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Debloating Chia Seed Drink From Celebrity Trainer Valerie Waters

Leta Shy — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:03:22 PST

If you've been feeling sluggish and bloated, it's time for a new morning ritual. Celebrity trainer Valerie Waters always starts the morning with this prebreakfast, preworkout drink. It's a simple way to get a jump-start on your daily fiber, omega-3s, and other nutrients, and helps with elimination to keep you feeling bloat-free.

Valerie recommends it to all her clients, famous or not, "I can't tell you how many people said it made such a difference," she says. "Most people don't get enough fiber, and they especially don't get enough fiber when they are cutting carbs, and they're cutting carbs because they eat too much crap and that's where their bad foods are - carbs. When they're on my plan and I've asked them to take those out and focus on vegetables and fruit and sweet potatoes and things like that, I get them to drink this to increase their vegetable intake to bring the fiber back up. It also helps them during the detox period because it helps with elimination."

You'll just need three ingredients for this drink, and don't worry, the coconut water masks the taste of the supergreens. Read on for the debloating drink recipe.

Messed Up on an Interview? Ask For Another Chance

Emily Co — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:00:04 PST

If thinking about your last interview makes you cringe, you may want to ask your interviewer for a second go at it if you know you're qualified for the position. Apparently, it can work in some circumstances, according to Glassdoor.com. But you need to be honest and humble when attempting to ask for another chance. Another idea to get a second interview is to ask someone to step in for you. Perhaps a friend, colleague, or recruiter who is willing to vouch for you and your abilities.

Sometimes asking for a second interview may work for you, because the employer may view it in a positive light and respect your attempt. Glassdoor says:

It takes courage to request a second chance and some employers may admire that, said Tashana Sims-Hudspeth, a Columbus, Ohio-based human resource manager who also teaches on HR and being successful in college. She suggests an approach that includes an apology, a general explanation of what went wrong, and a request for a second chance. The candidate must be very clear how much they want to work at the employer and then use their personal judgment on giving a detailed explanation on what contributed to their bad performance.

If you were told that you weren't picked because another job candidate had a skill you didn't possess, Keystone Associate’s Pennell Locey says you should take a six-week class to brush up on the skill, or gain the experience through volunteering for a two-month charity project. After you've gained the knowledge or the experience, write back to the hiring manager to let them know that you have put in the effort to attain the missing skills and experience they were looking for. If you do possess those qualities, Locey encourages job seekers to write a brief follow-up email and cite one or two examples that highlight them. Personally, I think there's no harm in trying for a second chance and that the worst response you can get is a "no." As long as you go about it with finesse, reaching out to employers again might leave them with a good, and more memorable, impression of you, and they may potentially keep you in mind for future positions.

Whitney's Chris D'Elia Is Back With More Relationship Advice

Annie Scudder — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:00:09 PST

Single and looking for eligible, normal guys? Don't move to LA, says Chris D'Elia, who plays a lovable and hilarious boyfriend on NBC's Whitney. That's some of the advice the standup comedian dished out in response to our readers' questions. Yesterday he addressed your Valentine's Day dilemmas, and today's he's back to tackle general dating and love debacles.

Is it fair to barter TV shows with my fiancé? As in, two hours of The Bachelor equals half of a football game?

Chris: Look, I don't like football, but if I did and I wanted to watch it, then I would expect to have to sit and watch something like The Bachelor, and I would try my best to get into it, or at least find why she liked it. The other alternative is like, "OK, I want to watch football you want to watch The Bachelor, then let's agree on something else." But then neither of you get to watch what you want to. For The Bachelor, I'd want to watch Dexter.

Where do normal men hang out in LA? If you can solve this mystery (preferably with a chart that includes days of the week, locations, and "type" of guy) I guarantee you could sell it for millions in addition to making this single lady very happy.

Chris: I don't think that's a fair question. I think people move to LA because they're not normal.

What's the best way to suggest to any man that he needs to get some new clothes?

Chris: The worst thing you could do is beat around the bush, or side step it. You got to just say it. But I had an ex, and she was like "you got to get Converse," and she kept saying it - "get Converse." I was finally like, "OK, I'll get a pair of Converse." And I got a pair of Converse. I got those regular Chuck Taylor ones, but I literally got every single color of the Converse, and I wore them all the time. And a year later, she was like "All you wear is Converse." So you have to be careful with that, you'll create a monster.

