Rebecca Swanner - Best You Ever: 365 Ways to be Richer, Happier, Thinner, Smarter, Younger, Sexier, and More Relaxed - Each and Every Day

MONDAY | BE RICHER

If you owe too much on American Express, and your Diner's Club notes are too hard, take a loan on your Visa, and pay it off with your MasterCard!

Nipsey Russell, Ode to Credit Cards, from Your Number's Up

If you're the type to whip out the plastic whenever you see something you like, try switching over to using only cash or checks for an entire year. When you make this change, you'll probably not only find it mentally harder to choose to purchase a nonnecessity item but also find that the amount your spending will feel more real. For online purchases and bills that you pay automatically each month, replace your credit card number with a debit card number so the money comes directly out of your checking.

But what are you going to do with your credit cards? Lend your cards to your spouse or put them in a safety deposit box or somewhere secure within your home. But if you're going out of town, make sure to take one credit card with you in case of emergency. In making this routine change to your daily life, your credit cards will be easily accessible in case of an emergency, but you can't reach for them whenever you see something you might want to buy, making it that much easier to stick to your budget and to put the leftover funds into savings.

BE HAPPIER | TUESDAY

Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.

Mark Twain

Practice Random Acts of Kindness

When you're kind to others, you become happier. It doesn't take much to be nice, and even giving a sweet smile to a stranger as you pass by or holding the door open for the next person can brighten someone's day. Committing these simple acts of kindness sets in motion a positive domino effect, as you've improved another's life in a small but not insignificant way, and that person is now more likely to reach out and do the same.

By acting selflessly and paying kindness forward, you'll engage in positive social contact, feel less isolated, and might even feel a rush of those feel-good chemicals, endorphins, known as a helper's high.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Pay for the coffee, toll, or other small purchase of the person in line behind you.

• Allow someone with only a few groceries to go in front of you.

• Share your umbrella with someone who is without one.

• Help an older person up the stairs.

• Walk your friend's dog if he or she is busy or ill.

• Tip well.

• Find a senior to connect with in your community.

• Send a friend an unexpected card to show you're thinking of her or him.

WEDNESDAY | BE THINNER

Our food should be our medicine and our medicine should be our food.

Hippocrates

Admit it, you want to look better naked. Your first step to reaching that personal goal is adapting the way you eat to fit a healthy lifestyle.

Some people like to call adapting the way you eat a diet. I don't. That's because this is the way you should be eating whether you're overweight, underweight, or a healthy weight. A diet is a fad, and it's not sustainable for the rest of your life. On a diet you'll likely still want to indulge in comfort foods that don't add fuel to your body but do add inches to your waistline. And as you work to cut out those foods, you'll probably be pretty miserable.