partieandpachoulli

You have seen that cool kid who always seems to be wearing witty, clever, hilarious t-shirts.

Where does he get those? Where can you get one? Department store options are limited, and besides, everyone already wears those.

While it may not be true that you can get anything on the internet, you can definitely get unique, customized clothing.

Are they worth it?

The World of Custom T-Shirts

The great thing about buying shirts online is that there are thousands of different websites you can use. This virtually eliminates the possibility that someone will have the same shirt as you.

However, you have to select a websites based on a few different factors. If you choose one of the most popular sites, the chances are pretty good that someone else will have the same shirt as you. You should find a site that is:

-Relatively obscure

-Legitimate

-Not too expensive

-Has stuff you like

To Customize or Not?

A completely customized shirt includes not only personalized text, but unique images as well. This is a cool idea, but you have to consider that something like that might be more expensive that just finding something amusing and unique that has already been created.

A good middle ground option is to pick an image that the site offers and then add your own text to personalize it.

A situation in which it would be a good idea to customize as much as possible would be if you were creating custom apparel as a gift. This is a perfect idea for your friends who have very obscure interests or particular tastes, and would enable you to design the perfect gift.

Personalized Gifts

The options for giving personalized apparel away as gifts are endless. Here are some possibilities:

New Baby? Some websites offer personalized onesies, bibs, blankets, not to mention baby-sized shirts and hoodies for the special occasion. Your gift will stand out in a sea of impersonal presents.

Significant Other? There are all the normal options, like tees and hoodies, but you can also get something a little more intimate. If your inamorata has more of a sense of humor, you can even try custom underwear.

Friends? This is especially perfect if you have friends who are hardcore gamers, way into the environment, or basically any who are obsessed with anything. You can help them express themselves even more effective with an “I LOVE ____” shirt.

Conclusion

Custom apparel is a cool idea. Especially when given as a gift, it’s the perfect balance between “I put some thought into this” and not requiring too much effort.

Maybe you don’t want to start an intense fitness regimen, but are seeking to incorporate healthy habits into your life to help you lose weight.

If you get rid of a few bad habits for every healthy tip you try, you will be shedding pounds and inches in no time.

Drink Water

We’ve all hear it before – drink 6 to 8 glasses of water a day. Most of us drink maybe half of that. Why does it matter? It boosts your metabolism, flushes toxins out of your system, keeps you feeling fuller, and prevents headaches and cramping caused by dehydration. The very first thing you should do is buy a water bottle and always keep it full. Make a habit out of drinking water and you will feel healthier instantly.

Drink a glass of water with every meal, and finish it before you have any other drink. This till reduce the calories you drink. If you drink a cold glass of water in the morning, it will get your system working and get you burning calories right away.

Fiber is Your Friend

There are so many ways to incorporate fiber into your diet, you are sure to find a food that you love. Raspberries, pears, apples, bananas – most fruits contain some fiber. Whole wheat, bran, brown rice, as well as peas and beans and most vegetables – all are high in fiber. This will help you digest food quickly and keep you more regular.

The following are excerpts from the executive summary of ‘Nutritional Guidelines for Americans,’ issued by the United States Department of Agriculture Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion:

Eating and physical activity patterns that are focused on consuming fewer calories, making informed food choices, and being physically active can help people attain and maintain a healthy weight, reduce their risk of chronic disease, and promote overall health.

Poor diet and physical inactivity are the most important factors contributing to an epidemic of overweight and obesity affecting men, women, and children in all segments of our society. Even in the absence of overweight, poor diet and physical inactivity are associated with major causes of morbidity and mortality in the United States. Therefore, the
Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010 is intended for Americans ages 2 years and older, including those at
increased risk of chronic disease.

These Dietary Guidelines recommendations encompass two overarching concepts:
• Maintain calorie balance over time to achieve and sustain a healthy weight. People who are most successful at achieving and maintaining a healthy weight do so through continued attention to consuming only enough calories from foods and beverages to meet their needs and by being physically active. To curb the obesity epidemic and improve their health, many Americans must decrease the calories they consume and increase the calories they expend through physical activity.

• focus on consuming nutrient-dense foods and beverages. Americans currently consume too much sodium and too many calories from solid fats, added sugars, and reined grains.These replace nutrient-dense foods and beverages and make
it dificult for people to achieve recommended nutrient intake while controlling calorie and sodium intake. A healthy eating pattern limits intake of sodium, solid fats, added sugars, and reined grains and emphasizes nutrient-dense foods and beverages—vegetables, fruits, whole grains, fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products, seafood, lean meats and poultry, eggs, beans and peas, and nuts and seeds.

