A friend of mine just sent me this text:

"I was thinking about you this week. Do you still work as a nutritionist? I would like to lose xx pounds, but more importantly learn how to eat and how to maintain my weight!"  

After getting over my cringe-worthy reaction to my past work as a nutritionist who solely focused on weight loss, I shot back this reply:

"Hi! Actually, I work as a diet recovery and weight neutral coach helping women who DON'T want to diet anymore. Diets really only work for a tiny fraction of people and they can often make health worse in both the short and long term. LMK if you want more info!"

My friend, like so many other women I've talked with replied with this: 
"Yes! I want to change my way of eating and not diet anymore!" 

Here's where things are starting to sound familiar, aren't they?

I pipe back in with:
"I really don't work with women who have an underlying goal of weight loss. Health and weight are very often falsely tied...

When I was growing up, there was nothing I loved more than walking through the Target aisles in early August filling up our shopping cart with everything shiny, pointy and new. Crayons, pencils and colored pencils all sharpened to perfection and markers ready to make their fresh, bold strokes on the page where my favorite. All those blank, wide open pages of mead notebook paper just waiting for their lines to be filled!

I'm not sure if the thrill of filling our cart was more about the promise of the new year, or holding something new and that was just mine. I literally could've spent hours curating my supplies. 

As we get back to school, I'm reminded of wandering Target aisles and remembering that I used to get a similar surge of adrenaline while embarking on a new eating "plan". 

All the diet/lifestyle "supplies" seemed fresh, new and exciting. A "protocol" that seemed equivalent to picking out fresh crayons because following this plan was going to lead to the promise of...

Our kitchen table was full of our six kids plus two more of the kid's friends. A summer storm had turned the skies a dark gray with lightning flickering in the distance. We all sat cozy inside and, despite summer dinners being tough to get on the table, tonight we had even managed to cook some market fresh corn on the cob. 

As dinner came to a close, our kids started asking what was available to quench their sweet tooth.

"You guys have sugar in your house?" gasped one of our guests. 

The other guest chimed in with "we literally keep no sweets in the house and the closest thing we have to something sweet is powdered sugar. If we bought anything sweet, it would be gone in one hour". 

Both kids lamented about their moms being "bad" shoppers and always wished their dads would go to the store since they bought more of the "good" stuff. 

I was happy to give the kids Bark thins (thank you, Costco) and everyone left the table happy and satisfied. 

Of course, I...

I rounded the corner from the pool bathroom to hear my friend shouting to my husband that they were bringing ice. Running toward the scene, I found my son on his hands and knees with blood pouring from his mouth and my husband crouched next to him. 

Last month ended our thirteen year run of having no stitches for any of our kids. Two hours, a lost baby tooth (thanks, seesaw) and three stitches later, my son and husband left the ER with every kid’s dream prescription: lots of popsicles and ice cream. He smiled through his swollen lip at the prospect of all day frozen dairy and happily ate ice cream or a blended ice cream drink for lunch and dinner that first day. 

Something typical happened though, at dinner on day two of unlimited ice cream, he looked kinda green in the face. 

“Buddy, do you want that ice cream anymore?” I asked. 

“No, mom, no more ice cream”. He groaned.

His body is pretty smart and so is yours. When given carte...

Empty red and yellow Starburst wrappers, napkins in a wad, half eaten granola bars, several unidentifiable crumbs, goggles, wet swim diapers and sunscreen tubes littered the bottom of my summer bag. 

Before the holiday, I wanted to have a fresh start before it was inundated with parade candy wrappers, pinwheels and American flags. One of the kids had also asked me for cash, so I was also looking to scrape up enough loose change for the $2 tennis racquet “noise dampener” they wanted to buy. Apparently these are all the rage if you play tennis.

“Sorry, fellas, I only found sixty seven cents”. You guys cleaned me out of cash at the last swim meet snack bar. 

I have enough trouble keeping the top of the cash funnel full and don't need anything unnecessarily sucking the bottom of my cash funnel at rapid speed.

You know what does a great job cleaning you out of cash? Every diet and “cleanse” on the market.

The latest and...

My son looked at me with his striking hazel eyes after I offered him the option of a cookie or ice cream and he replied, “how about I have the cookie and the ice cream”. 

An hour earlier I gave the kids the option to leave the pool in ten minutes or twenty minutes and my older kids said “how about we stay here and walk home when we’re ready?”

Leave it to kids to remind you of the important life lessons that maybe there’s a third, viable option you haven’t considered. 

Like every parent out there, I’ve considered and used bribery, yelling, technology, threats and coercion, but lately I’ve been going back to good ol’ Love and Logic. One of the Love and Logic teachings is that the parent gives the child two options to choose from and the child gets to make the decision. The trick strategy is that the parent gives two options knowing that they’re ok with either option the child chooses. The child feels good...

Will Smith recently posted a full body selfie with the caption, “I’m gonna be real wit y’all. I’m in the worst shape of my life”. Let me first say that a) his “worst shape” picture looks like he’s a regular guy and b) you can NEVER assume a person’s health based on their physical appearance. 

Will Smith’s not the only one emerging from the pandemic cocoon with a different appearance. Not only have many our bodies changed, our attitudes have, too. In particular, our anxieties are up. What about my unvaccinated kids? Are the vaccines really safe? What about summer camp? What’s school going to look like next year? Can I really hang out unmasked with friends? Weren’t we just double masking a few weeks ago?

One industry in particular is thrilled with this combination of body dissatisfaction and peaked anxiety. You guessed it…the diet industry (aka the weight cycling industry). 

Even though many...

Every kid’s soccer game has that sideline parent. My favorite at my son’s games is a dad I like to call Mr. Wonderful. He got that name because every time the boys score a goal or have a great play on the field, he shouts, “that was wonderful, WONDERFUL!” Don’t get me wrong, I like this guy. Who doesn’t like a parent who adds positivity to the game and cheers for your kid with loud wonderfuls?

This past weekend I happened to be next to be near Mr. Wonderful. I learned that not only does he have a phrase for the great plays, he also has one for the not so great plays. 

Ball gets passed to the other team by one of our players? “Unlucky!” shouts Mr. Wonderful. 

Ball brushes one of our player’s arms and a hand ball is called? “Unlucky” cries Mr. Wonderful. 

Shot on goal and the ball goes off the post. “Unlucky” sighs Mr. Wonderful. 

At first, I thought, what a nice way to reframe a...