Your bathroom scale is a tool, not an inquisitor

Should you weigh yourself every day? Once a week? Not at all? Advice about weighing can be confusing.

Some experts say weighing should be kept to a minimum so that we don't get obsessed about it; others say weighing daily can keep us from losing awareness so that we don't cheat; and still others tell us to judge our weight by how our clothes fit, not the scale.

Most dieters believe that the more you weigh yourself, the more motivated you'll be and the faster you'll lose weight. But when the number on the scale is our primary focus, there's less attention paid to the behaviors that result in weight loss.
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Work your way to a sound sleep

How would you rate your sleeping habits? Hopefully, favorably, considering we spend about a third of our life sleeping and about half the population deals with sleep issues.

According to research, the average adult sleeps fewer than seven hours per night. Chronic sleep deprivation can negatively affect our immune system, making us more vulnerable to many health issues, and it certainly has a negative effect on our daily moods, performance capabilities and energy levels. Amazingly, it even has an impact on weight.
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The Budget Chef: Decadent Delights

These days, we are all watching what goes onto our plates and into our mouths. But once in a while, enjoying a decadent meal is essential to keeping our stomachs and taste buds happy. Saving money while doing that, well, is priceless. Remember, these scrumptious meals can be made for $10 or less.
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In Between Jobs

“Why is my job search taking so long?” Simple math easily points to the likely answer - the more job seekers there are in the market, the longer it will take to find the right job. While the economy seems to slowly be making a comeback, there are quite a few job seekers out there today who are still looking.

Many of these people have been pounding the pavement for a year or more, and it is starting to take a toll on their self-esteem, not to mention their budget. The longer a job search lasts, the easier it is to become discouraged and even depressed.
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School Vacation Brings Childcare Issues

The kids are ready for summer vacation off from school, but are you? Unless you work in a school, summer vacation can be logistical nightmare for parents of school-aged children.

Each spring, parents who work outside the home have to take a back-to-the-drawing-board approach to the carefully constructed childcare scheme that works the other 10 months of the year. Most parents can’t afford to take two months off, but at the same time they don’t want their kids to spend 40+ hours a week in a daycare all summer long.
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BodySense: What Are your Triggers?

I’ve been doing this for many, many years – following the philosophy of attuned eating, practicing what I preach in my BodySense groups. And yet every now and again, I find myself eating when I’m not hungry. And when that happens, I don’t select healthy, nutritious foods, I go right for the mind-numbing, high-sugar, high-fat varieties.

I remember an incident a few years ago when I was preparing to have friends over for brunch. I’m not a good cook (although I make a great salad and set a lovely table), so I was ordering a quiche as the main part of the meal and I allowed myself to be talked into quite a few tasty-looking and expensive pastries.
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Raising Hope Foundation to Host Annual Walk of Hope

When Roger Long of Peru started to fall down during his outdoor trips in May 2009, he chalked it up to getting older, said his wife Darlene. But when he needed help standing up and began to lose weight, the Longs decided it was time to visit the doctor.

Eventually, Roger was diagnosed with ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. The diagnosis took some time for doctors to figure out because, according to Darlene, “there is no one definite test for ALS.”

The doctor who diagnosed Roger told him to go home and get his life in order.

“As soon as he was diagnosed, I retired at the end of the year,” Darlene said.

Darlene has been her husband’s caregiver since. Living through this experience, both Roger and Darlene wanted to make people aware of what ALS patients and their families go through after diagnosis.
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Body Part: ABS

We all want great abs. The midsection is one of the biggest trouble areas women tell me they want to improve. Well first off, let me reiterate the fact that abs are made in the kitchen.

You can do crunches until the cows come home, but if your nutrition is not spot on, you will never see amazing abs. So step one, clean up your diet with the focus on whole natural foods including whole grains, lean proteins, healthy fats, and of course lots of veggies and some fruit.
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Lung Cancer becoming a prominent killer of women

According to the American Lung Association, lung cancer now surpasses breast cancer as the number one cancer killer of women.

“It is important to keep in mind part of the reason for lung cancer passing breast cancer in death rates are the extreme efforts put towards early detection and treatment of breast cancer,” said Plattsburgh-based physician Jonathan Beach.

Additionally, Beach said new advances in non-invasive diagnostic tools, like ultrasound, improve a person’s chances of early detection.

“As expected, as we improve our abilities to screen for a disease, we improve early treatment options and survival rates,” Beach said.
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