If you tend to feel bored at the gym and spend more time watching the clock, these easy tricks are sure to boost your motivation. Whether you’re just beginning a bikini-ready plan for the Summer or consider yourself a seasoned gym rat, here are 11 simple ways to fire up your indoor workouts: Vary your machines: If the treadmill is your best (and only) friend, it’s time to switch things up. Try the seated row, the stationary bike, the elliptical, or a mix of all four to keep your body guessing. Head for the hills: Ward off repetition by changing the incline regularly. The best part? You’ll tone your muscles and burn extra calories . Direct your thoughts: If you can’t stop thinking about how bored you are, try coming up with a new focus for every minute or mile. Plan your future wedding , imagine a dream home, or brainstorm your favorite songs and movies to distract yourself. Alternate weights and cardio: Rather than following a full strength workout with a long bout of cardio, mix up the two. Not only will you stave off boredom, but you’ll also give your metabolism an extra boost from the intervals. Change your listening habits: If you’re sick of your workout playlists, why not try an audiobook? What about a podcast? If you prefer something with a fast tempo while you run, reserve audiobooks and podcasts for incline walks or cool downs. Keep reading for more boredom busters

Amber Lewis takes us on a tour of her cool Southern California home The latest iPad 3 news Video: Look back at Oscar red carpet favorites Ten New Orleans pantry essentials Jobs bookworms will love Snaps of super cute animals Shop pretty pastel pieces for Spring Easy ways to acheive instant makeup perfection Real romances of the silent film era A sweet and whimsical kid’s birthday bash Gossip Girl love: Dan and Blair’s road to romance Seven ways to snack on fiber-rich avocado All the stars on the red carpet at the Brit Awards A tiny bedroom makeover

MIAMI (CBS4) – Six month old Mia is one of nearly 200 babies that helped in groundbreaking research conducted by Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. For 2 years, FAU Professor David Lewkowicz and his team studied where infants are looking, when adults like their parents are talking. “Very few people really have considered the possibility that learning language and learning how to speak really requires not only auditory information but visual information,” said Lewkowicz. Using a special eye-tracking device, researchers can see exactly where on the adult’s face the baby is focusing his or her eyes when the adult is speaking. Mia watches the adult’s eyes. But the study shows babies older than 6 months, focused most of their looks on the mouth region. “Our thinking is they’re doing it because they’re trying to access the most accurate information that represents the speech of their native language,” said Lewkowicz. Once infants reach a year old, their attention then goes back to the adults eyes. But Lewkowicz says it’s clear babies are learning as much from the visual cues, as the audible ones during that critical six month time period. Monica Vega’s daughter Cecilia is two years old. She told CBS4′s Natalia Zea that this study could have helped her and will help other parents. “The more information the better, it helps us all. Now you’ll focus on them looking at their mouth, like you’ll want them to look at you more when you’re speaking,” said Vega. The study also shows that parents may want to spend less time popping in DVDs for their little ones, and more time speaking face to face. The study may also help diagnose autism at an earlier age. Lewkowicz said children with autism have a tougher time moving their focus away from the lips and going back to focusing on the eyes after a year of age. But he admitted more studies need to be done in that area.

Whiplash is an injury to the cervical region of the spine when a great force causes the neck to go beyond its normal range of motion. The spinal vertebrae, ligaments, and muscles may be injured by this force, causing neck pain, headaches, neck stiffness , and/or cognitive difficulties such as dizziness or trouble concentrating. These symptoms may appear immediately or after a few days. read more

