Lisa Find Love

We’ve all heard that stress can make you physically sick, and the mounting evidence yielded by reputable scientific studies continues to reinforce that claim. Specifically, the gastrointestinal (GI) system — or gut — has a direct interaction with the brain and emotional health.

Terms like “gut-wrenching” and “butterflies in your stomach” are our attempts to describe the physiological reactions of our natural gut microflora to these alarm signals sent from the brain when facing stressful situations. The brain says “React!” and the gut responds with “OK!” When gut microflora is thrown out of balance for any reason, a domino effect of health problems begins to occur, and stress is usually a major culprit in this scenario.

The accumulation of even low-level stress over time can tip the balance of the gut microflora, ultimately throwing various body systems into disorder. Some of the resulting health issues stemming from stress-triggered microflora imbalances include irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Candida overgrowth/yeast infections, food allergies and intolerances, and chronic autoimmune disorders like Crohn’s disease, Grave’s disease and others. All of these conditions are at minimum quite unpleasant, and when left untreated can lead to catastrophic health problems.

Does stress cause gut problems? Or do gut problems cause stress? The answer is both. Stress leads to illness, and illness causes stress. Until that cycle is interrupted, feeling good again can seem out of reach for those stuck in the stress-illness-stress quagmire.

Stress has existed since the dawn of humanity as a necessary function for survival. In prehistoric times, stress — especially fight or flight response – was an important life-saving mechanism to help people avoid being eaten by predatory animals.

Modern life, however, has ushered in a plethora of new stressors. While some are still survival-related, the stresses we experience today have less to do with succumbing to animal attacks and more to do with surviving the faster pace of 21st-century life.

Just a few decades ago, who could have imagined the emotional impact that being “unfriended” on Facebook could have? Equally, the thought of having every tragic event broadcast live at your fingertips was unfathomable. Even people who remain disconnected from the electronic universe find themselves in a world fraught with perceived fears and urgencies at almost every turn. Sometimes it’s enough to “turn your stomach.” You see the connection?

Although it’s hardly a new issue, some of the biggest stresses we face involve other people. Extra stress can be generated by interpersonal relationships, whether it’s family, loved ones, friends, co-workers, a cranky neighbor, or even a difficult person online. The stresses created by these relationships can range from very mild and occasional to severe and often. Whatever the severity, the stomachache you experience after an argument is no coincidence.

The faster pace of life today can leave very little free time for relaxing, spending quality time with loved ones, or cooking. Consequently, fast food has become the norm for millions of people, though the convenience of these quick bites has a price beyond dollars. Most fast food is highly processed and unhealthy in various ways, thus leading to gut imbalances much more quickly.

Too often we’re also rushed to devour our meals quickly so we can get back to the demands of life. Your digestive system is programmed to react aggressively, so when the gas, bloating or stomach pains hit you, they shouldn’t come as a surprise. Your gut is in battle mode, and battles are never pleasant.

Multitasking is now the norm. Completing several jobs at once is often required in work environments due to economic pressures and downsizing. Many have said “I’m doing the work of 10 people,” and many are not exaggerating. While technology has streamlined some processes, most overtasked people experience high stress over racing the clock to finish all of that work before they can take a break. Consequently, many people end up eating at their desk while working, which is no break at all. Again, the gut reacts and the dominoes continue to tumble.

Like speed-eating, stressful eating is equally harmful to gut health. For many people, quality time at the dining table has become a rarity due of busy schedules, so eating on the run is not uncommon.

It’s quite surprising how many people – especially working women with kids – skip breakfast. By the time they do have a meal, whether it be lunch or dinner, they are starving and tend to overeat. People who skip breakfast are also more likely to consume more sugary drinks, processed snack foods and chocolate, looking for an energy boost. The digestive system races back into red alert mode, sending distress signals to the brain.

