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Why are Most Attempts at Weight Loss Unsuccessful Long-Term?
One of the biggest obstacles to healthy weight loss is misinformation. Misinformation regarding weight loss and health is actually more prevalent than information. It’s not surprising. Over […]
Food is Information
I say this all the time. I think some people think of it more as a meme, but it’s really a statement of fact. Food is so […]
National Women Physicians Day
My purpose in writing this blog is to reach people that need to hear about the science of Obesity Medicine and who need a different perspective regarding […]
Motivation vs Momentum
Motivation is fickle. It’s unreliable. Yes, it can be sexy and dramatic and impressive – and it may show up out of the clear blue some days, […]
Consistency vs Intensity
This is the time of year when most of us get fired up about self-improvement. Whether we call them New Year’s resolutions or not, most of us […]
What do babies and smoke detectors have to do with treating obesity?
Walk through this scenario with me: There’s a tired screaming baby in an apartment. There’s a woman trying to get the baby to stop screaming. The woman […]
Stop bragging about your lack of sleep. (It could be ruining your health)!
Sleep is the ‘most sedentary activity’ yet it may be the ONLY sedentary one that protects people from weight gain As much as people don’t want to […]
Taking the Morality Out of Weight Management
It’s time to take the morality out of body weight. After seven years immersed in the science of obesity medicine, treating patients affected by this terrible disease, […]
Community Support
I started rambling in the newsletter last week and realized (belatedly) that I probably should throw this out there on the blog for those people that don’t […]
Treating the Adolescents!
We are just weeks away from beginning our journey into treating adolescents with excess weight. This has been a dream of mine from the very beginning. As […]
The Junk Drawer of Weight Loss
I am a pretty neat, organized human being. Everything has its place and I sleep better knowing that most things are in their place when I go [...]
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The All-or-none Story
I have had quite a few people lately tell me that they haven’t been eating well because they are an “all-or-none person”. I’m struggling with this. As […]
What the heck is insulin?
Being alive requires a never-ending supply of energy. We use up energy every second of the day. The entire purpose of eating is to provide the body […]
People are afraid of carrots?
I am constantly trying to undo disordered thinking about food. By the time most people come to my clinic, they have tried every weight loss program out […]
Child Obesity- Risk Factors
Childhood obesity is one of the most serious public health challenges of the 21st century. In the US, obesity affects 19% of children between the ages of […]
Leaders
In the past year, the number of people requesting new patient appointments has exploded. We have been slowly and steadily growing to accommodate all of these new […]
Supernatural
The only thing my 13-year-old son wanted for his birthday last month was a virtual reality headset – something called an Oculus Quest 2. A few days […]
3 Levers
Peter Attia is a very smart, very nerdy physician that is obsessed with finding ways to improve lifespan (how LONG we live) as well as healthspan (how […]
Is Organic Produce Worth Buying?
There is no way on earth that any one person could know everything there is to know about nutrition. It’s just not that simple. And there’s way […]
Homework
Thankfully, now that summer has officially begun, I don’t have to hear about how much my teenagers hate homework for a while. However, unlike my children, a […]
What can mice tell us about behavior?
The world of academic medicine puts out a lot of really great stuff every year. The problem is that either it’s really difficult to read it (it’s […]
What do Rocks Have to do With Health?
I love this analogy. Stephen Covey was a business author who popularized the ‘big rocks’ approach to productivity. In summary, your total available time for the next […]
Causes of Death in 2020
The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) recently published an article tabulating the leading causes of death in the US in 2020. Although there has been […]
Get a Colonoscopy – please!
Most of the time I use this platform to talk about metabolic health and weight. It’s what I live and breathe day in and day out. However, […]
Arguing in Circles
There is so much debate today about the process of weight loss. Some people claim it’s all about calories and others claim it has nothing to do […]
Trans Fats
With all the information out there, I doubt there is anyone that doesn’t know what dietary fats are. Underneath that umbrella, however, there are a few nuances. […]
Stop Cheating
I’ve probably written about this before but I’m going to do it again – because it’s one of my pet peeves. At least one person every day […]
Identity Change
I started diving into the field of behavioral change last year and found it fascinating – and so applicable to the field of Obesity Medicine. Consequently, we […]
Emerging
I’m not one to look back over my shoulder very often. It’s not necessarily a good thing all the time, but I tend to stay focused forward […]
Prevention and Treatment are NOT the same things
Preventing disease is usually fairly straightforward. Prevention is never perfectly guaranteed to work (nothing in medicine is), but most of the time, we can prevent lung cancer […]
Revisiting the Link Between Obesity and COVID-19
Just about a year ago, the country shut down. Kids were pulled from school and businesses closed. We hunkered down in our houses, fearful of what was […]
Metabolism
I hear from patients all the time that they think their metabolism is “broken”. In fact, metabolism is not simply one thing. The definition of metabolism is […]
Awareness is the First Step
You’ve probably noticed a change in my social media posts this past week. Rather than looking for things to inspire and support you, this week I’ve been […]
The Ecosystem in Our Gut
It might seem odd to be getting a lesson about microorganisms from someone trying to improve weight and overall health, but bear with me. There is tons […]
Read your labels carefully!!
