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I hope your week is going well and I'm sure you're looking forward another beautiful spring weekend!

The BLOG this week focuses on food & health - featuring a great women's health article on "The 8 Worst Health Mistakes Even Smart People Make"- from Prevention.com, the "Best in Fast Food" - a video from the Food & Wine section of the Today Show website. And a super cute video that's sure to make you laugh (or at least smile a little!)!

"The 8 Worst Health Mistakes Even Smart People Make"
Article from the editors of Prevention.com

You're supposed to watch saturated fat and eat lots of vegetables—that's why you usually pick up a salad for lunch and dinner (even when the kids get burgers). But you're not obsessed with the scale like some women you know. You brush your teeth twice a day, and you last flossed, oh, maybe 2 weeks ago. You exercise but avoid lifting so you don't bulk up. The tummy pains you got last week? Must have been gas—nothing serious. And hey, you'd like to get 8 hours of sleep, but the days are short, and it's hard to get everything done. Sound familiar? These so-called "good" habits may actually be derailing your health. Here, experts share the surprising things you're doing wrong—and how to recover.

1. You always order a salad
Don't assume that bowl of lettuce is always the healthiest menu pick.

Truth is, a lot of take-out and restaurant salads are basically a burger in a bowl, says Brie Turner-McGrievy, RD, clinical research coordinator for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) in Washington, DC. That's because add-ons like fried chicken, croutons, and full-fat dressing pack major calories, fat, sodium, and other unhealthy nutrients. One example: McDonald's Bacon Ranch Salad with Crispy Chicken and Newman's Own Ranch Dressing has 540 calories and 35 grams of fat; a Big Mac has 540 calories and 29 grams.

The Fix: Don't scratch take-out salad off your menu; just use a few commonsense rules before you order. Avoid high-fat add-ons such as sour cream, extra cheese, croutons, bacon bits, and creamy dressings like Caesar and ranch. Opt for salads that aren't just a fiber-free mound of iceberg lettuce dotted with a few carrot and red cabbage shavings. And plan ahead: Most fast-food chains supply nutritional info online so you can scout out the best options before you leave.

2. You avoid the scale
For some women, this is the only thing in the house gathering more dust than the treadmill.

Doctors call scale-phobia an avoidance behavior. The idea behind it: If I don't know for sure that I gained weight, maybe I didn't. You're most likely to duck the scale after a few days, weeks, or months of eating whatever you want. "For some people, getting back on the scale can be a help," says Kelly Brownell, PhD, director of the Yale Center for Eating and Weight Disorders. "The trick is knowing whether or not it will motivate you." But if you're trying to lose weight or maintain weight loss, you may need the kind of feedback the scale provides, says Brownell. If you weigh yourself regularly, you can notice a gain when it's easier to shed—at 3 pounds, say, instead of 15. But it's important not to get so obsessed with the numbers that you're weighing yourself once or twice daily. Your weight can vary from day to day, even hour to hour.

The Fix: If you're trying to lose weight, get on the scale monthly. Do it first thing in the morning, naked, after you use the bathroom, and at the same time in your menstrual cycle—not when you're likely to have water-weight gain. If you're maintaining weight you've recently lost, hop on at least once a week. That's how the biggest "losers" in the National Weight Control Registry—the largest study of people who've been successful at long-term weight loss—stay slim. Don't freak out over anything less than a 5-pound gain; that's a normal fluctuation. But if you find yourself drifting higher than that, it's time to rein yourself.

3. You wear contacts no matter what
It's safer to switch to glasses when you're under the weather.

Fighting a cold? If you normally wear contacts, switch to eyeglasses. Your eyes don't work as well when you're sick, say researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Optometry. A decline in tear production makes contact lens wearers more prone to conjunctivitis—a.k.a. pinkeye. So can using antihistamine meds, which also dry out eyes.

The Fix: Wear your specs until you're feeling better, experts advise, or switch to daily-wear disposable lenses

4. You assume home cooking is always healthier
Making your own meals is usually healthier than takeout, but your cookbook may not be as slimming as you think.

