Holiday help: tips for a happier, healthier season.(eye-opening discoveries on health and fitness)(Column)

I'm a girl who loves to share information, especially empowering, life-changing, information. That's why I'm so excited to be writing this column. It's the first of what will be a regular, monthly column based on the most important facts, helpful tips and eye-opening discoveries I've learned in my 26 years in the health and fitness world.

My health journey began as a desperate attempt to win my own battle against obesity, and to avoid, for myself and for my siblings, the degenerative diseases that prematurely claimed tire lives of our parents. This journey has changed my life and appearance (from 174 to 120 pounds), led to my writing seven best-selling books on health, wellness and fitness, and helped create my latest passion, my Web site at www.marilu.com (which, I'm proud to say, has become one of the hottest health and diet information hubs on the Internet!).

Overdoing It

I think it is quite titling for me to begin my monthly feature here in the November issue because November means Thanksgiving, and Thanksgiving means food--a lot of food! Our national plan for gluttony on Turkey Day is kind of like those crazy guys who run with the bulls every year in Pamplona, Spain: "This animal might kill me, but it's sure gonna be fun!"

It is now common knowledge that the average American gains 7 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day. That's no longer a shocking factoid; Thanksgiving has become an obligation--a kind of "roly-poly" day of obligation. We now feel shortchanged if we "only" gain 4-5 pounds by January.

Our holiday "supersizing" is not, however, a phenomenon that started with the supersizing trend of the 1990s. It goes back to the mind-sets we established with our first Thanksgiving feast. I remember myself in fourth grade. As January rolled around, so did I. I couldn't even button my Catholic school uniform blouse comfortably until March, and my plaid skirt was no longer pleated. The sad part was that I was only 9 years old!

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