Don’t make the same mistake I did! I ordered my normal EVOO from Instacart and the shopper made a substitution. I didn’t think much about it (when […]
Perfection is an Obstacle to Progress
I see so many people give up with their weight loss progress because they didn’t hit their “goals.” As much as we talk about this, some people […]
Go Chiefs!
We have two days until the Chiefs head back to the Super Bowl. I’m not naïve – I realize that most people aren’t reading about health right […]
Bubbles
Studies are clear that we need to drink plenty of water to stay healthy. We need to stay adequately hydrated for optimal health and weight. The biochemistry […]
Apple Cider Vinegar
Patients periodically ask me about apple cider vinegar. I stay away from social media and news, so perhaps the interest waxes and wanes with marketing and propaganda, […]
Weight-Loss Dogma
Human beings (myself included) can be very close-minded and dogmatic about some things. This isn’t usually deliberate – we simply hear something several times and absorb it, […]
Ulysses Contracts
During active weight loss, patients come into the office for a lot of things: doctoring, evaluation, support, community – but one of the things they crave most […]
Goodbye 2020!
January 1st. Thank heavens, right? 2020 is over. This is the time of your that everyone starts thinking about goal setting – about resolutions. Before you sit […]
Tea, glorious tea
I began fighting the weight battle once I was old enough to look into a mirror and compare myself to the other kids in elementary school. Thankfully, […]
Reward Eating
Many of my patients struggle with the desire to eat in the evenings – typically a few hours after dinner, usually while watching T.V. There seem to […]
All-Or-None
I ask all of my new patients what their barriers to success are going to be. Some people are completely surprised by this question – they’ve never […]
Gratitude
“if we acquire a good through exchange, effort or achievement, or by right, then we don’t typically feel gratitude. Gratitude is an emotion we feel in response […]
Thanksgiving
I’ve gotten so many questions the past few weeks about how to navigate the Thanksgiving holiday without falling off the health wagon. Maybe Thanksgiving isn’t worrying you […]
Obesity is not the primary driver of poor health
I was putting together a lecture this weekend and started organizing my slides about metabolic disease and how it’s the biggest problem we are fighting and I […]
The Marshmallow Experiment
Information about the Stanford Marshmallow Experiment has come across my desk several times in the past few weeks. That’s a sign that I need to bring it […]
“halloweethankschristmanewyearsuperbowvalentines”
Have you started celebrating this crazy holiday yet? Hopefully not. This holiday is responsible for a lot of unplanned weight gain for many of us. Why? Because […]
Our Toxic Food Culture
Only 12% of American adults are considered metabolically healthy. 12%. That means that 88% of us have some sort of disease or condition that impacts our metabolic […]
Eating Out
Americans today spend over fifty percent of their annual food budget on food prepared outside the home – and this number keeps increasing year after year. The […]
The Choice
I try to spend a portion of each day improving myself in some way: physically, mentally, and/or emotionally. I think it’s a huge part of what keeps […]
Food is not good or evil…
If you have ever been a patient in my office, you know that I hate to refer to foods as “bad” or “good”. I think giving food […]
How to Manage Cravings
Merriam Webster defines a craving as: an intense, urgent, or abnormal desire or longing Cravings can be triggered by all different things – memories, habits, smells, thoughts, […]
Never and Can’t
“I can’t have pasta anymore?” “You aren’t going to let me have soda any more?” I hear questions like this every day. I hate them for two […]
More About Habits:
I’m sure you all know how much I like the book, “Atomic Habits”. I’ve written about this book multiple times as I think the principles outlined in […]
Do you hate your body?
