Live Free, Laugh Hard

I grew up in Finland knowing a term that directly translates to "New Helpless" in English. This term was used to describe a phenomenon that was reported to be on the rise in Generation X. New helplessness referred to young adults who were moving out on their own just to discover that they were completely ill-equipped for "adulting." They lacked basic life skills, such as cleaning, cooking, and self-care because of either excessive pampering by their parents or simple laziness to learn. In today's world, we can add a third group of "new helpless" young adults - those raised by "new helpless" parents and thus lacking a role model for learning life skills. In my early teens, I heard a lot about the "new helpless" because my dad was a particularly harsh critic of these people he described as, "dummies whose parents did too much for them so they never learned anything and are now out there walking around with their t...

The current culture of political correctness and circling around issues to assure no one has a chance to find anything offensive in our words have me often feeling powerless. I want to help people understand health and weight loss and it seems that plenty of people still want to get healthy and would like to lose weight. However, I feel that it's just so easy to end up the target of an attack, if you give unsolicited or public advice. Your words can be taken out-of-context and your well meaning advice be labeled extremist. Yet, now at 42, my friends and family are getting sick. They're not just getting randomly sick either. They're getting the ailments that their lifestyle would predict. Those who always ate a lot of meat are getting cancer and they have intestinal issues ranging from constipation and diverticulitis, to IBS. Those who drank a lot of alcohol have elevated liver enzymes, cancer, and auto-immune diseases. Those who have been overweight get ...

In this culture of body acceptance, I find that a slim or fit person now gets pointed at for not being normal or judged as not having a "desirable human form." In the current social climate on fitness, it no longer takes an underweight physique for someone to be judged as being "too skinny" because the world's reference point, the so-called "average person" is now clinically overweight. Being called "too skinny" or to "go eat a sandwich", can creep into the psyche of even the most athletic, health conscious person. Unfortunately, in the back of their mind, this negative message can make one feel unattractive and persuade someone to begin overeating to "fix" this suddenly perceived lack in one's external beauty. This pressure to have a fuller body or to "not look like a boy" can occur despite our knowledge that being overweight, along with the lifestyle factors that lead to being overweight i...

I have been studying weight loss for over 20 years. I have studied anatomy and physiology, behavioral science, and motivational theories related to weight loss. I have read thousands of scientific journal articles and books on nutrition, exercise physiology, and medicine and based on my knowledge, I have designed personalized programs for people to lose weight and regain their health. I have researched the quick fixes and gimmicks from cabbage soup diet to liposuction, interviewed people who tried them, and analyzed these fads for any potential effects and harmful side effects. I have used my knowledge to lose weight, when my person health behaviors deteriorated and when I struggled to overcome binge eating and sugar addiction and I taught the behaviors I learned to work to all types of people in various settings. I have designed and implemented fitness programs, motivational group programs, and lecture series on health, weight loss, and fitness. I have gone to doctors ap...

I had been a health focused person all my life.  Yet, there were several poor health behaviors that I couldn’t quite kick.  The worst of them was my tendency to binge eat and binge drink.  I was also extremely hooked on sugar, finding my cravings often impossible to control.     In my 20s, I compensated for my binging and sugar consumption by exercising more after a “bingy” weekend or evening and by limiting my calories 4-5 days a week to allot for a few binges each week.  It worked well enough to keep my weight in control but inside my head, I was often going crazy with the desire to stuff myself silly or to eat a half a German chocolate cake in one sitting.  I was often bloated, my skin would break out after particularly bad weekends, and I always gained about 10 pounds on vacations when I would allow a total loss of control.     In my 30s, I got busy with school and life and my poor choices got out-of-control.  Ins...

The way to the middle-way is to not succumb to the perceived value of extremes.  This is why I caution people when they believe in the value of extreme behaviors as a solution to their problems - no matter which end that extreme is in.  Those extremes are the opposite ends of the same stick and usually picking that stick up from one end means that you end up smacking yourself in the head with the other end. You can balance the stick holding it in the middle a lot essier than trying to stand it on it's end. Nowhere is this perception, that extreme change is the way to success, more apparent than in health behaviors and fitness goals.  People are forever searching for the most intense program with immediate, extreme results.  They believe that quitting "cold turkey" is easier than reducing their vices, so they go on for years and decades waiting for the right moment to quit all while talking the talk of quitting without any action.  Some order the m...