That's Fit

For some of us, stress levels are so high that we sometimes have difficulty functioning, while for other people it never manifests past the point of minor distraction. Still, unless you're Buddha himself, you deal with at least some amount of stress.

Stress is related to adverse health effects in 43 percent of adults in the U.S., and it is linked to several leading causes of deaths (eg. heart disease, cancer, etc.). We are an overworked society, one that is headlong into a mortgage crisis and economic recession. Gas is over $4 a gallon. We are at war. The climate is changing. Stressed? Yeah, and for good reason.

However, it's vital to our health that we take steps to manage these stressful feelings -- which can range from anxiety and irritability to fatigue and gastrointestinal problems. Experts suggest identifying stressors and learning to cope using any number of stress-reducing techniques. Here are just a few ways that you can naturally keep stress levels under control.

Do you have any great vacations planned for this summer? Along with a friend's family, my son and I are renting a cabin in what I deem as the prettiest part of our state. Also, if I can scrape together the funds, I might be bringing my son (who I adopted a year ago) back to his home state to visit his foster family. Whatever your summer plans are, don't let good nutrition go on "vacation" too. Some tips:

• When eating at a restaurant, don't order an appetizer and skip the bread basket.
  
• Select healthier fare from the menu -- for example, baked, broiled, or grilled foods are a better choice than deep-fried.
• Visit the local grocery store -- if you have a fridge in your hotel room your options are greater, but even if you don't you can still stock up on some foods that you can eat "in." Fresh fruits and veggies, sugar-free instant oatmeal (use the coffee pot to heat water). You can also use your hotel room's ice bucket to keep some foods chilled.
• Go on a picnic. Pack healthy foods and visit a park, beach, or nature reserve at your vacation destination. After lunch, go for a hike!
• Avoid the pastries and other high-carb options at the continental breakfast.
  

For many people, when they change their eating habits in an effort to lose weight, their menu becomes a little limited. When you're used to cooking with butter and covering everything in cream sauces, your recipe box can become a little useless. But healthy eating certainly doesn't have to be boring and your options are limitless.

AOL Body's America Takes It Off program has been in full swing for a couple of weeks now. Have you decided to take the challenge? If you're hard at work trying to shed a few pounds before summer, don't limit yourself to the same old foods over and over. America Takes It Off has pulled together a great collection of healthy recipes that will tempt your taste buds and keep you on the right diet track.

I recently got married and moved into a new house, which means I'm cooking in a new kitchen and am all inspired to start trying new recipes. In the cabinets of a healthy kitchen, one of the most common players is olive oil (love a good stir fry) but getting what you pay for is isn't as easy as it should be. Many stores have bottles of oil that have been sitting for ages on the shelf (which diminishes not only flavor but also antioxidant benefits) and some companies are even fraudulently blending in filler oils like sunflower or soybean oil. For the best, healthiest olive oil, follow these tips:

• Go for the smallest brands -- smaller growers almost always produce higher quality oil than mass producers.
• Keep your olive oil cool and dark, and look for brands packaged in dark bottles.
• Read the label carefully, intentionally vague statements like "imported from Italy" can be deceiving (it wasn't necessarily made in Italy).
• "Extra virgin" isn't necessarily the best. To be labeled extra virgin, olive oil must have an acidity of 0.8% or less, which isn't that hard to do. For really good oil, look for 0.5% or less.
  

Changing any lifestyle habit isn't easy. If you're looking to shed some pounds for summer and are switching to a healthier way of eating, you may find yourself staring at your pantry and wondering what to do. Take these tips from AOL Body and stock your kitchen with healthy staples -- having all the building blocks for healthy eating sets you up for success.

• Clean out your fridge, freezer, and pantry of unhealthy foods that can throw you off course.
• Stock your freezer with frozen fruits and veggies and healthy snacks such as edamame and veggie burgers.
  
• Fill your fridge with low-fat dairy, fresh fruits and veggies, lean protein, and a pitcher of water.
• Stock your pantry with a variety of whole grains, salt-free seasoning mixes, and healthy snacks such as fat-free popcorn.

For more summer weight-loss tips, click on the image below and check out AOL Body's Summer Quick Fix.

