May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and we are taking some time to focus on the importance of taking a mental health day — preferably before your bandwidth runs out. There’s a certain stigma around mental health and each year, individuals who deal with bouts of depression or other mental health concerns, are faced with fighting that stigma. That said,...

Bang! The starting gun goes off as you begin a marathon that starts right now and ends when you die, literally. You feel strong and motivated to begin, sprinting forward to get ahead of the pack, and smiling as you hear your friends and family cheering you on. You see the sun breaking over the horizon, feel the cool breeze...

Stress — we all live with it and although we can’t live without it, we can use the power of food and superfoods to be more resilient and adaptive to it. Stress can absolutely impact our food choices and trigger emotional eating, food cravings, mindless eating, and binge eating. It can also do the opposite and make us not want...

As I typed this title, I was struck by the fact that 20 is a rather large number when you compare it to a lifetime. It represents half my life (nearly); I’ve invested half of my life to being a health and exercise professional. There’s not any aspect I would change, but there are lessons I learned that I hope...

Reflection is an interesting term. In the literal sense, it refers to the observation of the light reflecting in the mirror, a snapshot of your current self with all the gray hairs of time, the wrinkles of wisdom, and the tired eyes of a married person who is nearly 40 with one son and many responsibilities. In the metaphysical sense,...

“He who has health has hope and he who has hope has everything.” — Arabian Proverb When reflecting back on my own journey as a physician and as a person concerned about my own long-term health, this saying comes to mind. Often, it can be confusing to know what health really means. When I was younger, the definition of health...

Reflection Have you ever looked back at older photos of yourself and thought that you looked really good; only to realize that when that photo was taken, you actually thought you were “fat”? Crazy right? I have done that many times. So much of my life has been wasted by obsession over weight, my body, and food. I have spent...