Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers blog

There’s never a good time to start a diet: there is always something to celebrate, a birthday, a promotion, an unexpected sunshine, your team’s victory or regular events like Father’s Day, this coming Sunday!

The secret is, perhaps, not to overdo it. Many of us aspire to changing everything: our diet, exercise routine or our alcohol intake. But because we’re not superheros, let’s take it step by step, with a little advice from the mighty Answers community…

How to I start a diet?

“The best way to start this healthy eating plan is to invest in a diary whereby you plan your meals daily, and write down experiences you have whilst shedding the weight. Start eating more regularly throughout the day. So, rather than having 3 big meals, have 6 smaller meals. By eating more regularly, you are speeding up your metabolism, and burning off the fat a lot faster.”

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What is a good exercise plan?

“The best way to start an exercise plan is walking or jogging. If you like to walk buy a pedometer; 10,000 steps in a whole day is an excellent way to start seeing that you can lose up to 4lbs per week. Swimming is the best exercise to burn calories, if you swim in high tension you can lose up to 14.7 calories per minute.”

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For those of you who really can’t resist a night-out with friends, you can always go for a healthy option:

What non-alcoholic drinks can I order at the bar?

“Club soda mixed with a little of your favourite juice is a nice change, and healthy. You can also get a variety of virgin frozen drinks, such as Marguerita, Daquiri, and Pina Colada in fruit flavours.”

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And remember, losing weight and exercising are supposed to make you feel better: it’s not a competition. So if you’re looking for camaraderie or simply a little more info, check the Diet & Fitness section on Answers.

The Internet is a busy place and sometimes it’s hard to keep up to date with the latest update from your favourite sites. To make your life easier, we have added a button with a link to our RSS feed (see what RSS is here) on the sidebar, and another at the end of each post.

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Many of you are already using My Yahoo! or even Netvibes to follow the blog activity that you enjoy. As a Yahoo! Answers user, you might be interested in doing the same with the Answers blog. Please find below some very easy steps to follow:

For My Yahoo! users:

1) Click on the “Subscribe” button
2) Copy the URL
3) Go to My Yahoo!
4) In the top middle of the page, click on the Tab called “Personalise this page” and then on “Add an RSS link”
5) Then paste the URL
6) Done A box will appear, you’ll now be automatically informed as soon as any new article is published.

For Netvibes users, the steps are:

1) Go to your Netvibes page
2) On the top left hand side of the page click on “Add content” button
3) Then on the link “Add an RSS feed”
4) Paste the this URL in the appropriate box and press the “Add the feed” button
6) Done A box will appear, you’ll be now informed automatically as soon as any new article is published.

As you can see, it’s not that complicated and the steps are almost the same for any RSS reader, but feel free to leave as a comment if you need more help doing it!

This Sunday the French Open, Roland Garros comes to a climax in Paris. Known as the one of the world’s four most prestigious tennis events, it is the only grand slam held on clay.

Answers is a place dedicated to help you discover new passions and interests and has many knowledgeable sporting fans. Meet one of them, Grandmaster, our tennis expert.

What is a slice?

You might still be wondering what a slice shot is – he’s got the answer:

“A slice shot is a type of tennis stroke where you hold your racquet at a 10 o’clock angle and hit the ball. Generally, a slice shot creates a sidespin where the ball doesn’t produce a normal bounce on the opponent’s court, by rather, lands, bounces and then immediately takes an abrupt, angular sidespin all at the same time.”

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Is height an advantage?

If you’re thinking of taking up the game then you might be asking yourself if height is important.

“Height gives an advantage, and by “height” I’m referring to both tall and short players. It just depends on the player, and whether if he’s able to recognize the advantages, and utilise it during critical points in a match. For the tall player, the serve will be a formidable weapon. However, for the short player, they can return a compacted shot back using their lower centre of gravity.”

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How do I win?

Even if you know the rules, the experience is what gets you to the top. Winning is strategy well planned-out, he explains:

“1. Force your opponent out of their comfort zone. The person you are most likely playing with has a pattern, or a winning formula in which he unknowingly stick to. 2. Know your opponent as well as yourself. How do you react in a pressure situation game? What are your strengths and weaknesses, and how can you compensate for it?”

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And it that doesn’t satisfy your thirst for tennis knowledge, don’t hesitate to put your queries to our community in the tennis category.

Know someone who’s “wow-ed” you on Answers? Think somebody deserves to be celebrated as next Featured User on the Answers Blog? We want to hear from you!

Email the Answers team at y_answrs_team_uk@yahoo.co.uk.

Ever had an answer so good you wanted to jump for joy? Then we want to hear from you at y_answrs_team_uk@yahoo.co.uk.

Every day intriguing questions get asked on answers and you, the community help each other out by answering, sharing your experiences and knowledge. Sometimes a simple answer will do, but occasionally you might receive an answer that just blows you away.

If you do, we want to hear from you.

Every week on this blog we will be featuring someone outstanding from the community. And while everyone’s answers are important, we’re looking for people who are exceptional.

Ideally they should have worked their ways up the levels system and have a great best answer percentage.

In addition they might have great knowledge like Pontac:

How can I become a Sommelier?

Best Answer: Get a job in a restaurant. A sommelier is — at the simplest — the waiter responsible for wine service. At a larger restaurant the sommelier will be responsible for choosing the wines on the winelist, buying and storing those wines. And they should know a lot about wines.

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They should be as well written as Sybaris’:

What are some family names for an earl, duke or lord?

Best Answer: Try something that doesn’t stem from a trade, like Cooper, Fletcher, etc. You can always stick a “Fitz-” at the beginning, to denote that somewhere back in time, a bastard of the family was acknowledged as a king’s son! There is the noble family in England with the family name of Fitzalan-Howard, the Duke of Norfolk. Look also at some French names – possibly anglicising them – to show that the family came over with the Conqueror.

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Their answers should be as detailed and engaging as Tunisian Belle’s:

What fun things can I do in Tunisia?

Best Answer: There are MANY things to do in Tunisia that are fun! Most of it will depend on what part of the country you want to visit.

Carthage is the former capital of the ancient world. There is a museum there that details the history of Carthage, and you can go look around some old ruins.

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Pontac, Sybaris and Tunisian Belle are but three of the amazing answerers in our community. We want to celebrate more of them with you.

So if you’ve been wow-ed by someone on Answers and think they deserve credit where credit is due, please email us on y_answrs_team_uk@yahoo.co.uk or leave a link in the comments section below to an answer.