It Has to Be Me

Want to lose weight but don’t know whether a GLP-1 medication is right for you? Ashley Koff, dietitian and author of Your Best Shot, explains the links between gut health, blood sugar, hormones, and metabolism, and how we can achieve and maintain our goal weight, with or without the Shot.We start with Ashley’s own struggle with weight, from belly awareness as a kid and dieting in high school and college, to obsessive exercise, extreme fads, and even a goat’s-milk cleanse! Finally, a gastroenterologist provided a real solution: First, focus on digestion. The results were life-changing. Ashley became a dietitian, building on that approach. She recognized, before the GLP-1s came along, the impact of weight-health hormones—"the Switch"—on blood sugar and appetite, and the connection between these hormones and gut health. She fine-tuned her system, and treated patients with huge success.From there she walks us through the science—the difference between the Switch and GLP-1 medications that replace these hormones, ”The Shot.” We weigh the benefits and side effects of medications, and how to titrate off them and maintain your results. Covering what you need to know to establish and maintain a healthy weight, Ashley says it's not just about losing weight, it's about optimizing your weight health.What's “Your Best Shot”? Assess and decode your body’s signals, then create a personalized action plan to fit your specific situation and needs. We talk through that process and what a plan might look like, common pitfalls in formulating a strategy, the skinny on supplements, and why doctors are not always the best guides.The great news: You can control your weight health more than you think.TESS’S TAKEAWAYSYour body is an ecosystem, and needs optimized resources to run better.To optimize weight health start with improving digestion and gut health.The body produces hormones that act as “the Switch” to regulate appetite and blood sugar.GLP-1s can reduce food noise, regulate blood sugar, and support weight loss.GLP-1 medications are a hormone-replacement therapy—and suppress the Switch.The medications also can cause dehydration, digestive problems, and other health issues.Titrating off a GLP-1 medication without improving digestion can result in rebound weight gain.Willpower is a fake muscle that does not play a role in effective weight management.ABOUT ASHLEYAuthor of Your Best Shot, Ashley Koff, RD is the founder of The Better Nutrition Program (BNP), the Nutrition Course Director for UC Irvine’s Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute's Integrative and Functional Medicine Fellowship. Also a faculty member at the Integrative and Functional Nutrition Academy, she teaches the IFNA course “An Integrative and Functional Nutrition Approach to Obesity and Weight Management.”A go-to nutrition expert on the Today Show, Good Morning America, and others, Ashley was among CNN’s Top 100 Health Makers, InStyle magazine’s Hollywood Nutritionist, and a Global Wellness Ambassador for Westin Hotels.As a practitioner and business owner, Ashley makes her mission providing personalized nutrition solutions and helping people identify their needs to make “better, not perfect” choices toward their...

Ladies: Tap into the power of other women to get where you want to go. My friends and colleagues Mia Moran, Julie Hannon, and Kelly Lubeck—all members of Skinny60® and the FLOW365 community—join me to talk about what happens when women express themselves freely, and celebrate themselves and each other.Mia, Julie, and Kelly share their healing journeys, and the profound impact nutrition has had on their personal growth and transformation. They take us inside how they use that knowledge and experience in their private practices, and together, to guide and champion other women.Starting with support and accountability, we get into why private and group coaching can help us see ourselves with more confidence and resilience. And we discuss the importance of leaders maintaining self-care and awareness practices to create safe spaces and meet clients with clarity and integrity.We explore the challenges women face today, what keeps most of us stuck, and what we can do to leverage our femininity to make choices that align with what we want. By moving the conversation from our heads to our hearts, making a plan and executing it—with guidance—we reduce overwhelm, and can navigate the complexities of life with balance and ease.Don’t do it alone. When women come together with a vision, they change the world.TESS’S TAKEAWAYS: Coach and client engage in a dynamic of co-creation and drive thoughts into action.Great coaches create listening containers that help us approach ourselves in new ways.To walk the talk, ethical wellness practitioners maintain self-care practices.Women need each other. Seek out communities. Tap into the power of the feminine collective.Acting in a community activates the parasympathetic nervous system, for more connection.Titration—making key changes slowly—creates safety in doing things that are hard or scary.Befriending resistance is the path to getting past it.You wouldn’t have an idea if you didn't have the capacity to make it happen.MEET OUR GUESTSMIA MORAN Mia Moran is a mom, productivity coach, and planning expert. She is the host of the Plan Simple podcast, author of Plan Simple Meals, and creator of the FLOW365 program. Her belief in the power of wellness and a good plan got its start during a health crisis. Making changes to her diet, she experienced the impact better nutrition had on her work, relationships, and family life. While operating her design business, she began creating and sharing content around food, wellness, spirituality, motherhood, and feminine productivity. Her content resonated with other women. Mia has struck her perfect balance between wellness, work, and family; and she helps busy women and female entrepreneurs reduce overwhelm, find balance, and make strategic plans that enable them to achieve their goals.JULIE HANNON As a shamanic healer, energy medicine teacher, and yoga practitioner, Julie Hannon helps clients connect with their gifts and strengths, and make heart-centered decisions. With a master’s degree in psychology from Columbia University and bachelor’s in psychology from University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Julie worked for over 20 years as a human resources director. She then trained in the healing...

