If you’re headed to a barbecue this weekend, have fun! Eat well! But…know that you can enjoy yourself and manage to still fit into those shorts and cute summer dresses.

Here are a few healthy Memorial Day tips:

READ: Guilt-Free Diet Tips For Memorial Day

1. Snack before you go. Why? Because if you show up starving, you’ll overeat. Not only that, but you’ll more than likely choose the higher-calorie and higher-fat foods.

But it’s the relationship with nurses in the immediate aftermath of a disaster and their ongoing care that often makes a major difference in a patient’s life.
According to an annual Gallup poll, nurses have been voted the most trusted profession for the 13th year in a row, surpassing doctors and police officers.
In fact, the American Association of Critical Care Nurses has posted on its website links for nurses who want to volunteer their services in the wake of the Oklahoma tornado disaster.

The Association’s National Teaching Institute & Critical Care Exposition and the Advanced Practice Institute is being held this week in Boston, where critical care nurses can update their knowledge and refine their skills.

“By virtue of their roles and the work they do, they care about patients as people and patients recognize that. And because of that patients trust nurses, which allows them to have privileged relationships with patients unlike other members of the health care team,” nurse Alice Benjamin said in a recent interview.

Benjamin, a nationally board certified Advanced Practice Nurse and Clinical Nurse Specialist at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in California, with more than 15 years experience specializing in cardiovascular health, said that for many patients, nurses become extended family. Nurses, she said, are asked the questions that some patients are afraid to ask their doctors and become privy to the back stories that provide critical information to assist in the patient’s care.

Nurses are also the extra ears and eyes when the doctor is not present and they provide the comforting touch that patients and their loved ones need in a time of crisis. Doctors seldom know the whole story and focus on the primary problem that appears to be at issue. It is the nurses who provide information on extenuating circumstances or other issues that may not present themselves, but are underlying problems for patients.

Benjamin, who is also the co-chair of the American Heart/Stroke Association’s Western States Region Health Equity Task Force, has extensive experience in various medical, surgical and even burn intensive care units caring for critically ill patients.

Three months after giving birth to her first son, Amber Rose is on a mission to get her old body back!

The 29-year-old beauty revealed that she’s working out “an hour and a half a day” to get it right and tight.

“I have a really good personal trainer,” she said during an interview with E! “Her name is Jeanette Jenkins. Yeah, I work out every day.”

MUST READ: Amber Rose Gets Her Undying Love For Wiz Khalifa Inked On Her Arm [POLL]

“I was 202 pounds when I had my son. But I’m tall, so it didn’t look like it,” she confessed. “It’s hard to get off baby weight. It’s a different kind of weight because for nine months you stretch your stomach out and then it’s hard to get that back. I’m working on it. I lost like thirty-some pounds already.”

Amber went on to gush about the joys of motherhood.

“He’s a little fat boy,” she said of  baby boy Sebastian. ”He’s a little munch.”

Beau Wiz Khalifa said lil Sebastian is “full of himself.”

Now, if you eat out more than once a day, these excesses can make restaurants incredibly unhealthy places to eat, adding to the obesity epidemic and increasing diners’ risk for heart disease. Recent studies have found that typically ordered restaurant meals contain more than half the calories the person would need per day. Your average serving — just an entree, no drinks, no appetizers, no desserts – can be virtually a whole day’s calories on one plate.

One study found 73 percent of the meals ordered had over half of the 2,000 daily calories recommended for adults by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and 12 meals contained more than the full daily recommendation. Large portion sizes seemed key, because prior research has shown that people tend to eat what is placed in front of them. When restaurants provide these [large] portions — which are far more than the human body can process — they are very directly contributing to the terrible epidemic of obesity we have today.

Meals with the highest average number of calories included those from restaurants specializing in Italian (1,755 calories), American (1,494 calories) and Chinese (1,474 calories) fare. Meals with the fewest average number of calories were from Vietnamese (922 calories) and Japanese (1,027 calories) restaurants, the researchers said.

Music icon and actress Janet Jackson is known for her catchy songs, beautiful voice and incredible dance moves. While it’s no secret that she’s battled with her weight in the past, today she looks better than she ever has, thanks to key lifestyle changes.

Here’s how Janet makes her fitness routine a little bit more “pleasurable.”

