of year brings its fair share of sniffling, coughing and sneezing. So what are the best remedies are for taming cold and flu symptoms?

For a cold...

Opt for a decongestant (such as Sudafed or Benadryl) or an antihistamine (such as NyQuil/DayQuil or a "Cold & Sinus" medication), suggets Amy Arbogast, a CVS pharmacist in Indianapolis, Ind. This will help reduce congestion and block histamines, helping to dry a runny nose and watery eyes and prevent post-nasal drip.

If you'd rather take the more natural route, nasal sprays such as Simply Saline and Neti pots (click here to learn why you shouldn't be intimindated by them!) are also great for reducing sinus pressure and nasal drip.

10 healthy New Year's resolutions

New Year's resolutions are a bit like babies: They're fun to make but extremely difficult to maintain.

Each January, roughly one in three Americans resolve to better themselves or their situation in some way, according to a 2009 poll by the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion. A much smaller percentage of people actually make good on those resolutions, however. While roughly 75% of people stick to their goals for at least a week, less than half (46%) are still on target six months later, a 2002 study found.

Yes, it's hard to keep that shiny New Year's enthusiasm months after you've swept up the confetti, but it's not impossible. Especially if your goal is a noble one: better health. Exercising more, dropping a few pounds, and other health-related resolutions have traditionally been favorites, and 2011 will likely be no different.

What is your fitness personality?

Why do exercise goals fail? Most often it is not the lack of good intentions or the lack of knowledge that makes us fall off the wagon, it is the fact we are trying to put a square peg in a round hole. If the workout does not fit your personality, you are not going to stick with it. What type of fitness personality do you have?

I’m a fit mama first, everything else second! Kids are your #1 priority. Childcare is not an option and you would hate to waste good money on a babysitter to run to the gym. What’s a fit mama to do? Grab a second hand stroller and start pushing. If the kids are a bit bigger, walk or run while they bike beside you. Even better, get those kids on the bike stroller and bike them around the neighborhood, to school, or on errands. Pulling around an extra 40-50 pounds will get that booty firm in no time. Too cold to go outside? Have the kids do exercise DVD’s with you. Ask them to help you count to 100 when you do your push-ups or time you as you do wind-sprints around the house.

10 Foods That Can Help You Sleep

Trying to get more shut-eye? Take a look at your diet. Eating the right foods in the hours before you hit the hay may help you fall asleep faster, say experts, and even improve the quality of your sleep. Keep reading for your get-sleepy grocery list, and remember to stop noshing two hours before bedtime to give your body enough time to properly digest.

Almonds

“Almonds are a winner,” says Jacob Teitelbaum, MD, medical director of the Fibromyalgia and Fatigue Centers, and author of the bestselling book From Fatigued to Fantastic! “They contain magnesium which promotes both sleep and muscle relaxation,” he says. “And they have the added benefit of supplying proteins that can help maintain a stable blood sugar level while sleeping, and help promote sleep by switching you from your alert adrenaline cycle to your rest-and-digest cycle.” Try this bedtime snack: Have a tablespoon of almond butter or a 1-ounce portion of almonds to help your body relax.

8 Household Cures For Indigestion

There all time when we all over-indulge in rich or spicy foods and suffer the uncomfortable, sometimes painful, results: indigestion. If you don’t want to go to the store or don’t like the idea of yet another over-the-counter medication, there are a number of household remedies you can try and get immediate relief.

Almonds. Eat about 10 skinned almonds or mix a teaspoon of almond oil in warm milk to relieve indigestion. Almonds are high in fiber and reduce constipation, too.

Baking Soda. Mix a half a teaspoon of baking soda with warm water and a few drops of lemon juice and drink it slowly.

10 Sugary Breakfast Foods No Better Than a Candy Bar

It's pretty unacceptable to eat a candy bar for breakfast. "That's not healthy" and "it's not breakfast food" would be two reasons someone would pass. You've no doubt heard your kids ask to eat a candy bar for breakfast, and you've no doubt replied with a stern "no." The thing is, the yogurt, breakfast bars and parfaits you probably do eat and serve for breakfast have as much sugar as candy bars. Isn't it funny how we can justify one food item because of the name or the packaging, but a similar one we can't?

It's no wonder wonder our kids have a hard time paying attention in school and we don't have the energy to fuel the first half of our day without turbo-charging at the coffee machine.

8 Tricks for Boosting Your Metabolism

Remember how, during your teens and 20s, you could eat practically anything and not gain a pound? Now that you're hovering around middle age, you've probably found that's just not the case anymore. Part of the problem is that your metabolism decreases as a result of other age-related factors, like decrease in muscle mass. However, there's no need to give in to a bigger pant size just yet! Read on for eight ways to rev up your metabolism and keep those unwanted pounds from your waistline.

Do Intervals

Mixing in fast-paced intervals raises your metabolic rate higher than doing a steady cardio workout, and will continue to do so up to an hour after you’re done, says Kristin McGee, a trainer and Pilates instructor whose client list includes Tina Fey and Bethenny Frankel. An Australian study also found that women who did intervals while they were biking lost three times as much fat as those who worked out at a steady pace. If you’re a walker, simply walk at your normal pace for 1 to 2 minutes, then speed-walk for 30 to 60 seconds. Repeat the sequence 10 to 15 times.

Help! I Can't Sleep: Tips for Curbing Your Insomnia

Perhaps the stress from last-minute holiday shopping wound you up so tight that your body is finding it difficult to relax even though we are inching our way into the New Year. Or, those random texts from your bestie turned enemy turned what the heck are we have produced feelings of anxiety, thus harshing the bedtime mellow (more about that later).

The good news about your couldn’t-sleep-if-they-paid-me affliction is that there are many interesting ways to help you get back on the right track!

According to the website Helpguide.org, the following tips can make all the difference when it comes to settling in for the night.

5 Tips to Make Your New Year's Resolutions Really Stick

If you typically make New Year's resolutions on January 1 and give up on them later that day, it may not be that you totally lack discipline. It's just that you don't sufficiently appreciate what's going on in your brain, explains Joseph Shrand, M.D., an instructor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Self-restraint is a rational desire, which means it lives in the front of the brain, the section that's most recently evolved and most vulnerable to being overruled by survival instincts. Pleasure resides in the brain's most primitive part, which has spent millions of years learning to reward us with a deeply satisfying jolt of dopamine when we give in to these kinds of urges. And while that brain circuitry evolved to encourage life-prolonging desires like eating and sex, says Dr. Shrand, we now get a rush from giving in to anything we want, whether it's an illicit drug, chocolate, or buying expensive purple peep-toe boots, even when the more evolved part of our brain tells us we'll quickly regret it.