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" Q. Football season just started. Do you have any suggestions for healthy snacks that I can munch on during the game?   A. Yes! Turkey chili is a great light option. Use lean ground turkey breast (at least 90 percent lean), or try some of my personal recipes: Uncle Onion&amp;#039;s Turkey Chili in my Your Inner Skinny book, or Buffalo Chicken Chili in my Slim &amp;amp;amp; Scrumptious cookbook. And of course, you can also eat as many raw veggies with salsa as you like. My cookbook, Slim &amp;amp;amp; Scrumptious, has a few delicious slimming dips (red pepper dip, caramelized onion dip, hummus and guacamole). Also, you can try my low-calorie Spinach Artichoke Dip. Here&amp;#039;s the recipe:   Joy&amp;#039;s Spinach Artichoke Dip   Serves 6   Ingredients:   10-oz package frozen chopped spinach 3/4 cup reduced-fat mayonnaise 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese 1 (14-oz) can artichoke hearts, drained and finely chopped 2 scallions, finely chopped 1/2 tsp salt Plenty of baby carrots, celery sticks, and red, yellow and green bell pepper strips for dipping   Directions:   1. Heat oven to 350\u00B0F.   2. Microwave frozen spinach according to package directions. Drain all water and set aside.   3. In a medium bowl, mix together mayonnaise and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. Stir in the artichoke hearts, scallions, salt and cooked spinach. Mix thoroughly.   4. Spoon into a small casserole dish and bake for approximately 25 minutes, or until hot. Serve with raw vegetables.   Per serving: 116 calories, 6 grams protein, 12 grams carbohydrates, 6 grams fat, 2 grams saturated fat, 5 mg cholesterol, 580 mg sodium, 4 grams fiber   Q. It was easy to stick to a diet when the weather was warm and I was running around in tank tops. But now that the temps are dropping, I find myself craving lots of comfort food. What can I do to make the transition?    A. It&amp;#039;s totally normal to feel this way. In fact, your body naturally craves more food: When you eat food, it has a thermogenic effect on your body. So in the cold months, you want to eat more to heat up. But this doesn&amp;#039;t mean you have to succumb to eating unhealthy foods in the winter. There are easy ways to combat it. You&amp;#039;ve already completed the first step: acknowledging the fact that you&amp;#039;ll crave different things so that you can start preparing. Here are some ideas: Instead of eating salad at the beginning of dinner, start with a healthy vegetable soup. That will warm you up yet still give you filling foods packed with fiber. Also, try roasting vegetables for a heartier, fall taste that will remind you that not all cold-weather food has to be fattening. If the need for comfort food is still strong, try my healthier versions here. You won&amp;#039;t even notice the difference between my recipes and the real stuff!   Q. I know I&amp;#039;m making progress overall, but my weight keeps fluctuating and it&amp;#039;s hard not to get frustrated when I step on the scale each day. Help!   A. First of all, stop weighing yourself every day if it&amp;#039;s making you nuts. Do it once a week or every three days rather than every day, because it&amp;#039;s easy to drive yourself crazy. Your weight fluctuates for a number of reasons. Hormones can affect how much you weigh (sometimes up to 5 pounds&amp;#039; worth!), as can certain digestive factors like having irregular bowel movements or eating hidden salts that you don&amp;#039;t even realize you&amp;#039;re ingesting. Bottom line: If you&amp;#039;re sticking to the plan with healthy eating and regular exercise, you will see results! Just ease off the daily scale usage to stay sane.   Q. I feel like I&amp;#039;m missing out on social events because of my weight-loss plan. Recently my family got together for a pizza party and I ended up going home alone. What should I have done?   A. I&amp;#039;m so sorry that you missed out! I always tell people that you have to learn how to lose weight in your life, meaning that you shouldn&amp;#039;t be missing out on social interactions because of your diet. Next time, see if you can distract yourself in another room (maybe playing with younger relatives or watching TV) until the eating part of the event is over and you can rejoin the group. Or, if you don&amp;#039;t mind being a little different, bring along your own lighter pizza (like a frozen Lean Cuisine pizza), which you can enjoy at the same time. Another option\u2014assuming you don&amp;#039;t think that it will set you off on a binge\u2014is to have just one piece of &amp;quot;real&amp;quot; pizza. If you leave the crust (you&amp;#039;ll save about 100 calories&amp;#039; worth of dough) and cut back on something else that day (maybe only have veggies instead of your usual afternoon snack), then it shouldn&amp;#039;t derail your dieting efforts at all.   Q. Water doesn&amp;#039;t quench my thirst after a workout. What can I do?    A. Well, technically, it&amp;#039;s quenching your thirst, but it seems that you just don&amp;#039;t like it. Try brewing a fruity herbal tea, then putting it into the refrigerator to chill during your workout. A glass of this will give you a refreshing kick post-exercise. Another option is to try flavored seltzer or non-bubbly water that is all-naturally sweetened. To spruce up plain water, squeeze some slices of fresh fruit like oranges or limes into it, then drop the pieces in for a healthy kick. Just be sure to steer clear of beverages like regular Vitamin Water, which can contain around 125 calories per bottle and just over 30 grams of sugar! In other words, you could undo the calories you just burned in your workout with just one bottle.   Q. I&amp;#039;ve been losing weight and I&amp;#039;m glad that others are starting to notice, but I hate when they ask me exactly how much\u2014sometimes I&amp;#039;m uncomfortable sharing the number. What should I say?   A. Just say &amp;quot;Enough\u2014and I&amp;#039;m feeling really good.&amp;quot; If they press you, you can tell them, &amp;quot;Sorry, but I&amp;#039;m trying not to get too caught up in the numbers right now.&amp;quot; Yes, it&amp;#039;s important to weigh in weekly so you can keep tabs on it for yourself, but the exact amount really isn&amp;#039;t anyone else&amp;#039;s business. Also, remember that the scale only tells part of the story. If you&amp;#039;re getting frustrated because that number isn&amp;#039;t budging for a few weeks, you may want to try checking your measurements (especially the size of your waist, since shedding inches around the belly slashes your risk of diseases like diabetes and heart disease).   Got a question for Joy? Send it to joy@womansday.com "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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