This month brings Rosh Hashanah on the 9th and Yom Kippur on the 18th. Check out these recipes and tips for healthier holiday eating (when you’re not fasting, of course):

Our partners at EatingWell suggest this Sweet & Savory Beef Stew to put a little sweetness into your New Year the natural way: with butternut squash and dried cherries. Then, break your Yom Kippur fast with this easy, make-ahead Smoked Trout Salad; it’s low in fat with an extra antioxidant kick.

Sharon’s Heart-Smart Challah loses the egg yolk for less saturated fat. (Jerry’s Jewish Webpage) Or try this Vegan Challah with no egg at all. (Jewish Food Mailing List)

Cooking Light offers a few lightened Jewish desserts, including a Honey Cake, a Cinnamon-Apple Cake, and a Harvest-Festival Fruit Strudel for Sukkot.

Deliciously update traditional favorites with this Apple & Date Mousse and Beet Casserole. (VegCooking) This variation on Carrot Tzimmes uses heart-healthy oil, orange juice and fresh parsley. (MedicineNet) And skip the fried leek patties for these Easy Braised Leeks. (DoItYourself.com)

Healthy Kosher Eating with Chana pairs this light and citrusy Olive Oil Cake with figs and honey. For Sukkot, try her Red Lentil Soup with Buttermilk Cornbread. Finally, you can resolve to have a more nutritious 5771 with her seven strategies for eating healthier.

Like your familiar family recipes? You can still give them a little tweak with these four tips for healthier Jewish cooking and eating. (eHow)

Chag Sameach and an easy fast!

Eggs infected with Salmonella dominated the week’s health news. Here’s some of what’s being said, plus a few other stories you might have missed:

As the egg recall continues to expand, some argue for free-range eggs. (Huffington Post) Some don’t. (CNN) Some blame the food-industry giants. (Berkeleyside) And some consumers are turning to farmers markets. (MSNBC)

Meanwhile, even the FDA isn’t sure that they can keep our food supply safe. (LA Times)

Two groups of dieters: one lost 11 pounds each; the other, 15.5. What made the difference is easy and free. (HealthDay)

New figures on childhood obesity show that it’s worse for some groups than for others. (SFGate)

What are your doctor’s religious beliefs? It may change their advice when it matters most. (ScienceDaily)

I just returned from vacation last week. And although it is already a distant memory, I enjoy finding creative and fun ways to stay active during vacation. By working exercise into my family’s vacation plans, I don’t end up feeling like a slob by the end of the week, and I don’t have to take time away from them to go to a gym on my week off.

Here are my ways to stay active and still have fun on vacation:

1. Rent bikes for a day, or better yet, for a week. Ride as many places as you safely can, even if they’re 5-10 minute rides. They add up! Or find a trail and go exploring. Just don’t forget to wear a helmet!

2. Take a walk. There’s no better way to learn about a new city or explore a new area. Hiking is great in a mountainous area, and long walks on the beach are always enjoyable. I walk every day on my vacation…even if it’s in 10-15 minute segments.

3. Go kayaking! It’s so much fun, and if you’re near a body of water, it’s usually easy to find a place that rents kayaks. Kids love it, and it’s a great upper body workout.

4. Surf! My husband surfs, so many of our vacations are built around beaches with good waves. Most places with waves have local surf shops that offer lessons for beginners. Surfing is relatively easy to pick up (but hard to master!). If surfing intimidates you, grab a boogie board. It’s less intimidating, very easy to do, and still a lot of fun. Paddling out to get beyond the break is great exercise.

5. Play! My kids are very active, and on most of our vacations, we end up playing baseball, basketball, volleyball, tennis, soccer or even tag. You’ll be surprised at how fast the time goes … and at the soreness you feel the next day in muscles you didn’t realize you had.

Regardless of how you do it, take an hour or so to be active on vacation. Get out and move. I promise you, you’ll be glad you did.

No, not pregnant; just reading this week’s health news:

Is Cherry Garcia really “all-natural”? A truth-in-labeling controversy hits Ben & Jerry’s. (Center for Science in the Public Interest) But one diet guru argues that they’re still more natural than other ice creams. (Huffington Post)

What makes the better breakfast: a doughnut or none at all? (SparkPeople)

Want homemade pickles? Curious for DIY kimchi? Then enter to win the “Ultimate Fermentation Kit” for you or the foodie you love. (Nourished Kitchen)

See what arthritis in moose is teaching researchers about arthritis in humans. (New York Times)

Martial arts are popularly thought of as inflicting pain. But one martial art has been found to relieve some chronic pain. (Health.com)

As the health risks of sports-related concussions gain more attention, new research sees if they may be related to Lou Gehrig’s disease (CNN) and if Wii Fit can help prevent them. (Washington Post)

On a related note, if some video games are touted as providing real exercise, how do we know if they’re effective? (Wired)

Last week, I decided I needed to take a trip. Not a virtual trip, à la Destination: You, but an actual trip. I wanted to go to Denmark. But since it’s over 4,000 miles away (or 8 million steps) and the ticket was $1,500, I decided to do the next best thing, and I went to Solvang.

Solvang is a small Danish town in California, and it is where I grew up. The town is modeled after a Danish village, and that is reflected in the architecture, restaurants, and shops. The best part about it is the smorgasbord of delicious food. I knew I was going to eat a lot, so I needed to get in a lot of steps.

Every morning, I took a five-mile walk (10,000 steps) in and around town before the shops opened. Then, for breakfast, I walked to Arne’s for aebleskivers (1,000 steps each way). Cruising around town, looking at beer steins, wooden clogs, and Little Mermaid statues, got me another 4,000 steps each day; walking to dinner raked in a couple of thousand more. Combining sightseeing, shopping, and yummy food with walking was an easy and fun way to get my steps in for the day while on vacation.

