Blog Posts by Sarah B. Weir, Yahoo! blogger

Shannon EastinThe lockout of regular NFL referees due to an ongoing labor dispute is giving one substitute a shot at making history. On Thursday night, Shannon Eastin will be the first woman to officiate an NFL game when she helps call the preseason opener between the San Diego Chargers and the Green Bay Packers.

Related: Women Comprise Largest Part of Sports Audience

For Eastin, it's a personal dream come to fruition. "It may sound crazy to some people, but I think I can be in the NFL some day," she told The Arizona Republic back in 1999. "I told them I would go to referee the NFL in Europe for five years if that's what it takes."

The Arizona native got her start in sports as a competitor. A former world-class athlete in judo, she won six national championships. At age 11, she was youngest judo athlete ever to be accepted to train at the U.S. Olympic Training Center. She's been a football referee for sixteen years, the last four working for the Mid-Eastern Atlantic Conference.

Is that egg real?

Did it ever cross your mind that the perfectly round white glob on an Egg McMuffin might not be an egg? In its natural state, we observe that food comes in different shapes and sizes. The uniform quality of fast food can seem a little suspicious to some and even downright creepy.

PHOTOS: Why McDonald's Burgers Look so Much Better than the Real Thing

As part of a recent media campaign to show customers that the food they sell is actually real, McDonald's Canada is allowing people to post their burning questions online. "Ever wanted to ask us about the food in our Canadian restaurants? Now's your chance! We'll answer any questions about out food-even the tough ones-then post a personal reply…." promises the webpage "Our Food. Your Questions."

Related: Six Tips to Skinny Up a Hamburger

McDonald's lovers and skeptics alike have jumped on the opportunity to get right down to the nitty gritty with queries like, "Why doesn't a McDonald's burger rot?" (Short answer: it dries

Good nutrition starts before birth"I credit my mom with modeling the right behaviors," Angela Lemond, Registered Dietitian and Spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, tells Shine. "She cooked a healthy meal every night and that was our only option." Lemond, who specializes in pediatric and family nutrition, says the research is clear that parental behavior and modeling has a significant impact on childhood obesity.

Related: Childhood Obesity and Bullying top Health Concerns for Voters

"Parents have the responsibility for providing food, meal planning, and eliminating distractions at the table," says Lemond. "The responsibility of the child is to eat or not to eat." She is concerned that today's parents are "letting kids dictate what food is being served." She sympathizes with parents' desire to nourish their children, but points out that this often means that they are exclusively serving meals of "chicken nuggets or mac and cheese" to picky eaters which are high in fat and calories and low on

Which celebrity would make the best evil Captain Hook? This year, Disney chose actor Russell Brand to portray the Peter Pan's nemesis in their latest "Disney Dream Portrait" campaign. Acclaimed photographer Annie Leibovitz also captured comedians Jason Segel, Jack Black, and Will Ferrell as the "Hitchhiking Ghosts" from Disney's Haunted Mansion Ride. Disney unveiled the images Thursday along with a behind-the-scenes look at Leibovitz working her own type of magic with her subjects. Previous year's portraits have included Olivia Wilde as 'Snow White's' Evil Queen and Penelope Cruz as Belle from 'Beauty and the Beast.'

Who are your kids' favorite Disney characters? Who are yours? Please let us know in the comments below.

Holley Mangold, Team USAGrit, determination, money, sacrifice. We all know it's incredibly hard to become an Olympian. But many of us, jazzed up by the watching the Games on TV, still dream that we could do it if only….

Photos: Youngest Olympians going to London

You imagine that bumping up your high school varsity training might have netted a spot on the team (I mean, you were the star player, right?). Or for the slightly less athletically accomplished, what if you zeroed in on one of those quirky sports like curling or target shooting?

Related: Secret Olympics Weapon: High-Tech Spying

Shine looked at the numbers to see what it really takes to become an elite athlete fit for Olympic glory.

5. Sessions per day martial arts expert Travis Stevens trains in order to prepare for London 2012. A typical schedule: 7-8:30 am, Weight training. 9-10:30 am, Judo. 11-11:30 am, Sprints. 2-3 pm, Cross-training. 6:30-8 pm, Judo. 10-11 pm, Running.

12,000. The calories swimmer Michael Phelps eats every

Workouts getting you nowhere? One way I make it through my work out when I'm huffing and puffing on the treadmill is to tell myself that after it's all over, I can reward myself with a little extra food. That's because exercise revs up metabolism, right? Wrong. For years the common refrain from fitness gurus and diet books has been that if you exercise regularly you'll keep torching those Big Macs all day long--and even at night ("It's a miracle! Lose weight while you sleep!").

Related: The Best Fitness Advice from Olympians

The "boost your metabolism" chorus makes many people scratch their heads when they start an exercise program and step on the scale a few weeks later to discover their weight hasn't budged, or maybe they have even gained a pound or two. To help understand the relationship between activity and weight loss, a team of researchers studied the Hazda, a hunter-gatherer tribe in Tanzania, and published the results in an article in the most recent volume of the journal PLoS One.

Related: Most

courtesy TLCAlthough teen pregnancy rates are at an historic low, you wouldn't know it by watching reality TV. American audiences (or so producers think) apparently can't get enough of seeing babies having babies. The latest spin-off is TLC's "My Teen is Pregnant and So Am I."

Related: Baby Boom: Olympic Shooter is 8 Months Pregnant

The program, which airs Wednesday at 10pm, follows two pairs of moms and daughters who are pregnant at the same time. For Liz, 36, and daughter Ann, 17, of Oklahoma City, the experience brings them closer together. Kristen, 17, of Greenville, North Carolina, finds that her news triggers explosive anger in a family that's stretched thin. Her pregnant mom Melissa, 40, already has eight children.

PHOTOS: Stars' Bikini Bumps

Growing up as the daughter of a teen mom--my mother had me when she was 16--I find it striking that these complicated, painful, and often tender families are viewed as such freak shows. One clip shows Melissa and Kristen getting