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First dates, or dates in general, can be nerve wrecking, anxious, and exciting all at the same time. For many of us, we are going out with a guy we are actually interested in and want to make a good impression. For the rest, maybe it’s just for a free meal. Either way, there are always a lot of things to think about before you go out on with someone. Like these 14 things.

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From YourTango

By Christie Mims

You are sitting at your desk, buried under work, and you are exhausted.  So you reach for a can of soda, or a leftover cupcake from the company lunch, and eat it mindlessly as you click through your email.

As you get dressed the next day, you zip up your pants and think to yourself “Oh nooooo…my job is making me fat!”

Sure, you can argue about long work hours, loads of stress, no time to finish your New Year’s Resolution to lose weight (remember that?).  You can easily just blame your job.

We’ve all been there, trying to finish up a project before the next meeting and eating whatever is leftover in the break room for lunch.  Or coming home exhausted and surviving on a diet of caffeine instead of sleep.  You aren’t alone in feeling like your job is (literally!) a weight around your neck.

But the truth is that your job has nothing to do with it.

Your job isn’t grabbing a cupcake and shoving it in your mouth (for a long time, I was convinced my job was purposely buying cake…you know, just to mess with me!), it isn’t skipping workouts and making you chose a burger over a salad at lunch.

YOU ARE.

Read more on YourTango.com.

So you think you’re a very well-mannered person? Well, I hate to break it to you, but if you ever do any of these things on this list, you may not be as well-mannered as you think. In fact, you might actually be rude sometimes. Have a look and see if you’re guilty of any of these common habits that people sometimes do without realizing it’s rude.

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Chewing loudly

One of the most annoying things about people eating is when they chew like they haven’t eaten in months. It’s both annoying to hear and distracting to look at. Relax loud chewers; the food isn’t going anymore, so no need to chomp it down like it’s trying to run away from your face.

You are what you eat. So this could mean that eating satisfying-but-equally-bad-for-you foods may stand in the way of your beauty. Of course, beauty is supposedly skin deep, but if you’re still concerned about the skin that people actually see, you may want to watch the foods you put into your body.

There are plenty of foods that have negative effects on our hair, skin, and nails but there are also other foods that allow these things to flourish.  Some of us subtly become product junkies as we try multiple skin creams, hair vitamins and other beauty products in an effort to get or maintain glowing skin and healthy hair. However, we forget that no amount of expensive lotion or vitamins can replace the lasting effects of eating the right foods.

So before trying an over-the-counter quick fix to combat subpar skin or dull and brittle hair, up your dose of  these ‘beauty foods.’

If you’re going to talk ish about the First Lady of the United States, you might want to do it where no one can hear you.

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) was overheard talking to a woman who came up to him and praised Michelle Obama in Reagan National Airport. But rather than go with the flow, Sensenbrenner responded with criticism:

“She lectures us on eating right while she has a large posterior herself.”

The democratic operative who overheard Sensenbrenner said it sounded like he was on the phone with a staffer who reminded him that someone would likely expose his comments in the media, to which he said it would be heresy and liberal media bias, but “he stands by his remarks.”

And that he did. When Betsy Rothstein of FishbowlDC reached out to a spokeswoman for the representative, the comments weren’t denied:

Mr. Sensenbrenner was referring to the First Lady’s healthy food initiative.  He doesn’t think the government should be telling Americans what to eat.  While he may not agree with all of her initiatives, he plans to contact the First Lady’s office to apologize for his comments.

So, basically it’s OK to criticize her attempt to reduce obesity in America because genetics dictated she have a fuller backside? It’s amazing how people will find a way to knock you even when you try to do something good.

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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How often are you sitting down with your family to eat dinner during the week? You know, Crooklyn style with all the rowdy kids gathered together, husband and even the dog set around the table chatting, eating, bonding (or arguing). Well, if you don’t do it often, today, September 26, is Family Day – A Day to Eat Dinner with Your Children. Why? Because by participating in today’s movement, sponsored by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, could persuade people to enjoy more family meals, and in some way, more family meals equal more of a chance to keep your children off of drugs.

I’m sure you’re wondering how. Well, it is said that by gathering up the gang, it’s a great opportunity to find out what’s going on in your children’s lives, and during that set time to dine together, your children are out of the street, away from the temptations of drugs and alcohol. In addition, these types of big family meals can benefit your whole family by improving their health with well-balanced home-cooked meals. I’m sure you know that when folks come home at different times and eat different things by themselves, they’re probably not trying to pair a salad with that McDonald’s burger they just picked up on the way home, and the last time they had potatoes was with that Popeye’s dinner weeks ago. Studies in the past have shown that eating with family can improve a child’s academic success, and keep them off of drugs, so this is a great idea, right?

Though I will say, I’m the youngest chap from a large family and we stopped eating dinner together before I went to high school. I wasn’t doing any drugs…And in American Beauty, that family was sitting down for dinner damn near every night and they were all still a hot mess. But let me stop being a Debbie Downer, because I do like the idea of this initiative because it gets people who in this tech-savvy world are so busy ripping and running, to sit down and actually talk. Will you take part and eat dinner with your family tonight? Let’s hope so!

A report from the Journal of Health Affairs put out today says the new U.S. nutritional guidelines, now referred to as “My Plate” as opposed to everyone’s favorite food pyramid of yesteryear, would require Americans to dish out hundreds more dollars than they are already spending for food right now. According to MSNBC, the new guidelines called for Americans to try eating things with more potassium, dietary fiber, calcium and Vitamin D. Sounds simple, right? Nope. With the economy still putting folks in a tough position and it being more convenient to spend less for less healthy items, author of the report, Pablo Monsiviais says the new guidelines will be extremely hard to meet. In an interview with MSNBC, Monsiviais said because the foods recommended cost so much more, the guidelines are a bit unreasonable for people:

“Given the times we’re in, I think we really need to make our health guidance, in particular the dietary guidelines, more relevant to Americans.”

