Weight Watchers or “Self Compassion”? This was originally published in the CommonHealth Blog of WBUR, Boston’s NPR radio station. This article is in response to the death in April of Jean Nidetch, the founder of Weight Watchers. This article was written by my friend and colleague, Jean Fain, author of The Self Compassion Diet . As […]
Setting the Record Straight. What’s true about nutrition and what’s not?
I go to a local gym twice a week to improve my muscle strength. The truth is I really don’t like the gym, but my trainer is an old friend from high school, and I enjoy chatting with her while I work. This gym is a “private” one, where only independent trainers can bring clients, […]
Dieting is Like Holding Your Breath!
We’ve all heard the statistic that 95% of people who lose weight by dieting will gain it back. And yet this does not stop us from trying! We could say, “hope springs eternal”, “I know it will be different this time”. Unless people are willing to really devote themselves to permanent, and serious changes in […]
Teaching Is No Fun Unless You’re Learning Something!
For the past 12 years, I have been teaching Nutrition, Public Health and Motivational Interviewing at Northeastern University in Boston, MA. Doing this work was a dream I had as an undergrad at Simmons College, also in Boston. I now find myself fulfilling this and many other professional dreams I had as a young person. […]
Having a Real Choice in What You Eat
In my last post, I wrote about the idea that volition, or the desire for change in behavior is only a part of the process of change. There are other obstacles people face in this process. For example, in changing one’s food habits, one such obstacle is either not having access to the foods that […]
