It’s a shoe-in for everyone’s Resolution List and the number one contender on a client’s questionnaire. And no wonder. Just this week I watched as a sampling of pedestrians on their lunch hour passed across the thin of my windshield: Three-fourths were, how to put this, portly? Stout? Adipose?… More than a few pounds over a healthy weight. It was, for me, a real déjà view.

You see, once upon a time, I didn’t really think of myself as overweight, but my belt size and love handles were, I admit, slowly and steadily increasing along with the number of pairs of pants that they’d retired.

Nevertheless, my personal motivation for seeking and using clinical nutrition was the desire to get to the root of some very serious and long term health challenges, not to slim down.

And so I began the new year with a twenty-one day cleanse to detoxify my body. I’d heard that it takes about that amount of time to develop a habit. It must be true because by the end of the three weeks, I had reconstructed not just my eating habits, but me. The combination of a superb diet and a whole food supplementation devoid of guesswork helped turn my health around; energy, outlook and vanity.

I mean, I hadn’t even been keeping track of my weight but I could tell my pants were getting – what’s this? – looser. And I think it was the fine morning that my pants fell down, almost beating my jaw to the floor, while walking over to get the belt that also no longer quite fit, that convinced me to buy some new clothes. Only after several trips to the Gap dressing room, each dialing in with decreasing pant size, did I realize, absolutely amazed, that I had dropped six inches from my midlands.

Okay, you might be thinking, “It cannot be that easy for me”. And, yes, there are a number of contributing factors that should be checked. If you try to exercise away a thyroid problem, you won’t succeed (and you won’t know why). If unrelenting stresses increase your body’s level of the hormone Cortisol, (which easily leads to holding weight around the midsection) diet may not be enough. Don’t even get me started on how many people have been given bogus information about what constitutes a good diet.

But then again, do get me started; that’s what I’m here for, and the good news is that you can, we can systematically, methodically check and eliminate the hurdles to having an attractive weight. Whether it’s toxic buildup, under-functioning organs, improper diet or depleting stress, it’s just a matter of figuring out the pieces to your own particular puzzle. And they all add up to you.

While I must admit it’s nice to like what I see in the mirror, the peace of mind of having first followed my inner needs into the looking glass means far more to me than my reflection. And, yes, it did come out well at the mirror. And when you like what you see, we know it’s a reflection of a happier and healthier you.