OK, this sounds crazy right?! Well a Glamour magazine editor had to give it a try after a doctor swore he could make women lose weight just by changing their sleep habits.

Sleep and medical experts Michael Breus, Ph.D., and Steven Lamm, M.D., created a plan for seven Glamour readers of varying weights. The women’s one simple goal: Get at least seven and a half hours of sleep a night. That’s it. In fact, we asked the women not to make any significant diet or exercise changes — we wanted to see if sleep and sleep alone would make a difference. Did it ever! Week by week, we were amazed by the results the women reported. At the end of 10 weeks, Réal Hamilton-Romeo, 30, dropped seven pounds; Kate Foley, 25, lost six; Lisa Braverman, 34, took off nine pounds; Brelyn Johnson, 28, lost 10 pounds; Paige Barr, 35, shed 12; and — are you ready for this? — Ehmonie Hainey, 33, lost 15.

“When women are deprived of sleep, they have an increase in ghrelin — what we call the ‘go’ hormone — because it makes you want to go eat more,” says Breus, clinical director of the sleep division at Southwest Spine & Sport in Scottsdale, Ariz., and author of “Beauty Sleep.” “They also have a drop in leptin, the ‘stop’ hormone that tells you to stop when you’re full.” Not only do you want more food when you’re sleep-deprived, you also want junkier food: Your body craves simple carbohydrates (chocolate, pastries, candy) that it can break down fast for quick energy, explains Breus. “I used to eat a ton of sugar every afternoon,” Glamour volunteer Johnson says. “But now I can have just a small piece and feel satisfied.”

Oh, and by the way, if you think sleeping twelve hours is going to make you lose more pounds, it won’t. Follow these four ways to help you snooze and lose, continue here.

Keeping your family active and healthy is very important considering some of the statistics now and days like:

• four out of five 10-year-olds worry about getting fat

• 33 percent of children and 66 percent of adults are overweight

• an increasing number of children require cholesterol-lowering drugs, type 2 diabetes is considered epidemic and gastric bypass surgeries are performed on adolescents

So here are some old myths about family health habits and weight that should be taken into consideration according to The Honeyline:

Old Idea: Surplus weight among family members was a private matter or one of no great concern. Parents believed that children who were overweight would trim down during an adolescent growth spurt.

New Approach: Family members and pediatricians acknowledge the importance of recognizing weight problems at an early age. Research has established that being overweight affects the health and well-being of children during their early years and sets the stage for chronic medical conditions in adulthood. Early intervention is critical, and families will take a team approach by adopting healthier lifestyles that benefit all members.

Old Idea: Living healthfully involved constant deprivation and required heroic amounts of will power.

New Approach: Strategies for making healthier choices involving eating habits and exercise can be learned, according to Dr. Martin Binks, director of behavioral health at the Duke Diet & Fitness Center and coauthor of The Duke Diet. Parents and children will become students to learn new, more healthful ways of cooking and eating. Success will be determined not by will power but by a willingness to learn.

Old Idea: Dieting was required to lose weight.

New Approach: Eating for health and vitality is the family goal—weight loss is the natural by-product. Because calories count, the caloric content of fast foods and food products will become increasingly available—sometimes voluntarily provided and other times mandated by law. Conscious eating will replace dieting and recreational eating.

For more old ideas and new approaches, continue reading.

Did you know that 1 out of every 3 smokers would consider kicking their bad habit for their pet?  According to Health magazine:

Secondhand smoke causes almost 50,000 deaths in adult nonsmokers in the United States each year, and there’s a mountain of evidence that secondhand smoke can affect a pet’s health as well. George Korin is a New York City veterinarian who has “seen bronchial disease in both dogs and cats, either due to home environment or air quality.” Studies have linked smoke exposure to oral cancer and lymphoma in cats and nasal and lung cancer in dogs, says Korin, who was not involved in the new survey.

“People are motivated to help their pets,” says Korin. “At the least, they will do their very best to arrive at a diagnosis, even it involves fairly expensive procedures such as MRIs and CT scans.” Pet owners spent an estimated $10.5 billion in the United States in 2008 on pet supplies and over-the-counter medications.

In the survey, 28.4% of smokers said they would consider quitting after learning that secondhand smoke posed a danger to their pet. One in five smoking pet owners said they would ban smoking inside their home.

I wonder how many of these pet owners have children or other adults in the house. Now that would make an interesting survey, those who would consider quitting smoking for their pets, but not for their family members….hhhmmm.

For the rest of the article, continue here.