What if the thing you’ve been searching for isn’t another diet, another rulebook, or another “fix” but a way back to yourself? In this intimate, heart‑centered roundtable, I sit down with three extraordinary members of our Skinny60 community, Rachel, Gina, and Deborah, to talk about what really happens when women stop chasing perfection and finally decide, it has to be me. These women have tried everything, from cabbage soup diets and celebrity programs to vegan meal plans and giving up altogether. But when they landed in the 60-day reset, something clicked. Not because it was “easier,” but because it was designed to work with them, not against them. Rachel takes us back to 2020, when she wrote in her phone the desires she hoped to call in: miraculous weight loss, energy, glow. She had tried every diet under the sun, Weight Watchers, Atkins, keto, cabbage soup days, lemon detoxes, and still felt stuck. When the SK60 newsletter landed in her inbox, something in her said, this might be it. Not because she believed it would definitely work…but because she knew she couldn’t stay where she was. Gina shares what it’s like to live with lupus from childhood, how food was always something she loved, but also something doctors told her might be harming her. She had tested my recipes for years, but still wasn’t ready to commit to a program until she saw a photo of herself that made her cry. That moment became her “I’m ready” turning point. And then there’s Deborah, long‑time vegan, trauma counselor, and someone who had been told she needed to lose weight before she could be approved for hiatal hernia surgery. Nothing she tried worked because nothing had been designed with her body, her ethics, and her digestion in mind. But when she came to the SK60 webinar on hormones and gut health, something clicked. She joined out of curiosity… and curiosity became transformation. If you’re listening and thinking, “That’s amazing for them, but I don’t know if it can happen for me…” Let this conversation be your reminder that change and healing is possible and you don’t have to believe the whole story, just the next step, because when you give yourself permission to try again extraordinary things happen. TESS’S TAKEAWAYS: You’re not “too late.” You’re right on time for your own transformation. 60 days can be the catalyst for a lifetime of change. What starts as a food reset often becomes a self-worth revolution. “Good. Better. Best. Not Perfect.” is more than a mantra, it’s freedom. Food is fuel, but it’s also joy, connection, and memory-making. You’re not lazy, broken, or undisciplined, your approach just didn’t fit you… until now. Trusting your body begins with learning how to listen to it. The stories you tell yourself matter. Rewrite the ones that don’t serve you. Investing in yourself doesn’t make you selfish, it makes you stronger. Real change starts when you decide: it has to be me. MEET TESS MASTERS: Tess Masters is an actor, presenter, health coach, cook, and author of The Blender Girl, The Blender Girl Smoothies, and The Perfect Blend, published by Penguin Random House. She is also the creator of the Skinny60® health programs. Health tips and recipes by Tess have been featured in the LA Times, Washington Post, InStyle, Prevention, Shape, Glamour, Real Simple, Yoga Journal, Yahoo Health, Hallmark Channel, The Today Show, and many others. Tess’s magnetic personality, infectious enthusiasm, and down-to-earth approach have made her a go-to personality for people of all dietary stripes who share...

