Conquer Your Stomach Pooch: PART ONE

Try These Gut-Busting Foods

Eating the right foods can actually help you lose weight.

Eat more. Yes, really. But you have to nosh on the good stuff, according to the Framingham Nutrition Study. This ongoing resarch has found that women who consume 400 more calories per day and eat healthier foods are two-and-a-half times less likely to develop abdominal obesity than women who take in fewer calories but consume more saturated fat and less fiber.

“What this means is that healthy women whose habitual diets are higher in fat and lower in fiber, protective nutrients, and desirable carbohydrates are at a higher long-term risk of developing abdominal obesity,” says Barbara E. Millen, a registered dietitian and director of nutrition research for the Framingham Study.

Get your C. Foods rich in vitamin C help fight ab flab, says Debi Silber, a registered dietitian from Dix Hills, New York. “Although it’s true that citrus fruits and juices are highest in vitamin C,” she says, “you can also get a boost from broccoli, tomatoes, or red peppers.”

Go ahead and have a little steak. Eating a small amount of protein (of any kind) makes you feel fuller and leads to overall weight loss, especially in the abdominal region, according to a recent study out of Skidmore College. “Our findings suggest that consuming a higher-protein diet in six smaller meals a day significantly reduces total body weight, as well as abdominal-fat mass in overweight men and women,” explains Paul J. Arciero, DPE, associate professor of exercise science at Skidmore College.

Stick to olive oil. You already know that a diet rich in this Mediterranean staple is good for your heart. But you may not realize that it helps prevent belly-fat accumulation, too, according to researchers at the Reina Sofía University Hospital in Spain. Add more heart-healthy olive oil to your diet by substituting it for butter in recipes and on bread, and by switching from your usual dressing to a mixture of olive oil and vinegar.

Increase your omega-3s. Eating foods like walnuts or seafood will help reduce the production of adrenaline, a stress hormone that contributes to an increase in belly fat.

Drink for a better waistline

Water with lemon
You know you need to drink lots of H2O. It aids in digestion, curbs hunger, and ramps up fat-burning. Add a few slices of lemon or lime, and you’ll get a dose of vitamin C, which can help blast off ab fat.

Wine
Here’s why you may want to sip a little vino (about four ounces a day): Women who consume moderate amounts of alcohol have less central-abdominal and total-body fat than abstainers, says a study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Diabetes and Exercise

Thinking about adding exercise to your diabetes treatment plan? Good for you! Diabetes and exercise go hand in hand. Regular physical activity can help you improve your blood sugar control, as well as boost your overall fitness and reduce your risk of heart disease and nerve damage.

Learn more about how exercise affects your diabetes. Assess possible limitations, and keep your blood sugar on track as you increase your activity level.

Buy into the hype

Besides boosting your mood and energy levels, exercise leads to:

• Improved blood sugar control. When you exercise, your muscles use sugar (glucose) for energy. This reduces your blood sugar. The more strenuous your workout, the longer the effect lasts. And there's more. If you have type 2 diabetes, exercise can increase your insulin sensitivity. That means your body requires less insulin to escort sugar into your cells. Along with a healthy-eating plan, exercise may even reduce — or eliminate — your need for glucose-lowering medication.
• Improved heart health. Diabetes increases your risk of high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases. Exercise counteracts the risk by improving blood flow, increasing your heart's pumping power and improving your cholesterol levels.
• Improved weight control. Exercise can help you lose weight — and keep it off.

Get the green light

Before jumping into a fitness program, get your doctor's OK to exercise — especially if you've been inactive. Discuss with your doctor which activities you're contemplating and any limitations you may have.

For example, if you have diabetic retinopathy — abnormal growth of blood vessels on your retina — strenuous activity could lead to bleeding or retinal detachment. You may need to avoid certain activities, such as weightlifting or jogging. If you have reduced sensation in your feet, your doctor may recommend non-weight-bearing activities, such as swimming or biking.

