Dear Old Jonathan, I look at you now with so much love and compassion. And if, 3 years ago, someone had told you that I’d be using love, compassion, and Jonathan in the same sentence? You’d have laughed in their face. “Men don’t talk like that. Men don’t talk about feelings.” And you? You tried to bury your feelings in pizza, wings, chips, doughnuts … And I don’t blame you. You don’t need to feel guilty about that anymore. You didn’t know any better. You didn’t have the tools, the knowledge, the understanding. You were doing the best you could…

I want more moments like this 😍 THIS is why I want to be healthy.  This is not about a number on the scale, this is about quality of life. My weight will be something I always need to pay attention to.  Hitting a certain number on the scale didn’t mean I got a free pass for the rest of my life. My body didn’t just forget that I used to be obese … Sometimes it feels like it’s bound and determined to drag me back there. And if I didn’t have powerful reasons, like the beautiful woman in my life…

(It wasn’t from the container, I’m not a savage 😂) But, is it possible to eat Rolo Chocolate Ice Cream and lose or maintain weight? Yep. Does this mean I eat an entire container in one sitting? Not anymore. Too many people take an “all-or-nothing” approach to nutrition and weight loss. It’s not an either/or scenario. Yes, you can have your cake and eat it too. But, if you want to be able to eat ice cream and lose weight (& keep it off), you might want to employ a few metabolism-boosting tricks. What are these tricks I speak of?…

​​What do diets and romantic comedies have in common?They sell us on the “happily ever after”All we have to do is play a love song on our guitar in the pouring rain, and we’ll win the heart of our lover, and live happily ever after. Job done.Except, there is no “happily ever after”. I’m 13 years into the most loving and beautiful marriage, and there’s still no happily ever after.There’s not a day coming where I stop doing the little things.The 20-second hugs. The “I love you’s”. The little acts of kindness. The random kisses on the forehead.What would happen…

Almost every nutrition “documentary” does more harm than good. Trying to scare the 💩 out of you, and basically ruining any enjoyment you used to have around eating. By the time you’re done binge-watching Netflix nutrition documentaries, your hands are shaking as you slowly lift a lettuce leaf to your mouth wondering “Is this going to kill me too?” Do we have some problems around our health and nutrition? Oh heck yeah! Are we going to solve it with fear-mongering, pseudo-science peddling nutrition documentaries that leave you emotionally triggered? Nope. I mean, you could. You could try choking down 4 kale smoothies…

“You’re one decision away from a better life”I love that sentiment. But here’s what I think people hear:“One day, you’re going to ‘win the lottery’ and never worry again”A better life requires more than 1 lucky choice. It requires a series of consistently better choices, made one at a time.You only need to get your next choice right to start a winning streak.But you need to be prepared to make the better choice more often than not, if you want a better future.For example, I love it when people make the choice to work with me in my program Lifestyle-180.…

“Better just polish this off, then it won’t tempt me” “Better finish this off so it doesn’t go to waste” I used to say this all the time … I even had a phrase “If it’s going to waste, might as well be MY waist” Yeah, guess how well that worked out for me. But, I know … the pain of wasting food is REAL. But, hang on a sec here … what’s the definition of waste? “In EXCESS of what is NEEDED” … This is what I mean when I talk about treating your body like a trash compactor.…

Oof, there’s a loaded question if there ever was one. On the one hand, you have people arguing that “fat people just need to stop eating so much” (anybody who says that is an idiot). On the other hand, you have people who will argue that “people can’t help it, so we have to just accept it as the new normal”. It comes from a place of well-meaning “compassion”, yet the message is laden with a sense of helpless victimhood. And like any argument, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. What we know from a factual standpoint is that…

A Negative Outlook will never give you a Positive life. A lot of people think that in the future, somewhere, is a life free from problems, struggles and challenges. And I think this is precisely where a lot of negativity comes from: Resenting that life is hard, and that we’re faced with challenges daily. I think that some of this also comes from the fact that social media shows a highlight reel because, let’s be honest, moping about how life sucks isn’t going to garner a lot of likes. One exercise I practice a lot is re-framing. I don’t buy into…

Have you ever eaten an entire extra-large double cheese stuffed crust pizza, alone, in your car, in a parking lot? I have. How about an entire double chocolate bundt cake, alone, in your basement, while binge-watching episodes on Netflix? Yep. 76 wings in one sitting? Uh-huh.  Got the t-shirt, buffalo sauce stains and all. Why?  Why was I doing this? If you’ve ever struggled with some type of disordered eating, you’ve probably asked the same question. And part of what makes it so frustrating, is knowing that you’re doing something that you “shouldn’t“, yet seemingly not being able to stop…