Sugar and cold turkey
On March 12, David Leonhardt wrote a useful and informative article in the New York Times titled "Big Sugar Versus Your Body." It described his family's attempt to remove hidden sources of sugar from their food choices. The goal was to preserve the sugary pleasure of certain foods (such as ice cream and chocolate, which he loved) but to be on the lookout for hidden added sugar (mostly found in processed foods). Leonhardt mentioned in his column that "Working with experts an
How to get the most out of Weight Watchers
I'm delighted that an article of mine entitled "Tips to help you get the most out of your group weight loss experience," which mentioned Thin is a State of Mind, appeared on the delightful web site Simple Nourished Living, spearheaded by Martha McKinnon. It's a great honor to appear there! My piece gave tips on how to be successful with any group weight-loss plan: 1. You are your own expert 2. Attitude is everything 3. Insist on accepting only correct feedback 4. Think l
Ketosis: The silver bullet, Part Two
In my February 28 post, Ketosis: The Silver Bullet in Weight Loss, I tried to make the case that carbohydrate-restricted diets (a.k.a. "ketotic diets") were the most effective way to bring about fat loss (which should be every diet's primary goal). In this post I will try to flesh out my description of ketosis in more detail: what the body is trying to accomplish with ketosis; what being in ketosis feels like; why not to be afraid of it; what pitfalls to watch out for; and
Vacation beauty news
Well! Thin is a State of Mind has been mentioned by Beauty News NYC as a good book to take on a summer vacation! To quote them, "it's not your typical weight loss book. Quoting Emerson...she helps guide readers through pitfalls and misconceptions to find sane, successful strategies for maintaining a healthy weight." In addition to Emerson, the book also quotes Baba Ram Dass, W.H. Auden, Colette, Timothy Gallwey, and scads of other wisdom sources. Great beach reading! Toda
Why "will power" won't (do it)
One of the most deep-seated illusions in all of Western culture is the belief that we can and should control our behavior by using "will power". I can't hope to overthrow an idea as deeply entrenched as this one in this short piece, but I can sketch another system that is much better for solving personal problems. If what we were already doing was working, I'd have no reason to be writing. But it isn't working; our problems aren't getting solved. We need a whole new menta
Your body is talking to you. Yes, you
Did you know that your body talks to you? Well, it does: and as a matter of fact, it never shuts up! It's not entirely our fault if we're blind to internal messages from the body: in English "body" and "mind" are two separate words, implying two separate things. But this linguistic anomaly fails to describe the elegant processes taking place within a human body. A much better way to think about this subject would be to employ the concept of "bodymind," i.e., the body tha
Can anxiety make you fat? Part Two
My article "Can Anxiety Make You Fat?", which was posted on Beliefnet.com and Zestnow.com, answered the question with a resounding "Yes." The major culprit here is cortisol, a hormone that is produced when the body is under stress. One of the things that cortisol does is "preferentially direct body fat to the abdominal region" (i.e., create belly fat), as Dallas and Melissa Hartwig state in their 2012 book It Starts with Food. But something even scarier is happening here:
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