To be specific, Monsiviais says individuals would have to spend an extra $1.04 a day to get the foods recommended, racking up a healthy eating bill of $380 a year per person. Yikes! A study of the prices to come up with these numbers were done in King County, which includes Seattle, and food prices there are higher than most. So yearly costs could be cheaper depending on where you live, if not higher. The author says that if you skip the overly expensive salmon and rice pilaf that is cited as an example of healthy eating on the “Choose My Plate” website, and start encouraging people to get their nutrients from cheaper sources, the effects would be a lot better.

““If you were to guide people toward the most affordable sources of potassium, you could do it more cheaply.”

But do we really need someone to tell us what we can be eating that provides us the same nutrients for cheaper, or are folks just making TOO many excuses as to why they won’t trade McDonald’s for healthier options? What do you think?

To read more of Monsivais’ thoughts on the new healthy eating guidelines as well as other experts in nutrition’s thoughts, check out the full story at msnbc.com.

Oh how I feel for the over-worked but underpaid employee in customer service. Been there, done that. A mall rat I was, in retail of all places, which is full of incessant folding and unreasonable demands. But I did my job, and I did it well. I can see and understand the struggle people go through trying to keep your sanity while catering to the needs of complete strangers. But there’s a difference between customers giving an employee in customer service a hard time, which might warrant an attitude, and an employee just coming to work with a chip on their shoulder just because. You know what your job entails, and just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. And I’ve received that vibe more and more these days the younger the workers get (what’s that about!?). But it’s more than just attitude, so I made a list of the trifling infractions and thought I’d share them with you. Feel free to add your own bad customer service pet peeves in the comments below.

Maintaining a diet is extremely difficult these days, what with healthy food costing an arm and a leg and with greasy, sugary temptation at every corner. And after watching what you eat all week, it doesn’t hurt to treat yourself with something you’ve been craving every now and then. Especially when you go out to eat with friends. Your favorite slice of cheesecake or a small, or a shake every once in a blue moon shouldn’t kill you. At least, not immediately at least. But the un-reported calories could definitely be killing your waistline.

According to a study done and released in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA),  the restaurants you’ve coveted as favorites have been trying their hardest to hide the real calorie counts of some of their most popular dishes. According to ABC News, 269 food items and 242 “unique” foods from 42 restaurants were studied. Results found that restaurants are doing the absolute most (which you probably already knew), stacking foods unnecessarily, and afterwards, concealing the caloric intake. Many in the healthcare industry who heard the results hope that studies like these will force new legislation, requiring restaurants to put the calories of their menu items on the actual menus. When this is done, people can be aware before they order of what they really are going to be needing to work off. So if you’re feeling some Applebee’s, IHOP, Cold Stone Creamery or any of the restaurants listed below, stay far FAR away from the following menu favorites:

1. Cold Stone Creamery – The PB&C Shake (peanut butter, chocolate and milk)

-Calories: 2,010

2. The Cheescake Factory – The Ultimate Red Velvet Cheesecake

-Calories: 1,540

3. The Cheesecake Factory – The Farmhouse Burger

-Calories: 1,530

4. Applebee’s – Provolone-Stuffed Meatballs With Fettuccine and garlic bread

-Calories: 1,520

5. Great Steak – Extra-Large King Fries

-Calories: 1,500

6. Mortons – 24 Oz. Porterhouse Steak

-Calories: 1,390

7. Denny’s – Fried Cheese Melt

-Calories: 1,260

8. IHOP – Monster Bacon ‘N Beef Cheeseburger

-Calories: 1,250

By the names of these meals, I know what you’re thinking: you could have predicted these were calorie killers. Well, now you have confirmation! But now that you know, do these calories scare you like they do us?

It has been said many times before, that with less money comes less of an opportunity to eat healthy and nutritious food. Why? Blame it on the fact that many healthy foods, including more beneficial choices available at cheap fast food restaurants, cost a lot more than people can or are willing to spend. And with black unemployment numbers rising and peaking at 16.2 percent, way over the country’s already huge 9.2 percent numbers, spending three to four dollars on a bag of salad or a bag of fruit is getting ignored for the opportunity to get an actual whole meal for that same price–see McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King and many other popular fast food chains for examples of their wildly popular  and very filling dollar menus.

In an article recently published by The Huffington Post, reporter Janell Ross introduces the reader to Michele Washington, a single mother staying with her sister in Harlem. Washington is currently working a part-time job after being laid off from her full-time position and being unemployed for a while, and losing her home in Atlanta. As she tries to find a better paying gig, she and her son are followed as they try and navigate the obstacles of healthy eating when their money and their time can’t really afford it. Most of the time, Washington and her son end their busy evenings standing in front of a McDonald’s dollar menu, a massive change from the healthier evening meals she was cooking in her “dream kitchen” in Atlanta last year. According to the story, and a Gallup Poll from June, 4.5 million Americans are eating less healthy food this year than they were last year.

If it’s hard for people with full time, good paying jobs to eat right (see many scarfing down fast food and heavy but cheap meals thanks to proximity and price), you can understand the even larger constraints on people  struggling with the bad economy but hoping to eat right. Especially since stores are still selling vegetables and healthy alternatives at numbers that could rival the recent ridiculous gas prices. In this day and age, the cheaper the option the better. Even if it isn’t the healthiest option.

So do you agree that as living standards decline, so does healthy eating? If you deal with this issue, let us know your story below!

To read the full story and hear more about Washington’s situation as well as many others, check out The Huffington Post.