ttention Gelson's shoppers! It's time for your six-month check in. It's June now, and you're half a year out from your January resolution to be healthier. How are you doing? Have any of your new healthy habits taken hold? What have you thrown by the wayside?

As you may recall, my January resolution for you was just to be healthy because when you make the healthiest choices, you are more likely to be healthy and achieve a healthy weight. I have some ideas about six easy to incorporate habits that can improve your health and possibly lead to weight loss. June is a great month for making changes because there's none of the New Year's resolution pressure to associate with your goals. It's never too late to improve your health, so make these healthy habits a part of your life today.

Skipping meals messes up your metabolism and prevents weight loss. It also reduces productivity, energy levels and mental clarity. Many people skip breakfast despite my warning against it. They probably think they're cutting calories by skipping the most important meal of the day. News Flash: when you skip breakfast you more than make up for the calories you cut by eating more calories later on in the day. Breakfast skippers weigh an average of eight pounds more than people who eat a whole grain cereal for breakfast. A cup of Kashi Go Lean Crunch! cereal with a half cup of nonfat milk is all you need and it only has 180 calories. Since a healthy weight is an important part of being healthy, I implore you to take ten minutes each morning to eat a bowl of whole-grain cereal within an hour of waking up to help jump-start your metabolism and achieve a healthier weight.

The value of shared meals is easily underestimated in our time-pressed culture of convenience and instant gratification. Sharing meals helps build healthful bonds that are important for social support, personal connections, as well as physical and mental well-being. A recent study found that people who are lonely have systolic blood pressure (the first number) that is 10-30 points higher than people who feel they have a social network and do not feel lonely. Sharing meals with family and friends is relaxing (hopefully) which can help you digest your food better. It also discourages overeating, probably because when you eat alone, you are more likely to occupy yourself with reading or watching television, habits that almost always leads to mindless munching. Children and adolescents also benefit enormously from family meals. Family meals promote a healthy weight as well as a higher intake of fruit, vegetables, whole grains and calcium-rich foods and a lower intake of sodas and fried foods. Children who share meals with their families have better language and literacy development and teens are less likely to engage in risky behaviors than kids who eat on their own. Eating a home-prepared meal is more healthful, but eating a family meal away from home still has social, educational, and dietary benefits.

Did you know that the health of your teeth and gums can be a predictor of your overall health? Gum disease is strongly associated with atherosclerosis, the build-up of plaque in the arteries that can lead to heart attacks and strokes. Gum infections are usually chronic and unless the bacteria that causes gum disease is eliminated or controlled, chronic inflammation throughout the body can result. Avoiding chronic inflammation is probably the best way to prevent the chronic diseases that are associated with it: heart disease, diabetes and Alzheimer's. To prevent gum disease, see your dentist at least once a year, brush at least twice a day, floss daily, eat plenty of crunchy foods, especially fruit and vegetables, and keep soft foods to a minimum. By the way, a Japanese study has found that people who brush their teeth after each meal tend to stay slimmer over time than people who brush less often. This is probably partly due to the end of the meal effect, where brushing your teeth is an unconscious signal that a meal or eating period is over and partly due to that fact that people who brush after meals are more-health conscious in general.

Water-not soda-makes up 60% of your body weight. It carries nutrients through your body, helps regulate body temperature, prevent dehydration, and keep energy levels and mental clarity at optimum levels. Perhaps most interesting to you is that water can actually help promote weight loss! It can help you burn calories faster, break down fatty tissue in the body, and carry out the waste created by fat loss. If you are retaining water, drinking enough water will help reverse bloat and bring you back into fluid balance by diluting the salt concentration of your blood. You may actually eat less when you are well hydrated since water helps your stomach feel fuller. If you're not drinking water, what are you drinking? Soft drinks are the enemy of healthy bones and taught tummies. A Harvard study has found that drinking just one sugar-sweetened soft drink a day increases womens' (and probably mens') risk of diabetes by 83%. Don't even think that diet sodas made with processed artificial sweeteners are a better alternative! Diet soda consumption is correlated with poor blood sugar control in people with diabetes as well as overweight in children. I can respect that you may need the boost that caffeine provides and I recommend a cup of green tea or a cup of brewed coffee in the morning for that purpose.

I know you're not sleeping as much as you should be and that's not a healthy habit. Sleeping is just as important as eating well and exercising because that is the time that your body uses to repair itself and renew its resources. Sleep deprivation can cause overweight, possibly by increasing your hunger hormones or by increasing the number of waking hours in which you can eat. Experts haven't quite figured out the cause for the low sleep-high weight connection yet, but they do know there is a link. Aside from weight gain, lack of sleep can also contribute to accidents, poor concentration, inefficiency, mood disorders and weakened immunity. Most people need at least six hours a night, but some people need up to nine. If you're having trouble falling asleep, staying asleep or feel like you haven't slept when you wake up in the morning, you may have something besides lack of sleep going on and you should talk to your doctor. Getting enough sleep may be as simple as turning off the TV earlier (though experts do not advise that you watch TV or read in bed) or eating a lighter dinner (fatty and spicy foods can interfere with some people's sleep). If you're not sleeping enough, take a look at your sleep hygiene and figure out what is keeping you from catching all the Z's you need.

How boring of me. I know, I say this every month, but your produce requirements are still the same. If you're not eating vegetables with lunch and dinner, then you're not meeting your requirements. Vegetables and fruit are low in calories and high in vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and fiber, which all work together to control weight, blood sugar, blood pressure, cholesterol and inflammation. In a word, they're healthy, and they meet your goal of eating healthfully. Even if you're just concerned with your weight, produce is your best friend because no other food provides similar nutrients in such a low-calorie package. Most people need seven to 13 half-cup servings of produce a day.

If you've already met all these health goals, then you probably stopped reading this a long time ago. I believe that we all have room for improvements and there are always healthy habits to add to your list. Exercise is one of them, but that may have to come a little later, when you've adopted these healthful habits and have given some thought to what you really want to do for activity (I'm pretty sure that after giving it some thought, you won't say you want to go to the gym). That is a discussion for next month, though. In the meantime, work towards these six habits and add a few of your own to the list. Remember to adopt these habits slowly if you want them to stick and I'll check in with you next month.