It’s officially the holiday season again – and with it, the endless parade of food and treats from now through year’s end that, historically for a majority of Americans, leads to 7 to 10 extra pounds by the time we’re singing Auld Lang Syne. So now’s a perfect time for some easy strategies to help beat the holiday bulge.

The problem is not in having high standards or in working hard. Perfectionism becomes a problem when it causes emotional wear and tear or when it keeps you from succeeding or from being happy. The emotional consequences of perfectionism include fear of making mistakes, stress from the pressure to perform, and self-consciousness from feeling both self-confidence and self-doubt. It can also include tension, frustration, disappointment, sadness, anger or fear of humiliation. These are common experiences for inwardly focused perfectionists.

Aging is something that most of us would like to deny. But really, it’s not growing old that kills us. Instead, it’s usually one of many “lifestyle” diseases such as certain types of cancers, Type II diabetes, heart disease and stroke. Unfortunately, most of the research dollars go to finding ways to fix these diseases (with pharmaceuticals and increasingly, unregulated nutraceuticals) instead of preventing them from occurring in the first place. So what happens to our bodies as we age, and what can we do to turn back the clock?