What exactly is “metabolism”? We hear the term thrown around in phrases like, “I’m trying to lose weight, but I have a slow metabolism,” and, “She eats so much but has a fast metabolism, so she never gains weight.”

Metabolism is the rate at which your body burns the amount of energy, usually measured in calories, in order to maintain itself. “Speeding up your metabolism” is actually increasing the volume of calories and the rate at which your body needs to burn those calories, for normal daily activities.

An increased metabolism can lead to increased energy, quicker fat burning, and fewer health risks.

Here are 5 Tips to help increase your metabolism:

(1) Eat small and frequent meals: Try to eat 4-6 small meals a day. When we eat a large meal and then fast for an extended time, our bodies go into “starvation mode”. They try to turn whatever calories we have from our previous meal into fat and store them for later use. Eating multiple small meals during the day will allow your body to use all the energy from these meals immediately, making you feel healthier, more energized, and more productive.

Read all »

The Simple Dollar, “an exploration of personal finance from the perspective of a late-twentysomething who just realized that he needs to get a grip on his money”, has a great article about how to save time and money on during your daily routine. He recommends tips like:

• “…drive a slightly longer route to and from work in order to avoid temptation.”

• “…save small, menial tasks for the hour before bed.”

• “…have only two email sessions a day, and I empty my email inbox at the end of every email session.”

Check out the full article:

Twelve Invaluable Life and Money Hacks: Little Daily Steps for Finding the Money and Time to Get Things Done

[ TheSimpleDollar.com ]

As all digital camera owners know, searching through countless image files named something like “P1010024.jpg” can be an ominous task.

One way to prevent this is to manually go into each folder you upload and rename each image individually. However, how many of us can really perform such a tedious and inefficient action? Hardly any, I’m sure.

Luckily, if you are running Windows XP, it is possible to rename all files (not only images) with a sequential suffix.

Check out how at:

Rename your digital photos automatically in Windows XP [ CNet.com ]

Matt Cutts from has posted a set of 11 tips to get more use out of Gmail.

Matt says: “Considering that real Gmail users didn ’t know about these options, I’m going to call them power tips.”

These tips will help you organize your inbox and speed up your email composition.

An example:

“…instead of using ‘c’ to compose a new email, type ‘C’ and you’ll open a new window to compose your email. It looks like using ‘R’ instead of ‘r’ to reply will open a new email for replies too.”

11 Power Tips for Gmail