When Kristann Monaghan started her blog Fat Girl Running and put her posts together in the book "The Running Experiment (A weekly walk away from the sofa)," she chronicled how she felt as she pushed herself toward better health. One lament? Chronic memory problems: "I am super forgetful. Not about important things, but small things, yes. Like what to pick up at the store, to call someone back or answer an email."

Little did she know that she may have been experiencing what was revealed in a recent laboratory study published in the Journal of Neuroscience: Obesity triggers changes in memory-associated genes in the brain's hippocampus. And, say the researchers, this establishes the link between diet, obesity and cognitive decline.

So if you're overweight or obese, here's one more good reason to get walking (10,000 steps a day - and get a buddy and pedometer) or running toward better health: A sharper brain!

How to get started? The study reports that when the mice received a good dose of resveratrol, their cognition improved. Healthful dietary sources include one glass of red wine daily for women, two for men, and peanuts, pistachios, grapes, blueberries, cranberries and cocoa and dark chocolate (1 ounce a day of 70 percent cacao).

Include those foods in your five to nine servings daily of fruits and vegetables, and make sure you don't forget to kick added sugars and syrups, all trans fat, most sat fats and all processed foods off your plate. Don't let your commitment to beat obesity slip your mind!