Oprah is giving away coupons for a free two piece grilled chicken dinner at KFC until 9:59 pm CDT on May 6, 2009.

This will give me an incentive to try this new menu item. Go to www.oprah.com/kfc for your coupon.

Shared with permission from the Rev. Christopher Ian Chenoweth

HAPPY EASTER

“He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where
the Lord lay.
And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and
indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him.
Behold, I have told you.” Matthew 28:6, 7

What do we think of when we think of Easter? Is it the new clothes, all
the family going to church together, the Easter Bunny and egg hunts, or is
it the magnificent Easter dinner? Easter is all these things, but each of
these things is a ritual in celebration of something greater—Jesus
Christ’s overcoming and resurrection.

To know that Jesus Christ was expressing as a human, a person like us,
helps us to believe some of the magnificent things that He said were
possible for each one of us. Here was a man that expressed His divinity
and oneness with God to such a degree that He was able to overcome the
worst possible thing His world could do. This empowers each of us to know
that with God we too can do anything. Easter celebrates the life of Jesus
who even though crucified, CONTINUES to live.

Each of us has been crucified in some area of her or his life. Just
knowing Jesus Christ helps us to realize that we too can live again. No
layoff, divorce, sickness, or rejection can stand up to the life of God
that is with you and within you. You can walk through the valley of the
shadow of death and fear no evil because Jesus Christ has shown you the
way. Jesus Christ spoke the truth, and He was life. Jesus encouraged you
to have in you what He had in Him.

That Easter morning when Jesus rose from His tomb forever changed His
disciples and the people around Him. This Easter, as you meditate on His
accomplishments, you become aware of the accomplishments you can achieve
when working with God. Recognizing this is in no way discounting His
greatest achievement; rather, it magnifies Him by saying we follow Him.

Start by thinking of some of the small daily crucifixions that life may
hand to you, and say to yourself that with God you WILL rise again. Do not
permit yourself to lie dead in defeat; get up and follow Jesus Christ in
His great overcoming.

He that is in you is greater than what is in the world!

We are Easter people because we know that with God we can rise out of our
problems and be resurrected into new life. The spiritual power in the
Easter event is that it took the lowest point in Christianity and
transformed it into the highest point in Christianity. Anytime God is
mixed into a human low, it becomes a human high.

Jesus Christ did not just die for us, even more importantly, He LIVES for
us. What a dynamic difference that makes in each and every individual
life. The death of Jesus Christ accomplished the death of death itself. We
read in 1st Corinthians 15:26 “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”

Many of us have had crucifixions in some area of our life and with God. We
have risen again. In thinking about Easter, know that there is no
crucifixion that can kill your life; there is no tomb of conditions that
can imprison your spirit; and there are no outer guards that can keep you
from your God given good.

I pray that this Easter is different for you. I pray that it sparks the
awareness that God working with you can’t be defeated by negative things.
I also pray that you will not submit to allowing yourself to be defeated
by the appearance of defeat. I pray that you know with God – that down
does not mean out, because you are an Easter person.

God Bless You! Happy Easter!
Rev. Christopher Ian Chenoweth

“Agree with God, and be at peace; thereby good will come to you.” Job
22:21

This moment is one of the greatest moments of our lives. Truly, the high
point of any life is prayer. It is a time when we rise above human mind
and all of its problem thoughts, and turn to the Mind of God, and all of
its solution thoughts.

In so doing, we find heaven and we find a new awareness of everything in
our lives.
Rest in the silence of prayer …

In Matthew 5:25, Jesus said, “Agree with thine adversary quickly.” In
prayer, we now take the initial step by agreeing with any adversary in our
lives. Something we might not be able to do with human mind alone, we can
do in this higher spiritual state–this prayer consciousness we are in
now.

Through the power of God, we stop thinking that we have an adversary. If,
in our human mind, we see our world as filled with enemies or pitfalls, we
are not seeing aright. We rise above that consciousness, spiritually.