Why is it that some audiobooks have you on the edge of your seat, believing you’re living inside the story, while others leave you out in the cold? Paula Parker—Grammy-winning director—breaks down the art of narration. We start with her own story. From singing and collecting quarters and performing in bus-and-truck shows as a child, to acting in professional theater in Chicago and New York and doing voiceovers for commercials, animated series, books, and films. When their work in audio took off, Paula and her husband, Paul Alan Ruben, founded their company, producing hundreds of titles with the major US publishers. Her keen ear for casting the right actor for the job took Paula to directing the full story with high-profile narrators and celebrities. She walks us through techniques for connecting performers with the emotional truth of the story, and the thrill of working with actors who relish collaborative discovery, along with the challenges of dealing with actors who don’t. She also covers directing authors—non-actors—when they narrate audio editions of their works. For actors: We dive into the intimate nature of audiobook performance, and the importance of developing a relationship with the listener. From there, we get into the importance of imagination, vulnerability, and breath, the impact of speed, and the value of honoring punctuation. For listeners: Paula compares audiobooks to dating. You know if you want a second one with the narrator. When you do, don’t be in a hurry to get it over with—listen at natural speed. Paula says great actors are like champion stallions and take the listener on the ride. TESS’S TAKEAWAYS: Audiobook narration is an intimate form of storytelling more aligned with film than stage. Great narration is not about vocal tricks and “oral interp,” it’s about great acting. For a book to come to life, the narrator must develop a relationship with the listener. The best experience is when the narrator and listener breathe together. Narrators: Your booth is a sanctuary. Bring your vulnerability in to tell the story. The truth of the story is not just in the words spoken, but the emotions underneath. Listen to an audiobook at 1.5x or 2x the speed, and you miss the full experience. Coat-check your ego, and be a willing participant in the collaborative process. ABOUT PAULA PARKER Paula Parker has produced and directed hundreds of audiobooks for major US publishers over 25-plus years and delivered numerous award-winning titles. Highlights include the recording of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods—10th-Anniversary Edition, Audiobook of the Year for Brimstone with Rene Auberjonois, and a Grammy for Always Looking Up with Michael J. Fox. Before directing audiobooks, Paula worked as an actor, first in Chicago then in New York at the Public Theater and off Broadway, and in diverse regional productions. As a voice actor, she dubbed films, worked in commercials, and played characters in animated series. With a passion for teaching, Paula trained actors at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the Neighborhood Playhouse, and moved on to coaching actors from film, Broadway and other New York theater, in narration. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and fellow audiobook director, Paul Alan Ruben. CONNECT WITH PAULA LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paula-parker-5b687411/ MEET...

Audiobook fans and narrators: Paul Alan Ruben, Grammy-winning director, walks us through the process of working with actors to deliver riveting performances that make us feel like we’re living inside the story. Tracking Paul’s journey from acting with Second City to directing and writing, he recalls why he stopped chasing laughs, and the moment that cemented his decision to direct actors. To collaborate with authors and publishers, he started an audio production company, and became a go-to director for high-profile titles with celebrities. Diving into what makes a compelling audiobook, Paul looks at why we lean into some narrators and not others. It’s not about the genre, a savvy reader, or a “golden” voice. It’s about a great actor intuiting the feelings of the character, and not only delivering the subtext with the words, but breathing life into the silence—what’s not being said. Takeaway: Turn up the playback speed and you'll miss the nuances of the performance. Paul imparts key lessons from directing Meryl Streep, Burt Reynolds, Michael J. Fox, Lynn Redgrave, Johnny Depp, senators and cabinet members, and his insights on working productively with people, regardless of status or star power. Paul says to the actor and the listener alike: Understanding a story has zero to do with position or intellect. Give yourself the time to listen, feel, believe, and experience, and go on a magic carpet ride. TESS’S TAKEAWAYS: What makes great audiobooks is great acting, not just clear reading or vocal tone. Great audiobook narrators don’t “try to sound like” the characters; they become them. Structure and technique matter; it’s more important to connect with the emotional core. The truth of a story exists in the silent “white” spaces—what is not spoken. An actor who conveys the emotional subtext behind the words captivate the listener. Narrators who use vocal tricks in place of emotional connection lose the listener. Audiobook listeners want to be ahead of the actor, to anticipate what they don’t know. As an actor, be emotionally connected to your world, and the worlds you want to inhabit. ABOUT PAUL Paul Alan Ruben has produced and directed audiobooks since 1990, winning numerous awards, including Grammys for Al Franken's Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, and Always Looking Up by Michael J. Fox. Teaching and coaching professional actors in the United States, Paul has cast and directed many first-time audiobook performers who’ve become celebrated narrators. In his earlier career, Paul worked writing TV and theater, and has contributed features to Audiofile and Dadcentric magazines and The Washington Post. His short story collection, Terms of Engagement: Stories of the father and son was published in 2018, and narrated by a stellar multi-cast including George Guidall and Scott Brick. Paul lives in Brooklyn with fellow audiobook director, his wife Paula. CONNECT WITH PAUL Paul Alan Ruben: http://www.paulalanruben.com/ Terms Of Engagement: https://www.amazon.com/Terms-of-Engagement-audiobook/dp/B07JHYGW9H/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-alan-ruben-8235276/ MEET TESS MASTERS: Tess Masters is...