Covering your plants are the most effective way to prevent birds from eating your grapes. For added protection or to deter particularly relentless birds, however, you can try repellents as an added precaution. Garlic oil is a natural bird repellent that can teach birds to avoid your garden over time. Spray birdseed with garlic oil and set up a bird feeder near your grapevines. Put the garlic oil-covered seeds in the bird feeder and check whether fewer birds infest your garden over time. Garlic oil's strong odor can also repel some insects. Bird distress calls or predatory animal noises can train birds to avoid a certain area. Search "irritating noises for birds" online and put a recording on the speakers to scare birds from your yard. Wind chimes can also repel birds, if you'd prefer a pleasant-sounding alternative. Ask your neighbors before setting up a tapeyou want to drive away birds, not people. Draw menacing faces or predatory animals on your balloons to frighten animals away. Secure the balloons to posts around your garden, and move them every few days to mimic a live predator. If you don't mind a higher electricity bill, strobe lights can also repel birds. Lawn ornaments shaped like predatory animals can keep birds away. Look for ornaments shaped like owls, foxes, or snakes online or at your local garden center and set them up near your garden. Move the lawn ornaments every few days to trick the birds into thinking they're alive If you cannot find any lawn ornaments, you can also cut outlines shaped like predatory animals out of black paper and secure them to a flat surface. Killing wild birds is illegal in most countries, and poisonous bird repellents could contaminate your grapes. Purchase a non-toxic repellent, preferably made from natural ingredients, and spray it as needed around your garden. You can get non-toxic bird repellents online or at some nursery garden centers. Ask the store employee for advice on repellents that are safe to use near your garden. Check the bird repellent's directions for specific safety instructions. You may need to reapply the repellent every few days or weeks as it wears off. Bird wire is made of parallel wire strands strung between pegs, which prevents birds from landing. Surround your garden and the specific grapevines with bird wire to prevent infestations. You can purchase bird wire online or from some garden centers. Avoid putting up sharpened metal spikes. Although this method is common, some birds will still land and can get impaled.

Summary: Use bird repellents as a supplement to bags, tulle, or netting. Fill a bird feeder with garlic oil-laced seed. Set up a tape of irritating noises or wind chimes. Tie shiny Mylar balloons near your grapevines. Put up lawn ornaments of common bird predators. Spray a non-toxic bird repellent. Set up bird wire in your yard.

Often it is tempting to set a diet timeline first, then figure out your calorie goals. However, this often leads to unrealistic dieting expectations, crash dieting and yo-yo dieting. To avoid this, figure out a healthy calorie deficit first in the "Calculate your calorie goal" step, then use this section to calculate fast you will lose weight on this diet. To calculate how fast you will lose weight, subtract your calorie goal (from the "Calculate your calorie goal" step) from how many calories you burn per day (from the "Calculate total calories burned per day" step). This will give you how many calories you should be burning per day. Example #1: If you burn 1972 calories a day (as calculated from the "Calculate total calories burned per day" step) and decided on a 15% deficit for a caloric goal of 1676 (from step "Calculate your calorie goal") then you would have a deficit of 1972 - 1676 = 296 calories per day. Example #2: If you burn 1972 calories a day (as calculated from the "Calculate total calories burned per day" step) and decided on a 30% deficit for a caloric goal of 1380 (from step "Calculate your calorie goal") then you would have a deficit of 1972 - 1380 = 592 calories per day. There are approximately 3,500 calories per pound of fat . Therefore in order to burn one pound of fat you would need to burn 3,500 more calories than you consume. To calculate your rate of fat loss, multiple your daily caloric deficit (from step "Calculate your daily caloric deficit") by 7. Then divide the resulting number by 3,500. This will tell you how many pounds of fat you can expect to lose per week. Example #1: If you have a daily caloric deficit of 296 calories you would need to multiply 296 by 7 to get 2,072. Now divide 2,072 by 3,500 to calculate how much fat you will lose per week, 0.59 or a little over a half pound per week. Example #1: If you have a daily caloric deficit of 592 calories you would need to multiply 592 by 7 to get 4,144. Now divide 4,144 by 3,500 to calculate how much fat you will lose per week, 1.182 or a little over a pound per week. From these above examples you can see that a larger deficit results in more fat loss per week. However, keep in mind that a larger deficit is harder to maintain and may lead to binging.

Summary: Understand how to set a reasonable diet timeline. Calculate your daily caloric deficit. Calculate your rate of fat loss.

Try just grabbing his hand and holding it. He is your boyfriend, after all, so he shouldn't mind holding hands with you again. Maybe he hasn't even thought about it lately, so it's up to you to initiate. This is a thing to try when just the two of you are alone. You don't want to embarrass him in front of his friends. You can try to make it seem lighthearted by laughing as you grab his hand. But don't force him to do anything he doesn't want to do. You can also brush or bump your hand near his to try to initiate hand holding. It's normal to be nervous about holding hands again. But if you are still willing to make the first move, try grabbing his hand to take him somewhere. Take his hand and pull him along with you. You can say something like, "Come on. I want to show you something." Or you could say, "I want to go over there. Let's go." You could even plan with your friend to help make it easier. For example, have your friend stand a little ways away from you and your boyfriend. Have your friend yell for you to come over to where he or she is. Then you can grab your boyfriend's hand and say "Come on!" Then take him over to see your friend. Try giving your boyfriend a high five that goes really slowly. Then when your hands are touching in the high five, leave your hand there for a second and then slowly interlock your fingers with his and pull your hands down. This is a cute, playful way to start holding hands with your boyfriend again. Another cute way to initiate hand holding with your boyfriend again is by pretending like you want to compare how big his hands are compared to yours. This way, you'll have to put your hands close together and touching. Then just interlock your fingers and start holding hands with him. Try saying something like, "Your hands are so much bigger than mine! Let's compare." And then hold your hand up for him to do the same.
Summary: Just go for it. Lead him by the hand. Give a lingering high five. Compare hand sizes.