Hate Gyms

A gym can be a bit overwhelming the first time you go. But everyone has a first time stepping through those doors. Everybody has felt weird about lifting the weights in front of the muscle men, moving on the elliptical for the first time, or even signing up for a class. If you're worried about what you like to other people there, forget it. People are so concentrated what they're doing, in all likelihood they're not paying ANY attention to you. If you're still worried about it, go at a time when the machines are less crowded or meet for a session with a trainer (many gyms offer free introductory training sessions). The important thing is to know that feeling of intimidation will fade. Never be a quitter.

Remember Portion Control

For many of us, portion control is a BIG issue. We eat until we are stuffed, not until we reach a feeling of satiety. Unfortunately, eating yourself into a food coma can lead to weight gain and possibly resistance to leptin, the hormone that tells the body it’s full. I want you to eat every four hours — breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner — to keep your blood sugar steady. It might also be helpful to stock-up on portion-control plates and bowls — you will be less inclined to take larger portions of food, and will probably realize you are full after a smaller serving than you are used to! Just remember that you don’t need to fill those large plates; your body will be function just fine with a smaller serving, and when you fit into those skinny jeans again, you'll thank yourself!

Dance Off!

Dancing can be a fun way to release energy and stay fit. Put on your favorite CD or radio station and dance around to distract yourself from a stressful situation. If you want to go the more formal route, try classes in ballroom or another kind of dancing — they'll rival any gym workout!

Fast Forward

If food commercials on television make you feel hungry and drive you to snack uncontrollably, record your shows so you can skip the commercials. Or keep a few magazines close by so you have something to zone out with until the commercials are over. Or, you can always drop to the floor and do a few stretches or sit-ups to regain control and remind yourself why you're doing my program.

Color Me Nutritious

We've all heard that the darker the green, the better it is for you. But greens aren't the only superpower in the produce aisle! From the cancer-fighting beta carotene in carrots and sweet potatoes, to the powerful antioxidants in berries, eggplants, and beets, Mother Nature certainly did an incredible job at making sure we were taken care of. Check out your local farmers' market and shop for a rainbow of fresh organic produce to make sure you're getting a variety of nutrients.

Eat Breakfast. Really.

Research shows that people who start their day with breakfast make healthier choices and have a lower body mass index in general. The breakfast effect is even stronger for women than for men.

What's Eating You?

Having the means to cope with emotional eating is a huge step toward ending this form of self-sabotage. I'm not saying it's going to be easy, but you can use the insights and self-knowledge you've gained through these exercises to make real changes. You will be amazed at how simple it can be to break out of the negativity and self-doubt. The more you focus on understanding the situations and emotions that trigger this destructive habit, the easier it will be to eliminate emotional eating from your life.

Find the Silver Lining

When you're stuck in a stressful situation, whether it's a traffic jam before an important meeting or a call from your child's school about his misbehavior, give yourself a time-out before reacting emotionally or reaching for a candy bar. Breathe deeply and take time to gain a better perspective on the situation or to learn from it.

Beware of Condiments

Those little sauces and creams seem so harmless, but watch out: One tablespoon of mayonnaise has almost 100 calories, and it's easy to put more than one serving on your sandwich or hamburger.

Your Future, Your Choice

The only thing standing between the old you and the new you is a choice. Once you make that choice — and start being true to yourself — it has a ripple effect on your entire future. There are so many people out there who are giving up, accepting what they believe to be their fate, and literally lying down to die. Don't be that person! We only have one life on this earth, so it's time to take control and live the life you were meant to live! Each step you take, whether it's dumping the processed junk in your kitchen to taking the time to honor yourself, is a positive change toward a healthy future. Keep it up and you just might inspire the future of those around you!

Sleep It Off

Trouble falling or staying asleep is often caused by stress. This is particularly counterproductive since adequate sleep can help ease stress. Before going to bed, read a book or make a to-do list for the next day. It'll help you relax enough to sleep well, which will help you better handle the activities of your day.

Halloween: All Tricks No Treats

Halloween used to seem so cute and harmless, didn’t it? I mean, who didn’t love getting all dressed up in costumes and having people give them sugary treats. Fast forward to today and realize that October 31 can be the undoing of weeks of food tracking and exercising. Why? Well, because suddenly that trigger food of yours ― chocolate ― is everywhere. Even though you are good about keeping it out of your sight most of the time, when Halloween comes around you suddenly find yourself buying two or three bags of fattening “fun-size” bars or sugar-coated snacks “for the kids.” Come November 1, guess who is the one snacking on the remaining ones you didn’t give out ― or worse eating the new junk your kids gathered from around the neighborhood? That’s right, YOU! Don’t undo all of the hard work you’ve done by thinking you’ll just eat one or two pieces. Trust me, those “fun-size” bars aren’t so much fun when you’ve scarfed down five of them at 150 to 200 calories each. Steer clear of even bringing the candy into the house or buy candy you personally dislike. Even better, give out boxes of raisins or pretzels instead of candy bars. And after you sort through your kids’ treats bags ask them to keep them out of your sight. Better yet, have them pick a small number of their favorite snacks and then explain to them why you are throwing the rest of that garbage into the garbage.

Stay Out of Danger Zones

If you're troubled by temptations on the job, see if you can really make an effort to avoid the high-voltage areas. If there's a vending machine in the office kitchen that gets you every time, or if the cafeteria offers a lot of high-fat or processed foods, stay away from those places. Bring in your own healthy meals, and keep good-for-you snacks at your desk or wherever your job takes you. Try to steer clear of anything that might throw you off course!

