ONE GUYS STORY A BLOG AND VIDEO INSPIRATION AND HELP THE HEAVY CHALLENGE TO LOSE WEIGHT

It's easy to lose weight I've done it a hundred times

For something that seems so transparently clear, the path to sucessfull weight loss is remarkably opaque. The calories in calories out paradigm makes sense but I suspect (as millions of others, no make that hundreds of millions have found out) that there is something more to the story... Kind of like classical physics and The Theory of Relativity. Maybe some Einstein of nutrition will fill in the gaps with a Weight Loss and Diet Theory of Relativity but anyway back to the point....I was watching the Cnbc program, One Nation Overweight, which chronicles the stories of several people who have managed to succeed in their effort to weigh less and enjoy life more.






One person who I found particularly interesting and inspirational was Jim Trudeau. He has weighed as much, according to the program, as 600 pounds and managed to lose two hundred pounds and is on track to lose more. It follows him as he walks, runs, swims and sweats his way around the peaks and valleys of a weight loss resort called the Biggest Loser Resort. And yes, its named after the TV show. I think it may have been called Fitness Ridge before that. Trudeau has been out there several times, spent thousands of dollars and lost hundreds of pounds. (But don't misunderstand, he may get some of the tools and his mojo at the resort but he's following a plan at home 24/7)





Trudea is an articulate lawyer turned businessman who this being the Internet has a blog.. He gives insights into what and how he is doing on the blog...As far as his 15 minutes of fame on tv (actually more like five)...

"Let's start with the actual TV show. Now CNBC/NBC/GE/Comcast had a whole lot of time and money vested in my segment. Crews came to St George 3 times and Madison once. My guess is they spent around 150 man hours just on the actual filming, toss in travel expenses, editing, and production and they spent a heck of a lot of money for what turned out to be five minutes or so of air time. I know they interviewed other guests and the owner of the ridge and none of that made the show :( I don't feel like the piece examined the ridge and what it offered very well. Some stuff they filmed that you didn't see. At the ridge: Pool class, lifting weights, medicine ball sit-ups, swimming laps, eating meals, playing volleyball, other triathletes from the ridge, and graduation. In Madison: making breakfast, Jacky's interview, grocery shopping, state st., and Sunshine Daydream. As far as the rest of the program, I thought they really glossed over the fact that the guy who had the surgery to prolong his life died. I realize that CNBC is a financial station so I understand the bend they took with their theme but it seems like it is awfully tough to quantify a lot of the numbers, costs and per centages that were bandied about. At least the last 5 minutes seemed slightly uplifting :)".

Sweat Baby James on the Weight Loss

Sweat Baby James



You can watch the program on Hulu (along with the commericals) below

Good Shrink. Bad Shrink.

Over time, I've noticed some trends among our blog commenters. Some readers comment on the content of our posts, others link us to Viagra spam, and finally, some readers talk directly to us. We hear about their own experiences of the topic we've blogged about, or simply about their day. This is good, though I could do with a little less Viagra or AirJordan spam in my life.

Sometimes readers inject enough of themselves into their comments that it becomes clear they have opinions about us, the Shrink Rappers, feet, ducks and all. Sometimes it seems like readers are poised to like us, and other times it feels like readers are lying in wait, looking to attack. I was particularly struck by the comments people made on my post about The Texting Shrink. Rachel says I have a kind-heart and another commenter (?--I think it was Retriever) noted that I do this to increase my availability to patients. Dr. Steve put it bluntly: I am idiot! I hope I do have a kind heart, but I text with patients because I've found this to be to my convenience--- it's a quicker way to deal handle brief messages, and none of it's about being more available. My life is better if I get a "stuck in traffic" text and know I have time to run to the restroom or eat a snack. And if a patient needs me to phone a pharmacy or return a call, it's so much quicker to click on the texted number than it is to re-listen to my messages and try to decipher that phone number 6 times by replaying voicemail -- and oh, I don't have a pen and can I memorize it quickly enough?.

Am I an idiot? I believe I've thought it through, but I may be.

The Texting Shrink was only one example. In our years of blogging, many posts have inspired strong reactions, and I've come to be very careful about my choice of words, especially when discussing medications. Sometimes it feels like no matter how gently I word things, someone is poised to simply say, psychiatry is bad, no one should see a shrink, no one should take psychotropic medications, all shrinks care about is money.

Some people think their healthys don't care about them -- and for all I know, they may be right -- others believe their doctors think and care about them a lot, in a way that may not be realistic. Obviously, doctors think and care about their patients (oh, I hope), but docs are people with their own lives and problems.

I'm hoping for a happy medium somewhere. Like Dr. Steve says, I may be an idiot.

I'll Take That Call Now.

