I’m generally considered a very happy, positive person focused on the best things in life. (That’s why I love coaching so much!) But sometimes I feel like a curmudgeon. Yes, a curmudgeon. A grumpy, bad-tempered person who doesn’t want to be nice. And here’s why …

There’s a lot, no, a plethora of absolute and total junk floating around out there in the media and the world at large about nutrition. More junk than help, in fact. And much of what’s out there either caters to the idea of moderation (which only very rarely is “moderate” at all in our culture where highly processed foods are seen as the norm and folks like me who eat actual nourishment for our meals are the weird ones) and often tells you it’s fine to eat stuff I wouldn’t feed my worst enemy, or, even worse, the articles are geared to make you feel less bad for eating unhealthy foods but touted as featuring “facts on healthy eating.”

For the record, I for one don’t believe anyone should EVER feel bad for eating bad food (more…)

As a reader of this blog, you probably already know what a huge fan of Dr. Joel Fuhrman I am. His nutritional advice for health and weight loss is better than any other on the planet, bar none, and it quite literally turned me from a very sick and weak person into the Lean Green Mama I am today. :) If you’re a fan yourself, you may be interested in finding that the folks at Whole Foods are as well …

“When Joel Fuhrman Speaks, the VIPs at Whole Foods Listen”

In case you don’t know Dr. Fuhrman yet, my favorites of his are:

Eat to Live: This is his basic program for healthy weight loss, with over 1,500 studies to back up his nutritional recommendations.

Eat for Health (2-book set): Here he outlines his ANDI and MANDI food scoring scales, which let you see how well you’re really eating and taking care of your health.

Disease-Proof Your Child: This is a really helpful reference for raising healthy children, complete with kid-friendly recipes.

Now, I’m the first to note that there’s more to healthy weight loss than knowing what to eat, but getting the nutritional side of things right certainly is a huge part of it, and Dr. F’s nutritional guidelines changed my life and the life of everyone in my family — and they’re what I recommend to the women I coach too because eating this way impacts your health and weight so powerfully. I’m thrilled that big influencers in the corporate world are finally beginning to see the incredible promise of nutrient-dense eating from Dr. Fuhrman; it’s the best way to care for your body and get thin and fabulous to boot!

Just a quick thought that will help you follow through on your resolution of healthy weight loss:

If you haven’t written your goals for 2010 down, run — don’t walk! — to write them down on a piece of paper right away. Just the mere act of writing alone helps you give your brain the clear message that you mean business, and it will help you follow through. (Write by hand, not via computer. A pain, I know, and yet handwriting just works much better for this purpose …)

And make sure you choose things that make you feel excited and emotional. Saying “I’m going to work out more in 2010″ isn’t exciting. But “I’m going to have a lean, toned body by June 2010″ focuses on the end result you want that you know you’ll enjoy. Plus, note that I set a deadline as well, which makes it easier to map out your plans to actually reach your goal of a healthy, fit body. It’s not that you won’t also need to work out and lose weight — rather, stating the goal in this way gives your brain something emotional to latch onto to fuel your motivation!

If you deal with a powerful emotional eating habit, you’re not alone. For many years I did as well, and I work with plenty of women who come to me for help with their own emotional eating battles.

This may seem harder to manage than other aspects of weight loss quickly, creating a healthier lifestyle and getting yourself on track to have a happier, more balanced life full of health. Certainly emotional eating sometimes makes incorporating diet and exercise into your life more challenging — in part because so many of us grew up in families where food was an expression of love or where the most accepted way of expressing our feelings was by eating. (more…)

Hi folks!

Just a quick note to let you know I’m back and will be blogging regularly again after a great holiday break spent enjoying having my husband home for a blissfully long and well-deserved few weeks off.

I don’t know about you, but my 2009 was challenging. We moved into a new house (our first), which was fraught with miscellaneous construction and heating problems right from the start. A couple days before 2009 began, I fell down a flight of stairs in my new basement and spent a couple weeks recovering (but had literally zero lasting damage from it, thankfully). My husband traveled almost constantly for over 3/4 of the year. My son had a severe allergic reaction that required us to change our already healthy lifestyle to be even more careful to accommodate his food allergies. And yet, after all that, the last couple months of 2009 were almost — dare I say it? — relaxed, unchaotic and full of good things. (more…)

I’m the last person to suggest that the holidays are a good time to consider a big lifestyle change like completely plunging into the healthy eating lifestyle I recommend. There’s just too much going on, not enough time to implement, long lines at stores, holiday shopping and events to schedule, you name it. But just because you aren’t quite ready to start a more powerful weight loss program right now, I wanted to share 4 simple healthy eating guidelines to tide you over till the holiday fanfare is over! (more…)

When it comes to healthy eating facts, there’s lots of information out there that can be really confusing. And more importantly, a lot of it is sadly just plain wrong. Here I’m sharing 3 key ideas about healthy eating and healthy weight loss that you may not know — and that can help you finally start to get the results you’ve always wanted!

1. It isn’t necessarily dangerous to follow a low-calorie diet. (more…)

Oops! It’s been super hectic around here, and I completely forgot to share this pic of me (thanks for the reminder, S!) in my Halloween get-up (I was Wonder Woman in 1st grade too!) along with my little bumblebee, who wouldn’t let us change the clothes underneath to be a wee bit less obtrusive. Considering we weren’t sure he’d even wear the costume, though, I consider the night a triumph. :)

You may not associate healthy eating with eating cookies, and yet guess what? Here you go! And I assure you these little treats are not only healthy, but also very, very delicious.

Texture-wise, they’re a lot more like “regular” (i.e., non-healthy) cookies than any I’ve come across before — a real bonus! You’ll also notice that there’s no added salt, nor any leavening whatsoever; I didn’t realize it was possible to make a cookie without leavening myself, but I’ve made these enough times now to be convinced. :) (more…)

When you’re working on changing your lifestyle, you often end up peeling away behaviors and things one by one that you used to use as rewards for yourself. (I’m not suggesting I believe that junk food is a healthy reward, but it’s something you might have thought of as a “treat” or “indulgence” and it may also have been the only “good” thing you did for yourself on any sort of consistent basis.)

So let me ask you this: What are you doing for yourself now when you accomplish something, get through a tough week, etc.? (more…)