Blog Posts by Tips on Healthy Living

Although it is possible to lose weight without exercising, a regular exercise routine will greatly accelerate your weight loss. Here's why, from The Fiber35 Diet by Brenda Watson, C.N.C. Plus, a list of exercises and how many calories they burn.

Aerobic exercise significantly boosts your metabolism. Although it is possible to lose weight without exercising, a regular exercise routine-three times per week for at least thirty minutes per session-will greatly accelerate your weight loss. Most important, by exercising, you will receive all the associated health benefits that come along with exercise. Foremost, it is a boon to the cardiovascular system.

Aerobic exercise helps you to lose weight and boosts your metabolism in three ways. First, it heightens your metabolism during your exercise period and burns a significant number of extra calories. A typical forty-five­minute aerobic exercise period burns 350 extra calories. If you exercise three times per week for forty- five minutes

Don't let your stuff define you. Embrace a new mind-set of consuming less and living with less, and you'll find more peace and happiness at home, says expert organizer Peter Walsh in Lighten Up: Love What You Have, Have What You Need, Be Happier with Less.

IT STARTS WITH A VISION
If I had to give you one word that lies at the root of most people's emotional pain and anguish today, you'd probably be surprised it's not "money" (or the lack thereof). It's "stuff." Stuff keeps us from having the rich, full life we deserve. More stuff doesn't equate to a better life. Stuff has a way of creeping into and overtaking our homes. It also has a way of defining us, when we should be defining ourselves from a much deeper, intangible perspective. And when our stuff begins to define who we are, we become incapable of defin­ing ourselves outside of what we own and what we can buy. This, as many of you may know by now, is a setup for utter unhappiness. One of my favorite quotes comes from

Here are 11 travel tips and a checklist of what to pack for your trip, from Katherine Gibson, author of Unclutter Your Life.

Uncluttered travel is about taking less so we can bring more home. This goes beyond great photos and souvenirs to include memories of a place. I still recall the richness of a day spent on a mountain trail in Jasper, Alberta, a raging lightning storm in Montana, and the tales I heard from an old man selling newspapers in a Paris kiosk. Uncluttered travel is about traveling with our hands free and our minds, hearts, and souls wide open.

CLUTTER BUSTERS

• Books abound with light-packing tips but my bottom line is simple: Be ruthless. I have yet to meet anyone who moans about not having taken enough.

• If you can't carry it onto the plane, don't take it. Although figures vary according to the airline, on average 1 in 200 bags goes missing. Most eventually show up, but others vanish, rerouted to the eternal baggage carousel in the sky.

• Pick a bag that

Forget fad diets and plastic surgery, you can get the body you want while sitting on your couch. Here's how, from How to Rule the World From Your Couch by bestselling author Laura Day.

Reclaiming the Body You Were Meant to Have
This is an exercise in claiming yourself and your life so thoroughly that all areas find a new structure, one that is natural and desired by you. Intuition will allow you to guide yourself to your own unique and appropriate method of living and changing. If your way of conducting your life is no longer getting you the results you want, chances are that you are stuck in an outmoded, defensive style. At some point in your life the defense and the sacrifices you made to maintain it served you, may even have saved your life, but now you have other choices. The first and greatest element in change is choice, and the greatest tool of change is awareness.

Let us begin. You can do this exercise while sitting, while listening to music, or even washing

Lisa Rinna, the Dancing With the Stars alumna and author of Rinnavation: Getting Your Best Life Ever, shares her favorite beverages for revving up metabolism, boosting energy, and detoxing.

Water: the perfect beverage. Drink a minimum of eight glasses of water a day. The benefits are proven: drinking water increases metabolism, reduces hunger, burns fat, and flushes toxins from your body.

You should always drink a glass of water as soon as you wake up. It jump-starts your metabolism and begins flushing toxins. Room-temperature water is best -- add a little lemon or cranberry or pomegranate juice to liven it up. Lemon juice reduces bloat and helps detox, cranberry juice flushes toxins, and pomegranate is full of antioxidants and energizers. I continue to drink water throughout the day, with or without the added lemon, cranberry, or pomegranate juice.

The Waker-Upper: I find that the best waker-upper is water with lemon zest and lemon juice. Lemon zest improves liver detox

We waste a great deal of money and precious storage space on specialty cleaning solutions when we actually only need a handful of versatile nontoxic products to clean an entire home. From Green This! by Deirdre Imus

Back to the Basics: Essential Cleaning Products
… I want you to go look under your kitchen sink, or inside your utility closet, or wherever you keep your household cleaning products. You probably have a lot of different bottles stashed away -- most Americans do.

So, what did you find in there? Window/glass cleaner, toilet bowl cleaner, spray bleach, detergent, fabric softener, dryer sheets, spot remover, spray starch, automatic dishwashing detergent, hand dishwashing liquid, furniture polish, oven cleaner, scouring cream, shower cleaner, tub and tile cleaner, carpet shampoo, and probably several other products you can no longer remember why you bought in the first place.

When we greened Hackensack University Medical Center, the janitorial staff had been

I Don't Have a Thing to Wear authors Judie Taggart and Jackie Walker share the secret to making easy work of everything from corralling pocket change to storing sweaters to packing quickly for a trip -- an organized closet. Here are 9 practical and easy-to-implement ideas to help you transform your closet into an oasis of organization.

1. Keep a laundry pen handy to mark items on tags or inside shoes, belts or bags, to help you quickly discern black items from inky navy or brown. A simple B, N, or BN is a time-saver.

2. Light-colored carpet on closet floors makes finding things easier and keeps dust under control.

3. Always have a full-length mirror installed near your closet.

4. A step stool in your closet makes access to top shelves a breeze.

5. Wooden pegs, hooks, or a retractable bar are handy for bathrobes, clothes selection while getting dressed, packing, and coordination.

6. If quarters are really cramped then consider purchasing a bed frame at least

Changing your thinking about what it takes to be fit is more important than the whys, whens, and wheres of how you're going to do it. Here's how to get started and stay motivated, from T.O.'s Finding Fitness by Terrell Owens.

Everything starts with the mind. Everything! If you set your mind on high things, you'll achieve high goals. Of course, the opposite is true as well. Lack of ambition and negative thoughts will deliver negative results in every area of your life.

Once you overcome your mental weaknesses, affirm that your body can do remarkable things, and tap into the spirit within yourself, you will be one step closer to making a complete transformation that will lead you to a lifestyle of fitness forever.

GAME TIME
Steps to Finding Fitness

1. Identify which mental challenges have been holding you back from discovering your true path to fitness.
2. Write them down and use them as your mental playbook for conquering your fitness goals.
3. Spend ten days