Jill of All Trades, MD is a family physician blogger who has a post on KevinMD titled Why answering a cell phone during an office visit is a problem. She writes from the perspective of a primary care doc, and talks about the awkwardness of patients talking on the phone during their office visits. She talks about it with a detective/spy metaphor:

Me: “Your recent lab test shows that your diabetes is currently not sufficiently controlled with the current regimen. Your hemoglobin A1C, which is a lab test that tells me what your sugar level has been at home for the past three months, is 8.1. We need to add a medication at this point because…”

“Riiinnnggg!!,” a quite startling sound lifts me off my seat, as if signaling a new secret-agent assignment.

Patient: “Oh, Doctor, hold on one minute please.”

Is this a conspiracy? Before I can even respond, she picks up the cell phone and starts talking to this rather shady intruder.

Patient: “Hi, honey. I’m at the doctor’s office. What do you need? …”

I wait about thirty seconds, with what seems like an eternity in the secret agent world, and she is still on the phone with this suspicious invader. At this point, I decide to exit the premises.
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For some people, answering the phone immediately seems to be a bit of a compulsion. And for someone who's waited a long time to see an over-booked doctor, I can see why they might want to take a call. Maybe it's a call that was prearranged for a time long after the patient thought they'd be free...but the patient was surprised to find the doctor was running late, and so why should they put someone on hold for a doctor who's kept them waiting? Why is it a one-way street? Oh, because it is.

In psychotherapy it's a different story: people pay for time by the chunk and there aren't patients backed up waiting to fit into the same time slot. I feel like it's the patient's time, and I don't feel like I should say to an anxious mother, "Don't take that call." Still, I'm always a bit surprised when people feel the need to take non-urgent calls during an appointment, and to talk for a bit. I feel a little uncomfortable listening. And even for those who quickly say, "I'm with the doctor, I'll call you back," I'm not sure what that gains over having the phone off.

Does my phone ring during sessions? Yes, because sometimes I forget to turn it off--and if it rings, I reach over and silence it . Do I answer it during a session? Never. Whatever it is waits until the session is over. The only exception I make is if I'm trying to get in touch with another physician regarding the care of the patient I'm seeing during that block of time.

I let people talk on the phone or text or deal with their families or clients. No one has done it repeatedly or in a way that notably distracts from therapy. I'm a bit surprised when anyone wants to pay my fee to talk on the phone, or even when anyone runs late, but hey. If I weren't "rented out" in blocks of time, so to speak, I'd be exiting with Dr. Jill-of-all-trades whenever the phone rang.
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And on a completely different note, I noticed that Jill of All Trades has a link on her sidebar to "Shrink Rapping"....I clicked on it thinking it would be us. But, no....There's another Shrink Rapping doc out there-- Dr. Gregory Smith from Georgia and he's been at it a while. How'd we miss that?

What Do You Want To Know About Psychiatry?

When you work in any setting, your view of it becomes distorted. Your vision becomes tunneled, and the world looks small. My husband came home one day upset because a client had burst into tears while they were talking. "Why does that bother you?" I asked. Apparently it's not something that happens a few times a day for him. And when I was a medical student on an oncology ward, one of the doctors came in for rounds late---on her to way to work she'd seen a young man get knocked off his bicycle by a automobile. She'd stopped to help, and her first question to the young man was, "Are you a smoker?" She quickly realized that it was not a particularly relevant question in that setting.

So do people in the real world have questions about psychiatry? What are they? What a time to ask: just as our book goes for it's final draft. I should have asked before-- What do you want to know? Maybe we're wrong about what we thought people want to know. Maybe we need to write a second book.

The good news is that after several requests, the jacket designer has agreed to add a duck. Bless our editor for asking--- no clue how she explained that one.

Why do I feel like we've been working on this book forever? Clink will tell you, "because we have."

So what questions do you think the general public has about psychiatry? Go for it.

Quadruple Amputee Swimmer Successfuly Swims English Channel

Video of Man Whose Arms and Legs Were Amputated after Electrical Accident Swims English Channel with Prosthetic Legs

I don't understand why the news doesn't cover this story more

This is one of those hard to believe but true inspirational stories about Man versus Life, a quadruple amputee with prosthetic legs swims the English Channel. But wait there's more! This guy has also parachuted out of an airplane. I wonder if Hollywood has contacted him yet about a movie based on his life.. Croizon had his arms and legs amputated when a surge of electrical current traversed his body. According to the report while he was in hospital, Mr. Croizon saw a tv report about a channel swimmer and the idea began to roll around in his head. This isn't even the quadriplegic hero's first long swim. Previously, he swam a 12 hour course.

Quadruple amputee swims the Channel :Philippe Croizon, who lost his limbs in an electrical accident, uses flippers to make crossing in 13 and a half hours