Healthy Living - Bethenny Frankel's Tips of Staying Slim, Sexy and Fabulous

Star of Bravo TV's Bethenny Ever After and author of several books, Bethenny Frankel knows how to keep slim and sexy and now she's sharing her tips here: Bethenny Frankel's Tips on Staying Slim, Sexy and Fabulous. Of course, being thin is only a small piece of the overall healthy lifestyle - she also talks about avoiding debt, dressing well, relationships, and more. Here are some of the topics she shares: Eat good stuff Realize there is no perfect. Avoid fashion don’ts. Don’t go into debt. Fight smarter. Be authentic. Don’t take no for an answer. Do the plank pose.

Exercise - Free Physical Activity Diary

Having trouble keeping track of your activities? Try documenting them in this free Physical Activity Diary from the CDC which lists day of week, activity, and duration. Do this for a few weeks to see where your weak points are and to encourage you to do more!

Healthy Living - Healthy Weight and Lifestyle Changes

The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) has a great site with lots of links and tips for making lifestyle changes for a Healthy Weight. You can check it out Here I really enjoyed reading the Success Stories - they are very inspirational, especially when you might get discouraged in your own health journey. You might want to start with the Getting Started guide which provides a nice overview of steps to take for beginning weight loss. For me, personally, I found the Eating Habits article especially helpful. Once you start assessing what goes in your mouth at every meal/snack, then you start to realize what some of your weak points really are (and then we can insert some denial). And there's also a Physical Activity page which shows some activities and the corresponding calorie loss. Seems like even stretching for 30 minutes will burn 90 calories - enough to burn off a small snack. :-)

Exercise and Diet - Flat Abs Fast

Check out this short yahoo article here that offers a few tips on flattening your middle section. Exercises include: Front Plank Half Kneel Life

Book Review - The Biggest Loser Quick and Easy Cookbook

The Biggest Loser: Quick and Easy Cookbook - What I really like about this book are the real-life tips and stories from the contestants who participated in the Biggest Loser show. It's really encouraging to read what others have gone through to lose weight and get health. The beginning starts off with tips on eating better, focusing on the food pyramid, keeping track of what you eat in a food log and some other food suggestions. The next section contains simple workout suggestions - starting with very basic moves and working up to more complex moves. These moves are more for building strength. For real weight loss, you will need to incorporate cardio as well. The final third of the book contains recipes such as Easy-Breezy BBQ Pot Roast Dinner and Chocolate Raspberry Dreamers.

Exercise - Three Essential Yoga Poses

Yoga is a good way to gain flexibility and strength and adds a way to shake up a dreary workout. This video from Yahoo features Yoga expert Mona Wells showing some beginning breathing methods and stretching poses: Click here for the video

Exercise - A Crunch-less Ab Workout

Getting your abs in shape without having to do endless crunches? Count me in! Yahoo has a brief workout video showing some other tricks to try to get those abs in shape: Check out the workout If you can get past the overly dramatic host (at times annoying), some of the exercises include a regular plank, a rotation plank, reverse fly back extension. If you have back issues, you might not want to try some of these.

Free - Bon Appetit Weekly Healthy Recipe Newsletter

Looking for healthy recipe ideas? Sign up for Bon Appetit's Healthy Recipe weekly newsletter - and it's FREE! Sign Up Here

Food - Surprising Snacks that aren't Healthy

Nothing is more defeating to your diet than hidden calories and snacks almost always help in that department. That healthy-looking granola you munch on at three o'clock every afternoon might actually be adding 300 calories to your daily calorie intake. That's the same as two cans of soda or two chocolate candy bars and not nearly as satisying! Take a look at this slide show from Bon Appetit which shows snacks like granola, rice cakes, and pretzels: Unhealthy Snacks