Don’t fret if you’re not awake and ready to head to the gym at the crack of dawn. Just try to exercise within an hour of waking, says Collier. “The longer an individual takes to exercise in the morning, the more the results will resemble our 1 p.m. time,” which showed little sleep improvement.

FACT: University of Michigan researchers have found that antibacterial (also referred to as antimicrobial) soaps are no better at germ removal or disease prevention than ordinary soap and water. Further research at Columbia University showed that people who use antibacterial soaps are no healthier than those who don’t.

But that’s not all. The active ingredient in antibacterial soaps (a synthetic chemical called triclosan) may actually be harmful to your health. Triclosan may disrupt normal endocrine (hormonal) function — “particularly thyroid and sex hormones,” says Rebecca Sutton, PhD, staff scientist at the Environmental Working Group, a Washington, D.C.–based organization that works to protect public health and the environment. Overuse of triclosan has also been implicated in the rise of “superbugs,” or antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Superbugs are uniquely dangerous, confirms Sutton, because “they don’t just resist triclosan, but a broad array of antibiotics.”

Sutton advises people to avoid triclosan whenever possible. “We can’t always control what soaps are provided in public places, so some exposure is inevitable,” she says. But always opt for plain soap and water at home: You’ll kill the germs without the unhealthy consequences.

The “I Want It” Factor

To get on solid financial footing, we have to learn to deny our impulse for instant gratification. “It is human nature to want it and want it now; it is also a sign of immaturity,” Ramsey writes. “Our culture teaches us to live for the now. ‘I want it!’ we scream, and we can get it if we are willing to go into debt. Debt is a means to obtain the ‘I want its’ before we can afford them.”

That’s  why one of Ramsey’s priorities is teaching us to protect ourselves from the natural temptations we feel to squander our resources on short-term highs. By resisting the urge to buy unnecessary stuff or give in to time-sucking distractions, we can begin to conserve more of our resources for the things that really matter to us. We can begin applying those resources more deliberately toward the things that give us real satisfaction.

Delayed gratification is still gratification, only better, Ramsey reminds us — and it never accrues interest!

A Snowball’s Pace

The key to getting out of debt is pacing. If our good intentions cause us to do too much too soon, Ramsey explains, we get overwhelmed and give up.

Ramsey’s momentum- building, feel-good strategy for getting out of debt relies on what he calls “The Debt Snowball.” This involves paying off credit-card balances not in descending order of their interest rates (as many experts recommend), but, rather, from smallest balance to biggest. As you eliminate small balances, you experience an encouraging sense of success, and then, as you begin applying the combined payments from those paid-off cards to subsequent, larger balances, you create a “snowball” effect, making increasingly big payments to one card at a time (while making minimum payments to the others), until finally you’re debt free. Check out the book for the technical details of Ramsey’s approach.

Get a Plastectomy

First things first: If you’re going to get rid of debt, you have to stop accruing more.

“You must draw a line in the sand and say, ‘I will never borrow again,’” recommends Ramsey. “As soon as you make that statement, there will be a test. Trust me. Your transmission will go out. Your kid will need braces. At this point, it is time for a plastectomy — plastic surgery to cut up your credit cards. I’m often asked, ‘Should I cut my cards up now or when I pay them off?’ Cut them up now. You need a permanent change in your view of debt.”

Ditch Approval-Seeking

“When we think of millionaires, we think of big houses, new cars, and really nice clothes,” Ramsey writes. “[But in his book The Millionaire Next Door,] Dr. Tom Stanley found that most millionaires don’t have those things. He found the typical millionaire lives in a middle-class home, drives a two-year-old or older paid-for car, and buys jeans at the discount store. In short, Stanley found that the typical millionaire derived infinitely more motivation from the goal of financial security than from what friends and family thought. The need for approval and respect from others based on what they owned was virtually nonexistent.”

Trying to impress people is a good way to create poverty, not wealth. Start trying to impress yourself with financial savvy instead.

Growth in Stages

Getting out of debt is the first step in the Total Money Makeover; learning to invest your resources is the next one. As with the “debt snowball,” start small and be patient, Ramsey says.

“Systematic, consistent investing is the tortoise that beats the hare in the race,” he writes. “As performance coach Timothy Gallwey likes to say, when we plant a rose seed in the earth, we may notice that it is small, but we do not criticize it as ‘rootless and stemless.’ We give it the water and nourishment required of a seed. At each stage of its development, the rose is perfectly all right as it is.”

It helps to think of your Total Money Makeover and fledgling investments in much the same way, says Ramsey. “Push with intensity to help them bloom, but know that as long as you take the progressive steps, you are winning.”

The Power of Generosity

Plenty of people believe that money and greed are synonymous, but money is just a tool. We have infinite choices about how to use it. If we’re centered in unselfish values, more money just allows us to be more generous. As Ramsey says, “Money gives power to good intentions.”