Also discuss with your doctor the best time to exercise. If you take insulin, you might need to adjust your insulin dose before exercising or wait a few hours to exercise after injecting insulin.

MORE ON THIS TOPIC

• Diabetic retinopathy
• Peripheral neuropathy
• Peripheral arterial disease (PAD)

Exercise good judgment

When you're ready to exercise, start slowly. Work your way up to 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise most days of the week. While you're working out, remember to take good care of yourself.

• Monitor your blood sugar. Check your blood sugar before, during and after exercise — especially if you take insulin or medications that can cause low blood sugar (hypoglycemia). Carry glucose tablets or hard candy in case your blood sugar drops too low or you feel shaky, nervous or confused.
• Pay attention to your feet. Wear smooth-fitting socks and comfortable athletic shoes. Examine your feet before and after exercise for any signs of potential damage, such as cuts or blisters.
• Drink up. Drink plenty of fluids while you exercise, especially when it's hot. Dehydration can increase your blood sugar. If you exercise for more than an hour, drink carbohydrate-containing beverages rather than plain water.
• Identify yourself. Wear a diabetes identification bracelet or shoe tag while exercising, in case of an emergency.
• Know when to stop. If you experience any warning signs — severe shortness of breath, dizziness, faintness, nausea, chest pain, heart palpitations, or pain in an arm or in your jaw — stop exercising. If you don't feel better within 15 minutes, seek immediate medical help.

Keep your eye on the prize

Try not to get discouraged if exercise causes significant changes in your blood sugar and upsets your normal management routine. Continue to test your blood sugar frequently until you begin to notice a pattern and can adjust your meals and medications accordingly. Your health care team can help, too. Once you understand how your body responds to exercise, you'll be even closer to a healthier you.

Office + Exercise?

Sure, you know you can park at the far end of the parking lot and take the stairs instead of the elevator. These are great ideas, but there's even more you can do to burn calories during your workday — especially if you sit at a desk most of the day. Consider 10 creative ways to make office exercise part of your routine:

1. Make the most of your commute. Walk or bike to work. If you ride the bus, get off a few blocks early and walk the rest of the way.
2. Look for opportunities to stand. You'll burn more calories standing than sitting. Try a standing desk, or improvise with a high table or counter. Eat lunch standing up. Trade instant messaging and phone calls for walks to other desks or offices.
3. Take fitness breaks. Rather than hanging out in the lounge with coffee or a snack, take a brisk walk or do some gentle stretching. Pull your chin toward your chest until you feel a stretch along the back of your neck, or slowly bring your shoulders up toward your ears.
4. Trade your office chair for a fitness ball. A firmly inflated fitness ball can make a good chair. You'll improve your balance and tone your core muscles while sitting at your desk. You can even use the fitness ball for wall squats or other exercises during the day.
5. Keep exercise equipment in your work area. Store resistance bands — stretchy cords or tubes that offer weight-like resistance when you pull on them — or small hand weights in a desk drawer or cabinet. Do arm curls between meetings or tasks.
6. Get social. Organize a lunchtime walking group. You might be surrounded by people who are ready to lace up their walking shoes — and hold each other accountable for regular exercise. Enjoy the camaraderie, and offer encouragement to one another when the going gets tough.
7. Conduct meetings on the go. When it's practical, schedule walking meetings or brainstorming sessions. Do laps inside your building or, if the weather cooperates, take your walking meetings outdoors.
8. Pick up the pace. If your job involves walking, do it faster. Take long, easy strides, and remember to breathe freely while you walk.
9. If you travel for work, plan ahead. Exercise doesn't need to go by the wayside when you're traveling. If you're stuck in an airport waiting for a plane, grab your bags and take a brisk walk. Choose a hotel that has fitness facilities — such as treadmills, weight machines or a pool — or bring your equipment with you. Jump-ropes and resistance bands are easy to sneak into a suitcase. Of course, you can do jumping jacks, crunches and other simple exercises without any equipment at all.
10. Try a treadmill desk. If you're ready to take office exercise to the next level, consider a more focused walk-and-work approach. If you can comfortably position your work surface above a treadmill — with a computer screen on a stand, a keyboard on a table or a specialized treadmill-ready vertical desk — you may be able to walk while you work. In fact, Mayo Clinic researchers estimate that overweight office workers who replace sitting computer time with walking computer time by two to three hours a day could lose 44 to 66 pounds (20 to 30 kilograms) in a year. The pace doesn't need to be brisk, nor do you need to break a sweat. The faster you walk, however, the more calories you'll burn.

