Here it comes — that stretch of holiday festivities that bring endless opportunities to overindulge. While it ’tis the season to be jolly, everywhere you turn you come face-to-face with all those tempting holiday foods. Are you worried that the constant exposure to goodies will start to weigh on your willpower like so many choruses of “The 12 Days of Christmas?”
Read MoreHere it comes — that stretch of holiday festivities that bring endless opportunities to overindulge. While it ’tis the season to be jolly, everywhere you turn you come face-to-face with all those tempting holiday foods. Are you worried that the constant exposure to goodies will start to weigh on your willpower like so many choruses of “The 12 Days of Christmas?”
Read MoreThe holidays bring with them an abundance of festivities centered around eating and drinking. And, not to play Scrooge, but much of our favorite holiday fare sits atop the list of those opiate-like "trigger foods." These foods fall in the "naughty" category because they set off chemicals in the brain that make us want to gorge ourselves -- like sugar, alcohol, cheese and refined carbohydrates (think breads and cookies). They trigger an eat-fest in your brain that can pack on unwanted pounds.
Read MoreGrowing up, I always thought spirituality was something found in an Indian ashram or in a new age crystal shop.
As a Jewish girl from Long Island, spirituality was simply not in my day- to-day vocabulary. I went to Hebrew school and to temple for holidays, but I counted the minutes until I could escape.
Religion, to me, was all about things you couldn’t do or shouldn’t eat. It didn’t bother me that I wasn’t a spiritual person. Truthfully, it wasn’t something that I had ever even thought much about.
Read MoreIn my continued efforts to better understand my own body and behavior, I often turn to the animal kingdom.
I look for insight into our human drives, instincts, and habits, and then can better understand what the animal in me is supposed to be doing rather than what I have been told to do or have learned to do from other humans.
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