If some person or situation causes us to feel unloved or unsure, we rise
above that consciousness.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

We no longer forget our true identity as a child of God. In this moment of
prayer, we reconnect. We are children of God. We are beloved of God. We
are sustained and supported by a loving Presence–the power of God.
Nothing can keep our God-given good from us, and no one can keep our
happiness from us.

We realize in this moment in time that our happiness is from God and we
accept it.

The first person we agree with, in prayer, is ourselves.

A new understanding dawns on our entire life; a spiritual understanding
dawns. If you have an experience that keeps coming back to your human mind
to haunt you—ask for a healing of that now.

Ask for God-love to infill your consciousness and the space that is called
your human brain with new spiritual insight and vision.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

“Agree with thine adversary quickly.” Let us consider, in prayer, the
world “quickly.” Many times, disagreements and differences have festered
in our human minds. Sometimes, we have allowed, in our thinking, those
thoughts to become exaggerated and out of proportion. We ask, this day,
for a healing of this. Dear God, bring my problems down to size. Minister
to me in their reduced size. Help me to see aright this moment–that I am
not alone, that You are with me, and together, we are a majority over any
problem.

You are one, this day, with the Mind of God. You are no longer like a
frightened child. You are a child of the living God. Your mind and your
heart are open to this light. This is the time, right now, in your life to
firmly establish your faith that all things work together for good, and
that God is able to turn every challenging experience into a blessing.

Yes, from our human mind we may not see how, but that is not for us to see
in this moment. It is for us—to have faith, because there is a greater
Mind that is working us, through us, and around us.

We relax.

We let go.

We let God.

Relax for a moment in the presence of God, in the silence of prayer.

Dear God, we agree with our adversaries. With Your help, we withdraw
emotional and physical support from any dispute that is taking place in
our human minds. We refuse to think in terms of adversaries. We know that
the love of God is always in charge and only good prevails. We are
agreeing with our adversaries.

The unifying power of Divine love is expressed in you, harmonizing and
blessing your life and affairs. I decree, once again, with the power of
the spoken word: The unifying power of Divine love is expressed in you,
harmonizing and blessing your life and affairs.

Who is my adversary? We can honestly answer, “No one.”

In and through the power of Jesus Christ, we pray, giving thanks . . .
Amen.

God bless your day!
Christopher Ian Chenoweth

By Elizabeth Landau

(CNN) — David Laibson knows that when he procrastinates, mere deadlines are not always enough to get him going. So, when this Harvard economics professor collaborates on a major project, he’ll sometimes promise to deliver a finished product by a certain date — or else pay his co-authors $500.

“There are a lot of behavioral economists who really do say that, and really do pay,” says Laibson, who studies the psychological factors that play into economic decisions.

It’s not just academics who set up monetary contracts to fight procrastination. StickK.com, founded by Yale University economics professor Dean Karlan and two colleagues, helps people fulfill their goals by allowing them to risk their own money — if they don’t complete their self-described objectives, they lose the money.

“It’s a contract to make slothfulness more expensive,” said Karlan, who has personally put up to $50,000 at stake to help himself lose or maintain his weight.

Watch CNN’s Elizabeth Landau talk more about procrastination »

The site will soon have its first New Year’s week, when people are making their resolutions for 2009. StickK.com, which launched at the end of January 2008, has about 30,000 registered users, Karlan said.

Goals on StickK.com range from the practical “stop biting nails” to the ambitious “successful startup” to the competitive “lose weight faster than Nate” to the creative “speaking more slowly to foreigners in NYC.”

Why do we keep putting things off?

Economists say there is substantial evidence that humans naturally procrastinate because of inherent impulsiveness.

More specifically, says Laibson, people perceive rewards and costs as having only half the weight tomorrow that they have today. In other words, unpleasant chores feel only half as bad when we imagine doing them tomorrow, versus actually doing them today.

“Pushing costly, unpleasant tasks into the future is like a getting a 50 percent discount on them, psychologically,” Laibson said. “When you actually arrive at that future date, you’ll once again face the same problem.”

How, then, can we fulfill our sometimes-unpleasant New Year’s resolutions, such as losing weight or kicking a bad habit? The economists answer: Put a price on it.

