Feeling guilty about all those holiday leftovers?

Then turn ‘em into a salad!

For lunch yesterday, Marcy took leftover turkey, cut it into bite-size pieces, tossed it in with some arugula, walnuts and blue cheese crumbles. She added a dollop of cranberry sauce and topped it with dressing, which we pretended were croutons. Save perhaps for the dressing-as-croutons, it was a healthier use of leftovers than, say, putting a couple slabs of turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, and gravy between two pieces of white bread and calling it a sandwich. It was also mighty tasty, and if you’re into point counting I’m guessing it had about a third the calories of a leftover sandwich.

So, what to read while eating your leftover salad? Well, in the January “O” — hey, it was right there on the dining room table and my latest “Manly Man’s World” was downstairs — is the first of a two-part piece by Paige Williams, an out-of-work magazine editor who is 80 pounds overweight, can’t sleep, has chronic headaches, had to move back in with her mother (in Mississippi!) and is, by her own estimation, a total mess. After hitting rock bottom (that would be the Mississippi/Mom, one-two KO punch), she enrolled in the 60-day Bikram yoga challenge. Her goal: To lose weight, yes, but beyond that to get her entire life — physical, spiritual, emotional, professional — back in order. January’s first installment is about how Williams got where she is and how her first 30 days of the Bikram challenge have gone. She’ll follow up in February with how she fared.

A good, honest read, especially for those of you facing a similar challenge as the new year approaches.