95% of diet fail. A look at sixty years of evidence supporting diet failure.

The other day I was writing out my grocery list and noticed I needed a lot of cheese. Cream cheese for bagels, blue cheese for salads, cheddar cheese for sandwiches, and fresh mozzarella for pizza. And I thought, “Whoa! There was a time when I would not have felt ok about eating this much cheese!” Back in my diet-y days, cheese was on my (totally irrational) bad foods list. I’d convinced myself cheese wasn't a "clean" food and never allowed myself to eat it. (Unless it was a

Each of us has a different weight at which our bodies function optimally. This naturally easy-to-maintain weight is our set point.

2019 is here and there's no shortage of resolution talk flooding the media. But the reality is, most resolutions fail before the end of February . . . leaving us feeling pretty crappy before the year even gets started. So this year I have a few resolutions that are actually worth keeping: Ditch the *Goals*As a health and fitness professional I've been taught, over and over again, that those SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound) are everything

Have you ever really tracked your daily food intake? I mean weighed or measured every single thing you ate for the day then logged it in a tracking app? If so you know it totally sucks. It can take hours to track a full day of food especially if you have to manually enter each component of your meal. Did you have oatmeal for breakfast? Or did you have oatmeal cooked with skim milk, two tablespoons sliced almonds, two teaspoons flax seed, chopped apple (one eighth an apple to

One of the most popular trends in dieting over the past few years is intermittent fasting. And let’s be clear hear, this is definitely a diet. Just do an internet search for “The Every Other Day Diet” or “The 16:8 Diet” – diet is right there in the name. While early research has shown weight loss and improved chronic disease risk with intermittent fasting, there is no long-term evidence to suggest that this diet is any more sustainable than any other restrictive diet. A few p

The non-diet trend has given rise to lots of new “lifestyles” that, as it turns out, are just diets in disguise. One of the more frustrating of these actually-a-diet diets is the meal plan. Now before I get carried away let me say that there are absolutely benefits of planning meals in advance. It can be helpful to sit down with your schedule over the weekend and consider which meals are going to work for you in the week ahead. If you have a late meeting on Tuesday, plan a di

The idea of a non-diet approach to nutrition has become pretty trendy in the last few years. Any nutrition professional who’s not an ass-hole probably agrees that extremely restrictive, low calorie diets aren’t the answer. What’s at the heart of this slow shift towards a non-diet approach? Over time we’re beginning to recognize that restrictive diets simply aren’t effective in the long term. And guys, this isn’t just me and a few other nutrition recluses screaming RIOTS NOT D

It was on a Sunday evening much like this one almost a year ago that I came home from a meeting with a dear friend, sat down at my computer, and began designing the logo for my long dreamed-of nutrition consulting company. The next day I incorporated with the state of Illinois and Food Wonderful was born. My friend Shana, a former patient of mine, had invited me to join her for lunch and we spent the afternoon discussing how we could promote good nutrition within her church