We all know broccoli is good for you, right? Not only does it have anti-cancer compounds, and anti-oxidant containing vitamins (vitamin-C and bets-carotene) but it's loaded with fiber. But which way is the best way of cooking broccoli and other vegetables, to preserve the most nutrients?

Believe it or not a recent study done at Cornell University said microwaving (behind steaming) is one of the best ways to cook vegetables and retain the nutrients inside. The study found that cooking vegetables on a grill, which exposes them to higher temperatures, is actually more destructive.

But be careful not to add too much water when cooking your veggies in the microwave. Researchers suggest that in order to keep the nutrients undamaged when microwaving you should only use a couple of tablespoons of water to cook raw vegetables and no extra water to cook frozen ones. That's because vegetables lose water-soluble nutrients like folic acid and vitamin-C when they are immersed in cooking liquid.

What tips do you have for steaming or microwaving your veggies?

With a little effort and a lot of willpower, you can find a healthy meal in a restaurant, fast food restaurant, or grocery store deli while out on your lunch hour. But a faster, cheaper, and healthier option is to pack your own lunch.

Side by side comparisons of fast food and homemade lunches will usually reveal that the brown bag version is lower in fat, calories, and sodium, and that it costs less per serving.

When you pack your lunch, include whole grains, lean protein, and fruits and vegetables. Consider packing it the night before to save time. Don't forget to include a healthy snack to ward off that afternoon trip to the company vending machine.

It gives me a little thrill every time I hear my preschooler turn down a treat, saying, "No thank you, I've had enough sugar today." She really seems to be developing a good sense of "every day" foods and "sometimes" foods, without us having to remind her.

Kids can be taught good nutrition, and they can learn the basic principles behind it fairly early. Though you don't need to buy a special tool to teach kids about healthy eating, visuals can make things more fun. That's where charting systems like Supernoots come in. Supernoots is a magnet set geared toward children to help them keep track of their healthy eating habits. Whenever they have a serving of grains, fruits, or veggies, for instance, they move their magnet to the appropriate spot on the chart.

Some kids really respond to these kinds of systems, and if yours does, Supernoots could be an effective tool in teaching them lifelong healthy eating habits.

Tracking your child's nutrition is easy with the SnackerTracker. Each SnackerTracker kit includes a guide with nutrition information, a magnetic chart to place on your fridge (or any other convenient location), and a dry erase marker. Simply check off each serving of fruits, vegetables, grains, protein, dairy, and water. I know my son responds well to charts and graphs -- they give him a visual way to learn and modify behavior. Many kids will find this colorful, easy-to-understand chart motivating. And wouldn't it be wonderful to hear your child say "Mom, I need to eat more veggies!"

Gina Luttrell, co-creator of the SnackerTracker and a certified kid's nutrition specialist, said that the idea for the SnackerTracker came out of necessity. Her daughter, who had previously ate a good balance of healthy foods, entered a stage where she would only eat cheese sandwiches. Luttrell's pediatrician said that her daughter would eventually come around, but Luttrell decided to try something else. She looked for a nutrition chart at stores but came up empty handed. So she created one. And it worked. It worked well. Not only was Luttrell's daughter eating better, she was learning about her own nutrition. When family and friends had similar successes with the chart, Luttrell and her husband (a scientist) worked with a registered dietitian to create the guide and market the SnackerTracker. Luttrell says "We put kids in control through a fun and interactive nutritional tool that allows them to chart their daily successes."

My son is adopted. For the first 10 years of his life he lived in various homes and developed his nutrition habits there. His foster mother told me that he liked to eat just about anything, but when he moved to my home he'd grimace and scowl and fake gag at everything I cooked. I may not be a world-class chef, but I don't think my food is gag worthy. For a long while, I thought his food issues were just control-based and part of his adjustment to a new environment. But in time, I realized that the bigger issue was he was more used to frozen, canned, and delivered-to-your-door foods than he was used to home-cooked meals.

