Maintaining a Healthy Weight.

6 Tips from ACE for making weight management a
permanent part of your lifestyle. 

1. Weigh weekly. It's normal for body weight to fluctuate by a couple of pounds from day to day and from morning to night depending on fluid balance, meals eaten, clothes worn, medication, and health status. A weekly weigh-in allows you to track the trends without getting hung up on small fluctuations. Here's an easy-to-understand explanation for possible reasons for weight fluctuation.

2. Move as much as possible. Integrate physical activity into your daily life at every opportunity. Here are 9 Ways to Add Physical Activity to Your Day.

3. Create a healthy home environment. Set yourself up for success, only surround yourself with things that will help you reach your goal. Keep only healthy food in the house and plan your meals for the week or month to avoid last minute take-out. Also, keep your gym bad near the door and exercise equipment in plain view. Here are 5 Full-Body Exercises you can learn to and do anywhere to help you stay on-track.

4. Learn to cope effectively with stress. Times of increased stress put you at risk for backsliding to your old behaviors. Learn to change your perspective and respond mindfully to stressful situations instead of reacting. Here are some tips for Reducing Workplace Stress and how to start your own meditation routine.

5. Activate your social life. Integrating physical activity with your social life provides support for your active lifestyle and makes staying active fun and more likely. Here are 8 Ways to Get Fit and Be Social.

6. Keep a measuring tape handy.  The scale rarely tells the whole story, and reaching and maintaining a healthy "weight" is just a part of the battle. Measuring progress in other ways than the scale is an extremely important part of determining your overall level of success. Body fat composition is a great way to determine how much of your body is composed of fat, and if you don't have access to that type of testing, the next best thing is to take, and track, your measurements. Here's how to take your measurements.

Meditation for Health. Transcending Spirituality.

In western culture the value of meditation is too often dismissed as a foolish spiritual pursuit and a waste of time, despite the fact that countless scientific studies have proven otherwise. These studies continue to show that the benefits of meditation transcend simply achieving spiritual clarity, but they also include "stronger immune system, enhanced attention, lower blood pressure and reduced risk of heart disease, less anxiety and depression, increased feelings of compassion and empathy, fewer binge eating episodes, lower blood sugar, improved sleep, and better pain management," just to name a few.

Here are six tips from Diksha McCord on how to begin a meditation practice.

• Create a dedicated space. A small room or closet is ideal, but if this is not possible, create a quiet area in your home and return there each time you practice. 

• Set a consistent time. Choose a regular time - such as dawn, noon or dusk - and try to practice daily. 

• Ensure quiet. To sharpen your mental focus, wear headphones or earplugs if sounds are distracting. 

• Sit with good posture. Sit upright, with spine erect and body relaxed, and place your hands, palms up, on the thighs at the junction of the thighs and abdomen. 

• Be comfortable. Use pillows and cushions as necessary. Sit in a chair if it's more comfortable. Place a pillow across your thighs as needed as a place to rest your hands. Experiment with different positions (including different hand positions) to find what works for you. 

• Start gradually. Start with as little as 5 minutes and increase your sitting time in increments of 5 minutes. Work up to 30 minutes, twice daily, if possible. Let enjoyment be your guide.