Have you ever gone to class, sat there for an hour, listened to the lecture, took copious notes, and then took a test and failed miserably? Have you ever met someone, asked their name, and then two minutes later couldn’t recall it?

If you’re among the masses that can’t remember the three simple items you were supposed to buy at the supermarket, don’t worry, your temporary amnesia doesn’t have to be permanent. Just like how your muscles increase in strength through repeated use, your mind (and memory) strengthen in similar ways.

I remember my mother would say “if you repeat something three times out loud, you won’t forget it.” No matter how many times I repeated it though, I still can’t remember which constitutional amendment abolished slavery. Thirteenth? Sixteenth? In order for something to be effectively remembered, it must be associated with more than just repetition.

One effective way to remember information is to use a mnemonic. Mnemonics are techniques for simplifying otherwise difficult-to-remember information. An example would be “My very excellent mother just sent us nine pizzas” for remembering the order of planets in our solar system (except Pluto is no longer a planet, so I guess mom just sent us nine of some unspecified object).

Another effective memory technique is to use your whole mind to remember something. Don’t just look at the notes on your page. Associate the words you see with a pleasant memory, or your favorite smell or food. The more senses you use to remember something, the better. So when you see in your notes that Abraham Lincoln was the Sixteenth president, remind yourself that on your sixteenth birthday you were free to drive a car, just as the slaves were about to be free from bondage because of honest Abe. Watch yourself write the sentence “Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth president” as you also say it out loud. Again, the more associations you make in your mind, the less likely it is that your brain will let that information go.

We asked top experts for their strategies to help you ward off weight creep — and even shed pounds — at these tricky stages. Solutions ahead.

Watch portion sizes

Women tend to eat more when dining with their mate.As a general rule, have a serving each of carbs (fist-size), protein (palm-size), and healthy fat (around a tablespoon), and fill the rest of your plate with any non-starchy veggie, like broccoli, cauliflower, or green beans, says celebrity dietitian Ashley Koff, R.D., co-author of “Mom Energy.”

Don’t Save fatty leftovers

Indulging on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve won’t wreck your waistline, says Blatner. It’s all that grazing on leftovers for weeks that’ll do you in. Save treats for events: “Make it special and make it social,” she says.

Sculpt muscles.

Don’t want to eat less? Lift more. Since muscle mass diminishes with age, if you don’t do anything to replace it, your body will shift to more fat and less muscle — which slows down your metabolism even more, Northrup says.

Aim for two 40-minute sessions of weight training a week to keep muscle and bones at pre-meno level. Other days, try for 30 minutes of cardio, like dancing or the elliptical. That simple formula — strength plus cardio — really can keep mid-life gain away.

Lexi bumped into someone at the mall. Curtis slammed into a parking meter. Ryan tripped over a bag at the airport. You’ve probably seen it, and maybe you’ve even laughed: People can end up in some pretty goofy situations when they text and walk at the same time.

Believe it or not, people can also get hurt.

The American College of Emergency Physicians warns people about texting on the move. ER docs who treat people like Curtis (he cracked his ribs in his encounter with the parking meter) say that we need to be more cautious about when and where we text.

What’s the Big Deal?

The problem is multitasking. No matter how young and agile we are, the human brain just isn’t capable of doing several things at once and giving full attention to all of them. So you can get into some major danger if you try to text in situations that require your full focus.

When you text you’re thinking about what to say, concentrating on what your thumbs are doing, and reading constantly incoming messages rather than paying attention to what you’re doing or where you’re going. And that significantly ups your risk of getting hurt or injuring others.

It doesn’t matter if you can text without looking at the keypad. Even if texting feels like second nature, your brain is still trying to do two things at once — and one of them is bound to get less attention.

Texting also prevents you from paying close attention to what’s going on around you, something that’s especially important in situations where you need to have your guard up, like walking home after dark. Your reaction time is also likely to be much slower if you’re texting. If you’re about to run into someone or something else, you may not have time to act before it’s too late.

• What condition can run in families, usually starts between the ages of 15 and 30, and is experienced by more than 20 million people in the United States?

• How many drinks for males in one setting is considered binge drinking? How many drinks for females in one setting is considered binge drinking?

• True or false: On average, underage drinkers consume more drinks per drinking occasion than adult [of age] drinkers.

• Among persons aged 12–20 years, drinking alcohol contributes to which three leading causes of death?

• Are males or females more likely to be a victim of sexual violence?

• True or false: Teens and young adults who do not get enough sleep are at risk for automobile crashes, poor grades and performance in school,depressed moods, and problems with peer and adult relationships.