Quantity vs. Quality

It's tempting to push for quantity over quality. It may seem as if doing more sets or exercises could give you better results ― and faster. Wrong! Even if you do your exercises with perfect form, you can still overdo it by pushing too much in a single exercise session. If you want to maximize your results (and who doesn't?), try splitting your workouts into two sessions. Do cardio training (such as running on the treadmill) in the morning, for example, and then do resistance training in the evening. The basic concept is that multiple daily training sessions produce afterburn. In simple terms, this means you burn calories not only during exercise but afterward. Up to 25 percent more calories can be burned hours after you train, which elevates your basal metabolic rate, or BMR. By splitting your workouts, you'll reap the benefits of twice-a-day afterburn without overtraining your muscles.

Kick Stress Away

Instead of heading for the kitchen to relieve your stress, get to the gym. Take a kickboxing class to work on some moves and learn to breathe correctly. The exercises in kickboxing can help to get some anger or frustration out of your system, as well as make you feel fit.

Pasta Made Healthy

Love pasta but worry about all those calories and carbs? Turn your favorite, fatty pasta dish into a healthy one. Choose noodles made from whole grains, pile on the veggies and protein, top it off with a low-fat sauce — and voilà!

All or Nothing

If you haven't already done so, it's definitely time to kill the all-or-nothing attitude. One great way to do that is to get real regarding setbacks. We are all bound to have lapses on the road to health and wellness, so it's critical that we learn how to handle small failures positively, to minimize their long-term destructive effects. One setback is one setback -- it's not the end of the world, nor is it the end of your journey toward a better you!

Eat The Rainbow

Nutritionists recommend eating a rainbow of fruits and vegetables. Yellow and orange veggies (carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, and many types of squash) are great sources of vitamin A, which boosts skin and eye health and helps provide better immunity against infection.

Falling Short of Goals

Remember, goals are not inflexible roadblocks meant to make you feel badly about yourself. If you don't accomplish a goal exactly on schedule, so what? You can't predict what life is going to throw your way — but you CAN choose the way you react to situations that come up. That is where your power lies. If you fall off the wagon, just get back on —  no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

Are You Making Excuses?

It's always important to be honest with yourself about how much your relationships are really affecting your attempts to lead a healthier life. Many people blame their partner, for example, when they themselves should take on more responsibility. It's easy to blame someone else when you don't make it to the gym in the morning, but is it really that person's fault? If you have a clear goal, your motivation and determination must come from within ― not from an outside source. The support of your loved ones is invaluable, but those who always lean on someone else to motivate them will never succeed.

Sweet on Sweeteners?

Artificial sweeteners provide a low- or no-calorie alternative to regular sugar in a number of foods, but you still have to pay attention to portion control. Use products containing sweeteners in moderation, as part of an overall healthy diet.

Super foods for Life

The trick to healthy eating is to consume a variety of the best foods. Try to include all-stars like avocados, apples, blueberries, fish, almonds, dark chocolate, and small amounts of red wine in your diet on a regular basis.

Lose the Bloat

Drinking plenty of fluids, like water, can aid digestion and relieve bloating, especially if you sip them slowly throughout the day. Avoid carbonated beverages and drinks like coffee, which may worsen your bloat.

The Scoop on Yogurt

There is emerging evidence that regularly consuming yogurt and other sources of probiotics can bolster your general wellness, prevent certain cancers, and treat some health conditions, including diarrhea, urinary tract infections, and irritable bowel syndrome.

The Role of Fat

You probably don't think of fat as an active part of your body, do you? Although researchers used to believe that fat cells were just big blobs of yuck waiting to get bigger or smaller, they now know that fat is an enormous endocrine gland, actively producing and reacting to hormones. The less fat you have, the less likely you are to overload your leptin receptors (the important hormone that helps your body figure out how hungry it is) and deafen them to what leptin is trying to tell them ― one more reason that fat-burning exercise is crucial for a healthy hormone balance!

Ways to De-stress

 Some ways to de-stress include learning to meditate, getting a massage, taking a vacation, and most important, exercising! Whatever you do, please do not take any over-the-counter "adrenal support" supplements ― you could actually do more harm than good. De-stress naturally instead!

Bottled Water Isn't the Answer

The fewer plastics in your life the better. However, you can't lug around water filters all day. Instead, when you're away from home, carry along a stainless-steel or ceramic-lined drinking bottle filled with filtered water. Avoid hard-plastic drinking bottles; many of these are made of polycarbonate, a type of plastic that contains an endocrine disruptor called bisphenol-A (or BPA). Also, don't be duped into buying "organic" water either ― when it comes to water, that term doesn't mean anything!

Feel the Burn

Not only do high-intensity workouts burn more calories per session, they also trigger higher post-workout metabolism rates and fat afterburn. This means you'll continue to burn calories and fat for longer AFTER your workout too. How great is that? Having sung the praises of high-intensity sessions, I have to say it's also true that carb calories become fat calories after a while anyway, so when it comes down to it, a calorie is a calorie. Forget the notion of a fat-burning zone. There is only one moral of the story: Burn as many calories as possible whenever you work out.

Hate to Workout

When you're trying to lose weight, you can't change just your eating habits. You have to work out to maintain your muscle mass, too. This ensures that the calories you do consume go toward rebuilding and repairing your muscles. If you restrict calories without working out, once your diet is over, you're in big trouble. Your body is smart; it tries to think about long-term survival and wants to hold on to all the calories it can. When you starve yourself, you're making your body think it's going through a famine, so it does everything it can to conserve calories — including cannibalizing your muscles for fuel. Without those muscles, your metabolism is slower. Muscles are crucial to keeping that metabolism humming, so keep yours strong!

Eat Red Meat Sparingly

Eating red meat less than twice a week can lower your overall fat intake, and it has the added benefit of keeping your cholesterol levels in check.

Shake Your Salt Habit

Salt actually masks the taste of food, and many people find that food tastes better once they reset their taste buds to become accustomed to less salt.