Happy & Healthy with Amy

Artificial Intelligence ("AI")  has been in the news a lot during the past few months, and if the topic is causing stress, my guest and AI expert, Polly Allen is here to help us not only calm down but use it to improve the quality of our lives. As a Principal Product Manager (Technical) with Alexa AI, Polly led the development and launch of the first Generative AI answers on Alexa in 201...

Welcome to Part 10 and the final episode of this special "Behind The Scenes" series on the making of my bestselling book, Thoughts Are Habits Too. Wondering why I chose to narrate the book myself? I want you to give you as much information as I can for you to decide if we're a good fit. As much as I believe in the importance of habits, I also believe in the power of support and acco...

In Part 3 of this special series, "Behind The Scenes," I share how the title Thoughts Are Habits Too: Master Your Triggers, Free Yourself from Diet Culture, and Rediscover Joyful Eating came to be. If you're ready to ditch dieting and create healthy habits that stick so you canreach your optimal weight without sacrificing your sense of worth or wellbeing, this book is a must-read! R...

In Part 4 of this special "Behind The Scenes" series on the making of my bestselling book, Thoughts Are Habits Too, I share the importance of creating a cover that resonates with my audience and reflects the book's message about self-love and joyful eating, and how you can heal your relationship with food, exercise, your body, and most importantly, yourself. If you're wondering...

Welcome to Part 5 of this 10-part special series "Behind The Scenes" on the making of my bestselling book, Thoughts Are Habits Too. I takes you behind the scenes of my writing process, and the various steps I took to make my dream of writing a book and becoming a published author come true. From card sorting and outlines to deadlines and working with an editor, and the invaluable role of...

Welcome to Part 6 of this 10-part special series "Behind The Scenes" on the making of my bestselling book, Thoughts Are Habits Too. In this episode, I dive into the power of storytelling.  We start with a clip from Chapter 1 of my book to illustrate how stories make teaching abstract concepts come to life. Stay tuned for an insightful discussion on the impact of storytelling and a beauti...

Welcome to Part 7 of this special "Behind The Scenes" series on the making of my bestselling book, Thoughts Are Habits Too. In this episode, I walk you through the Joyful Eating Framework, including the four pillars: love, nourish, trust, and gratitude and the practices that correspond with them. This framework emphasizes the importance of developing a healthy relationship with food, mov...

Welcome to Part 8 of this special "Behind The Scenes" series on the making of my bestselling book, Thoughts Are Habits Too. In this episode, I review the " Joyful Eating Roadmap ," a milestone map designed to help you achieve lasting weight loss and create deep health. From setting a 90-day goal to mastering the fundamental five habits, each milestone reflects the application o...

Welcome to Part 9 of this special "Behind The Scenes" series on the making of my bestselling book, Thoughts Are Habits Too. In this episode, I preview the contents of the companion workbook, a free bonus when you buy the book. It contains exercises and worksheets you can use to applying and integrating the concepts from the book. The workbook includes high-resolution color graphics and e...

In this episode of Happy & Healthy with Amy, I'm sharing a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of my bestselling book, Thoughts Are Habits Too . I share my motivation for writing the book,  which is for people struggling with diets and stuck on the weight loss roller coaster. I reveal the flaws of traditional weight loss programs and my concerns about the popular weight loss drugs that...

In Part 2 of my special series, "Behind The Scenes" on the making of my best-selling book, "Thoughts or Habits 2." I delve into the pros and cons of going the traditional publishing route vs the self-publishing route, and why I chose to go with the latter. Resources: Order Amy's book Thoughts Are Habits Too : Master Your Triggers, Free Yourself From Diet Culture, and Redis...

Are you caught in a vicious cycle where personal setbacks have left you feeling exhausted and defeated? My guest today, Holly Bertone, knows exactly how you feel. Having ascended to one of the top ranks at the FBI, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and then an autoimmune disease that left her chronically fatigued, which ultimately led to her resignation. That's all before she discovered h...

