Don’t you just love the New Year? It’s full of new opportunities, new enthusiasm, and new commitments to change your life for the better. One common goal around the New Year is to get healthier through exercise. If starting a new exercise routine is part of your self-improvement plan this year, here are seven tips to help make it easier.

Setbacks happen to everyone. In fact, it is extremely improbable that you’re going to achieve any goals without a few setbacks. That’s fine! Here are three tips to help you handle the setbacks if and when they do occur. Tip #1: Acknowledge them. Stuffing the setback under the rug, so to speak, isn’t healthy. Along with the setback being repressed and ignored, there are likely feelings[...]

Journaling is a fantastic tool to track your progress. How you journal is highly personal. Here are some common journaling methods: 1. Track your day with details Many people don’t enjoy journaling their thoughts and feelings. If this is you, consider journaling the details of your goal instead. For example, you can track the following information: • What did you eat? • How long did[...]

Who says that the cold weather means you stay indoors? There is no reason why the winter can't be a fun time for family just like the summer. Here are some ideas for having fun in the winter air.

1. Go sledding. The big hill could be in your back yard or somewhere else in the neighborhood. Grab the sleds and head for the top. Sledding is one thing that adults can do and still feel like a kid. Everyone loves the feeling of their heart in their throat as they go speeding off towards the bottom of the hill. Hardware stores sell out of sleds so get yours early.

You've worked all year to get in shape. It could have been a New Year’s resolution that got you started. When winter hits, the weather gets cold and gloomy. Learn to ignore the gloom and doom and stay on track to better health. During the warmer weather, it is easy to get physical activity. We work in the garden, go for walks in the evening, bike ride[...]

With the three pronged attack in place, you stand a much better chance than ever this year of avoiding holiday pounds. When the tree is back in the attic (or at the local dump) and we've all returned to work, wouldn't it be nice to look at yourself in the mirror and congratulate yourself on not putting on a single pound? It can happen, as long as you stick to[...]

Who says the holidays have to be about food, anyway? Yes, the two have gone hand in hand ever since the Three Wise Men traveled the desert bearing fruitcake and s'mores (or something like that. . .), but that doesn't mean it has to be that way. If you have some control over how your family celebrates the holidays, you can use that influence to lead your family and friends[...]

Till now we have discussed about how to resist the temptation to eat while you are happy and surrounded by family. Perhaps the only temptation that is harder to resist is that of eating when lonely and missing someone who should have been with you this holiday season. Studies have shown that depression rears its ugly head more often and with more intensity during the holidays than at any other[...]

Just the very look of yummy cookies, cakes, fudges and all that food can send even the strictest sense of willpower flying out the window. There's not only the temptation of its savory deliciousness, but there are matters of politeness and camaraderie to be taken into account as well. No one wants to turn down Aunt Flo's legendary Christmas cookies because "I'm on a diet." You don't want to sit[...]

Ah, the holidays! A time for giving and receiving, getting closer with the ones we love, and marking the end of another year, for better or for worse. While the stores may be packed to the doors and back, and traffic is enough to send even the jolliest of elves into a steaming fit of frustration, we tolerate it and even celebrate it because of the joys inherent in our festivities and traditions. Of course, one of those traditions, part and parcel with almost every celebration regardless of culture, is eating. We eat because the food is yummy and plentiful and because we believe that since it's the holidays, calories don't count this time of year. If only that was true!

So, many of us eat our way through the holiday season, even as we plan to make "losing weight" one of our primary New Year's resolutions. But of course this overindulgence only makes it harder on us when the New Year rolls around. Instead of having fifteen pounds to lose, we might have twenty or twenty five. And since studies show that most resolutions are smashed into pieces by mid-January, the chances are greater than ever that our holiday weight will simply remain a part of us long after the trees have come down and the presents have been discarded. So, is there really a foolproof way to stop this terrible cycle?