We are such creatures of habit, aren’t we? I see the same people on the same cardio machines day after day at my gym. (And I don’t just mean they’re always on the elliptical or whatever; they’re literally on the same machine! As in, the woman with the purple running shorts is always on the […]
May 25 2016
Go ahead, ask me how much Audrey makes me laugh. Good grief this girl is a riot! In this episode of The Messy Middle Audrey and I talk about how we eat, day in and day out, after each having lost 120 pounds. What does it take to lose the weight and keep it off? […]
I don’t know if I’m any more conscious of what I look like than any other woman, but maybe because I was obese up until 9 years ago (I used to weigh 265 lbs. and had a Body Mass Index of 43, which is clinically morbidly obese, and I now weigh 145 lbs. with a […]
We are running on fumes, many of us. We work, we nurture, we tend, we manage, we attend to, we contribute, we perform, we do. We do all the things. And then we get up the next morning and we do it again. It’s no surprise we long for vacations and we crave some pampering. […]
Mar 23 2016
Resentment is like a clichéd country western song, “I been wronged.” That is, somebody or something has crossed a line and you’re left feeling battered and bruised. Depending on the particulars of the situation, you experience feelings anywhere from miffed to downright furious. We’ve all experienced it: a girlfriend once again overlooks your birthday, though you always […]
Mar 15 2016
I always wondered why the whole “bloom where you’re planted” and “be grateful for what you have” thing left me feeling empty. Not just empty, but it left me feeling guilty, like an ungrateful, selfish wretch. I don’t know if you were an Oprah follower back in the days of her regular talk show, but […]
Mar 4 2016
I recently had the chance to chat with 425 Magazine (a local Seattle-area publication) about my journey from fat to fit after decades of obesity. Here’s the link and the interview. By Joanna Kresge | March 4, 2016 She had gone from a fat kid, to an overweight young mom, to a morbidly obsese adult until 2007, […]
The correct answer is … whichever one you need to lose. No seriously, it’s true. They’re both challenging, but for very different reasons. And wherever you find yourself on the spectrum, that’s the one that’s the most difficult. Here’s what I mean… Let’s say you are in your mid-40s and find yourself 50+ pounds overweight. […]
A decade or so before I finally lost weight, in the midst of one of my more earnest attempts at dieting, I enlisted the help of a nutritional counselor. She was a sort of hybrid nutritionist and behavioral coach who had me record what I ate for the week and then take it to her […]
Feb 18 2016
Q&A: “How do you lose belly fat?” Someone posed this question to me the other day, and I’ll admit I was a little intimidated by it. First, it’s a huge question! Entire books have been written about it. People with lots of letters after their names write Ph.D. dissertations and scholarly journal articles about it. […]
Feb 17 2016
The other day I decided, not really impulsively, but definitely not with my usual slow, methodical deliberation, to apply for a job that I’d been coveting. It’s one of those jobs that I’ve always dreamed of; one of those jobs that seemed more aspirational than realistic. But it involves everything that I’m passionate about – […]
I recently had the privilege to sit down with Weight Watchers personal coach and leader Dale Snyder to talk about the new “Beyond the Scale” program. Listen in to learn what’s so smart about “SmartPoints” and why losing weight is just part of what makes this new program so exciting!
In the 20+ years I spent as a morbidly obese woman, first as a young mom, and then throughout my 30s and into my 40s, I could not have told you what it meant to set meaningful boundaries. The needs of others were my daily directive. I often wished and hoped that someday I could […]
We’re all obsessed with the number of calories we burn during our workouts. Every cardio machine at the gym has a calorie counter on it (never mind that they’re wildly inaccurate). All the popular weight loss apps have an exercise component that will “credit” your workout and magically award you more calories to […]
PODCAST: “Feed Me!” Naked Broad View EPISODE 4
Jan 27 2016
What do you do when the people you count on the most for support are actually trying to undermine your success? Listen in as Marilyn shares strategies for how to deal with saboteurs, enablers and their antics. In this podcast Marilyn looks at: Who the typical saboteurs are What their strategies are What their motives are […]
When I’m approached by someone to review my book, Eat Like It Matters: How I Lost 120 Pounds and Found My Inner Badass (And How You Can Too!), I am always flattered. When Megan Tenney of ShapingUpToBeAMom.com reached out asking if she could review the book, I was thrilled! Megan’s dynamic, playful and informative blog focuses […]
Jan 21 2016
A little bit of meal prep goes a long way when it comes to assembling healthy meals in a hurry. Busy weeknight dinners are breeze with Marilyn’s favorite tricks for prepping lean proteins, complex carbs and healthy fats ahead of time. In this podcast you’ll learn how to: Prep lean proteins for super-fast weeknight meal assembly […]
Jan 19 2016
I had the pleasure of appearing on KOMO TV in Seattle on Friday, January 15th to talk about my own weight loss experience and a few tips for others who want to create healthy change in their own lives.
