In many parts of the country, fall is one of the most beautiful times of the year. Other bonuses of the season including being able to exercise outdoors without fear of heat stroke and the holidays are quickly bringing family an friends together. However, that’s also a downside. With the holidays comes the lure of many enticing foods that will quickly pack on the pounds. Fad diets that promise quick weight loss may show results at first, but many times lost weight is regained as soon as the holiday decor is taken down.

Before this holiday season gives you even more reasons to overeat, change your bad eating habits in favor of ones with lasting weight loss.

We spoke with Susan Albers, PsyD., a clinical psychologist and author of Eating Mindfully, to hear her advice on how to achieve weight loss goals through permanent changes in eating habits.

“Seventy-five percent of overeating is caused by emotions, yet most of our diets focus on food, which is why they fail,” she said. “They don’t teach what to do for cravings or slip ups.”

Instead of another diet failing, focus on what she calls mindful eating. It’s not a diet with menus or recipes, instead it’s about changing psychological habits. “It’s more about how you eat than what you eat,” Dr. Albers said.
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Like so many women, Jan found herself in her thirties with a career, a husband, and a strong desire to get pregnant. At 33, this corporate attorney had already had one miscarriage and two unsuccessful IUIs (intrauterine insemination), and she was “very upset and unsettled,” as described in Aimee Raupp’s new book Yes, You Can Get Pregnant: The Diet That Will Improve Your Fertility Now and Into Your 40s.

Jan is a real-life client of Aimee’s, a licensed acupuncturist, herbalist, and author of Chill Out and Get Healthy, who is included as a case study in this new book. Jan is described as arriving at Aimee’s office with a diet iced tea and a story of “fertility reducing eating habits,” a nutritionally void diet of low-fat, sugar-free, processed foods. Jen is probably not unlike a lot of women visiting Aimee or fertility specialists across the country; in fact, she’s probably more like the average infertility patient than not.

Where Jan may take a left fork in the road is in the diet she now follows, as prescribed by Aimee and outlined in the Yes, You Can Get Pregnant book. Today, Aimee excitedly told me that Jan is pregnant, and she did it naturally without the invasive IVF she was prepared to do. Aimee explained that Jan cleaned up her diet, took liver pills, and did eight acupuncture treatments. Then, after two menstrual cycles, learned she was expecting.

So is another of Aimee’s clients, a 43-year-old woman pregnant with her second child. “She followed my diet to a T, better than I do sometimes,” said Aimee. “She’s 20 weeks pregnant with a clean amnio.”

So what is Aimee prescribing that’s helping these women achieve the pregnancies they so desire? Just like Jan and the 43-year-old mom, they’re laser focused on what they eat as much as what they don’t.
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There’s no doubt that Kami Craig was a born water baby. Swimming by age 4 and playing water polo by age 12, she’s now headed to London to compete on a global stage as part of the USA Water Polo Olympic Team. The California native joined the team in 2011 after graduating as a leader on the USC Trojans water polo team in 2010.

It’s no doubt Kami plays on a team with 13 girls, not only was she born to swim but she was born to be a team player. Her USA Water Polo biography explains that she loves water polo because it’s a team sport, where she “loves being apart of a team and getting to hangout with 13 of her friends everyday.”

Kami and her 12 friends/teammates are headed to 2012 London Olympic Games to score more medal. She was part of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games that won silver. With her healthy diet focused on fresh produce and lean protein, rigorous training schedule for six days a week, and team-focused attitude, we have to believe she’ll help bring home a gold for the U.S.

Learn more about this star of the USA Water Polo Olympic Team in our interview!
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On May 23, GNC and Discovery Fit and Health announced the launch of “Transformation Diaries,” a web series following four women with health and weight loss goals through their journey.

One of those women is 31-year-old Simona from Washington, D.C. who is working to lose weight and set healthier habits after the birth of her second child. Simona is on her way to success, despite the complications of being a working mom with very young children, and she took a quick break to answer some of our questions.

What was the most concerning part of the game plan for you when you started?

The plan required a lot of significant change, which concerned me given that we were already introducing so much change to our family with the new baby. It also required me to balance my needs against those of my family, which was difficult for me personally.

How do your children interfere with your goals and plan?

For me personally, children and family come first. That means that I need to think about what my children’s schedules, likes/dislikes, and needs before I think of my own. The lack of a schedule with a newborn in particular kept me from establishing a good fitness routine initially because I could never predict exactly when she would wake for feedings. Additionally, the stress of childbirth was harder this time than it was last time, so I wasn’t cleared by my doctor for exercise until about eight weeks after the baby was born.
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It’s natural to think that a renowned dietitian and celebrity chef would be pretty picky about the foods she eats. After all, only the best quality and best nutrition will do. And it looks like Ellie Krieger, MS, RD, found that perfect match with a little fruit known as the grape.

“It’s funny, I’m thoughtful about partnerships, but this one couldn’t be a better fit,” she told us about her new alliance with the California Grapes Commission. “I’m thrilled to partner with them,” she said, and added that the relationship hit the trifecta for healthy, delicious, and easy. Those are key components in everything Ellie does with food, and why she’s so very popular on her Food Network program and with her cookbooks.

She called the versatility of the grape remarkable, and went on to boast that the fruit is capable of much more culinarily than just snacking on a chilled bunch.

“Where to begin?” she said excitedly when asked how she prepares grapes in dishes and desserts.

She shared her newest discovery of freezing grapes – put the bag in the freezer and then let thaw slightly. When you take a bite, “they’re like little bursts of sorbet!”
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