weight loss and other people

First, Jaquel....thanks for the best wishes for the game....the Mets were HORRIBLE and I was sitting their with my Mets jersey and name on it....UGH!!! About three years ago I went to the NY Mets fantasy baseball camp. You go down to their training facility in Port St. Lucie Florida and they cart out a bunch of old players from the Mets teams inthe 60s, 70s, and 80s. You play ball for 3 days with them. Most of the teams have these camps. It was really fun.

This morning I was reading an internet story about how Kelly Clarkson, the original American Idol winner, came out with statements that she is tired of reading stories about her excessive weight. She stated that she loves her body and she wishes the media would stop writing about her weight.

This gave me pause to think about how we all feel about the scrutinization of our weight and how this affects us. When we go to work, do people talk about us behind our backs? Is there some judgement made about our weight? Do we feel compelled to lose weight not just for ourselves but also to have people around us think that we look better? I am interested in your thoughts.

weight loss and restaurant choices

Chances are that your spouse/friends may not also be in a weight losing mode. In your quest to lose weight, you are trying to stay away from restaurants that only offer high-caloric choices...pizza and pasta places, fast food restaurants, etc. Sometimes, you feel as if you are a "party-pooper", meaning that others around you want to go to these places but you inform them that your choices are limited there and you would rather go somewhere else.

There are MANY places that will offer you some great choices AND offer the cheesefries, wings and other sh-- that some of the people around you may like. Diners are EXCELLENT choices, because the array of food is great...many wonderful protein and vegetable choices for you.

Please set yourself up for success by choosing restaurants that will not box you into a bad choice.

On a separate note...going to the Mets-Nationals game tonight. Two pretty bad teams. I grew up near Shea Stadium in Queens. Price for the upper deck back then: $1.30...hot dog..60 cents...soda 25 cents. God, I feel old!!!!!!!

weight loss and planning

Due to our very busy schedules, taking the time to plan in advance your meal schedule for the upcoming week is difficult. However, for the long-term success of losing weight and maintaining that weight loss, planning is an important element.

I would encourage each of you to perhaps reserve some time on Sunday and take out a piece of paper and start thinking about the week in advance. Do you have travel coming up that will place you at lunchtime at an airport on Thursday? Will you be in a late meeting Wednesday and have to bring dinner? If the kids have a late game on Tuesday, what about dinner that night?

Every week will present different or similar challenges, and "mentating" through these issues will go a long way in helping you maintain focus and control. When we make choices on the go, often these spontaneous actions will lead us to poor food choices. Take the time to plan...it is worth it!

Losing weight and paying for it

Yesterday I saw a patient who (like most of you) is losing weight very aggressively, and when I complimented her on her efforts, she said "Well, I am paying lots of money here and I will be really angry at myself if I don't lose lots of weight." This made me think that over the years, we have occasionally put a person into the program for free, such as an office manager of a specialist's practice , to show the specialist how effective our program is. We stopped doing this awhile ago because we found that when we put a person in the program who didn't pay for it, they didn't seem to take the program as seriously as a paying patient. Perceived values of an item or service often are related to the cost of said item or service. When someone is paying 1200 bucks for a program, that is lots of money, and psychologically, that person will most definitely work very to "get their money's worth". When someone pays zero, perhaps their perceived value of what they are getting is zero, so not coming to appointments, not following the plan, etc. is the outcome.

So how can we help people, when they leave their formal visits and no longer "investing" in their weight loss efforts still keep that mindset? Perhaps a self-incentive system where if the patient keeps the weight off, they get to spend X dollars monthly on some hobby? Maybe some type of "maintenance" program where they pay a monthly fee and can come in for periodic visits?

Human nature is a very strong force and when it realtes to weight loss, this force often can affect the outcome. Your thoughts???

weight loss and rewards

Yesterday a patient of mine who is a teacher was describing an end of the year party she is organizing for her students. The food provided will be pizza, cake and other assorted high-caloric foods. Clearly, with childhood obesity being the nation's largest health concern, the question arises as to how socially responsible this is? However, what a dilemma! Would a "treat" for this event to children be chicken breast on a bed of salad? A dessert of no-calorie jello? Many of the kids attending this event will not have a weight problem at all. Is it fair to them to only provide caloric-restricted choices?

I am not sure of the answer to this problematic issue. Providing pizza and cake to overweight kids is certainly not helping their weight problem. Only providing low-caloric choices will make the event less fun. What is the correct thing to do?

Perhaps labeling the food items out with caloric counts on a card beside the food choice will allow both parents and children to see the differences. It would be difficult to separate the food chices to different areas because then the overweight children will feel compelled to go to a different area to get their food.

The same issue holds true for adults attending conventions and seminars. Often the hosting entity fails to provide food choices that a re compatible with a weight loss effort. When there is only sandwiches or pizza and chips at a lunchbreak, this becomes very challenging to a person trying to lose weight.

I am interested in your opinions on this, especially teachers. Please feel free to comment.

weight loss and exercise

Often, when I ask a patient whether he or she exercises, I will get a tentative "yes" and then when I further query as to the type of exercise, I will then be told about having to walk alot at work, taking the stairs at work, parking further from the building entrance, gardening and other activities that, while certainly are better caloric burnoff activities than sitting, are not aggressive enough.

No one, most certainly me, expects people who have not been doing regular exercise to start going out and running marathons. Many people loath running or have orthopedic situations that preclude traditional caloric burn-off exercises activities. However, there are exercise activities that people can do that will increase caloric burniff allowing you to lose weight quicker.

We have a certified personal trainer on staff, and Joanne is a resource for you. NO EXTRA CHARGE!!! Please, if you are not doing any formal exercise right now (planting flowers does not count) call Joanne and set up a time to meet with her so she can help you start a program for yourself. This will help your long-term goals of losing that weight and keeping it off.

Body fat and weight loss

Sorry for the late entry...I took a red-eye flight from Vegas arriving this morning at 700AM. I am way too old to do this anymore!!!

We were meeting with a large medical device company that is launching a body fat measuring scale that is incredibly detailed. This device can measure lean muscle mass, body fat and other parameters segmentally in different parts of the body. A detailed report accompanies this. The machine is being retailed to doctors at close to 5000 dollars! (For that amount of money I would hope they include free AA batteries!)

Often, the weight on the scale does not tell the entire story. We have a number of patients who notice a marked change in their clothes fitting yet the scale weight does not change siginficantly. Sometimes, as we lose body fat, we build muscles mass, and as you know, muscle weighs more than fat.

We will hopefully be getting this new monitoring device so we will be able to measure your lean muscle mass, body fat etc. at your visits. Here is the great news..no extra charge!!! I will let you know when we get the machine in and we are trained on it. (Hmmm..maybe I am sleep deprived and offering free stuff!!!)