【推荐3】Tips on How to Connect With Your New Dorm Roommates

The move from high school to college is very stressful, especially meeting your future roommates. You hope they are normal, friendly persons with whom you can bond for the next months. Some tips for starting a smooth college life and getting along well with your roommates are as follows.

·Look up their names and phone numbers

You can search the US Phone Book for your roommates’ numbers and see what you can find online.     1     You can use them to find out what type of music they like or what their hobbies are.

·Use the email

Meeting a strange roommate is awkward, so try connecting with your roommates before moving in together.     2     You can tell them where you are from and what are your subjects of interest.

·You can even call them

After sending an email, you can call your future roommates and have a chat about the most important issues.     3     You can’t expect to be best friends right away. Chatting and texting beforehand can help you get used to other persons and will ease the entire process of living together.

·    4    

After the initial introduction, you want to know who is going to bring what appliances, if they like to listen to music while studying and how hot or cold they like the room to be. If you are a morning person and your roommates are night owls, things might become complicated.

Sharing a bedroom is not an easy thing and you will be stressed out.     5     Just try to be yourself when connecting. You will find ways to get along, even if you are completely different.

【推荐1】Whenever we turn on the TV or radio, read the newspapers and surf the Internet, we’ll see the word “diet”. We have so easily been attracted by the promise of diet products that we have stopped thinking about what diet products are doing to us. We are paying for products that do bad things to us psychologically (心理地) and physically (身体地).

It’s obvious that diet products weaken us psychologically. They allow us to jump over the thinking stage that our weight problems lie not in actually losing the weight, but in controlling the consumption (消耗) of fat. All we have to do is to recognize the word “diet”on food labels (标签).

What’s more, diet products have greater psychological effects. Every time we have a zero-calorie (卡路里) drink, we are telling ourselves that we don’t have to work to get results. Diet products make people believe that gain comes without pain, and that life can be without doing exercises.

As a matter of fact, the danger that diet products bring not only lies in the psychological effects they have on us, but also in the physical harm they cause. Diet foods and diet pills contain zero calorie only because the diet industry has created chemicals (化学品) to produce these wonder products. And they can indirectly harm our bodies because having them instead of healthy foods means we are stopping our bodies having basic nutrients. Diet products may not be nutritional (营养的), and the chemicals that go into diet products are dangerous.

Losing weight lies in the power of minds, not in the power of chemicals. Think twice before buying diet products. Once we realize this, we will be much better able to resist diet products, and therefore, prevent the psychological and physical harm that comes from using them.

【推荐2】A new study, a project of the researchers from the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, finds that a fitness tracker (健康追踪器) probably does not help with weight loss.

The trackers are designed to record your physical activity. They are usually worn around the wrist (手腕), where they record a person’s heart rate. The research team looked at two groups of people. The first wore a fitness tracker and took part in health consultation (咨询) with experts for best weight-loss plan. The researchers compared this group with people who only got health consultation.

The study found that those only speaking with the health experts lost nearly 6 kilograms, but those using a fitness tracker lost only 3.5 kilograms. John Jakicic, the lead researcher, questioned the use of these trackers for weight loss.

The study involved 470 people aged between 18 and 35. Some of them were overweight, while others were considered obese (肥胖). Over three fourths of them were women. All were told to increase physical activity and start on a low-calorie diet. They had their weight measured once every six months. After six months, researchers divided the group into two parts: one continued with monthly consulting, while members of the other group were given a fitness tracker. Eighteen months later, both groups showed great improvements in fitness, physical activity and diet, with no big difference between groups. However, when it came to losing weight, the people who only spoke with experts lost nearly twice as much weight.

Jakicic said, “The study’s findings are important because effective long-term treatments are needed to deal with America’s obesity.” More information is needed, he added, to learn how to best use these trackers to help adults who want to lose weight.

【推荐3】There are too many fat people in America, so many Americans are fighting against overweight. But the strange thing is that the French, who consume rich food, continue to stay thin. Now a research by Cornell University suggests how life style and decisions about eating may affect weight. Researchers concluded that the French tend to stop eating when they feel full. However, Americans tend to stop when their plates are empty or their favorite TV show is over.

According to Dr. Joseph Mercola, a health expert, the French see eating as an important part of their life style. They enjoy food and therefore spend a fairly long time at the table, while Americans see eating as something to be squeezed between the other daily activities. Mercola believes Americans lose the ability to sense when they are actually full. So they keep eating long after the French would have stopped. In addition, he points out that Americans drive to huge supermarkets to buy canned and frozen foods for the week. The French, instead tend to shop daily, walking to small shops and farmers’ markets where they have a choice of fresh fruits, vegetables, and eggs as well as high-quality meats for each meal.

After a visit to the United States, Mireille Guiliano, author of French Women Don’t Get Fat, decided to write about the importance of knowing when to stop rather than suggesting how to avoid food. Today she continues to stay slim and rarely goes to the gym.

In spite of all these differences, evidence shows that recent life style changes may be affecting French eating habits. Today the rate of obesity(肥胖)among adults is only 6%. However, as American fast food gains acceptance and the young reject older traditions, the obesity rate among French children has reached 17%-and is growing.