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1. Change Up Your Routine Often

“I don’t like to work out, and I get bored easily,” Jackson says. “Tony [her trainer] is great. He comes up with something new all the time. When I’m getting ready for a tour, I’ll work out with the dancers to build my endurance. He’ll put us in teams, and we’ll do all sorts of drills and races. Everybody is drenched with sweat before we start one dance step.”

2. Slim Down With Sports

Comedienne and actress Mo’Nique’s Oscar-winning performance in 2009’s “Precious” put her on the map in Hollywood, after she spent her career embracing her big girl status, often saying bigger is better.

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But when her health became a factor, Mo’Nique made the decision to lose the weight. Now, she’s using her star power to inspire her fans to lose weight.

“For a long time I was a child in my way of thinking. I thought that I could eat what I wanted, do
what I wanted, and was reckless in the sense of abusing my body. That’s when I was younger. I think that the journey I have to take now is that I have babies. I have a son who is 23, but I also have a son who is nine. And we have twins who are seven. I want to meet their children. I want to be able to play with their children. I don’t want to be a burden on my family due to self-neglect….I was fortunate to watch my grandmother play with my children. I want to be in the same position.”

Two other reasons for her change of heart for her health is being diagnosed with high blood pressure and topping out at 262 pounds.

But actually, PTSD is a serious condition that can develop after any ordeal, particularly sexual or physical assault, the death of a loved one, an accident, or a natural disaster.

About 3.6% of adult Americans (or 5.2 million people) suffer from PTSD during the course of a year, and an estimated 7.8 million Americans will experience PTSD at some point in their lives.

What is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder?

PTSD is a serious condition that can develop after a person has experienced or witnessed a traumatic or terrifying event in which serious physical harm occurred or was threatened. It can cause intense fear, helplessness, or horror.

What are the symptoms of PTSD?

Most people who experience a traumatic event will have various and extreme reactions that typically go away with time. However, in cases of PTSD, these feelings continue and even increase, preventing the person from living a normal life.

Symptoms of PTSD most often begin within three months of the event, but can sometimes begin years after the event.

Symptoms of PTSD often are grouped into three main categories, including:

Reliving: People with PTSD repeatedly relive the ordeal through thoughts and memories of the trauma. These may include flashbacks, hallucinations, and nightmares. They also may feel great distress when certain things remind them of the trauma.

Avoiding: The person may avoid people, places, thoughts, or situations that may remind him or her of the trauma. This can lead to feelings of detachment and isolation, as well as a loss of interest in activities that the person once enjoyed.

Increased/Decreased Emotion: This includes showing too much or too little affection; difficulty falling or staying asleep; irritability; outbursts of anger; difficulty concentrating; and being easily startled. The person may also suffer physical symptoms, such as increased blood pressure and heart rate, rapid breathing, muscle tension,nausea, and diarrhea.

Young children with PTSD may suffer from delayed development in areas such as toilet training, motor skills, and language.

The Faces of PTSD

There are several factors that can cause fertility issues, such as age, endometriosis, irregular periods, issues with a man’s sperm, etc. so it’s important that people understand their bodies to take charge of their fertility health. Unfortunately, for most couples, there are no warning signs for infertility until they begin trying to get pregnant. Here are some common myths about infertility debunked courtesy of First Response spokesperson Dr. Mary Jane Minkin, clinical professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Yale University School of Medicine.

MYTH #1: Fertility problems only occur after age 35.

FACT: According to Dr. Minkin, while age is definitely a factor in a woman’s chances of getting pregnant, it’s not the only one. Endometriosis, irregular periods and Polycystic Ovary Syndrome may also limit the chances of becoming pregnant. Fertility is complex. Women under 35 years of age who have been trying to get pregnant for over 12 months, or women 35 years of age or older who have been trying to get pregnant for 6 months should consult a physician.

MYTH #2: Having sex as much as possible will increase chances of conception.

FACT: Chances of conception are highest during the time of the woman’s ovulation. To ensure you know the two days of your cycle when you’re most fertile and more likely to conceive, track your cycle with a product such as the FIRST RESPONSE™ Digital Ovulation Test. This test remembers your body’s hormone level to detect your personal LH surge and the 24-36 hours when you are most likely to conceive.

Chances are, the words “fat-free”, “reduced-calorie”, “all-natural”, “vitamin-enriched”, etc. have been stamped somewhere onto it. And chances are, what you think those words mean isn’t actually the case.

So…what do those food labels really mean?