Photo: Thinkstock

I don't think I'm the only one who associates boxing with loutish men, bloody and sweaty and worrying their mothers. When I think of boxing (which admittedly is not often), I don't think of women, and I certainly don't think of Afghanistan.

Which is why it's so wonderful to hear about the Rahimi sisters, my new favorite teenagers ever. According to an article in The Globe and Mail, these girls train 3 times a week in a gritty gym once used by the Taliban for public punishments, hoping to qualify for the Olympic games and eventually win the gold for their country. As the Globe reports, "Female boxing is still relatively unusual in most countries, but especially in Afghanistan, where many girls and women still face a struggle to secure an education or work, and activists say violence and abuse at home is common."

Under the Taliban sports were prohibited for women, so the thought of an Afghani team heading to the Olympics is pretty incredible. And how great that it's a super-tough sport like boxing! The very existence of these female fighters challenges stereotypes that have had a dangerous foothold in this part of the world. As the girls' coach Mohammad Saber Sharifi said, "We want to show the world that Afghan women can be leaders, too; that they can do anything – even boxing,” their coach. And you must see the full article for an awesome photo of the girls in action. Ka-pow!

Read About More Amazing Girls:
The Homecoming Queen/Football Star
The Fossil-Finding First-Grader

Photo: Thinkstock

I would like to get smarter this year. Wouldn't everyone? But—and I don't mean to brag—I have been feeling exceptionally stupid lately. I have young children, which is enough to make anyone feel a little brain-sapped. There are days when I don't leave the building and my longest conversation is with a 2-year-old and concerns the exploits of Dollhouse Grandpa, who keeps his vest in the fridge. So any tips on intellectual edification are very welcome. Particularly if they are kind of easy. I mean, let's be realistic here: I have about 15 minutes of free time a day, assuming I ignore all household chores.

Behold: The Daily Beast's 31 Ways to Get Smarter in 2012. Click through the slide show for some encouraging, invigorating tips. Eating dark chocolate and drinking coffee? Yes, please. Also recommended are checking out iTunes U and Shakespeare plays, learning a new language, and playing violent video games (really!). Some of the suggestions we've all heard before, like playing word games to increase your mind's agility, and some (writing reviews online!) are unexpected. Take a sip of coffee and click on over. That's right. We're getting smarter already.

Boost Your Brain By:
Sleeping Better
Eating Smarter
Exercising More

Alert your book club! The most anticipated books of 2012.

In case you were getting overwhelmed trying to find the perfect work of affordable art/vintage thingy/owl tote bag, here are the 10 great Etsy shops you need to know.

"The self-contained snowstorm": A brief history of everyone's favorite souvenir.

Master 3 new dishes. Invest in cookbooks. How to make this the year you actually cook something other than spaghetti.

The Life-Lifter: Sometimes you just have to love the world, because you know what? There are things such as high-design shelters for homeless cats.

Men! What are they thinking? We can't always answer that, but we'll be posting our favorite glimpses into their world in this space every Thursday.

Photo: Getty Images

* Raise a light-saber to the man who choreographed—and body-doubled in—one of the most iconic moments in cinema. Bob Anderson, the fencer who helped design Hollywood sword fights, passed away this week at 89 years old. (NYTimes.com)

* How one J. Crew suit became a uniform and a calling card. (The Observer)

* An oldie but a goodie: Malcolm Gladwell dug up a photo of himself from his high school track championship, and it is worth a look. (Gladwell.Typepad.com)

* Who is fashion photographer Patrick Demarchelier's preferred subject? As he tells the Telegraph, "When people ask me which is your favourite portrait... they expect it to be Diana, or someone famous. But the answer is my dog, Puffy. They think I mean Puff Daddy. No, it is the dog." (The Telegraph)

Photo: Thinkstock

Back in the days of yore, my dad called his parenting technique "the carrot and the stick." This metaphor probably had something to do with his own childhood, spent on a ranch raising sheep. The "carrot" part occurred when he'd offer me jelly beans in order to get me to do something I didn't want to do—for example, wash his truck or keep hiking up a steep mountain trail. The "stick"  part occurred when he'd yell at me in the world's deepest and most booming voice, also to get me to do something I didn't want to do—for example, wash his truck or keep hiking up a steep mountain trail. He switched between the two methods at whim and to great success, at least in my book. As a child, I did what my dad said.

Now we're all our own parents, and there are so many things we don't want to do. Like wake up at 6 in the morning and pay the bills we ignored the night before (whoops, slept in) or get to the gym as we publicly vowed to do in 2012 while tipsy on New Year Eve. Luckily, A new service called Gym Pact, which appeared in the New York Times this week has come to our aid, using an app that mimics my dad's old fashioned method. Basically you sign up on your smart phone and register how many days you want to commit to working out. The gym's computers are linked to the app, so if you don't go, you get fined $5. If you do go, you get paid—that's right, paid!—an amount that's determined each week by pooling and dividing all the money collected from no-goers. Right now that's about $1.50 a week, or $6 a month—an amount that I will try to  spend on organic kale or carrots, but will probably spend on...jelly beans.