Want more ideas for office exercise? Schedule a walking meeting to brainstorm ideas with your supervisors or co-workers. Remember, any physical activity counts!

Red Wine and more...

Red wine and something in red wine called resveratrol might be heart healthy. Learn the facts, and hype, regarding red wine and its impact on your heart.

Red wine has long been touted as heart healthy. Some have suggested that the apparent health benefits of red wine, namely reducing your risk of heart disease, are behind the so-called French paradox. The French are regular drinkers of red wine and have relatively high amounts of saturated fat in their diet. Despite this fat intake, the French have lower rates of heart disease.

While the news about red wine might sound great if you enjoy a glass of red wine with your evening meal, doctors are wary of encouraging anyone to drink alcohol because too much alcohol can have a host of harmful effects on your body.

But despite the caution, doctors do agree that something in red wine appears to help your heart, though it's unclear just exactly what that "something" is. Recent research has indicated a substance called resveratrol, which is found in the skin and seeds of grapes used to make wine, has promising heart-healthy benefits.

Resveratrol isn't the only substance in red wine that looks promising. The alcohol in red wine also appears to be heart healthy. Understand what's known — and not known — about red wine and its possible heart-health benefits.

How does alcohol help the heart?

Various studies have indicated that moderate amounts of all types of alcohol benefit your heart, not just alcohol found in red wine. Some heart-healthy benefits of alcohol include:

• Raises high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, the "good" cholesterol
• Lowers blood pressure
• Inhibits the formation of blood clots
• Helps prevent artery damage caused by high levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, the "bad" cholesterol

Is red wine better?

Red wine in particular seems to have even more heart-health benefits than other types of alcohol, according to a large Danish study from 2000. The study, known as the Copenhagen City Heart Study, found that those who drank red wine had about half the risk of dying of heart disease as those who didn't.

Additional studies have given mixed results — some confirming the Danish finding, others showing red wine isn't any better than beer, white wine or liquor for heart health. As a result, the American Heart Association says there's no clear evidence yet that red wine is superior to other forms of alcohol when it comes to possible heart-health benefits.

The pro-red wine studies suggest antioxidants in red wine called polyphenols help protect the lining of blood vessels in your heart. These antioxidants come in two main forms: flavonoids and nonflavonoids.

• Flavonoids. These antioxidants are found in a variety of foods, including oranges, apples, onions, tea and cocoa. Other types of alcohol, such as white wine and beer, contain small amounts, too, but red wine has higher levels.
• Nonflavonoids. These antioxidants found in red wine have recently been of particular interest because they appear to help prevent arteries from becoming clogged with fatty blockages. However, these studies mostly involved mice — not humans. Resveratrol is the nonflavonoid that researchers are most interested in.

Resveratrol in red wine

Some researchers believe that resveratrol might be the key ingredient in red wine that helps prevent damage to blood vessels, reduces "bad" cholesterol and prevents blood clots.

Research in mice given resveratrol has indicated that the antioxidant might also help protect them from obesity and diabetes, both of which are strong risk factors for heart disease. However, those findings were reported only in mice, not in people. In addition, to achieve the dose of resveratrol used in the mice studies, a person would have to consume 100 to 1,000 bottles of red wine a day.