People who eat later at night are forcing their bodies to work when their systems have already begun preparing to rest. Imagine being in bed ready to drift off to sleep, only to be rudely jolted back to full consciousness by a fire alarm. Similarly, your gut is naturally stressed by the incoming-food-after-hours alarm, and is not likely to react well to such an event.

Many people rely on caffeine to keep them going throughout the day. On the other end, many people also rely on alcoholic beverages to escape the stresses of the day. Both scenarios can wreak havoc with our nervous and digestive systems, ultimately resulting in an imbalance of the HPA (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal) axis. As the HPA axis becomes increasingly compromised, our immune system becomes incrementally compromised, as well. This open the doors to a host of other health problems exacerbated by weakened immunity, including infectious diseases, autoimmune disorders, and even some types of cancer.

As conscious humans, we cannot completely eliminate every shred of stress from our lives. However, we can take effective measures to reduce our stress levels to a manageable point, which can bring surprisingly rapid relief from many of the physiological symptoms caused by mental stress.

• Devote at least 20 minutes daily to a relaxation exercise.
• Reduce caffeine and alcohol consumption.
• Resolve personal issues with those causing you upset.
• Make time for proper meals and quality time with loved ones.
• Modify your diet to eliminate highly processed food products.
• Certain herbs, minerals and supplements may help you relieve stress. Amino acids, chamomile, green tea and valerian root, among others, have shown to be helpful in stress reduction.
• Exercise.
• Step away from the devices whenever possible.
• Consider counseling or stress management training.

Stomach ache photo available from Shutterstock

When you want to work out your body, you go to the gym. What do you do to give your brain a workout? Get lost in an unfamiliar city, help your grandchildren with their homework, upgrade your computer’s operating system, or see if you can put together an entertainment center from IKEA. Such activities force us to slow down and pay close attention to what we are doing. We must read and follow directions as well as absorb and understand new material. The unfamiliar can make us feel uncomfortable, but the more we challenge our brains, the healthier they remain.

In one study, older adults who frequently took part in stimulating leisure activities such as reading, board games, playing musical instruments, and dancing were less likely to develop dementia over 21 years, compared to older adults who participated less frequently in these activities over the same time period, and several other studies have yielded similar findings.

Exactly why intellectual challenges bolster brain health is a matter of debate. According to one theory, intellectual hobbies create a cognitive reserve in the brain. A cognitive reserve is a lot like a large bank of knowledge. For example, let’s say that, around age 40, you made a New Year’s resolution to learn one new vocabulary word a day. According to this hypothetical example, let’s say your brain holds the memories of well over 20,000 words. On the other hand, maybe you have a twin brother named Paul, who spent the second half of his life feeding his brain reality television. As a result, he knows fewer than 15,000 different words—not that he’s counted.

According to our story, plaques and tangles begin to form in your brain at the same rate they begin to form in Paul’s. In other words, if we put you both in an fMRI scanner and peered inside your brains, your brains would appear to have roughly the same number of plaques and tangles. Yet you have no symptoms, whereas Paul is often at a loss for words. That’s because Paul knew fewer words to begin with. So when your brain lost track of the word, say, grouchy, it would have many other words—irritable, bad-tempered, cantankerous, petulant, surly, testy, snappy—to draw from.

But cognitive reserve may not be the only explanation for the protective power of intellectual challenges. These pursuits may actually encourage the growth of new brain cells and connections between those cells. The hippocampus is one of the only areas of the brain that can grow new neurons. Even during old age, this area of the brain contains residual stem cells capable of birthing new neurons.

When you crawl into bed tonight, you will no longer be the same person— neurologically speaking—as you were when you woke. That’s because the brain is continually reorganizing itself. Every new experience and challenge nudges the brain to make new cell-to-cell connections.

The following “prescriptions” will help you challenge your brain and may help to lower your risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

1. Take acting classes

 Acting requires lots of memorization. According to one study, 122 seniors who took twice-weekly acting lessons for four weeks improved their ability to memorize and recall a list of words, remember a series of numbers, read and remember a short story, as well as their performance on many other tests of memory, whereas seniors who didn’t take acting lessons did not boost their performance on these tests. In a follow-up study done by the same researchers, the seniors who took acting classes improved their word recall by 19 percent and word fluency by 12 percent.

