If you’re looking to order whatever you want at a restaurant and NOT leave feeling gross, bloated, and guilty, I’ve got you! For my complete list of strategies for going out to eat Download our Free Guide on How to Eat Well at Restaurants!

Do you find that you dread going out to dinner when you're on a new health kick?!

All too often, I hear from clients and other members of our community that they feel they have two options when it comes to going out to eat:

1. Feel like they can’t go out and be social. They must “follow the plan” and are stuck in an  “all-or-nothing” mindset. 

Or…

2. They go out anyway, overindulging on what is their only opportunity to experience food freedom, but end up feeling gross, bloated, and guilty.

Either of those sound familiar?

But going out to eat shouldn’t be this hard!

Do you...

• believe some foods are "good" and others are "bad"?
• always feel an urge to finish everything on...

Y'all, in the heart of Muir Woods in San Francisco, there are RENOWNED redwood trees...

...and when I visited in April 2018, I noticed there are two distinct paths for each of the redwood trees.

The taller tree's path, thriving with light, felt really distant to me at that time, and far from the path I was on. Because up until that moment, I was planning to attend medical school.

And as I stared up at the trees, I started to cry…

Because I knew all too well the other path. The path of the lower-hanging trees. 

Those trees were out of alignment, and forced to contort their trunks and strain their branches to gain access to a fraction of the sunlight the superior trees have.

Coming from a family where most of the kids grow up and become physicians, I had pigeonholed myself into seeing medicine as the quintessential path for my career. It was going to provide me the chance to “fuse my passion for community service and admiration of science.”

But...

Do you want to be healthy but are scared you'll break the bank?! 

Keep reading! 

This blog post is a bit of tough love, but the truth is, it will change your perspective and your life...  

There's a lot of people trying to sell you cheap programs, supplements, diet apps, workouts, etc. 

And sure, that sounds great on the surface, right?! 

But these cheap options add up to a lot of money over the years when they continuously DON’T WORK. 

And what about the other costs of diets or programs like Beachbody or Noom or Keto? 

• Your mental & emotional health take a hit!
• Your confidence & self-worth take a hit!
• You feel like a failure when you're not successful as sustaining new habits! 

(Listen closely! Those programs ARE NOT BUILT FOR SUSTAINABILITY! It's not you, it's them.)  

When we approach our health with a "spending" mindset, just looking for the immediate gratification in the name of saving money, we hurt...

Wondering why your diets never work?

Let me explain.

The common denominator is that all diets are rooted in restriction.

And we always want what we can't have, right? 

So eventually you’ll reach breaking point, swing the other way to indulge (usually over-indulge) in the thing that you were restricting, and ultimately end up feeling like you failed. 

That's why you have to beware of diets that seem promising at first glance, but will only lead to unhealthy behaviors and a poor mindset.

For example, take Noom...

Noom is marketed as your “last weight loss program.” 

But in reality… Noom is a fad diet masked as a sustainable solution. 

So y’all, needless to say, I’ve got BEEF with Noom! 

Here’s why...

1. Weight loss is their #1 goal!

Here’s how it works. You get set up with a health coach, they provide accountability, work with you on nutrition, and on the app you can log exercise, your level of...

Ever tried a tea-tox? 

What about a juice cleanse? Weight loss vitamin or shake?! 

Has it helped you reach your goals…? 

Sustain your results…? 

I’m going to guess probably not...

And you’re NOT ALONE!

The supplement industry is worth $122 BILLION dollars (as of 2016), and it’s only going to continue growing. 

It’s important to remember the supplement industry is a BUSINESS. 

So, here’s the truth of the matter…

Because they want your money and to keep you coming back for more, they sell you FALSE HOPE that their product will be the answer to ALL of your problems, and improve your health FOREVER.

When in reality, most businesses are more concerned about profit over people. And even less concerned about a sustained result.

Additionally, supplements are NOT approved by the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration), so they are NOT regulated. Which means many supplements contain toxic chemicals not listed on...

