Watch as Annie Bell Muzaurieta speaks with Matt Lauer about helping the environment by going green with your diet. Learn some simple easy tricks that not only help the environment but also help you increase your healthy food intake. Annie is the food editor at thedailygreen.com.

Set your DVR or schedule a late lunch this Tuesday, Jillian is becoming a soap star. While this isn’t a career change, she will be guest starring on NBC’s Days of our Lives this Tuesday, April 22.

Jillian will be playing the part of a personal trainer, of course, and shares scenes with Biggest Loser pal Alison Sweeney.

If you’re biting your nails anxiously to see Jillian prior to the Biggest Loser season 6 debut- this could take the edge off.

My Mt. Whitney hike is one week closer, and I still don’t know what date we will be going. But I do know that it will be in the first week or so of June. So, last night I had the panic moment that I fully expected when I got about 5-6 weeks out from my first big hiking trip. As in, “Oh #?&%, I need to get serious.”

Like in the TLC show I Can Make You Thin, I need to fight my inner eating voice that tells me that it’s okay to cheat today, “you can be better tomorrow.” Well, with the aforementioned “panic moment,” the time to be serious is now. I’ve decided that I will be hardcore with my diet six days of the week, allowing for one cheat day.

I’m also stepping up my actual “on the job training.” This weekend I’m taking a day trip to Sierra Buttes in Tahoe National Forest, California. The hike will be about 6-7 miles and about 8,000 feet above sea level. Not bad preparation but still only half the mileage of Mt. Whitney and 4,500 feet lower. I’ll let you know how sore I am, and even better, publish some photo evidence of my trip next week.

I’ll leave you with a couple of tips that for anyone doing long-term endurance exercise, like day hikes:
- An hour or two before your trip, drink about 20 ounces of water to make sure you’re hydrated.
- Stay hydrated during the exercise with a sports drink, or water with an energy bar.
- And when you’re done, guess what, more hydrating.

See ya next week.

Three years ago this month I was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes. I was a prime candidate — overweight, diabetes runs in my family (my mother died of complications) and as far as I’m concerned, exercise is two four-letter words. After all the tests I went through to get to the final diabetes diagnosis, it was actually a relief to hear that it was a disease that could be managed with lifestyle changes. And yes, my lifestyle has changed.

I lost over 30 lbs, exercise by walking three – four times a week and have drastically changed my eating habits.

But over the last year a few of those pounds started creeping back on, not bad, but enough to make me decide it’s time to kick it up a level. So when earlier this month my blood work tests all came back with a “great” from the doctor, I decided to get to work on those five pounds, plus a few more that should come off, before this weight creep starts affecting my blood sugar levels.

Knowing our life style, a meal based diet appears to be the best choice. Now to figure out what one would work best for us. My husband decided he could lose a few pounds too, so we’ll be tackling the weight loss together! The three diet plan finalists were Jenny Craig, NutriSystem and The Biggest Loser. All three plans had pros and cons, it took some time and a few phone calls to figure out the best balance.

Stay tuned for what I picked and how I came to my decision!

On Tuesday, April 15th, while most of us were scrambling to the Post Office to mail in our tax forms, France’s parliament adopted a bill to make it illegal for anyone to promote extreme thinness in men or women. From fashion moguls and magazines to websites on how to subsist on 200 calories a day or less, this legislation, if passed, would be truly groundbreaking for all of us who have suffered or who have known anyone to suffer from a body image or eating disorder.

It’s no doubt that extreme thinness in fashion models, as well as thousands of women throughout the world, is a serious and grave problem. You also have to consider how complex eating disorders are. It’s not just about food and a number on a scale. All of us are bombarded with images of skinny models wearing size 0 clothing, but only .5% to 1% of all young American women have anorexia and about 10% of young American women are bulimic. Obviously something else is going on here on a much deeper level than just being exposed to billboards and photographs of emaciated women.

That aside, A legislation like this would surely send a message to anyone or any company that idolizes or promotes the beauty of razor-thin women. And as someone who has battled with body image issues her whole life, I see this kind of initiative as a step in the right direction, even if proving it in court is near impossible.

What do you think about this legislation? Do you think it’s a step in the right direction or is France just putting a band-aid on cancer?