Has this ever happened? You've been triggered and the next thing you know, you’re in the middle of a heated argument you had no intention of starting... Or halfway through a pint of Haagen Daas ice cream... Or perhaps hitting the bottom of a bag of chips… Despite practicing yoga and meditation and all that work on being present. Rest assured, there's nothing wrong with you. This is actua...

When it comes to optimal health, do you have a strategy for how to approach it? There's a quote by Michael Porter, "The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do." In this episode, I'm sharing the Essential Eight so you can avoid the overwhelm of all the things you could do for optimal health and focus on the ones that matter most. Sometimes I actually refer to them as the...

We're delving into a hot topic: Vegan vs Omnivore Diets. If you've ever wondered about the health outcomes, environmental impact, and the nitty-gritty scientific backing of each diet, this is an episode you don't want to miss. In this deep dive, I review and reflect on the new Netflix docuseries, "You Are What You Eat," about a nutrition study at Stanford University involv...

Have you been setting the same New Year's resolutions year after year after year, and you catch yourself thinking, "Why bother?" I know how you feel. I did the perennial resolutions for a long time. But I don't do that any more. In this episode, I'm going to walk you through how to shift from the mindset of New Year's resolution to New Year's evolution. If you&ap...

Do you have some big goals for 2024, and you want to actually achieve your goals this year as opposed to just making the same resolutions over and over again, right? How about instead of making a New Year's Resolution, we try thinking in terms of a New Year's Evolution? It starts with nailing your why, so if you haven't listened to my previous episode about nailing your why, listen...

Are you looking forward to 2024? If you have some big goals and you want to make sure that 2024 is your favorite year yet, the first thing that you're going to want to do in any goal setting is to get really clear on your why. When it comes to making your dreams come true, especially if they're health related - for example, you want to lose weight and get in shape - the first step we wan...

Do you struggle to be heard? Are you afraid of public speaking?  Do you have any idea what your authentic voice sounds like? Wish you had a voice coach to help you with all of this. Well, in this episode, I've got my voice coach, Tracy Goodwin, joining me. She also happens to be James Wedmore's voice coach, and she's going to be talking about voice masks, voice habits, and the seven...

Have you heard the news? My book is now available on Amazon. It's titled, "Thoughts Are Habits Too: Master Your Triggers, Free Yourself from Diet Culture, and Rediscover Joyful Eating, and it's now available both as an ebook and paperback. The audiobook and hard cover are coming soon (in time for the holidays). In this episode, I'm going to share with you who this book is for,...

If you're listening to this episode and you've ever had the thought, "when I lose the weight, then I'll be happy, or then I'll be able to feel good about my body or... then I'll be able to feel good about myself?" You are making a critical mistake that stems from diet culture, and that is - conflating your self-worth with the size and shape of your body. In today...

Have you found that midlife, with all its many transitions, has actually been creating a whole lot of stress for you, from becoming an empty nester to watching your parents age or perhaps dealing with the death of a parent? And then, on top of all this, we've got menopause and its effect on everything from our libido and energy levels to our metabolism and sleep. In this episode, Cam Allen, a...

How do you typically respond to the food police during holiday gatherings - the folks who have a lot of opinions and are more than happy to share them when it comes to your food choices? Do you find yourself rebelling against their comments, or do you struggle with knowing how to respond? In this episode, Amy shares a four-step process as well as some conversation prompts that you can customize fo...

Do you have food pushers in your life? Those individuals who just can't seem to take "no" for an answer when it comes to food. With the holidays coming up, you might be dealing with even more food pushers than normal. Those boundary bullies who you're worried are going to be sabotaging your weight loss efforts? In today's episode, Amy helps you distinguish between food pus...

Would you like to remove both your conscious and subconscious blocks and tap into your creative intuition so you can connect your soul's purpose with your story, become unapologetically visible, and manifest income while making monumental impact? Sounds awesome, doesn't it? Well, today's guest, Nick Demos, is a Tony Award winning Broadway producer, documentary filmmaker, and busines...