How to Get Rid of Fruit Flies

Do pesky fruit flies hover around your fresh produce? Find out how you can get them out of your kitchen.

Fruit Flies 101

Adult fruit flies (Drosiphila melanogaster) range in size from 1 to 2 millimeters, have red eyes and tan or brownish body. They like to lay their eggs on fruit that’s getting ready to be harvested; that’s how they make it into your home, though they can come in through open doors and windows. Once in your home, these small flies will hang out near rotting fruit, especially old bananas hanging out on your counter. These flies reproduce quickly—they can lay up to 500 eggs over the course of their 1-week lifespan.

Other common breeding grounds for these bugs include decaying meat, large spills of sugary soda or alcohol, sink drains, garbage disposals, empty bottles and cans, trash receptacles, wet mops and dirty rags. 

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Women's 8 Biggest Eating Mistakes

Munching Missteps

You watch what you eat and feel pretty savvy about nutrition. But as you’re racing from one chore to the next, it’s easy to skimp on certain nutrients and overdose on others. The good news: “There’s no food or dietary component that you have to eliminate from a healthy diet,” says Rachel Begun, MS, RD, a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. “But you have to plan a little to balance your diet the majority of the time.” Here are women’s most common nutrition mistakes and how to fix them.

You eat too much sodium.

The recommended daily allowance for sodium is 2,300 mg. But if you’re over 50 years old, have high blood pressure, diabetes or kidney disease or are African American, your sodium intake shouldn’t go above 1,500 mg per day. Unfortunately, the average American consumes about 3,300 mg daily, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). “Most of our daily sodium comes from restaurant meals and processed foods, not the salt shaker on your table,” says Begun. “Start reading food labels. You’ll be surprised how quickly sodium adds up.”

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8 Tips to Help You Eat Locally

Eating local foods is healthy for you, for the environment and for your community. By choosing locally-sourced goods, you’ll not only support farmers, bakers and artisans in your community, but you’ll also be adding the freshest-tasting foods available to your diet. Another (often unrealized) benefit to going local is the relationships you’ll form within your community — with other local shoppers at the farmer’s markets, with those who grow and produce your food and with local foods advocates like yourself.

Local food is getting a lot of buzz lately.  It can be overwhelming to weed through all the press to find the good stuff you need to know, so we’ve come up with a list of tips to help you get started. And getting started might not be too difficult — you probably already know of a few of these or have adopted some into your lifestyle. 

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Time Your Health Right

Have Better Days

Feel like all of the advice you hear tells you to do more? Eat more salad. Drink more water. But it's not just about doing more, it's about doing what you already do—like taking a walk or drinking coffee—at the right time to maximize the benefits. "Your biological clock regulates when you produce certain hormones and chemicals that affect just about everything, from your energy levels to how quickly you burn calories," says Timothy H. Monk, PhD, director of human chronobiology research at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

 

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'I Got Fit to Give My Son the Life He Deserves'*

Meet Christy Caby (CHRISTY2BTHIN) a SparkPeople.com member who has lost 95 pounds in two years! Find out her secrets of success here.

What is your age?  26 

How long have you been a SparkPeople member? How did you find SparkPeople?  I've been a SparkPeople member for over a year now.  I was turned onto it by another successful member.  She is a dear friend of mine who started her weight-loss journey around the same time I did, as we were pregnant together.  She told me about SparkPeople after we'd both started losing weight, and I decided to check it out. And I kept coming back! 

What is your favorite feature on SparkPeople? I love the Nutrition Tracker and how it breaks down the different nutrients.  It really showed me that I wasn’t getting enough protein in my daily diet, so I started to find ways to incorporate more protein and cut back on carbs.  Before SparkPeople, I wasn’t aware of how those nutrient breakdowns factored into my diet as a whole.

How much weight have you lost? I have lost 95 pounds.

How long did it take to lose the weight? 2 years and counting. 

What was your light bulb moment that made you decide to lose weight? I had complications during my pregnancy that I probably would not have had if I hadn’t been so overweight.  I got to 300+ pounds while pregnant with my son.  The day that I had him, I started counting calories and watching portions.  I ordered fruits, veggies and other healthy items while in the hospital.  I didn’t want to encourage unhealthy eating for my son, and I knew that I had to get fit if I was going to keep up with him and give him the life that he deserved.  I got on the scale the first time a few weeks after I had him and used that as my starting weight.  My husband got on board with me a few months ago, and he has now lost over 60 pounds.  It is amazing to see the changes that we have made--and continue to make--to be healthier for our son, who is now 2!

What was your biggest obstacle while trying to lose weight?

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4 Family Dinners For $10 or Less

Busy schedules don’t mean you have to rely on pricey (and usually higher-calorie) take-out dinners. In fact, hectic days are an even better reason to stay energized with balanced, healthy and delicious meals. Eating smart doesn’t have to break the bank – here are 4 dinner ideas to prove it.

