Carve your abs with a pumpkin

It's the halloween bank holiday weekend here in Ireland, which means there are pumpkins all over the place. Because it's a long weekend, it also means many of us will overindulge at some point over the next few days! As frequent readers will know, I'm all about balancing our bad habits and indulgences with good habits, so here's a trick or 2 to help limit the damage the treats will do to your waistline.

Before you carve the pumpkin, use it to carve your abs.

Many exercises that use a medicine ball or weight can just as easily be done using a pumpkin, though slams are probably best left out of this one, unless you love cleaning up squished squash! As usual,

How to increase your waistline

Diet Soft Drinks Not Healthy

"They may be free of calories but not of consequences"

Research presented at the recent scientific conference of the American Diabetes Association suggest we avoid diet soft drinks.

Waistlines of those who regularly consumed diet drinks increased by 70% more than those who didn't drink them. For frequent users (those who drank two or more diet soft drinks a day) the increase in average waist size was five times greater than for non-users.

Waist circumference is often used as a measure of visceral fat around the belly area, which is known to be a major risk factor for diabetes, cancer, heart disease and other chronic conditions.