Haven't decided which Thanksgiving recipes you'll be trying out this year? Whether you're counting your calories, trying to avoid a binge or just stick to your normal healthy eating habits, we've pulled together a list of light, low-fat and vegetarian recipes for you to try out this holiday season.

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Got a favorite Thanksgiving recipe you want made-over? Nutritionist Tanya Zuckerbrot will revamp your favorite meal with a healthy twist. Plus, check out her low-fat pumpkin pie recipe.

We at That's Fit and AOL Health know you've got a lot going on in your lives besides staying in great shape, and we realize that more than just diet and exercise goes into feeling your best every day. That's why we're sharing some of the exciting reporting going on at AOL Health.

So we're all savvy enough to know that just because it's under the salad section on a menu, doesn't mean it's healthy, but who knew these salad shockers could pack in thousands of calories and nearly a day's worth of fat grams (or more). AOL Health culled together some of the worst leafy-green offenders.

First it was an epidemic of obesity, and now it's an epidemic of diabetes and obesity. One sure-fire way to ward off the latter and reign in on your overall health? Ditch your car. Walking -- even if it's not helping you lose weight -- does a great job of keeping your health in shape. Read all 12 diabetes prevention tips from AOL Health here.

Want to know what the ladies are thinking about themselves (and their partners) in bed? Read AOL Health's sex survey to find out once and for all how (and if) size matters, whose looks she's worried about and how far on the kinky scale she's willing to go.

Indian food is delicious. However, if you're not careful, a meal out at an Indian restaurant can do some serious damage to your diet.

As is the case with any other cuisine, the best way to defend your diet is by preparing yourself. It's extremely helpful to know what popular menu items are more diet-friendly than others. Samosas, for example, are fried, so although they're amazing (oh my gosh, so tasty), they're not the best appetizer choice for someone being cautious about calories.

Check out the not-very-high-tech video above for some solid tips on what to order at an Indian restaurant -- you might be surprised at some of the scrumptious dishes that are actually recommended!

Fast food restaurants have long been criticized for their fatty, salty menu options -- greasy burgers, salty fries and gigantic sodas. So they've started adding choices for the health conscious, like salads, baked potatoes and yogurt. But it seems when healthy choices are on the menu, people might actually let down their guards and go big -- choosing the least healthy option instead of the salad.

Three small studies turned up this conclusion, and it's an intriguing finding. Study author Keith Wilcox attributes it to the "licensing effect." You know how sometimes after a long run, you think to yourself, "Well, I can indulge at dinner tonight, I worked out." The same appears to happen in the brain when salad or other healthy choices show up on a fast food menu. "People give themselves license to eat more indulgently because there is a healthy option," Wilcox tells That's Fit.



In one study, Wilcox gave participants -- college students -- two different menus. One had french fries, chicken nuggets and baked potatoes. The other had all three choices, plus a salad. Participants were three times more likely to choose fries when offered the menu with the salad than without.

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Acting, ballroom dancing, painting, designing jewelry ... Jane Seymour does it all. And, at age 57, she has a face and a body most 30-somethings would kill for. So what is she doing right? Seymour told Every Day with Rachael Ray what a typical day in her life is like.

• She starts her day with a cup of coffee and a walk on the beach. For breakfast, she enjoys an omelet filled with veggies from her organic garden.
• Around 12:30 she takes a break from sketching, painting and writing to enjoy lunch. A typical lunch is a quesadilla and a spicy arugula salad topped with homemade balsamic vinaigrette.
• She spends the rest of her afternoon painting and credits that with helping her keep her figure. Seymour says, "When you're covered in paint, it's quite hard to put food in your mouth!"
• When her kids get home from school, she leaves her studio and helps them with their homework. She'll usually grab a snack of pistachios, almonds, or dried cranberries.
• Seymour opts for quick and healthy dinners like stir fry. Because she often has friends stop over unexpectedly, she cooks the meat separate from the vegetables so vegetarian friends can still enjoy the meal.

I think there are a lot of tips we could take from this former Bond girl. If you have the space to grow your own garden, it's a great way to enjoy the freshest produce possible. And, rather than munching all day long, having a healthful and planned snack is a good way to go.