Chicken in Four Steps
This quick, flexible chicken dish from Melissa D’Arabian please everyone.  Use just one pan to make the chicken, a lemony sauce and a spinach side dish.  Serve it up with nutrient-packed (and budget-friendly) baked sweet potatoes. Shop for deals on larger packages of chicken breasts and stock up in the freezer they’re on sale. 

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How to Teach (and Learn) Self-Control as a Parent

Any pediatrician or experienced parent will tell you that tantrums are just a fact of toddlerhood. Every child throws fits, and every parent struggles with how to deal with them.
 
What you're actually teaching is self-control, which is what makes it so difficult. That concept starts with you, and controlling yourself in the face of a screaming, irrational toddler is not always easy.
 
The official advice from the American Academy of Pediatrics is to distract, ignore and remove--in that order. On the surface, it seems simple. Distract the child when he starts fussing. If he is angry about leaving the playground, sing a silly song to redirect his attention and mood as you buckle him into the car seat. If that doesn't work and he continues to cry and yell, ignore it with the hope that he'll wear out the anger and frustration. And if that doesn't happen and he pitches a toy at your head instead, tell him sternly, ''No throwing!'' and remove the toys and other potential missiles from the car seat.
 
Simple--except you're now trapped in a vehicle with a kid screaming bloody murder because, after copious warnings that lunch was coming soon, you had the audacity to ask him to leave the playground. For food. Which he needs to survive.
 
Are you angry yet? Frustrated? Because I'm getting irritated just remembering this horrible experience--er, I mean, thinking about this hypothetical situation.
 

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How to Safely Buy Medicine Online

Fraudulent websites selling counterfeit drugs are popping up daily as more Americans are buying their medications exclusively online. "Fake drugs can be ineffective and contain ingredients with dangerous side effects," says Margaret Hamburg, MD, commissioner of the FDA. To avoid a scam, make sure the pharmacy website you buy from has the following four features.
 

The VIPPS (Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites) seal. This indicates that the website has been approved by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) and meets state and federal rules. When you click on the seal, you should be taken to the NABP website. If you're not, it could be fraudulent.
 

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How to Keep Your Child Safe in Cyberspace

Technology is everywhere.  Personal computers and smart phones grant us easy access to games, chatting forums, and countless threads of information that seep into every corner of our lives. 

When we think of children's cyber safety, we most often think of monitoring Internet use on computers.  And some parents do, though not enough.  One study of teen Internet safety reported that 75% of teens said that their parents almost never monitor their use. Additionally, almost one-third of teens surveyed said their parents would disapprove of how they spend their time on the Internet. 

Besides computers, other devices need monitoring, too.  Kids and teens now chat, share pictures, and watch videos on cell phones and gaming systems. Downloaded games on smart phones and gaming devices often have a chat component within them—and these games can usually be played with random online ''buddies.''

What technology does your child have access to?  What technology does your child have that allows others to have access TO your child?   Do you trust blindly or monitor closely?  Would your child know what to do if he came across inappropriate content or if someone asked her questions through a chat?

Recently, the playroom door in our house was closed.  It is never closed, so it caught my attention.  I opened it and my 7-year-old son, with his gaming device in hand, looked up with an ''Oh, no, I didn't expect you to walk into the room'' expression.   Without thinking, I blurted out, ''Put your hands where I can see them and don't move!''  (Perhaps I need to cut back on TV.)  I took his game and found that he was watching a video that was borderline inappropriate for his age—I would deem it ''okay,'' but only with adult explanation of its content.  Unbeknownst to me, the system regularly gives the (child) user notifications and access to new games, music videos, and the like. 

It became clear that a ''switch'' had turned on in his little brain, and he had to be monitored more closely than I'd realized. 

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Taste Test: Hot Sauce

With so much talk about hot sauce, we had to taste test all the popular varieties for ourselves. We got our mouths fired up for this spicy taste test. Find out who topped our list.

It’s All About Sodium
Hot sauce is the new ketchup. Dab a little on sandwiches, pizza, pasta dishes, chili, grilled meats, eggs – almost any dish. If you check out the label, you’ll notice that there’s not much nutrition information per serving—no calories, fat, saturated fat, carbs, or protein (or at least so little that it can be listed as zero by food labeling guideline). What it does have is sodium—and some brands have more than others. 

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8 Times You Shouldn't Pick the Fat-Free Option

When to Buy Full-Fat

When you’re at the grocery store and two options are staring you down—one that says “reduced fat” and one that’s unapologetically full-fat—choosing the less fattening option is a no-brainer, right? Not so fast! “Just because a product is labeled ‘fat-free’ or ‘lowfat’ doesn't mean it’s healthier or even lower in calories,” says Jared Koch, a nutritionist in New York and the founder of Clean Plates. “In fact, most lowfat or fat-free foods will have sugar and chemicals to make up for the loss in taste, which renders them poor nutritional choices.”