He writes: “‘No one would remember the good Samaritan if he’d only had good intentions; he had to have money as well,’ said a former British prime minister. The good Samaritan had a good heart and a heavy enough purse to pay an innkeeper to help take care of the injured man. Money was at its best that day. That’s why I’m unashamedly in favor of building wealth.”

Keep in mind that most icons of selfless service had a lot of wealth at their disposal. Mother Teresa had the Catholic Church supporting her mission. A wealthy industrialist who supported Gandhi said, “It costs me a fortune to keep Gandhi poor.”

“At its best,” writes Brent Kessel in his great book, It’s Not About the Money, “investing is about being an active, contributing member of the human race. It is about providing our capital to other human beings so that they can live more productive lives.”

Let It Be Simple

Getting right with your financial life takes focus and dedication, notes Ramsey, but it’s not rocket science: “Living right is not complicated. It may be difficult, but it is not complicated. Living right financially is the same way.”

Building a better relationship with your financial resources can be simple. The challenge, of course, is to go from knowing what to do to actually doing it. I strongly suggest you check out the action plans in Ramsey’s book so you can get your financial game on for the long haul.

Here you go again, fighting with your partner about the housework, or money, or weekend plans. Or maybe you’re fighting about what counts as “on time,” or “clean,” or “honest.” Whatever it is, it’s nothing new. In fact, it seems like you’ve been having this same old fight forever. And this argument’s stubborn recurrence is particularly stressful because it usually involves core values or beliefs that are important to you — about what’s right, what’s fair, and what partnership is all about. A fight like this can feel like an endless loop and that your relationship is spinning its wheels. How to escape this seeming dead-end? Therapist and author Linda Carroll has some answers.

Barriers to Overcome

• The past. “Most repeated fights are not about what the participants think they’re fighting about,” says Carroll. “There’s often a lot of history in the fight.” A current partner’s actions may evoke memories of bullying, disappointment or other past pains.
• Hot-button issues. The “baggage” and sensitivities we bring to repeated fights may include core values and questions like “Who’s in charge of my life? What do I need to feel good? and, Am I valued and accepted for who I am?” says Carroll.
• The attraction flip-flop. Characteristics that attracted us to our partners in the beginning may become sources of friction later on. “We may fall in love with someone because of his or her open-heartedness and generosity,” Carroll says. “But later, when the ‘love drugs’ (the chemicals that flood our system when we fall in love) wear off, these qualities may seem impractical, annoying, even dangerous, and we’ll fight about that.”
• The “loop.” When a male partner does something a female partner finds objectionable, she may interpret it as him withdrawing from the relationship, says Carroll, and that can trigger a “fight” response from her in the form of a curt remark. That remark may be interpreted by her partner as criticism, triggering a “flight” instinct that causes him to withdraw further. This triggers the woman’s anger, and the loop builds up steam.

Strategies for Success

• Accept what you can’t change. No matter how hard you try, says Carroll, nothing you do is going to alter your partner’s behavior. Your partner has to decide whether or not to adjust — and typically that choice comes out of empathetic understanding, not pressure.
• Look inward. “In the middle of an oft-repeated fight,” Carroll says, “I’m mostly aware of what the other person is doing. But since I can’t change that person, I need to look at myself. I need to ask myself, ‘Why am I reacting like this? What are my choices, now?’ This helps provide an exit from the ‘loop.’”
• Let go of your need to be right. “When I know I’m right and you’re wrong,” says Carroll, “I know I’m in trouble!” Our self-righteousness may feel justified, but it will usually fuel even greater conflict and distance.
• Let the storm pass. While arguing, most of us are “flooded” — bombarded by neurochemicals that make it hard for us to relate constructively. Once you get to this reactive stage, you may have to “agree to disagree” until you are both calm enough to relate in a way that allows for resolution. If there’s an ongoing issue you can’t make progress on even when you’re both feeling calm, consider seeking the help of a skilled counselor. For more relationship resources or to find a therapist, visit www.pairs.com.

Research suggests that without a thoughtful maintenance plan, the vast majority of “big losers” find themselves back where they started in relatively short order. They revert to old habits, get derailed by stress or life changes, or lose weight too rapidly, disrupting their metabolism and making their losses nearly impossible to maintain. A 2010 Penn State College of Medicine study, for example, found that nearly 83 percent of people regain most, if not all, of it within a year. Other studies have shown that as many as 95 percent of people who lost 10 percent or more of their body weight regain a significant amount of weight in five years.

There are plenty of success stories, however. Sue Thompson, MS, a clinical psychologist and motivational speaker in Wilmington, Del., lost 85 pounds and has kept almost all of it off since 2007. “It took me two years to lose the weight,” she recalls, “then I gained 20 back and had to work like crazy to lose 10 of that.”

