By Dr. Gaby Cora

The holiday season brings wonderful feelings, great re-connections and overindulgence.

This is the time of the year where most adults start gaining stuffing pounds carrying them over - and not losing them all - to the following year. A combination of overeating and sedentarism may be the culprit for this cycle.

What to do?

1. You definitely want to enjoy yourself and your family during the holiday season but you don’t need to have that third plate for dinner or dessert. Look at the whole buffet before you pile up food on your plate and take your time while you eat.
2. Avoid drinking too much during the holiday season. Drinking daily while overeating will make you gain quite a bit of weight fast.
3. You’ll start exercising after the holidays? Keep up with physical activity. You have your inlaws, your kids, and extended family? Organize a walk in the afternoon or try some outside games even if the weather is cold. You need to compensate eating more than usual with physical activity.
4. Have a plan: If you have already carried over extra pounds from last year’s holidays and the previous holidays, you want to ensure you stop the negative cycle now.
5. ENJOY! Have a wonderful time with your family and friends.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

By Dr. Gaby Cora

In this survey carried at Rutgers, two thirds of the respondents who lost their job expressed feelings of depression. Most surveyed were laid off with no advance notice. Living on a paycheck, most borrowed money from family and friends. Most responders experienced increased relational problems with their partners and family members, had trouble sleeping or increased their alcohol or drug consumption.

What can you do if you lose your job?

1.    Get organized to bounce back as soon as possible: Most of those who were laid off did not have any retraining or company-sponsored smooth transition. Although you may expect this from your employer, this is ultimately your responsibility. Update your résumé, write a list of all your best skills, write down each and every work-related positive experience or “win” that you have had and, once prepared, start searching for other positions where you could incorporate transferable skills from your previous job into a new job opportunity. Even if you had years of experience in one industry, keep an open mind and search in other industries.

2.    Talk with your spouse: you are in this together: remember, together in good and bad times? Address your own concerns and acknowledge the fact that this is, indeed, a very stressful time for you and for your family: you cannot do this alone. Brainstorm about immediate ideas or possibilities about improving your situation and think of other possibilities that may be helpful in the long-term. Assess your financial situation. Make sure that you are not spending in some areas where you could cut down your expenses and look at additional ways in which you can increase your income.

3.    Talk to your kids: our kids have been brought up in greater affluence than we were raised. Tell them you are in a tough situation and discuss ways in which everyone can contribute to improve the challenges even with the little things. May be they can help by taking on additional chores, may be they can help with their brothers and sisters, may be they can help with each other’s homework and so on.

4.    Socialize with others: one of the biggest challenges is people tend to isolate from family, friends or other business colleagues out of feeling down, unsuccessful or just embarrassed. Acknowledge these feelings but avoid dwelling on them: whatever is lost is lost and the faster you can move on the more resilient you will become.

5.    Stay healthy: smoking, drinking, using drugs, eating junk food or avoiding exercise won’t help you in any way. Use my Managing Work in Life® with LOVE formula to increase your resilience as you move on into your next opportunities.

By Dr. Gaby Cora

Are you used to waiting until the ball is dropping in Times Square on December 31 to set your New Year’s resolutions? You’re not alone. Most people do that.

By Dr. Gaby Cora

Many still struggle keeping the holiday flame alive this season. Employers are asking the best of their employees while employees fear that they may lose their jobs unless they give it all.

How can we find some positive balance between working hard and keeping our sanity? How to handle increasing demands in the workplace and at home, staying in good shape and living up to the family’s expectations for gifts and favors?

By Dr. Gaby Cora

Business owners and corporate warriors struggle to keep their companies afloat. Many were already working sixteen hour days and it now seems like an endless working day. Most of us try our best to row the rough waters till the crisis subsides. Most executives and entrepreneurs who were already stretched are now finding strength within to produce at their maximum capacity. At the same time, their families are not immune to the stress. Even children know of their friends’ parents losing their job or struggling to keep their teenager in college. How can you handle your own business needs as well as your stress and your family’s?