But what would the holidays be without a little treat?

Here’s a cool eating trick to eliminate that holiday guilt!

What I want you to do is take one bite out of the not so nutritious treat and rate it from a scale of one to ten.  If it rates anything below ten, then don’t conitu eating it – ONLY eat the things that you rate a ten out of ten.  You’ll be surprised as to how many cakes, cookies, and other so called treats don’t live up to a ten even though they look so amazing!

WARNING: Don’t go rating everything you see a ten out of ten just for the sake of eating it all!!

This little trick will also clean up your palate as you’ll find that some foods just aren’t that tasty.

Remember that a positive attitude is vital to making any change in your health and in your life for that matter.   Having a negative attitude will increase your chances of failing dramatically.

Try out this strategy this holiday season and who knows you probably won’t gain the extra holiday pounds after all.

In order to prevent your muscles from cramping up, you have to understand what a muscle cramp is and how it can be prevented or treated.

What is a Muscle Cramp?

Your muscles work in pairs so that when one contracts the opposing muscle relaxes in order to create motion. But sometimes these voluntary muscles or muscle groups decide to act on their own accord, and this is when spasms and muscle cramps occur.

When one of these muscles contracts forcefully and doesn’t release, you’re experiencing a muscle cramp. If you get a quick or brief involuntarily contraction then that can be classified as a spasm. A muscle cramp can occur in any of your muscles but the most common sites for muscle cramps include your abdominal muscle groups and the leg muscles, specifically the calves (back of lower leg), hamstrings (back of upper leg) and quadriceps (front of upper leg).

What To Do About Muscle Cramps

There is a long list of reason’s why you may suffer a muscle cramp. Here’s a small sampling of some common causes:

• Overexertion during strenuous activity
• Dehydration
• Maintaining an awkward position during sleep or rest
• Injury to a bone or muscle
• Vitamin and mineral deficiency

While the list above causes the majority of muscle cramps, they’re not the only culprits. When it comes to cramps caused from physical activity, one of the best ways to prevent yourself from sustaining them is to know your limits.

Get in touch with your body and don’t push yourself towards or past the point of exhaustion. In line with that, stay hydrated before and during your workout. While excessive fluid or food intake can also lead to cramping when working out, you need to maintain hydration throughout your body in order for it to function properly.

If you do get a cramp, you can take several approaches. Generally stretching the muscle or muscle group will help relieve the pain and the cramp. But, the muscle may cause too much pain if you try to stretch it yourself. In the case of a stubborn cramp, you can try taking a warm wash cloth and leaving it on the muscle, or even soaking in a bath. A gentle massage over the muscle should also help to relieve the pain

If none of these methods work, and especially if you repeatedly get a cramp in the same area, you may want to see a doctor as the cramp may be an indicator of a torn muscle or even a bone fracture.

Muscle cramps can be prevented and they can be treated, but that doesn’t diminish the pain, discomfort or inconvenience they can lead to. Arming yourself with the knowledge of what they are, what causes them and how you can deal with them however is more than half the battle.

Why is Exercise Important?

Exercise is important for hundreds of different reason.  Of course, you would exercise in order to keep your “shape” and to shed the few extra pounds that you may have gained; however, there’s more to the benefits of exercising besides just that.

Exercising helps with a variety of health related problems.  Exercise can help to reduce the risk of heart disease, Type 2 Diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, and other diseases.  If you could help your body fight against these diseases, wouldn’t you want to help? Well, you’ll be helping your body out through physical exercise that your body needs and deserves.

Believe it or not, your body craves exercise.  The human body is made to move; not just to lay on the couch.  And, the old saying that you’ve heard numerous times throughout the years, “use it or lose it” is definitely the case.

If you want to maintain your muscle tone, strength, and your cardio conditioning, then you better be exercising.

If you don’t exercise in order to maintain these things, then guess what? Yep, you guessed it.  Your muscles and fitness levels will begin to deteriorate. The muscle itself won’t disappear but, your strength and tone will!  So, now you get the idea why exercise is important. Get out there and just exercise!