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It's December, which means it's time to print out my kids' monthly school lunch menu. I'd rather never even look at the thing, because I'm not so sure the food that comes out of elementary cafeteria is very healthy. But my kindergarten guy loves to buy lunch so each week, we pour over our print-out and decide which days he can leave the Spiderman lunch box at home.

The funny thing about our not-so-healthy menu is that it always comes printed with some pretty good nutritional tips, which makes me think the food service folks are doing something right -- yet, this Wednesday's Country Fried Steak and next Monday's Chicken Nuggets and Tator Tots just don't scream health to me. Still, the kitchen crew is trying. Here's what they offer in the way of holiday health tips this month.

• You can substitute brown sugar for white sugar and halve the amount in your recipes.
• Start your dinner with a salad. You'll eat less during dinner.
• Instead of thick, fatty frosting on cakes, use confectioner's sugar instead.
• Try small samples of everything so you don't feel deprived. Key words here: small samples.

Good tips, right? Maybe one day, the meals follow suit.

When you're crunched for time, you many find it difficult to prepare creative, healthful meals. I know that I resort to my old stand-by meals when I'm really busy. They're stand-by meals because they're quick, healthful, and tasty but after a while, they get a bit boring.

One of my favorite tricks for cutting down on meal preparation time is to cook ahead. For example, if I'm going to be baking some chicken for dinner, I bake an extra piece or two for a different meal later in the week. Self magazine has a great sample menu that uses that same time-saving tip -- and the recipes are healthful, balanced, and sound positively yummy. Give it a try!

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The co-hosts on The View like to discuss hot topics -- please, oh please, let the election be over so they can stop fighting about that hot mess -- and on Wednesday, they hit on the topic of New York calorie counts. You know, the whole thing where New York restaurants must post calorie counts on their menus -- yep, if you're in the Outback and are about to chow down, you're going to be faced with the cold, hard facts about your favorite Bloomin' Onion: 2,275 calories.

The calorie-count mandate was effective this past April, but the buzz is still buzzing: Some like it, some don't, and co-host and comedienne Joy Behar -- well, she's on the not-liking-it side (she doesn't like John McCain either, by the way). Here's exactly what she says about in-your-face calorie counts: Listing calories on a menu is like listing STDs at a brothel. No beating around the bush for this gal. The way she sees it, when you walk into McDonald's you know what you're going to get: Lots of calories. When you walk into a brothel, well same thing, except for the calorie part.

What do you think? Do you like calorie counts? Not like them? Or do you not really care?

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Here's a frightening thought -- pretty soon, we'll be able to see the calorie counts on the menu boards of several fast food joints falling under the parent company Yum Brands, including KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, according to recent reports. Don't get me wrong -- I think we all agree that calorie counts on menus are a great idea. What frightens me is knowing how many calories are in a stuffed crust pizza, deep fried chicken thigh or cheesy taco crunchwrap supreme. The horrors.

Still, this is a definitely a step in the right direction for people trying to lose weight. No longer can you plead innocence after downing that bucket of original recipe chicken -- the 'I just didn't realize it had 10 billion calories' excuse won't work anymore. And for those of you who are counting calories, now you'll know exactly how much of your daily intake you've blown in one meal.

What do you think about calorie counts on menus?

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Parents are generally concerned about their child's eating habits -- that's why we typically do our best to make sure they're getting the most nutritious, healthy meals possible. Well, if we're cooking the meal ourselves, that is. Who knows what goes into kids items at restaurants and fast food eateries? Over at Calorie Lab, they've brought to light some alarming findings:

• In a study of children's menu items at 13 popular restaurant chains, 93% of meals exceeded 430 calories, the recommended single-meal calorie count for a kid.
• 45% of the meals exceeded the recommended guidelines for fat, saturated fat and trans fat content.
• 86% of meals were abnormally high in sodium.
• The worst offenders were KFC, Taco Bell, Sonic, Jack In The Box, Chick-fil-A and Burger King. Subway fared the best in the study, but didn't include the calorie count for the soda included with most kid's meals. To read more findings, click here.

The moral of the story? Don't just check the calorie count of your own meals -- scope out the healthiest choices for your kids too, if you can.

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This summer I joined some friends on their pontoon for a day of cruising around the lake and docking in the shallows with about 30 other boaters. My friends told me we'd have lunch on the boat, so I had brought along some simple fare. Instead of keeping it simple, my friends attached a small grill to the back of the pontoon and grilled a fantastic lunch. In fact, they made so much that they filled a styrofoam cooler with the food and walked it through the shallows offering other boaters food from their floating restaurant. Needless to say, the other boaters were thrilled.

