Clearing The Channel – A Case Study

People often ask what I mean by “clearing the channel.” In the Happy Calories Don’t Count world, we view ourselves as a conduit for energy – physical energy, mental energy, emotional energy, and spiritual energy. Rather than focus on what or how much we eat, or what or how much we do for exercise, we focus on keeping the conduit …

Dangerous Philosophies

Someone recently tweeted about Happy Calories Don’t Count, “Dangerous philosophy, but I like it!” While I’m honored to have earned a tweet, and the comment does seem to be complimentary, it makes me wonder. Why is the idea that “Happy Calories Don’t Count” dangerous? Is “dangerous” simply a colorful synonym for “fun” or “nice”? Or did this person really mean …

Money, Love and Weight Loss

I know you are here to see what I’m going to say about weight-loss, but I need a moment to talk about two other very important subjects: your money and your love life. Why is that? Well, we, as human beings, have three general areas of interest that we consider important: 1) Money (or career) 2) Relationships (intimate, family, friendships) …

A Prayer For March

As much as I love animals, I’m calling Punxsutawney Phil out! He predicted an early spring and it snowed yesterday!! Yes, some may argue that I shouldn’t take my weather cues from a groundhog. But rather than defend my whimsical nature, I’ll simply share a lovely piece I found in my “Happy Thoughts” folder. Once again I have no idea …

Treadmills, Ice Cream and Bikinis

Here’s a little story I’d like to share about the world in which so many of us live.  I was shopping the other day, and walking by a swimming suit display was a woman, perhaps in her 30s or 40s, and a girl, I assume her daughter, who looked to be about 10 or 11. I was minding my own …

Rich and Thin

A phrase I don’t hear much anymore is, “You can never be too rich or too thin.” Perhaps it has fallen out of popular favor, but money and weight are still very common analogies for each other. In fact, this came through on Facebook just the other day. My friend:  Dieting is a lot like Deficit Reduction: The problem is …

Deaf Ears

This weekend I learned the most astonishing thing! I had two opportunities to teach Happy Calories Don’t Count, and I discovered that many of the people I thought I could potentially help the most cannot – or will not – hear me. Friday evening’s event was a great mix of speakers and participants. When it was finally my turn to …

Mary E. Mebane On Change

I discovered this excerpt about 20 years ago, I don’t know where. A friend passed it along, or I found it in some magazine somewhere. And although it’s been tucked away in my little “Happy Thoughts” folder all this time, I’ve found myself contemplating it lately. While researching this on Google (to make sure I had the correct credits), I …

The Message Behind The Message

Last week I had another opportunity to speak about my book, Happy Calories Don’t Count (neither does unhappy exercise), on the radio. While I was waiting for the interview to begin, I could hear the program co-hosts discussing an important community issue. Apparently, there is debate regarding a potential advertising sign along some stretch of highway. One of the co-hosts was suggesting …