The holidays are a time for celebration and festivities, but they can also mean weight gain, stress, and total overwhelm. Thankfully, my 6-Week Happy Healthy Holidays challenge will give you strategies to maintain a healthy lifestyle while also enjoying the magic of the holiday season.

Let this be the year you "maintain, not gain" while enjoying some planned indulgences. We begin on November 26th. Click the link below to learn more and enroll in this 6-Week challenge.

No matter what your body shape, excess fat isn't good for your health.

In most people, about 90% of body fat is subcutaneous, the kind that lies in a layer just beneath the skin. If you poke your belly, the fat that feels soft is subcutaneous. The remaining 10% — called visceral fat — lies out of reach, beneath the abdominal wall.

Research has shown that fat cells — particularly visceral fat cells — are biologically active. The fat cell is considered an endocrine organ that secrets hormones and molecules affecting other tissues. Researchers have identified a host of chemicals that link visceral fat to a wide variety of diseases.

As women go through mid-life, the proportion of fat to body weight tends to increase — more than in men — and fat storage begins favoring the upper body over the hips and thighs. Even if you don't gain weight, your waistline can grow as visceral fat pushes out against your abdominal wall.

The good news is that visceral fat responds more efficiently to diet and exercise than fat on the hips and thighs. Here are some approaches that may help:

Move. Visceral fat responds well to both aerobic and strength training. Spot exercising does nothing to visceral fat.

Eat a balanced diet and avoid food that encourages belly fat, such as simple sugars, like sweetened foods, beverages, and alcohol.

Don't smoke. The more you smoke, the more likely you will store fat in your abdomen rather than on your hips and thighs.

Keep your mood in check. Middle-aged women who show more hostility and depressive symptoms tend to have more visceral fat — but not more subcutaneous fat.

Selenium is a micronutrient that cannot be produced by the body and must be obtained through food or supplementation. There are several reasons to ensure we are getting enough of this nutrient. We don’t need a lot of this micronutrient and the recommended daily allowance for adults is 55 mcg/day. If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, you’ll need 60 – 70 mcg/day.

Here are a few benefits of Selenium:

• It’s an antioxidant and can help reduce and protect against oxidative stress

• It strengthens the immune system and reduces inflammation

• It supports our thyroid function (the thyroid gland contains the highest amount of selenium compared to any other organ in the body)

• It may reduce the risk of cancer and increase the quality of life/decrease side effects in patients undergoing radiation

• It reduces cognitive decline

• It may protect against heart disease

If you are looking to boost your Selenium intake, consider the following foods:

• Brazil nuts (one of the highest and most well-known dietary sources of selenium)

• Eggs

• Oat Bran

• Tuna

• Brown Rice

• Beef Liver

• Chicken

• Sardines

• Sunflower Seeds

• Grass-Fed Beef

• Oysters

• Halibut

• Shiitake mushrooms

Building on small wins is key to creating permanent healthy behaviors. You can use the progress you’ve already made to motivate you toward your larger goal of living healthier.

Baby steps are at the heart of my programs because you don’t create success in one sudden overwhelming swoop unless you win the lottery. Winning at anything is about using each small success to motivate yourself to the larger goal.

Eating simple equals eating better.

Why is it so hard to lose weight over 50?!

Eating simple equals eating better.