Here’s 4 things I don’t ever expect to get for Christmas, or my birthday … or EVER, quite frankly. 1. The answers to all my problems. And, that’s a really good thing, because truthfully, when we run out of meaningful problems to solve, we begin to create meaningless ones. 2. A dream body that I will never have to work on again. I’m a slow learner, so it took me a while to figure this out … There’s never a time coming where I can sit back and say “Well, I don’t ever have to exercise or eat nutritious food…

“I just hate how I’ve let myself go”, she said to me recently. It’s a crummy feeling, and it’s compounded by the fact that the road back isn’t going to be a short one. If you know me, I’d rather have my big toe pulled off with a pair of pliers than to endorse the latest diarrhea-inducing detox or braindead celebrity endorsement being dumped on gullible consumers So, instead, here’s exactly how I would tackle this: Maybe don’t splash your goals all over social media right off the hop … maybe start out, like a quiet assassin, when there’s no…

When it comes to healthy habits (e.g. being active and eating well) we know what we should do. DOING is the hard part We’ve all made bold resolutions in a surge of motivation.  But then, we don’t keep them.  Why not? What stops us from taking action, is the fuzzy monster in our mind.  Fuzzy, because we don’t see it clearly, and it looks a lot bigger than it is. When we build up this “fuzzy monster” it becomes easier to rationalize and justify poor decisions.  Essentially, we build it up to the point where we tell ourselves: “it’s just too hard” Sadly, when…

“Growth Hacking” … “Diet-Hacking” … “Bio-Hacking” … “Life-hacking” … “Hack-Hacking” Since the early 2000’s, the concept of “hacking” every aspect of our life has led to a whole industry from supplements, to books, touting increased productivity, wealth and everything in between. Buy this supplement, follow this guru, do this one trick What sounds like a good idea, rarely is, and I’ll explain why Hacking indicates seeking a shortcut … A way around the “work” – Let me give you a biological example.10 year old Jonny wants to “hack” his growth. So doctors start administering growth hormone, along with testosterone. Now…

When someone says to me: “I want to change, but I’m just lazy and unmotivated” … I tell them I don’t believe them. What I really mean is, I don’t believe that laziness and lack of motivation is the REAL reason, someone isn’t changing. Let’s be honest, NOT changing, means staying comfortable. Staying in familiar routine, and making conflict with others in our life less likely. Change is hard. It’s uncomfortable, and involves loss, and tradeoffs. There’s plenty of “good” reasons not to change. Of course, there’s lots of really good reasons TO change, such as: better health, more energy,…

“I’d like to ____, but I’m just not ready” We tell ourselves these stories to comfort ourselves when we know we’re acting against our best interests. This usually happens for one of two reasons: 1. You want a result, but, you think that, in order to achieve that result, 120% adherence (along with misery and deprivation) is required, and anything less than perfection is failure. Because you (rightly) know, that 120% adherence is impossible, you create a narrative in your head that “one day, when the magic ‘readiness’ strikes, I’ll definitely do that” … and that story soothes the discomfort…

Why are topics like Health At Every Size (HAES) and Fat Acceptance Movement (FAM) hot button right now? Because we’re struggling to find an appropriate middle ground dialogue that compassionately acknowledges the very serious health crisis that obesity presents, while respecting the dignity of those grappling with obesity. If it was as simple as “you should put the cheeseburger down, fatty” or “you wouldn’t be so fat if you didn’t eat so much” (things said to me personally) … I wouldn’t have spent nearly a decade battling my own inner demons around being obese. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case ……