Little by little, he's getting used to the way dinners work in our home. He's becoming slightly more adventurous and is more apt to take a bite of something "just for tries" than to immediately say "Yuck!" I've also found that giving him the nutrition facts is one of the best ways to break some of his not-so-good eating habits. He frequently checks labels for sugar content now and he knows how to tell if something is really whole grain. One of the best learning tools, believe it or not, is a TV commercial that shows high fructose corn syrup for the sticky gross mess that it is. Ever since then, he gets grossed out if he sees that a product has HFCS in it.

Teaching kids about nutrition at a young age is the best way, but even stubborn pre-teens like my kiddo will slowly come around to healthy eating. Don't make nutrition a chore or a boring lesson to be learned, just incorporate nutrition tips into your every day life. Model good eating habits for your kids and keep plenty of healthy foods on hand. You can also buy books and other tools that will help your kids learn the nutritional ropes.

Goodness knows all the conflicting information out there can make healthy eating seem a lot harder than it truly is. So, just for fun, let's see if you can weed the facts from the myths.

• Body weight is a reliable indicator of a healthful diet. Fact or myth?
  
• Eating carbohydrates causes weight gain. Fact or myth?
  
• Eating just before bedtime is fattening. Fact or myth?
  
• Eating sugar causes diabetes. Fact or myth?
  

Each March, the American Dietetic Association (ADA) sponsors National Nutrition Month. It's a perfect time to review your eating habits and focus on good nutrition. If you have kids, plan some activities that will get them interested in healthy eating. For example, color different index cards with the colors of the rainbow -- red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Bring your kids to the grocery store and challenge them to find a fruit or vegetable of each color. Even if you don't have kids, take some time this month to learn more about nutrition and improve your eating habits.

Remember, healthy eating doesn't have to be boring or complicated. The American Dietetic Association offers these 10 tips:

Want to be fit and fabulous by swimsuit season? It's really not too late. February is wrapping up fast, but there's a lot of time left before that hot weather hits. It's reasonable that you could drop two pants sizes by summer, maybe even more. All it takes is a few healthy changes in your life, like these ideas from USA Today:

• Cut back your calorie intake by 400 to 500 a day.
• Burn more calories by beginning an exercise routine.
• Start strength training.
• Use a calendar to record your progress and to remind yourself that summer is on its way.
• Fill one half of your plate up with fruits and veggies at every meal.
• Measure food to understand portion size.
• Eat at the table to avoid mindless eating.
• Pay attention to how you feel -- healthy foods will give you more energy, while junk food may make you feel sluggish.

Don't think of it as a diet or not being able to eat what you want. Instead, look at what you add to your day -- fresh air, exercise, nutritious foods. By summer you'll be fit and feeling great!

Scrutinizing the way you eat is a good thing. Wondering where your food comes from and how it's produced is a good thing too. Filling up on fresh, wholesome, food is an excellent way to get the nutrients you need and maintain your weight. But when concern over food issues goes too far, it can actually be detrimental to your health.

Orthorexia is defined as an "obsession with healthy or righteous eating". An orthorexic may spend hours thinking and planning their next meal, whether it be organic, raw, macrobiotic, etc. They may become agitated when faced with a situation where they don't have control over what's being served. When they do break and eat something off-plan, they may feel like their bodies are being poisoned by the offending food.

It's not clear whether orthorexia should be categorized as an eating disorder or a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder, but either way, orthorexics can put their health at risk by severely limiting the nutrients in their diet. As eating foods that are not conventionally processed becomes more of a mainstream behavior, health experts are seeing more cases of orthorexia cropping up, especially among celebrities.

How much do you obsess about what you eat? Has it ever become a problem for you?

What's so special about Okinawa? Besides being surrounded by some of the most stunning coral reefs in the world, there's something special about this island's citizens -- they are both lean and long-lived. Part of the reason for their good health is that the practice a tradition called hara hachi bu, which means eat until you are 80% full. The idea is that you eat until you're almost satisfied, ensuring that you don't over stuff yourself. You also allow your body time to sense that you are full, since that usually takes about 20 minutes.

Okinawans who eat a traditional diet are so healthy, that a diet plan has been created around their healthy habits. Called the Okinawan Diet, it focuses on eating fish, whole grains, legumes, and fruits and vegetables, and of course, practicing hara hachi bu at every meal.