Get Taut & Trim... With a Pen

By Kelley Herring

You may think you have a good idea of the number of calories you consume. But research shows that we underestimate our actual intake by approximately 200 calories per day. That equates to 10 pounds of added weight per year!

So forget about estimating the number of calories you eat, and start keeping track.

A recent study of people who were trying to lose weight, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, found that those who kept a food diary lost an average of 18 pounds in six months. That's compared to an average loss of nine pounds for those who didn't keep a diary.

Hold yourself accountable in 2009, and don't let those added calories take a toll on your health. There are many free food diaries available, as well as online programs to help you meet your goal of making this year your happiest and healthiest so far.

It's Fun to Know: Bestselling Novels... Written on Cellphones

Move over e-books... the bestseller lists of Japan are filled with books written (and often read) on cellphones.

Known as "keitai shosetsu," these melodramatic novels use common text message shortcuts like abbreviations, emoticons, and sentence fragments. They are usually serialized and then uploaded to websites or sent to subscribers via (what else?) cellphone. But they've also been printed and/or turned into movies, and have become a cultural phenomenon along the way. Five of the top 10 bestsellers on Tohan's (a major book wholesaler) 2007 list were cellphone novels.

(Source: Christian Science Monitor and The New Yorker)

Word to the Wise: Scrum

A "scrum" (SKRUM) is a rugby play in which players from both sides line up around the ball and struggle to gain possession of it. By extension, the word is used for any disordered or confused situation involving a number of people.

Example (as used by Rob Walker in a New York Times article about a buying frenzy at the H&M store in Manhattan): "But even this minor retail scrum was, in a way, of a piece with the zeitgeist: It was about snapping up a high-end apparel brand [Comme des Garcons] at apparently bargain prices."

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These articles appear courtesy of Early to Rise [Issue #2578, 01-29-09], the Internet's most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com/.