Blog Posts by Tips on Healthy Living

By Victoria Maizes, MD
Author of Be Fruitful
The increase in environmental toxins, processed foods, and stress, as well as the advancing ages at which couples seek to have children, have made it more difficult for women to conceive. This is valuable information women and their partners need in order to conceive with ease and confidence, and to bear healthy children.

Q: It seems like women today are having a harder time getting pregnant. Is that true? Why is it that so many women are struggling with fertility these days?
Victoria: The most important factors that impact a women's fertility are her age, weight, and the chemicals and stress that can disrupt her hormonal balance. Fertility starts to go down in women as early as their late 20s but markedly decreases after age 35. Obesity, which is ever more common, makes it harder to conceive and increases miscarriage rates. Now women are exposed to thousands of environmental chemicals, many of which act as endocrine

By Kristin Sidorov
All right, ladies, time for some straight talk. We all know that shopping for a new bra can be an agonizing process. After all, not all breasts are created equal, and trying to match your girls up to a department store's limited selection seems impossible. So what's a girl to do? What we all have done: Grab the size you've been wearing for years that kinda-sorta-almost fits and hightail it out of that shop as fast as you can.

It's time to start changing the way you do business with your breasts. They deserve better than your 8-year-old cotton stand-by that's never quite fit. The right bra can change the way you look, feel, and carry yourself. It's OK if your chest isn't a one-size-fits-all. It's about time we all embraced that as a wonderful thing. You're unique, and all you need is some help and know-how to find the perfect bra that's right for you, your shape, and your life.

Below we've outlined everything you need, from the 3 cardinal rules of

By Kristin Sidorov
Whether you were ready for it or not, 2013 is here and for many of us, a New Year means a clean slate when it comes to health and wellness. Each year we set new goals for ourselves, but those resolutions take shape in different ways than the previous year. For instance, 2012 saw juice cleanse crazes, a shift toward holistic health, and a huge surge in the use of technology to manage and support our health. So what does the year ahead look like?

Experts predict that the future looks bright in 2013-for the most part. From major shifts in how we think about fast food to high-intensity workouts and even more high-tech health programs and apps, we've outlined the Top 5 health and fitness trends to watch in the coming year.

1. The Fitness Professional Takeover
The prevalence of certified fitness pros have been skyrocketing for years, and experts don't see their numbers falling anytime soon. We're all finally starting to realize that if we're going to

By Sharon Knolle
It's that time of year when everyone is trying to lose those extra pounds. You can take your cue-and some unusual dieting tips-from the stars, like Jersey Shore's Snooki, who relied on The Cookie Diet to lose weight after giving birth to baby Lorenzo.

While Snooki's approach still involved some sensible small meals, Anne Hathaway took a much more drastic method to achieve the look of a homeless, starving street waif in Les Miserables. The actress told Vogue that first she went on a cleanse (losing 10 pounds) then lived off of only two thin squares of dried oatmeal paste a day, losing another 15 pounds in two weeks. "I had to be obsessive about it. The idea was to look near death," she said. "Looking back on the whole experience-and I don't judge it in any way-it was definitely a little nuts."

For a healthier way to get back in shape, you can try other tricks from the stars that don't involve starving yourself. To fit into her skin-tight costume in Tron,

By Marci Nault
Author of The Lake House
It's that time of year again when everyone's asking, "What's your New Year's resolution?" I'd like to offer a different approach to 2013: I challenge you to complete one item on your bucket list. Here are five reasons why going after a bucket-list item is better than making a resolution.

1) Resolutions fail because they start with the negative. You take something you don't like about yourself or your life and vow to make it better. In actuality you're beginning your year by saying, "I'm not good enough and I should be better."

2) The items on your list are the key to living the life you've always dreamed about. If you start your year deciding that you'll accomplish one major dream in your life it will move you in a positive direction.

3) Making one of your biggest dreams come true leads to a healthier mind and body. Say you want to get in better shape (a typical New Year's Resolution), but you hate the gym. What if you

By Barbara Reich
Author of Secrets of an Organized Mom
One of the most common New Year's Resolutions is to get organized. Yet it's easier said than done, and getting organized can be a tall order. What if you could get organized in 30, 15, or even 5 minutes or less each day? Here are my top 21 organizing resolutions you can actually keep.

5 Minutes
1. Memorize the credit card number you use most. You'll be amazed at what a time-saver this is.
2. Throw out any markers or pens that are out of ink and pencils without erasers.
3. Throw out any mismatched socks. If the mate hasn't shown up yet, recognize that it's probably long gone.
4. Discard all of the unimportant receipts cluttering your wallet. Let's face it; you can't return the Starbucks latte, so why hang onto the receipt?
5. Throw away that box/bag of wires/chargers that's been collecting dust in your closet for years. If all of your electronics are functioning, there's nothing there that

Envision your plan well in advance, moving furniture and cleaning up the space a week before your party. You won't be exhausted on the big day with this advice from Tori Spelling's CelebraTORI: Unleashing Your Inner Party Planner to Entertain Friends and Family.

MOVE MOUNTAINS
Unless your furniture is built-in (which I doubt, but if it is, aren't you fabulous?), you have infinite possibilities to change the way the space works. If you are not having a sit-down dinner, start by moving all your dining chairs out of the party space. This lets people circulate around the table or gives you the option to push the table against a wall. You'll still use the table as a food station, but this creates more space in the middle of the room.

Assess if there is any other furniture you should move out of the space. If you expect people to stand for most of the party, remove low cocktail tables. If you are worried about overcrowding, remove standing lamps.

DECLUTTER
Once you

By J. Michael Zenn
Author of The Self Health Revolution
Most people know America is facing a "diabesity tsunami" (diabetes plus obesity). I don't want to be a Grinch, but the truth is 70 percent of Americans are overweight-and almost 40 percent of us are obese and diabetic or pre-diabetic. That's a 25 percent increase in only 3 years. How could this be?

We Never Lose the Weight We Gain During the Holidays
What most people don't know is that nearly 60 percent of our annual weight gain happens over a 6-week period every year: Thanksgiving to Christmas to New Year's. During this very short, six-week time frame, most of us gain 3 to 5 pounds. Come March, despite New Year's resolutions, the excess weight is still with us. In fact, the data shows that we typically never lose the weight we gain over the holiday season.

Here's the punchline: Unless you do something differently, this Christmas you're probably going to add 3 to 5 pounds to your waistline-and you're not