5 Germy Habits You Should Probably Try to Break

1. Not washing your hands after using the restroom. Have you ever heard the line that "urine is sterile" so there's no need to wash up. Um, sorry, you need to wash your hands. Sterile urine aside, there's still the business of wiping, flushing, and touching door handles--all of which could lead to cross contamination that can make you sick.

2. Eating food samples at grocery stores. For the same reason you wouldn't lick a stranger's hand, it's best not to dive into the freebie bowl of chips at the supermarket. Ask yourself: "Would I open up a bag of chips and share it, communally, with 50 people on the street right now?" Probably not.

3. Coughing into your hand. Maybe it's just me, but everywhere I'm looking these days people are coughing into their hands--instead of the inside of their elbow. If you tend to do this, try to retrain yourself to cover your cough with your arm and not your hands--it's polite and it also helps protect others with weaker immune systems from catching any bug you've got.

4. Rubbing your eyes--ever. After a fairly icky eye infection years ago, a doctor told me this: Think of your eyes as sacred and untouchable, and retrain yourself not to touch them with your fingers (no rubbing or messing with your eye makeup until you've washed them first). The second you touch a dirty hand to your eye, you're introducing all kinds of harmful bacteria and viruses, which can lead to annoying and even serious infections.

5. Letting your dog lick your hands then not washing them. Guys, I'm a dog lover, but when my golden retriever licks my hands, I go wash them. Yes, it gets tedious to do this (because she's always giving me kisses), but it needs to be done. I will remind you that dogs and cats get into unsavory things (I'll just be blunt: mine likes cat poop).

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The Best Alcoholic Drinks for Dieters

We all know that drinking and dieting don't mix. Alcohol is empty calories, quickly converts to sugar and lowers our inhibitions so we are inclined to eat more. However, for most of us, drinking is a part of birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, weekends, holidays, travel, fine dining, cheap dining, home dining, vacations, boat trips, sailing trips, camping trips, barbecues, happy hours, and in Europe...breakfast. OK, I think you get my drift. That being said, here's the buzz on how to not let drinking become dangerous to your diet:

Vodka Cranberry/Tonic/Straight: One of the best alcoholic beverages for losing weight is 1.5 shot of vodka (98 calories) with a low or no calorie mixer, such as Schweppes diet tonic or diet cranberry juice (Try Ocean Spray's Diet Cranberry Juice at 5 calories). Another option if you can stomach it is to drink vodka straight. Now with all of the flavored vodkas, such as Absolut Pears vodka, this is an option.



Captain Morgan & Diet Coke: A 1.5 shot of Captain Morgan (86 calories) with Diet Coke (0 calories) is a great option for bars that don't have calorie free mixers. Almost every place carries Captain Morgan and Diet Coke. And Captain Morgan (86 calories) is fewer calories than regular rum (98 calories).





Sugar Free Red Bull & Vodka: If you are someone who wants um, "wings" when you are out, the Sugar Free Red Bull (10 calories) mixed with 1.5 shot of Vodka (98 calories) is a good option.






Beer: If you are a beer drinker, try and stick to Miller or Amstel Lite (96 calories, 4.2% alcohol) versus your average 150 calorie beer. Another second place option is Bud Light (110 calories, 4.2% alcohol).






Mimosa: Now you can also enjoy a very low calorie mimosa. Take 2 oz. of Minute Maid Light orange juice (12 calories) and 3 oz. of champagne (78 calories). And voila... a 90 calorie mimosa!






Wine: For all of you out there who have ever made fun of boxed wine (not me, no, NEVER) - I have some ironic news. The butt of all the jokes is having the last laugh. Franzia "Refreshing White" white wine (90 calories, 12.5% alcohol) is the lowest calorie you can get! Maybe they should market themselves as the diet wine and rebrand. SHHHH, don't tell anyone, but it actually kinda tastes good, not to mention the obvious "low-cost" benefit. One thing to note is that this wine has about 12.5% alcohol, where the high alcohol content wines come in at about 14.0%.

Source: Shine at Yahoo