Some companies sell supplements containing resveratrol. However, doctors caution that not enough is known about resveratrol's effects to endorse resveratrol supplements. Research into the potential heart-health benefits of resveratrol is continuing.

Resveratrol in grapes and other foods

The resveratrol in red wine comes from the skin of grapes used to make wine. Because red wine is fermented with grape skins longer than is white wine, red wine contains more resveratrol. Simply eating grapes, or drinking grape juice, has been suggested as one way to get resveratrol without drinking alcohol. Some studies have suggested that red and purple grape juices have some of the same heart-healthy benefits of red wine.

Other foods that contain some resveratrol include peanuts, blueberries and cranberries. It's not yet known how beneficial eating grapes or other foods might be compared with drinking red wine when it comes to promoting heart health. The amount of resveratrol in food and red wine can vary widely.

Drink in moderation — or not at all

Red wine's potential heart-health benefits look promising. Those who drink moderate amounts of alcohol, including red wine, seem to have a lower risk of heart disease. However, more research is needed before we know whether red wine is better for your heart than are other forms of alcohol, such as beer or spirits.

The American Heart Association doesn't recommend that you start drinking alcohol just to prevent heart disease. Alcohol can be addictive. Too much increases your risk of high blood pressure, high triglycerides, liver damage, obesity, certain types of cancer, accidents and other problems. In addition, even small amounts of alcohol can cause cardiomyopathy — weakened heart muscle — and heart failure in some people. If you have heart failure or a weak heart you should avoid alcohol completely.

If you already drink red wine, do so in moderation. Moderate drinking is defined as an average of two drinks a day for men and one drink a day for women.

• A drink is defined as 12 ounces (oz.) of beer, 5 oz. of wine or 1.5 oz. of 80-proof distilled spirits.

The limit for men is higher because men generally weigh more and have more of an enzyme that metabolizes alcohol than women do.

How works invade your personal life

There was a time when employees showed up for work Monday through Friday and worked eight to nine hours. The boundaries between work and home were fairly clear then. But the world has changed and, unfortunately, the boundaries have blurred for many workers. Here's why:

• Global economy. As more skilled workers enter the global labor market and companies outsource or move more jobs to reduce labor costs, people feel pressured to work longer and produce more to protect their jobs.
• International business. Work continues around the world 24 hours a day for some people. If you work in an international organization, you might be on call around the clock for troubleshooting or consulting.
• Advanced communication technology. People now have the ability to work anywhere — from their home, from their car and even on vacation. And some managers expect that.
• Longer hours. Employers commonly ask employees to work longer hours than they're scheduled. Often, overtime is mandatory. If you hope to move up the career ladder, you may find yourself regularly working more than 40 hours a week to achieve and exceed expectations.
• Changes in family roles. Today's married worker is typically part of a dual-career couple, which makes it difficult to find time to meet commitments to family, friends and community.

If you've experienced any of these challenges, you understand how easy it is for work to invade your personal life.

Vegetarian Meals

It is easy to have a different vegetarian meal every day of the month with little or no cooking.