In a world where fast food and low-carb snacks dominate our diets, factories run day and night to process meats and corn into hormone-infused patties, reminiscent of soilent green, and artificial sweeteners respectively. Not only do you see the dark side of the food industry, but also a tour of the all-natural farms that raise livestock on a grass diet.

Food Inc. starts out as a direct attack at meat distributors, which isn’t really one-sided once you watch the first 15 minutes. The argument is that much of our livestock end up being mistreated or genetically modified to produce more meat. Some of the companies accused of this, such as Monsanto, Smithfield, and Tyson, all had the opportunity to comment on camera.  None of them stepped forward to deny or confirm the evidence and testimony from various farmers that were interviewed. Then we’re taken to another abused food product: corn. First, we use to eat it by the ear, now it’s become the main ingredient for 98% of the foods sold in the supermarket. Many know that artificial sweeteners can contribute to cancer, but putting cows on a corn-based diet created nasty forms of e-coli in some beef after workers getting cut or sick on the assembly line.

From that we’re shown the consumer side of food safety, where you meet families that struggle to make the right choices or sometimes fall victim to lack of oversight. One of the saddest is when Monsanto began suing farmers for patent infringement. They modified their soybeans so they could catch people selling their seeds without permission. One minor problem: those next door to Monsanto’s fields would have their plants pollinated with the modified seeds and show up during lab tests. This led to farmers either going into bankruptcy or settling out of court for a job with the company.

What has long been regarded as a noble and profitable career has changed into a financial form of slavery for middle and lower class communities, with both the meat and vegetable corporations running similar operations. Food Inc. does cover the use of illegal labor with certain factories, but focuses more on the small, rural communities that depend solely on one industry for employment. In these towns, local cops and immigration officers raid house to round up undocumented works, but none of the meat company’s managers get charged. Not even every illegal is taken away for their homes either. As the documentary draws to a close, you’re left with even more questions than the narrators answered.

Food Inc. is definitely worth watching whether you’re the healthy-eating type or not. Many of the arguments made have been repeated over the years, but this is one of the best in-depth investigations into the foods we consume, whether if it’s ready to eat or you cook it yourself at home. Food Inc. is an amazing documentary with thoughtful solutions to pass on.  I highly reccomend you seek out the DVD and give it a good watch!

If you’ve seen it already I’d love to know your thoughts.  Post em’ below.

1. Jot it down. With the many details that you have to remember in any given day, why should you try to keep it all in a memory bank? At the very moment that you remember something needs to be done, the very best thing to do is write it down. Then, just as you need to recall it, it will be there for you in an instant.

2. Keep it all in one place. Once you have developed the knack of writing everything down, your next step will be to keep your writing all in one place. You’ll remember better this way. Otherwise, you’re going to spend valuable time searching for your notes.

3. Stay healthy. A keen memory is a well-nourished mind. Eat healthy; get plenty of rest and lots of good exercise. These will all see you through to having a good memory, staying focused and being alert.

4. Record your every thought. You might find yourself driving when a good idea about organizing comes to you or you might recall something that you really need to write down. No need to pull over and start writing, record it instead! Pull off to the side of the road and use a small hand held tape recorder. This is a wonderful tool to carry around with you, to record your thoughts, or your parking space number, or even a memorable telephone number you see on a billboard as you drive by. Use your handy recorder to be your second eyes and ears. If you have an iphone you can download different recorder apps as well.

5. Call ahead. When you’re at the office and you want to do something when you arrive back home, call ahead to your answering machine and leave yourself a message. As soon as you get home you can listen to your message and remember exactly what you wanted to do.

6. Be confident in yourself. If you keep saying you have a bad memory, you will probably continue to have a bad memory. It’s important to have a motivated, I CAN remember attitude.

7. Handy email reminders. There are many good and free e-mail reminder services available. You can type in what you want to remember, such as a welcome party, anniversary or special event, and you’ll receive an e-mail reminder when the date is approaching. This is a terrific way to jog your memory by Internet.

8. Use sticky notes. Those wonderful, little sticky notes are the next best thing to sliced bread! They’re amazing as memory helpers. Want to remember something prior to leaving your home? Just mark it down on a Post-It Note and stick it to the inside of your door. The bright, neon colors will be great to catch your eye as you are leaving. You will not likely miss it! Need to make an urgent call first thing in the morning? Leave a Post-It Note on your telephone.

