• Some people eat when they’re happy, some when they’re sad.
• Some people cope with grief by pigging out.
• Some people have chronic pains that make exercise difficult.
• Some people exercise too much, and then binge on food.

Here are five tips to personally develop your weight loss:

1. Keep a daily list of what you eat for one week. When you have to sit down at the end of that week to see how many donuts, candy bars and pizza slices you’ve eaten, you’ll be extra motivated to get in shape.

2. Leave your debit card at home. Working at an office can mean afternoon trips to the deli to get something sweet. Without any way to pay for it, you’ll save money and calories.

3. Don’t start too hard. Sometimes motivation/shame get the best of us, and our first work out in months makes everything too sore to continue. Keep it simple and build.

4. Stay away from Chuck Norris. Infomercials make their money convincing you that a c-level celeb got totally fit by stepping up for 20 minutes, doing ab work for 8 minutes, taking a magic pill or some other silly idea. Jogging for 30 minutes a day and making one meal entirely fruits and veggies will keep your weight down more than some tonic.

5. Any progress, even slow progress, is progress. Sure, losing 20 lbs in two weeks sounds great but it’s: a. not healthy; b. not sustainable; and c. not realistic. Lose one pound a week for twenty weeks and that weight will be easier to keep off.

Here are some truths and some tips on bottled water:

• In 2003, Americans spent $7 billion on bottled water.  If you spent $10 a week on bottled water, that’s over $500 a year.  Put that into a high-yield savings account or a 401k and you can save yourself a bundle.
• In a study done on bottled water, it turns out 25% or more of the water in each bottle is actually just tap water.
• In a blind taste test done in New York, 75% of people preferred tap water taste to bottled water.
• In another test of 1,000 bottles of water, 33% of those bottles turned out to be contaminated with bacteria, synthetic organic chemicals and/or inorganic contaminants such as arsenic.
• The plastic bottle your water comes in can actually decompose over time and contaminate your water.  The longer the water has been in the bottle, the greater the risk of decomposition and contamination.

How’s that Aquafina taste now?

If you want to be able to take care of your family, your aging parents, your employees and so on, you need to manage your own health as a primary concern. Does this mean drinking all the orange juice in the house and yelling at your spouse if you get less than seven hours sleep? No, but it does mean you need to realize that your body is a machine, and machines need a certain amount of care in order to run properly.

Here are some tips to keep your own body running like a well oiled machine:

1. Quit the leaf! Whether it’s tobacco, chewing tobacco or even marijuana, these things have harmful affects on your body. Legality aside, the harmful chemicals brought into your system as a result of using these items are known to cause cancer, emphysema and other serious medical conditions.

2. Green is your favorite color. And not just for the environment, green should be the color of most of your food as well. Raw leafy greens are fantastic forms of vitamins, anti-oxidants, nutrients and more. Spinach, broccoli, asparagus, romaine lettuce and all their wacky cousins will give your body what they need.

3. Don’t be a juicer. No, I’m not talking about steroids, I mean orange, apple, pineapple and cranberry juice. Check out the sugar content on the label of your favorite drink and you’ll see that you’re ingesting high amounts of fructose, high fructose corn syrup and all sorts of unnatural items. Water, tea, natural juices (check the label) and other drinks low in sodium and sugar are where it’s at.

4. Find your happy place. You need 30 minutes of alone time a day, not matter how hard it is to find that time, you need it. Find it in your car, the bathroom, a closet, wherever and whenever you can get time to clear your head, read the bible, zone out and whatever else you need to do. There will always be needy people, but you need time to yourself as well.

5. Know your booze. A glass or two of red wine is actually healthy, even a beer now and then isn’t bad. However, three Red Bull and Grey Gooses every Thursday through Sunday is gonna turn your liver into mush and ruin just about every other organ as well. Hard liquor can be enjoyed in moderation, but moderation means high quality liquor once a month, tops.

6. Quit fast food, as fast as you can. Watch “Super Size Me.” Then, after you’ve finished cursing McDonalds, make an eating chart that you keep in your bedroom or bathroom. Keep track of every item you eat during a month and see how often you eat out, that means pizza, Taco Bell, Burger King, restaurants and so on. Eliminate as much garbage from your diet as you can, especially if it’s made by people wearing silly hats offering you fries with your meal.

7. Practice the three R’s: Reading, reading and reading. Yes, television is the cheap whore who will give herself to you as often as you want her. But, it’ll ruin your physique, cause you to lose your vocabulary and even keep you on the couch eating chips so much that you’ll forget what the sun felt like on your skin. Subscribe to two magazines you like to read, make a list of books and try to bang one out a month and set one night aside in your home to focus on reading something, maybe even out loud.

Don’t let kids eat raw eggs when baking holiday treats.

Kids love to eat raw cookie dough and lick the spoons when you’re making a cake, but anything made with raw eggs can give your kids Salmonella.

Follow safe cooking procedures when preparing your holiday meal.

Wash your hands after you handle meat, poultry or eggs before you touch any other food.

Wash your counters, sinks, and anyplace else the uncooked poultry came in contact with immediately.

Use separate cutting boards for meat and poultry than you use for other foods. Don’t dice your veggies on a cutting board you just used for your chicken or turkey. Realize that wood cutting boards absorb the meat or poultry juices, which may contaminate your other foods even if you wash them.

Wash utensils promptly before you use them on anything else. For example, the knife you use to cut chicken shouldn’t be used on your veggies without first thoroughly washing the knife in hot water with soap.

Cook your poultry well.

Turkeys should be cooked at a minimum of 325 degrees F. Cooking time will vary based on the size of your bird.

The inside of poultry should reach 165 degrees F.

Always use a meat thermometer when cooking poultry. Don’t rely on built-in pop-up thermometers that come with turkeys and chickens, because the breast gets cooked faster than the inside.

For optimum safety, use two thermometers. One thermometer should be placed in the innermost part of the thigh and wing, and the other in the thickest part of the breast, as these are the place that heat up to proper temperature last.

Don’t cook your stuffing inside the turkey. Stuffing should be cooked separately and should reach 165 degrees F.

You can read the USDA’s advice on properly cooking a turkey for more information:
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Fact_Sheets/Lets_Talk_Turkey/index.asp

Deal with leftovers promptly.

Your turkey shouldn’t be left out for very long after you’ve eaten. The longer you leave poultry out, the bigger risk you’re taking of your family getting salmonella from the leftovers.

Put your leftovers into wide, shallow containers so they cool thoroughly. Get them refrigerated within an hour.

Know the risks and symptoms of food poisoning.

E. coli and Salmonella are the most common types of food poisoning. Salmonella generally comes from poultry or uncooked eggs, while E. coli generally comes from beef or other cow meat. E. coli can also come from leafy greens, unpasteurized juice and milk.

E. coli infection usually starts with severe abdominal cramps followed by painful diarrhea (usually bloody). Vomiting may or may not occur, but there is generally no fever. Symptoms usually begin between 3-9 days after the contaminated food has been eaten, but some people experience symptoms within 24 hours. The symptoms can last a week. Healthy adults with normal immune systems often recover without hospitalization, but e. coli infection once spread to the bloodstream can cause a painful form of kidney failure (called Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome). HUS often kills children and the elderly.

Salmonella infection symptoms include sudden nausea, abdominal cramping, and bloody diarrhea with mucous, and fever. Vomiting may or may not occur. Other symptoms include headache, muscle ache and joint pain. Symptoms usually begin within 6-72 hours after the contaminated food has been eaten, and usually lasts 5-7 days. In rare cases, Salmonella can cause Reiterís Syndrome, a debilitating form of arthritis.

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