A New Year is right around the corner.  A time for celebration and resolutions.  Make it a Healthier, Happier You Year.  Make health-specific resolutions and keep those healthier resolutions.  In this report, suggestions for resolutions for women, men and kids.

Print it and read it at your leisure if you like.
http://www.naturallydelightful.com/reports/new-healthier-you.pdf
I would love to hear from you and your ideas for a healthy, new year feel free to email me at admin@naturallydelightful.com

Tips for Kicking Unhealthy Habits


You know what they are. Every time you do them you think, "I really shouldn’t be..." Fill in the blanks! Drinking this, eating this, smoking this - the list goes on and on. We all have habits we would be healthier without. So what do we do about them? How do we kick the habits for good? Here are ten tips for kicking unhealthy habits and living a better life.

#1: Acknowledge and own the habits. There’s no sense denying them; they exist, your friends and family know they exist, so own them. Say aloud, "I need to stop!" Once you've acknowledged it, it begins to lose its power. It’s certainly much better than ignoring your unhealthy habits or hiding them.

#2: Let go of shame. Don’t be ashamed of your unhealthy habits. No one is perfect and we’re all striving to improve ourselves. Everyone has something they need to work on. Once you stop feeling ashamed of it, you can move forward and take control of your habits.

#3: Understand where the habits came from. One of the great tools to kicking a habit is to first understand where it came from. For example, if you have a tendency to eat a lot in the evenings it could stem from your breakfast habits. Once you know the reason behind your habits, they’re easier to change. In the example of the late night eating, a simple solution may be to develop a resolution to have a good breakfast every morning, rather than trying to stop eating at night.

#4: Understand why you want to get rid of your unhealthy habit. Do you want to feel better? Have more energy? Look better? Extend your life? When you understand why you want to get rid of your unhealthy habits, it is easier to find the right motivation to help you achieve your goals. For example, if you’re motivated to look better, maybe an old picture of yourself when you liked how you looked would work as appropriate motivation.

#5: Set reasonable goals. Lofty goals don’t serve anyone. If you want to get rid of unhealthy habits, establish goals you are fairly certain you can attain. That doesn’t mean they have to be easy goals, but it is important that they are attainable.

#6: Replace bad habits with good ones. One of the best and easiest ways to get rid of unhealthy habits is to replace them with new habits. For example, earlier we mentioned late night eating. Rather than struggle with cravings while you’re sitting on the couch each night, brew a cup of green tea and change your habit to a good one, one that is healthy and beneficial for you.

#7: Seek support. Sometimes we just need a little help. We need an extra hand, a little encouragement, or someone to listen to us when we’re having a tough time. Support groups, friends and family can all be a great resource when trying to kick old habits.

#8: Stay positive. A good attitude is extremely helpful to kicking unhealthy habits. It helps to be able to focus on more positive thoughts when you’re trying to get rid of habits that are detrimental to your health. Before you set about accomplishing your goal, it helps to come up with a few methods for staying positive. Find what makes you happy and make note of it. When you’re having a negative thought or a tough moment, pull out your happy thought or your happy trigger and use it.

#9: Reward yourself. Reward yourself for accomplishing the small steps along the way and for making it through the tough times. For example, if you’re trying to cut out after dinner snacks and one particular evening you’re really craving something other than the tea you’ve been drinking, and you manage to avoid the bag of chips on the counter or the ice cream in the fridge, then you could reward yourself by getting your favorite coffee at the neighborhood coffee shop in the morning.

#10: Plan your success. Rather than trying to wing it, it is helpful to plan how you’re going to attain your goal. If you want to eliminate your habit of getting fast food for lunch each day, or you want to stop drinking coffee in the morning, how are you going to do it? Break your goal down into smaller, more manageable steps for easier success. For example you could stop going through the drive-thru four days out of the week but still go with your co-workers on Fridays. After a week or two of success, you may even find that you’re ordering a salad rather than a burger.

Small successes give us confidence for larger ones. You create a pattern of success and strength.
 

Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food

Deceptively Delicious is a new family cooking guide written by Jessica Seinfeld. The motivation behind the book is pretty common: Jessica, a mom of 3 and wife to Jerry Seinfeld, was tired of stressful dinners where her kids would refuse to eat their veggies, crying and spitting them out, and making her feel like a failure as a mom.

She was so discouraged by this that she decided she needed to come up with a workable solution - something that would leave her and her family happy. One option is fighting with the kids about eating their spinach and lima beans, making the dinner table a war zone, and the other option is just give up, letting the kids eat whatever they want so everyone can have a little peace. Neither is acceptable.

Jessica came up with a third option, which was to get really creative and a bit sneaky too. She decided to hide the veggies so that her kids would not even know they were eating them. Many Moms think that if they let their kids eat whatever they like that they will ultimately get their nutrition from other foods, but this is just not so anymore. There is too much junk food available and many kids are eating diets composed mostly of foods with little nutritional value.

Many parents have children that refuse to eat just about every vegetable or fruit there is. They may eat only the "white foods" like chicken nuggets, french fries and milk. Parents may be desperate since this all their kids will eat and they don't want their kids to starve.

This book presents a wonderful solution to this common problem. In a nutshell, Jessica spends time each week pureeing vegetables like broccoli, squash, cauliflower, spinach, carrots, peas, and beets, which she then freezes.

As she prepares meals throughout the week she mixes these purees with kid- friendly, familiar foods like macaroni and cheese, homemade pizza and chicken “nuggets”, tacos, banana bread, cookies, brownies, and cake.

Her kids never know the difference and she gets them to eat their veggies without their even knowing it. She still serves vegetables "as is" with every meal but she doesn’t stress if they don’t eat them because they are eating some in disguise. This is an important step since researchers say that children often need 15 exposures to a new food before they will incorporate it into their diet. In the meantime, their nutritional needs are being met.

 Peanut Butter Oat Balls

Ingredients:
1/3 c raw honey
1/3 cup natural peanut butter
2 T organic butter
1 c natural crispy rice cereal
1 c old fashioned oats (not quick cooking)
1/4 c dried fruit of choice

Directions:
Combine first 3 ingredients in a small saucepan over low/med heat. Stir and cook for a couple of minutes until
smooth. Remove from heat and mix in next 3 ingredients.

Drop mixture by spoonfuls onto wax paper, place on a baking sheet and refrigerate until set, about 15 minutes.
 

Get more healthy recipes at Naturally Delightful Recipes