Penny Klatell, PhD, RN, ACC

Can you remember when you really enjoyed going out to eat without thinking about the calories and the fat?  When the conference room caused only business anxiety, not food anxiety?  Or when you could order straight off the menu without asking for any modifications?

Social dieters love food and love eating out and almost everyone is a social dieter.  We all need to eat and for some of us thinking about, reading about, ordering, preparing, and eating food takes up a lot of time – and can produce a good deal of stress.

On this blog you’ll learn to:

• Stay in “food” control — to ask for and get what you need and want in restaurants
• Learn how to interpret menus and look for “diet-busting” cues
• Get rid of the angst and restore the peace and joy around meals
• Have a support system … and know your “frenemies” and saboteurs and tune out their friendly advice
• Figure out and stick to your own eating plan that can work anywhere
• Learn to be pleasantly assertive in explaining what you need and want in restaurants 
• Create and sustain healthy food habits
• Create an environment and attitude around food that works, feels comfortable, and fits in with your lifestyle, family, and friends

My name is Penny Klatell and I understand what it’s like to love food, to always think about food, and to constantly worry about what each morsel is going to do to the numbers on the scale.

I love to eat, I love to cook, and I really love to eat out.  I can evaluate a menu or a buffet in about three seconds. I can usually figure out how accommodating a restaurant will be in about the same amount of time.  Why  — and  — how?

I am a registered nurse (BS, Skidmore) with an MA and PhD  (NYU), a health counselor (Institute for Integrative Nutrition/Teachers College), and a certified life, health, and wellness coach.  I’m also a speaker and author, and I work privately with physicians’ patients who have weight challenges. I am currently an Adjunct Associate Professor at New York University and have served on the faculties of Columbia, Pace, CCNY, Skidmore, Sacred Heart, and Iona. 

I grew up around food. True to my Greek heritage, my parents had an old fashioned New York City luncheonette – the kind with a long counter and booths in the back.  The “store,” as it was referred to in my family, ruled our lives (my father was the best short-order cook I’ve ever seen).

I also saw the beginning of the food chain.  My mother (who later taught restaurant management) grew up on a farm. I spent many vacations feeding chickens (I never liked them pecking at my feet), collecting eggs, and picking vegetables in my grandmother’s very large vegetable garden.

I have struggled with my weight in the past and am vigilant and aware, on a daily basis, about the quantity and quality of the food that I eat.  However, I regularly eat out for both business and pleasure and know how difficult it is to order from a menu while trying to stick to an eating plan. I cook and entertain for lots of people (it’s a snap when you grew up doing it). And, having raised three athletic sons, I know how stressful getting family dinners on the table can be and what it’s like to be surrounded by food not necessarily conducive to weight control.

It is my passion to share with you what I have learned – and continue to learn — about how to eat out (or in), eat well, and develop habits that make it possible to choose food you love and still stick to your diet.

I invite you to join me on this journey by reading, learning, sharing, commenting, and having a bit of fun.

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