Exercise is important. If you exercise daily or weekly, do not stop during the holidays. Some people get so busy they stop. If you want to avoid adding any extra pounds, keep exercising. It could be a brisk walk; walking after a meal will get you away from the food, making you eat less, and you don't eat seconds. I find that when i am sitting at a table with my friends and we linger, I will keep eating. It's better to get up when you are through and take a walk or remove yourself from the kitchen.

Try eating your fats first. Fat helps you feel full, but it also stimulates your metabolism. So eating these foods first before helping yourself to starchy sides and desserts can help you keep your cravings and total food intake in check.

As a consumer, you are targeted by the junk food system to keep you buying more junk in lieu of real food. By consuming these highly processed products you loose touch with the foundation of healthy eating. Here's the thing: your brain will also become conditioned to crave these unhealthy foods, making it impossible to resist them. Check out a movie called Super Size Me by Michael Moore. This film refers to what I am talking about. For instance when you eat sugar, it triggers production of your brain's natural opioids, a key ingredient in the addiction process. Essentially your brain becomes addicted to stimulating the release of its own opioids as it would to morphine or heroin.

Our bodies are amazing. It takes about 6 to 8 hours to metabolize your glycogen stores and after that you actually start to shift to burning fat. However if you are eating every few hours, you make it more difficult for your body to actually use your fat stores as fuel. Research has shown a beneficial glycemic effect from fasting that resulted in a lower gain in body weight then in non-fasting. Fasting can trigger a variety of health promoting hormonal and metabolic changes similar to those that occur when you exercise.

Fasting has been a part of spiritual practice for millennia. It's necessary for optimal health to normalize your insulin sensitivity. Insulin resistance is a primary contributing factor to nearly all chronic disease, from heart disease, cancer and even diabetes.

Other benefits of fasting:
- Promoting human growth hormone (HGH) production. HGH plays an important role in health, fitness, and slowing down the aging process.
- Lowering triglyceride levels,
- Reducing inflammation and lessening free radical damage
- Normalizing ghrelin levels also known as "the hunger hormone".

If you are healthy and you decide to fast, go slow. There are many options to fasting; you need to discover what works best for you and listen to your body. You can start with a one-day fast and work up from there. Or skip a meal and exercise instead.

We can discuss what's best for your needs and body, if you are interested. Achieving your ideal weight isn't something to only think about at the holidays, it should be a lifestyle. Losing weight and keeping it off can be a challenge, but it can be done.