Got the Christmas Blues?

With the holiday season in full swing, many people find themselves battling a form of the "holiday blues." And for many women coping with obesity and depression, new research finds that improving your mood might be the link to losing weight–something that’s good to know during the holiday season, which is a time filled with fattening foods!

Psychiatrist Ronald M. Podell says that having the blues during the holidays is a well-known phenomenon. According to him, there are two different kinds of holiday blues. The first affects those who are alone. These individuals have no nearby relatives or are estranged from their families. They may be new to a community or their friends may lead extremely busy lives or are visiting relatives for the holiday. Internally, they feel isolated and abandoned. The holidays blues hits them hard as they feel singled out and terribly alone. They often wonder if they are unlikeable or emotionally disturbed.

The second form, Podell says, "comes from forced reunions with family during the holidays. Such ambivalent reunions often relive the same dysfunctional family relationships that have been operating for decades."

Being fat can make you depressed too: A new study cites past surveys that show that having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more (which is classified as obese) increases a person’s risk of depression by 50 to 150%. But there’s a cure: Researcher Gregory Simon says, "Increased physical activity leads to improvement in depression and improvement in depression leads to increased physical activity. We see in our study that they go together, but we can’t say which causes which."

If you’re fat and depressed, you desperately need to read Anne Strieber’s book, "What I Learned From the Fat Years." Using scientific principles, she discovered that exercise is vital to losing weight and keeping it off. Learn all about it–download this famous diet book today!