Sandi Kaplan, MS, RD, Associate Director, Clinical Development and Support:   The holiday season can be challenging for even for those of us with the best of intentions. I am committed to prioritizing my health during the holiday season. It can be a stressful time so I need my balanced meals and snacks and my regular physical activity more than ever. So imagine my response when I opened a recent holiday gift – an enormous cheesecake. Well, actually it was a package of twelve slice... [More]

Erin Thompson, Marketing Manager:   This Thursday, November 19, the nation will celebrate the 34th annual Great American Smokeout, sponsored by our partner in tobacco cessation, the American Cancer Society (ACS). Check out this endorsement from Dear Abby's Abigail Van Buren, who posted a letter from Dr. Alan G. Thorson, National Volunteer President of the ACS, in response to a request from "Desperate" in Arlington, Texas.

Ken Wassum, Senior Product Manager, Tobacco:   The slight increase in smoking prevalence detected by the National Health Interview Survey is cause for concern but probably not alarm. The upward trend was small (less than 1%) but it should definitely give us pause. Smoking prevalence has reduced over the years due to a number of factors. The increasing cost of smoking from excise taxes and price increases, as well as smoke-free indoor air restrictions, have both led to reductions in smok... [More]

Jane Connell, MS, RD, Nutrition Coach:   Earlier in my career as a dietitian, I thought it would be really exciting if I could develop a magic pill which would assist my clients in losing weight. It would be so quick! And so easy! So well suited - a perfect fit - for our instant-gratification society. Just for fun, let us play out the magic pill scenario. What might that look like for you? You could eat whatever you want, however much you wished, whenever. You could do (or not do)... [More]

Aimee Schiefelbein, Quit Coach, Service Delivery:   "I think I want to quit but my parents and all of my friends smoke. I just don't know how I am going to do it because they won't quit." As a Quit Coach, this is something I hear often from teenagers. Furthermore, the teen I am talking with usually has ambivalence about quitting in the first place, as many don't relate to the long-term health impact or have incentive to quit in the first place. A recent study by the University of ... [More]

Krista Gilbert, Quit Coach, Service Delivery:   It can be easy to get overwhelmed by the tobacco problem. Tobacco is still the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. Every day I talk to people suffering from emphysema or heart disease and tobacco is largely to blame. I talk to people whose budgets are drained by the price of their habit and whose families are begging them to quit. Tobacco takes its toll. But then I take a step back and look at the BIG picture. I think of w... [More]

Erika Van Calcar, MS, RD, Nutrition Coach:   We have all been there, right? We’re curled up in front of the TV with a bowl of ice cream and suddenly we look down and are shocked to find that it’s all gone.  Someone else must have come along and helped themselves or perhaps it was a case of momentary possession; we think, “Certainly I could not have eaten all of that! Could I?” Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas say, yes you can. Certain fats, specifically palm... [More]

Erin Thompson, Marketing Manager:   Today’s environment makes it extremely easy to neglect physical activity, an essential element of maintaining good health, warding off chronic disease, and achieving and maintaining a healthy weight. Labor-saving technology, long commutes by car or bus, and hours spent on the computer for both work and play drain us of our energy and make it even harder to fit time in our busy schedules to get up and move. In Free & Clear's latest Clear Insights... [More]

Jason Kalivas, Quit Coach, Service Delivery:   A participant asked me recently how long it takes being quit before there are no more cravings for nicotine, at all, ever. "It's different for everyone," I said. "Some people never miss it; for some people it takes years; and for some those cravings never go away, but just become manageable." I'd learned it in Free & Clear University, while training to be a Quit Coach. I'd heard it from participants on the phone. I know that it's a true ans... [More]

Sandi Kaplan, Associate Director, Clinical Development and Support:   I stared aghast at the photo of long-time fashion model Filippa Hamilton in a recent Ralph Lauren ad. We know that if the doll Barbie was a real woman, her dimensions are such that she would be unable to stand upright. Well, the dimensions of Hamilton’s photo made me wonder how the woman could possibly be alive. She looks emaciated in the extreme. Hamilton spoke out after the release of the photo to say that it ... [More]