Answers:

1) depression

2) males-5, females- 4 or more

3) true

4) unintentional injury, homicide, suicide

5) females

6) true

Alcohol abuse and the daily shift is one of casual society’s most intricate ways of convincing addicts that they’re not addicted. Any party or circle of friends can help someone make the deadly shift from casual drinker to a heavy addict. Though people don’t like to admit it, alcohol is a drug. Like any other drug, sustained use will nullify the effects any drug has on the mind. Any drug taken of a long period of time will eventually call for more and more of the drug to give you the feeling you want. The problem with alcohol is that it’s easy for people to make the shift from their priority being spending time with people and having alcohol as a perk, to focusing on alcohol with social interaction as the perk.

One of the funniest things in our society today is that almost all drugs of abuse, taken in very small moderation, are actually quite helpful to the body. The antioxidants and other chemical bonuses in a glass of wine once a night at dinner can be very healthy, but it never stops there. Human beings lack control. I think that the drugs are just a figurehead to the real problem. The real drug that humans are addicted to is recklessness. Anything that makes a human being feel like they’re stepping out of the regulated chalk-painted guidelines of modern society, however fleeting or stolen, is so exciting to someone that feels trapped by their own contributed prison.

A few people that I have talked to have said that they drink alcohol to forget about life for a while. Has anyone ever stopped to think that if all of humanity keeps sweeping their problems under the rug, eventually we’re going to be teetering on some figurative Persian mountain of insecurities gestating and festering within a lack of accountability and constantly shifting hands like a game of hot potato on a global scene? Eventually, we’re going to have to sit down and make ourselves look at why we do things, in stead of just casually pawn our problems off on party drugs that help us forget the fact that we slowly kill ourselves to escape.

New research is saying that seniors who suffer elder abuse are more likely to be women, to have a neurological or mental disorder and to abuse drugs or alcohol.

In the study, they compared 41 cases of elder abuse to a controlled group of patients over the age of 60, who were treated between ’99 and ’06. The results were 29 percent of abuse victims tested positive for alcohol compared to the 13 percent of the control group.

They also found that the abuse victims were more likely to have pre-existing medical conditions such as dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, mental illness, alcohol abuse, and heart disease.

After treatment, about half of the victims returned to the place where the abuse took place. In most cases, the abuser had been arrested, but about 17 percents of the victims said they wanted to return to the person who abused them and not to press any charges. In 85 percent of elder abuse case, a family member or an intimate partner of the victim was the perpetrator.

A majority of the abuse cases weren’t identified until after the patient had been admitted or had spent a couple of days in the hospital. This shows that the failure of medical staff to recognize cases of abuses needs to be vastly improved.

Sometimes, recognizing a loved one with addiction issues is difficult. It’s hard to tell, and despite the stereotypes, it’s not always clear as day. Sometimes, you have to watch for the small things. So here are a few signs.

1. Quantity Control
A higher tolerance to drugs or alcohol leads people to increase the quantity and frequency of use, and sometimes when they think that they are not going to get more, an addict will start cutting doses into smaller amounts to make it last longer. If a family member always needs an early refill, it’s a sign of addiction, and if they start suddenly cutting pills in half, again it’s a sign.

2. Pills in Odd Places
If there’s a bottle behind the cleaner, under the bathroom sink, in the laundry room behind the detergent, or in other odd places such as the jewelry box, toolbox, inside of purses, etc., there’s a problem. Don’t go looking for it obviously, because snooping is not a good idea if they don’t have a history of it. But if you happen to find it when looking for cleaning tools, etc., take it as a red flag.

3. Things That Disappear
Items around the house disappear from time to time. But when they disappear more often and things like checks go missing from your checkbook, checks disappear from the middle of the checkbook, and cash disappears at random, there’s a problem. Sometimes, addicts will even take heirlooms to the pawn shop.

4. Vodka in the Morning Coffee
Not only is vodka one of the stronger forms of alcohol, vodka is also clear and looks just like water. It can be easily added to soft drinks or coffee. But it gives off a noticeable smell. If you see someone adding water to their prepared coffee, obviously it’s odd. But chances are it’s probably vodka. Pay attention to grocery receipts too to see if vodka is on the list.

5. Misses Important Events
Dad missed a birthday party, a graduation, an important event. Sometimes they showed up half way through with no real explanation. Addicts often become unreliable and secretive, missing important events for no explainable reason.

6. Extreme Weight Loss
There are other things that can cause weight loss, and you should look for other signs before making serious accusations. But users of crystal meth, cocaine, and other uppers can often go for hours without eating with extreme energy and no appetite at all, therefore losing extreme amounts of weight.

7. Mood Swings
This could also be a sign of major depression. But then again, some depressives use drugs to try to self medicate. Many family members describe addicts or alcoholics as an emotional rollercoaster, going from numb and calm to extremely aggressive in minutes or even seconds.