What Binge-Watching Weight Loss Commercials Taught Me About Diet Culture
I spent January cuddled on the couch mainlining television — and accidentally conducted the most revealing experiment in diet culture I’ve ever done. When you watch weight loss commercial after weight loss commercial with a critical eye, something becomes very clear. Here’s what I noticed.
Real Eating Disorder Recovery Means Complete Freedom — Not a Life in Management
I saw a meme that said “Yes, I have an eating disorder. No, I can’t just get over it.” And I called B.S. Not because eating disorders aren’t real and painful — I know firsthand that they are. But because that belief is exactly what keeps people stuck. Here’s what real recovery actually looks like.
The Three Biggest Myths Keeping You Stuck in Food Drama
Every holiday season the same tired advice appears everywhere — avoid the buffet, watch your portions, burn off your indulgences. But the real mistakes keeping women stuck have nothing to do with what they eat. Here are the three cultural myths that actually keep you famished, frustrated and stuck.
How My Grammy Gave Me the Food Crazies — And the Strength to Heal Them
My Grammy passed last weekend. And I realized that this entire methodology — Happy Calories Don’t Count — grew out of healing relationship dynamics that I learned from her. Here’s the legacy she left me, both the painful parts and the beautiful ones.
Why Food Freedom Is the Zen of Weight Loss
I finally went looking for Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance — and ended up with Alan Watts instead. What I found in his first lecture about the Tibetan Wheel of Life explained everything I’ve been trying to teach about getting off the diet and exercise teeter-totter. Here’s the connection.
How to Stop Comparing Your Body to Other Women’s — And Actually Mean It
91% of women hate their bodies according to the film Embrace. And while body image movements do important work, lasting change requires something more — actual skills and tools to break the comparison habit. Here’s where to start.
Why Self-Help Can Make Your Relationship With Your Body Worse
I’ve explored virtually every psychological, spiritual, and self-help approach to healing. And I’ve fallen into every trap each one hides. Here’s the one that’s most dangerous — and what the road to actual peace looks like instead.
The Real Price of Happiness (It’s Not What the Self-Help World Tells You)
I was 45 minutes into a 90-minute commute for 12 miles when something unexpected washed over me — a sense of peace I hadn’t felt in years. That moment taught me something about happiness that none of the self-help work, therapy, or pillow-beating had managed to. Here’s what it was.
You Will Never Get “A Body Like Hers” — And That’s Actually Good News
Meghan Trainor pulled her music video because her waist had been retouched without permission. Everyone’s fighting about Photoshop again. But here’s what we’re missing while that argument keeps us distracted — and the one sentence from Shape Magazine’s own editors that says everything.
Why Shame Never Works — And What Actually Does
Company executives keep calling me to help shame their employees into participating in wellness programs. And I keep gently telling them the same thing — shame doesn’t work. Here’s what Rotary’s Four-Way Test taught me about motivation, accountability, and why positive reinforcement is the only approach that actually sticks.