9. Use timers and alarms. Take advantage of alarm clocks and timers throughout your day. Have to take the clothes out of the dryer by 12 noon? Set your alarm clock to remind you. Want to leave for the ladies luncheon by 7 p.m? Set your timer to beep a few minutes before it’s time to start to get ready.

10. Visual memory joggers. Visual reminders will help you remember and stay focused. Use visual reminders for remembering your goals. If your goal is to take a trip to Ireland in a few years, keep a magazine photograph of Ireland right on your desk. If your goal is to lose 30 lbs. in six months, find a picture or ornament that will help remind you of this goal each day.

Now, of course I’m being a bit facetious here as I’m sure that most of us don’t go around actually trying to clog our arteries and die of a heart attack. However, the unfortunate fact is that this could be a sad reality for anyone that actually does eat the Burger King Japan 7 Whopper on a regular basis!

The way this whole thing got started was as a rather bizarre marketing campaign where Burger King and Microsoft joined forces to help promote the new release of Microsoft’s Windows 7.

The two companies apparently decided what better way to promote Windows 7 but to come out with a new whopper that contained seven, count them seven beef patties!

I have actually seen the nutritional data on the burger king japan 7 whopper, and the figures for it are simply astounding!

Weighing in at about 1.7 pounds, this “bad boy” contains 2,120 calories! That’s pretty disgusting really since this one sandwich has more calories in it than what you eat for an entire day’s worth of food!

Shame on Microsoft and Burger King. You would think that these two corporate giants would know better than to come up with a marketing plan that can actually be quite harmful to people’s health!

We’ve all been told that we need to eat more fruits and veggies for better health. Interestingly enough, depending upon the color of the fruit or vegetable it provides us with different vitamins, minerals and nutrients. One of the most “prettiest” and most nutritional fruits and veggies are orange in color. Here are the top five orange fruits and vegetables and what they provide you with nutritionally.

1.  Oranges. Oranges provide a healthy dose of daily Vitamin C. They also provide antioxidants and phytonutrients as well.

2.  Pumpkins. Pumpkins are a member of the squash family and often used as a replacement for fat. Boasting a healthy dose of beta-carotene and antioxidants, it has been proven those who eat a diet high in these two elements are less likely to develop certain cancers.

3.  Carrots. Carrots boast a high fiber content, which is a wonderful fat fighting feature in itself. It also has a large amount of Vitamin A, which has been known to help prevent heart disease and ward off certain cancers

4.  Sweet Potatoes. Sweet Potatoes contain carotenoids that can lower and stabilize blood sugar levels. This allows the body to be more adaptable to insulin and can ultimately help with metabolism as well.

5.  Papaya. Though the most exotic of the orange fruits and vegetables listed here, this also provides a nutritional punch. The papaya is a wonderful source of fiber, which aids in digestive health. Papaya’s are also rich in vitamins and minerals and aid in anti-inflammatory problems.

As you can see, orange fruits and vegetables are not only beautiful but healthful as well. Even incorporating one of these into your diet each day can make a vast improvement in your health and longevity.

With this strategy I’m going to share with you today, you’ll be able to learn a lot about yourself and your eating habits.

Behavior Therapy:

One of your major strategies you can use to combat your weight is to modify your behavior and your approach towards losing weight and eating.

Here’s the breakdown of the steps:

Step 1: Ask yourself which behavior you would like to change. If it’s your eating behaviors then get a small notepad and keep a food diary, which you can write down everything you eat. You should make it detailed for the best results. Adding things like when, where, why, with whom, what you did while eating, your mood, and how hungry you were, can give you some great insight on your eating behavior.

Step 2: Observe your normal eating behaviors and plan new ones. Your new behaviors will include new eating adjustments and physical exercise. To help yourself reduce any old eating habits and cues try some of these…

• Eat in one room only
• Wrap your eating utensils in a napkin and wait several minutes before eating
• Take small breaks in between bites.  Don’t take another bite before you’ve swallowed the last one.
• Wait for 30 minutes before eating a nutritious dessert or beverage like tea or coffee.
• Focus on what you’re eating and enjoy each bite.
• Get smaller plates and only eat from those plates.

