The answers are pretty simple. It's making them habits that's hard.



Here's the shortlist, but it's really his delivery and the details he provides that make it all sound so simple.

1. Accept painful emotions as a part of life.


2. Spend more uninterrupted, non-multitasked time with people who love and support you.


3. Exercise.


4. Cultivate gratitude.


5. Simplify.

I specifically like the emphasis on how #4 needs to be ritualized and not just "understood" in the abstract. I grew up in a religious family and am a "more spiritual than religious" adult. The loss of prayer is, even from an agnostic's perspective, a real loss in the sense that it deprives a person of a regular engagement in reflecting on things to be grateful for.

Leading health and environmental experts report that a vegetarian diet can improve your health in numerous ways and decrease your carbon footprint. Raising animals for slaughter and shipping the final meat product to consumers uses an enormous amount of the earth's resources, especially when compared to those needed to grow fruits and vegetables.

According to a 2008 New York Times article, "ReThinking the Meat Guzzler," "To put the energy-using demand of meat production into easy-to-understand terms, Gidon Eshel, a geophysicist at the Bard Center, and Pamela A. Martin, an assistant professor of geophysics at the University of Chicago, calculated that if Americans were to reduce meat consumption by just 20 percent it would be as if we all switched from a standard sedan - a Camry, say - to the ultra-efficient Prius," the author writes. So if you simply choose vegetarian meals over meaty meals 2-3 days/week, you are changing the world!

Healthy vegetarian diets support a lifetime of good health and protect against heart disease, cancer, and strokes. The American Dietetic Association states that vegetarians have "lower rates of death from ischemic heart disease... lower blood cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, and lower rates of hypertension, Type 2 diabetes and overall cancer rates.” Contrary to popular belief, vegetarian diets can provide a well-balanced diet with adequate intake of all nutrients. (True vegans who don’t eat any animal product need to consider a B12 supplement or B-12 fortified foods.)

And compared to 10 or 20 years ago, eating a vegetarian diet is much easier. The grocery stores are now chock full of tasty vegetarian substitutes, and as you can imagine, the internet provides an endless array of recipes for vegetarian cooking. If you are new to the idea (and many people are unfamiliar to cooking without meat), make a commitment to eating vegetarian-style just one day a week. When eating out, try one a meatless entree. If you are used to ordering a ham or turkey sandwich at the deli, try a hummus and avocado sandwich with crunchy veggies, or keep it simple and order a peanut butter and jelly.

If you'd like to try a shift towards a reduced-meat diet, consider these websites for a few recipes, tips, and inspirations:

Meatless Monday is a national health campaign associated with Johns Hopkins School of Public Health to encourage people to give up meat once a week to cut saturated fat intake and prevent diet-related diseases. This website is jam-packed with fabulous recipes!

The Vegetarian Society provides an “easy” recipe list for new or time-restricted vegetarians.

My favorite vegetarian/vegan meal has been a nice, warm bowl of chocolate chili. Check out the recipe and try it out! I have prepared this vegan delight on the stovetop and crockpot; both methods create an excellent dish.

And here are 22 more reasons to try eating vegetarian.

Are you a vegetarian or vegan? Or halfway there? What inspired you to reduce your meat consumption? What positive and/or negative effects have you noticed?

If you are like many parents in America, Halloween can be a dreaded time of year for one reason: excessive amounts of sugar! We can recognize that your average trick-or-treater is not going to bring home a "moderate" amount of candy. Rather, most kids will bring home an INSANE amount! According to a Kids' Health website survey of about 1200 kids, "Most kids said they get at least 50 pieces of candy, with over 44% saying they get more than 100 pieces." If this number frightens you (not to mention your dentist), consider donating your candy to help support the troops this year.

There is a non-profit charitable organization called Boatsie’s Boxes whose staff gather and ship supplies and packages to soldiers. They have not been able to send chocolate since May because of the extreme heat temperatures, so this is a perfect time of year to gather your Halloween chocolate, spare your teeth a bit and pass along!

My brother, 1LT Christopher Moskoff, is a Colorado National Guard helicopter pilot. He spent a year at Balad Air Base in Iraq in 2007, and reminded me of the value of sending packages to our soldiers. "It was the highlight of the week to get a care package. We have very few luxuries in Iraq and Afghanistan, but getting a care package was the best reminder that your family and friends still miss, love and support you," he said. You can find the mailing address for sending donations to Boatsie's Boxes here.

If you want to avoid the cost of shipping your candy, look for a local dentist who might be taking donations. We have a dentist in Boulder, Colorado who is accepting donations and PAYING $1 per each pound of donated candy! He will then pay the shipping costs to send the candy to U.S. troops.

For younger kids (under 4), they might not even notice the candy contents had diminished. But for older children, it can be a great learning experience about sharing with others, donating to charities and eating sweets in moderation.

And if you are still looking for another way to disperse your Halloween candy, consider starting an unlimited sweets drawer experiment like we did. (And be sure to let us know how it worked.)

And whatever you choose to do this year, we hope you have a very happy, healthy and safe celebration!