LAKEVILLE — Nancy Gandalfo’s got a lot of ideas about how to cure what ails you — at least 16 of them.Gandalfo is now offering those ideas as “Healthy by Design’s Sweet 16 Program,” a 16-week program (at $16 per week).The focus is on: weight loss, control and maintenance; regular, routine, moderate exercise; balanced meal planning; cooking tips; shopping lists; weight monitoring; and support.Sweet 16 is not a diet plan, Gandalfo emphasized. “I’m selling a lifestyle.”“Diets don’t work” continued the registered dietitian. “They end up under the refrigerator.”She decried the faddish nature of popular diet plans. “No carbs, high protein, grapefruit.“The bottom line is you need to eat less and move more.”Gandalfo designed her program around the theory that it takes at least 90 days to change old, ingrained behaviors. “Ninety days seems to be the sweet spot for changing behaviors,” she said. “The body adapts to a new comfort zone; the new regimen becomes something you are comfortable with.”Gandalfo said she has had success in clinical settings. When she worked with patients awaiting bariatric (weight loss) surgery at St. Mary’s Hospital in Waterbury, she was able to help the patients lose the weight and avoid the procedure.But Gandalfo is also an interior decorator with a degree from the Parsons School of Design in New York, and she believes good health depends also on the right living environment.“I look at health, heart and home, space planning, clutter control. You need to clean up your house” if you are making significant changes in diet and exercise.Gandalfo said she can help someone with one small project — a new bathroom, or window treatments (which she makes herself). But she resists comparison to Martha Stewart. “She’s a brilliant marketer, but …”The Sweet 16 idea came from her husband, who said she needed a gimmick.“That’s as close as I’m going to get.”Gandalfo said she was inspired to start her Healthy by Design business after taking a mentoring class with Karen Le-Sage of Lakeville.“I learned from Karen about clutter in life, not just in the home. I took it literally — I tried to get negative people out of my life.”She stressed that better health includes changing both habits and perceptions. “People eat too fast, “ she said, noting that it takes on average 20 minutes after eating to feel full.“Most of us are not eating from hunger but from habit” — because it’s the usual time to eat, or because someone doesn’t want to do the next task, or to relieve stress or provide comfort.And, usually, in a rush. “How many of us even have 20 minutes for lunch?”She advised being wary of foods advertised as healthy.“‘All-natural’ means absolutely nothing,” she said, adding that the term “organic” is rather loosely used as well.“If someone is pushing a particular food, check the research — and who is sponsoring it.”Ultimately the choice is up to the individual. “Everything in moderation,” she said. “A cookie — not six cookies.”Her task is “convincing people to make a schedule and stick to it.”For more information, email Gandalfo at register@NancyGandalfo.com or call 203-858-0704.
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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