2. Become a tutor

Women who volunteered 15 hours each week for Experience Corps, a program that pairs senior citizen reading tutors with children who are developing their literacy and problem-solving skills, experienced increased activity in brain regions associated with attention. In addition to Experience Corps, look into Laubach Literacy International, Oasis, and various local programs coordinated through the public school system or your local library.

3. Try puzzles and board games

Older adults who regularly played board games and puzzles during their leisure time were more likely to preserve brain tissue and maintain memory and other cognitive functions compared to people who didn’t play games, according to a study of 329 people. The results even held true for people who were genetically predisposed to developing Alzheimer’s disease. Choose games that you enjoy and feel challenged to play. In the study, checkers, crosswords, and card games were all effective. You can even pull out those board games from childhood.

4. Learn to play an instrument

This forces you to sharpen many different cognitive processes, including attention, memory, motor skills, auditory skills, and visual skills. It’s no wonder studies have found that playing a musical instrument delays the onset of cognitive decline. When researchers from Emory University tested the cognitive health of 70 older adults, they found that study participants with at least 10 years of musical experience performed better on tests of nonverbal memory, naming, and many other cognitive processes than older adults with less training or no training at all.

Or in lieu of playing an instrument, you might also benefit from singing in a choir. In one study, older adults who joined a singing group improved their memory and attention.

It’s never too late. Just because you didn’t learn an instrument or train your voice when you were a child doesn’t mean you can’t learn now. In addition to helping keep your brain sharp, music lessons may also allow you to maintain fine motor skills. When researchers offered piano lessons to older adults, the study participants were able to improve cognitive abilities—including attention, concentration, and planning—over just six months, compared to study participants who didn’t take lessons.

5. Draw, paint, or sculpt

 Artistic pursuits such as painting encourage you to focus your attention. In order to draw a flower, for example, you have to look closely at a real flower or a picture of one—and pay particular attention to the shape of the petals, stem, and leaves. As you draw, you’re also making dozens of spatial calculations. For example, how large should the petals be if you want to make sure there’s enough space at the bottom of your picture to draw some grass or, in the corner of your picture, to draw a bumblebee?

Seniors who took up painting, drawing, or sculpting were 73 percent less likely to develop mild cognitive impairment over a period of four years than were people who did not engage in these types of artistic activities, found a recent study of 256 octogenarians by researchers at the Mayo Clinic. Crafting activities—such as woodworking, pottery, ceramics, and quilting—were also beneficial, reducing the likelihood of MCI by 55 percent.

You might see yourself as someone who “isn’t artistic” or who “can’t draw,” but that may only be because no one has taught you how. If you take lessons and practice what you learned, you may surprise yourself.

6. Learn a new language

When researchers assessed the backgrounds of patients with Alzheimer’s disease, they found that patients who were bilingual—fluent in at least two languages— had developed Alzheimer’s disease an average of 4.6 years later than patients who spoke only one language. Just because you didn’t learn a second language while you were in grade school doesn’t mean you can’t learn one now.

Protect your brain from dementia and stay sharp for life with the 75-plus tips in Outsmarting Alzheimer’s by Kenneth S. Kosik, MD. Learn more and buy the book here.

The post 6 of the Best Brain-Boosting Activities With Science on Their Side appeared first on Reader's Digest.

Every month for the last few years we take a rare behind-the-scenes look at how therapists do what they do. Rare because how often do we get to peek inside a therapist’s office and personal life?

In this series, clinicians reveal everything from what they love about working with clients to the most challenging part about being a therapist. They also reveal if they’d take the same professional path again, and how they personally cope with stress. They share the biggest obstacle for clients, along with the one thing they wish they knew — and much more.

