What percentage would you guess that your diet contributes to your health? 

What about exercise? 

What about diet and exercise combined?

Maybe 50%, 75% or even 90%? 

Get ready for the jaw dropping answer. 

It's a whopping 10%. That's right, ONLY 10% of your health is affected by DIET AND EXERCISE combined. Now don't get me wrong, 10% isn't nothing, but it's certainly not the 90% that we're lead to believe through countless ads, social media, news articles, magazines, and more. The largest contributor to our health is called social determinants of health. I write in detail about what these are in my book. 70% of these factors are largely out of our control (think genetics and environment) and the remaining 30% is broken up into 10% for diet and exercise and 20% for lifestyle factors like how much you sleep and if you smoke or drink. 

Let these numbers really sink in. Diet and exercise contribute 10% to your overall health. Maybe just knowing...

I was on my hands and knees scrubbing furiously, but the stain wouldn’t budge. Spilling things is an everyday occurrence at our house, but this stain had extra currency since we just had our hardwood floors refinished. I’m talking hour 3 upon arriving home and it looked like a huge blueberry juice stain on our brand new floors. All six kids lined up Sound of Music Style denying their hand in the crime. 

I got out my favorite heavy hitters, Barkeeper’s Friend and the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. I was not going to lose this battle. As I continued scrubbing, I realized that I was peeling back the new layers of (clearly not enough) floor sealant. Uh oh.

Those layers coming off the newly minted floor reminded me of how many layers of diet culture I had to peel back in order to feel at peace around food and my body. Getting back to the original me was a practice of scrubbing the deck clean. If you've tried all the diet, health and wellness things and know...

At long last, pre-orders for my book, Raising Anti-Diet Kids:A Parents Actionable Guide To Ditch Diets and Cultivate Bidy Respect it’s here!!!

While my goal isn’t to make it to the top of The New York Times Bestseller’s list, I do want to be a bestseller for our Mind Body Mondays crew and hope you’ll buy the book. 

Writing this story for you took three years, and was written on airplanes, in the car, late nights at my desk, on the sidelines, in pick up lines and early mornings when the house was (somewhat) quiet. It’s truly the handbook I wish I had starting out as a parent, or better yet, before becoming a parent. I wish my parents had this book when I was struggling as a teenager. I’ve poured my heart and soul into this book, revealed things even my friends don’t know and covered every possible scenario I could think of regarding food and body for parents and kids. 

The front and back cover art was drawn by my oldest girls and if...

The smell of movie theater popcorn lingered in the air as I snapped a picture of my girls and their friends dressed in pink. They posed inside the life size cardboard Barbie box adorned with balloons. The theater lobby was dotted with pink patrons in eager anticipation of the new Barbie movie. I was anxious to see if Greta Gerwig could portray a new Barbie that would encourage all women to break out of their plastic mold. 

Let’s see…. (very small spoilers ahead) 

Great cast with some diversity. Check. 

Awareness of patriarchy and the unequal and unfair treatment of women. Check. 

Acknowledgement that women are held to impossible standards. Check  

Ryan Gosling with some LOL moments. Check. 

You singing along with the cast to The Indigo Girls. Check.

Margot Robbie rejects Ken and the happily ever after. Check. 

You laughing and crying. Check. 

You wondering if you still have roller blades in your basement. Check. 

The...

Once a month I host a mom’s get together before school pick up. It falls just before lunch so I put out a spread. Not the kind that would make my Italian Nana proud, but it does the job. Fresh berries, granola, a crisp veggie tray, cheese and fancy crackers and a few sweets. The food mostly goes untouched and our family happily enjoys the extras. My kids can’t understand why the good food goes to waste.

This Spring, I asked one of my friends if she wanted anything to eat and she said, “oh no, I’m intermittent fasting”. 

I simultaneously understood her position and felt sad because diet culture, one and my friend, zero. 

I promptly replied, “No judgement, but I don’t agree with that concept”. I try to keep any commentary light which will be hard this fall when I want to open my book and ask her to read chapter one which is all about diet culture and why diets don’t work for the vast majority of people. 

