Print edition: 
Like the treasures of the Sierra Madre, happiness sometimes seems more myth than reality. But we want to help you to pursue the real thing. You deserve true happiness and much of your emotional and physical health depends on it. Positive emotions cancel out stress-related risks such as heart disease and cancer, and make you younger.
So how do you get happy? Follow these seven steps:
1. Talk nice to yourself. Trade put-downs (What an idiot I am!) for encouraging words (Nice going!).
2. Connect. Really talk with people you care about. Get physical, too. Hugs stimulate oxytocin, the “cuddle hormone,” spreading a feel-good boost.
3. Keep a daily gratitude journal. Writing down what you are thankful for makes you healthier and more optimistic.
4. Don’t sit around. Being active at least 30 minutes a day boosts happiness.
5. Meditate. It eases stress, strengthens immunity, ups happiness — big time.
6. Understand unhappiness. When it happens (it will), learn from it. It’s a chance for you to make positive changes.
7. Go for gentle and generous. The real secret to being happy may be realizing that true peace is about slowing down enough to recognize the gifts you have, gifts you can be passing along to others.
The payoff? Huge. You’ll be better able to cope with stress or pain and to fight off colds, flu, heart disease, even cancer. And a big plus: You’ll be happier!
Five surprising ways to avoid type 2 diabetes
Put that doughnut down! There are sweeter choices for the 79 million adult Americans with prediabetes, a condition that makes blood sugar levels too high to be healthy, but not high enough to qualify for full-blown diabetes.
Walking 30 minutes a day, five days a week (we’d prefer seven), and losing 5 to 10 percent of your body weight can slash your risk of sliding into type 2 diabetes by 58 percent. But if you have trouble sticking to that tried-and-true approach, here are some clever ways to dodge the diabetes bullet.
• Put red to bed: Bye, bye beef. One palm-size daily serving ups your diabetes risk 19 percent. Gobble down a hot dog, a sausage patty or two bacon strips daily, and your risk soars 51 percent.
• Write what you bite: If you keep a diary of what you eat each day, it can double your weight loss, and that is a big part of the prevention plan.
• Be a busy bawdy: Sex eases stress and increases self-esteem, and that helps you make healthier food and activity choices.
• Visit Corfu: A Mediterranean diet (veggies, fruits, nuts, olive oil, seafood, not much dairy or meat) slashes your risk of type 2 by 83 percent.
• Go with joe: Coffee. That’s right, three cups a day decreases your risk of type 2.
Embrace the sunny foods of the Mediterranean and the pleasures of coffee, sex and keeping a diary, and you can enjoy staying healthy. Every step away from type 2 is a step toward the life you deserve: healthy, happy and long.
Stand tall for better health
If you stride across a room like a young John Travolta in “Saturday Night Fever,” your good posture will keep the muscles in your abdomen, back and pelvis (your core) strong and flexible, a big boost to staying injury-free when dancing like Travolta, jogging, golfing or biking. Need extra work on your core? Yoga will make you stronger and keep your joints younger.
But if you’re as wilted-looking as Napoleon Dynamite, you’re setting yourself up for weak muscles, arthritis, back pain, fatigue, headaches and even a potbelly.
Luckily, you can keep your body young if you trade in your slouch ’n’ pouch for the virtues of vertical. Here’s how we do it:
1. Hold your head up straight; don’t jut out your chin; back it up a bit.
2. Keep your shoulder blades back.
3. Stretch the top of your head toward the ceiling. Tuck your stomach in.
4. Keep your knees straight when standing. Seated? No twisting, leg crossing or foot swinging. Plant your feet on the floor, knees bent at a right angle and even or slightly higher than your hips.
5. Standing: Put your hands on your hips. Don’t sling your hip bones or pelvis forward or backward. Seated: No need for a board down your back. Let your lower back curve naturally but don’t collapse on one hip.
Good posture gives you confidence and makes a great first impression. Both give you an edge, personally and professionally.
Is your diet giving you a pain in the head?
Janet Jackson, Marcia Cross and Hugh Jackman all suffer from crushing brain pain. Clearly, a throbbing tension headache (they account for 90 percent of all headaches) or pulsating migraine can stop anyone in his or her tracks.
How to end the mind-numbing assault? There are over-the-counter and prescription meds that relieve and sometimes prevent the pain. But to be pain-free, you may need to try stress reduction (meditate), physical activity (walk 30 minutes every day), more sex (yes, it can relieve headaches, so don’t use a headache as an excuse to avoid something that may ease it) and altering what you put in your mouth. We suggest:
• Eat more foods rich in magnesium and riboflavin. Riboflavin, or B-2, is in low/no-fat dairy, eggs, nuts and green vegetables; magnesium is in green veggies, whole grains, nuts and potatoes. Or supplement with 400 mg of riboflavin a day and at least 100 mg of magnesium.
• Make sure you are not vitamin D deficient. It’s linked to headaches. You want at least 1,000 IU of vitamin D-3 a day; 1,200 IU after age 60.
• Identify food triggers. It’s mostly word of mouth that everything from red wine to chocolate can launch a headache, but if you suspect certain foods trigger yours, keep a daily diary, tracking what you eat and when your head hurts. It may reveal problem foods. Then eliminate them from your diet. You may have fewer headaches.
You just might show those celebs a thing or two about living smart.