This October we’re pleased to present our interview with Joy Malek, M.S., a licensed marriage and family therapist in Pasadena, Calif. Malek is the founder of SoulFull: Psychotherapy, Life Coaching & Creative Workshops.

She specializes in working with Deep Feelers — people who are intuitive, empathic, creative, deeply sensitive, and singularly able to mine even their most painful experiences for the gold of wisdom.

Learn more about Malek at her website http://ift.tt/1QxAvPz.

1. What’s surprised you the most about being a therapist?

The biggest surprise has also been the biggest gift — that pursuing the practice of helping others has paved a path to my own healing. I remember the moment, as an undergraduate, when one of my professors announced to the class, “If you want to be a good therapist, you’re going to need to be in your own therapy.”

I was 21 years old, and I’d chosen this field because helping others seemed to be what I was born to do, but I took her statement as gospel and got myself into therapy. I’ve received a lot of incredible and indispensable clinical training, but the heart of what I have to give comes from my own wounds and my own healing.

The best way to have something meaningful to offer as a therapist is to pay attention when our own raw spots are activated, and to do the hard work that we ask of our clients.

2. What’s the latest and greatest book you’ve read related to mental health, psychology or psychotherapy?

Hold Me Tight, a guide for couples to establishing secure connection with each other. The author, Sue Johnson, challenges the belief that maturity means outgrowing the need for others. It turns out that an emotionally safe connection with someone else is exactly what we need to become confident, resilient and secure!

3. What’s the biggest myth about therapy?

It’s no wonder to me that many people feel reluctant to try therapy, since it’s been popularly defined as a treatment for mental disorders. How awful to be in the depths of your pain, and feel that the only way to get help is to label yourself in such a way that just creates more shame.

Psychotherapy is simply a contemporary path to personal growth, in a long line of healing traditions that span history. Its potential for facilitating transformation is profound. For myself, and many of the clients I’ve worked with, therapy is a space in which we can finally understand the most challenging parts of ourselves, understand the value of these parts, and begin to work with them instead of against them.

4. What seems to be the biggest obstacle for clients in therapy?

Probably shame. We tend to believe that our most vulnerable places of need are the most undesirable to others. So, we understandably try to avoid showing these qualities to others, and even avoid looking at them in therapy.

It’s just too painful, and we’re too sure of rejection. The truth is that when we hold our naked vulnerability out to someone who cares about us, without defending, blaming, or otherwise pushing that person away, we are at our most lovable.

5. What’s the most challenging part about being a therapist?

Right now the most challenging part is modeling the vulnerability that I want my clients to treasure in themselves. We therapists can get caught up in feeling like we need to be the “exception” to the rule — we need to appear strong, poised and put-together no matter what is happening.

The truth is, that sometimes we are tired, ill, or unsure. Without burdening our clients, there can be something powerful about a therapist acknowledging when she’s less than at her best — instead of pretending — and inviting a more authentic exchange.

6. What do you love about being a therapist?

I am a Deep Feeler, and I love my work with other Deep Feelers, who tend to be intuitive, empathic, creative, and deeply sensitive. Life often hits us hard, but we’re also uniquely equipped to emerge from even our most painful experiences with insight and wisdom. Deep Feelers commonly feel wired differently from others and rather alone.

So, there is a privilege to being trusted to walk with someone during their deepest moments of pain and confusion, and to help them see the exquisite beauty in the way they’re wired. When I know I’ve connected — this person senses that what they’re feeling as real to me as it is to them — it’s a sacred moment.

7. What’s the best advice you can offer to readers on leading a meaningful life?

Honor your wounds. It’s probably one of the hardest things one can do. But it makes the difference between a life acted out unconsciously — running from the parts of ourselves that are hard to bear — and living a conscious life, in healing relationship with all our parts.

8. If you had your schooling and career choice to do all over again, would you choose the same professional path? If not, what would you do differently and why?