StickK.com came about as a result of the theoretical work of Laibson and others on commitment contracts, Karlan said. The idea is that many people, such as Laibson with his $500 wager, will follow through with their goals if they are risking their own money.

iReport.com: Tell us about your New Year’s resolutions

StickK.com users set up whatever goals they like, and have the option of putting as much money as they want at stake. They can also designate a “referee” who receives e-mails when users report they’ve made progress. The second “k” in the name stands for “contract.”

Forfeited money from unfulfilled promises goes to a charity or, depending on the user’s preference, an “anti-charity” — one the user doesn’t support. For example, a person who feels strongly against abortion can designate the NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation as the recipient of the money if he or she does not meet a personal goal.

About 85 to 90 percent of users fulfill their contracts, but Karlan cautions that each person’s progress is self-reported. He also noted that some people may feel better about not making good on their promises if they opt to send their forfeited money to a good cause.

The company will soon be giving forfeited money to a nonprofit that works with families whose houses have been foreclosed, he said.

Why laziness means less money

Apart from these explicit contracts, research shows that people often lose money because of procrastination and self-control issues.

Delaying things such as opening a savings account or putting money into a 401(k) can have long-term consequences that could be avoided by acting earlier. A slew of economic literature suggests that small interventions — such as having a portion of your paycheck automatically put in a retirement account — can result in large long-term benefits. And you’re more likely to have a retirement account in the first place if it’s the default and you don’t have to opt in.

“It’s clear that people delay choices that are beneficial to them … if they’re not the default,” said Stefano DellaVigna, associate professor of economics at the University of California-Berkeley.

In a study on gym attendance, published in the American Economic Review in 2006, DellaVigna and colleagues looked at people who chose $80 monthly gym memberships over paying $10 a visit. These monthly members actually went to the gym only once a week, meaning they wasted $40 a month because of excessive optimism about how often they’d go.

Moreover, DellaVigna found a spike in gym enrollments around the start of the new year, but the dedication didn’t last — the new subscribers tended to go to the gym more than others for a month or two, and then their attendance dropped off to the lowest.

The bottom line is that people are overly optimistic, he said. If you’re going to try to go to the gym more often, he recommends asking your gym of choice if it has the pay-per-visit option so you can monitor your own attendance before committing to the monthly contract.

Finally, you can override your short-term impulses by committing yourself to something a week ahead of time, said Laibson.

“Don’t try to talk yourself into being a better person. Simply commit yourself in advance,” he said.

Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/12/30/procrastination.economics/index.html#cnnSTCText

New study links diet to heart failure risk
Whole grains offer protection, but go easy on the eggs and dairy

NEW YORK - Increasing the number of regular whole grain servings in your diet by just one may lessen heart failure risk by 7 percent among middle-aged African-American and white men and women, according to findings from a long-term study.

Conversely, an increase of one serving of high-fat dairy and egg appear to raise heart failure risk by 8 and 23 percent, respectively, Dr. Jennifer A. Nettleton, of the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in Houston, and colleagues found.

“A refined grain here, a full-fat yogurt there, and the occasional egg aren’t going to result in heart failure, but a continued pattern of such behaviors could,” Nettleton told Reuters Health.

Heart failure is a chronic disease in which the heart gradually loses its ability to pump blood efficiently, leaving organs starved for oxygen.

On three occasions over the 13-year study, Nettleton’s group assessed the dietary intake of 14,153 adults, aged 45 to 64 years, who did not have heart failure in 1987 when the study began. About half the participants were women and a quarter were African-American,

Overall, 1,140 of the participants were hospitalized for heart failure during the study period, the researchers report in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

After accounting for factors that impact heart failure risk such as calorie intake, lifestyle, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and high blood, the researchers found lower heart failure risk associated with greater intake of whole grains, and higher risk associated with greater amounts of eggs and high fat dairy.

The associations held independently of intake of red meat, fruits and vegetables, fish, and nuts. In this study these foods showed no association with heart failure risk likely because there were too few heart failure cases to detect the heart benefits previously linked with eating fish, fruit and vegetables, and nuts, Nettleton said.

