Exercise used to be my unhealthy obsession. It usually felt joyless, but I gave it hours every day. I’d jog alone at night and lift weights so aggressively that I was nearly always sore. If someone delayed my "workout" (a term I rarely use now!), I would get so anxious that I wanted to cry. My friends called me a health nut, but when I was honest with myself, I wasn’t exercising for my health. I was willingly sacrificing my safety and mental health to shrink my body into OK-n

Last month I wrote about lowering your standards so self care is an invitation, not an obligation. For example, rather than resisting an hour of yoga, offer yourself one pose. If more happens after that one pose, awesome! If it doesn’t, you’ve still practiced. The purpose in lowering standards is to offer yourself an invitation to self care that’s easy to say “yes” to. The more often you accept that invitation, the sooner you’ll find yourself with a steady habit that can g

Americans are big fans of ambition and productivity. We work long hours, wear “busyness as a badge of honor,” and set New Year’s resolutions designed to take us from non-runners to marathoners in a flash. This can lead to advances in science, humanitarian contributions that help the world become a better place, and professional success. When it comes to lifestyle change, however, we can feel as though we’ve failed if we fall short of our high expectations. Here’s an

Recently, I came across a box of some of my many old journals. The last time I stumbled upon them, I found some embarrassing relics of my past, including a love letter to New Kids on the Block and a photo of my face pasted onto a model posing with Chris O’Donnell. This time, I found a notebook of mostly tables and numbers. I flipped through a couple of pages before I recognized it as one of my old “health tracking” notebooks. From high school through public health grad

Here’s the thing about 2015. Despite appearances, there’s still time to bring a little of this year’s bucket list to life! OK, so maybe there isn’t time to hang glide over Switzerland, holding hands with Beyonce, before the clock strikes midnight. But if that’s your kind of daydream, you’ve still got a chance to get at the core of that feeling you’re chasing. So, what is it? Are you looking for adventure? Purpose? Gratitude? Excitement? You can absolutely grab a litt

The other morning, on my way to the mailbox in stained house-cleaning clothes, I thought to myself, “Oh, I should definitely know better by now.” You see, not that long ago, in these same ratty clothes, I was caught on camera by the Bing Maps mapping car. Now that there’s a photo of me looking unkempt and startled, available to anyone looking for street view directions to our neighborhood, you’d think I’d put more effort into my appearance when I go to the mailbox. Clearly th

Why do I, someone with a public health and health coaching background, encourage people to stop trying to lose weight? Focusing on weight loss rarely makes people healthier and happier. Focusing on lifestyle does. For far too long, the $20+ billion weight loss industry and the medical and public health communities have been communicating the message that thinness and health are one and the same. Even if it was true that body mass index must be within a particular range to be

Most of us have firsthand experience with how hard changing our lifestyle can be. We get pumped up about New Year’s resolutions, only to get frustrated with ourselves a couple weeks later if we drop them. “Forget it! I don’t have enough time to meditate.” “It’s just too hard to quit smoking.” We feel like failures when we don’t have the drive to make a new behavior stick. But we aren’t failures at all! We just lean too much on something that fails: willpower. Willpower isn’t

“If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.” – Gail Sheehy One of the most tumultuous times of change in my life was when I embarked on yoga teacher training. I’d deliberated over teacher training for years and was determined and passionate to teach classes that felt safe and accessible to people whose bodies didn’t match the stereotypical yogi physique. When I showed up to the studio on day 1, I may as well have had my eyes tightly scrunche

I have a strict dental care routine just to keep from handing over the entire contents of my checking account to my dentist, since my teeth are infuriatingly prone to cavities. A couple of years ago, after a particularly traumatizing visit to the dentist, I started flossing my teeth multiple times a day. I've had less trouble with tooth sensitivity and fewer cavities, although I do still get them (blasted genes). Flossing was kind of a pain until I came across a lifehack usin