Hey everyone, Fitz has given you permission to let loose over the holidays! No, really!

But here's the thing: She wants you to remember the difference between an holiDAY and a holiMONTH. That means you can go wild exactly three times between now and January 1st. On the days between, she wants you to be on your best behavior.

See what else Fitz has to say over at Holidash.

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Before we started cutting back on excessive spending and junk food, our Friday night tradition was to go out for burgers and beer, loading up on those ginormous restaurant portions we love to talk about here at That's Fit.

Now, we still go out for burgers (or sometimes, just the beer), but it's not a weekly event. Which is how I found myself home last night, furiously cooking up a couple of new recipes to clean out the leftovers in the fridge.

One of them happened to be this kale and chickpea soup. When I'd added the kale, the last ingredient, I could not get over how colorful the soup was. The orange sweet potatoes, the red peppers, the green kale, and the white beans, onions, and garlic made it one of the most visually appealing dishes I've ever made.

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Here at That's Fit, we often talk about how a healthy diet is good for you. But what does "good for you" actually mean? According to Diet-Blog, a healthy diet can have a positive impact on your immune system -- important information as we head into cold and flu season.

How does diet affect your ability to prevent or fight off nasty bugs? It gives your body the nutrients it needs to not only run efficiently, but also to fight off invaders before they infect. Since eating these foods won't stop a cold once it starts, you'll need to make these highly nutritional choices part of your daily diet.

For a healthy immune system, eat foods like:

• leafy greens, carrots, and sweet potatoes
• 100% juice
• high-quality protein like lean meats and fish, beans, lentils, or soy
• vitamin E-rich nuts and seeds, like sunflower, almonds, and walnuts
• whole grains, oats, quinoa, and brown rice
  
  

Of course, the choices are endless and Diet-Blog has even more ideas for you. Pair a healthy diet with sleep and exercise, and you can say bye-bye to those bugs and hello to a healthy winter.

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I've said before that I wish there was a way to ration myself a handful of M&Ms or a small serving of something sweet a day. But I can't keep that stuff in the house because when it comes to chocolate, I just don't have enough self-control. So (perhaps sadly), I can get behind the idea of the Chococlock.

Every hour on the hour, the clock offers up a piece of chocolate. You've got 30 seconds to grab it, then it's gone until the next hour. The fatal flaw with this product, however, is the cheat button. Doesn't anyone understand how a chocoholic works? I'd have that cheat button worn out in no time.

Thankfully, there's a free way to keep a handle on overdoing the sweets. Leave them at the store. Studies show that if you leave tempting food in your line of sight, you're far more likely to eat it. When I want a treat, I go out and buy one, but control my cravings by only buying a single serving every time.

How to you keep your cravings for your favorite treats under control?

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They say that 40 is the new 30, and I hope they're right, because, for me, that milestone birthday is less than five years away. There isn't much that you can do to stop the march of time. But there are ways to stop the effects of aging on your body, and eating highly nutritious foods is one of those ways.

A nutritious diet supplies your body with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, phytochemicals, and fiber, all things that you need to stay healthy and strong. And junk foods -- such as those that are high in fat, sugar, and salt -- put you at risk for heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. Just imagine at your next birthday if someone added extra candles to your cake! Eating an unhealthy diet might just add years to your life.

To find out if your diet is helping maintain your "nutritional age," check out this quiz from eDiets. After you answer the questions, find out how to make better choices about what you eat each day.

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Everyone thinks eating a healthful diet is expensive. But these 10 foods cost less than a dollar per serving.

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Overhauling your diet for weight loss can feel overwhelming. But do you really have to change everything at once?

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If you spent your first 25 years eating junk food and gorging on excess calories, can you ever repair the possible damage you've done to your body? The human body is remarkable at being adaptable as nutrition circumstances change, right?

Even reducing calorie intake later in life can lead to health and longevity benefits, according to a new study out of the University of California. The point that this study is trying to make (I think) is that it is never too late to eat right and consume the "right" amount of calories for your body's type.

In other words, it's probably never to late to reduce those calories and eat healthy to ensure your body makes its travels through its life in the best way it can.

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To those that have battled with losing weight, you probably know that it is much (much) easier to put on that to take off. I've noticed that it takes a good hour of treadmilling and working an elliptical machine to burn off a true 600 calories.

The funny thing (or not so funny, really) is that it can take less than 10 minutes and very little effort to gain those calories with the wrong kind of meal (or even the "right"kind). Unintended weight gain can happen so rapidly that it can leave us disenchanted and frustrated.

It takes constant and vigilant effort to keep weight where it needs to be -- i.e., in the most healthy range for your body type. So, the next time you're sitting down to that meal and you're also trying to lose weight at the same time, think about how hard it will be to maximize the "calories in -- calories out" formula of eating but also keeping your weight in check with exercise.

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With obesity running rampant in many western societies, what are we to do? Our lifestyles have become more sedentary, our food has become more filled with things our body doesn't know how to handle and we are not even walking but a few thousands steps a day (many of us).

How about pretending like it is the 1970s? The lack of exercise and the calorie-laden foods kids (and adults) eat these days are apparently enough to offset worse nutritional habits from 30 years ago according to this article. Do you agree?

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Many of us have had bosses that we didn't like for one reason or another, but if a suggestion from a boss would come as "you need to eat right", I would probably listen. It seems that in pursuit of lower insurance premiums and for other reasons, many companies are starting to really encourage employees to eat better.

Nutrition is the cornerstone to staying healthy and to being as productive as possible while not missing work due to illness (which may have been able to have been avoided), so it is no surprise that companies are pushing this agenda. I hope most employees listen, since it is a win-win situation here.

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Ready . . . set . . . go! If you are looking to lower your cholesterol fast, WebMD offers four easy steps to do just that. OK, maybe not easy, because eating right, exercising, losing weight and possibly taking medication are only huge lifestyle changes. But the article does break it down into doable steps.

Eating right? They say increase fatty fish, nuts and oatmeal. That's easy, right? Oh, then there is that part about avoiding trans fats and processed foods, along with fatty meats, egg yolks and whole milk dairy products. The processed foods I can agree with; no one benefits a lick from eating processed foods. But grass fed beef, organic eggs and raw, unpasteurized milk eaten in moderation aren't a problem, according to various sources they can even help lower your "bad" cholesterol. It seems to me that as long as a whole food is as close as possible to what nature intended that you shouldn't worry about eating it.

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