Jessica Gatke

The simple nutrition shift that supports muscle, digestion, and steady energy: build meals around protein and produce. When improving diet and eating habits, instead of immediately taking a machete to our favorite foods, the first thing we look at is what we can add to meals to make them more nourishing and satisfying.

As a fitness and nutrition coach, a big part of my work is helping recovering perfectionists stop starting over. Maybe you know the pattern: You decide it’s time to get back on track. You start exercising again. You try to clean up your eating. For a couple of weeks, things go well, but then life happens. A busy schedule. Travel. Low energy. Family visiting. A stressful day that ends with takeout instead of the dinner you planned. Suddenly, it feels like everything has fallen apart. If that...

I was pushing my grocery cart past the cereal aisle the other day, minding my own business, when I overheard a conversation that stopped me in my tracks. A shopper turned to the store employee stocking shelves and said, “My partner has high cholesterol, so I’m trying to clean up our diet. Isn’t Cheerios supposed to be good to help lower our cholesterol?" Here’s how to improve cholesterol naturally after 50 — and why the cereal aisle isn’t where real heart health changes happen.