Do you find yourself putting off reaching your goals until tomorrow? We have all heard of procrastination and probably have fallen victim to it at least a time or two. Whether it's cleaning the house, paying the bills, grocery shopping or working out,  procrastination can get in the way of life’s daily tasks. So how to prevent procrastination? Having a plan is the best way to avoid putting things off. Make a schedule that works for you. Don't tell yourself, “ I'll exercise after work”,  knowing you won't stop at the gym on your way home. So make sure your plan suits your lifestyle or else it will become much easier to let procrastination win.

Developing a plan that suits your lifestyle as well as your personality is the best way to meet your goals. When do you have the most energy during the day? When the best time in your schedule to carve in a workout? Once you answer these questions schedule a workout like any other appointment. 

Editor's Note: Wondering if your refrigerator is working for your or against you? Here is an article by Nell Ellis that we found very informative.

In order to maintain proper nutrition, it is important to have the best foods available to you. It is important to eat from the major food categories, i.e. protein, fruit, vegetables, whole grains, beans/legumes and fats.
There are many protein sources to choose from including fish, chicken and beef. Other protein sources are sometimes hidden in whole-wheat pasta, beans and some cereals. It is important to read packaged food labels in order to discover hidden protein sources.

For vegetarians, other sources of protein include soy products, meat substitutes, lentils, nuts and items from the other categories like legumes and whole grains. Eating foods rich in vitamin C such as strawberries, oranges and the like at the same time as non-animal protein helps the body absorb iron.
Here are my favorites or my best of the best.

Best Fruits

• Apples - Remember the saying, an apple a day keeps the doctor away? At an economical price and readily available in your grocery store, apples put needed fiber, vitamin C and potassium into your day.

• Blueberries - These berries are rich in vitamins C, B complex, A and E. They also help provide iron, copper, selenium and zinc which are beneficial in building the immune system.
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Editor's Note: Here is an article from David Zinczenko, author of Eat This, Not That!. We were shocked when we read the article and saw how completely unhealthy some of these drinks are. Although they may be marketed as "healthy alternatives", take a look at the numbers attached to them (pay special attention to the sugar equivalents - they will blow your mind!)...we guarantee it will make you think twice before you buy a "healthy drink".

Whoever invented bottled water was a genius. Think about it: They took a widely available and nearly free commodity, packaged it nice and pretty, and sold it for hundreds of times more than what the public version costs. And how did they do it? Savvy marketing. Water bottle labels evoke images of freshness and purity that you just don’t get from a running tap. Don’t be fooled, though. About a quarter of bottled water actually comes from municipal sources. 

When it comes to your health, bottled water is a fine choice. Water that meets minimum safety standards is good for you, regardless of the source. But the rest of the beverages in the supermarket that boast equally idyllic sounding health benefits might not be. Over the past three years, the Eat This, Not That! book series has exposed hundreds of food frauds. And now, our latest book, Drink This, Not That!, does the same for beverages.

What I learned, above all: What we drink is making us fat. We're consuming at least a quarter of our daily calories in liquid form--more than 450 calories a day--and that's a major factor in our nation’s obesity epidemic. Watching what you drink is just as important, if not more so, than watching what you eat, especially if you're trying to shed belly fat. The trick, as always, is to distinguish between healthful drinks, and healthful sounding drinks. Here, I’ve listed the 6 worst “health” drinks in America. Steer clear of these bloating beverages and drink their healthiest alternatives instead. You can lose up to two pounds a week!

Worst Water: Snapple Agave Melon Antioxidant Water
(1 bottle, 20 fl oz)
 150 calories, 
0 g fat, 
33 g sugars (8 teaspoons of the stuff!)
Sugar Equivalent: 2 Good Humor Chocolate Éclair Bars



We recently came across a list of foods you should never buy. We found it quite interesting and thought it was worth sharing with the JSN audience.

Bottled Water
Bottled water is a bad investment for so many reasons. It's expensive compared to what's coming out of the tap, its cost to the environment is high (it takes a lot of fossil fuel to produce and ship all those bottles), and it's not even better for your health than the stuff running down your drain! Even taking into account the cost of filters, water from home is still much cheaper than bottled water, which can run up to $1 to $3 a pop. If you have well water, and it really does not taste good (even with help from a filter), or if you have a baby at home who is bottle-fed and needs to drink safe water, buy jugs of distilled or "nursery" water at big discount stores. They usually cost between 79 cents and 99 cents for 1 gallon (as opposed to $1.50 for 8 ounces of "designer" water). And you can reuse the jugs to store homemade iced tea, flavored waters, or, when their tops are cut off, all sorts of household odds and ends.

"Gourmet" Frozen Vegetables
Sure, you can buy an 8-ounce packet of peas in an herbed butter sauce, but why do so when you can make your own? Just cook the peas, add a pat of butter and sprinkle on some herbs that you already have on hand. The same thing goes for carrots with dill sauce and other gourmet veggies.