From the category archives:

Psychological Barriers to Weight Management

How to Motivate Yourself to Exercise

January 21, 2012 Read the full article →

“I can’t seem to get enough motivation to exercise.”  Motivation is something that people find to be mysterious and out of reach – especially when it comes to being able to exercise consistently, instead of in the start-and-stop fashion that many people find so frustrating and defeating. Yet, having the motivation to exercise isn’t as [...]

Resolutions

January 3, 2012 Read the full article →

I wish I could write the weight loss resolution article to end all weight loss resolutions. Why?  Because, if I could convince people to adopt the right behaviors for managing their health, it would make this annual ritual obsolete.  By following the right behaviors, setbacks would be rare and so minor, they would have little [...]

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 [...]

Do Women Really Know What Men Find Attractive?

September 12, 2011 Read the full article →

The pursuit of thinness long has been a major preoccupation for American women. But why are women trying to be downright slender, as opposed to maintaining a healthy weight?  If it’s for the approval of men, then women seem to be putting themselves through needless worry and discomfort. I work with a lot of women [...]

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 [...]

Men and Eating Disorders

September 2, 2011 Read the full article →

“I was aware of eating disorders due to media coverage, but eating disorders are usually presented as female problems so I never made the connection with myself. Looking back, I can see that I had behaviors associated with an eating disorder from my late teens into my twenties but I never considered I might have [...]

School Weight Issues Can Linger

August 28, 2011 Read the full article →

What we experience as children and teenagers in school can stay with us for the rest of our lives.  If we’re fortunate, those experiences are fun, exciting, and filled with personal growth but that’s not always the case.  For some, memory lane is filled with pot holes, rusty nails, and dead ends. As a psychologist [...]

Is Your Doctor Weight Biased?

July 20, 2011 Read the full article →

“My experiences at the doctor’s office have not been good.  No matter what symptoms I present, or even if I am there for a well check, my weight is always an issue.  I have had recurring headaches for four years now and I can’t count the number of times that I have been told that [...]