Take it from Bob Greene, the supercoach who helped Oprah get into the best shape of her life, when he says we all can acquire great health and great fitness -- without calorie counting and deprivation and hardship. He details it all in his new book The Best Life Diet, and he shares a series of how-to guides in the January 2007 issue of Oprah Magazine.

One tool Greene offers as we take on the new year is a hunger scale -- to help us avoid eating mindlessly, to encourage us to get in touch with our hunger, to train us away from always watching calories.

The scale goes like this:

10: Stuffed. Approaching nausea.
9: Very uncomfortably full. Need to loosen clothing.
8: Uncomfortably full. Bloated.
7: Full. A bit uncomfortable.
6: Perfectly comfortable and satisfied.
5: Comfortable. More or less satisfied but could eat more.
4: Slightly uncomfortable. Beginning to feel signs of hunger.
3: Uncomfortably hungry. Stomach is rumbling.
2: Very uncomfortable, irritable, and unable to concentrate.
1: Weak and light-headed. Stomach acid is churning.

Greene says we should eat only when we find ourselves feeling 1, 2, 3, or 4. He instructs us to put our forks down at 5 and 6 and wait for our next scheduled meal. For those trying to lose weight, he says stop eating at 5. This is the point at which you're eating less than your body is burning.

Not too many days left until Christmas, but for those of us who still have some shopping left to do, Shopexa is an opportunity to benefit charity while we finish finding perfect presents for family and friends.

It won't cost you anything extra to shop and buy this way, and Shopexa will donate 50 percent of its profits from the purchases you make to the charity of you choice. Some of the charities included will benefit cancer, end hunger, save the environment, children, women and the homeless.

Shopexa was launched on December 15th, with Jay Siva as the founder. According the background information provided on the Shopexa website, Siva is a self-published author and webmaster who seeks to create and develop new innovative projects that will fill real needs. Shopexa is affiliated through Amazon, and Amazon handles all transactions and purchases.

You can make Shopexa your home page, choose your charities and invite friends to join you. From what I can tell, Shopexa will be a year-round service. As for Christmas shopping, unless you are one of those extremely efficient shoppers who completed their holiday shopping weeks ago, this is a chance to make a difference in the life of someone we may never meet, while spending money we would be spending anyway. It is the essence of the Christmas spirit.

Thanks Mike Marshall for this tip!

And too, our very own Allie Beatty has created an advertising portal for the largest shopping sites to benefit research in finding a cure for cancer, diabetes, lung and heart diseases. Shop4Cures earns advertising commissions when visitors click through and shop her affiliates, and her profits are donated to cure research. By offering coupons, free shipping, and other incentives she hopes to encourage people to use Shop4Cures for their online shopping.

"It's said that chemotherapy is like skiing in front of an avalanche. You do one thing wrong, and the avalanche is going to get you." -- Harvey Rushfeldt

Using the principles he learned in Alcoholics Anonymous, AA, helped Harvey Rushfeldt, 72, diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma last October, create a strategy for successfully living through the often grueling ordeal of chemotherapy. Rushfeldt sees both cancer and alcoholism as mortal threats and he approached his cancer treatments with the same 12 step attitude and perspectives alcoholics adopt on the one-day-at-a-time road to recovery.

Research and cancer prevention programs all suggest that obesity can lead to the development of a number of cancers. In a continuing series of posts looking at alternative weight loss programs, this one is about the Eat QOD diet. Basically, it is a simple dietary practice of eating what you like, within reason, on one day, and the next day is spent fasting, with a maximum caloric intake of about 300-400 calories. On Eat QOD, you lose weight gradually, without setting off the internal starvation alarm that tells your body to horde fat reserves as a survival means -- a cycle ultimately undermining most long-term diet success. According to Eat QOD practitioners, there is a Zen benefit to the Eat QOD fasting diet.

• Many cultures fast to clear the mind and get closer to themselves, to nature, and to higher spiritual powers gained by spiritual fasting.
• You may well feel some of this during the OFF days.
• At worst, you will have more free time, and will avoid after-meal drowsiness.
• At best, you might begin to get more in touch with yourself and with your body.
• You may start to feel truly hungry for the first time, for specific foods.
  

The Eat QOD website is nicely done and offers educational information and resources that include the Eat QOD blog, forum, book, mini-meal recipes and a weight loss charting tool to track your progress.