Alexa Miller/Fitness MagazineBy Dorothy Foltz-Gray

Pecan pie. Eggnog. Aunt Norma's famous sweet potatoes. Candy canes. Holiday "sugar plums" can undo us. Still, what's merriment without a bit of sweet indulgence? Splurge a little-then follow our easy tips for burning off those extra calories.*

* Note: The calories burned are estimates based on a 150-pound woman. What you burn depends on your height, weight, and how vigorously you work out.

Related: 10 Strategies to Lose Fat and Keep It Off

1. A Slice of Pecan Pie (500 calories)
"Oh the pie! Pecan, pumpkin, apple, pecan, chocolate, pecan. Did I say that already?" asks Krista Maurer, a writer, photographer, and designer in Bountiful, Utah. "I could eat an entire pecan pie by myself."

Burn It Off This Way: Shoveling Snow
Pie-loving Maurer, who has recently lost 35 pounds, undoes her pecan pie calories by shoveling her driveway for at least an hour. "It's a hefty workout, especially when we get a wet snow," she says.

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It's fun to think about New Year's resolutions, and I always make them (in fact, I make resolutions throughout the year). If my happiness project has convinced me of anything, it has convinced me that resolutions-made right-can make a huge difference in boosting happiness.

So how do you resolve well? This is trickier than it sounds.

Samuel Johnson, a patron saint of my happiness projects, was a chronic resolution-maker and resolution-breaker. He alluded to the importance of making the right resolutions in a prayer he wrote in 1764, when he was fifty-five years old.

Sound familiar? How often have you thought something along these

Strategies to strengthen your resolve1. Set realistic goals. One of the main reasons people struggle to keep resolutions? Their goals aren't practical. "As a result, you get frustrated, and you're more likely to quit," says Amie Hoff, personal trainer in New York City and founder of FitKit.com, portable workout kits. Take weight loss for instance. A Franklin Covey survey found that losing weight is the resolution often abandoned first (by 31 percent of those who made it). Most people aim too high and consequently bail when they don't see immediate success. Set realistic goals and break them down between long- and short-term. "Setting several smaller goals will be easier to attain, and with each new success, you'll become more motivated," Hoff says.

2. Create a plan for success. Now that you have your goals in place, design an action plan. "Without one, you'll have no idea where you're starting from, going to, how you'll get there, or worse yet, where you'll end up," says Hoff. Describe your mission as well as specifics on

By Erin Donnelly, Refinery29

Mommy-to-be Kate Middleton probably skipped out on the bubbly this New Year's Eve, but apparently she's got a hangover remedy up her sleeve anyway. Which is useful, just in case you're still suffering - particularly now that you're back at work.

Sources reveal that the royal has been combatting nausea related to her gnarly case of hyperemesis gravadarum (a.k.a. really horrendous morning sickness) by nibbling on lavender shortbread biscuits.

It seems lavender has long been used to naturally relieve nausea, and in true royal form, KMid has found a suitably posh way to administer her dosage, munching on Camilla and Charles-approved shortbread sourced from Duchy Originals and Fortnum and Mason.

"A lot of women develop cravings during pregnancy and Kate is no exception," a source tells The Sun. "She has got a real taste for these biscuits. Lavender is said to have healing properties, so it is not such a wacky food to nibble on when you're pregnant."

Or,

These NYE traditions are far from Times Square.

Not everyone on Earth watches the Times Square ball drop. Check out these New Year's rituals from around the globe.

1. In Mexico, women put on new panties in one of two colors to signify their hopes for the coming year - red for love, yellow for money.

2. In Belarus, single women compete in unusual games, such as lining up piles of corn ans seeing whose kernels a rooster chooses to eat first. The winner is considered most likely to marry in the year ahead.

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3. The Japanese throw an office bonenkai, or "forget-the-year party," where bosses let employees get more relaxed then usual (i.e., drink a ton) in their otherwise buttoned-down workplaces.

4. In Rio de Janeiro, crowds flock to the beach to throw flowers into the ocean at midnight.

5. Filipino women wear polka dots - the roundess resembles coins and wealth.

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6. Ecuadoreans burn photos and scarecrows to

by Greg Presto

4 Weight loss and fitness resolutions are popular because they don't work-so people have to resolve to do them again every year. It's time to stop the no-success cycle and try something new in 2013: If you really want to succeed, take what you think you should do, and do the exact opposite. These "reverse resolutions" do just that-turning traditional New Year's pledges topsy-turvy, with expert- and science-backed reasons for choosing the road less traveled. Read on for five surprising promises that sound non-committal but will actually help you slim down and shape up for the long haul. (Related: If you're planning on making a major change in 2013, follow this advice from Jillian Michaels to stay on track and reach your goals in the New Year.)

1. "I will not start going to the gym every day." Everyone (well, almost everyone) who resolves to start hitting the gym falls off the wagon in a matter of months-according to one survey, up to 60 percent of new memberships go

I do believe that I may have wasted more time on being "right" than any human being should. This time was wasted by needing to make amends, beg forgiveness, mend fences and burn bridges with people i cared about. It was time wasted because I dismissed people from my life that didn't agree with me. Those same people could have given me a new insight, viewpoint, or perspective, but I choice to close myself off to anything except that fact that I was "Right".

I justified my behavior, words and lack of manners by being "Right". I called a "Spade a Spade". I told the "Truth", plain and simple. If you are telling the truth, you can say anything. Right?

Now I ate enough soap as a child to know it was not what I said but how I said it. Rudeness, was not a trait my mother suffered lightly. My mother had devised the torture of wiping soap over my tongue to clean up my mouth after I offended her, someone, anyone with my words. I never understood how telling the truth or pointing out the obvious