If you’re trying to eat healthy, a trip through the mall food court can be fraught with hazards. When I weighed 265 pounds I was constantly dieting, but I was also constantly craving sugary, fatty, ooey-gooey foods. The smell of Cinnabon or Auntie Anne’s would send me reeling and I’d battle with myself: Don’t stop! […]
Jan 7 2016
Am I limited to just one body part that drives me bonkers? We all have them; some of us have more than one. Maybe you tell yourself: Ugh, my bust is too big (or too small). My arms flap in the breeze. I hate the way my muffin top smooshes out over the top of […]
It’s early January and as predictable as swallows flying to Capistrano or rain falling in Seattle, my gym is packed once again. Don’t get me wrong; I hold no animosity toward those who join a gym in January. They’re following through on their New Year’s resolution to get fit and healthy, and what’s not to […]
Jan 2 2016
Happy New Year! I hope you rang in 2016 with all the excitement and fanfare you could muster (even if that meant being in bed by 10:30, like me). As great as 2015 was for my family and me (a published book, a family move), 2016 is full of potential and promises to be even […]
Dec 28 2015
Not all emotional eating is what we think of as “emotional eating.” What do I mean by that? You’d think that when I weighed 265 pounds and overate nearly every day, I was an “emotional eater.” And yes, I ate when I was frustrated or when I was sad, even when I was bored. That’s […]
Dec 11 2015
My elves have been busy rounding up lots of great holiday gift ideas for all the special people on your list! Listen in to find out what I’ll be giving and a few things that I hope I’ll find in my own stocking.
Up until very recently (like literally two weeks ago) I would’ve told you that cheat meals were a bad idea. In fact, I did tell you that cheat meals were a bad idea. In a blog in April of 2013, I wrote: … cheat meals become unnecessary because we construct a diet around rules that […]
When Cassandra Burke (aka “poweredbyBLING”) contacted me asking if she could review my book Eat Like It Matters: How I Lost 120 Pounds and Found My Inner Badass (And How You Can Too!) I was only too happy to ship off a copy to her. Even so, there’s always a moment of fear when an […]
I thought I had my body image issues licked after having lost 120 lbs., but then I realized something that shook me to my core. At that moment it occurred to me that I’d just transferred my sense of okay-ness from “I’m bad because fat = bad” to “I’m good because thin = good”. But shouldn’t we be striving […]
Nov 27 2015
Ready to start your holiday shopping? Me too! At the moment I feel pretty calm, but in a couple of weeks I know that I’ll start to panic, wondering whether I’m actually gonna be able to pull this off once again. So many special people to buy for! If that’s what you’re thinking, I’ve gotcha […]
Nov 19 2015
From pages 194 – 195 of Eat Like It Matters: When people ask me why I decided to write about my struggle with my weight, I tell them that sometimes I secretly wish I could just sit down and shut up about it. Truly, I find it embarrassing to talk about my food demons, my unhappiness in […]
What’s my exact lean muscle mass? How much essential body fat do I need? Unless you use a body composition analysis, you’re just guessing. Good information is power, the power to change! The DXA body composition analysis is the gold standard for body composition testing. Listen in as Eric Miller from the Washington Institute for […]
Picture this: I’m driving down the road, flailing my arms around like a lunatic (my kids say my “dancing” involves much more elbow than is necessary), but I’m headed to the gym, so I gotta get in the zone. For me, getting in the zone means a little bitta Flo Rida’s “The Club Can’t (must […]
Nov 14 2015
I’ve been thinking a lot about intensity lately: the intensity we bring to our workouts, the intensity that guides our food choices, the intensity with which we live our lives. The reason I’ve been thinking about intensity so much is because I’m currently reading Living with a SEAL: 31 Days Training with the Toughest Man […]
From pages 180 – 181 of Eat Like It Matters: Raise your hand if you have an uncomplicated relationship with your mother. So nobody, right? Yeah, me either. This is one of the most complex human relationships there is. For those of us who are lucky enough to have our mothers in our lives, we may still […]
Nov 11 2015
Obviously healthy living – moving my body, making good food choices, having meaningful relationships, practicing self-care – is really important to me. When you honor your values, you practice them all the time, including when you’re entertaining guests in your home. I recently threw a dinner party where I put this principle to the test! Listen […]