However, findings from the current study are consistent with current dietary recommendations to minimize saturated fat intake from meat and high fat dairy products, and eat at least three whole grains each day, Nettleton said.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28390490/

From: www.PositiveChristianity.org
Post Office Box 7993
The Woodlands, Texas 77380

“Have faith in God.” Mark 11:22

You have a magnetic power! Within each person is the magnetic power of
faith. We all know that when we place a magnet near certain objects, it
attracts those objects to itself. In thinking about this example, we
understand that it is where we place our faith that determines what we
draw into our lives.

You are meant to be happy. You are meant to be fulfilled. You are meant to
be successful. You are meant to be healthy. You are meant to feel secure.
This is God’s Will for you. If your life does not measure up to this
description, you may feel let down and disappointed. You might even feel a
bit angry. You might even believe that God has failed you.

As you examine your thoughts and attitudes, as well as your actions, you
may discover that you have been placing your faith in the things you do
not want. Perhaps you have had faith in accepting something less than good
as your lot in life. Examine every area of your life and see if you have
faith in something less than God’s complete goodness. If so, you will want
to start right now to place your faith in God’s goodness. That faith in
God’s goodness will act like a magnet to draw it into your life. Your
faith has a magnetic power to draw infinite good to you. And you decide
today to remember this so that you too can enjoy the abundant life that
Jesus Christ talked of.

Your faith is powerful and it will lift up your limited thought about
yourself and your life. It will lift you right up out of negative beliefs
that you have had. It establishes you firmly and soundly on spiritual
ground — the high ground of spiritual thinking. It enables you to take
the high view of yourself and of the conditions and circumstances in your
life. It enables you to look past appearances to rise above and beyond
them.

“Hence, we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper.” Hebrews 13:6

Daily, momently, you build an expectation of your good by looking to God
as your helper. Because God, who is love, has created you for good, you
can be sure that your good will be forthcoming as you expect it. The word
“expect” implies a high degree of certainty. You do indeed feel a
certainty concerning the good meant for you. The word “expect” also
involves the idea of making preparation. You want to prepare to accept and
use your God-given good. The word “expect” still further implies that you
are mentally envisioning the good you would claim.

The good you are expecting can be, and is, anything that is needful to
your happiness and well-being. Do you need good health, good
relationships, peace of mind, better working conditions, guidance, or
success and prosperity? Whatever good you are in need of, help God to get
it to you by allowing it to come through you. You do this by expecting
your good, preparing for your good, and envisioning your good from God.

Today, dare to rise up to new heights of spiritual living by knowing, in
faith, the very best for every aspect of your life.

God Bless You! Happy New Year!
Rev. Christopher Ian Chenoweth

Introduction

You probably don’t need scientists to tell you that your metabolism slows with age. But they’re studying it anyway — and coming up with exciting new research to help rev it up again. The average woman gains 1 1/2 pounds a year during her adult life — enough to pack on 40-plus pounds by her 50s, if she doesn’t combat the roller coaster of hormones, muscle loss, and stress that conspires to slow her fat-burning engine. But midlife weight gain isn’t inevitable: We’ve found an exercise and diet plan that will tackle these changes.

Prevention’s customizable metabolism-boosting workout will help you shed up to 8 pounds in just 4 weeks. Most important, you’ll build firm, lean muscle tissue — the key to a robust metabolism. But that’s just the beginning. To really make your metabolism soar, couple the workout with our High-Metabolism Diet, developed by Dan Benardot, PhD, RD, an associate professor of nutrition and kinesiology at Georgia State University, and Tammy Lakatos, RD, co-author of “Fire Up Your Metabolism.”

Eat enough

You need to cut calories to lose weight. But going too low delivers a double whammy to your metabolism. When you eat less than you need for basic biological function (about 1,200 calories for most women), your body throws the brakes on your metabolism. It also begins to break down precious, calorie-burning muscle tissue for energy, says Dan Benardot. “Eat just enough so you’re not hungry — a 150-calorie snack midmorning and midafternoon between three meals (about 430 calories each) will keep your metabolism humming.”

