The holiday season is coming and with that will come a lot of parties, dinners, and other festive gatherings. Undoubtedly we will all be tempted to indulge a little - or a lot - at most of these fun gatherings.

Yes, stress can make us gain extra, unwanted weight. Stress is unavoidable in life and a certain amount of stress can be healthy depending on its origin. However, chronic stress and fatigue can have lasting, negative effects on a person’s body and health.

In 1863 William Banting invented the first “modern” diet recommended for weight loss. He introduced the diet in a booklet called Letter on Corpulence where he described a shift in his own diet that excluded sugars, starches, beer, milk, and butter that resulted in his personal weight loss.

Fitness professionals get asked all the time if it’s better to focus on exercise or diet to help achieve health and fitness goals. The honest answer is both are very important and necessary for achieving your goals.

Old, “bad” habits can be hard to break and developing new, healthy habits can be just as hard to make and keep. For most of us this is case and the longer a bad habit stays with us the harder it is to break it.