How Do We Choose What to Eat?
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We make more than 250 decisions about food every single day. Every time you open the refrigerator, watch a TV commercial, eye a billboard, or observe a friend or co-worker eating – in every instance, whether you’re aware of it or not, you’re making a decision to eat or not to eat. But what sways us to choose or not to choose? Is it taste or hunger? Cost or convenience? How or where we were raised? With so many factors that influence our food choices, it’s a wonder that we ever eat consistently at all. Read more »
The occasional stressful event – like a car that won’t start, or a refrigerator on the blink – is a part of life. And when stuff like this happens, we do get stressed a little bit – it’s the body’s way of helping us to focus so we can tackle the problem. Getting stressed out occasionally is one thing, but when stress becomes chronic – when we face, for instance, unrelenting work demands or constantly worry about our finances – it can really take a toll on the body. 
It happened again the other day. I was teaching a class, and a student dismissed the health benefits of fruit because, as she put it, “it’s full of sugar”. This idea that fruit is somehow a bad thing to eat came into full swing with the low carb diet craze a few years ago. But the myth persists. Not a week goes by that I don’t hear someone tell me that they avoid fruit because it’s “all sugar” or “loaded with carbs”. So, I’m here to set the record straight and come to the defense of some of the world’s healthiest foods – fresh, whole fruits. 
Every once in a while, I’ll do a ‘two for one special’ counseling session – usually it’s a couple who have decided to make a joint effort to lose weight and get in shape. For the most part, it’s a great idea – after all, it’s so much easier to eat right and exercise regularly when your partner vows to do the same. But men and women are wired a bit differently– and couples may be surprised to find that they don’t always see eye-to-eye when it comes to tackling weight loss. 
Generally, this isn’t the time of year that most people are watching their weight – because if they were, they’d probably be watching it go up. But you’d be surprised. It’s not unusual for people to call me in a panic mid-December – realizing they’ve got a big New Year’s eve event coming up – and wondering what they can realistically accomplish in a couple of weeks. 
Last week, a friend was telling me that he’d eaten a huge serving of a delicious end-of-the-summer watermelon the evening before. Afterwards, he got to thinking – did he overdo it? Can you, in fact, eat too much of what’s good for you? 
Picture yourself at an all-you-can-eat buffet. Are you facing the buffet, or are you sitting with your back to it? Are you in a booth or at a table? Do you cruise the whole buffet line before deciding what to eat, or do you just plunge right in? To the well-trained eye, the way you behave in a buffet line could say a lot about you – and could very well affect how much you eat. 