Rev up in the morning

Eating breakfast jump-starts metabolism and keeps energy high all day. It’s no accident that women who skip this meal are 4 1/2 times as likely to be obese. If nothing else, grab a yogurt. Or try oatmeal made with fat-free milk and topped with nuts for an essential protein boost.

Drink coffee or tea

Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant, so your daily java jolts can rev your metabolism 5 percent to 8 percent — about 98 to 174 calories a day. A cup of brewed tea can raise your metabolism by 12 percent, according to one Japanese study. Researchers believe the antioxidant catechins in tea provide the boost.

Fight fat with fiber

Research shows that some fiber can rev your fat burn by as much as 30 percent. Studies find that women who eat the most fiber gain the least weight over time. Aim for about 25 g a day — the amount in about three servings each of fruits and vegetables.

Buy the big bottle

German researchers found that drinking 6 cups of cold water a day (that’s 48 ounces) can raise resting metabolism by about 50 calories daily — enough to shed 5 pounds in a year. The increase may come from the work it takes to heat the water to body temperature.

Go organic

Canadian researchers report that dieters with the most organochlorines (pollutants from pesticides, which are stored in fat cells) experience a greater than normal dip in metabolism as they lose weight, perhaps because the toxins interfere with the energy-burning process. Other research hints that pesticides can trigger weight gain. Always choose organic when buying peaches, apples, bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, lettuce, imported grapes, and pears; non-organic versions tend to have the highest levels of pesticides.

Always include protein

Your body needs protein to maintain lean muscle. Add a serving, like 3 ounces of lean meat, 2 tablespoons of nuts, or 8 ounces of low-fat yogurt, to every meal and snack. Research shows protein can up postmeal calorie burn by as much as 35 percent.

Eat iron-rich foods

It’s essential for carrying the oxygen your muscles need to burn fat, says Tammy Lakatos, RD, co-creator of the diet. Until menopause, women lose iron each month through menstruation. Unless you restock your stores, you run the risk of low energy and a sagging metabolism. Shellfish, lean meats, beans, fortified cereals, and spinach are excellent sources.

Get more D

This vitamin is essential for preserving metabolism-revving muscle tissue. Unfortunately, researchers estimate that a measly 4 percent of Americans over age 50 take in enough through their diet. Get 90 percent of your recommended daily value (400 IU) in a 3.5-ounce serving of salmon. Other good sources: tuna, shrimp, tofu, fortified milk and cereal, and eggs.

Skip the second cocktail

When you have a drink, you burn less fat, and more slowly than usual, because the alcohol is used as fuel instead. Knocking back the equivalent of about two martinis can reduce your body’s fat-burning ability by up to 73 percent.

Drink milk

“There’s some evidence that calcium deficiency, which is common in many women, may slow metabolism,” says Lakatos. Research shows that consuming calcium through dairy foods such as fat-free milk and low-fat yogurt may also reduce fat absorption from other foods.

Source: Selene Yeager for Prevention magazine

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28301841/?pg=1#Health_PVN_EatToBurnFat

Even one extra hour lowers the risk for a precursor to cardiac disease

CHICAGO - Just one extra hour of sleep a day appears to lower the risk of developing calcium deposits in the arteries, a precursor to heart disease, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

The finding adds to a growing list of health consequences — including weight gain, diabetes, high blood pressure — linked to getting too little sleep.

“We found that people who on average slept longer were at reduced risk of developing new coronary artery calcifications over five years,” said Diane Lauderdale of the University of Chicago Medical Center, whose study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

“It was surprisingly strong,” Lauderdale said in a telephone interview.

Calcium deposits in the coronary arteries are considered a precursor of future heart disease. “It’s a very early marker of future risk,” she said.

Unlike other studies looking at the risks of getting too little sleep, which use people’s own estimates of their sleep patterns, Lauderdale’s team set out to measure actual sleep patterns.