Why do men need their man caves?

Chris: I think that men think they need their man caves. They don't really do. They think they want them, and then the second they do get them and they have alone time and time away from the girl, and the girl is really cool with giving them alone time, then that's when they, or at least I, start to think, "So, why are you so cool with me being alone? What's wrong with me that you don't want to be with me every second."

How can I ask my husband to do housework without sounding like a task master?

Chris: Don't make a list. Don't pin anything up on the fridge. I'm a dude, obviously, and when I'm not in a relationship, I don't do any of that stuff. I don't do laundry until I want to. But if I live with a girl, you have to do it when she wants to or when we want to, which sucks. That totally messes up my day. So just come out and just say it. Just have a good attitude about it and don't wait until you get frustrated.

How would you describe your perfect woman and how could she attract your attention?

Chris: Tweet at me. That gets my attention. The number one thing is, you have to have a good attitude. Find the humor and the fun in things that aren't even fun. The two things that turn me off completely are negativity and if a girl's cheap. I mean, I'll pay for everything, but if a girl just mentions it, that's a turn off. That and DON'T WEAR FLIP-FLOPS. It's terrible. I mean come on. Put something on your feet. What if you have to run away? You're dead.

I'm moving in with my boyfriend next month and it's the first time I'm living with a man. What should I prepare for? Get the answer and much more advice from Chris below!

We're Sweet on Vintage Valentine's Day Ads

Tara Sharp — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 08:23:58 PST

Happy Valentine's Day! Take a trip back in time with these funny, cute, romantic, and sometimes sexist vintage V-Day ads. According to these ads, it seems the best way to impress a woman (and get some lovin') on Feb. 14 is with a box of chocolates, and for men it's cake. Alluding to sexual favors in exchange for Valentine's Day gifts may seem retro, but the concept hasn't gone away in advertising, as we saw in Teleflora's "give and receive" Super Bowl ad over the weekend. See some of the good, bad, and most bizarre vintage V-Day ads!

How to Throw a Moneyball-Themed Oscar Party

Shannon Vestal — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 05:30:21 PST

It may not be baseball season quite yet, but you can get that feeling if you throw an Oscar viewing party and let best picture nominee Moneyball be your inspiration. The film might even make for a better theme than Midnight in Paris or The Artist, depending on your crowd. Here's how to score a home run at your Oscar gathering (and don't forget to fill out a ballot for a chance to win an iPad.)

How to decorate: Bring out baseballs, bats, gloves, and any other sports memorabilia you may have. String up streamers in green and yellow (the Oakland A's colors), and nod to the movie's financial theme by decorating with fake dollar bills. If you really want to tie in the film, get a life-size Brad Pitt cutout (which wouldn't be a bad thing to have around, anyway).
How to dress: Wear the shirt of your baseball team of choice, but to really mirror the film, rock Oakland A's gear, or at least their colors.
What to serve: Traditional ballpark fare like hot dogs, beer, cotton candy, and peanuts in the shell, of course. Bake cookies or cake pops and frost them to look like baseballs.

Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures

Corsets: Lots of Controversy Squeezed Into One Undergarment

Tara Sharp — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:40:11 PST

Nowadays, women who want a trimmer waist in a pinch typically turn to Spanx or some other body-slimming underwear. But when it's less about practicality and more about looking sexy in nothing but your skivvies (like for your Valentine's Day date night, for instance), you may choose to don a corset. While modern women are free to wear these fitted underpinnings whenever we want to spice things up in the bedroom, corsets and the idealized tiny waists they create have a long and controversial history that doesn't seem to be going away any time soon.

Just last September, Vogue Italia controversially featured Ethel Granger and her 13-inch waist, which she achieved by wearing a corset 24-7. Ethel, who holds the record for the smallest waist in recorded history, went through the painful process for her husband. Her motivation brings up one of the main issues with corsets: are they for the men or the women? And Romanian-born model Ioana Spangenberg, "the human hourglass," is being criticized for setting a bad example with her 20-inch waist, even though she claims she can't help her shape and didn't use corsets to achieve it.

To find out more about what made corsets so controversial back in their heyday (including info from Valerie Steele's book The Corset: A Cultural History), let's look back at some of the vintage ads and photos of these constrictive undergarments and the nonhuman-like shapes they created on women.