Nov 10 2015
The road to weight loss failure is paved with low-fat cheesecake. I mean, we all understand that eating “real food” (that is non-processed) is best. And there can’t be a soul left on the planet who hasn’t gotten the memo that “low-fat” processed foods are often jacked up on sugar. Still, it can seem harmless […]
Nov 9 2015
That’s my doctor’s handwriting on that prescription. She literally wrote “No peanut butter” alongside her other recommendations. To put her advice in context, she and I had been discussing my weight fluctuations and my frustration with my inability to moderate some foods, namely peanut butter. You may be familiar with my “two tables” strategy. Here’s […]
Nov 7 2015
I may not technically still be a “big girl,” but frankly I’m pretty muscular so I’m definitely on the bigger side of average. In our skinny-obsessed world, bigger isn’t necessarily considered better, even when bigger suits our body-type. I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to be a “big girl” lately. In this […]
Nov 5 2015
As much as I love my hashtag #ItMatters and believe in what it represents – healthy choices matter, self-acceptance matters, happiness matters – I’m going to propose another one with an equally important message: #DoItAnyway All too often, in the face of a difficult choice, we become paralyzed. When it comes to our healthy living […]
Nov 4 2015
I was just coming off of one of those weekends when I recorded this podcast. You know the kind … dinner out with friends one night, a birthday party the next night, running errands all day Saturday and then a football game on Sunday (with snacks, of course!). What’s a healthy eater to do?!? Listen […]
It was about six weeks ago something occurred to me that really shook me to my core. I’m a little embarrassed to say that I hadn’t thought of it before. I’ll get to what triggered this epiphany in a sec, but the thought I had was just this: my body image hasn’t really changed since […]
I had the pleasure of talking with Michelle King Robson and Pam Peeke, MD on Radio MD recently to talk about my book, Eat Like It Matters. We had a lot of fun sharing our dieting horror stories but agreed that the path to health and happiness is worth the struggle. Listen in!
Oct 31 2015
Yes, I know it’s October 31st, not December 31st. Don’t worry, I don’t have my calendar on the wrong page. It just that, a couple of years ago I started celebrating my “new year” on my birthday rather than in January. Since my birthday was last week I invested some time deciding what my goals […]
From pages 166– 168 of Eat Like It Matters: This may sound harsh. Certainly it’s a big ol’ serving of tough love with no holds barred. And the last thing I’m gonna say before I launch into it is that I made every one of these mistakes, to the nth degree, for decades. So the tough love […]
From pages 151 – 153 of Eat Like It Matters: Does everybody have an inner athlete? I dunno. I do know that 120 pounds ago I would’ve told you that I didn’t have one. Turns out, I was wrong. I do have an inner athlete, and I have harnessed her strength and drive to finally put to rest […]
Oct 28 2015
Last year I started a new tradition. Instead of making New Year’s resolutions on January 1st I’d make them on my birthday (which was yesterday), in celebration of my own “new year.” I was feeling pretty smug about that decision, and if you’re curious to read what my resolution was last year here’s that blog. […]
Oct 27 2015
Full disclosure: today’s my birthday. Side note: no freaking way I feel 53. Okay, I confess, I don’t know what 53’s supposed to feel like, but whatever it is, I don’t feel it. I’m (very slowly) coming to terms with this whole aging thing. Looking back, 44 was a really big year for me. I […]
I used to joke that I was a lifetime member of Weight Watchers … not because I’d ever reached my goal weight, but because I’d been dieting my entire lifetime. Maybe that’s just the nature of dieting; it leaves us feeling like time’s standing still … and we’re not getting anywhere. When I finally decided I’d had […]
From pages 128 – 130 of Eat Like It Matters: Stilettos are sexy. Fast cars are sexy. Some say facial hair is sexy (though generally only on men). But let’s be honest, schedules aren’t sexy. Still, sticking to a schedule when it comes to your eating and exercise habits can make all the difference when it comes to […]
Oct 15 2015
As a confirmed curmudgeon (seriously, even when I was a much younger woman), I’ve always assumed that happy people were just jolly types who went along untouched by the daily drudgery that served as confirmation to me that life was made up of to-do lists, responsibilities, bills and other people’s agendas to fulfill. And back […]
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