Advancing Your Health

Do: Get a Head Start

The first day of the New Year seems like the perfect day to start a new lifestyle, but why wait for a specific day to begin a healthier way of life?  Waiting may actually be doing more harm than good to your resolution.  The holiday temptations and the “I can indulge today/ this week/this month because I am going to lose weight in the New Year” mentality can actually set you back farther and make your resolution harder to achieve.  There’s no sense in putting off for later what you can start today.

Don't: Go to the Extreme

The most common reason that New Year’s resolutions fail is because they are too unrealistic.  It’s great to be motivated to improve your health, [...]

Recent studies have been examining whether the rate in which we eat influences our weight. In one study, researchers gave women pasta at two different times. The first time, they were told to eat quickly. The second time, they were encouraged to slowly chew each mouthful 15 to 20 times before swallowing. On average, women ate 67 fewer calories when they took time to chew their food. The authors of this study noted that cutting 67 calories at dinner translates into seven pounds of weight loss per year. Another similar study focused on examining how the speed of eating changes appetite and the rate of which food (energy) in our bodies is used. A calorimeter machine was used to measure how much energy a person burns throughout the day. On the first day, women ate lunch in a [...]

All of us know that the holidays can be a perilous time for those who wish to lose weight, with all the parties, family gatherings and food around us. It is part of our culture to overeat from Thanksgiving through Valentine's Day, and others around us are likely to do so. Moreover, the food consumed often is high in sugar and fat, and alcohol does not relieve hunger very well, and can cause us to be less in control and more inattentive. The following are some ideas to consider to help you control your weight during the holidays:

1. Remind yourself that our culture at large does not have to be your personal culture.
2. Make sure that your thinking and attitude are healthy.  Think of moderate eating during the holidays as a step [...]
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Reasons we are not Exercising and Strategies to Overcome all of the Excuses

Weight loss is not an easy task to accomplish.  Often times it involves a lifestyle change in which we are forced to change habits we have developed over a lifetime. Many of us have trouble incorporating physical activity into our daily routines and come up with a number of excuses as to why we are not going to do it.  It is time to combat these excuses with pre-contemplated strategies so these excuses cannot hold us back.

With that said, these are the top 5 excuses we hear most often for not exercising and tips to help you overcome excuses:

1) I'm Too Tired

• Wake up 30 minutes early and work out.  It will increase your energy for the rest [...]
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Let’s be honest. We all know we can overindulge during the holidays. Around Thanksgiving, especially, we’re so enticed by the variety of dishes and their endless quantities that we often forget what we’re really focusing on, our loved ones. In the spirit of the health and wellness of you and your family, we’re sharing with you a few ways you can cut unnecessary calories from your Thanksgiving menu, without cutting the flavor or fun!

Cutting Calories from Turkey & Meat Recipes

Your turkey doesn’t need a coating in a full tub of butter to be moist, nor does it require brining days in advance for flavor. The traditional turkey recipe packs in about 400 calories per serving.

If you swap out the brining process for a bit of white miso paste, and use a rub [...]

Losing weight is something that seems to be high on the list of to-dos of most American adults. Whether you set a New Years resolution each year, or find yourself trying one diet after another, the ultimate goal is to lose weight and keep it off. Many of us don’t have enough weight to lose to justify weight loss surgery, but are looking for a long term solution. While diets can work for some people, most popular diets assume that everyone is overweight for the same reasons and can lose weight following the same plan. From years of experience, we know that this is not true. That’s why we’ve launched the Your Weigh program, which gives you the opportunity to work with a team of medical professionals to construct a tailored weight [...]

5 Tips for Practical Weight Loss Weight-loss scams, crazed fashion diets, and countless pills have promised fast and simple ways to lose weight. In reality, the true foundation to successfully losing weight is developing a realistic and healthy program that fits your body and lifestyle. Here are five simple tips that can help you create practical weight loss goals for yourself. 1.   Commit to Your New Lifestyle In order for you to successfully lose weight, you must be willing to devote your time as well as your effort. Changing your daily habits and sticking to a set plan takes a significant amount of energy, so make sure you are willing to commit yourself. Once you feel prepared and motivated, choose a date to start your program, and then begin! 2.   Establish Realistic Goals One of the most important parts of dieting is to create attainable goals. First, [...]

Does the original, triangular food guide pyramid confuse you? Do you find its design to be archaic and unhelpful in maintaining a healthy diet? If so, you’re in luck! This past June, the United States Department of Agriculture along with Michelle Obama, created a new nutritional guide. They abandoned the outdated pyramid model, and introduced the modernized, circular “MyPlate”. In hopes of further combating obesity, Mrs. Obama stated that the MyPlate is a “quick, simple reminder for all of us to be more mindful of the foods that we’re eating”. The MyPlate design is significantly different than those of past food guides. Split into four sections, the MyPlate provides a space for fruits, vegetables, grains and protein. At the top corner of the plate sits a smaller circle, providing a space for dairy products. The concept is simply this: If a [...]

By Dustin Hartman Through diet alone I lost half of my excess weight...and then I stopped. My insurance required I see a psychiatrist before the surgery (which now I am very thankful for) and the one thing Dr. Santavicca told me that I will never forget is that I wouldn't be able to achieve my goals through diet alone. I would need to exercise. I remember thinking at the time “Yeah right, I don’t exercise, if I did I wouldn't need the surgery,” so I didn’t exercise. Pre-surgery, I would join gyms but I would usually stop going after a month because it was hard work. When I hit a plateau, I remembered what Dr. Santavicca said and reluctantly started exercising. I was surprised by how much easier it was to exercise now that I had lost so much weight. Although exercising was still hard, I wasn’t as miserable as [...]

By Dustin Hartman I started the weight loss surgery process by attending the Emory Bariatric Seminar to learn more about my options. At the seminar, the leader told us to look around at the other people attending the seminar. He said that the majority of my peers would not follow through with weight loss surgery. At the time I thought that was ridiculous, but he was right - the majority of the people who attended the seminar didn’t complete the process. Between my insurance requirements, Emory’s requirements and my own personal life, the process of getting insurance approval and becoming mentally and physically prepared for surgery took a year. The surgery itself was incredibly easy; I was in and out of the hospital in three days and back to work in three weeks. Life after surgery is completely different, yet still the same as my life before surgery. I had [...]