Sweet Peas are my absolute favorite flower. They’re delicate and beautiful and bunches of them together form a messy abundant looking spray of color. But the thing I love most about them is the smell. The sweet perfume from one small bunch can fill a room.

I have a few raised garden beds in my backyard and three years ago we planted all sorts of peas including Sweet Peas. Well, this is the second year in a row we have grown “wild” Sweet Peas (meaning I...

Remember the movie, Four Weddings and a Funeral?

Well, last weekend, my version was 2 Bar Mitzvahs and the first anniversary of my father’s passing (not quite as catchy).

It’s a set up for rampant, justified, even necessary emotional eating.

The angst had been building for the past couple of weeks as my body remembered the difficult months from the year before. I stopped being surprised by the daily tears. The anniversary would be the...

Data is invaluable when making any decision or plan. Weighing things is one way to gather relevant data. So, consider weighing these three things regularly:

1. Weigh . . . Yourself

So that you are comparing apples to apples, weigh at the same time of day with the same clothes (or lack there of). I recommend first thing in the morning in the buff.

If you are in weight loss mode, I highly recommend getting on the scale only once a week (same day...

When the sun starts breaking through the clouds and shoots begin peeking though the soil, do you feel like it’s time to start fresh?

I do!

I love the idea of a fresh start.

The rain (and we’ve even had some in Southern California) purifies everything, signaling a new beginning.

Spring cleaning can be our purification process.

Now, I love a good de-cluttering session—a clean, organized closet or drawer makes my heart skip a...

Spring has sprung! 

My Sweet Peas are just about to bloom, Easter and Passover are on the horizon and kids are off from school.

That means family time, a few large meals, abundant chocolate and shifting schedules.  It may even mean some travel.

Good time for a refresher of the Happier Holiday Habits:

1.     Set a goal for the week.

2.     Plan it.

3.     Stay connected.

...

Geneen Roth is a genius. 

She’s a writer, observer and knower of women and food. 

You may recognize her as the author of the best selling book, Women, Food and God. 

Her latest offering just came out this month and it’s an incredible read. This Messy Magnificent Life: A Field Guide builds on her kind, keen, shared experiences with food and growth. 

I often say, how we do one thing is how we do everything. ...

Eat breakfast!

Most people who drink coffee in the morning report not feeling hungry.

The reason you don’t feel hungry is because you’ve ingested a drug (caffeine) whose side effects include appetite suppression.  The problem with appetite suppression is that it only masks a body signal; it doesn’t satisfy the bodily need.

It’s like taking pain medication for a toothache; the tooth problem is not solved by the medication, it...

Environmental control . . .

. . . is one of my very favorite topics!

. . . is the cornerstone of weight management.

. . . is well summed up by the phrase, “if it’s not there, you can’t eat it”.

Most people think Will Power is the key to weight management—“if I could just be better . . .” but knowing yourself and your limitations is so much more powerful. 

If you have trouble resisting a chip, then...

I just finished listening to the podcast documentary from Chicago Public Radio called Making Oprah.

Besides being a fascinating audio study of the 25-year history of the Oprah Winfrey show, documenting its development from cheating husbands to a wagon of fat to Live Your Best Life TV, it presents the natural evolution of Oprah herself.  I highly recommend the 3-part series.

Three ideas stuck with me in particular.

#1  Focus

With...

Sweet Emma made a lovely meal.  Delicious, visually pleasing and healthy. We sat down to enjoy and one minute later her plate was empty. 

I mean one minute! 

It was hard to believe.  

I considered it might be an aberration until we had dined together multiple times and the same thing kept happening.  She was self-aware and unapologetic, “I’m a very fast eater”. 

Now, Emma was not obese, but according to...