It helps to remember that hitting your goal weight isn’t the finish line, Thompson explains. You don’t stop the healthy habits once you see that magic number on the scale. That would be like someone quitting smoking, then celebrating by buying a pack of cigarettes. “To succeed, you gather your strategies and make them so much a part of your life that eventually you don’t even think about them,” she says.

You’re ahead of the game if you lost weight slowly and in a healthy manner, explains Julie Starkel, MS, MBA, RD, a functional-medicine nutritionist and registered dietitian at Green Lake Nutrition in Seattle.

Ideally, you should lose no more than 5 percent of your body weight in three months, Starkel says. Why? Your body has a “set point,” the weight at which all your organs and body systems (including your metabolism) function at their best.

The set point serves an evolutionary purpose: It’s the body’s way of monitoring your fat stores for survival. Trouble is, the set point doesn’t distinguish between dieting and starvation. Don’t worry: It will adjust slowly as you lose weight. “But if you lose weight too rapidly, your set point can’t keep up,” she says, “so you’ll have to work harder to maintain the weight loss while your body adjusts.”

Sometimes it can take a full year for your body’s set point to catch up to your weight loss, Starkel adds. “So if you dropped weight fast, you’ll have to be much more diligent than someone who lost weight slowly.”

Either way, “you can up your odds of long-term success by taking care of yourself and paying attention to a few key factors,” explains Jean Fain, LICSW, MSW, author of The Self-Compassion Diet (Sounds True, 2010). Here are five ways to make your weight-loss success a lasting one.

Quick and Easy

• Peel/Grate: Toss grated or long peels of carrots with Greek yogurt, a little fresh grated gingerroot, and cayenne for a simple, tasty salad. Add a handful to cooked brown rice, salads or even soups for quicker cooking.
• Purée: To make a dip for veggies, or a spread for sandwiches or crostini, purée roasted carrots (shred or chop fine for faster cooking) with tahini, ginger and tamari.
• Glaze: Sauté carrots in olive oil; add enough chicken or vegetable stock to cover. Season with garlic and thyme, then simmer uncovered on the stovetop until glazed and tender.
• Steam: When you want simple cooked carrots, steam instead of boil and drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil or butter.
• Juice: For a vibrant-tasting juice, run two large carrots through a juicer with two stalks of celery, one tart apple and a 1-inch chunk of fresh gingerroot.
• Roast: Place carrots in a baking dish greased with coconut oil, ghee or extra-virgin olive oil. Add whole cumin seeds, salt and cayenne pepper and roast at 400 degrees F until browned and tender.

Nutrition Know-How

• A new study has shown that, as a group, yellow and orange fruits and vegetables — particularly carrots — are more effective than produce of other colors at reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease.
• Certain phytonutrients in carrots have been found to inhibit the growth of colon cancer cells. Beta-carotene, which gets its name from the carrot, is a pro-vitamin-A compound. Vitamin A helps your body fight viruses.
• Beta-carotene, which also supports the reproductive system and protects cells from free radicals, becomes more bioavailable when carrots are lightly steamed.

Kitchen Tricks

• If your carrots are slender and organic, there’s no need to peel them. More mature carrots — and those exposed to hot temperatures, sunlight or damage — can taste bitter; thinly peel off the outer layer to reveal the sweeter flesh.
•  The “baby carrots” sold at grocery stores are often mature carrots that have been peeled, whittled, packaged and shipped long distances. For fresher, tastier carrots, peel and cut your own carrot sticks and store in a little water in the refrigerator.
•  When cooking, select the color of carrots based on use. Orange, yellow and white carrots tend to hold their color when cooked with other foods. More deeply colored carrots — which get their red and purple hues from anthocyanins — tend to turn soups and stews brown.

Shopping and Storage Tips

•  Look for firm, smooth carrots without cracks.
•  You can tell carrots are freshly picked when their bright greenery is attached. But over time the greenery robs carrots of moisture and vitamins, so remove them as soon as you bring them home.
•  Store unwashed carrots in a sealed bag or container in the refrigerator to prevent moisture loss. They will usually keep for a few weeks. Slightly older carrots are still fine for soups.

Recipes!

Shredded Carrot and Currant Salad

The Middle Eastern–inspired flavors of orange flower water and cinnamon pair well with raw carrots in this quick-and-easy salad.

Serves four

• 4 cups carrots, peeled, shredded with a grater and packed
• ¼ cup dried currants
• ½ tsp. orange flower water (available at a Middle Eastern or gourmet market, as well as online)
• 2 oranges, juiced and zested
• ½ tsp. ground cinnamon
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

Toss the grated carrots with the currants in a medium salad bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together the orange flower water (omit if it’s not readily available), orange juice and zest, cinnamon, salt, pepper, and extra-virgin olive oil. Toss dressing with the currants and carrots. Store salad in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Keeps well for two to three days.

Curried Carrot Soup

This vibrant and velvety soup is great hot or chilled. Try it with a dollop of Greek yogurt or sour cream on top.