Read More
7 things not to wear to the gym
4 workout mistakes and how to fix them

Photo: Think Stock

This is a going to sound a little dry, but go with me: Five hundred years ago, Leonardo Da Vinci discovered that when a tree branch forks in order to grow two new branches, the total surface area of the two new thinner ones will equal the surface area of the thicker original—exactly. Each newbie, in turn, will produce two even thinner branches using the same formula....and so on, as the tree grows out and up, as if it has a brain capable of doing math.

Last week, NPR reported that a French physicist figured out why. By reproducing its area in this precise way, a tree is best able to withstand high winds and not fall over during storms and hurricanes. The writer suggested that architects and engineers might use its structure as a model for constructing buildings. I, however, am beginning to think I may need to use it as model for dealing with life. I'm no Renaissance-era genius, but it seems to me what the tree is doing is divvy the amount of space it takes up in the world—getting smaller and more flexible, the further it gets from its sturdy center, so that that it can sway when stressed.

These days, I have a pretty good idea of what lies my own sturdy center: kids, husband, job. About these things I am rigid. There must be time made for them, period! This has come about as a result of a brutal learning process, during which I had previous thought a lot of other things (say, my buckling tile bathroom) were also at my center. Sadly, they are not, and my first impulse was to chop all those other things off. No time to see friends for dinner? Then just don't have friends. No time to shop? Just wear your old bras until your babysitter sees the black one in the dirty laundry basket and thinks it's a part of a ripped spiderweb costume. But the truth is, these lesser things need to remain on the tree or you'll end up broken and blown away. The trick probably is finding the right branch for each expectation: a stout one for my friends (meet them for a quick coffee instead of dinner), a slender bendy one for my new bras (order several online and count on at least one fitting), and even a potentially breakable tiny twig for the bathroom tile (fix it next year...or maybe never). Not only will the structure protect you from high winds and stress, but it might also protect anybody who'd like to lean against you.

Read More:
How to tell if your bra fits
The stress-detector test

Photo: Thinkstock

It's a bold move for a health writer to come clean about her personal struggles with weight. But in a recent New York Times Magazine cover story, Tara Parker-Pope used her experiences as well as the weight-loss efforts of others to bring to life the frustrating truth about obesity. As she explained, the bodies of once-overweight dieters actually work against them, making them feel hungrier, more preoccupied with food, and more prone to weight gain than those who hadn't tried to shed pounds. One couple she profiled, the Bridges, said they've only been successful by following every diet rule in the book (regular weigh-ins, no processed foods, intense daily exercise, obsessive calorie counting)--every single day of their lives (these before-and-after photos show how their efforts have paid off). 

Neither Parker-Pope or the Bridges are complaining, but Slate writer L.V. Anderson thinks that they're taking the wrong approach. She believes medical professionals should focus on getting fat people to adopt healthy behaviors, not drop pounds, and she says the food-obsessed, calorie-conscious lifestyles Parker-Pope describes of those who have been able to keep the weight off remind her of anorexic eating disorders. Other readers who believe they're fitter than they look, and resent the idea of measuring each day by bites taken and then burned off, agree. But as we've read many times during this first week of the new year, resolutions need to be specific to work. The trick is finding indicators of health and wellness that are as easy to measure as pounds on a scale, and things we can do to get healthy that are as straightforward as counting calories. 

Fortunately, Dr. Oz has come up with a 28-day plan of small changes you can make to live a longer, fuller life that don't have anything to do with traditional diets, starting with drinking green tea and even eating some dark chocolate.

Read more:
Dr. Oz's on how to renew your mind, body and soul
Study shows what's really causing the weight to come back

Photo: Travis Rathbone

As if the nearly 6-week-long meat-fest between Thanksgiving and New Year's weren't daunting enough to recover from, January is hardly the easiest month to add more vegetables to your diet. And there are only so many ways to eat roasted winter vegetables.

Which is why these 4 dishes are just what you need this week: They're meatless, yes. But they're also savory, warm, filling, and a lot easier to make than a big, meaty dinner.

Take these Brown Rice and Lentil Burgers, for one. Shiitake and cremini mushrooms add a steak-like flavor; topped with some Bibb lettuce and, okay, a slice of aged white Cheddar, they make for decadent meal you can feel good about eating. This Healthy Mac and Cheese recipe has a creamy sauce that relies on an unlikely ingredient: that cold-weather superstar, pureed butternut squash (it adds sweetness and heft). And Lisa Oz's Cornmeal-Crusted Tofu with Mashed Sweet Potatoes and Lemony Kale Salad highlight more winter workhorses...while keeping you on the light track.

Keep Reading
Cristina Ferrare's favorite vegetarian cookbooks
Dining at the Oz family's house
A vegan starter kit