Do Calories Count?
(Watch the video or read below.) Some say counting calories doesn’t matter, but it can make the difference between success or failure in weight loss and weight maintenance. If you’re eating clean foods and exercising and...
New York Times and the Biggest Loser: Is Weight Loss Really a Losing Battle?
Last week a New York Times article ¹ exposed a new study in the Journal Obesity (2) that observed 14 contestants of the Biggest Loser reality show. They lost "hundreds of pounds", then struggled to keep their weight loss, and even gained weight in the next 6 years...
Is Your Body Too Tired To Exercise? Or Is It Just Your Brain?
(Picture above is from my bike ride this weekend.) It was an amazing spring day. It was around 75 degrees when we started in Portola. About halfway to the turnaround point on Canada Road the air turned chilly but the sun stayed warm and bright. We passed this...
Best Exercise for Thighs and Butt, Hamstrings and Glutes: The Lunge
The lunge works the entire leg and can be done without any equipment and there are a few different kinds of lunges. The one I describe here focuses on hamstrings and glutes (back of the thighs and butt). It also works many...
How to Stay on Track with Exercise: Great Body, No Stress
In my last video I talked about the five things you need to be doing in order to achieve your goals in health and fitness for once and for all. They may seem simple and they may be things that you already know you need to do, but you...
My Favorite Lentil Soup Recipe
Some popular fad diets say that lentils and other legumes shouldn't be eaten. I completely disagree. Lentils are largely made up of carbohydrates, and carbohydrates have gotten a bad rap these days. That's because many diet authors and others fail to differentiate...
How to Make Health and Fitness Goals That Work
Did you make some health and fitness goals for yourself last month? And have you stuck with them? You know a lot of people have trouble sticking to resolutions and staying on track with their goals, So if you do too, you're...
Why New Years’ Resolutions For Diet and Exercise Fail
The word going around these days is that New Year's resolutions are bogus. Because most of them are forgotten by February. And, why make a promise that you know you won't keep? But I completely disagree. January is a perfect and natural time to take inventory on...
Kale Chips on the Stove Top
This is a simple and delicious way to prep kale. It was shared with me by a lovely client - dancer, Zumba instructor, vegetarian. In my last post about kale I showed you how to choose a good bunch of healthy curly kale, prep it for use in salads, and have on...
Fast Track Back to Your Healthy Diet and Exercise In the New Year
If you've been following my blog posts and getting my emails, no doubt you have been hearing some of my favorite tips on how to maintain your healthy eating and exercise during the holidays. And now that the holidays have...
Client Conversations – Keeping Your Weight Loss and Fitness This Holiday
Sticking to healthy habits can be more challenging during the winter holidays. It's especially hard when we return to family and friends who expect us to be the same person we were in years past. There can be a lot of pressure (from others or from our self) to...
Make Your own Cranberry Sauce with Less Sugar
Cranberry sauce is one of my favorite things on the holiday table. I really like the sweet and sour flavor with poultry. And the red makes the whole dish look festive! Total confession - the cranberry sauce in the can used to be my absolute favorite. It's like eating...
The 30 Day Abs Challenge – Is it Worth Your Time?
Thirty-day exercise challenges are everywhere. You'll find them in fitness and fashion magazines, on fitness websites, in posters in your gym and even at the office. They're created with the best of intentions - to motivate you and help...
Running Through an Italian City on the Mediterranean
I’ve written plenty of blog posts about how to keep an exercise routine and good diet while on a trip or vacation. What I haven't yet addressed is why I exercise on vacation. I never thought to answer that question...
Meditation with Khen Rinpoche: Breathe In, Breathe Out
A growing body of research supports that meditation, for even 5-10 minutes per day, can significantly improve brain function. (1) I was very grateful to have been able to meet and learn from Khen Rinpoche Lobzang Tsetan last weekend. He's a Tibetian Buddhist Monk, a...