Guide to the Better you

  Let’s face it:   it is hard to stick to a healthy eating and exercise plan during the holidays.   Everywhere we turn there are tempting foods and drinks—from treats at office parties to our own traditional family favorites.   When you add in a busy schedule filled with shopping and get-togethers that make it tough to squeeze in exercise, you have a recipe for disaster as far as our scales are concerned. The good news is that you really can get through the holidays without gaining weight.   It will take some effort, but you will thank yourself a thousand times when January 1 st rolls around and you have no regrets! Your Goal:   Maintenance In order to greet the New Year without tipping the scale, it is wise to try to maintain your weight during the next few weeks instead of trying to lose.     Remember:   you want to enjoy the holidays, not be miserable from deprivation.   This means that you will allow yourself occasional treats and splurges and keep the scale where it is rath

  In just a few days, families all over America will be sitting down to a meal which looks back to that first Thanksgiving in which the Pilgrims commemorated the harvest after a harsh winter.   The year was 1621, and Governor William Bradford proclaimed a day of thanksgiving, which the colonists celebrated as a traditional English harvest feast. George Washington declared Thanksgiving a holiday in 1789, and in 1941 Congress passed a resolution which decreed that the holiday should fall on the fourth Thursday of November. Feasting together is as old as the human race.   It is a way of celebrating and enjoying time with family and friends.   But if we are not careful, we can overdo the festivities and end up setting ourselves back over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Just how big is your meal? It’s hard to believe, but the average Thanksgiving meal contains 3,000 calories and 229 grams of fat.   And most of us don’t limit ourselves to one indulgent meal.   It’s typical to snack

  It’s that time of year again—a time of cool breezes, colored leaves and holiday preparation.   Fall and winter are exciting times…   Unless you suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).     If you struggle with winter depression, this time of year is not filled with joy and anticipation.   Instead, you probably feel like hiding under the covers until spring arrives in several months… What is Seasonal Affective Disorder? Everyone has the blues now and then.   But SAD is a depressive state that occurs seasonally, year after year, usually in the fall and winter.   If you suffer from SAD, you may feel perfectly normal during the spring and summer months, but starting around October or November, symptoms begin showing up. Because this type of depression come and goes with the seasons, you may wonder if it is all in your head.   It isn’t.   This is a real condition and can have a devastating impact on your life. Researchers still don’t know the exact cause of SAD, but there ar

  Do you know what your pituitary gland, thyroid, thymus, adrenal glands and pancreas have in common?   They are all endocrine glands, and their jobs are to make hormones. Hormones are chemicals that deliver messages throughout your entire body via the bloodstream.   These messages are delivered to your tissues and organs, but they are very specific:   only those cells which are sensitive to that particular hormone will accept it and be activated by it.   Because they are very potent, it only takes a very small amount to initiate a significant response in the body. Hormones cannot be stored; they have to be produced and released at the precise moment they are needed.   Therefore, in order to maintain balance within the systems in your body, this maintenance must continually be fine-tuned.   An ongoing, intricate system of checks and balances is happening every minute of every day. For example, if the level of one hormone increases too much, your body may release a different horm