Life is full of irony and “Plan B” detours.

If you can’t roll with the punches, you’re going to stress yourself into sickness.

At work and at home, find the funny and keep it light.

Here’s a quick way to make room in your (messy? cluttered? overstuffed?) closet.

• Throw out all your clothes that you can only wear on laundry day, home repair day, or when house painting. Yes, throw them out. No one else wants them either.

Now get a couple of garbage bags and put the following clothes in them. Then deliver them to the local Goodwill, Salvation Army, or charitable closet.

• Anything you haven’t worn for two years, especially if it still has the price tag.
• Anything too small for you that you’re saving for your teenager. Especially if she isn’t born yet. Really, your kids do not want to wear your old clothes.
• Anything too big for you from your fat days. Those days are over, baby!

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Need a little support for getting to your healthy weight and shape? Join Marilu.com’s 30-day online class. Get menus for each day, as well as tips for your own total health (and life) makeover. Download and print recipes, shopping lists, and more. Coaches are with you each day to answer questions and encourage you to be your best. Join now!

Photo by Chris Scott

Before you get in the shower, measure out your quarter of shampoo, and add a generous pinch of baking soda. It helps remove the dull residue left by summertime pollutants without stripping any color or using any harsh chemicals.

Wait 3-4 minutes after you get in the shower before shaving. Your hair will soften up and allow a closer shave – which equals a longer lasting shave – without nicking your skin. A good shave makes a good exfoliation, too – so you’re ready for your self-tanner after the shower.

Don’t just stand there for those 3-4 minutes. Lather up! You wouldn’t want to waste that water.

Just before you get out of the shower, use a pumice stone on your feet. When the skin is soft, it makes for an easier job.

There – don’t you feel beautiful?

Photo by Fleur Suijten

Hey you! Get excited about TODAY!

Fire up with some movement. Get that blood moving out of your feet and back to your brain. You’ll have more energy, more enthusiasm, and more excitement if you get up – yes, now – and Get.Fired.Up.

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You can see my brother Lorin and me at my “at-home” internet cafe, and watch the boys prepare dinner with my niece Lizzy. The interviewer is my assistant Sam.

Here’s a fabulous sandwich that’s easy to put together, easy to pack along on a picnic, and fits our vegan theme for the current online class!

Mary Beth’s Antipasto Sandwich
From Marilu Henner’s Healthy Kids
Blue * serves 6

1 large baguette or 1 loaf Italian bread
1 jar (4 oz) black olive or kalamata olive paste
2 small jars (16-24 oz) artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1 jar (8 oz) roasted red peppers or 2 red peppers, roasted and sliced in strips
1 bunch arugula or spinach, washed and spun dry

Slice the bread in half horizontally. Scoop out some of the bread from the top and bottom. Spread the top and the bottom with the black olive paste. Layer the chopped artichoke hearts, pepper strips, and arugula or spinach over the bottom. Replace the top, wrap tightly in foil, and refrigerate about 4 hours. Slice on the diagonal and serve.

Optional: Add a layer of sliced sundried tomatoes, or chopped marinated mushrooms.

To take on a picnic, leave the whole sandwich in the foil and bring a serrated knife and small cutting board.

Budget tip: To use up the bread you removed from the loaf, whiz it in the blender, and store in the freezer for fresh bread crumbs.

Copyright © 2009 Hennergy, Inc. All rights reserved.

Floss your teeth once or even twice every day.

Dental work costs a fortune! Root canals, and crowns, and implants – oh my! These procedures cost thousands of dollars each. Daily flossing will eventually save you thousands of dollars.

Or you could start your own trust fund for your teeth.

Photo by Maria Kaloudi

But not necessarily less food. (Well, maybe. We can’t see your plate from here.)

Try eating 6 small meals a day instead of 3 bigger ones. You don’t need too much food at one time, as long as you refuel a little more often. Eating every 2-3 hours means your energy will be more consistent, and you may be able to ditch the empty calorie snack foods by eating real food.

Hey! Class starts today!

There’s still time to sign up and learn a little about living and eating vegan – from two coaches who do it. Get great recipes, too!

As I’ve sa id so many times during these classes, we are all in a different place in our health journeys.

This class is not meant to “force” you into being vegan while you’re taking it. Nor does it mean that if you can’t eat vegan the whole time, you can’t take the class. Maybe you’ll just go vegan for a day (or for a week) during class. Or maybe you’ll only read what’s it been like for Jan and Kyra to live this way.

Let’s say you just want to eat a little lighter, healthier and “wetter” now that the weather is warmer. Or perhaps you’re trying to find a way to reduce your carbon footprint.

Whatever the case may be, I promise you, you will get great first-hand information as to what it’s like to live in a vegan world!

~ Marilu Henner

There are two freedoms –
the false, where a man is free to do what he likes;
and the true, where he is free to do what he ought.

~ Charles Kingsley

Which kind of freedom drives your actions in the world? In your personal life?