Achieving Personal Goals with Dr. Stracks and Rhonda Edelstein
Video: Watch the full session here → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVhtJtRgmmM
Cormendi Health Lunch & Learn featuring Dr. John Stracks and Health Coach Rhonda Edelstein
Dr. Stracks: Welcome to this Lunch & Learn with Cormendi Health! I'm Dr. John Stracks, a physician in Chicago focused on holistic health. I work with a lot of clients for whom conventional medicine hasn't worked well — particularly in the areas of thyroid and menopausal health — and I provide primary care for people who are interested in healthcare that involves more than just taking medication.
I'm regularly asked by clients how they can achieve their health goals, so today I'm joined by Rhonda Edelstein to talk about exactly that. Rhonda is a health coach here in the Chicagoland area who works with many of our clients. She's a former international fashion model who began traveling the world at age 15, working with well-known fashion and beauty brands. Despite her success in that world, all the travel and the pressure of maintaining an unattainable image took a toll on her health, hormones, and diet — and that struggle led to a quest for balance. That's how she became a holistic health and wellness coach.
Rhonda is certified through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and studied spiritual psychology at the University of Santa Monica in California. She's joined us over the past year to support clients with personal coaching around lifestyle goals like healthy eating, regular exercise, and weight loss.
I'm thrilled to have her here today — so many of our clients at Cormendi are on their own journeys toward balance and overall health, similar to what Rhonda experienced herself. Rhonda, would you mind starting by sharing a bit more about how you went from fashion model to health coach? That's quite a leap.
Rhonda: Thank you, Dr. Stracks, and it's great to see everyone joining today. It was a big transition, and I'm happy to share more.
At the height of my modeling career, I was on a plane multiple times a week and had to adhere to rigid, unrealistic body-size standards. It took a lot of rigorous exercise and mental strength, and I was constantly following different diets. It really took a toll on my body.
I found myself living in New York City, feeling like I was caught in the rat race. It didn't make sense to walk away from modeling at that point — I'd worked so hard to get there — but I knew I wanted something different for my life. I wanted children, I wanted a marriage and a relationship, and I knew the lifestyle I was living wasn't going to support that.
So it really started with envisioning how I wanted my life to look different. On my morning walks, I'd think about what I wanted to create — I dreamed about moving somewhere warm, near the ocean, with a family around me. Not long after, I was on a job traveling through Chicago and met my now-husband, who happened to live in Los Angeles. That opened my mind to the idea that my life really could look different. It wasn't one big decision — it was one small decision at a time that led to real change.
Dr. Stracks: You didn't grow up in the warmth by the ocean, did you?
Rhonda: No, I grew up in Canada, on a farm. My life as a model couldn't have looked more different from how I was raised, so I wasn't exactly prepared for that lifestyle. A lot of great things came from it too — I traveled the world and met incredible people — but it was a very demanding way of living.
Why "Quitters Day" Matters
Dr. Stracks: This Lunch & Learn actually came about because you and I were chatting, and you reminded me that the second Friday of January is known as "Quitters Day."
Rhonda: Yes — research shows the average New Year's resolution has fizzled out by the second Friday of the month. That got us talking about how we can better support people in the resolutions they make.
Dr. Stracks: When you're working with someone — say it's early January and they want to lose 10 pounds, eat healthier, or start exercising regularly — how do you help them begin making those changes?
Rhonda: How you begin really makes a difference. I like people to take a clear inventory of their life, their unique circumstances, and their obligations, so we can identify small, achievable changes. Early wins build confidence in your ability to change.
One of my favorite tools is simple tracking. If you can track for about two weeks — even just one area, like what you're eating — without judgment, you start to see real patterns and gain insight into your habits. You can also track everything: food, exercise, work hours, and free time. It's incredibly revealing. By the second week, people often understand why they're doing what they're doing, which gives them leverage to make changes — and it highlights opportunities, like an open window of time, or a clear starting point such as "I'm not drinking enough water."
Setting Small, Realistic Goals
Dr. Stracks: Say I came to you and said, "Rhonda, I gained 20 pounds during the pandemic and haven't been able to lose it. I work a lot of hours, I still have kids at home, and I haven't exercised much in years." What small goals would you start me on?
Rhonda: We'd start with tracking to see exactly where you're at and look for opportunities in your day. I recently had a client with a very busy work and home life who realized, once she tracked her day, that she had a solid lunch break — and that she and her coworkers wanted to move more too. So they started taking walks at lunch, going to a nearby gym, or even turning meetings into walking meetings to get extra steps in without needing to "find" more time.
For food and eating behaviors, it helps to identify what's really going on. Are you unsure what you should be eating? Is it portion control? Emotional eating? Once we're clear on the real struggle, we can take steps to address it.
Dr. Stracks: With that client doing walking meetings — was there a specific goal driving that, or was tracking itself the goal?
Rhonda: Her personal goal was to lose weight, move more, and improve her food choices — understanding what would give her steady energy throughout the day. By looking at her day, we found where we could add in exercise, and we also built a morning routine around a nourishing, balancing meal that helped her feel more stable all day long.
