Blog Posts by GALTime.com

By Shira Scott, GalTime.com

I have to admit that when I go out to eat now, it's not only the dish and its ingredients that I check out. I definitely look for nutrition information on the menu. Should I order my favorite steak plate at 1050 calories or my second favorite at 575? More and more restaurants are including calorie counts. But can you trust them?

Researchers at Tufts University decided to find out. Are menu calorie counts a good way to help people monitor their intake in an effort to loose or maintain a healthy weight? With 34% of Americans now considered obese (2008) and restaurant foods providing 35% of daily energy intake for U.S. individuals (study), it's a good question.

Related: How Much Exercise Do You Really Need?

Lorien Urban, Ph.D. and colleagues examined the calorie content for 269 items from 42 fast-food and sit-down restaurants in 3 states... and guess what? The stated calories on the menus were pretty accurate the majority of the time, according to

By GalTimer Staci Cox

Being raised in a single home may affect the way you feel about love. The original plan for most is to meet their significant other, fall in love and start a family. But what happens when things don't go as planned? What happens when two people have sexual relations without the "relationship" and a baby is born? The baby is born into a broken home traveling between parents. Often times, the new bundle of joy is left with only one parent to raise him/her, and in most cases the mother.

Related: It's OK If You've Kissed a Few Frogs

A friend of mine once said, "The hardest woman to love is one without a father, because she is expecting the man to leave". I grew up in a fatherless home surrounded by women who love and support me. I noticed the friends who were raised in a two-parent household shared different views about love and relationships. As a single woman who was raised in a single parent home, I'm more carefree and independent, which leads

By Social Media Maven Emily Liebert for GalTime.com

Dear GalTime , I am annoyed at the number of people following me on Facebook who I really don't know. I thought I wanted to expand to a broader network, but I don't. Is it rude to unfriend? Is there a downside to letting people go? I don't want to offend anyone.

ANSWER: When my book, Facebook Fairytales, first published, I experienced the same thing. I was accepting every friend request I got (and there were many because of the publicity the book was receiving). All of the sudden, I had a thousand-plus friends, most of whom I didn't know. I felt torn. On the one hand, I thought the more people I'm friends with, the more exposure my book and future professional projects will get. But at the same time, I didn't want strangers following my personal status updates and viewing photos of my family, namely my children.

Related: 10 Ways to Build Followers on Facebook and Twitter

So I settled on a combination of two approaches.

By Paul Hokemeyer, PhD, JD for GalTime.com
Dear GalTime... I need help. My husband works really hard for our family, but he has a 'work wife', and I can't get comfortable with it. One of his colleagues is female and they work long hours. He's with her more than me. He doesn't give me reason not to trust him, but I still feel uneasy. Is it just something I need to deal with? How can I feel more secure?

ANSWER: Dear Mrs. Insecure, While happiness is an inside job, it's also nice to get attention from our loved ones! Sounds like you're coming up short on the latter. It also sounds like you could be experiencing a tinge of what is known as "emotional infidelity."

Related: Are You At Risk for (Emotional) Cheating?
In contrast to sexual infidelity where one person has unauthorized sex outside of their relationship, emotional infidelity involves a displacement of time, attention and emotional connection to another person or thing. What struck me about your question was how in touch you are

By Kendall Bitonte, GalTime Associate Producer

As a rising college senior, I've had my share of textbook and school supply shopping experiences. In elementary school, I scouted for the best marker sets, middle school was all about the Disney spiral notebooks and high school required high tech calculators and more efficient assignment planners. However, all those hours in the School Supply aisles of Target, Office Max and the like did not prepare me for the pre-semester school supply shopping in the college bookstore.

The College Board reports that the national average of students at 4-year universities spent $1,137 on books in the 2010-2011 school year. With already soaring tuition costs, not to mention room & board, entertainment and food expenses, paying for materials for class can become a difficult burden to bear.

Consumer Saving Expert Andrea Woroch says not to fear and has plenty of ideas to lessen the blow of the cost of books and supplies to the bank account.

By GalTime's Bra Gal Jene Luciani

"I know this sounds gross but I often have a problem with 'bra-cne,' i.e. getting pimples and breakouts underneath my breasts and around where my bra touches my skin. Help!" - Melissa,

Albany, New York.

There are a couple of things that could be going on here. You could be wearing a bra that's either too tight (it constricts and irritates your skin), or too loose (it's constantly rubbing and chafing against it.)

Also, are you washing your bras between uses?

Dirt and oil build-up on the bra could be clogging your pores, just like if you are using the same makeup sponge day after day without ever washing it in between!

Related: How to Get Rid of the Dreaded Bra Side Bulge

If you are washing your bra daily, and using an antibacterial soap on your skin, and you're still experiencing this problem, sweat could be the culprit. Don't you wish they made Degree for your décolletage? You could try dusting a little cornstarch based baby

By GalTime Nutritionist Elisa Zied, MS, RD, CDN

What are consumers to do when so many of the foods that they enjoy and commonly eat can potentially make them sick?

Many of these foods are also quite healthful---fruits and vegetables are loaded with fiber, vitamins, minerals and other beneficial substances; fish provides lean protein, and tuna is rich in healthful omega 3 fatty acids, vitamin D, and other vital nutrients; eggs are a great source of complete protein; and low fat dairy products provide tons of calcium.

Robbing your diet of these foods can make meals less satisfying and may rob you of opportunities to get many of the nutrients you need. So, instead of subjecting yourself to a highly restrictive diet in an attempt to avoid getting sick from food, here are four simple steps you can take to minimize your risks; while there are many more things you can do in addition to what's listed below, these tips will help you get started on your quest to eat more safely:

By Lisa Manterfield of LifeWithoutBaby for GalTime.com

My body. All things considered, it's not bad. It's tall, reasonably proportioned, and curves in more or less the right places (although a little more than less in some places.) Over the years it's been good me. We've climbed mountains, run marathons, and even done triathlons together. We're not exactly Olympic material, but we always crossed the finish line together, and we had fun.

So, naturally, when I embarked into the realm of motherhood, I expected my body to come right along with me. After all, reproduction is something it's designed to do. At the most basic level, it's supposed to give forth new life, so that our species can continue. The human race depends on it. So, imagine my surprise when, at 38 years old, my doctor informed me that I had been naturally selected out of the gene pool.

Related: To Be Or Not To Be... a Mom

"You only have one producing follicle on each ovary," the doctor said.

He took out a