As many of you know I'm a dietitian.  I've been a dietitian for fourteen years and recently started my own practice .  In addition, I'm a mom of two preschoolers and a wife.  I love my job and am so happy that I worked so hard to start my practice.  It gives me flexibility even with the added stress and it challenges me from a professional growth standpoint, as a mother, and a wife. I see clients who range from pediatric to geriatric and I'm reminded every day that frankly, life is hard. For some of my clients insurance covers my services but for many it is an out of pocket cost that is fairly expensive.  Add the expense to the added stress that comes with our generation and it's a lot to take.  Which brings me to a point about our generation. We've all heard it.  Our kids will be the first generation who will not out live their parents because of the "obesity" epidemic.  I see many pediatric children who are overweight or obese and I also see...

Last year the New England Journal of Medicine published that on average North Americans gain one pound of weight from Thanksgiving to New Years Day.  Of course, this is an average number meaning some gain less and some gain more. I've thought about this a lot because, in my opinion, Thanksgiving through New Years is the most difficult time of the year when it comes to nutrition counseling. Most of my clients live in absolute fear of gaining weight.  To them it means failure, disappointment, and can increase negative feelings about body image.  In addition to that fear, stress is at an all time high with holiday travelling, food preparation, and gift giving and focusing on nutrition can almost be debilitating.   W hat if the focus on the holidays from a weight management perspective was just to maintain?   Would that take some of the pressure off or ease the fear of failure?  I think it's worth a try so here are some of my tips to maintain through the ho...

I'm back after quite a long break.  Call it writers block or what you may but I've abandoned my blog and missed it greatly.  I have to say I was greatly impressed when I just logged on and saw that I've had over 15,000 views in the last few months.  I have been reading all your comments and listened to all your pleas to come back so here I am. Thanks for the push. Recently on my facebook page I asked for some help with some ideas to get me back on track with my blogging.  The first question I had was from one of my very good friends regarding the use of Coconut Oil for cooking asking, "I've been reading a lot lately about cooking with coconut oil...why is this better than olive oil?  Are there certain oils to avoid all together?"  My immediate reaction after reading this was 1) I hate the Internet  2) the Internet is going to slowly kill my profession by providing misinformation and then 3) well maybe there's some pos...

I have a lot of clients who come to my office with “a fear of carbs.”   They are either avoiding carbs or craving carbs.     Each visit is independent of each other, however the guilt, stress, and confusion is usually similar.   As I silently and calmly thank the media for yet again mass misinformation we soldier on and figure out the best plan to move forward. My theory has always been that the more you restrict your calories, a.k.a the fuel your body needs to get things done, the more your body is going to crave its simplest form of energy.   That unfortunately is carbs and if you aren’t eating enough of these the cravings are going to be constant and strong. You can imagine how excited I was when I read Cornell’s latest study that explored the relationship between hunger and food choices and consumption. The study reviewed 128 students and split them into two groups.   One group fasted for 18 hours starting at 6 pm and the other (the control grou...

I am very excited to announce that Ask Amy  was recently named as one of the Top 40 Nutrition Blogs by the The Institute for the Psychology of Eating .  Take some time to check them out and stay tuned for my next blog.  In the meantime if you have a nutrition question or concept that you'd like more information on comment below.

I have worked with lots of athletes in my thirteen years as a dietitian and it seems the big question is always what should I be eating pre and post exercise.   Often times this is not a simple answer as we must go through a typical daily intake of food combined with a specific explanation of exercise.   I do find, however, that the general public is completely confused about this and often over eating when it comes to pre and post meals. As Nancy Clark describes in the Sport’s Nutrition Handbook, there are two types of athletes:   “serious” and “recreational.”   Please do not get disturbed with these labels as I’m sure we all agree that the recreational exerciser is still quite serious about the method.   The point is that a serious athlete is the person who exercises intensely for approximately   90 minutes straight or someone such as a competitive swimmer or runner, a soccer player who may have two a days, or a triathlete training twice a day.   T...

There’s been a lot of press talking about a new diet pill Qnexa this week.   Have you heard about it?   Basically it’s a diet pill that combines amphetamine phentermine, medication said to suppress appetite and approved for short term diet use, and Topamax, a medication said to increase satiety.   Many federal health advisors have been singing its praise this week and it was even voted in favor 20-2 from FDA doctors.   The next steps are a follow up study to make sure the drug doesn’t cause any heart problems. Excuse me you say?   Yes that’s right.   The FDA urges the company to conduct a folIow up study.    You see, Qnexa was rejected by the FDA in October 2010 because a study showed a higher heart rate in those who took Qnexa and birth defects for woman who became pregnant.   Although, the drug did yield an average of a 10% weight loss, the highest reduction noted by any “diet drug,” the FDA wants to be sure to follow up just to be sure...