Seven Day Count Down

Seven days until Thanksgiving: family, friends, good food and drink. My advice is to enjoy the day and don't worry about what you eat. (Remember to always drink responsibly.) Did you notice I said "day?" That is the first key to starting off the holiday season on the right foot. After Thursday go back to your regular eating (and exercise) otherwise what starts as just one day often morphs into another 39 days of overindulgence.

To avoid having to face the music on January 1st, here are a few things to consider as you prepare your Thanksgiving feast:

1. Avoid using hydrogenated fats in pies and baked goods.
2. Have a salad and at least two or three vegetables.
3. Use olive or canola oil or Land O Lakes Spreadable Butter (half olive or canola) instead of margarine in cooking.
4. Offer fresh fruit with the other yummy desserts.
5. Don't drink your calories other than wine or spirits, avoid high calorie mixers.
6. Add some whole grain bread to your stuffing.

Which reminds me of one cardinal rule: Don't stuff yourself to the gills. Eat until you are full - not stuffed. Then in a few hours, if you are hungry go back for more. A stuffed turkey is good, a stuffed belly is not.

Prevent Holiday Weight Gain

Right about now, clients start to ask how they can keep weight off over the holidays. Here are three simple things you can do:

1. Watch your alcohol consumption. If you know you will be drinking, cut back on starchy foods during the day. Eat more veggies and lean protein.


2. Watch the sweets at work. Draw a line in the frosting and "just say no" to the plates of goodies that will be passing your desk. Bring a healthy snack from home for the 4:00 slump.


3. Get back to the gym now and don't wait for the New Year to begin again.

Try these for starters. I will be giving tips from now until the end of January.

Cinch! Conquer Cravings, Drop Pounds and Lose Inches - Popular Diet and Lifestyle Books Reviewed by Food and Nutrition Experts: Members of the American Dietetic Association

Here is a book review I did for one of the latest diet books. If you are vegan or almost there, you might be interested. It is also great for moving towards a more plant based diet.

Cinch! Conquer Cravings, Drop Pounds and Lose Inches - Popular Diet and Lifestyle Books Reviewed by Food and Nutrition Experts: Members of the American Dietetic Association

Juicing and Cleansing

Lately many of my clients have been asking about juicing and cleansing diets. I always tell them juice diets or fasts are good for the short term but they don't work for weight loss. A "fast" is fast; a quick way to drop some pounds, give your body a rest from too much sugar, salt, refined grains, and bad fats, and help transition you to healthier eating.

Long term, sustainable weight loss requires slow changes that last. But, as we all know, change is hard. So one good way to start the process of healthier eating is to do a three day juice fast or cleanse. Drinking juice infuses your body with a powerful punch of nutrients that can help revitalize you and get you unhooked from all those addictive fatty, sugary foods. Plus it gives you a vacation from, "what am I going to eat."

I have layed out a three day plan in my new ebook, GoBeFull Juice Diet and Cleanse. Download the ebook from http://www.gobefull.com and see what you think.

Neighborhood Gardens

The Health Nut has awakened from her winter slumber and has been noticing garden plots all over the suburbs. Now that is a beautiful site (or sight). Soon the burbs could look like the hills of Tuscany where every useable plot of land is planted with vegetable gardens, grape vines, olive trees, and other types of fruit trees. How refreshing!

Now is a great time to clear a spot and go to your nearest nursery and pick up some seedlings or plant your own seeds. Gardening is so much fun and it is good exercise. The rewards are worth the hassle.

First make sure you put up a good fence that deer cannot jump over (they can clear 7 feet) and watch out for other critters. If you have a dog, he or she will keep the varmints away. You might want to add a scarecrow as the birds can wreck havoc on a garden.

Second add some worm castings to the soil along with some good topsoil. The worm castings (a nice euphemism) for worm poop adds nutrients to the soil. The topsoil helps the soil hold water in the dry weather by breaking up the red clay of Virginia.

Thirdly, mark what the vegetables are so when they start to grow you won't confuse them with weeds.

Then have at it and enjoy the process.

Stay tuned for more gardening updates.

Red Mango

Next time you are racing through an airport starving, try Red Mango. Really good. The POM yogurt with fresh fruit, granola, and mini chocolate chips is so refreshing. Healthy, delicious, and fast.

The Holidays are Here

Before you start indulging with reckless abandon, take a moment now to think about your New Year's resolutions. If they relate to diet, weight, exercise, and fitness or general well being, then "Whoa Nelly."

Hold on tight, grab a pen and paper (remember those), and start writing down what you want to be when the new year rolls in:

1. Thinner
2. Fitter
3. More in control
4. Full of vitality
5. A non smoker
6. ......... (fill in the blank)

Notice there is no "Happy" on the list. Happiness is not a state in itself but comes from other actions like being committed, having purpose, feeling good, helping others, and reaching your goals (whatever they may be), to name just a few. There is no right or wrong here.

Of course if you can just stay in the present moment you will happy because you are not thinking about anything but the moment! Staying present is a very tough exercise especially with a Blackberry buzzing in your pocket.

Back to making what you want happen. Creating a vision is the first step to achieving success in any endeavor. You've got to really want whatever it is you want to achieve and you have to envision it before you can have it.

Once the desire is there, you make a plan. Then the work begins. Having a plan and not sticking to it won't get you there. That does not mean you can't be flexible and revise the plan as you go along. Also no plan is perfect. You don't have to do things 100% to see results. You just have to do your plan well enough that the old ways that were not working are replaced with actions that work.

It sounds simple but it is really hard. You may have to continually do battle with yourself until the new behaviors take on a life of their own. When this happens, the endorphins that flow from feeling happy (meaning achieving your goals) motivate you to keep going. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

So go for it now and use this month as a laboratory for what you want to create in the coming year.