I have been doing a Fourth Friday Round Up but featured a wonderful story last week to round out the month. Because of that I offer you today the First Friday Round Up, stories from around the web that I believe are a good complement to the natural healing stories I have featured on Friday over the past month:

• To lose weight without drugs and other crash diets, check out suggestions from health and fitness coach and columnist Kimberly Garrison here, here and here.
• Make sure you take a vacation and when you do make sure you don’t feel awful afterwards because you’ve blown your diet. Read here what Max Goldberg suggests about preparing to eat while on vacation. Though his focus is on eating organic while on vacation, I believe his tips are helpful to all of us who are conscious about what we eat.
• Though vacations with children often feel more like work, you can ease your anxiety with tips from Natural News found here.