Photo: Courtesy of Best Life

We’ve been asking the Best Life experts for advice on diet and exercise, ways to get better rest and strategies to live a little younger.

If you have a question, send it to us!

It goes without saying that polishing off a pint of Ben & Jerry’s--even if it’s low- fat--is not a good idea, but we’ve also learned (from repeated experience) that swearing off ice cream forever doesn’t work, either. But the tricky thing about “eating in moderation” is that what we think that means--and what the scale thinks that means--are two different things. So how do you draw the line between what you deserve and what you could do without? Best Life nutritionists, Stephanie Clarke, M.S., R.D. and Willow Jarosh, M.S., R.D., gave us three questions to ask ourselves before giving in to the foods we love.

1. Does it fit into your daily calorie budget? 
Clarke and Jarosh tell clients on a typical 1600-calorie-a-day eating plan that they have about 100 or 150 calories a day that they can swap out with whatever their heart desires. The catch is that most of us have no idea how many calories we eat in a day, and it’s very common to experience temporary snack black-outs in the face of temptation ("I’ve hardly eaten anything today, so I surely have enough leftover calories for a few potato chips," we’ll think, forgetting about the handfuls of nuts we ate at our desk or the whole milk we put in our coffee). They’re big fans of food journals to keep us on track. And they get it: tracking what you eat, either with an old-fashioned pen and paper or a new multi-function app, can feel obsessive. But as they tell clients (and as studies keep proving), this technique really helps keep the weight off.

It was one of the most cringe-inducing moments of the Beijing Olympics: Fierce, fleet Lolo Jones, leading the pack in the 100-meter hurdles, suddenly knocking over the second-to-last hurdle, losing her rhythm and falling back to seventh place. Just like that, the favored champion was out of the race. Four years later, Jones was dreaming of redemption in London, but her spot on this year's Olympic team wasn't a sure thing: she was coming off a rocky season that involved sub-par performances, nagging injuries and sagging confidence. And yet, last week Jones finished third in the 100-meter hurdles at the track and field trials and qualified for London. We are in awe of this killer photo of Jones at the trials. This is a woman who will not let anything--repeat, anything!--get in her way.

Photo: Thinkstock

When I asked my 3-year-old recently what her favorite animal was, I was expecting something like, "kitten." Her answer? "Mantis shrimp!" She has good (if freaky) taste: we have been talking about the mantis shrimp lately, and how (in addition to being super mean and violent, which she finds fascinating) they have excellent vision. Apparently mantis shrimp have these extraordinarily complex eyes that see more colors than any other animal in the world. And you know what that means: even more pinks.

Turns out seeing a wide spectrum of color can help more than just coordinating outfits or recognizing hungry barracuda: it can also help you to identify emotions, or even disease. Evolutionary neurobiologist Dr. Mark Changizi has researched color vision and developed glasses that will help people to better see hue changes on others' skin, which can signal changes in feeling or health. According to Good, the target market for the eyewear would be medical professionals who could "use the filters in examinations to pick up on cues about patients unavailable to the naked eye." Veins and trauma would be easier to see; diseased blood would show up in a different color. But creator Dr. Changizi thinks these tinted glasses could also have applications in poker, sports, dating, and security; as he puts it, "one sees other people better by keeping them on." So we can all be a bit more shrimp-like. You know, in a good way.

Read More:
The Invention of the Smile (Emoticon)
Trying Out the Latest Beauty Innovations

Infographic: Ad Council, USDA, USDHHS

File this under "summer bummers": Incidents of food poisoning tend to surge during hamburger-and-hot-dog-months because bacteria multiply faster in warm temperatures, says the USDA. And for those of us who think we're in the clear because we always make sure our ground beef is dark and toasty before taking off the grill, the agency's research shows that 1 out of every 4 hamburgers turns brown before it has reached a safe internal temperature.

But don't let this news douse your BBQ enthusiasm: there are some easy steps you can take to keep yourself and your guests healthy at your July 4th get-together. The USDA and the US Department of Health and Human Services have teamed up with the Ad Council to produce this Independence Day-themed infographic with  the most important steps to handling and serving summertime party food: clean, separate, cook (the food thermometer is key) and chill. (In addition to the helpful advice, we also appreciate that the George Washington character appears to be holding either a teensy tri-corner hat, or a very well-done steak stolen from the grill...).

Keep reading:
Cooking safely with turkey

Photo: Getty Images

During the 2010 winter Olympics, two Canadian friends of mine had the great fortune of scoring tickets to some of the events in Vancouver. They later emailed me about sitting close enough to Johnny Weir's family to make conversation, and about how they could practically feel the ice chips in   Apolo Ohno's wake as he zoomed to victory in the speed-skating finals. Oh, Canadians! How I envied them! I'm sure I'll feel the same way about the Brits next month as I watch the London summer games...from my apartment far, far away in Brooklyn.