They fitted 495 people aged 35 to 47 with sophisticated wrist bands that tracked subtle body movements. Information from these recorders was fed into a computer program that was able to detect actual sleep patterns.

The team used special computed tomography, or CT, scans to assess the buildup of calcium inside heart arteries, performing one scan at the start of the study and one five years later.

After accounting for other differences such as age, gender, race, education, smoking and risk for sleep apnea, the team found sleep duration appeared to play a significant role in the development of coronary artery calcification.

About 12 percent of the people in the study developed artery calcification during the five-year study period. Among those who had slept less than five hours a night, 27 percent had developed artery calcification.

That dropped to 11 percent among those who slept five to seven hours, and to 6 percent among those who slept more than seven hours a night.

Lauderdale said it is not clear why this difference occurred in people who slept less, but they had some theories. Because blood pressure tends to fall off during sleep, it could be that people who slept longer had lower blood pressure over a 24-hour period.

Or, it could be related to reduced exposure to the stress hormone cortisol, which is decreased during sleep.

Or it may be some unidentified process.

“It’s something of a mystery,” Lauderdale said.

Kathy Parker, a sleep researcher from the University of Rochester’s School of Nursing in New York, said the study underscores the role sleep plays in health.

“People think that sleep doesn’t matter but clearly it does. Sleep deprivation is a public health problem and studies such as this show how increasing sleep duration can have tremendously positive effects,” Parker, who was not involved in the research, said in a statement.

Lauderdale said her findings should be confirmed by others, but said many studies point to the need for at least six hours of sleep a night.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28370142/

From: www.PositiveChristianity.org
Post Office Box 7993
The Woodlands, Texas 77380

TUESDAY PRAYER AND MEDITATION

“When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. And
when they had come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary His
mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their
treasures, they presented gifts to Him: Gold, frankincense and myrrh.”
Matthew 2:10, 11

Let us pray. . .

I ask you to take a deep breath. Let it out and take another.
Journey on a Christmas spiritual path with me and follow the star.
Somewhere within your soul, there is a star, a distant light that now
beckons to you. Uncertain of where it will lead you, you begin, in prayer,
a spiritual movement in faith. You have the will to walk an unknown way
toward a world of new experiences. Through barriers, through mountains,
through the busyness of your own life you trust God to show you a better
way.

Rest in the silence of prayer. . .

Light from the star appears through any darkness and dissolves it as mist
in a noonday sun. You follow the path and you let the star lead you to
greater heights. With wisdom, you now live one day at a time, in the
confidence that you are secure in God. You welcome new ways of living that
arise from the love of God. You draw close to the place where starlight
shines. You see yourself, your world, and your Christmas in a brand new
light.

Rest in the silence of prayer. . .

You came into this world of human beings with all of its experiences to
learn that you are a spiritual being walking a spiritual path, learning to
be human and yet more.

The world of experiences and events is sometimes difficult and trying. But
from deep within your human being, a note of joy sings from your spirit.
This note of joy is the song of God. It arises from the center of your
heart. The song of God brings to mind the Truth that God gave birth to
your being.

Rest in the silence of prayer. . .

As we follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, who was born in Bethlehem, we
have birth in a new way to our spirituality. God joyously created you and
has not left you deprived of purpose. The note of joy sings a song that
God has something good in mind. The babe born in Bethlehem was the birth
of your way-shower to a better life.

Although the path of life may have its rough places and you may, at times,
feel disappointed or discouraged, everything that has happened thus far
has been to carry you to your higher self.

Now you learn to step over obstacles by following the teachings of Jesus
Christ. The note of joy rings out a Truth. There is a good reason for
being here on Earth. You are a child of God, learning to be wonderfully
human. Your attitudes determine how you experience the world this holiday
season. The world becomes as you are.

Rest in the silence of prayer. . .

This moment, you are empowered by the living spirit of Christmas, to arise
in your own awareness of God and God’s help. You have a Divine
intervention in you. Those who need it, today, have flooding in them the
awareness, the magic, the wonder, and the awe of this holiday season.