I wish I could remember the author of a wonderful article I read several years ago about career paths. He was a psychologist and a former engineer, and he applied the so-called “Drunkard’s Walk” of mathematics to his own unexpected sojourn into psychology. He concluded that those with the happiest careers usually stumble quite randomly upon them. This rings 100 percent true for me.

I was pursuing an entirely different major in college, with a vague sense of unease, when I came across information about a counseling-track Bachelor’s degree. Within 48 hours, I’d made the decision to switch schools, change majors, and adopt a completely different vocation.

But it was right. Were I to start from scratch pursuing this career path today, I’d pick a different school, simply because I’m not the same person I was when I was 21. But it was that college, and then that graduate program, and then those training sites, etc., that led me to a life’s work that resonates on the deepest level.

9. If there’s one thing you wished your clients knew about treatment or mental illness, what would it be?

That the deepest healing in therapy happens within the therapy relationship. Paradoxically, it’s those moments of feeling that the therapist doesn’t get it, doesn’t care, or isn’t there for you that hold the greatest potential. Often clients try to ignore those moments, not rock the boat, and keep going, but it’s the process of having a wound repaired that can be most transformative.

10. What personally do you do to cope with stress in your life?

I swim; hike; read; call my nearest and dearest; cuddle with my cats; watch TV (I know that’s out of fashion to admit, but let’s be real!); work on something I care about; and most recently, watch video lessons by my favorite business coaches on Periscope.

Sticking with a healthy, energy-boosting diet isn’t rocket science. It requires balance, moderation, and variety: a balanced intake of macro- and micro-nutrients, moderation in terms of portion size and calorie intake, and variety of different foods within each category (grains, vegetables, fruit, legumes, nuts, fats, and lean protein). There isn’t a particular diet that’s guaranteed to crank up your energy. But in my opinion, the Mediterranean approach hits the sweet spot for how to eat for optimal health and energy.

Follow these general rules every day and you’ll wake up with more energy and avoid the post-lunch energy slump.

1. They wake up their bodies with breakfast

 Even if you’re not starving in the morning, having a morning meal kick-starts your metabolism and sends a signal to your body and brain that it’s time to perk up. It doesn’t have to be a large meal, and you don’t have to eat it the minute you get out of bed. When you do eat, have a combination of carbohydrates and protein: at the very least, a piece of whole-grain toast with almond butter or a small bowl of whole-grain cereal with low-fat milk. If you’re hungry, have a bigger meal such as quinoa topped with avocado and a poached egg, or a heaping bowl of oatmeal with bananas, raisins, walnuts, and cinnamon.

If you truly can’t stomach the idea of eating breakfast, it probably means you ate too much the night before, a good habit to kick.

2. They eat often

 If you’ve been in the habit of eating erratically throughout the day, kick it. Plan and map out your meals and snacks so that you’re eating something every 3 to 5 hours. Whether you opt for three square meals and two small snacks or five mini meals spaced throughout the day is up to you. Either pattern will help keep your blood pressure steady and your energy level on a more even keel.

3. They stick to “real” food

 Try to get the most nutritional bang for every bite by sticking with foods that offer a significant amount of nutrients for the calorie value—and come from identifiable sources. Good choices include vegetables, fruit, whole grains, beans and legumes, nuts, and seeds. Bad choices: refined breads, fried or fatty foods, sweets, desserts, and processed snack foods, all of which provide you with lots of calories but little in the way of nutritional value.

4. They put color on their plates

Brightly hued fruits and vegetables—such as tomatoes, strawberries, carrots, sweet potatoes, oranges, yellow squash, broccoli, kiwifruit, kale, spinach, bell peppers, blueberries, eggplant, leafy greens, and others—are loaded with antioxidants that neutralize damaging chemicals called free radicals. These unstable molecules can injure cells, laying the foundation for a host of illnesses. Antioxidants prevent or fight these detrimental effects while also boosting immune function. There’s actually a way to measure the antioxidant levels in food—it’s called the ORAC value. You can look it up here to see how your favorite foods, herbs, and spices rank.

