Family Circle's Healthy Thanksgiving Menu

Sacrifice neither your diet nor the traditional Thanksgiving experience with this menu. Each serving of these classic dishes contains less than 500 calories, less than 18 grams of fat and less than 800 mg of sodium.
 
Roasted Cauliflower Soup
Makes: 8 servings
Prep: 15 mins
Cook: 20 mins
Roast: 30 mins
Get recipe 

Pain-Proof Your Day

Most of the time you and your body have a good working relationship. You tell it what to do, and it obeys. But every once in a while, your body talks back: a creaky knee here, a stiff shoulder there. It's saying that something you're doing—whether you're carrying a too-heavy bag, slouching or even sleeping in a certain position—isn't quite right. Feel better with these simple fixes.

7 A.M. Stretch
After sleeping for 7 or 8 hours, your muscles and joints can be pretty stiff. To loosen things up before your feet hit the floor, do a few lower back and hip stretches: While you're still lying down, gently bring your left knee to your chest and hold for 20 to 30 seconds, and repeat with your right knee. Then drop both knees over to your left side, keeping your back flat. Hold for a slow count to 5, then drop them over to your right side. 

3 Real Reasons You Aren't Exercising

Do you ever get tired of hearing people say that no excuse is a good excuse? If you aren’t exercising as consistently as you'd like to, it could be because you have some real obstacles—not just excuses—holding you back.
 
So what should you do when you really can’t exercise?
 
Here are three, get-started-now action steps to help you overcome some serious fitness obstacles.

Can Exercise Protect the Brain From Fatty Foods?

What we're reading this week:

Power Up With These Healthy Pomegranate Recipes: This Fall favorite is an antioxidant powerhouse — we're talking superfood status — and not too shabby when it comes to vitamin C, potassium, and fiber. --FitSugar

25 Of The Healthiest Herbs And Spices Ever: The aromatic flavorings can transform a dish without adding calories or fat (for the most part). But many of the roots and seeds and leaves and flowers pack surprising additional health benefits of their own. --Huffington Post Healthy Living

Can Exercise Protect the Brain From Fatty Foods? In recent years, some research has suggested that a high-fat diet may be bad for the brain, at least in lab animals. Can exercise protect against such damage? --New York Times

Foods That Might Help Your Eyesight

It’s a well-known fact that carrots are good for your eyesight, but did you know there are several nutrients that can keep your eyes healthy throughout your life? A healthy diet may help reduce the risk of vision issues like cataracts, glaucoma, age related macular degeneration and diabetic retinaopathy and help promote good eye health from as early as infancy. Why is this important? Over 21 million Americans suffer from vision trouble and the number of Americans with eye health problems is expected to double in the next 30 years. So what foods should you include in your diet to protect your vision? 

Risk Factors of Diabetes

Here's a shocking fact: Some 25% of people who have type 2 diabetes don't realize it. Three ways you can stay vigilant:


Recognize the sneaky symptoms 

Do you have frequent yeast infections? Since extra glucose, or sugar, in your bloodstream can trigger yeast growth, recurrent infections could signal that your body isn't processing sugar properly. The other common signs of diabetes—fatigue, irritability, thirst and frequent urination—are easy to miss because they develop gradually and are often attributed to stress or lack of sleep.

Don't Be Tricked Into These Treats

It's not just the ghouls and ghosts causing a scare on Halloween — how about the mountains of treats handed out to kids by friends and neighbors? Some treats are worse than others — these are the ones that I pick out of my kiddos' candy stash when they’re not looking and toss them into the trash. 

Drink Coffee & Tea for Your Health

Editor's Note: Coffee, tea and caffeine. Sometimes you hear how horrible they can be for your body. Other times you're told that you're not drinking enough of them. What's the truth?

Today we are excited to share a fun and interesting infographic about the health benefits of coffee and tea from our friends at Greatist.com.

Medical Tests You May Not Need

There's no doubt medical screenings (such as MRIs and CT scans) save lives, but in some cases, they're just not necessary. "Some doctors may prescribe a test 'just to be safe,' and many patients don't think to question it, but the truth is, you should always discuss with your physician why you need a test before you go for it," says Christine Cassel, MD, president of the American Board of Internal Medicine.

 
Simple questions to get the conversation going:

• "How will the results of this test improve my treatment?"
• "What are the risks of the test?" 
• "What are the risks if I don't have it?" 

11 Easy Ways to Rest Better--and Why That's So Important

Editor's Note: Today we're sharing an excerpt of Get Well & Stay Well, a book by two of the foremost experts in integrative medicine, Dr. Steve Amoils and Dr. Sandi Amoils. The Amoils are co-medical directors of The Alliance Institute for Integrative Medicine  (AIIM) in Cincinnati. AIIM is one of the Bravewell Collaborative's leading clinical centers of Integrative Medicine in the U.S. Both Steve and Sandi are adjunct assistant professors in the Department of Medical Education at the University of Cincinnati. Beyond that, Drs. Amoils have the "SparkGuy" stamp of approval. Chris "SparkGuy" Downie has been working with them to manage his own severe allergies, with great success. They'll be sharing more info on integrative medicine in the coming months here on dailySpark.

Do you ever wonder where you go when you sleep, or why we even need to sleep? Sleep is not only essential for physical rejuvenation; it also provides an opportunity for the memory to integrate information, as if file clerks were coming in on the night shift to file away the experiences of the day.

Sleep also appears to offer the body an opportunity for internal housekeeping. Research from the National Institutes of Health has found that immune chemicals rise as we drift off to sleep, recruiting immune cells to cruise the body and lowering bacteria levels throughout the system. Clearly, if we don’t get enough sleep, we are much more prone to illness and accidents. In addition, lack of sleep raises the stress hormone cortisol, which can lead to weight gain and type 2 diabetes.

