Many of us were raised by survivors of the Great Depression. My grandma once told me, “We were hungry, but your grandfather’s family was starving.” Which explains why the man would eat anything put before him. Clearly, he did not belong to the group…

At the last second, my husband had to bail on an upcoming cruise. Family couldn’t swing it either, so I asked – as one does – the busiest woman on the planet if she’d like to be my plus-one. As busy women do, she quickly said yes and went about shutting…

Let me say right off the bat that there’s nothing special about me (my grandma wasn’t a Rockette and my people never brought home the gold). True to my genetics, I was “well-insulated” for three-plus decades of life. Never reedy, I always looked…

I was a roly-poly kid, a squishy teen, and a squashier young adult (ages 18 to 36). Like most of us, I’ve yo-yo’d through a bazillion diets and a million more workouts with the likes of Jane Fonda; Lilias, Yoga and You; and Jazzercise…

After a lifetime of being – uh – well-insulated, I lost 55 pounds in my early 40s and have kept the pounds off for 17 years as I write. I’m currently 59. (I know you’re wondering, so, yes, I carried twins and am 10 years past meno.) When friends ask…

If the book hasn’t yet been written, it’s utterly overdue, and just to get the ball rolling let me suggest the title: Surviving Life with a Scarfer. It seems to be a truism in life that those of us who meticulously watch our food intake pair up…

I love a tasty buzz as much as the next girl, but at the same time I don’t want to drink what are essentially boozy desserts and run screaming from my scale on New Year’s Day. Having maintained my loss for years now, I have zero interest…

Women of yesteryear were tough. (And, spoiler alert: so are you and I.) Can you imagine? Those women had no right to vote (until 1920 in the U.S.), iffy birth control, sketchy medical care, no Pampers, no dishwasher…

I never met a holiday menu I didn’t embrace. Like so many of us I was “dieting” (here and there) some of the year, but when a holiday rolled around, out the window the diet went. Problem is, we celebrate something every month…

After losing 55 lbs. in my 40s and keeping those pounds off for 16 years now (I’m 57 today), there was a reliable go-to question that I asked myself almost every day, and I want to share its power with you. When my husband – mostly lovingly known…