Blog Posts by Healthy SELF, SELF Magazine

http://www.self.com?mbid=synd_yshineBy Caryn Donohue, SELF magazine

Elisabeth Hasselbeck brought celiac disease and her gluten-free lifestyle to the national limelight with her first book, The G-Free Diet. Now, The View co-host is back with Deliciously G-Free: Food So Flavorful They'll Never Believe It's Gluten-Free (in stores today!), which is packed with tasty recipes that will satisfy any appetite, whether you're going gluten-free or not.

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"I was on a renegade mission with The G-Free Diet," Hasselbeck tells us. "I wanted to suck people in and get them curious about celiac disease and living gluten-free. But with Deliciously G-Free, I just wanted to create a way to make eating fulfilling for celiacs and their non-celiac friends and family."

Celiac disease sufferers have small intestines that are hypersensitive to gluten (found in bread, pasta, cookies, soy sauce and certain condiments), leading to difficulty in digesting food. When a celiac patient consumes gluten, her body

Condé Nast Digital StudioBy Dana Meltzer Zepeda, SELF magazine

Feeling sluggish after the busy holiday season? You're not alone. According to a recent study in The New England Journal of Medicine, the average American gains a pound between November and January.

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But, rather than wallow in the aftermath of too many cocktails and Christmas cookies, we turned to fitness expert Angela Parker who offered these easy tips to banish post-holiday bloating fast:

1. Sweat your a** off! Give yourself a daily 60-minute sweat session three days in a row. No walking--go running or spinning.

2. If you want to shrink fast, stick to egg whites, fish, chicken and veggies.

3. Make friends with veggie drinks. Consume at least two all-veggie (no fruit) juices a day for three days and witness the return of your waist!

See more: Food Swaps to Keep You Slim All Season Long

4. Steam clean. Nothing beats bloat like a steam or sauna session. Drink water while sweating and flush out the

Photo by CN Digital StudioBy April Hussar, SELF magazine

A sugar cookie here, a glass of eggnog there, a six-course meal followed by Irish coffee and chocolate pilfered from your nephew's stocking ... You're sure you gained at least 5 pounds in the time it took the mall to flip their "Christmas Eve Sale" signs over to their "Post-Holiday Blowout Sale!" signs, but there's no need to feel guilty about a little holiday splurge. Here's why.

"If it's just one dinner -- or one day, even -- it's not a big deal," says Marjorie Nolan, RN, a personal trainer and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. "You may be a little bloated or feel kind of heavy and blah, but one splurge is not going to affect your weight or your health in any significant way."

See more: Food Swaps to Keep You Slim All Season Long

Phew, right? But that doesn't mean you should finish reading this and dive right into those leftover gingerbread treats.

"When it goes from one day or one dinner to three weeks of holiday indulgence because

mistletoeBy April Hussar, SELF magazine

'Tis the season to be driven crazy by your loved ones, especially your significant other, who just might end up on your hit list if he forgets one more errand or tries to drag you to yet another boring work function.

Dr. Michael Hussar is a licensed clinical psychologist practicing family therapy in New Jersey and, yep, my husband (and therefore the one most likely to bear the brunt of my holiday mania). I figured he'd be the perfect person to talk to about how to get through this special time of year without, well, wanting to kill him.

Related: How to Throw a Holiday Party Everyone Will Love

"Stress is at the root of most holiday arguments," says Hussar. Add pressures like spending too much money, balancing jobs and holiday obligations or figuring out how to divide your time between families to a relationship that already has its share of issues (we all have 'em), and you're likely to have some blow-ups.

The key, then, to getting through the holidays

By April Hussar, SELF magazine

The Beatles may have been right when they sang "Can't Buy Me Love," but they may also have been onto something with "Money (That's What I Want)," their ode to cold, hard cash. Can money really buy happiness? A new study says yes... but only up to a certain amount.
Angus Deaton, Ph.D., economist, and Daniel Kahneman, Ph.D., a Nobel prize-winning psychologist, both from Princeton University, have found that three things are most important to happiness -- a sense of social connection, feeling like you've met your life goals and, well, an income of about $75,000 per year.

To come to their conclusions, Deaton and Kahneman analyzed responses to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index (GHWBI), a daily survey that asks roughly 1,000 U.S. residents a battery of questions about their well-being.

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After analyzing 450,000 GHWBI responses from 2008 and 2009, Deaton and Kahneman found that overall happiness depends on two

By April Hussar, SELF magazine

By diet or exercise -- what's the most effective way to slim down? According to many Americans, it's one or the other: a recent Gallup poll reveals that 52 percent of all U.S. adults have succeeded at losing weight at some point in their lives, and more of those people list dietary changes rather than exercise as being most effective. So what are you missing if you try the same approach? Something big.

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According to Marjorie Nolan, RN, a personal trainer and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, if you want to lose weight this coming year (and according to Gallup, 30 percent of you do want to slim down), it's neither weight loss nor exercise that will work best for you -- it's doing both together. Why? In addition to the physiological benefits, doing both puts you in a better mindset to stick with your program.

"Diet and exercise combined proves most effective because doing both is a higher level

The holiday season always puts my senses into overload -- I love burning candles, baking cookies and using my most indulgent scents in the bath. Usually around this time I also start scoping out a new perfume to add to my wish list! Here is my roundup of some of the hottest fragrance trends of the moment:

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Celebrity-inspired perfumes - This trend is just not going away! Celebs from Jennifer Aniston, Rihanna, Taylor Swift and even Justin Bieber have launched perfumes this year. These scents range from fresh and fruity (Taylor Swift) to clean and floral (Jennifer Aniston).

Enduring classics - Fragrances from Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent and Guerlain (remember Shalimar!) still remain extremely popular. These scents tend to be heavier than newer launches with bold floral and oriental notes but still strike a special place with many women.

Bold florals - Jasmine was predicted to be one of the hottest emerging notes of 2011 and bold florals really did

Buddying up is easy-peasy when you're a kid--share a spot in the sandbox and you're instant chums. But making girlfriends as a grown-up is trickier, since we're all kept busy with careers and relationships and oodles of other responsibilities.

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"It's intimidating and scary to try and seek out a new friendship, and many of us hold the misperception that everyone else already has all the pals they need," says psychologist Irene Levine, Ph.D., author of Best Friends Forever. We're here to tell you that you can create new and lasting bonds, and the New Year is a perfect time to expand your circle. The new memoir SMW Seeking BFF chronicles author Rachel Bertsche's move to a new city and yearlong quest to make one friend per week. Bertsche shares these friend-finding tips:

1. Say yes. "If an acquaintance invites you to a barbeque, it's easy to say no since it could be awkward and you may not know anyone," says Bertsche. But then you'll end up alone