5. They harness omega-3 power

 Found in fatty fish (salmon, haibut, tuna, lake trout, sardines, and anchovies) as well as flaxseeds, walnuts, canola oil, and fortified foods, omega-3 essential fatty acids reduce harmful inflammation throughout the body, protect the function and integrity of cell membranes, and enhance brain function. Research suggests that regular consumption of omega-3 fatty acids boosts mood, memory, and other measures of cognitive function, which can boost your focus and energy. Try to include these food sources on a daily basis.

6. They let themselves snack

 If it’s done right, snacking between meals keeps your mood and energy level on an even keel, fills in nutritional gaps in your diet, better regulates your appetite, and enhances your weight-control efforts. But don’t make the mistake of associating snacks with treats. Snacks should consist of good-quality, nutrient-rich calories. Combining complex carbs with protein and healthy fat will provide a slower, more sustained rise in blood sugar, giving you lasting energy and feelings of fullness. Good choices include hummus with baby carrots and snap peas, low-fat plain yogurt with whole blueberries, whole-grain crackers with peanut butter, or a mix of nuts and dried fruit.

7. They drink water by the bucket load

 The human body has no way to store water, so we need to constantly replenish the fluids we lose through breathing, urinating, sweating, and other bodily functions. Many people are walking around in a mild state of dehydration, which may contribute to why they feel tired, weak, or lethargic. A recent study in the Journal of Nutrition found that when women were put into a very mild state of dehydration with exercise or a diuretic drug, they experienced a sense of fatigue, low mood, headaches, and loss of focus.

If you’re dehydrated, you might feel fatigued before you feel thirsty. Get in the habit of carrying a water bottle with you and refill it regularly throughout the day. There’s no need to drink vitamin water or energy drinks unless you’re an endurance athlete; otherwise, you’re just adding unnecessary calories (and expense) to your day.

In the new book The Exhaustion Breakthrough, Holly Phillips, MD, shares the proven science (and tips that work for her patients) to sleep better, eat and exercise for energy, solve underlying health issues, and take control of stress. Learn more and buy the book here.

The post 7 Daily Eating Habits You Should Steal From People Who Rarely Feel Tired appeared first on Reader's Digest.

1. Don’t say Run away

Say Absquatulate

Ex.: We camped in line for the new iPhone all night, but finally absquatulated when the wolves came out.

2. Don’t say Brag

Say Bloviate

Ex.: “I’ve made a tremendous amount of money,” the candidate bloviated to the nation. “Billions and billions of dollars.”

3. Don’t call your friend Clumsy

Call him a Blunderbuss

Ex.:“Be careful where you point that musket, you blunderbuss!”

4. Don’t say Umbrella

Say Bumbershoot

Ex.: “You can stand under my bumbershoot,” Rihanna offered as the storm began. “Eh, eh, eh/ Under my bumbershoot.”

5. Don’t say Cranky

Say Cantankerous

Ex.: The cantankerous old man scowled at his waitress. “This water’s too wet,” he croaked.

6. Don’t Say Nonsense

Say Codswallop

Ex.: I try to watch cable news, but everything they say is a load of codswallop.

(Also try: Flapdoodle)

7. Don’t say Queasiness

Say Collywobbles

Ex.: No matter how much I practice beforehand, public speaking on roller coasters always gives me collywobbles!

8. Don’t say Disheveled

Say Discombobulated

Ex.: “For some reason,” thought the Tin Man, “passing though airport security always leaves me discombobulated.”

9. Don’t say Brawl

Say Donnybrook

Ex.: When the Sharks and the Jets accidentally booked the same dance studio, it was an all-out donnybrook.

(Also try: Argle-Bargle)

10. Don’t say Face paint

Say Fard

Ex., as a noun: Pass the fard, Claudette—I’m due onstage any minute!

Ex., as a verb: It looks like someone farded all over that clown’s face.