Check out these other fun, themed cities to get your steps in while close to home:

• Paris, Texas – Walk over to the Eiffel Tower replica. This one has a giant cowboy hat on top.
• New Glarus, Wisconsin – Take a long stroll to check out the chalets in this countryside hamlet, affectionately called ‘Little Switzerland.’
• Mt. Angel, Oregon – Be sure to have your tracker on when you are chasing your pup in the weiner dog races during Oktoberfest in this German heritage town.
• Orange City, Iowa – Tiptoe through the tulips, and walk from windmill to windmill in this Dutch-inspired town.
• Lindsborg, Kansas – Forget IKEA (although you could get a lot of steps in there) and check out the handmade Swedish furniture while you get your steps in.

Happy walking!

A few health and weight-loss stories that caught our eye (and ear) this week:

What can you gain from skipping meat just one day a week? Find out from the Meatless Mondays website, or listen to this audio interview with founder Sid Lerner, the man behind the famous “Squeeze the Charmin” ad campaign with Mr. Whipple. (NPR) You can also try these meat-free weight-loss tips from Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong Foundation.

On a related note, GEICO employees lost 11 pounds each, on average, with one dietary change. No word yet on how their gecko stays so trim. (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine)

Linda Fondren is the latest CNN Hero. Read her inspiring story of how her sister’s death led her to tackle obesity in the nation’s fattest state.

A Discovery Channel doc shares tips for how to go beyond the typical office visit, get more from your doctor, and be a better patient. (Huffington Post)

Hey guys, need another reason to lose weight? If you want to have kids, that may be reason enough. (Reuters Health)

From our environmental health desk: how Prozac turns shrimp into lemmings … and how shrimp get Prozac in the first place. (NPR)

And finally, local columnist Michael Smerconish calls out the Mayor to bring bike sharing to Philadelphia. (Philly.com)

My wife, the girls, and the dog left on Saturday for a combination sleep-away-camp drop-off and visiting friends in New England.  So I’m home alone for the week.  Well actually it’s Frisky the cat, Bob the parakeet, Jasmine the goldfish, and me living the bachelor life through Saturday.  I may be a fairly pathetic bachelor, but my plan was to take advantage of the extra free time to get some extra work done and workout every night at my leisure.

As a little background, having dinner with and reading to my girls at night are my favorite things to do, but combined, they take a couple of hours.  By the time we’re done, it’s usually 9 pm, which is just too late for me to go to the gym.  The only way I can consistently find time to exercise is to get up at 5 am and run on the treadmill.  If I don’t schedule it and get it out of the way early, it just never seems to happen.  So this week, with the newfound free time, I planned to sleep a little later and get a good 90 minutes at the gym every night.  Well, “the best laid plans” and all that… Let’s review how I have done so far:

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This week’s health news raises lots of questions about what we eat (and what we know about what we eat):

Apparently, not all sugars are created equal after all. Find out which kind of sugar feeds the growth of cancer cells. (Reuters)

You may have seen commercials for new added-fiber foods that ‘taste great.’ What you didn’t see is what happens to some people after they eat that “stealth fiber.” (SparkPeople)

One recent food recall has raised some questions about the 80,000 chemicals on the U.S. market today … and how little we know about them. (Washington Post)

More, more more! Americans are eating more whole-grain bread than ever. We’re drinking more beer. (Time) And our kids are taking more prescription drugs. (Employee Benefit News)

See how sitcom star-turned-game show host Drew Carey lost 80 pounds and ended his need for diabetes meds. (People)

This story about the declining health of our nation’s clergy has important lessons about work-life balance for us all. (New York Times)

Finally, we’ve seen many stories speculating about the fitness claims of toning shoes. But this one actually put toning shoes to the test! (American Council on Exercise)

Danica McKellar (from TV’s The Wonder Years) convinced the Today Show audience this week that math is sexy. Since I love numbers and I heart math, this made my day, and I already feel sexier. So in the spirit of her character, Winnie Cooper, use these figures to do a little math of your own:

2,000 = the approximate number of steps in a mile
2,500 = the number of steps taken by an average sedentary office worker each day
10,000 = the much-publicized number of steps you should take daily to maintain or lose weight
5 = the number of miles you have to walk to get 10,000 steps

Now let’s break it down a little differently, so you can see how achievable walking for better health really is:

100 = the approximate number of steps the average person takes in a minute
10 = the number of minutes for the average smoke break
1,000 = the number of steps you could get if you took a walk break while others are smoking
3,000 = the approximate number of steps required to meet the Surgeon General’s recommendation of 30 minutes of daily moderate activity

How many steps have you taken today? Add ‘em up – you will get sexier by the minute!

It’s back-to-school time, and some students will soon learn all about the ‘Freshman 15.’ That’s the number of pounds many gain during their first year of college. And since extra weight from new habits can happen after graduation too, GO’s Back-to-School issue shares 6 ways to drop 15 pounds at any age.

GlobalFit’s healthy living newsletter, GO also features tips on getting to class – Pilates class, that is. It’s helped celebrities like Kate Winslet and Tina Turner get toned and helped athletes like NBA All-Star Jason Kidd and soccer star David Beckham improve their game.

Other A+ highlights from this issue of GO include:

• A Registered Dietician’s take on the Raw Food movement
• An easy Raw Tomato Sauce recipe for a quick, nutritious and cooling meal
• 6 vision-saving steps to keep your eyes healthy
• Safety tips for outdoor activity during these ‘dog days’ of summer

Get learnin’ on these and other subjects by visiting www.globalfit.com/GOnewsletter.