1. Potlucks-- Many local vegetarian groups sponsor potluck dinners in homes or at parks. You can bring juice and have a wonderful meal full of variety. There is always plenty for those who don't use animal products.
2. Organize your own potluck at your house one day a month -- Let your friends know about the potlucks and put a note in a local vegetarian group's newsletter or your community newsletter. 3. You can supply juice, the plates, etc. Let others bring delicious dishes. There are members of other environmental and animal groups whom you could invite to the potluck.
4. Purchase Vegetarian Journal's Guide to Natural Foods Restaurants in the US. and Canada -- This way when you travel you will always be able to find places offering vegetarian meals. Send $16 to VRG, P0 Box 1463, Baltimore, MD 21203.
5. Purchase Meatless Meat for Working People from The Vegetarian Resource Group -- You can find out which foods are vegetarian in fast food chains. Send $12 to VRG, P0 Box 1463, Baltimore, MD 21203.
6. Purchase a vegetable pot pie from a natural foods store or supermarket.
7. Attend vegetarian and animal rights activities, and get invited to a friend's home for a vegetarian dinner.
8. Lightlife's Smart Dogs or other veggie "hot dogs" and vegetarian baked beans -- Warm up these items that are readily available in health food stores and many mainstream supermarkets.
9. Legume brand stuffed tofu manicotti -- a quick frozen TV dinner without cheese, available in your local health food store. (Other types of entrees also available.) Add a tossed salad and 10. 10. Italian bread and you've got yourself a terrific meal.
11. Supermarket salad bar--A good source of a meal. If you had this once or twice a month, you wouldn't get bored with it. Try to choose low-fat dressings.
12. Gourmet takeout-- For one or more days, gourmet markets make a great takeout. Today there are more choices than you could imagine for a complete vegetarian meal.
13. Ethiopian food -- Relatively inexpensive and luckily there are usually several Ethiopian restaurants in urban areas. Eat there or takeout delicious vegetarian stews (consisting of legumes and vegetables) with Injera (Ethiopian bread).
14. Vegetable lo mein and steamed mixed vegetables from a local Chinese restaurant -- Request brown rice instead of white rice. Spicy eggplant with vegetables or other such dish from a Szechuan-style Chinese restaurant -- Choose different items from the menu for variety.
Moo Shu Vegetable--A great vegetarian version of Moo Shoo Pork found in Chinese restaurants.
15. Middle Eastern food-- Order hummus, falafel, baba ghanuj, tabouli, and much more. Good variety and may contain high-calcium tahini. You almost never see dairy in Chinese or Middle Eastern restaurants since they generally obtain their calcium from vegetable sources.
16. A quick meal -- Open a can of chickpeas, mash them lightly, and prepare it like you would tuna salad. Put on bread, and you're ready to eat. If you don't like the salt, you can rinse the chickpeas. Try eggless mayonnaise from a natural foods store.
17. Indonesian Restaurants -- They sometimes offer vegetarian tempeh dishes.
Thai Food-- It's sort of like Chinese cuisine, but slightly different. You can get spicy food if you wish. Thai restaurants will usually substitute tofu for meat. Specify that you do not want oyster sauce and that they can substitute garlic sauce. The curry dishes are especially delicious.
18. Vegetable chow fon in Chinese restaurants -- A wide noodle made out of rice flour. This is almost always on the menu in New York, and several other cities. You may have to ask for it.
Sometimes the staff eats it in an authentic Chinese vegetarian restaurant.
19. Indian food -- Many many vegetarian dishes are found in Indian restaurants. If you don't like spicy food, ask them to make it mild. Usually served with rice. I like masala dosa, which is an eggless crepe made out of lentil flour wrapped around potatoes.
20. Appalachian Trail Stew -- I ate this mostly while hiking on the Appalachian Trail. It's easy to prepare: put all into one pot and boil until done -- lentils, a little macaroni, barley, and maybe a cut-up potato. For flavoring you can add garlic powder or tomato sauce for a different dish. For a little more variety add some cut-up broccoli or frozen vegetables.
21. Vegetable mixture -- Frozen corn, peas, Brussels sprouts, and whatever veggies you like. Add to cooked pasta or serve over rice. This is a quick meal.
22. Purchase quick vegetarian cup of soups in a supermarket or natural foods store -- Serve with a whole-grain bread and perhaps a salad.
23. Mexican food -- Try a veggie taco, burrito, tostada, etc. You can get take out or frozen or packaged. Most Mexican restaurants and fast food chains no longer put lard in their beans, but you should always ask to make sure.
24. From your frozen food case -- Purchase potato pancakes, potato blintzes or pierogis, and frozen vegetables.
25. Vegetable burgers -- Archer Daniels Midland, one of the largest food companies in the world, is now making a veggie burger that is called the Harvest Burger and is packaged under the Pillsbury Green Giant label. There are plenty of other packaged varieties in natural foods stores.
26. Tempeh-- Get some from a health foods store. Fry in non-stick pan. Make a sandwich with tempeh, bread, and any veggies you like. There are also tempeh burgers.
27. Gluten or seitan -- This is made from wheat and has the texture of meat. You can buy it from a health food store or in a can from an Asian grocery store (less expensive.) Cook it with a starch and some green veggies (for example, macaroni, seitan, and peas and corn). The gluten or seitan is already cooked, so it is a matter of adding it in with the other ingredients and heating it up.
28. Take-out pizza without the cheese -- Try a variety of veggies on top.
Vegetarian chili -- Prepare your own quickly from cans or get take out. You don't need to cook beans from scratch.