11. Don’t call your friend Silly

Call her a Flibbertigibbet

Ex.: The nuns agreed that sister Maria—late for another mass while off twirling in the Alps—was a true flibbertigibbet.

12. Don’t say Confused

Say Flummoxed

Ex.: Kanye West was plum flummoxed when Beyoncé failed to win Best Female Video in 2009.

13. Don’t say Ogle

Say Gongoozle

Ex.: Whenever Camilla the chicken passed Gonzo’s door, she felt sure she was being gonzoogled.

14. Don’t call a teenage boy Awkward

Call him a Hobbledehoy

Ex.: As a young hobbledehoy, I failed to get a date until my wedding day.

15. Don’t say Prison

Say Hoosegow

Ex.: They oughta throw you in the hoosegow, because that outfit is a crime against fashion.

16. Don’t say Commotion

Say Hurlyburly

Ex.: Fed up with the hurlyburly of city life, The Coens found a nice quiet timeshare on Mars.

(Also try: Brouhaha)

17. Don’t say Fuss

Say Kerfuffle

Ex.: There was a great kerfuffle about who should get the diner’s last piece of pie, until we learned it was minced meat.

18. Don’t say Pamper

Say Mollycoddle

Ex.: “I do not mollycoddle my children,” said Molly, tying her 23-year-old son’s shoes.

19. Don’t say Sissy

Say Namby-pamby

Ex.: “Don’t be a namby-pamby, boy. Pick up that chainsaw and cut your father’s hair.”

20. Don’t say Dishonesty

Say Skullduggery

Ex.: “I’m not voting for anyone,” the millennial oozed. “Politics these days are nothing but skullduggery.”

21. Don’t call someone Profane

Call him a Slangwhanger

Ex.: “I enjoy Lil’ Wayne’s music,” Grandma admitted, “but does he have to be such a slangwhanger?”

22. Don’t call someone a Pessimist

Call him a Smellfungus

Ex.: I hate going to the beach with Al Gore; on every sunny day he’s such a smellfungus!

23. Don’t say Counterclockwise

Say Widdershins

Ex.: It is a vicious myth that toilet water rotates clockwise in Australia and widdershins in America.

24. Don’t call it an Exit

Call it a Vomitory

Ex.: After eating too much buttered popcorn at the circus, dad promptly sprinted to the vomitory.

25. Don’t say Exhausted

Say Wabbit

Ex.: After a long day of hunting, Elmer Fudd was absolutely wabbit.

**Know a funny word that makes us look like troglodytes? Share it with us in the comments below.

The post 25 Ways to Make Your Vocabulary Funnier appeared first on Reader's Digest.

The number one caution with salads is: Pay attention to the dressing. In researching my book Stop & Drop Diet, I came across a lot of restaurant websites that list the calories and nutrition in their salads, with and without dressing. What an eye-opener! Salad dressing can add hundreds of calories to a pretty innocent-sounding salad. Those little packets have too much dressing (of course it’s hard not to use it all), and the dressing tends to be packed with calories.

In fact, many of the salads I recommend don’t include dressing at all. I find that just the addition of a few flavorful ingredients like olives or artichokes can add enough oomph that dressing isn’t even needed. In other cases, just a few dashes of vinegar (try red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar) or a squeeze of lemon juice does the trick. At home, you can give your salad a few sprays of oil from a Misto or pressurized can, toss it, and then sprinkle with vinegar and fresh herbs. The oil softens the sharpness of the vinegar. If you really miss having a creamy dressing, try my secret: 0% plain Greek yogurt blended with some fresh herbs!

My second caution pertains to toppings. Some salad toppings should come with warning signs because they’re so high in fat and calories and have very little that is good for health or weight loss. I’m talking to you, fried croutons, fried wonton noodles, crumbled bacon, shredded or crumbled cheese, and candied nuts. Instead, I enjoy a bit of avocado or nuts and seeds for MUFAs.

