The Right Start: Tools to Help Keep Your New Year's Resolutions

It's that time of the year when we can reflect on the changes we've made and renew our commitments to ourselves. Popular New Year's Resolutions include spending more time with family and friends, getting fit, and improving our organizational skills. What should also be included on this list should be sticking to these resolutions. To help out, here are some helpful tools to keep your resolutions on track. Happy 2009!

• To help you reach your fitness goals, Traineo can give a boost of self confidence and motivation needed for those last few pounds.
  

• Look up and track calorie and fat intake on Daily Plate.
  

• If improving your finances is your goal, software such as Mint can easily be download onto you cellphone to help manage your money.

• Also available for your cellphone is a virtual to-do list. Remember The Milk makes managing your tasks effortless.

New Kids On The Block: Predictions for Top 2009 Baby Names

The results are in for the most popular baby names of 2008, but who wants to tag onto last year's trends? Here are a few unique suggestions if Emma, Sophia, Madison, Aiden, Jayden, or Ethan weren't on your list:

Girls

• Allegra
• Savannah
• Tatum
• Halcyon
• Poppy

Boys

• Rahm
• Zane
• Saul
• Jack
• River

Lighten Up Your Holiday: Healthy Holiday Recipes

The holidays are a time of good friends, family, and traditions. And many holiday traditions center around food. In an effort to keep the calories down and stay trim, here are a few healthy holiday recipes to make festive eating less of a challenge:

• Lightly drizzled chocolate-covered nuts. The health benefits of nuts and antioxidants in chocolate (if using dark chocolate) can make one forget they are eating a healthy snack.

• Grilled Peach Sundaes. A great way to sneak in your daily servings of fruit!

• Shredded Root Vegetable Pancakes. A nice alternative to potato pancakes and a good way to get your serving of veggies.

• Crunchy Pear and Celery Salad. High in calcium, low in calories and another way to get your serving of fruit.

• Mango Brûlée. Slices of mango broiled in the oven will look like an elegant dessert you spent all day in the kitchen whipping up.

Merry Fitness: Winter Exercise Tips to Keep You Moving

The dark, cold weather outside may make it hard for us to wake up in the mornings let alone motivate us to step up our exercise routines. But with all the extra calories consumed, winter workouts should be part of our weekly if not daily schedule. Here are a few great winter workout tips to help keep us in shape:

• Window shop. This is a good workout for new moms living in chilly climates that prevent them from strolling outdoors. Its also a great way for new moms to socialize in a safe environment with others in their community.

• Yoga. Yoga is obviously beneficial all year round but is especially nice during winter as it keeps us warm and limber. There is also prenatal yoga to keep moms-to-be in shape.

• Making Waves. Swimming and water aerobics are excellent cardio workouts. Indoor pools provide a great place to escape the cold.

• Walk it out. If possible, take the stairs at work; take a couple of extra laps around the office. Doing only 15 extra minutes of intermediate walking activity can burn up to 50 calories or more.

• Keep moving. Just because you don't own a gym membership doesn't mean you are not fit. Any activity counts towards a workout. So shovel that snow, vacuum that house, and wrap those packages!

ECO Ways to Save Energy: Winterize Your Home

Oh the weather outside is frightful... and so are our utility bills! As the winter season brings in the chill, most of us will use more electricity in heating our homes causing our utility bills to increase and generate up to twice as much pollution as the average car.

But with some few easy tips, we can reduce our bills and the environmental impact:

• Run fans in reverse. Counterclockwise rotation shoots a breeze while a clockwise rotation pulls warm air upward and evenly disperses it, cutting heating costs up to 10%.

• Wash clothes in cold water.

• Adjust your water heater. Turning it down from 140 degrees F to 120 degrees F can reduce your bills from 6 to 10%.

• Upgrade to efficient appliances. Energy star models can save up to 10 to 50% energy depending on the model.
  

• Keep an eye on the thermostat. Lowering it each degree can save you 1 to 3% of your heating bill.

• Download a copy of the Cool Citizens Guide for suggestions on how to cut energy costs while keeping an eye on your environmental impact.
  

It's A Wrap: Creative Gift Wrapping Ideas

Part of the holiday gift giving fun is the pleasure of giving and receiving a beautifully wrapped present. The creativity behind an imaginatively wrapped gift can make a simple stocking stuffer look like a personally chosen unique gift. Here are some great, creative ways to wrap your holiday presents:

• Embellish your gift with a ribbon weave.

• Wrap the present with hints of what the inside gift may be.

• Use one of a kind wrapping paper- old newspapers, comics, dictionaries, wallpapers... Creative, unique, and ECO-friendly!

• Gifts don't have to be extravagant. A couple of stocking stuffers wrapped in a common theme make a great present!

• And last but not least, a great way to display gift cards, tickets, even cash are with gift card holders!

The Gift That Keeps On Giving: Happiness

Feeling especially giddy lately? You can have your friends to thank for that. Inadvertently, your good mood can be affecting your other friends, and your friends' friends. Studies show that happiness can be contagious like the flu, and spread through social networks up to three degrees removed from one another.

Although research shows that this emotional contagion is more dependent on proximity (the closer we are to the friend, the happier we feel) than behavior, the happy bug can last up to 12 months! So this holiday season, give the gift that keeps giving!

A Breath Of Fresh Air: Improving Indoor Air Quality

Now that the colder winter temperatures are here, many are finding refuge indoors. But less open windows and natural ventilation can mean poorer air quality. Indoor air quality can be up to 10 times worse than outdoor air due to pollutants such as oil, gas, household cleaning products, mold, pressed wood products, central heating/ cooling systems, malfunctioning stoves, asbestos-containing insulation, etc.

But there are a few ways to improve indoor air quality in your home for this holiday season:

• Clean and vacuum regularly

• Clean with natural cleaning products, which contain no volatile organic compounds or toxic chemicals.

• Remove your shoes before coming indoors to prevent dirt and germs from entering your house

• Keep your air filters clean

• Use houseplants as natural air filters

• Never smoke indoors

Gift Giving Tips for a Stress-Free Holiday Season

As the holidays approach and we all rush to do our last minute shopping, feelings of love and joy may soon be replaced by feelings of stress. The holiday season however can be a very enjoyable time, even up to the very last minute, if enough planning is done ahead of time. Some handy, if not strategic, tips to gift giving might help ease the stress of shopping with the masses this time of year:

• Stick to your holiday budget ; there's nothing more stressful than paying off holiday bills!

• Buy appropriate gifts. Chances are your colleague will not find that gift your best friend thought was hilarious even remotely funny.

• Try to shop early to avoid the holiday crowds and to stock up on good inventory. If you see a great gift during the summer, buy it because it won't be there a few months later.

• Shop online to beat the crowds, find the best deals, and avoid the parking lots.

• Ask friends and family for their wish list .