From the category archives:

Portion Size

How Not to Quit at Weight Loss During Holidays

November 22, 2011 Read the full article →

“I messed up again! Now I’m back to square one. What’s the use!” Sound familiar? That’s the self-defeating voice that tells us to quit our healthy eating program whenever we’re less than perfect. It gets louder than ever during the holidays. It’s a stressful time and stress is known to push us to eat mindlessly. [...]

Food Psychology and the Holidays

November 14, 2011 Read the full article →

Now that Halloween is behind us, the holiday season is off and running. With it comes all the goodies that we so desire and that we so fear will make us overindulge. But with a little planning, the food conflicts that can drain the joy from the holidays can be a thing of the past. [...]

For Fat Loss, Don’t Eat too Many Calories or too Few

October 27, 2011 Read the full article →

The greatest myth about calories and losing weight is this: The less you eat, the more you lose. The human body is not so simple. It’s built for the complicated work of survival. It kills foreign invaders, digests all kinds of things that we throw into it, it tries to make sure that we have [...]

Normal Eaters aren’t Perfect

September 5, 2011 Read the full article →

People being treated for eating disorders and other eating related problems often believe that they’re more dysfunctional than they actually are.  Invariably, I find myself showing patients that many of the behaviors they think are unique and “weird” about themselves are experienced by people they consider “normal eaters.” Most articles discussing the differences between thin [...]

How to Know If You’re Eating Well

May 23, 2011 Read the full article →

We’re all busy, so simple ways to improve our diets are in high demand. No matter how good our intentions, most of us won’t stick with anything that takes too much time or is burdensome, like rigidly tracking calories, grams, and servings.  Even health experts don’t follow such regimens perfectly, never mind for a lifetime. [...]

Starting a Diet for the Summer

May 12, 2011 Read the full article →

It’s so frustrating to go on a diet and lose weight, only to regain it. Frustrating, but common — studies show 90 percent of dieting attempts fail. What can we do to improve our chances? Despite overwhelming evidence that most diets fail, ever more people are vulnerable to quick weight loss promises that won’t work [...]

Portion Control and Stress

March 16, 2011 Read the full article →

Stress is everywhere, and chronic stress is known to be harmful not only to our emotional health, but also to our physical health. It can affect the immune system (making us sick more often), the heart (causing high blood pressure and other heart problems), and muscles (causing problems with neck, shoulder, and low-back pain), to [...]

Top 10 Dieting Mistakes

January 25, 2011 Read the full article →

It’s good to learn from our mistakes.  The more we pay attention to what we’ve done wrong in the past the more successful we’ll be in the future. This is certainly true when it comes to weight loss and fitness.  And, for some reason, when it comes to dealing with weight, many people put their [...]

Holiday Weight-control Success Can Be Yours

December 8, 2010 Read the full article →

Last time in Personal Best, I invited readers to send in their questions about weight control over the holidays. Here are three of the main issues I kept hearing about; maybe you’ll see your own situation in one (or more) of them. I intend to control my eating during the holidays but always fail. Why? [...]

Shed Holiday Guilt to Lose Weight

November 22, 2010 Read the full article →

The holiday season should be filled with joy and fun. But many people approach this time of year fearing weight gain, stress and guilt. What a shame! True, there is an abundance of tempting food available this time of year. But feeling guilty will never prevent us from getting out of control with food. If [...]