To be honest, I’ve lost trust in medical professionals…

After I got my gut health condition diagnosis I was put on a VERY restrictive diet as a healing protocol, (Low-FODMAP plus other things) and I left my doctor’s office with a list of foods I could eat, and a longer list of foods I couldn’t eat.

And that was it! 

There was NO preparation for how starting this very restrictive diet as a “healing protocol” would impact me mentally and emotionally…

NO support for how to integrate the protocol in social settings…

And NO support for how to actually make enjoyable meals and snacks with the limited amount of foods I could have…

This lack of support left me feeling defeated, isolated, and honestly MORE sick. 

So what happened? 

Well, my symptoms didn’t improve. They actually got worse, which actually led to me developing eating disorder tendencies and an actual eating disorder.

If I had support with...

I learned the hard way that a non-stop lifestyle only leads to burnout and poorer health. 

My gut health condition has improved so much, although I'll be honest, I still have mini-flare ups sometimes. But the truth is, my healing was NOT because of any magic supplement or prescribed diet… 

I’ve healed myself by drastically changing my lifestyle and managing my stress levels.

When I was diagnosed with my gut health condition, I was a super  healthy person, but my stress levels were through the ROOF! I was working 80 hours+ per week, not taking any time for self-care, over-exercising, and just going, going, going…

And that’s what led me to develop my gut health condition, SIBO.

What is SIBO?

SIBO stands for small intestinal bacteria overgrowth, which is when we have too much gut bacteria in our small intestine. 

Normally, we don't have that much gut bacteria in our small intestine, or our stomach, because of the acidic...

Story time...

My freshman year of college I was terrified to gain weight. Literally, I was dreading the idea of gaining the “freshman 15”. 

So when I got to college I started exercising like CRAZY! 

I was trying to keep up with the level I was exercising in high school, which was about 30hours/week.

You know how it is... When we go to college so much changes! There’s a lot you can’t control. You’re living somewhere new, at a new school, with new friends, at a new level in life… And I wanted to keep something the same. For me, that was my body. 

My first semester in college I was a dance major (fun fact) and I really took that to the extreme... 

I would go to the gym before my dance classes and rehearsals, workout in my dorm room between classes, walk everywhere I could, keep my sweatshirt on while I worked out to sweat more, and literally did anything I could to burn more calories.

Then it took a turn.

I ended up leaving one...

 Y'all, let's talk about how to sustain a healthy lifestyle... 

It’s natural for people to start ramping up their “healthy lifestyle” this time of year. But most people go from 0 to 100 when they're starting a health kick! 

Which ultimately means they're not able to sustain that lifestyle because it's too restrictive and takes a backseat to other priorities.

And then we all know what happens… We fall off the wagon.

So, let's talk about how to prevent that from happening! 

1. SET GOALS AROUND FEELINGS AND BEHAVIORS! Start by taking a look at how you're setting goals. It's way more effective to set goals around how you're feeling in your body and what behavioral changes you're making. Versus setting goals based on how you want to "look" or how much you want to weigh.  
2. DOUBLE DOWN ON HEALTHY HABITS! We can't do all the things, all the time. So, pick two healthy habits, get those new habits down, and then add more...
3. GET...

I really thought that once I moved back to NYC my life would slow down, I’d have time to catch up on everything, and just chill… 

But I should know by now that life doesn’t work that way. 

Let’s put it this way — I’ve been in my new apartment for 1 month now and have maybe spent 5 days there.

The thing is, after being quarantined in my 200 square foot apartment for a year, like everyone else, I was itching to travel and get out…

So naturally I overbooked myself, and thus, have had serious social burnout this summer.

But I kept thinking to myself, “Just get to August. You’ll be in one place and finally settled. Then things will slow down and you can catch up.”

I'm still waiting for this to happen…

I’ve felt anything but settled with my continued travels, and having to constantly put other's needs before my own. Although it’s taking a toll on me, I have a new perspective today.

Life is...