Source: 10 Healthy Habits to Nail This Week

Feeling like you need a healthy living revamp? Here are 10 ways to make this week your healthiest yet.

• Exercise for 150 minutes this week. Whether you work out for 50 minutes three times a week or exercise every weekday for 30 minutes, 150 minutes is the bare minimum experts recommend to maintain heart and body health. For how much you should be exercising to lose weight, read here.
• Cook dinner every weeknight. Here's a stay-on-track meal plan from nutritionist Cynthia Sass to help you plan your week.
• Make a water goal to hit every day, and then meet it. Calculate how much water you should be drinking here.
• Drink green tea. You'll be boosting your metabolism and fighting disease with each mug.
• Eat a healthy breakfast every day. Forgo the pastry display for one of these healthy breakfast recipe ideas.
• Stretch. To improve flexibility and relieve aches, take three mornings this week to do a quick, gentle stretching

Alexa Miller/Fitness MagazineBy Rachel Sturtz

Skipped a few -- okay, a lot of -- runs lately? "Take baby steps to get back in the game. Most people build mileage too quickly," says Brad Hudson, a coauthor of Run Faster from the 5K to the Marathon. Steal his secrets to nix the pains and strains of reentry.

Related: 5 Ab Exercises for a Faster Run

Belly Up
The week before you hit the road, track, or treadmill, focus on your core and on cross-training. "Do ab exercises and get on a bike or elliptical to build your leg muscles without impact," Hudson says. "The cardio will also increase your endurance."

Go Halfsies
If you used to rack up 10 miles a week, begin with two to three miles twice a week and "then increase your total mileage each week by at least 10 percent, adding on more running days, until you're back on schedule," Hudson says.

Downsize Your Stride
Your first month back, run at a leisurely pace and take small steps, especially if you're dealing with still-snowy terrain. "Aim to strike with your

Kitchen shortcutsLots of us love to cook, but there are some parts of the process that we definitely wish could be easier. Chef and cookbook author Susan Feniger shares some of her best kitchen secrets and shortcuts with Easy Does It host Ereka Vetrini.

Related: 7 kitchen shortcuts for busy cooks

Feniger says that the most important thing is to buy "one French knife." She adds, "The way that you tell a great knife is you want to look and make sure that the steel goes all the way through to the end of the handle." She also recommends buying a serrated knife for the times when that's the best tool for the job.

Related: Back to basics: Knife skills to learn and master

Making a garlic puree

Garlic can be difficult to work with, but Feniger has a way to make it simpler. She says to start by cutting off the ends of the cloves. Then she smashes the clove with the side of the French knife "and the peel comes right off." Feniger recommends curling your fingertips under and then using your third knuckle as

CN Digital Studioby Lexi Patronis, Glamour

I was hit with some cold, hard reality yesterday when I decided to check on the nutritional information of the wasabi peas on which I was happily snacking. Normally, of course, this is information that would be right on the package, but these peas were an impulse buy from a bulk bin; I remembered seeing them on a list somewhere of healthy snacks, so I went for it. But when I looked them up later, I discovered that one 1/4 cup serving is 106 calories, with 190mg of sodium. Not terrible! Just not great, either, considering I'd apparently already had at least 2 1/2 servings (I do love me some wasabi peas!).




Related: 10 Wardrobe Essentials Every Woman Should Own

Anyway, the whole thing made me think about some other snacks that might not be as healthy as we think they are, such as:

1) Non-fat ice cream: When dairy products zap out the fat, they often add in sugar and the calorie count can still stay high (one cup of fat-free vanilla ice cream can

By Liza Barnes, for SparkPeople

In this era of fast-paced everything, even the act of eating a meal has become something we can do on the run. Breakfast comes in bars, lunch can be eaten while speeding down the highway, and dinner is merely an accompaniment to the evening news, squeezed in between other pressing activities. Invariably, when eating plays second string to everything else, every meal becomes "fast food," as in eaten-very-fast food. If you find yourself wolfing down your meals in a hurry, you're actually shortchanging yourself in more ways than you might think.

It turns out there's a reason food tastes so good. You're supposed to enjoy it-slow down and savor it, not just get it to your stomach as quickly as possible. Chewing your food thoroughly is actually the first step in the complex process of digestion, and if you glaze over it, just chewing the minimum amount of times necessary to get the food down your esophagus, you're actually compromising this process. And it's

Always freezing? Try these easy, healthy ways to turn up your body's thermostat. By Amy Levin-Epstein, REDBOOK.

1. Try commercial-break yoga. If you've been parked in front of the TV all winter, deepening that groove in your couch, your circulation has slowed a bit. That'll make you chilly, so get the blood flowing again by doing a simple yoga pose during the commercials, or whenever, says Timothy McCall, M.D., a board-certified internist and the author of Yoga as Medicine. His favorite pose for firing up your internal heater? The cobra. Here's how to do it: Lie facedown on the floor with your palms near your chest. Push up, lifting your head, shoulders, and chest, pulling your shoulder blades down and together. Hold for 2 seconds, then lower yourself to the carpet again. After a few reps, you should feel toastier.

Related: Date-Night Dresses Under $100

2 Don't be a mouth-breather. Just inhaling and exhaling through the nose filters the air and warms it, which can help your whole body

FitSugarSource: Gluten-Free Foods That Can Pack On the Pounds

Think going gluten-free can help you lose weight? It can, as long as you don't indulge too much of a good thing. While some may think a life of g-free foods equals instant weight loss, think again. Even healthy g-free foods are calorie-dense.

• Rice: The staple for gluten-free eaters. Rice noodles, rice flour, plain white rice, all of these foods can keep the gluten-sensitive from feeling like they are missing out. Although the grain doesn't contain gluten, it's still a carb, and eating more than the serving size can pack on weight the same way as pasta and bread.
• Chocolate: Since many desserts like cakes and cookies contain gluten, chocolate is often a dream for the gluten-free. It's still important to watch your intake, though, as chocolate treats can contain high levels of sugar. If you enjoy this indulgence and want to make it healthier, opt for heart-healthy dark chocolate. Or go straight to the source with cacao nibs -

Source: How to Save Money on Fitness Gear

The perfect pair of workout pants, an exercise ball, a set of weights: investing in your fitness routine can add up. But it doesn't have to be expensive; here's how to save a few dollars on exercise equipment.

Know when to save and when to splurge: You don't have to throw down a ton of money for each part of your outfit, but you do want to make sure that you're not buying clothes that fall apart after just a few workouts. Certain foundation articles can be well worth the money, like a supportive sports bra or wear-anywhere workout capris, while you can save on other pieces, like workout tanks. Find out which workout clothes you can save on here.

Search for used equipment: Ever buy a piece of fitness equipment only to have it languish in a corner of your garage, gathering dust? You're not alone. If there's a big-ticket piece of equipment on your fitness wish list, check out sites like Craigslist or eBay, where you can buy it used and save some