Ditch bad diets for good

After breaking up with my last ex, I made a list of qualities I was looking for in a significant other.

I was determined not to start another relationship that was bound to fail, or slide back into old patterns that made me miserable.

Each time I met a new guy, I mentally scanned the list…easygoing, check; talks things out instead of walking away, check… Fifteen years later, I'm still happily hitched to the man I married just four months after we met, and I think the list has had a lot to do with our staying power.

Prescription for better sex

Sure, sex is all around us—in music, movies, the news, and even neighborhood drugstores. You’d think we’d all be having it, all the time.

We’re not.

In fact, in a recent study nearly 20 percent of American couples reveal that they hadn’t had any sex at all in the past month. MORE FROM HEALTH.COM:

A month off doesn’t mean you’re sex-starved (in clinical terms, that would be six months), but it’s certainly not a great way to keep a relationship strong. Physical intimacy, as we all know, is an important and necessary part of bonding. So, what’s going on here?

Are you tired all the time?

Renewing your energy is possible, once you learn to combat common causes of fatigue.

Culprit: A Vitamin or Mineral Deficiency
Having low levels of iron or vitamin D or B12 can make you feel tired, anxious, and weak, says Irene Park, a nurse practitioner in New York City. Many experts believe that a significant percentage of the U.S. population is deficient in vitamin D. “And lower levels of vitamin D can cause muscle weakness and pain,” says Keenan. Also, if you’re a woman of reproductive age, you’re statistically at greater risk for iron-deficiency anemia. More From Real Simple:

The only way to tell if you’re low in any vitamin or mineral is to see your doctor for a blood test. Meanwhile, to bolster your body’s stores, consider taking a multivitamin with at least 100 percent of your daily requirement of vitamins and minerals. (Experts generally advise that healthy adults also supplement with 1,000 to 2,000 international units of vitamin D daily.)

From iPad toilets to alien apps, CES brims with oddities

LAS VEGAS--CES is a bizarre proposition: thousands of people trying to digest news from thousands of exhibitors sandwiched between casinos, all punctuated by taxi rides narrated by the I-can't-believe-it's-not-butter voice of Steve Wynn.

And there are random bursts of heavy metal music.

Add to that ginormous booths, loud booths, babe-filled booths, swag-filled booths, and even booths with nothing in them.

But at the heart of CES are ideas, the lifeblood of innovation. And you don't have to go too far to find the far-out.

Just claw your way to the back end of the South Hall and you'll find purveyors of one-handed keyboards and smartphones with medical apps developed with alien assistance.

White House shoots down petition to build Death Star

The White House has rejected a proposal to build a Death Star, saying that in addition to its prohibitive construction costs, the current administration does not advocate destroying other planets.

Today's lighthearted official statement came in response to a petition posted in November to the White House's We The People platform that called for the administration to begin construction of a moon-size military battlestation armed with a planet-destroying superlaser by 2016. The petition, which attracted well more than the minimum 25,000 signatures necessary for a response from the White House, suggested that such a project could give the nation's economy a much-needed boost: