The Checkup: Americans Get 5 Percent of Daily Calories from Alcohol, Study Says

• This probably isn’t what you want to hear going into the holiday season, but new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals that the average American adult gets about 5 percent of his or her daily calories from alcoholic beverages. That means our alcohol intake almost exactly rivals our soda intake, which currently eats up 6 percent of our daily calories. What’s more, 33 percent of men and 20 percent of women say they consume alcohol daily. “Averaged out to all adults,” reports Jezebel, “the average man consumes 150 calories from alcohol a day with beer being their drink of choice, whereas the average woman consumes roughly 50 calories with no standout favorite beverage.” If we factor it out over a week, men are looking at 1,050 extra calories, while women are packing on an extra 525. And considering that so many of us are extraordinarily sedentary these days … well, you see where I’m going with this.

• Does anyone else find it incredibly difficult (i.e. impossible) to ride a bike while wearing a pencil skirt? Whenever my work wardrobe calls for one, I end up wearing pants to commute in and changing when I get here. How annoying. Enter: the Reveal Skirt, an ingenious pencil skirt that includes a discreet zipper in the back that unfurls an extra 12 inches of fabric, which means you can ride with ease. The bike-friendly clothing line called Iva Jean, which also includes a cute two-way reflective vest and a waterproof cape, and is currently seeking Kickstarter funding, so my fellow female bike commuters, get in it!

• A blogger on the Huffington Post has a few words (or 2,000) for CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield, which recently announced a 20 percent hike in health insurance premiums. Read the rant here.