Step 3: Reward yourself to reinforce your new eating behavior. It’s important that you reward yourself for making progress with your good eating behaviors. These changes will ultimately show up on the scale and with your clothes, you can use small units of weight loss and measurements to emphasize your loyalty to your new eating behavior. You can reward yourself with anything…EXCEPT FOOD!

You know what reward works well with a lot of people?

Money, Dollars, Dough, Moolah, Cash, Bucks, Greenbacks! (you get my point right?)

On a weekly basis check your weight and measurements, if you’ve made progress then reward yourself. For every pound and ½ inch you lose give yourself 5 bucks. Spend it right away or save it to buy yourself something you would’ve refused to buy. If you think this is “redonkulous”, consider this:

“You will spend far more money on diet books, pills, fatty foods, and medical bills if you don’t lose the weight.”

If you truly are having difficulty staying on top of your weight loss I want you to follow the previous steps, and mean really follow them! Don’t just try it for a week and then give up, give it a chance and put the effort in to change your habit.

Make It Happen!

Cheeses differ by many factors like texture, flavor and fat content.

So if you want to change the way you eat and incorporate healthy choices of cheeses in your eating, which ones should you be crazy about?

Low-Fat Cheese

• Good source of calcium.
• Builds your bones while you decrease fat calories.
• Check the “Nutrition Facts” label – the sodium content will vary.
• Cheese is perishable, so check expiration dates.
• If you buy sliced cheese or wedges at the deli, feel free to ask for nutrition information.

Aged Cheese

• Cheddar and Swiss, are examples of aged cheeses.
• The melting qualities, texture, and flavor differ from brand to brand. Some brands work better than others at replacing full-fat cheeses.
• Low-fat cheeses have better cooking qualities than fat-free cheeses.
• For pizza, lasagna, and other Italian recipes, look for low-fat or fat-free mozzarella.

Processed Cheese

• These include American cheese, cheese spreads, and other pasteurized blends.
• These cheeses are not ripened or aged. Because of this they don’t have the same individual flavor and texture as aged cheese.
• They’re versatile and keep longer than aged cheese.
• Cottage cheese, ricotta, and cream cheese are often viewed as a diet food. However cottage cheese, may not be quite as low-calorie as many people think— it all depends on the fat content. For the lowest fat and calorie count, look for fat-free or 1 percent milk fat cottage cheese.

Soy Cheese

• Made from soy protein.
• It’s a lower fat and cholesterol-free alternative to dairy cheese.
• Doesn’t taste like cheese.
• Give it a try and see if you like it.

Substitutions That Wont Pack On The Fat

These low-fat tips can help you enjoy the flavor and texture of cheese without overindulging on fat and calories. In cheese spreads, blend a small amount of stronger-flavored cheese, such as Asiago, blue cheese, feta, sharp Cheddar, or Romano cheese, with either fat-free yogurt or cottage cheese.

Instead of having full-fat cheeses in your favorite recipes, substitute them with reduced-fat or fat-free recipes.  Reduced-fat and fat-free cheeses will melt better if you layer them between other foods or cover the dish while it’s baking. Use highquality, full-flavored cheese for half the amount of cheese in the recipe, and for the other half use a fat-free option.

Best Cheese Choices

• Fat free parmesan cheese
• Parmesan cheese
• Fat free cream cheese
• Fat free mozzarella cheese
• Low fat american processed cheese
• Fat free cheddar cheese
• Low-fat cheddar cheese
• Low-fat mozzarella
• Reduced fat feta
• Reduced fat cheese spread
• Low-fat ricotta
• Fat free cottage cheese
• Low-fat cottage cheese

Worst Cheese Choices

• Mascarpone
• Blue cheese
• Cheddar cheese
• Cottage cheese (4%)
• Ricotta
• Cream cheese
• Brie
• Cheese ball or log
• Cheese spread
• Feta
• American processed cheese

What’s your favorite cheese?