Refuse To Regain

Pills Are Not Magic. You Are.

by Barbara Berkeley, MD Greetings from the land of semi-retirement. It has been just over a year since I left my primary practice--fully intending to continue patient care in another setting. But fate intervened in the form of a local dance contest and shifted my focus to pursuit of a lifelong dream of becoming a dancer. If not now...when??? Since that fateful moment, I have trained endless hours and have competed in three world salsa competitions (not very successfully!). I... Read more →

Simplify Your Life: A philosophy that should be applied to weight loss

by Barbara Berkeley, MD (Originally posted on RTR as "Simple Life, Simple Body", 2015) I was intrigued by David Brooks’ column in the New York Times recently. It speaks to a renewed interest in an old idea: simplifying life. Living in a less complicated way is not a new concept (think Walden Pond), but it has gained a greater magnetism in the setting of the hugely complex and acquisitive world in which we now find ourselves. I personally have enjoyed... Read more →

LeBron James on Challenge

by Barbara Berkeley, MD Now that LeBron is back in Cleveland you're going to get sick of hearing me talk about the Cavaliers and their trials and tribulations. But bear with me, because sports resembles life in many ways and there is much to learn from the best of it. This video clip from last night records LeBron's reaction to losing the third game of this young basketball season. The Cavs were blown to bits by the Portland Trailblazers, losing... Read more →

Real Bodies: Dealing With the Changes of Aging and Weight Loss

by Barbara Berkeley, MD Weight maintainers and the over 50 crowd (not mutually exclusive!) have something in common: a body that is not what it once was. One of the earliest posts to this blog described the "Green House" philosophy, a term coined by Lynn Haraldson to describe her relationship with a body that had suffered battle scars in the war of weight. Like the quirky house she lived in, Lynn's body had flaws. Despite efforts to change both, the... Read more →

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 →

Halloween to New Year's Day: Joy, Anxiety and Overeating

by Barbara Berkeley, MD Why do we eat? In the America of 2011, we eat for the same reasons we buy new TVs, redo our kitchens or replace our perfectly functional cars. We eat not because we need to, but because we can. Eating is cheap, pleasurable and soothing. It's kind of an adult "blankie". With that in mind, let's look at when we need a blankie most. We want to be soothed when we are stressed, when we are... Read more →

Impermanence

By Lynn Haraldson-Bering I had an immaculately clean kitchen floor for a minute yesterday. But like everything in life, clean is impermanent. As soon as I let the dogs in from the back yard, my sparkly clean floor was gone. As many of you know from my Lynn’s Weigh blog, I’ve been studying Buddhist teachings and practicing vipassana meditation for a few years. One of the most difficult concepts I am working to accept and not fear is impermanence, particularly... Read more →

Stand and Deliver

By Barbara Berkeley We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” Aristotle Long, long ago, in that distant time period before blogging, a food writer for our local newspaper wrote a first-of-the-year column. Seems that he’d gained quite a bit of weight as a result of all that dining and reviewing and he was determined to take it off. There was the usual worry about health issues and the obligate promise to stay... Read more →

Meditation and Maintenance

Some of you may recognize this blog entry from Lynn’s Weigh back in October. I’m reposting it here to introduce our guest blog coming up on Tuesday by Alyson Mead, author of “Wake Up To Your Weight Loss.” We’ll also be posting a follow-up guest blog from a meditation teacher on how to begin a meditation practice. By Lynn Haraldson-Bering I’m a realist. But in the last few years, I’ve become a “kinder, gentler” realist. I used to beat the... Read more →

The Role Of Supporter

By Lynn Haraldson-Bering Something we talk a lot about on this blog is support – where we find it and in what ways we use it, either on the Internet or in real life. I’d like to approach support from the other side, where you are the supporter and not the supported. This subject is prompted by a reader who asked in an email: “Have you found it draining/difficult to focus on your own maintenance while supporting others with a... Read more →