I pray, that in this hour of God’s time, with a Spirit that bypasses time
or space that a note of joy will arise from you, and you will begin to
have a smile in your heart that will bring a smile to your face. I pray
that all of us here have a note of joy singing from our hearts, the spirit
of a living Christmas, a living Christmas in a living Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is born and Christmas is here. Amen.

God Bless You! Have a Merry Christmas!
Rev. Christopher Ian Chenoweth

By Judy Fortin
CNN Medical Correspondent
KENNESAW, Georgia (CNN) —

The sweet smell of sugar cookies baking filled the air in Kris Shock’s kitchen.

She pulled a tray from the oven and sat down with her 9-year-old son, Drew, to frost the treats.

Then, Shock did something that might have been unthinkable for her a few years ago. She took a bite of a cookie.

Shock, 36, of Kennesaw, Georgia, spent most of her adolescence and early adulthood struggling with bulimia and an addiction to diet pills.

Long holiday seasons were always the worst, Shock said, as she dealt with the stress of trying to create a picture-perfect Thanksgiving and Christmas for her family.

“I would be emotionally and physically exhausted come the New Year, and I would have no memories to show for it other than sheer anxiety,” Shock recalled. “I would be acting out at every moment, whether that was using diet pills, taking laxatives or restrictive behavior, whatever I used to cope at that moment.”

Now in recovery, Shock approaches the holidays and all that tempting food with a bit of trepidation. Watch more on coping with holiday eating challenges »

“I always keep in mind that relapse is potentially possible if I don’t do the right things,” Shock said. “For me, that is being honest with myself, knowing that tomorrow I may have to pick up the phone and call a nutritionist … or call my therapist.”

That’s just what some experts recommend, including Cynthia Bulik, director of the University of North Carolina Eating Disorders Program.

“For some people, the holiday season is filled with joyous occasions and wonderful food,” Bulik said. “For other people, it can actually be quite a nightmare … especially if you have eating disorders.”

Bulik is busy these days helping her patients figure out how to navigate all the stress-inducing holiday parties and family gatherings.

She tells people with eating disorders, “Keep your support team on speed dial.”

Bulik targeted her advice to people who suffer from anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder in which people develop an aversion to food, lose a lot of weight and are afraid of gaining weight.

“It can be incredibly overwhelming to be surrounded by so many different types of food,” Bulik noted. “We often suggest that people with anorexia go to a party with a wingman. … Take someone with you who is safe, to whom you can say, ‘This is really tough for me. I need to take a break.’ ”

She shared similar advice for those who suffer from bulimia, a condition in which people binge and purge.

“We tell people to never go to a party hungry. … That’s the worst thing to do. It’s really best to have a decent meal before you get there so you’re not tempted to binge when you’re at the party,” Bulik recommended.

One of Shock’s biggest challenges while recovering from bulimia was coping with probing family members.

“It was very anxiety-filled,” Shock recalled, “I had to eat dinner with all these people where, many times, there were unspoken things I wanted to say.”

Last Christmas, Shock tried a new strategy: eating dinner with her husband and children first and then attending a party. Shock called it a safer situation.

“I can take care of my physical body and then handle the process, the emotional anxiety that comes with typical social situations,” she said.

Bulik advises well-meaning family members to try to help people with eating disorders feel as comfortable as possible.

“There is no play book,” she said. “The best thing to do is not to push. … Don’t focus on their appearance, don’t focus on what they’re eating.”

Another complication may occur when someone with an eating disorder must step into the chef’s role and prepare dinner for a crowd.

Bulik advised, “If it is too tough to prepare that meal for 20 people that year, call in some help. Get takeout for a change. Do something that is easier for you. Don’t always feel like you have to be the perfect hostess, because that can be the first step toward relapse.”

Shock is taking the advice to heart. Remember the sugar cookies she was frosting with her son? Rather than stress out about making them from scratch, she bought the slice-and-bake version at the supermarket.

She figured she’d have more fun spending the extra time with her son.

“Take care of yourself,” she advised. “You will feel empowered.”

Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/12/01/Hm.eating.disorders.holidays/index.html