For married couples who are not planning to conceive a child just yet, several options on birth control and family planning are available. Among the options, there are artificial methods and natural family planning approaches, which include the fertility awareness method. In the artificial birth control, there are pills, barrier devices, injections and other strategies being used. For people who are utilizing the barrier devices, such as condoms and diaphragms, these devices could be of help. However, several couples complain on the reduction of sensation during sexual intercourse while the man is wearing a condom. On the other hand, a diaphragm application may also feel a bit uneasy on the woman. The barrier devices are not 100% foolproof. There are cases that some torn devices allow the passage of sperm through the cervix into the birth canal. Other methods such as having pills and injectables (Depo-provera) also pose a risk of several complications. Some women who employ such birth control measures experience bloating, prolonged cessation of menses and headaches. Some surveys even report that the long-term use of pills could advertently cause infertility. This is sad news for those who are planning to have children later. Because of the many disadvantages of artificial birth control, several couples employ the fertility awareness method. The utilization of the fertility awareness method makes use of the monthly signs of ovulation as the basis of having or not having intercourse. The measures included in the method comprise the calendar method, basal body temperature (BBT), cervical mucus monitoring and cervical observation. For women who have regular menses, the calendar method works more effectively. For a 28-day regular cycle of a woman, the ovulation occurs on the 14 th day from the first day of menstruation. An ovum could last for 12-24 hours after its release; a sperm, on the other hand, could actually survive within the womb for 2 to 3 days, even up to 5 days. In order to avoid the fertilization of the egg cell, intercourse should not be done 3 days before and 3 days after the peak of ovulation. For instance, if the ovulation of a woman is set on the 14 th day of the month, fertilization is most likely to occur from days 11-17. For women who have irregular menses, it is difficult to actually determine the safe and unsafe days. However, in fertility awareness method, a woman is asked to record the duration and interval of her menses in a span of 6-8 months. Thereafter, the longest and shortest cycles are identified. In order to know the safe and unsafe days, one should subtract 18 from the length of the shortest cycle and mark the result as the first fertile day.  Then, 11 should be subtracted from the length of the longest cycle. The answer is the day of the last fertile period . Basal body temperature works by taking one’s temperature before getting out of bed, consistently every day. Just before ovulation, the temperature drops briefly. During the 12 hours of ovulation, there is a marked increase of temperature which occurs briefly. After 3 days of sustained elevated temperature, the ovulation ends and the safe period begins. In order to make use of the cervical mucus monitoring, one should take note of the consistency (stretchy, thick, and sticky), color (cloudy, white, yellow, and clear) and the quality (wet, slippery, dry) of the cervical mucus. This could be collected by wiping the fingers on the vaginal area front to back. One would know the peak of ovulation if on the wettest day, the mucus is stretchy and transparent. Fertilization would most likely occur two days before and after the peak of the wettest day. The fertility awareness method has several advantages. It allows both partners to understand the reproductive cycle better and plan pregnancies ahead of time. In addition, it does not have any major side effects or complications. The only challenge that it entails is the commitment of the couples in abstaining from intercourse during the unsafe days.

Might the same kind of live auction used to sell a Monet or a Picasso also be used to sell a patent on an experimental drug? We’d never heard of such a thing until we read Nature Medicine’s news feature on auctions — yes, with a gavel and everything — for intellectual property rights, including life-science and medical patents. The appeal for an individual or company trying to sell a patent is clear; an auction avoids the cost and inefficiency of targeting individual buyers for a given piece of IP, as Igor Gonda, the CEO of specialty-pharma company Aradigm, tells Nature Medicine. “It costs us nothing up front,” he says. The company had six lots for sale at a recent auction held by patent brokerage ICAP Ocean Tomo. Whether sellers embrace the notion — and the IP being sold — is another matter. At that same recent auction, Nature Medicine says, only two of 29 medicine-related patents (for formulations of an epilepsy drug and an anesthetic) sold. And they sold before the auction itself. (ICAP Ocean Tomo says there’s interest in some of the lots that failed to sell at auction.) One seller who wanted to auction off rights to a new formulation of an osteoporosis drug hoped to get $800,000 for the patent. No one even bid the minimum amount, $100,000, the article says. Here’s a WSJ article about a previous IP auction at which only about 25% of the 75 lots being offered were sold. Image: iStockphoto

One of my favorite parts about Spring is the appearance of fava beans. The flat bean has a creamy, buttery texture and a slightly nutty flavor, which works well on its own or in salads, soups, and pastas. And given that it’s only in season from late March through May, you’ll want to enjoy these fava bean recipes as much as you can in the next few weeks. Warning: fava beans do take a some effort to prepare, but it’s totally worth it. I usually buy a few pounds at my farmers market and then go home to shuck, blanch, and shell. View Slideshow ›

The lumbar spine refers to the lower back, where the spine curves inward toward the abdomen. It starts about five or six inches below the shoulder blades, and connects with the thoracic spine at the top and extends downward to the sacral spine. read more

DrSugar is in the house! And she’s answering your health-related questions. DrSugar, I have been trying to get back on track with my exercise routine after those dangerous two months of parties, but I notice that each month when my period comes around, it seems impossible to get past the cravings and fatigue. What causes this and what can I do to get around it? – Crazy Cravings The symptoms you describe, food cravings and fatigue, around the time of your period sound like they are most consistent with typical symptoms of menstruation, which, when severe, can be called premenstrual syndrome (PMS). I understand your concern and disdain with these symptoms, as they do seem to counteract your desire to maintain a healthy lifestyle with exercise and eating healthy. To learn more about what causes these symptoms and what can be done to try to overcome them, keep reading!

Human saliva “contains as many as 50 species of bacteria,” with almost 100,000,000 microbes per milliliter.