Diane Carbonell

When is free food not free? When the free food adds inches to your waistline and pounds to your scale. When the free food has enough calories in it to qualify as a separate meal, and when instead...

Until recently, my family had not been on a real vacation in a long time, though we do visit family in other states and call it a vacation. It's a vacation for us, but I'm sure when our family of...

Getting healthy takes time. It’s funny, because when you were born, you had someone else to make sure you were healthy. As you grow to be an adult, there should be people in your life to make sure...

When I began walking for exercise, I weighed 305 pounds and was walking only for a few minutes at a time. Commitment to reasonable exercise can often determine how successful your weight loss...

This is a question I ask about midway through the weight loss class I teach: “Say one positive thing about hunger…” After the laughter dies down, the participants work on an answer. I ask you: is...

I don’t know who said that fat people should be jolly, but I’d like to have a little chat with them – especially this time of year, when so many people seem jolly. I wasn’t a jolly fat person at...

Do you remember that line from the poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, "Water, water, everywhere and not a drop to drink?" This time of year with Christmas just around the corner, I...

With the holidays fast approaching, it is easy to feel stressed about upcoming food choices. The abundance of food at work, during parties and even samples in the big box grocery stores can make...

I've received a lot of questions from people wondering what happens to your skin physically when you lose a lot of weight. It's funny, because when I lost my weight, this wasn't even a concern of...

I was thinking about the guilt that I felt during the 10 years I struggled with being obese. I felt guilty for not looking better for my husband, guilt over needing to sit down while my kids ran,...

As we go throughout our lives, our caloric needs change and evolve. Teenagers have the highest caloric requirement, and as we age, our calorie requirements diminish slightly. In adults, caloric...

I think that it is important for us to consider how we will respond to tragedy and sadness in our lives – not only from an emotional and spiritual perspective, but from the perspective of being...

It's hard, isn't it? Walking into the wind. One time, many years ago I visited New England. I had just lost 150 pounds, and was looking forward to walking/running in a new place. The flight up the...

I know people who have crazy schedules. Their schedules are so full that it takes an entire wall calendar or installing extra memory on their smart phones to keep track of everyone’s comings and...

I was guilty of using my children as an excuse not to lose weight and exercise. During my first pregnancy I gained 75 pounds. When I added those 75 pound to the pounds I had gained since my...

Most of us have a lot of events to attend during the year. Even someone like me, who doesn't work outside the home, is invited to weddings, showers, meetings, meals with friends and more.

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"Look at that fat lady, Mommy." I turned to look at whom the child was referring to, and realized with much horror that it was me. I was standing in line at Wal-Mart, getting ready to check out...

We are a family of 9, and not surprisingly, everyone likes to eat. Whereas I used to be a drive-thru queen; these days we rarely eat out. That leaves 2 options - either everyone is one their own,...

It happens all the time, all over the world. Food is used as a reward, as a soother of hurt feelings, and hurt knees.  In school, my teacher would give us candy as a reward for good behavior...

Why can't you just get started on your weight loss journey? If I had a nickel for every time I asked myself that question during my obese years, I'd be seriously rich. So many times,...

I dieted for years. Like many people, I was constantly "dieting." You may not have believed it if you watched me eat candy bar after candy bar, but in my mind I was always trying to lose weight....

I’ve been thinking about forgiveness lately. Forgiveness isn’t just a gift that we give people who have wronged us, but forgiveness is also a gift that we give ourselves. Why would we need to...

When I was morbidly obese, I hated it when friends talked about all the different activities they participated in. Weighing 300 pounds didn’t lend itself to joining in. In fact, for me,...

Is it possible to save money on food while cutting back on calories and making healthier choices? 

I say absolutely! 

I am always concerned with the cost of...

I’ve maintained my 158 pound weight loss for 12 years, and throughout those years I’ve been asked a lot of interesting questions regarding my experience. I’ve been asked questions that are way too...

When I began my weight-loss odyssey, I weighed about 300 pounds. My waist was so large I couldn’t even measure it with a 60” tape measure, and I had outgrown all the clothes that were available in...

I was suspended in the air like a marionette. The carousel horse at the amusement park had stopped in the upright position, leaving me with a problem. I couldn’t get down. I tried putting my...