Celerie Kemble's Brilliant Advice on Choosing Colors

Elka Karl — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 04:00:13 PST

I was so pleased to stumble upon a great interview that Bob Vila conducted with designer Celerie Kemble. The long interview is full of great advice, and topics range from color to showhouses to kids' rooms, as well as Kemble's book Black and White (and a Bit in Between).

Since so many people get stuck on the rules of decorating with color, I thought that this advice from the interview was particularly helpful:

Know Your Base Neutrals

I think that it's important to know your base non-color so that your whites or your creams are pretty consistent throughout the space, and people forget that. They concentrate on a color, and they miss that the most cohesive element might be having all of your whites (for trim and molding) be the same. The next thing is to look at the value of each color. I don’t believe you have to limit the number of colors or that there are bad color combinations, but you do need to consider the hues, tones, and shades of the colors.

There Are No Wrong Color Combinations

I think all colors could be made to work together, but what people need to do is be sure to vary the intensity and value. If you have five strong, bold colors in one room, it's just going to feel blocky, heavy, and dark. You need some colors that have a slight amount of opacity, transparency, a lightness, a feathering.

That's not all Celerie has to say - keep reading the interview with Celerie Kemble.

What to TiVo: Monday

BuzzSugar — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 23:59:31 PST

8:00 The Bachelor (new)
10:00 Castle (new)
12:00 Jimmy Kimmel Live (new, with guests Jeff Goldblum and David Alan Grier)

8:00 How I Met Your Mother (new)
8:30 2 Broke Girls (new)
9:00 Two and a Half Men (new)
9:30 Mike & Molly (new)
10:00 Hawaii Five-0 (new)
11:35 Late Show With David Letterman (new, with guest Reese Witherspoon)
12:37 The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson (new, with guests Carol Burnett and Phil Keoghan)

8:00 House (new)
9:00 Alcatraz (new)

8:00 The Voice (new)
10:00 Smash (new)
11:35 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno (new, with guest Jennifer Lopez)
12:35 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon (new, with guests Nicolas Cage, Curt Schilling, and John Besh)

8:00 Gossip Girl (new)
9:00 Hart of Dixie (new)

Savvy Confessions: To Pay or Not to Pay

Savvy Community — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 03:05:53 PST

This reader posted in our anonymous Savvy Confessions group, asking if she should crash at her friend's for free. Do you have any advice for her?

I recently moved to a new city to job search. My friend offered her place for me to stay rent-free while I job search. I've been here for a month now and I've offered to pay for half the rent, but she insists that I don't. She's been so gracious to let me stay, and I do my best to try to cover costs where I can (groceries, buying her dinner, etc.) However, I still feel bad for not paying rent. While I really want to pay her part of the rent, it also really helps me cut costs not having to pay it since I'm still unemployed. Should I force her to take the rent or just tell her thank you for offering me her place to stay and pay it forward to her in the future?

Pose your own anonymous questions or off-load your work confessions by posting in the Savvy Confessions group, and I'll find the right expert to help you out.

Rewind: Our Predictions on the Toughest Oscar Matchups

BuzzSugar — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 03:05:08 PST

Be sure to check out our new video of the the toughest head-to-head Oscar matchups and see our predictions for who will take home the Oscar!

Winter can't come fast enough: We got our first look at Game of Thrones season two.

The Oscars are coming! The Oscars are coming! Don't forget to a ballot for a chance to win an iPad, and keep track of all the nominated films you've seen with our checklist. Get some viewing party inspiration with our ideas for theming it like Midnight in Paris or The Artist.

Speaking of the nominees, we dug up their bad movies pasts and showed you the films that star multiple nominees.

The full-length trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man has finally arrived! See Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone in this extended look of the much-anticipated film.

The doctor is out: Fox announced that House would come to an end after eight seasons.

We got peeks at upcoming movies: Kristen Stewart is the fairest of them all in Snow White and the Huntsman photos, and we saw stills from The Avengers as well.

The Vampire Diaries stars bared all as Nina Dobrev and Ian Somerhalder got naked for the cover of Entertainment Weekly.

Feel the love: Watch our supercut of hot actors saying "I love you."

Read our interview with the adorable Bret McKenzie, who is nominated for an Oscar for the music of The Muppets.

There's a new action hero in town! Check out Jeremy Renner in The Bourne Legacy teaser.

We chatted with What to Expect When You're Expecting star Elizabeth Banks about her experience working on the film and what it's like to be a real-life mama.