You exercise. You lower your food portions. You eat healthy. You do everything you know you're supposed to do in order to shed some pounds. And yet, you step on the scale and, to your dismay, your weight doesn't go down; in some cases, it even goes up! Doesn't make any sense, does it? I have found myself in a similar conundrum over the years. Eventually, it dawned on me that my near-obsessive habit of drinking Diet Coke was probably working against me. When I probed even deeper, I realized that depriving my body of water was likely making it more difficult to lose weight. I mistakenly assumed that drinking more water would make your body retain more of it. But the exact opposite is true: The less water you drink, the more your body hoards whatever water you have in your system, thereby making you heavier.  I learned years ago that my dark yellow urine likely meant I was dehydrated. (A pale color with a tinge of yellow, on the other hand, suggests the bod...

The world has become increasingly digital. Nowadays, we can do almost anything online, from paying bills to shopping to finding a date for the weekend. There's concern among a growing number of people, however, that the internet is turning a lot of us into technology-dependent hermits. I think these claims are unfounded. I spend a lot of time online, but I do it because I actually enjoy communicating with people in written form. (I am, after all, a writer.) From writing posts on Blogger to actively contributing to various message boards, there are several reasons why being in cyberspace is more appealing than the "real world": You can remain anonymous: No need to worry about people judging you or knowing where you live You can share your feelings freely: I find it's sometimes easier to open up to strangers on the internet than to people in person. After all, some of those topics may be personal in nature.  You can do so many things in the comfort of your home...