Beware the creeping-calorie trend among time-tested recipes: When food scientists at Cornell University analyzed the 18 recipes that have appeared in each edition of The Joy of Cooking—the iconic cookbook, updated every 10 years since 1936—they found that the average calories per serving have increased nearly 40%. Even though the dishes—such as macaroni and cheese, chicken a la king, brownies, and apple pie—are essentially the same, richer ingredients and larger serving sizes have inflated calorie counts.

The Fix: Use our portion control finder to make sure you can gauge realistic meal sizes; then freeze leftovers in individual containers so you eat one portion at a time, not two or three.

5. Your faucet's always at the same temperature
When you cook or drink, keep it cool. When you wash your hands, turn up the heat.

When you're soaping up after the bathroom, warm-to-hot water is necessary to kill germs. But when you're quenching your thirst or prepping a meal, make sure to draw water from the cold tap. Hot water is likely to contain higher levels of lead, says the EPA, because it dissolves the toxic metal in plumbing more quickly than cold water does. About 15% of our lead exposure in the United States comes from drinking water. High blood lead levels have been linked to a host of health problems. Just 4 ug/dl (micrograms per deciliter) can double your risk of a fatal heart attack or stroke, and similar levels may cause memory loss, says Eliseo Guallar, MD, PhD, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins.

The Fix: If you haven't turned on the faucet for 6 hours or more, let it run cold for a minute before using, the EPA advises—and use only water filters bearing a seal from NSF International, a company that certifies products' lead-removing abilities.

6. Your friends have bad health habits
With friends like these, you may need to watch your waistline.

If a close pal had an unhealthy amount of weight gain, your chances of packing on pounds increase by 57%, found one Harvard University study; if that friend is the same gender as you, odds rise by 71%. Having heavyset friends around appears to stretch your own notion of what's acceptable for body size, says lead author Nicholas Christakis, MD, PhD, allowing weight gain to spread like a disease through social networks. Your pals can affect how much you drink too. If your work friends frequent the local happy hour, you may give yourself permission to overindulge at home. University of Texas researchers found that people were 82% more likely to be heavy drinkers when their coworkers held liberal views about alcohol.

The Fix: Maintain your own beliefs about what is healthy—and avoid being swayed by friends and their weight gain. "Those around us can influence us in ways we don't realize," says Christakis. If your friends are sharing unhealthy apps at dinner, order the usual healthy choice you would have with a different crowd.

7. You drive with the windows down
Commuting may be hazardous to your lungs.

University of Southern California scientists studied urban commuters and found that though they spend only 6% of their day in the car, during that time they're exposed to up to 45% of the air pollutants they encounter in a 24-hour period. That makes getting to work in car-centric cities the second biggest weekday health risk—topped only by smoking.

The Fix: During a trafficky commute, driving with windows shut and air recirculating helps somewhat, say researchers; taking a train or biking on less busy roads can have an even healthier impact.

8. You don't check your doctor's track record
Having an operation? An overachieving surgeon could save your life.

A review of the medical records of 474,000 surgery patients found that their doctors' experience was the strongest predictor of who survived and who didn't. This result overturns long-held advice that simply choosing a high-volume hospital (one that does a lot of procedures) ensures the safest surgery. Two examples: Pancreatic cancer patients were nearly 4 times more likely to die after surgery, and heart valve—replacement patients were 44 percent more likely to die, when the procedures were performed by less experienced doctors, compared with more practiced surgeons.

The Fix: To check your surgeon's experience, call her office and ask: Is she a fellow of the American College of Surgeons? Is she board certified in her specialty? How many surgeries of the type you need has she performed in the past year? How does her success rate compare with the national average? Has she ever had to pay to settle a malpractice claim or been disciplined by a hospital or a state medical licensing board?

For more women's health information, visit the Prevention Magazine website

"The Best in Fast Food"
Video provided by the Today Show

During this time of economic stress, everyone's looking for the best deals and ways to save the most money. Watch the video below to find out where the best fast food values are!!
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

For more great Food & Wine videos, visit the Today Show Website

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