Lucky for me, The National Institute of Standards and Technology has put together a neat list of Olympic Fast Facts that help make the games feel a little closer to home. For example, you know the balance beam on which gymnasts flip, run, tumble and leap? It's about the width of a novel--a paperback, no less--like those strewn all over my bedroom. And the 10 meter high dive platform? Somersault-piking off that is similar to diving off the roof my three-story apartment building.

Okay, so these pieces of Olympic trivia may not be the same as finding as a golden ticket to the games buried in the bottom of a Wheaties box, but they'll remind me of the athletes and events every time I open a book, or climb the stairs of my walk-up, or pass a pickup truck (it's the same width as the diving board).

Keep reading:
The musical sounds of the London Summer Olympics
An Olympic coach helps a non-athlete get in game shape

Photo: Thinkstock

If you had more time, you swear that you'd not only go jogging, you'd train for a race--maybe even a marathon. But you really, truly don't have any minutes to spare. Or so you think. A poll from Harris Interactive found that Americans have nearly twice as much downtime as we believe we do, and Women's Health magazine offers some strategies that can help even the most perpetually-booked among us to find it.

These tips include taking two days to keep track of exactly how you spend your time, and then looking for hidden chunks of misused minutes. For example, you probably never realized how much time you spend cruising Facebook, listening to covers of "Call Me Maybe" or deciding what to eat for lunch, but once you do, you can put those patches of time together to use for a training run...or at least a midday power walk. Find three more ways to squeeze in a workout over at Women'sHealth.com.

Keep reading:
How Bob Greene helped a busy lawyer find time to shed 20 pounds
A full-body routine that takes just 20 minutes
Shorten your regular workout

Photo: Thinkstock

Do you ever watch the news (or read it, or read people's tweets about it) and start to feel so, so sad, and wonder what you could ever do about, say, the civilian casualties of the war in Iraq? After all, we're, most of us, just civilians ourselves, battling the small battles of our every day lives. What can we do? When Jeremy Courtney learned about the tremendous backlog of Iraqi children waiting for heart surgeries they need to save their lives, he decided to do something about. The story of the organization he founded, Preemptive Love, will give you chills. Personally, I didn't even know there was a problem with congenital heart defects in Iragi children, or that the healthcare system there had crumbled so completely that kids were dying because they can't get the care they need. In Courtney's talk at TED Austin, he said, "Violence  unmakes the world...Unlike a preemptive strike where I seek to get you before you get me, preemptive love is where I jump forward to love you before you love me...preemptive love remakes the world through healing. " And he walks the walk, sharing how he's worked to save these children, setting aside questions of politics and war and foes and sides. The video will give you chills, not to mention transform the way you hear news stories about this war, any war.

For more information on why birth defects are up in Iraq, how Preemptive Love is connecting kids with surgeons who can save their lives, and what you can do to help, visit Preemptive Love's website.

Read More:
Providing School Supplies for Iraqi Children
Healing in a War Zone

Illustration: Courtesy of Headspace

There may be a part of you that really digs certain aspects of meditation. The problem is that the benefits of meditation are cumulative (the more you do it, the better you get at it), and if you find you're only in meditation mode once in a while, you're missing out. Fortunately, meditation guru Andy Puddicombe is there for you when you're in everyday-frazzled phase--and he's also there for people who don't know the first thing about mindfulness. 

Puddicombe, a former Buddhist monk-turned-circus clown-turned-start-up entrepreneur (we're not making this up), founded the British organization Headspace to demystify meditation for the masses. In his book, Headspace: How Mindfulness Can Change Your Life in Ten Minutes a Day (which launched in the US this month), he explains the difference between the "aspirin approach" to meditation, which is using it as an occasional cure for stress--totally fine, but limited, he says--and the more integrated approach of weaving mindfulness into our daily activities. And then he goes on to show us exactly how to do that, with exercises that range from a minute of simply "not doing" to ten minutes of more traditional relaxation (these are also available as guided audio meditations on Headspace.com).

What we like about Puddicombe, besides his self-deprecating British sense of humor, is that he's equally enthusiastic about the scientific benefits of meditation as he is about the more metaphysical perks. We also like his practical approach to mindfulness--he can find a way to work it into just about every part of our daily routine. To see what we mean, check out this "airplane meditation" he shared with us that is designed to discreetly help us relax find peace while in the air.

Keep reading:
More mini meditations you can incorporate into your day

Photo: Thinkstock

We've all had that dislocating experience of paging through a women's magazine, reading an article on how we should be comfortable with our bodies and maintain healthy lifestyles, turning the page, and, lo and behold, coming eye-to-eye with a gaunt girl-child threatening to cut you with her razor-sharp cheekbones. It's all so...confusing.

So I was gratified to read that Vogue is launching an initiative to promote healthy body images in all its many editions. The Vogue Health Initiative pledges to portray models over the age of 16 who do not appear to have eating disorders. I know what you're thinking: how will everyone agree on what constitutes "healthy" or even "does not appear to have an eating disorder"? But... at least the conversation continues.

Read More:
Body Image Quiz: Would You Rather Be A Whale Or A Mermaid?
Supermodels Dealing With Their Body Issues