Finally, when I have a salad as my meal, it has to have protein to be balanced and satisfying. Nothing fancy here, maybe grilled chicken breast, lean steak, or salmon. My tuna is always packed in water, not oil, and I like to keep a couple of pouches handy for a quick addition to a garden salad.

Here, take a look the shocking number of calories you can save when you start making savvier salad choices.

Stop: Cheesecake Factory Small Salad Caesar with Chicken (980 calories)
Start: Au Bon Pain Chicken Caesar Asiago (no dressing, 250 calories) (pictured below)

Stop: Applebee’s Oriental Grilled Chicken Salad (1290 calories, 82 g fat)
Start: Half size California Pizza Kitchen Chinese Chicken Salad (395 calories 18 g fat) (pictured below)

Stop: Potbelly Uptown Salad, with Potbelly Vinaigrette (624 calories, 42 g fat)
Start: Denny’s Cranberry Apple Chicken Salad, with balsamic vinaigrette (360 calories 9 g fat) (pictured below)

Stop: Panera Chicken Cobb with Avocado, with BBQ ranch dressing (800 calories, 62 g fat)
Start: Cosi Cobb Salad—Lighter Version (538 calories 33 g fat) (pictured below)

Stop: Applebee’s seasonal Berry and Spinach Salad (620 calories)
Start: Panera Greek Salad, no dressing (370 calories) (pictured below)

Reader’s Digest’s Editor in Chief Liz Vaccariello calls her latest book, Stop & Drop Diet, her easiest plan ever. The book and online course teach you how to stop eating unhealthy versions of the foods you love so you can drop up to five pounds in the first five days—and keep losing. You’ll get a mix-and-match 21-day meal plan designed for weight loss and balanced nutrition, plus hundreds of easy weight loss tips and tricks via videos, quizzes, slideshows, and other interactive tools. Learn more and buy the book and course here.

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If a person is not breathing, his heartbeat will stop. Do CPR (chest compressions and rescue breaths) to help circulation and get oxygen into the body. (Early use of an AED, if one is available, can restart a heart with an abnormal rhythm.

First, open a person’s airway to check if they are breathing (don’t begin CPR if a patient is breathing normally). Then, get help. If you are not alone, send someone to call for help as soon as you have checked breathing. Ask the person to come back and confirm that the call has been made.

Then follow these steps:

1. Position your hand (below). Make sure the patient is lying on his back on a firm surface. Kneel beside him and place the heel of your hand on the center of the chest.

2. Interlock fingers (below). Keeping your arms straight, cover the first hand with the heel of your other hand and interlock the fingers of both hands together. Keep your fingers raised so they do not touch the patient’s chest or rib cage.

3. Give chest compressions (below). Lean forward so that your shoulders are directly over the patient’s chest and press down on the chest about two inches. Release the pressure, but not your hands, and let the chest come back up.

Repeat to give 30 compressions at a rate of 100 compressions per minute. Not sure what that really means? Push to beat of the Bee Gees song “Stayin’ Alive” (watch the video below to see this in action).

Note: The American Heart Association recommends Hands-Only CPR (CPR without rescue breaths, which are detailed below) for people suffering out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. According to the AHA, only about 39 percent of people who experience an out of hospital cardiac arrest get immediate help before professional help arrives; doing Hands-Only CPR may be more comfortable than doing rescue breaths for some bystanders and make it more likely that they take action.

4. Open the airway (below). Move to the patient’s head. Tilt his head and lift his chin to open the airway again. Let his mouth fall open slightly.

5. Give rescue breaths (below). Pinch the nostrils closed with the hand that was on the forehead and support the patient’s chin with your other hand. Take a normal breath, put your mouth over the patient’s, and blow until you can see his chest rise.

6. Watch chest fall. Remove your mouth from the patient’s and look along the chest, watching the chest fall. Repeat steps five and six once.

7. Repeat chest compressions and rescue breaths. Place your hands on the chest again and repeat the cycle of 30 chest compressions, followed by two rescue breaths. Continue the cycle.

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