Most women I know hate their bodies. They talk about their bodies as though they are vile creations that need to be molded and shaped into something […]
Roller Coasters
I used to be an adrenaline junkie in my younger days. The bigger the rollercoaster, the better. Upside down and inside out – heck yes. Cliff jumping […]
Losing Weight Reduces Your Risk of Developing Breast Cancer
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. You can’t live in the United States and be unaware of the impact that this disease has on […]
Apples & Oranges
I was talking with a group of people the other day and one of them brought up the fact that his doctor told him that he had […]
Self-criticism
I am an Enneagram 1. If you know anything about the Enneagram, you know that means that I am “the improver”. I am a dreamer that sees […]
Thoughts and Reflections
About age 11, I became painfully aware that I was bigger than the rest of the kids in school. From that point on, surrounded by parents that […]
Comparing Behaviors
Doing what I do for a living is immensely gratifying. Most patients that struggle with weight & eating behaviors and have a genuine desire to improve them. […]
Naming Food
Dear readers, I haven’t forgotten about you. There were so many blog posts and social media posts last week about racism and anti-racism and there were so […]
“Stop Apologizing”
Surely by now, you all know that I am a complete book nerd. Thriftbooks.com probably considers me one of their top customers! However, I am also a […]
Tiny decisions matter
I just reread a book called “The Slight Edge” by Jeff Olson. It’s a great book about personal development and all that good stuff that I love. […]
The Minnesota Starvation Experiment
Science doesn’t support the calories-in, calories-out hypothesis. If you are still trapped into believing that model, it’s time to learn more!
COVID-19 and Obesity
As the statistics keep rolling in, we are getting some grim data about obesity and/or chronic medical conditions and COVID-19. Having these medical problems doesn’t put you […]
Health – identity vs hobby?
This idea has generated a lot of conversations amongst my friends and patients this past week. I think it does a great job of summarizing why most […]
Enneagram Anyone?
I don’t know about everyone else, but the first week of this shelter at home craziness made me feel very discombobulated and out of sorts. I didn’t […]
How to Improve Your Odds of Thriving During This Pandemic
The Covid-19 pandemic is taking over our lives. As we face this invisible enemy, it’s important to use every tool in our arsenal to decrease our risk […]
Are You Eating Your Anxiety Right Now?
I have spent almost twenty years practicing medicine and I bet there hasn’t been a day that I haven’t had to talk someone down from a place […]
Eating our Happiness “Champagne Moments”
Patients come into my office all the time with “confessions” of eating off plan. After one of these confessions, I usually get to hear the reasoning behind […]
Why do we eat our sadness?
Our theme this month is my office is eating emotions. What do I mean by that? When we encounter an emotion that we perceive as being negative […]
Why do we eat poorly when we are stressed?
I have an amazing job. I get to talk every day with people who are driven. People that are working hard to improve their health, their lives, […]
Voting
I can’t get enough of this concept of habits. Just in case you missed the first blog post in this series, most of the information this month […]
Motivation vs Habits
Few things can have a more powerful impact on your life than improving your daily habits. However, it often feels difficult to keep good habits going for […]
Habits vs Systems
One of the most common things I hear from frustrated patients is that they know what to do to get healthy- they just can’t seem to put […]
The Power of Routine
This month at Heartland Weight Loss we are focusing on habits. Routines. Not just setting goals, but actually putting systems in place to make those goals into […]
Advice
People like giving advice. People like helping others solve their problems. It’s human nature. We do this to some degree when it comes to all medical problems. […]
Weight Loss Myth #4
Hopefully you are learning more and more each week as we debunk the weight-loss myths that we have all heard over and over again! Here is myth […]
Weight Loss Myth #3
Ready to learn some more? Here’s installment #3 in our Weight Loss myths series. 2020 is the year to expand our minds and learn some hard truths […]
Weight Loss Myth #2
Hopefully last week’s post got you thinking! Well, there’s plenty more where that came from. I love writing about these things! Myths about weight loss are everywhere […]
Weight Loss Myth #1
I have read hundreds of books and articles and blog posts regarding weight and weight loss. Most of the time, the authors repeat the same dogma over […]
Emma
Emma is a 39-year-old female that was referred to Heartland Weight Loss by her PCP. At her first visit in May 2021, she reported that she has […]
Melinda
Melinda is a 37-year-old female that was referred to Heartland Weight Loss by her PCP. At her first visit in July 2021, she reported that she hadn’t […]
Jessica
Jessica is a 33-year-old female that was referred to Heartland Weight Loss by her gynecologist. During her first visit at Heartland Weight Loss in July 2021, Jessica […]