This article was originally published as Fran’s Holistic Outlook column in The Times Herald Record on January 21, 2010.
If you’re spending long days hunched over a desk or computer, you’re not alone. Here are seven ways to integrate healthier habits into a tough work day.

1. Mom was right.
Breakfast is the most important meal of the [...]

Read my article, plus an interview with 2 of my wonderful clients, as featured in the The Times Herald Record on December 23, 2009.
Can Going Gluten Free Change Your Life?
Goodbye to Gluten: Two Who Feel ‘So Much Better’

If you are tired of dieting, tired of feeling sick and tired, and on the verge of despair, take hope. It is not your fault, and it is not a “normal part of aging” either. It is possible to heal your metabolism, lose body fat, eliminate food cravings completely, and even reverse many chronic symptoms.

Stress. Not only have we all got it, but it seems we’re experiencing it chronically and in increasing amounts. Chronic stress takes a huge toll physically, emotionally and mentally. Because it is linked to inflammation, it contributes to many degenerative diseases, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and arthritis. On top of all that, stress actually rewires our brain: It compromises our ability to think clearly and make good decisions. Under stress, we tend to repeat habitual behaviors, even when they don’t serve us well and perpetuate the very circumstances in which we are stuck.

Is it true that, for women, aging means gaining weight, lost libido, thinning hair and increasing aches, pains and physical woes? Absolutely not! This can be a wonderful time of life, if women learn to take care of themselves as well as they’ve taken care of everyone else in the decades before.

Everyone wants to be healthy, but where to start? Whatever you choose, stick with it. Make small changes each week, commit to them, and keep building on those changes once they are established. You can do it!

GO Healthy posed a series of questions to Fran Sussman, a holistic practictioner, Sussman Holistic Services Inc., in Chester; and Dr. Mohammed A. Aziz, Vassar Brothers Medical Center, Poughkeepsie, to get their points of view.