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DRINK THIS, DROP POUNDS

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Sipping green tea before a workout may help you incinerate your spare tire faster.

There's an affordable way to get more fat-burning power from your workouts, and it doesn't involve hiring a personal trainer or drinking a weird-tasting liquid from a fancy sports bottle. Sipping green tea before a workout may help you incinerate your spare tire faster. In one small study, extracts from green tea helped men burn 17 per cent more fat during a 30-minute, moderate-intensity cardio workout. It's not clear how green tea boosts metabolism, but it's possible that something in the healthy brew makes fat more available as fuel, so you oxidize more of it when you exercise. And, unlike sports drinks, green tea doesn't contain calories, so you don't even have to do extra time to burn off the beverage. Plus, while it's turning your workout into a fat-blitzing bonanza, green tea is also helping to steady your blood pressure, protect your memory and cut your cancer risk. That's a lot of power in a little teabag. Just keep two things in mind if you usually do your workouts after the sun goes down: Green tea contains some caffeine (about 30 mg per 8 ounces), and a good night's sleep may do more for your weight loss efforts than green tea will.

30 MINUTES TO A BETTER MOOD

In the time it takes to fast-forward through two PVR'd sitcoms that aren't all that that funny anyway, you can lift your mood. You've probably already heard - likely from some smiley, tennis-racquet-slinging type - that exercise helps alleviate depression and improve well-being over the long term. Well, you don't have to be a long-term exerciser, and you definitely don't have to wear tennis whites, to reap the benefits. In fact, the mood-enhancing rewards of physical activity may show up after a single 30-minute walk. Even better, the mood lifting happens if you simply walk at a moderate pace: 60 per cent to 70 per cent of your maximum heart rate for 30 minutes. (For the average 55-year-old, that's about 100 heartbeats per minute.) In a study that compared walkers with people who just loafed around for 30 minutes, the walkers all got relief from depressive symptoms, including confusion, anger, distress and fatigue. Plus, they got significant improvements in their sense of well-being, a benefit the loafers didn't get. By the way, both groups of people weren't just down after watching the economy tank (again); they had major depression. So if it worked for them, imagine what it can do for you after just a single rough day at home or the office. Although many kinds of depression respond to exercise, severe depression may also require professional intervention in the form of counseling, medication or both. Many studies have found that SAMe - a natural body substance that is often recommended for depression - may be as effective as standard antidepressants, without their side effects. While you can get SAMe without a prescription, if you're feeling depressed, your best route is still to go to a doctor first, not a pharmacy, but walk there!

GOT BURNED? DO THE RIGHT THING

What do you do the second after you burn yourself on the saute pan or your grill? (Note: We didn't ask what you say. We want to know what you do). Leave the butter in the fridge; the best thing you can do is quickly put ice water on it (not ice; ice water). This slows down the rush of inflammatory cells that create blistering and increase the damage of the burn. By the way, if it hurts, that's good. It means you didn't fry the full thickness of your skin. A deep burn kills nerves, so you don't actually feel it. Next, clean the area with soap and water to remove any dirt and bacteria. Apply a sterile moisturizer, like bacitracin or Neosporin, twice a day, and don't pop any blisters! They're the ideal sterile biologic dressing over the new skin that's quickly growing over the injured area. Mess with Mother Nature's protective covering, and scarring will be worse. Baby the burn a bit by covering it with fine gauze. Call the doc if the burn is on your hands, face or genitals (we won't ask) and is bigger than a nickel. She may want to treat it with an antibiotic cream called Silvadene that kills bacteria and keeps the burn moist.

THE EFFORTLESS WAY TO EAT MORE VEGGIES

Make an extra stop on your way home today. Not a pit stop or a pause at the neighbourhood bar, but a stop at the deli or the grocery store where they have that luscious-looking produce. It just may make you healthier: People who like where they buy their produce - i.e., they're satisfied with the selection and quality - tend to eat more of it than people who just don't click with their grocery store. Other ways to ensure you'll eat it: Sniff it first; if there's no fresh smell, don't purchase it. And look for the new "country of origin" stickers. Yes, we prefer local food in season. When you get it home, eat it quickly:

Nutrient content drops the longer produce sits around, even when it's refrigerated (with the exception of dark plums, which might get a little antioxidant boost with short storage). Some fruits hold up better than others: black grapes, apples, oranges and tomatoes (yes, these are fruits!), but it's still best to eat them when they're fresh. And keep them in the crisper: Exposure to light can make some nutrients flee. Know you won't be home much this week? Stock up on frozen fruits and vegetables. Some high-end chefs have even recently confessed to using frozen here and there (especially Brussels sprouts, peas, corn and yellow and red bell pepper strips). And us low-end You Docs often use frozen fruit in our berry-blaster smoothies. Since it's harvested at its peak, frozen produce may have more nutrients than fresh that has been picked early, then shipped and stored. So learn where your neighbourhood fruit and vegetable parlour is, and remember the names of the produce masters. You'll find out from them what's fresh and enjoy their expertise in steering you to the best-tasting foods.

THE TWO-SECOND WAY TO SAVE YOUR LIFE

Turn off your phone and put it away when you get in the car. You'll seriously up your odds of a longer and better life. No, don't switch to a headset, even though some states and provinces now mandate them as safer. Here's the thing: Hands-free devices don't necessarily make it safer for you to talk while driving. There's still the brain-free problem. A new study shows that chatting with someone you can't see uses up spatial attention - essential for driving well. Talking, especially the subconscious act of thinking about what you're going to say (even if it doesn't come out so thoughtfully), interferes with your visual attention even more than listening does. So it should be no surprise that driving while phoning gives you a four times higher crash risk than driving with the phone turned off and there only for emergencies. At all hours of the day and night, six per cent of American drivers are talking on cell phones. That's another reason to put yours away: Someone has to be alert around the people who are talking to their spouses on the phone, watching their kids in the backseat and reaching for their soy latte at the same time. Believe it or not, whole generations of people used to drive around quite happily without talking on the phone. Try it. You'll like it.