Blog Posts by Karly Randolph Pitman

Holiday weight gain - Thanksgiving platterWhen we say "good-bye" to healthy eating on Thanksgiving, the feeling afterwards can be terrible if we overdo it. Holidays are meant to be fun - and this includes food. But how to feast while also honoring our needs for health, energy, vitality and beauty? Here's how I plan to make it through this Thanksgiving without feeling deprived or counting calories:

It starts with finding "enough." It's easy to get into the trap of, "It's the holidays, I can eat whatever I want!" This is all or nothing thinking, overdoing it now and then "punishing" yourself with a diet in January. On the other hand, feeling deprived - not allowing yourself to enjoy special holiday foods - is one of the reasons we end up overeating. (Read how to end emotional eating).

Find that sweet spot where you feel treated - maybe it's your mother in law's famous mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie - and then stop. Enjoy what feels good without overdoing it. This is healthy indulgence. How you feel (anxious versus relaxed;

Do you ever wonder why you overeat after coming home from work, after a fun outing with girlfriends, or at night?

You're not alone. Millions of smart, accomplished, dynamic women do the same thing. The problem isn't insufficient will power, knowledge or discipline. The problem is sensitivity to energy.

One of the reasons why we binge is that we're looking for a release. Our modern lifestyle of constant activity, stress and pressure keeps our bodies in fight or flight mode. This sense of always being "on" activates our sympathetic nervous system, where our brains prepare for the stress of an emergency. Our bodies hum with energy and adrenaline, like a cat ready to pounce.

While in the past, you were on alert from real dangers like being chased by a wild animal, now you're on alert because you're stressed, anxious, and keyed up. You're trying to tackle a mile long to-do list, keep up with your kids' schedules, and nail your big presentation at work. You can even be on alert in social

If you read enough diet books, they contradict one another. One expert tells you to eat raw, another, high protein, another vegetarian. Who's right? While nutritionists may disagree on many things, there is one area where they agree: sugar makes you fat.

In Jorge Cruise's new program, the Belly Fat Diet, minimizing your sugar intake (under 15 grams per day: that's less than four teaspoons of sugar!) is the key to suppressing hunger, shedding pounds, and trimming away belly fat. I found this to be true in my own life. I was a sugar addict, constantly craving something sweet, eating compulsively to soothe my emotions, and eating sugar until I felt sick. My weight yo-yoed up and down. I hated the extra pounds from my sugar binges and suffered from a negative body image.

After 15 years of overeating, I kicked my sugar habit and transformed my body and health. My depression, mood swings and cravings lifted. My impatience, short fuse, and irritability diminished. My hunger decreased. I

I am not a perfect mom. I am okay with that. In fact, I have stopped trying to be perfect. Instead, this Mother's Day, I am accepting me for who I am, for the mother that I am.

I will never be "together." There will always be loose ends, some missed step, something that was overlooked or that is falling apart. I'll forget the permission slip, the doctor's appointment, where I put the sunscreen, and even my parents' wedding anniversary. (Sorry, Mom and Dad.)

I'm almost always 5, 10 or 15 minutes late. (Four kids will do that.) Eventually, I get where I need to be. The world doesn't end.

My laundry is never done, my house is almost always dirty, there are always dishes in the sink, there is always an unfinished project on my to-do list. My Christmas tree is still up in May (we actually like the mood lighting it brings,). My son's room still has the paint samples on the wall six months after I put them up there. My toddler's baby book is still empty, two and a half years later.

There

Mothering is an act of love; a relationship more than a role or tasks to accomplish. It's easy to get lost in the to-dos of mothering and lose sight of the relationship. This includes the relationship we have with ourselves. We focus on emptying the laundry basket, hitting the gym, filling the fridge, running the errands, and yet, while we may be busy, we feel drained. Life feels like a giant to-do list.

Mothers and children are not merely empty vessels to fill with knowledge or activity. We are living beings that need to breathe and move and connect, to feel our connection with nature, with each other (our friends, loved ones, and communities,) and with ourselves. For this Mother's Day, I'd like every woman to pause and ask herself: How can I make my daily life something that nurtures me? How can I make each mundane day an opportunity to honor my needs, to fully experience the vitality of being alive?

Caring for our emotional, physical and spiritual needs is not selfish, but an act

We know that sugar harms our health, that it is addictive, that it causes inflammation, weight gain, mood swings, and is even the favorite food of cancer cells. But how do we break free? I was a hardcore sugar addict for over 10 years. I lived the pain of sugar addiction, suffering from depression, terrible mood swings, yo-yoing weight, and low self-esteem. In 2006, I kicked my sugar habit for good.

Here are ten tips that helped me give up sugar:

1. Add self care. Before you attempt to eliminate anything from your life - even something negative, such as a sugar addiction - it's important to add to your life, so that you are operating from an overflow, not a deficit. Eliminating sugar will create a vacuum; better to fill it with something positive - self-care - than something negative - self-sabotage. Have a good book to read, to fill the hours you might have spent eating ice cream in front of the TV; take on a hobby instead of baking. Treat yourself like a precious object to

There can be a snide competition between women, where we allow other women to be beautiful .... to a point. Other women can be pretty, as long as they're not too pretty. A woman can be beautiful, but if she's also smart, organized, and a great mom? Forget it. We gossip about her and secretly love seeing her slip up. We alternate between wanting to be her and, well, hating her. I remember a friend from college, a heartbreakingly beautiful girl who incited much envy from other girls. Her crime? She made the most of her beauty, wearing make-up, dressing well, and styling her hair. When girls gossiped about her, they would whisper, "But she wears a lot of make-up," as if that could explain away her beauty.

This competitive drive, this need to label - am I beautiful? am I pretty? how pretty? where do I fall in the beauty spectrum? - keeps us from honoring our unique beauty. It squelches our individuality. Instead of enjoying our beauty, and trying to be our best selves, we act like

How did motherhood become a quest for perfection? Why are moms so hard on themselves? After years of trying to be a "perfect" mother, I found peace in relaxing my expectations, allowing myself to be, simply, a good mother. This switch changed the tenor of my home, improved my relationships with my children, and gave me back my health.

If you're tired of driving yourself to be a perfect mom and want to enjoy motherhood again, I offer 7 questions that helped me hang up my superwoman cape. Live the questions and see what unfolds. Or, try journaling your answers, and see what insights arise:

1. How much of the pressure to be supermom comes from you? Much of the pressure I felt to be "the mom who could do it all" came from me - and not from anyone else. No one cared if my house was neat and tidy, if my children ate organic, or if I could fit into my skinny jeans. I cared about these things - I was the one who pushed myself so hard, who imagined competition among other moms, who