What is a diet?

According to Merriam-Webster, a diet is:

1. food or drink regularly consumed (noun)
2. habitual nourishment (noun)
3. the kind and amount of food prescribed for a person for a special reason (noun)

As a surgeon, this is how I used to define “diet.” When I’m caring for my patients in the hospital, I select their diet. And I make my selections according to their needs:

• High blood pressure? Low sodium diet.
• Weak kidneys? Low potassium diet.
• Diabetes? Low sugar diet.

Made sense to me! A diet is simply what someone eats. And you pick what you eat based on what your body needs, right? It turns out a diet is not that simple. It doesn’t just address a physical need. It incorporates mental and emotional needs too. And that’s how it gets complicated.

What is a diet … really?

Merriam-Webster also offers these definitions of diet:

1. A regimen of eating and drinking sparingly so as to reduce one’s weight (noun)
2. To eat sparingly or according to prescribed rules (verb)
3. Re...

I love talking about dreams. In a nutshell, here is my philosophy on dreams:

Dreams are big and beautiful and they come true by setting and getting a series of goals. You reach your goals by mastering healthy habits. And as I wrote in my post, “The #1 way to achieve your dream life,” healthy eating is a cornerstone habit. You can read that post here.

I love to be future-focused, but I want to be clear. What you do now determines what you will be in the future. What you eat now determines how you will feel in the future. Start now. Your dream is not sitting around and waiting for you. So, why would you wait to eat healthfully? 

Don’t wait! Take care of yourself now and everyday. Eat well now and everyday. And this routine of healthy eating will help you reach your dream. More than that, when you do, you’ll have a body and mind fit enough to enjoy it to the fullest.

Healthy eating is everyday self-care.

In a previous blog post, called “What is self-care?,” I offered the following de...

When I first started health coaching, I asked a lot of professional moms a lot of questions. My questions were geared to learning how to help them the most. I wanted to know if and how health coaching could help them. I asked questions like:

• What are your current eating habits?
• Are you content with them?
• Have you tried to change them before?
• What has stopped you in the past?
• What are your obstacles now?
• How do you want to feel in your body?

And I got amazing feedback! I’m so grateful for those women who gave me their time and their thoughts. From those conversations, there were two overwhelming ideas. I’m going to share one with you in this post. (Don’t worry. I’ll share the other one in time.)

These accomplished, Xennial and Generation-X moms asked:

What should I eat? I can do it if I know what to do!

And honestly, I struggled with that. I didn’t want to tell them what to eat. That sounded like a d-i-e-t to me. And I don’t support the d- word.  See … I can barely write i...

I coach because helping you get from where you are to where you want to be lights me up!

It’s an honor for me to be by your side as you dream big and knock down your goals, one by one. 

With every goal that you set and meet, you get closer to your dream. I think of your goals as the roadmap to your dream. So, if you want to make your dream come true, you need goals. And you have to make reaching your goals inevitable. 

But how do you do it? How do you reach your goals? 

To be successful, you need a system. And an essential part of that system is your habits. But not just any habits - healthy ones.

For this to really work, you need to understand it. Otherwise, it’s just a bunch of meaningless steps. With that said, here are some key ideas about habits:

• What is a habit?
• What makes a habit healthy?
• How do you make a healthy habit anyway?
• And how long will it take to make this healthy habit?

What is a habit?

First of all, without your knowledge, there’s a lot going on inside...

It’s July 1st!

July 1st has a special meaning for physicians and surgeons. Traditionally, it’s the first day of the training year. What does that mean? 

It means that brand new doctors start their first day of work, internship, on July 1st. With the flip of a calendar page, they go from medical student to doctor. On June 30th, they couldn’t possibly order a medication or a test for a patient, but on July 1st … Bam! They’re instantly capable!

It’s an incredibly exciting, albeit chaotic, day in teaching hospitals all across the country. I’ll be honest - it’s a chaotic month. Ok, really the first three months of the year can feel kinda wild. Oh, the memories!

The inside joke is don’t go to the hospital in July! I kid. I kid! You’ll get great care. Just know that July 1st is a big switch day. All of the young doctors are getting acclimated in new roles. It’s a time of transition and transitions can be slow. Or messy. Even confusing. 

But there’s an exciting, new world on the other sid...

If you’re anything like me, you don’t love the gym. It just feels … uncomfortable. Like, my tribe isn’t there. And that suited me just fine as a child. I was effortlessly active. I started dancing when I was three years old and continued until I was a senior in high school. I was also a sprinter and a high jumper. I kept moving but I never considered myself “working out.” I was just living my life.

My first year in college presented my first real fitness challenge. And I didn’t realize it until I returned home for the summer. In May of 1999, my grandparents and parents (who had seen me throughout the year) proclaimed over and over that I had “put on weight.” I didn’t see it and that was frustrating. So, I jumped on the scale. (Just to be clear - I don’t put much emphasis on weight. If it weren’t for my husband, I wouldn’t even have a scale in my home.) But there it was: the freshman 15. I. Was. Shocked.

My weight didn’t bother me, but my weight gain did. I definitely didn’t want t...

As the month of January comes to an end, I’d like to take a closer look at the number one New Year’s resolution for 2019: “Eat healthier.” Sounds simple, right? But there’s so much noise out there about how! Should you start a diet? If so, which one?! U.S. News & World Report declared the Mediterranean diet as the best in the nation. But your office mates say you should “Go paleo!” And how is that different from “going keto?” And what in the world is gluten and why can’t I have it?! Let’s take a closer look at these four diets: (1) Mediterranean (2) Paleo (3) Keto (4) Gluten-free.

Mediterranean diet

The Mediterranean region surrounds the Mediterranean Sea and includes several countries including Greece, and some of Italy and Spain. The Mediterranean diet is quite popular in the U.S. right now and encapsulates much of the region’s eating habits.

Why are fans raving?

In a study of more than 1.5 million people on the Mediterranean diet, there were fewer deaths, especially those ...

Did you make a New Year’s resolution?

New Year’s resolutions are a hot topic in January, and they are so controversial. While some are religious in their resolution-making; declaring, “new year, new me!” Others strongly oppose it: “I don’t need an arbitrary date to make a change.” This is a healthy debate where both the pro-resolution and the anti-resolution camps make strong points. 

Personally, I’m all about New Year’s resolutions. I think it’s fun to chase a new goal and take on a new challenge. January 1st is a memorable point in time, but it’s man-made. Your “new year” can begin whenever you decide you’re ready to change your life. You don’t have to wait for a particular day to make a change. Start today!

My most memorable resolution

In the fall of 2015, I realized I was tired of feeling so tired. A busy private practice surgeon, from Monday to Friday, I was usually away from home for 12 hours at a time. As a mom of two awesome boys, then 4 and 5 years old, after tucking them ...