Tips for Life!

How much do you know about what makes up a healthy lifestyle? Here's a pop quiz. ]

1. How do you define working out?
a. Going to the gym. b. Turning the jump-rope for the neighbor's kid.c. Playing Frisbee with your dog.
2. How do you define good nutrition?
a. Eating a vegetable at every meal. b. Eating two vegetables at every meal.c. Drinking a fruit smoothie for breakfast.
3. Which of these is a healthy activity?
a. Push-ups, sit-ups, or running the track.b. Walking the dog after dinner.c. Spending Saturday afternoon snoozing on the sofa.

Believe it or not, the correct answer to every question is A, B, and C -- even that Saturday afternoon snooze! According to the growing "Stealth Health" movement, sneaking healthy habits into our daily living is easier than we think.

"You can infuse your life with the power of prevention incrementally and fairly painlessly, and yes, doing something, no matter how small, is infinitely better for you than doing nothing," says David Katz, MD, MPH, director of Yale University's Prevention Research Center and of the Yale Preventive Medicine Center. Katz is also co-author of the book Stealth Health: How to Sneak Age-Defying, Disease-Fighting Habits into Your Life without Really Trying.
From your morning shower to the evening news, from your work commute to your household chores, Katz says, there are at least 2,400 ways to sneak healthy activities into daily living.
"If you let yourself make small changes, they will add up to meaningful changes in the quality of your diet, your physical activity pattern, your capacity to deal with stress, and in your sleep quality -- and those four things comprise an enormously powerful health promotion that can change your life," says Katz.
And yes, he says, a nap on the couch can be a health-giving opportunity -- particularly if you aren't getting enough sleep at night.
Nutritionist and diabetes educator Fran Grossman, RD, CDE, agrees. "You don't have to belong to a gym or live on wheat grass just to be healthy," says Grossman, a nutrition counselor at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York. "There are dozens of small things you can do every day that make a difference, and you don't always have to do a lot to gain a lot."

Do a Little, Get a Lot

The notion that good health can come in small tidbits is not really new. Research showing that making small changes can add up to a big difference has been quietly accumulating for a while.
For example, a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine in 2004 found that adding just 30 minutes of walking per day was enough to prevent weight gain and encourage moderate weight loss.
And if 30 minutes is still too big a bite? Another study, published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, found that three brisk 10-minute walks per day were as effective as a daily 30-minute walk in decreasing risk factors for heart disease.
"Just the act of going from sedentary to moderately active gives you the greatest reduction in your risks," says Helene Glassberg, MD, director of the Preventive Cardiology and Lipid Center at the Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia.
But it's not only in fitness where small changes can make a difference. The same principles apply at the kitchen table (and the office snack bar).
"Reducing fat intake, cutting down on sugar, eating a piece of fruit instead of a candy bar -- over time, these things can make a difference," says Grossman.
As long as the changes are moving you toward your goal -- be it weight loss, a reduction in cholesterol or blood pressure, or better blood sugar control -- you can get there by taking baby steps, she says.
Moreover, Grossman tells WebMD, making small changes can help give us the motivation to make bigger ones.
"A lot of bad eating habits are about not taking charge of your life, and that attitude is often reflected in other areas," says Grossman. On the other hand, she says, when you make small changes at the kitchen table, the rewards may show up in other areas of your life.
"It's the act of taking control that makes the difference in motivating you," says Grossman. "An inner confidence and power begins to develop that can be seen in other areas of life."

