1. Use smaller plates: Cornell research shows that downsizing form a 12-inch to a 10-inch plate  leads people to consume 22% fewer calories!
2. Half of every meal is fruits and veggies: forget counting the USDA’s “recommended” portions… Dr. Katz says this: Breakfast: small bowl filled with half cereal, half fruit. Lunch: Half a sammie (Note from LK – throw veggies on for extra credit) and 2 pieces of fruit. Dinner: make sure HALF of your (10-inch!) plate is filled with veggies.
3. Don’t eat on the run: It usually means fast food or packaged food, neither of which have a place in anyone’s game plan, except maybe Chris Farley’s, and you know what happened to him. Note from LK – If you find yourself often running out the door without eating properly, plan from right now to always have ideas of healthy portable foods you can take with you. HERE are some healthy snack ideas.
4. Look at food labels. The shorter, the better.
5. Don’t think healthy means more expensive. Katz’ own research shows healthier alternatives generally carry no additional cost.
6. Take the extra TEN MINUTES to prepare fresh, healthy meals: UCLA research shows it takes an average of 10 minutes longer to prepare good, healthy food than it does to serve packaged, processed foods.
7. Retrain your taste buds. It takes an average of two weeks to get off the old hankering for sweetened, saltier fare and onto a healthier taste spectrum. Don’t expect to love all the healthier choices the first time you try them. Keep at it. You CAN and WILL retrain your palate.
8. Stop eating before you feel full. There is a lag between the rate at which we stuff our pie holes and the waterfall of hormones that give us the satiated sense. Note from LK – a very effective way to stop before you’re full is to start thinking about the next snack or meal you will be eating in 3-4 hours (and you MUST eat something healthy every 3-4 hours to keep blood sugar levels at their optimum). This gives you a mental “pacing” by which to monitor your current intake.
9. Sit down to dinner with the whole family. University of Minnesota research lays it out for you: families (no matter what size – could be just 2 of you) who eat dinner together are less likely to suffer from eating disorders, drug use, smoking and alcohol abuse. Wow. That’s significant.
10. You really are what you eat. Your skin, your hair, your nails, your overall demeanor, it is all tied to the fuel you put in. Truly, there isn’t much room for calories filled with salt, sugar and fat if we want these engines of ours to run well.

Grab Bag Favorite Lotion:

This lotion has it all: great texture, long lasting moisture, and an amazing, natural scent  of blood orange and vanilla(and the price tag to go with it. Really worth it, though… especially if you save it for just hands or mix it with a neutral and cheaper lotion to extend it). My husband LOVES this stuff, and he hates almost every lotion on the planet.

Find this at health food stores or online:

Grab Bag Useful Stuff:

Cooliris.com. A mind boggling application that allows you to quickly  browse images on the internet in a really beautiful and very useful visual interface. And that’s ANYTHING with an image… you can get visual News updates on the “wall”, or you can shop for “navy cashmere sweaters” and the wall is filled with all of those for you to pick from. You can also access your own photos on your computer immediately without opening your photo application. Did you read that correctly?? And it’s free. I downloaded it. I am using it. I am more than impressed.

After you download and install it, the “on” button for this little image browser actually resides in the upper right corner of your browser window (Windows and Mac: Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer and Chrome browsers). Here’s mine in the corner of my Safari browser window:

And once launched, this is what you can do:

I have seen the future and it is here 🙂

COOLIRIS.COM

Grab Bag Cool Stuff: