There are many ways to eat healthy and lose weight, but I do have an overall general philosophy that guides my thinking and my work: Eat whole, natural foods as often as possible, minimizing added sugar and processed food. There is a ton of other important tips and bits of advice I share with my clients, but that philosophy is at the center of everything.
And yet…
Even my core philosophy needs to have some wiggle room.
If you get so hung up on eating whole foods all the time that you feel stifled, restricted, or resentful, then an adjustment is needed. Some things to think about:
-Please do not feel compelled to eat kale or brown rice because they are good for you. There are plenty of healthy foods out there; there is no need to force yourself to eat any one particular thing if you truly don’t like it.
-If you are dying to eat some ice cream and nothing else will do in that moment, go ahead and have the ice cream. If this is happening every day and you are overeating it, that is something worth working on. But a favorite indulgence like this does not have to be completely off-limits.
-Does the idea of having anything that feels like “food rules” make you bristle? Then it’s time to take a step back and ask if moving away from the core principles of healthy eating, at least a little bit, might paradoxically help you eat better, in that you will be in a better place mentally.
In the end, the most important thing is eating in a way that makes you feel good. And I’m not talking about the kind of “feel good” that lasts for five minutes after eating an entire party-size bag of potato chips. I’m talking about a deep, real sense that your body feels energized and healthy, that your mind feels some peace. A good feeling that you want to feel for the long term, as opposed to that fleeting good feeling from eating junk that is often followed by disgust and perhaps even physical discomfort.
Listen to what your body and mind are telling you—this is the ultimate guiding light.
If you watched this year’s Oscars, you may remember host Jimmy Kimmel looking around the audience during his monologue and saying, “Everybody looks so great. When I look around this room, I can’t help but wonder, ‘Is Ozempic right for me?’”
“Everyone is on it,” my friend who cuts and styles the hair of several celebrities in Los Angeles said in a low voice as we dined out at a restaurant there recently.
In case you haven’t heard about it, Ozempic, along with similar drugs Mounjaro and Wegovy, are being touted as the latest miracle drugs for weight loss. You inject the drug into your abdomen with a needle once a week, and voila, you are supposed to feel less hungry. And there are plenty of people out there talking excitedly about how well it works.
These drugs were originally formulated for people with diabetes. But this very convenient side effect of a diminished appetite was soon discovered. And now these drugs seem to be everywhere.
I’m not going to outright denigrate these drugs, but I do want to bring up some concerns I have.
First off, too many miracle weight loss drugs from the past have ended up being problematic, to say the least. Decades ago my grandmother and great aunt were put on Dexamyl by their doctors to lose weight. Turned out there was a reason these pills became popular street drugs: Dexamyl was basically speed. And remember Fen-Phen from the ‘90s? That had to be pulled from the market after it was found to cause damage to heart valves. So I’m concerned that we don’t know enough about the long-term effects of this new class of drugs being used for weight loss, and seemingly being handed out willy-nilly.
I also worry about malnourishment. If you’re not so hungry and can lose weight without thinking much about your food choices due to these drugs, what’s to stop someone on Ozempic from just eating their favorite junk food every time they feel the urge to eat? With the drug taking care of the weight loss, so to speak, I fear a mindlessness or lack of care can lead to health problems later as people barely touch fruits and vegetables or don’t consume enough protein and fill their stomachs with potato chips and cupcakes. And eating healthy is not just for weight loss or weight maintenance. What you choose to put in your body affects your mood, your sleep, your energy, your cognitive abilities, your strength, your stamina. I worry about people putting so much focus on losing weight with this drug that they end up ignoring their mental and physical health otherwise.
These drugs, while covered by insurance if you are diabetic, are not covered for weight loss. So be prepared to spend potentially hundreds of dollars a week on the dose if you choose to go this route.
And perhaps the worst part? Studies have shown you’ll likely need to stay on the drug for the rest of your life in order to keep the weight from coming right back.
It can be tempting to go for the “quick fix”–I get it. But I prefer to think of these drugs as a possible last resort, not the default solution.
Filed under: Healthy Lifestyle
I am a lifelong New Yorker, and anyone who’s been in this city long enough has probably heard someone use the expression, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.” Meaning, I am so busy and out here achieving and getting that money that I absolutely cannot worry about sleep. What may be implied when someone invokes that saying is that sleep is for the weak. Worry about it, well, never.
That’s all well and good if you want to feel like garbage all the time and take years off your life.
Sleep isn’t just some luxury. It is a critical practice to keep you alive and functioning. Not enough sleep can lead to mood disorders, weight gain, insulin resistance (hi, diabetes), heart disease, a weak immune system, and yes, a shorter life.
You’re going to want to get seven to eight hours of sleep a night. Here are some tips to help you do just that:
Shut down your screens. The blue light emitted by your phone, computer, and TV can stimulate the brain and make it hard to fall asleep. Shut everything down about an hour before bed.
Finish your last bite of food two to three hours before bed. If you eat a big meal and then head to sleep right after, or if you graze throughout the evening after dinner right up until bedtime, it will be harder to sleep. Your body will be focusing on digesting and dealing with blood sugar ups and downs rather than shutting down and restoring itself. Plus, you might experience some reflux thanks to lying down with a full stomach–the discomfort from this can also get in the way of sleeping well.
Journal. If you’re prone to having racing thoughts as soon as you climb into bed, try journaling right beforehand. Write down all those thoughts and get them out of your mind.
Meditate. You can either use guided meditation or just do it yourself, focusing on your breathing, gently pushing all thoughts out of your mind.
Exercise during the day. Sometimes our bodies just need to get a little more physically tired to help us sleep. Many of my clients have found that they sleep better at night on the days they work out.
Try some lavender. It’s a sleep aid. You can put a few drops of lavender oil in a nighttime bath, or put a little on your pillow.
There is a whole world of tiny critters living in your gut. And these critters, a.k.a. bacteria, play a crucial role in on our overall health.
While we may assume, rightfully so, that the main role of our gut bacteria is to help digest our food and absorb nutrients, these microscopic beings also do a lot to control our metabolism, foster a healthy immune system, reduce inflammation in the body, and, perhaps most surprisingly, they play a role in our mental health as well.
Our gut bacteria responds and develops based on what we feed it. So if you’re eating the standard American diet (also aptly called SAD), which is heavy on processed fats, sugar, refined carbs, and meat, you are creating a toxic environment for healthy microbes. What will create a welcoming environment for the kinds of bacteria you want to flourish in your body?
Here’s where the probiotics vs. prebiotics question comes in. Probiotics, live microorganisms found in certain fermented foods like yogurt, kefir, and sauerkraut, will help populate your intestines with good bacteria. Prebiotics, on the other hand, are foods that will help feed that gut bacteria to allow it to thrive. And the key ingredient in a good prebiotic is fiber. So we’re talking about eating plenty of vegetables (leafy greens are particularly great), fruits, beans, whole grains, nuts, and seeds. The more variety the better—so be sure to branch out and get a rainbow of colors of produce into your diet each week, and be adventurous with different kinds of beans and grains. Your gut—and your entire body—will thank you.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: food sensitivity, mindless eating, thyroid, weight loss
For some of us, it’s very clear why we may have gained weight. Perhaps you just went through a very stressful time in your life and food was something you turned to in order to numb out or distract yourself. Maybe you started dating someone new who eats like a toddler—all white food, all the time—and you started doing the same when with them. Maybe, uh, the pandemic.
But sometimes we find the scale showing us a number we’re not so psyched to see and we’re genuinely stumped. Then we find ourselves asking, how did I get here?
Here are some possible explanations:
Mindless eating. My clients often don’t realize how often they do this at first (well, that’s why it’s called “mindless” after all). Eating in front of the TV. Grabbing a snack while working at the computer. Eating because you’re bored. Ask yourself—are you actually hungry for this food? You’ll likely find that the answer is often “no.” If you’re not hungry, do something else besides eating. Because this is the #1 reason people tend to gain weight.
Portion problems. An obvious issue we often overlook? Quantity. Many people unknowingly eat double or triple portions of rice or protein day in and day out. Half a cup of grains (cooked) is a proper portion, and four to six ounces of meat is what you should be aiming for.
Less-than-optimal choices. Be careful about OD’ing on any of these things: foods made from white flour/refined grains, foods with added sugar, fried food, fast food, soft drinks. The less, the better.
You’ve developed a food sensitivity. If you find yourself bloated all the time, or you have strangely intense fatigue, or body aches, or a skin rash, it’s possible you may have developed a food sensitivity. This can come on at any time of life—I see it all the time in my practice. Eating a food you are sensitive to will cause inflammation in your body, which tends to also cause weight gain or make it feel impossible to lose weight.
Your thyroid is out of whack. Especially if you experience sudden weight gain and you haven’t changed any of your habits, it can be worth getting your thyroid checked out at your next physical. A healthy, well-functioning thyroid is key for proper metabolism.
Filed under: Chronic Disease, Uncategorized | Tags: alcohol, cancer, healthy benefits from alcohol, heart health
Many of us upped our consumption of alcohol during the pandemic. We were stressed. Worried. And perhaps just bored.
I completely understand—I enjoy wine and cocktails myself, and felt that pull toward the nightly drink at the height of lockdown. But here’s why I kept a careful watch on the number of drinks I had each week, and why I continue to scale back when I can.
For years, we heard the advice that moderate drinking could positively affect heart health. But those studies have come into question lately. From a September 2021 article in The New York Times: “Analyses have found that moderate drinking can appear to be beneficial in large population studies because the ‘nondrinkers’ who are used for comparison often include people who don’t drink because they have serious health issues or because they are former heavy drinkers. When studies take these factors into account, the apparent cardiovascular benefits of moderate drinking disappear.”
Doh. Not what any of us wanted to hear. Once those studies came into question, a panel of scientists called for the U.S. government to lower the recommended daily limit for alcohol consumption to just one drink a day for both men and women (before this up to two drinks per day was considered fine for men).
And we have to remember that any amount of alcohol does increase the risk of many types of cancer, including breast, esophagus, throat and neck, larynx, liver, and colon cancers. Plus, alcohol contains empty calories that do not help us feel full. If you’re concerned about your weight, remember that each glass of wine, beer, or straight liquor you have will contain 100-150 calories, and that’s before you get involved with added sugary syrups and sodas in cocktails. Have a few drinks on a Friday night and you’ve essentially had an additional dinner’s worth of calories.
I, for one, plan to continue to enjoy alcohol on the weekends, and assume that many of you would like to continue to indulge sometimes too. But let’s just stay clear-eyed about our choices.
Do you find yourself reaching for chocolate, potato chips, or mac and cheese when you’re stressed or frustrated, angry or overwhelmed? If so, have you thought about why you do this?
Many of us know exactly why we do this. The food provides comfort. Or at least something that feels like comfort at the time.
But almost always, within either a few minutes or a few hours, we regret having eaten that food. “Why did I do this, I’m trying to lose weight!” you may say to yourself. Or, “My stomach feels awful from that whole bag of chips. Why do I keep eating so much that it sickens me?”
You probably also realize that, even though you just ate all that food to comfort yourself, you still feel stressed, frustrated, angry, or overwhelmed. Eating did not make the original problem disappear.
Logic does not always win out when it comes to comfort eating, in the same way that logic does not always win out when it comes to drug or alcohol abuse. We can set our reasonable concerns aside in the moment when the promise of instant pleasure looms before us. We can be very good at ignoring that voice in our heads that tells us this isn’t a good idea.
So, what to do?
First, it’s important that you get to the root of why you need comfort to begin with. What is the source of frustration or stress? How can it be fixed or lessened? Can you do something, whether it be communicating with your boss or leveling with a loved one about their behavior, that could prevent this problem coming up repeatedly and driving you to seek comfort?
Also, it’s important to have a little conversation with yourself—over and over again if necessary—reminding yourself that the food will not provide any meaningful comfort for you. You may feel better for five minutes, and then you’ll not only realize the problem has not gone away, but you’ll also perhaps feel upset that you ate that thing when you weren’t hungry.
Learn to sit with the uncomfortable feelings. With enough practice, you will be able to get through these tough moments without trying to ignore them or run away from them by eating.
And seek other comforts that don’t involve food. Have a hot cup of herbal tea. Plan a cozy evening at home in front of a movie or show you love. Book a massage. Talk on the phone with that friend who always has time to listen and offer sage advice. All of these things will feel much better than downing junky food.
You wake up one day and realize you feel terrible, and have felt that way for a long time now. You’re at a weight you’re not comfortable with, you’re tired all the time, your digestion is off, and your skin has lost its glow. So you decide: I’m done. I’m not going to continue living on coffee and processed food, avoiding exercise, and getting too little sleep. I’m going to begin a program to get healthier.
Fast forward one month. You’ve lost some weight. You have energy. You feel healthier. “This is great!” you think.
And then … you have a very stressful day at work and get some bad news in your personal life. You eat four slices of sausage pizza followed by a pint of cookie dough ice cream. The next day, feeling bad about what you did the previous day, you continue to eat poorly and decide to skip your exercise class. “What does it matter?” you may say to yourself. “I’ve already messed up. I can’t do it. Why did I even bother?” And you proceed to return to all your old habits and begin to feel terrible again.
Sound familiar? This is the “all or nothing” mentality. And trust me when I say that this is a very, very common way to think about our health and our habits.