When you sleep, you move back and forth through various stages several times. As you fall asleep, you go into a light sleep, known as Stage 1 sleep, where you drift in and out of sleep. You then go through Stages 2 and 3, finally reaching Stage 4. Stages 3 and 4 are referred to as deep sleep, because this is where your body hardly moves. During deep sleep, you ordinarily generate the neurotransmitter serotonin. If you don’t get enough deep sleep, you are thus more prone to depression, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, premenstrual syndrome, migraines, and a host of other problems.

The next stage of sleep is a very important one called rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, where you dream. During this phase, your breathing speeds up, becoming irregular and shallow. Your eyelids jerk rapidly (hence the name “rapid eye movement”), and your limb muscles are temporarily paralyzed. Brain waves during this stage increase to levels experienced when you are awake. The heart rate increases, blood pressure rises, males develop erections, and the body loses some ability to regulate its temperature.

REM sleep and dreaming appear to help us sort out our daily stressors. This is the time when the mind appears to process emotions, sort through memories, and help us cope with stress. A person deprived of REM sleep can suffer from mood and memory problems.

Over-the-counter sleep aids that contain diphenhydramine (Benadryl®) induce Stage 2 and 3, but not Stage 4 sleep, reducing your ability to regenerate serotonin. Utilizing these aids on a regular basis can therefore result in depression. There are other options for improving sleep. Herbs such as valerian root and supplements such as taurine, 4-amino-3-phenylbutyric acid and 5-Hydroxytryptophan are often extremely helpful. Drugs such as zolpidem and trazodone maintain what is called normal sleep architecture, allowing a person to pass through all the different stages of sleep. However, these drugs are associated with side effects such as memory loss and dependency. Long-term use should be discussed with your physician.
Keep reading for a giveaway--and 11 tips to help you sleep better.

Avoid the Self-Fulfilling Fat Prophecy

A recent study from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology adds to an existing pile of evidence that if you are normal weight but see yourself as overweight, you are much more likely to become overweight. So, the next time you're in a fitting room at the mall and a friend does the ol' "I'm so fat" thing, you might want to let her know that if she keeps saying that, it might in fact turn out to be true. 

Researchers surveyed normal-weight teenagers to see if they felt overweight or not, and then followed up with them 10 years later as young adults. Of the teenage girls who had seen themselves as fat, 59 percent did in fact become overweight, as measured by BMI. But using waist circumference instead of BMI as the measure, 78 percent had become overweight as young adults. And, we can probably guess that 100 percent of subjects who had become overweight were pretty upset about that.

In contrast, 31 percent of the girls who did not consider themselves fat during adolescence were found in the follow-up study to be overweight, as measured using BMI. That number was 55 percent as measured by waist circumference.

There are a few explanations for why perceiving yourself as fat can actually make you fat.

5 Exercises that Sculpt, Strengthen & Soothe Back Pain

In today’s world, we all sit for too many hours each day. We drive instead of walking. We take the escalator instead of climbing the stairs. As a result, our posture suffers—and our necks get tight because we spend hours looking down at our smart phones. (What's so "smart" about that?) We forget to breathe because we are constantly multi-tasking. And as a result, we suffer from a multiplicity of ailments, especially chronic shoulder tension and back pain. We are more "connected" than we have ever been, yet we are increasingly disconnected from ourselves and what we need to do to truly live vital, healthy, and inspired lives.
 
So what can you do? The answer is MOVE. But more specifically, strengthen your core, which can help stabilize your spine, improving its fluidity and flexibility.
 
The following simple exercises are a powerful antidote to all that sitting. They are a potent time-saving combination of Pilates moves and yoga poses that will help you stop pain in its tracks, reduce stress (which can also contribute to back pain), and improve your spinal alignment. This series also stretches and strengthens the core and back.
 
So, want to feel stronger and longer, leaner and meaner, more fluid and flexible in just a few minutes? Grab your mat, and let’s get started!

10 Ten-Minute Workout Ideas

I know you are busy (that's the number one excuse I hear from people who aren't exercising regularly), but everyone's got at least 10 minutes to spare at some point during the day! And, even if you are managing several longer workouts each week, adding in 10-minute bouts of activity can help combat the dangerous effects of sitting for too long during the remaining hours of your day.
 
Print, "pin" or post this list somewhere you'll see it every day, and next time you find yourself with 10 extra minutes, fit in a little extra fitness—your body (and mind!) will thank you.

Have Healthy Breasts at Every Age

Good-for-You Guide

You've supported them in hundreds of bras, figured out what shirts make them look bigger (or smaller)—maybe nourished your kids with them. You want to give your breasts the respect they deserve. As they change with time, the way you take care of them needs to shift as well. Below is a healthy breast-owners' manual for life.

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Is Your Child's School Commute Safe?

Walking to school can be a great way for kids to get some exercise and socialize with friends out in the fresh air. It helps get their heads straight for the school day and allows them to decompress on the way home after long hours behind a desk.
 
But for parents, it's hard to know when a child is old enough to walk alone safely.
 
The school district in which I live only offers busing for students who live more than two miles from school. My soon-to-be kindergartener is very active--he plays tee ball and has run kids' races--but I'm not sure he'd be able to walk four miles daily. I'm also fairly certain I'm not willing to ask him to, considering the lack of sidewalks in our neighborhood and on the couple of larger roads he would have to cross to get to school. For us, age 5 is too young. But growing up in a very small town, I had friends who lived on the same street as our elementary school who, even as kindergarteners, made the short walk home alone every day along the tree-shaded sidewalks. Every situation is different.