weight control and brain chemicals

This week I am going to Boston to do a book signing for a company that will be distributing our Serotonin-Plus product thru GNCs and other retail vitamin stores. The book I wrote several years ago was about serotonin and how imbalance of serotonin can affect a number of body systems.


It is amazing how the slightest imbalance of a chemical that is present in such small amounts in the body can have such life-altering affects. The total body content of serotonin as about 10 mg (the size of a small claritin tablet) and the majority of this is found in the GI tract. In the brain, concentrations of serotonin are minutes, yet the most subtle imbalances may lead to severe depression, anxiety, OCD and a number of other significant mood disorders.

We inherit brain chemical imbalances, so the chances are high that if depression and other mood disorders run in your family, your chances greatly increase. Similarly, with weight control, metabolism issues, cravings and other factors that result in weight issues are often inherited.

Recognizing that we often have to play the hand that is dealt to us, when obesity seems to run rampant in our families, the question comes about as to whether this is "environmental" vs. true genetics. Some families, more than others, base their family gatherings and shows of nurture by providing more high-caloric foods than others. This is the environmental component. The slow metabolism, tendency toward addictive behaviors, etc is more the chemical contribution.

I feel that both play a large role in the tendency to familial obesity. The solutions involve changing the customary routines in "feeding" family members way beyond reason and consciously counting calories/portions or in some other way limiting caloric intake. Certainly, a program such as ours can help focus people on these issues. That is why I constantly tell people that "pilss" are a complete adjunct to any long term strategy for weight loss. Changing behaviors and finding adaptive ways to mitigate negative brain chemical contributions to eating patterns are the necessary components for long term weight loss.

Off to a tennis match! Have a great Sunday.

self-accountability

When people decide to that it is time to stop coming for their weekly visits to our program I implore that there has to be a strong sense of self-accountability. When patients come here weekly, we weigh them, discuss the week's challenges, make suggestions as to how to navigate around the difficult stressful times and not allow those food sources in that will damage our weight loss efforts.

When there are no weekly, visits, the person is then "in charge" of their own accountability systems. Psychologically, when people know they have a weigh-in in front of a physician or nutritionist, there is a bigger push for success. Fear that if there is no success will have the professional "disappointed" in that person's efforts? Spending very valuable money on a program and not achieveing success? These may be the psychological factors involved with outside "accountability".

Make contracts with yourself: Reward yourself for success, establish goals and reward yourself (non-calotic) for reaching those goals. Stop by here for weigh-ins (no cost!!) and please read my blog daily to stay connected with me.

Another weekend.....

The weekends present unique challenges to us in our quest for weight loss. Why? Well, one reason is that at the end of a long, difficult week, there is an internal "push" for some type of reward for enduring the hardships of the workweek. How do we tend to reward ourselves? Usualy food sources. Another reason is the social events that occur on the weekends as opposed to the weekdays...whether it be a gathering of friends/neighbors on a Saturday nite or a football sunday with tailgating, the bountiful supply of high-caloric foods and alcohol will most definitely impact negatively on our weight oss efforts.

Take the time to sit down and pencil out on paper the weekend challenges that occur and what solutions you can come up with to stave off the damage that may occur to your weight loss efforts. Concernng the football/tailigating issue, try very hard NOT to get into the "herd" mentality of imbibing on lots of alcohol and carbs. At social gatherings, similarly, remember at all times that alcohol is a very damaging item in your weight loss efforts.

Have a great weekend...enjoy the last vestiges of warmth...

No Finish Lines!!!

Over the past several weeks we have seen a number of people who have come back to us having put a significant amount of weight back on months/years after leaving our program. The first thing I tell these patients is: Do NOT feel embarrassed about this. The losing/then gaining of weight is very common because as we discussed when you entered our program, it is much easier to gain weight than it is to lose it. To lose weight and keep it off requires constant, and I mean constant vigilance, planning, thinking, etc. As soon as life's issues (work, home, etc) take over and we stop concentrating on our weight loss or maintenance efforts, then we regress to our old behavior paterns. These behaviors usually revolve around making quick choices for food (sure is easy to drive thru a Burger King) as well as seeking rewards for stressful times. Such rewards involve high-caloric food sources, alcohol, etc.