So what do we do about it? How can we stop ourselves from going through these cycles of living healthily followed by eating garbage followed by living healthily followed by … you get what I mean. Here are some things to think about:
There is no failure or cheating. Remove these words from your lexicon when talking about your health. It is normal for all of us to eat more decadently sometimes, either because of a very emotional situation, or simply because it’s Saturday night and we’d like to go out for a special meal. Eating fries or chocolate lava cake sometimes, even though we know these foods are not great for us, is fine. It is part of life. Don’t make a big deal out of it. Don’t judge yourself. You haven’t done anything “wrong.” Enjoy every bite of the more decadent food while you’re eating it, then move on. Have healthier foods at the next meal or the next day.
A good guideline for how often to indulge? One or two meals a week should be fine.
Is your “all” unsustainable? If you’re in your “all” phase, and you’re at the gym seven days a week for two hours at a time, you’re not allowing yourself to eat any bread or pasta, and you’re force feeding yourself kale salads that you don’t even like, don’t be surprised if you reach a breaking point and feel you can’t keep this up. “Nothing” may feel more realistic than this regimen when you hit that point of despair.
What you need to do is to scale everything back. Take it slow. Keep exercising, but maybe three days a week for one hour each time is more manageable. Enjoy a whole grain bread or pasta or some brown or wild rice instead of no carbs. As for the kale? There are plenty of healthy foods—don’t feel you have to eat any one food in particular just because it’s the latest trendy health food if you don’t like it. Small, slow changes are good—and usually more sustainable.
You will regret “nothing.” Really, don’t let yourself go there. You’ll wallow for a while in the “nothing” phase, feeling defeated and maybe a little sorry for yourself. And then you’ll regret it. You put in all this effort to lose 10 pounds—do you really want to let yourself gain it right back? Because the day will likely come when you decide once again that you want to lose some weight, and it is pretty dispiriting to have to begin that journey by losing that same 10 pounds all over again.
Focus on how you feel. The“nothing” phase really doesn’t feel good. Instead of obsessing about a number on the scale, what can help you stay out of the “nothing” is to focus on how much better you feel when you move your body, when you eat nourishing foods that don’t sap your energy, when you prioritize self-care. The weight will come off almost as a nice fringe benefit if you direct your attention to engaging in the habits that make you feel great.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: anxiety, caffeine, Exercise, meditation, whole foods
I probably don’t need to tell you that rates of anxiety are rising in the United States. I’m guessing that if you don’t suffer from anxiety yourself then someone close to you does: your child, a parent, a friend, a co-worker. My daughter, who recently graduated from college, told me that virtually everyone she knew at school had an anxiety disorder, and that many of them were on medication for it.
There are many reasons why anxiety is increasing. The pandemic. Economic uncertainty. Lack of affordability of housing and education. The pressure to succeed. Toxic work environments. Gun violence. Racism. Politics. And too many other factors to list.
But what to do about it? Aside from pushing for change on a society-wide level, we do have a handful of tools at our disposal to help us on a personal level. What I mean by this, specifically, is that you can alter the way your body and brain respond to difficult circumstances, thereby reducing anxiety, by making some tweaks to your diet and lifestyle. Of course, some people will find that medication is the best path forward for them, and I fully support that decision. But if you’d like to try some natural techniques first, or if you feel prescription pills are not the answer for you, here are five things I suggest you try:
Reduce or eliminate caffeine. This has helped me personally, time and time again. Caffeine consumption leads to a rise in adrenaline, the “fight or flight” hormone that primes our body to take on a serious threat. In other words, of course caffeine, or too much of it, anyway, can lead to anxiety—it’s literally telling your body and brain to be on high alert for a potentially catastrophic situation. In times of stress in my life, I’ve cut out or reduced caffeine and found almost instant relief.
Scale way back on sugar and processed junk food. Sugar and quick-digesting processed carbs like white bread and white noodles and chips will lead to blood sugar spikes and crashes. Everything feels bleak and dire when our blood sugar is low. To avoid crashes, get these culprits out of your diet, or make them a rarity.
Eat whole foods. A well-balanced diet rich in vegetables, fruits, lean protein, whole grains, nuts, seeds, beans, and unsaturated fats like olive oil will stabilize your blood sugar and feed your brain what it needs to feel calm and happy.
Exercise. Exercise will directly burn off stress hormones like adrenaline. Studies have found that for many people, regular exercise can be more effective at treating depression and anxiety than pills.
Meditate/breathe deeply. Breathing deeply in and out through the nose, into the diaphragm, activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which calms you down. Take a few moments every day to just sit, clear your mind, and focus on your breath. It’s so simple, but it really works.
Food Is Not Your Enemy 