I talk a lot of talk about eating right, exercising and not going overboard, but I do not walk the walk. When champagne's present, I drink it. I always try the festive finger foods being passed at a party. All of them. When there're a ton of parties to hop, I hop to. But I can't seem to hop to the gym in the morning. I've been looking into doing a post-holiday fast of some sort to clear my system and undo most of what the holidays do to me, but I started to think what it might be like if I didn't let the holidays get to my waist line in the first place. This way of life is a killer on my health, and isn't going to be cured by a few fixer-uppers. In need of a new way of thinking, I went to Denise Mari, the founder of Organic Avenue, to pick up some tips on detoxing after the fun and festivities are over. One time. Maybe, eh, five days of my life on a week I'm not planning to do much. But Mari's personal lifestyle choices, tips and ways of taking care of her body, pre-overeating, happened to be really inspiring. "The holidays aren't all about the food," she says, "Turn social situations into what they really are, and take the emphasis off unhealthy eating." More solid battle of the bulge/hangover advice to follow.

I just got back from a wedding. In Florida. A normal wedding would not have been as detrimental to my waistline, except this one was a combined vacation, right? It's a wedding and it's vacation, and when on a vacation wedding, you're allowed to eat and drink as much as you want. But it's okay because I'm going to start a healthy fast this week. Yup. No eating meat or dairy or anything Gwyneth Paltrow deigns to ingest. So basically, I'll eat nothing solid for the rest of the week, and I'll be back on track for the holiday season. Oh, I forgot. Thanksgiving is this week. And before that I have drinks with a friend in town for the holidays, and then I am having a pre-Thanksgiving feast with people who will be out of town for the actual feast. Then there's the actual feast. I'm not the type of girl who skips special occasion eating, and I am not the kind of girl who'll down pro-biotic liquid chalk while everyone else has stuffing. So balance, I need balance. I need smart restaurant reservations amid all of the customary gorging. Here are some healthy alternatives to even out your This Is Why You're Fat holiday binge-a-thon.

What are the thin people really eating? The British Journal of Nutrition just published a study this month saying that the trimmest people, those who weighed the lightest, flaunted the slimmest waists, and were proud owners of the smallest hip circumference, had the highest levels of omega 3 fatty acids in their blood. After investigating the commonality, I found that these people were in fact not freebasing flaxseed oil. They were, however, loading up on foods that were rich in omega 3s -- grass-fed beef, flaxseed, soy, salmon, etc. No one knows for sure what omega 3s do for the diet exactly ... they may stimulate hormones that make you feel full, and they have been shown to improve circulation, which can also aid in weight loss and reducing inflammation. Whatever the case, you can get slim while you dine in New York this weekend; head to a few of these "healthy" joints to load up on the good stuff.

Every so often, government-backed associations get on the horn about some health campaign -- which surprisingly turns out to be quite effective. This morning a gaggle of gym locker gossip-mongers were chatting up the benefits of folic acid, which I would ordinarily brush off as another one of their faddish tales, except for the fact that my mother asked me about my folic acid intake just a few days before. I knew somebody had to be lapping up some news report, and indeed they were. Apparently the Scottish Spina Bifida Association reported a rise in the number of infants born with the birth defects; the rate doubled in the last year. They advise "all women of child-bearing age to take extra folic acid." A similar US campaign was initiated in 1998, after which the number of cases declined 31%. The UK Press maintains that long-term use of folic acid prevents the condition, which often leads to paralysis from the waist down and other damage to the infant's nervous system. At this point, thinking about children isn't a huge motivator. Keeping up with vitamins that supposedly, invisibly help my body function can be tough. Luckily, folic acid, as well as a slew of other vitamins, often have a visible effect on what you see in the mirror every day.

The actress and musician paints her wild streaks on us.