Staying Motivated When Progress Stalls
Dr. Stracks: So, as we mentioned, the second Friday in January is Quitters Day. People start out excited, and sometimes momentum builds quickly — sometimes it doesn't. How do you help people stay motivated, especially when things don't click right away?
Rhonda: I like people to get really clear on what the change will bring into their life — what the result will actually feel like. If you want to lose weight, will you move your body differently? Play with your kids differently? Feel more excited about shopping for clothes that feel good? I like anchoring into that each morning, though you can revisit it anytime.
It's also worth noting that motivation naturally fluctuates for everyone. What matters is making decisions ahead of time — deciding for our future selves before we're tired, hungry, or overwhelmed. That helps avoid decision fatigue. I like having people think each evening about how they can set up their future self for tomorrow: laying out workout clothes, prepping water, picking a workout video in advance so all you have to do is press play. In my own life, on days I know I won't be cooking, I plan ahead — either prepping something easy or knowing exactly where I can get takeout that works for the whole family.
Dr. Stracks: Do you help people prepare their future selves for high-temptation moments? Say I "bargain" with my future self that there won't be dessert tonight — and then dinner ends, everyone else is having dessert, and there's a cookie sitting right there. How do people prepare for that?
Rhonda: Getting clear on the results you want really helps, because in the moment, our brain will talk us in and out of things constantly — "just wait and start tomorrow," "start after vacation," "start next week." It helps to expect that this will happen and have tools ready. Sometimes there's a good alternative. I'm not opposed to enjoying something with the family in the moment — but then it's about managing your mind afterward, so you don't spiral into thinking you "blew it" and have to start all over. It's about letting life unfold.
Dr. Stracks: Do you ever see people doing well, and then something happens — they get sick, a child gets sick, they go on vacation — and things slide back to where they started? How do you help people get back on track?
Rhonda: I like to say life is improv — things are going to happen, and a lot of it comes down to how you talk to yourself when plans don't go as expected. The harder we are on ourselves when we fall back, the more likely we are to quit entirely rather than pick the habit back up. I use the term "recover faster" with clients — as soon as you notice you've slipped, come back to your goal quickly. Our minds want to wait for a "perfect moment" — Monday, the start of the month — but life is happening right now. The sooner you come back, the more the compound effect of small consistent actions works in your favor.
Dr. Stracks: What kinds of "small things" come to mind — is it individual decisions, like a 10-minute walk instead of no walk at all?
Rhonda: Exactly. A lot of people have set the bar so high for what "exercise" should look like. If you lower that bar and recognize that any movement counts, a 10- or 15-minute walk genuinely benefits your body — it's not just about counting calories. It's also those moments where you decide, "I've worked hard, I'm not going to have the cookie tonight — this isn't my last chance to ever have a cookie." Letting go of old diet mentality, and the idea that this is your last opportunity for something, matters a lot. Small decisions really do add up over time.
Dr. Stracks: I have a patient whose goal is one push-up a day. Once he starts doing one, he often ends up doing more. But the one-push-up rule means that even if he's out at dinner and hasn't done them yet, he can duck into the parking lot or step outside the restroom and knock one out. It doesn't have to be perfect — it just has to get done, and more often than not, he ends up doing a lot more.
Rhonda: I love that. I talk to clients about doing 20 or 30 squats right at their desk after lunch — even one push-up works too. There's real benefit: it builds strength, and it helps your body put the glucose from the meal you just ate to good use.
Building Habits That Last
Dr. Stracks: What other qualities do you see in clients who stick with their goals over time?
Rhonda: People's ability to change really escalates when they develop positive self-talk — changing the inner dialogue and the language they use about themselves. We're the person we spend the most time with, day in and day out, and there's a constant running dialogue in our heads. A lot of our thoughts are just habits — an accumulation of past experiences — and they're not permanent. Real change comes down to confronting our thinking and our limiting beliefs.
I love affirmations, but I encourage people to choose ones that are actually believable: "I can change," "I'm learning new things," "I'm in the process of creating a healthier lifestyle," "I'm curious what it's like to be healthier." Say things you can actually believe.
Dr. Stracks: Did you personally have to learn to be kinder to yourself?
Rhonda: Absolutely — that was a huge part of my own change. It was really about learning self-compassion. I'd learned to be quite harsh with myself trying to live up to modeling industry standards, with a lot of self-judgment about how I looked and how I measured up to others. I sometimes call it "mothering myself" — developing a kinder way of being with yourself as you go through change and daily life.
Dr. Stracks: Self-compassion was a new concept for me as an adult too — I never heard the term as a kid. Once I noticed the things I'd say to myself, I started catching myself mid-thought, the same way I would with one of my own kids: "No, we don't talk like that around here. If you don't have something nice to say..."
Rhonda: I use that too — asking, "Would I say that to a child? Would I say that to someone I love? Would I be that harsh with them?" It interrupts the pattern. We all need encouragement, and if we can generate a lot of it for ourselves, it makes a real difference.
