15 Ten-Second Health Tips!

By Bill Phillips and the Editors of Men's Health
May 11, 2011

The other day, I walked down the hall and asked my colleagues to name their favorite Men's Health tips of all time. Their responses all had one thing in common: The advice was simple and memorable, such as . . .

• Estimate how much daylight is left by putting your fingers, at arm's length, between the sun and the horizon. Every finger is 15 minutes.
• Don't have a big enough cooler for party drinks? Drop a few bags of ice and 24 bottles or cans into your clothes washer. Simply drain it the next morning.
• Schedule your IRS audit for late Friday afternoon. Assuming the auditor is human—and has a life—he won't feel like nitpicking.
• Clean your toilet without a brush by pouring a cup of baking soda and a gallon of hot water into it before work. After work, the stains will flush away.

Likewise, you don't have to make big changes in your life to make a big improvements in your health. Here are 15 tips that will make you healthier, slimmer, stronger, and happier—today!

1. Eat Bacon and Eggs for Breakfast
Regularly skipping breakfast increases your risk of obesity by 450 percent. Moreover, researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University found that people who regularly ate a protein-rich, 600-calorie breakfast lost significantly more weight in 8 months than those who consumed only 300 calories and a quarter of the protein.

And no, eggs and bacon aren't unhealthy. (Overeating eggs and bacon—or anything else—is what's unhealthy.) In fact, whole eggs contain more essential vitamins and minerals per calorie than any other food.  (Italics added by BH) They're also one of the best sources of choline, a substance your body requires to break down fat for energy. What's more, in a recent review of dozens of scientific studies, Wake Forest University researchers found no connection between egg consumption and heart disease. As for bacon, once it's been cooked it contains just 1 gram of saturated fat per slice—and one-third of that is the kind that has no effect on cholesterol levels.

Bonus Tip: The right breakfast will also make you more productive at the office, so avoid these at all costs: The 20 Worst Breakfasts in America.

2. Tilt Up Your Rearview Mirror

The Rest

Note: Selected and “blogitized” by Bob Hoff in my blog Catching My Interest and I Hope Yours As Well, 5/16/11