You can change your life by turning it around completely. But it requires one major adjustment: changing your habits.

Snacking and weight loss—Sheila, age 45, blames it on her nightly TV habit. Watching TV makes you want to reach out for something yummy. Whatever you watch on TV, whether it’s a crime show, a love story or news, stimulates the mind and senses.

Stimulation of any kind also evokes a response from the body. Enjoying the moment while focused on your set somehow increases your appetite. Once you give in to your cravings, it becomes a difficult habit to break. Thus, your brain becomes naturally programmed. And so, nightly, the pleasure center in your brain seeks contentment. This is when cravings become a habit.

What to do: Don’t dine in front of your television. Avoid munching on anything while in bed. Meals are meant to be enjoyed at the dining table.

Allergies and weight loss— Jack is a 24-year-old executive. All his life he had been battling obesity. Since his teens, an excess of 30 lbs was a burden he could not get rid of, until he met an allergist who did more than just sign away prescriptions. Through a simple test, he discovered that he was allergic to eggs. And within a few months of giving up eggs, he shed off the excess weight!

Dr. James Brennan, author of “The Basics of Food Allergy,” stated that food intolerance and allergy to certain substances are the cause of many undiagnosed symptoms.

There is a connection here to irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). If you are suspicious about certain sensitivities to food but aren’t quite sure, see your doctor immediately. For all you know, your chronic sinusitis, constipation, asthma or weight problem may go away when you get rid of your food intolerances.

Sweet indulgences—So you get an attack of not just the munchies, but the sweet stuff. Desserts of all kinds await you, from ice cream and cheesecake to chocolate bars, more often than not, late into the night. Nothing wrong with a moderate bite or two, but if you finish bars and bowlfuls of sweets, a mineral deficiency could be the culprit.

Look into chromium. One of the key chromium “geniuses” of our time, Dr. Robert Anderson, recommends 70,000 micrograms of chromium daily to control sugar cravings. However, according to Harvard graduate Dr. Jonathan Wright in his Tahoma Clinic, taking anywhere from 5,000-6,000 micrograms daily until sugar cravings disappear is enough, with a decreased dosage to 1,000 micrograms daily for those who have diabetes in their genetic lineage. This is natural nutritional therapy that could be your best news ever!

Iodine and breast cancer— One of the best natural health practices to prevent breast cancer is to take 5 mg of iodine daily. (Not the over-the-counter drugstore variety!) Through a simple urine test, one can help in breast cancer protection.

This is the medical rationale: if you have enough iodine in the body, your estriol levels (estriol is a hormone) go up.

Estriol is one of the most abundant of estrogens produced by the body. If iodine level is high, so is estriol, which creates the right condition in the body to alleviate fibrocystic disease in the breast.

There was a time when women with this condition were told that their chances of contracting cancer were high.

It was Dr. Henry Lemon of the University of Nebraska who noted that if a woman’s estriol is low, her chances of cancer were also higher. It was also observed that women with fibrocystic disease had low estriol levels.

Wine and the immune system—If you are a wine lover and want to live longer, you may want to consider pinot noir as your wine of choice. That’s because its resveratrol content is higher than most other wines. More than a satisfying glass to soothe the senses, it also has anti-aging benefits.

Resveratrol, the polypherol in red wine, is a supplement that can turn on the sirtuin genes, which are programmed to keep the body alive. Every time you take resveratrol (more potent in supplement form), it “turns on” the genes that order the immune system and the body to stay alive.

Have you ever wondered about the French paradox, where the richness of French cuisine does not increase the incidence of cardiovascular disease in France?

It’s the resveratrol factor, says Dr. Ron Rothenberg, founder of the California Healthspan Institute.

What’s the healthy daily wine dosage? Health experts say not more than two glasses of wine for men and one glass for women. Not more.

Beauty aid—A natural astringent and tonic is wine. Get a small cotton ball, dip in wine. Squeeze the excess liquid and lightly rub your face. Watch the grime disappear from your face. Follow with a cool splash of water.

Affirm today: Victory is mine today.

Love and light!

Reference: “Breakthrough—8 Steps to Wellness” by Suzanne Somers