Tripping Over Baby Steps
Of course, not everyone is certain that baby steps can walk you all the way to good health. Marc Siegel, MD, a clinical associate professor at the NYU School of Medicine, says that while doing something is certainly better than doing nothing, making such small changes is like using a Band-aid to stop a hemorrhage.
"It's a small, gimmicky idea to target people with very unhealthy lifestyles, and for some it may be useful," says Siegel, author of False Alarm: the Truth about the Epidemic of Fear. But he fears that for most people, it's sending the wrong message.
"In some ways it's a resignation, an admission that things can't be changed -- and that's certainly not the long-term answer," Siegel tells WebMD.
Katz concedes that the Stealth Health approach may not be right for everybody.
"There is a trade-off because if you try to make the pursuit of health easier for people, you run the risk of leading them to believe they don't need to do very much -- and that would be the wrong message," he says.
At the same time, Katz believes that for those who find making health changes a daunting task, Stealth Health techniques can make a difference.
"If you want the really big gains, there has to be some pain," says Katz. "But there is a lot to be said for the idea that you can make some gains with little or no pain, and that's infinitely better than no gains."

Try the Stealth Health Approach

Tempted to give "Stealth Health" a try? Katz recommends picking any three of the following 12 changes and incorporating them into your life for four days. When you feel comfortable with those changes, pick three others. Once you've incorporate all dozen changes, you should start to feel a difference within a couple of weeks, he says.
To Improve Nutrition:
1. Buy whole foods -- whether canned, frozen, or fresh from the farm -- and use them in place of processed foods whenever possible.2. Reject foods and drinks made with corn syrup, a calorie-dense, nutritionally empty sweetener that many believe is worse for the body than sugar, says Katz.3. Start each dinner with a mixed green salad. Not only will it help reduce your appetite for more caloric foods, but it also will automatically add veggies to your meal.
To Improve Physical Fitness:
1. Do a squat every time you pick something up. Instead of bending over in the usual way, which stresses the lower back, bend your knees and squat. This forces you to use your leg muscles and will build strength. 2. Every time you stop at a traffic light (or the bus does), tighten your thighs and butt muscles and release as many times as you can. (Don't worry, no one will see it!) This will firm leg and buttock muscles, improve blood flow -- and keep you mildly amused! 3. Whenever you're standing on a line, lift one foot a half-inch off the ground. The extra stress on your opposite foot, ankle, calf and thigh, plus your buttocks, will help firm and tone muscles. Switch feet every few minutes.

To Improve Stress Control:
1. Give your partner a hug every day before work. Studies show this simple act can help you remain calm when chaos ensues during your day, Katz says.2. Have a good cry. It can boost your immune system, reduce levels of stress hormones, eliminate depression, and help you think more clearly.3. Twice a day, breathe deeply for three to five minutes

To Improve Sleep:
1. Sprinkle just-washed sheets and pillowcases with lavender water. The scent has been shown in studies to promote relaxation, which can lead to better sleep.2. Buy a new pillow. Katz says that studies show that pillows with an indent in the center can enhance sleep quality and reduce neck pain. Also, try a "cool" pillow -- one containing either all-natural fibers or a combination of sodium sulfate and ceramic fibers that help keep your head cool.3. Eat a handful of walnuts before bed. You'll be giving yourself a boost of fiber and essential fatty acids along with the amino acid tryptophan -- a natural sleep-inducer.