“But...

I sat in the hot sticky sun next to a mom trying to cajole her squirmy toddler into a swim lesson. Her little swimmer was having none of it despite everyone watching the lessons wanting to jump in the cool water to beat the heat. She happened to be eating a ceasar salad and her daughter asked for a bite.

“You can have a bite, but you’re not gonna like it” replied her mom. 

I overheard another parent on the pool deck telling their child that they weren’t full and should try eating a few more bites.

I hate to admit it, but I used to say all these things and more.  

Friends of mine asked me why I wrote my book this weekend, and one of the many reasons I answered was to help parents like the ones I overheard at the pool. While their comments seem innocent, they’re actually undermining their child’s ability to trust their body and make choices around how much and what kind of foods they eat. It’s so important to give kids...

I passed a mom at the pool hauling her double wide stroller with buckets and sand toys and towels draped over the sides. It was a scorcher and the smell of sunscreen hit the nose at the same time the sound of happy splashers hit the ears. But what caught my attention most was what my eyes saw. Her two toddlers holding ice cream cones filled with fruit. 

We did a little stop and chat and she laughed at herself saying that she wanted her kids to have a cone so they didn’t feel totally deprived. “It’s still something sweet, right?” she laughed. 

“Next time just let them have the real thing!” I said half jokingly. 

This encounter reminded me of the “almond mom” sweeping TikTok. The almond mom was coined from a controversial comment made by Real Housewives alum Yolanda Hadid (yes, Gigi Hadid’s mom). Back in 2014, her daughter called her sounding shaky after eating half an almond and her mom’s reply was to eat...

My daughter invited some friends over for lunch and we decided to order from a local make-your-own bowl place. You know the kind, you pick your base, your add ins and your extras. It’s a fan favorite with our family. Who doesn’t love Sweetgreen?

I had the moms text me their daughter’s orders and I was shocked at the number of substitutions, no dressings and very few ingredients the girls picked. Not one of these girls came close to finishing their meal either. 

Another text thread I was on for an outdoor barbecue asked about any allergies and a mom replied, “my daughter is gluten free, but you don’t need to worry about her because she barely eats anything”. 

Moms, is this happening with your girls? And, yes, we do need to worry. Are you paying attention to what your kids are eating, or not eating for that matter? 

Did you know that every teen girl with an eating disorder has eliminated one or more food groups from her diet? Not...

After years of palate expanders, retainers and braces, my daughter will finally be getting her braces off next week. 

Just as I was about to hit "add to cart" on some confetti, streamers and balloons, our orthodontic technician delivered the grim news in his monochromatic tone. 

"Well, after you get your braces off, you'll wear a retainer 24/7 for four months and then shift to wearing your retainer at night only for the rest of your life".

"I'm sorry, did you just say.....FOR THE REST OF HER LIFE, like when she's seventy years old??"

Owen looked at me straight in the face and said, "yes, ma'am". 

My daughter mouthed from her reclined dentist chair position, "nobody wears them, mom", but I was still mortified. 

All these year of enduring pain and suffering and annoyance and it will never end? What kind of a deal is this?

You know my mind went straight to comparing this to a diet. 

The diet companies promise you they'll make your body smaller in no...

As a family of 8, there's a short list of things I can't live without. 

Topping that list is our double stack washer and dryer. Those suckers run 6-7 days a week and sometimes multiple times a day. Don't ask me why, with all the laundry we do, that we still find ourselves running frantically around the house five minutes before a game searching for the right jersey. And don't get my started on the missing sock mystery. 

When one of our beloved work horses stops working, we call somebody to fix it......quickly. 

The next day, a trusty A&E truck pulls in our driveway and Don gives me the grim news that one dryer is broken and the other one is on its last leg. To fix both would be almost as expensive as ordering new ones. 

I give the kids the bad news as I'm driving them to soccer and one of them pipes up and says, "that guy looked like he ate a lot of food". 

*Long pause while I collect my thoughts. Older daughter sighs heavily and remarks,...