Just as my friends wowed their water-loving comrades, you can wow your fellow football fans when tailgating. Cooking Light has four great menus for you to try. You don't have to stick to hot dogs or cold sandwiches. The Cooking Light menus are much more ambitious -- not to mention delicious; salmon, cous-cous, barbecued chicken, and peaches with caramel sauce are just a few of the tasty treats they recommend.

Want more tailgating tips? Check out Kristin's post on vegetarian tailgating.

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Just pulled an elementary school newsletter from my kid's backpack and as always, there's a blurb about health featured on one of the pages, not too far from the print-out of the cafeteria lunch menu, in all of its unhealthy glory -- corn dogs, country fried steak, and pepperoni pizza are some of the school's staples. I guess I can't have it all -- a healthy newsletter and a healthy lunch menu. At least some of what comes from school is nutritionally sound.

Don't reward kids' good behavior with food, says our school PTA -- especially not candy, soda, and other sweet stuff. These rewards produce short-term behavior changes and long-term health implications. The folks at the Action for Healthy Kids Virginia say to use the following prizes for your pint-sized ones -- they'll inspire good behavior over the long haul and might result in better school performance too.

• Read a favorite book together.
• Play a challenging board game together.
• Take a special trip to a museum or park.
• Listen to music of your child's choice -- and dance.
• Work together on a project of your child's choosing.
• Play an outdoor game together -- try a water balloon toss or snowball toss, hide-and-seek, or tag
• Create a treasure box of small items, like stickers, pencils, and sidewalk chalk, and let your well-behaved kiddo choose a token.

Or, you could reward your kids by allowing them to pack their own healthy lunches -- no corn dogs that way.

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Due to a large school population and loads of classes that must eat lunch, my kids' school features lunchtimes beginning in the wee hours of the morning. My kindergarten boy eats at 9:35 AM; my second-grader at 10:30 AM. At first, this caused me some distress, until I started viewing these time slots as opportunities for healthy morning snacks. My guys are home by 2:00 PM so I just feed them again then. Plus, they get an in-class snack before dismissal so they are not starving when they land in our kitchen.

I'm often at a loss for what to pack for these early meals. Today, my young one got low-fat cottage cheese, peanut butter on crackers, watermelon, and some flavored water. His big brother got virtually the same package, but with yogurt instead of cottage cheese. I'm always on the hunt for variety, though, especially since my boys don't love sandwiches. Parade magazine offers up some help with an article called Lunchbox Eats Worth Bragging About. Check out this healthy brown bag menu.

• Honey-Glazed Turkey, Apple and Cheese Sandwich on Whole-Grain Bread
• Carrot, Raisin and Pineapple Salad
• Seedless Green Grapes
• Sun Chips (2.8-ounce bag)
  
  

There are more here, complete with recipes for nutritious noshing.

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If you have a diet soda instead of a regular one, do you think that means you have more "room" for a big piece of cake? It sounds kind of crazy, doesn't it? Odds are the piece of cake would be more calories than the soda, and what does one thing have to do with the other anyway?

According to Brian Wansick PhD, author of Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think, that type of reasoning isn't unusual. In the Journal of Consumer Research, Wasnick states "We found that when people go to restaurants claiming to be healthy, such as Subway, they choose additional side items containing up to 131% more calories than when they go to restaurants like McDonald's, that don't make this claim."

So when we perceive a restaurant as being "healthy," we become more liberal in our choices -- potentially choosing more calories than we might have consumed at a restaurant with fewer healthy choices. Wansick calls habits like ordering cookies to go with your low-cal sub the "halo effect." While having cookies or other treats isn't necessarily a bad thing in and of itself, it's the fact that many people are consuming these calories mindlessly; they aren't viewing them as treats, but more of a regular item that they have made space for by eating foods that they perceive as healthy.

Remember, restaurants don't always tell the whole-truth-and-nothing-but about their nutrition information. Check out Bev's post and learn why it's more like the whole-lie-and-a-bigger-butt.

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Love to eat out but hate the damage it does to your diet? Try these easy tips and tricks for having all the fun and none of the flab:

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