There is no "Finish Line" to our efforts...to lose weight and keep it off requires that change of life style that we constantly talk about. Is this easy? Of course not. Over a number of years we all build up pattenrs of behavior and ofetn when it comes to food choices, these patterns involves taking in food sources that taste good to us. Unfortunately, these types of food sources are often very high caloric.

Hey, I need to apologize to my Redskins fans out there. Your team's performance has been incredible. Seeing them in preseason and in the first game agianst my G-men, I thought you guys would go 3-13. Campbell is playing GREAT and Coach Zorn's systems are working incredibly well. SO MUCH FUN seeing you guys beat Dallas and the Eagles in their home stadiums. Will be a GREAT game when the Giants play them later in the year in D.C.

weight gain and depression

I think that many of you, including me, are getting quite upset at the never-ending bad financial news that we are being barraged with daily. Two trillion dollars of retirement monies have been lost, many people nearing retirement are now looking at working (if there is work to be had) for years more, and yet, AIG execs were in some retreat last week spending over 400K dollars on lavish spa treatments, meals, exotic rooms, etc. Their CEO is now receiving a million dollars a month as a consultant...the same CEO who oversaw the demise of this huge insurance conglomerate.

As we absorb this type of news, first there is an element of disbelief, followed by anger and then depression may set in. During depressive phases, we often start reaching for high-caloric food sources as some sort of "treatment" strategy. I implore everyone reading this to recognize this pattern, and stop it in its tracks. "Destress" by trying to get more exercise or writing your congressman, senator, or whomever and tell them what you think about all of this. Do NOT allow the gloomy news to impact adversely upon your health, because as I mentioned in the past, right now your BEST investment is in YOU. Keeping your health intact will be your best response to all of this. There are things we cannot control...such as the government's complete ineptitude in having staved off this recession. You and I cannot control the greed that resulted in this lending debacle. What we can control is what we put in our mouths.

weight loss and the economy

The newspapers and television news channels are inundating us with bad economic news; almost unprecedented for most of us, as we have always been able to rely on Wall Street and the financial institutions for good news on most occasions.

Many of us who have most of our "retirement" monies in 401Ks have seen paper wealth diminish dramtically and the values of our real estate assets are also nosediving. Clearly, we all see the need for working a number of more years past when we planned on hanging it up.

We must remain healthy so I implore everyone to try to focus on your health and well being...get those physical exams to make sure everything is okay and certainly if you are carrying more weight than you should, have a plan to take those pounds off. Keeping healthy is going to give you the opportunity to keep working longer if you need to, which may be a necessity for many.
Try to avoid that stress eating as best as possible...the extra pounds brought on by the high-caloric stress foods will further damage our overall health.

The Doctor Is Back from Vegas

First, I want to thank Linda for keeping the blog up while i was Viva-ing it in Las Vegas. I know Linda is very proud of Ryan's accomplishments and devotion to our country and I loved her blog this morning.

Okay...the data is in from Vegas: Posner up....(drum roll please...) 1.5 pounds.

i did exercise every day...did one buffet (Plant Hollywood), drank more than usual (i hardly drink cause it makes me smiloe but I had probably 2 drinks a day. I didn't do afternoon snacks..tried to stay on high protein choices.

My plan: this week....reduce carbs to 2 portions a day....pump up exercise recheck weight in 1 week...if down to my previous, resume the normal...if still up, do more aggressive caloric restriction..

By the way....want to know what happened in Vegas???? sorry..........remember: what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!!! (okay....here goes: I did surrender my 16s against the dealers "10" in blackjack)