Plus, our bodies need healthy fat in our food to keep our cell walls strong, absorb important vitamins and regulate our hormones. Taking away that fat and adding in chemicals can have another unexpected result: Franken-foods that don’t cook the way they should, or crumble up when they shouldn’t. Here are eight full-fat foods that are actually better for you than their reduced-fat or nonfat relatives. 
 

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How Katie Lost 115 Pounds--and Kept It Off!*

Meet Katie Foster (SLIMKATIE) a SparkPeople member who has maintained a 115-pound weight loss for two years! Find out her secrets of success here.

What is your age?: 30
 
How long have you been a SparkPeople member? How did you find SparkPeople?: I have been a member since 2007, but I started actively using the site in 2009. I found SparkPeople when I did a Google search for weight-loss success stories.
 
What is your favorite feature on SparkPeople?: I love the recipe calculator. In the beginning of my weight loss, I typed in all my recipes and then saved them to use for later. Whenever I cooked dinner, I just had to look it up and the nutrition info was right in front of me. It was a big time-saver!

How much weight have you lost?:  I initially lost 125 pounds, but I've been maintaining a 110-115 pound loss for two years.
 
How long did it take to lose the weight?: It took 16 months to lose 125 pounds.
 
What was your light bulb moment that made you decide to lose weight?: My son Noah, who was 5 years old at the time, was learning to ride a two-wheeler bicycle. He needed someone to run up and down the street alongside his bike. I tried, but was physically unable to keep up. I felt like the worst mother ever, and my sister had to take over for me. I vowed to lose the weight so that when it was my younger son Eli's turn to learn, I would be the one to teach him. (And I did!)
 
What was your biggest obstacle while trying to lose weight?: My biggest obstacle was dealing with other people's opinions on what I was doing. Everyone seemed to want to tell me how I should or shouldn't be eating, so I just had to do what I knew was right for my body. It was hard at holidays and parties when everyone kept telling me that "just one bite" wouldn't hurt.
 
What does your weekly exercise schedule look like?:

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What's the Difference Between Yoga and Pilates?

I have always thought of the combination of Pilates and yoga as the perfect marriage. Both are transformational, focused methods of movement that facilitate positive change in the body, mind and spirit. In my opinion, their differences complement one another in the best of ways. Pilates is known as a "workout," and yoga as a "practice"; however, the irony here is that, in order to improve at anything, we have to practice, and when we practice well both Pilates and yoga are can be exceptional workouts.  And as you will see, both are worthy of your time and attention for innumerable reasons.
 
Unless you're very familiar with both—or a trained instructor—it may be difficult to tell how these two programs are different. In truth, there is a lot of overlap and similarities between yoga and Pilates. And what better way to understand them both than with a little history lesson on each.

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Have You Tried . . . Sriracha?

The fiery red sauce in the green-topped squeeze bottle is a staple in my kitchen. Loyal fans will not go near another chili sauce – it’s so popular it has its own Facebook page.

What is Sriracha?

Sriracha was developed in Los Angeles, California in the early 1980′s by David Tran. His Chinese and Vietnamese roots were the inspiration for this American-born chili sauce.

Pronounced "SIR-rotch-ah" this sauce made from chili peppers, garlic, sugar, salt and vinegar is the perfect balance of hot, spicy, tangy and sweet. Instead of just being hot, Sriracha has serious flavor that keeps food-lovers coming back for more. It even has a nickname – affectionately dubbed “rooster sauce” (the bottle dotes the image of a rooster – Tran’s astrological sign). 

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Parenting is NOT One-Size-Fits-All

The advice starts pouring in as soon as your belly starts to show.

First, they want to tell you how to give birth. Then, they have wisdom about how to feed the baby. Breastfeeding, bottle feeding--doesn't matter. The world has opinions and those opinions don't care what's working best for you and your child and your lives. Just when you thought no one could have any more to say about food, it's time to start solids. Actually, it probably was time a month ago. Unless you've already started, in which case, that's too early! The food advice slows only when the questions about the big developmental milestones start flowing. ''Is he walking yet? Has she started talking? Here's how you get them ready…''

And of course, there's the mother of all parenting advice: ''Enjoy them now! They grow so fast."

Some of my best parenting tricks have come from the advice of others. My sister taught me how to diaper a baby boy to prevent leaks. My mom helped me learn to ignore the small tantrums of a toddler. I got my boys to at least try everything on their plates thanks to the advice of a blogger. A preschool teacher taught me how to turn on my sons' ''listening ears'' before issuing commands. I'm all for using the wisdom of the masses to make my life easier.

But I've also gotten some really rotten advice, advice that makes life harder if only by its existence.

Posted 8/14/2012  10:00:00 AM By:   : 41 comments   23,347 views

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