How does your life change with weight loss?

Although everyone are unique and different individuals, there is some commonality to the reasons why people want to lose weight. The obvious long-term goals are to be healthier, take less medications, avoid significant medical problems such as diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, etc. From the "aesthetic" standpoint, looking younger, being more attractive to ourselves and others, finding renewed confidence and heightened self-esteem are also motivating factors. Getting back into clothes that did not fit anymore and being able to shop for more stylish outfits are also a benefit of losing weight. Regaining energy is yet another clear result of losing weight.

Your life does change significantly when you lose weight but sometimes we forget about the major positive effects. When we think "dieting" we equate that with sacrifice and deprivation...giving up "goodies and treats" and basically punishing ourselves. We fret that we will not be able to enjoy family gatherings, vacations, birthday celebrtaions etc. We cannot wait for the diet to "be over" so we can with glee, start going back to the old, "fun" behaviors.

Concentrating on the reasons as to how your life will significantly change for the better as you lose weight is an important mental exercise that you must go through to help you sustain your motivational forces. Are those 2 glasses of wine a night really worth risking the development of premature atherosclerotic hearts disease or diabetes? Is it really worth feeling that you have to hide your body from others by avoiding summer swimwear? Is it really worth feeling lower confidence and self-esteem?

Try to focus on all of the positive outcomes that will accompany your weight loss and this may help allowing you to stay "in the zone".

Three weeks till thanksgiving...

This is a very important time to get very "strict" in following your plans to lose the weight you would like to lose, because three weeks from today we enter the most difficult time of the year to achieve weight loss...thanksgiving thru new years.

Realizing that in several weeks, you will on a weekly basis be going to parties, gatherings, exchanging gifts, etc., it will be almost impossible to remain very regimented during this time.

NOW is the period to be especially focused and NOT take in food/drink sources that will hinder your weight loss efforts.

Remember: December 5, 5-730 pm at our office...2oth Annual Patient Appreciation Nite!!!! Much fun, HEALTHY foods and Karioke!!!!

Maintaining your weight loss

I Had a woman return to our program yesterday after she gained 5 pounds in one month. She had originally entered our profgram in anticipation of her daughter's wedding, and proceeded to lose over 30 pounds before the wedding date. She reached her goal and felt/looked fabulous. After the wedding, she started slowly going back to some old behavior patterns, and when tracking the weight, decided that at 5 pounds, it was time to come back in for a "tune up".

The story above illustrates two things here: First, the concept of a psychological "finish line". When someone is striving to lose weight for an event whether it be a reunion or a wedding, after that date comes and goes, the person will mentally cross that finish line, and feel that he/she can now "take a break" and start returning to some old eating/drinking behaviors. Secondly, the monitoring of weight allowed this person to stop the gain at 5 pounds and not the entire 30 she had worked so hard to lose.

To maintain weight loss, one needs to try as best as possible to maintain your newly found patterns of planning and eating, and the monitoring of your weight is crucial to know at what point you may need a jumpstart help for a few weeks. If the above mechanisms are followed, there is no way that a person can gain back all the weight they have lost.

Stress eating

No matter what the outcome of the election is today, remember that ingesting lots of calories will not: 1) change the outcome if you are not happy with the results 2) make you feel better tomorrow morning about the outcome 3) positively effect your long term goals

Stress eating is a constant theme that we have discussed previously, but there is much angst that surrounds a presidential election and today will not be an exception. Some people are more "into" the election than others, and will tend to be hanging on every word tonight uttered by the numerous news anchors and talking heads/pundits. If you are in a weight losing mode, please do not starta distracted eating pattern, meaning ingesting popcorn, nuts, chips and other small, high-caloric repetitive food sources as you watch. You will consume far too many calories without even knowing it.

Linda writes a great blog at: www.stresseaterdiet.com and I would strongly encourage you to read this daily, especially today.

Whether your candidate wins or loses, please remember that at all times your health is the most important issue, because no matter what happens politically, if you fall ill to a devastating illness, you will not care for one minute who is President.