Dr. Stracks: Is that part of what you help people build — that positive inner voice, and eventually the ability to generate it on their own?
Rhonda: Yes — it's learning to be a witness for yourself, to catch the negative self-talk, and to consciously choose how you want to treat yourself, the way you'd treat someone you love. It's a process you have to keep practicing, but it compounds over time and eventually becomes more second nature.
Dr. Stracks: A lot of us were never taught that in school.
Rhonda: No, most of us weren't taught it anywhere — it's a brand-new skill to learn as an adult.
Audience Q&A
Q: What does it actually look like to work with you? What's the structure, and what can someone expect?
Rhonda: Once someone decides they'd like support, I have them fill out an initial intake form to gather background. Then we talk it through together so I can really understand who they are, what it's like to be them, and the unique challenges they're facing — including what their inner dialogue sounds like. From there, we meet weekly and make agreements on small, buildable changes specific to their goals, whether that's weight loss, general health, or building new habits.
Q: What kind of results have you seen with clients over time?
Rhonda: I've helped many people with weight loss, and I'm always in favor of "slow and steady wins the race." You have to build habits that support your life going forward — a lot of diets and cookie-cutter plans don't allow room for real life; you're either "on the plan" or "off the plan." My goal is longevity: real habit change, and being there to work through resistance when it comes up — what thoughts and old habits are getting in the way.
Q: What about mental health goals — shifting emotions and thought patterns? Is that something you work on with people?
Rhonda: If that's a goal someone has, certainly — though some things are better suited for a therapist. For general goals like improving mood throughout the day, this approach absolutely applies. A lot of our thinking is on repeat — an accumulation of things that have been said to us and experiences we've had — and we often don't realize the unconscious thoughts driving our feelings and actions. Sometimes it's simply about recognizing that pattern and choosing something new.
A coach once told me I tended to wake up with an "Eeyore brain" — worrying about the future, feeling low — and encouraged me to think more like Tigger, who approaches life differently. A lot of that really can be a choice. Tracking helps here too: one of my patients started tracking her own self-talk and realized she was saying things to herself she wouldn't say to an enemy, let alone a friend. Paying attention was what really helped her change.
Dr. Stracks: There's also a strong connection between exercise and mental health — research consistently shows regular exercise improves mood and reduces anxiety. I had a patient, the daughter of two psychiatrists, who struggled with depression and anxiety and faced a lot of pressure to start psychiatric medication, which she didn't want. We worked on her diet instead — removing sugar, gluten, dairy, and a few other foods — and she did really well. Curious about the effects, she reintroduced dairy first and was fine. Then she reintroduced gluten and became extremely tired. Then she reintroduced sugar and, in her words, "became a raging maniac." We don't always recognize the effect diet has on mental health, but often when we make changes, we see shifts in our emotions without even focusing on that directly.
Rhonda: Absolutely — food can either regulate or dysregulate the nervous system depending on what and when we're eating. Learning which foods stabilize your blood sugar, and identifying sensitivities like your patient experienced, can make a real difference.
Closing Thoughts: Our Own New Year's Resolutions
Dr. Stracks: Rhonda, what was your personal New Year's resolution this year?
Rhonda: I wanted to get back to meditating regularly. I found the time the same way I coach others to — by tracking what I was actually doing with my time. I realized that carpool pickup line was quiet, uninterrupted time I was usually spending on my phone, so I started meditating there instead. I also found I love a little quiet time in the morning, so I don't mind getting up 20 minutes earlier to listen to a meditation.
Dr. Stracks: My resolution was more exercise. I kept going in and out of consistency, especially with the cold Chicago weather. It turns out the track in Skokie is available to non-residents for $20 a year, so I paid my $20 and now walk the track most mornings to get my steps in. I've kept it up five or six days a week and feel a lot better for it — so far, I've made it past Quitters Friday.
Rhonda: That's wonderful. A lot of it really is just getting creative about how you fit things in. I like asking my brain, "How could I make this work, if I really wanted to?" — and putting it to work on the answer, even in the background.
We'll wrap up there for today. Thank you so much to Rhonda for sharing her expertise and wisdom, and thank you to everyone who joined us live or is watching after the fact on YouTube.
If you're interested in working with Dr. Stracks or Rhonda on any aspect of your health or lifestyle, reach out through our website, CormendiHealth.com. Existing patients can message us through the patient portal for details.
We're making these Lunch & Learns a regular happening throughout the year — watch our newsletter for the next date, coming up in the next several weeks. Not on our newsletter yet? Sign up at CormendiHealth.comto get added to the list.
Dr. John Stracks practices mind-body medicine via telehealth nationally and internationally. Dr. Laura Burke is a certified health and wellness coach specializing in the social dimensions of chronic pain and illness. To learn more about working with Dr. Stracks or the Cormendi Health team, visit cormendihealth.com. You can find Dr. Stracks and Dr. Burke's first interview on the Cormendi Health YouTube page.