Refuse To Regain

Traveling Outside of Your Head and Into the Rest of Your World

by Barbara Berkeley, MD It's my contention that most of us spend the majority of our time living in the small space above our neck. It's easy to do, since our brain and 4 of our 5 senses (sight,smell, hearing and taste) reside there. But living in our heads is kind of like living in the capital of a huge country with beautiful and varied terrain...and never venturing out of the city. It's easy to govern badly, and if those... Read more →

The Menopause Myth: Why It Can Be EASIER to Lose Weight Later

by Barbara Berkeley, MD It's always healthy to be skeptical, particularly where dietary pronouncements are concerned. In the past year, I've been asked dozens of times about HCG. Everyone is talking. It's all over the media. Does it work? The answer should be obvious to anyone. If HCG was any kind of obesity cure, 3 out of 4 people you know would be taking it already. The first pill or treatment that comes along and can really zap obesity will... Read more →

Habit and Reward: Good for Target, Good for Maintainers

By Barbara Berkeley, MD Here's an article everyone should read. In yesterday's New York Times magazine section, there was a long and eye-opening piece on the science of consumer behavior. It seems that we buy things because it becomes our habit to do so. Marketers rely on this habit and try to create it. There are times in our lives when we are more susceptible to changing habits. Target has found that pregnancy is one of those times, and it... Read more →

Tied to the Mast

by Barbara Berkeley, MD Odysseus, the wandering protagonist of Homer’s Odyssey, had a healthy fear of temptation. In Greek mythology, sailors were regularly lured to their deaths by Sirens, creatures who sang a beautiful and irresistible song. Entranced by the song, these sailors steered toward the call and were dashed to pieces on the rocks. In order to avoid this fate, Odysseus ordered his crew to plug their ears with beeswax and to tie him firmly to the ship's mast.... Read more →

Life on the Island

by Barbara Berkeley, MD No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main….. John Donne, 1572-1631 As John Donne famously observed, each of us is connected to the other and to the larger world. In free societies, our belief in personal liberty often obscures this point. We are free to choose, or so we believe. But our freedoms are enormously affected by the influence of the culture in... Read more →