Election and weight issues

Please do not expect an endorsement in this entry. I very very much try to stay away from political discussions with patients. What I feel about politicians, my political beliefs, etc. are not pertinent to my wonderful job of keeping you and your families healthy. Quite frankly, what Oprah Winfrey, Sean Penn or Chuck Norris believe is of no interest or swaying factor to me either. What I will admit is that I am neither "Democrat" or "Republican". I believe that every election has candidates that need to be evaluated on a number of issues and I will not vote one way or the other becuase some "party" tells me to vote a certain way. I also believe the "system" is very flawed in that hundreds of millions of dollars need to be raised to run a successful campaign. How much does either candidate "owe" to special interest groups and others based on their donations? Okay...now to weight loss....what does this all have to do with the election? As we all read about the financial meltdown, the rapidly growing deficit, etc., the question comes is to how we will "pay" for healthcare in the future? With the growing obesity epidemic, espeically in children, the futuristic health of America will continue to deteriorate with morbidity due to diabetes, heart disease, cancers, etc. increasing. The resultant strain on our financial system will be enormous. We are now already seeing a higher and higher percenatge of America's expenditures going to healthcare and this will worsen over time. Whichever candidate is elected, it is incumbent upon our elected officials to make preventative healthcare a priority. As all of the war news, financial news, election news is taking center stage, the looming devastation financially and otherwise due to the obesity epidemic is not going away. Who will pay for all of this needed healthcare associated with obesity? Our children? They are the very ones that are going to be suffering from unchecked childhood obesity. As physicians keep seeing their income eroded by managed care rates, how easy will it to find a doctor who cares and is competent? We are heading for some very difficult times on a number of fronts in this country, but we will all be better as a nation if we are healthier and can keep working. Sorry for the doom and gloom note here today, but we all need to think abouit these issues, especially the people we elect.

"I Wish I Could Go Back To College..."

There is a hilarious Broadway musical called "Avenue Q" and in this show, the actors all walk around with puppets that are the main characters. One of the show songs is called "I wish I could go back to college" and in this number, the chatacters (most of whom are in their mid 20s-30) lament that life was easier and more fun when they were all in college and their parents were paying for eveything.

One of the lines from this song was:

" But if I were to go back to college...

I would sit in the quad

And say "Oh my God!"

All the kids are so much younger than me..."

What the heck does this have to do with blogging about weight loss? Okay..here goes: I am in Williamsburg VA this weekend with my family and last night after dinner at a pizza/sub place we went to a bar near the college of William and Mary. The kids were so much fun to watch...lots and lots of beer, wings, other drinks etc being imbibed, and yet, most of the students appeared thin. I started thinking that at that age, most of us ate pizza, subs, drank beer after beer, and yet we had no difficulties controlling our weight. Over time, we started eating and drinking less, yet weight became more of a struggle.

The slowing of metabolism is subtle, yet over time, we find ourselves putting pounds on because we do not initially adjust our eating/drinking to the slowing metabolism. If I ate and drank what I saw these kids doing in a consistent manner, I would be over 220 pounds for sure. Adjusting our eating and alcohol usage as we age is a very important part of not developing a signifcant weight issue over time.

I went back to my alma mata Binghamton State University several years ago and gave a lecture about serotonin and weight loss to their biochemistry department. It was so cool to see the college campus again...memories drifted in like a breeze on a balmy summer day. I wish I could go back to college...I would sit in the quad....and say "Oh my God"...The kids are so much younger and thinner than me"

socially responsible acts for helping obesity

Suzanne posted a comment yesterday in response to my rant about Halloween candy. She said there was a Fairfax dentist who was "buying" back Halloween candy from kids, and then the kids could use that money to buy toys or something else of value to them (hopefully not equity stocks or REITS from their new york brokers).

I loved that act...the dentist had a plan to do his part to lessen the risk of the high-sugar candy on the children's teeth, but at the same time, was lessening their caloric intake.

What can we all do to be socially responsible as this relates to helping the nations largest health concern, obesity? At the Thanksgiving table, we should ensure there are tempting, NOT high-caloric choices that allow any overweight children and adults to still partake of the bountiful buffet of food, but it is not all mashed potatoes and apple pie. Christmas and New Years, do NOT give to overweight relatives and friends gifts of high-caloric candies, cookies, cakes, etc. as a show of love and caring. You can think of creative gifts that will not make them less healthy and increase their chances of an earlier death. Actively discuss your or your loved-ones's weight problems and bring the entire family in to discuss what actions may be taken to help reduce the risk of great harm to the affected person(s).

If we all thought of socially-responsible acts to help the problem of the obesity epidemic, perhaps it would not be an epidemic anymore!