Welcome to the Refuse To Regain Discussion Board

My publisher has just reported that the book is in the printing process and will be out by mid to late October. It's frustrating, because the initial release date was September, but I do believe it is coming soon!
Barbara

On Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 12:42 PM, QT - pkerby <
qtopic-42-AW5CFvr722x8N@quicktopic.com> wrote:

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Barbara Berkeley, MD
Weight Management Partners, Inc.

Author: "Refuse to Regain!: Twelve Tough Rules to Defend the Body You've Earned"
Weight maintenance website: www.refusetoregain.typepad.com
Practice website: www.weightmp.com
< replied-to message removed by QT >

Barbara, Is your book out now? Or does it come out in October?

My cooking has gotten pretty basic, too. Hubby is starting to complain that the chicken is too boring! So I might try stuffing it with spinach and mushrooms or something along those lines. Problem is that he doesn't like too many vegetables, and there are very few that I don't like (brussels sprouts, anyone?), so it makes cooking for two a bit of a challenge. So I might have to stuff his with broccoli and lots of cheese. :)

Actually, I just finished today's blog, which i'll be sending to Lynn for posting. it has three recipes in it that I really love and I'm glad to provide others as well. However, as I mention in the blog, my cooking has gotten really basic over the past few years. That let's me get out of the kitchen quickly and reduces my "face time" with food.

Barbara, what are some of your favorite recipes?

Jill,
During the treatment for weight loss we use a combination of one paleo style meal with 3 Optifast supplements. Originally, Optifast was designed to be used as a full liquid diet. When used this way, it is very low calorie and has a few minimal side effects, one of which can be hair loss (that comes back after the person stops the diet). I never noticed that our couple referenced that...it probably is still mentioned in our consent form, but in fact we practically never see it anymore. Also, it is important to note that this is not related in any way to Paleolithic eating.
Barbara

Barbara, I was checking out your Web site because I wanted to refer a friend to the paleo diet as well. One of the success stories was the couple. Wow! But I wondered what it meant when they wrote that the only thing she had to risk was some hair loss. What did they mean by that?

Speaking of calcium and diet and such, it came out today that drugs taken to prevent osteoporosis may actually be causing sudden fractures without apparant cause.

Now if one day I can just stop drinking diet soda, I think my bones will be very happy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/health/1...VUZS9srQnq+uttF2ZkA

Hi Jill,
Thanks for the questions. Here are the answers, the best I can give.
1. I have been 20 pounds over my current weight. Since I only weigh 123, most people probably wouldn't call that overweight. (I'm 5'5"). However, I weighed 115 pounds for most of my early adulthood, so for me--getting into the 140s was pretty heavy. I need to do everything that I advise my patients to do in order to stay at my lower weight. I am a maintainer in every sense of the word and I eat the same diet and do the same exercise as my patients. I gain incredibly easily if I don't.
I got interested in weight loss before I ever gained myself. In 1988, I was recruited to head a large weight management program by someone who knew I wanted a job that would allow me to have time with my kids (and no night call). At the time, I didn't know anything about the field, but I soon became incredibly interested in it and the rest is history.
2. It is true that most paleo diets don't contain dairy. There are some reasons to worry about dairy, but most seem to have to do with eating too much of it. One of the interesting facts that most people don't know is that most of the countries with the highest dairy consumption have the highest rates of osteoporosis. The US is one of those. One reason may be that dairy foods, combined with grains and meats, present an acid load to the body. The acid is buffered by calcium from the bones, so the bones become weakened. Paleo diets are much more alkaline because of the lack of grains and dairy and because fruits and vegetables are not acid. Having said this, I have found that most of my patients do fine weight-wise if they eat low fat or non fat dairy. My goal is to keep people at goal weight. I feel that they have a better chance to do this if the diet isn't completely restrictive. Therefore, I include low fat dairy, as long as the scale tolerates it.
3. Well. This is the reason I tried to invent the word "Primarian". I felt that a diet that has a name gives you some cover. No one tells vegetarians that they aren't eating enough because they don't eat meat. Everyone has gotten used to that notion. I think that the best thing to do is to be completely up front with people and say that you are on a diet to maintain weight loss. This is a very challenging thing to do and you have spent alot of time figuring out the diet that works for you. You might also throw in a zinger or two, something like, "If Americans had such a good idea of how to eat properly, we wouldn't have 60% of our population overweight." I like to educate people about my belief in ancient diet and why I believe in it. People are usually very interested once you get into the rationale.
Barbara

Barabara (and Lynn), love the site. I was wondering, Barbara, if you had been overweight? I don't see your back story or how you got interested in weight loss or whether this was from your practice.

Also, I was wondering your feelings on dairy. I see in the primarian diet sample you list that you have dairy, but other paleo diet advocates say no dairy.

Also, last question, I wondered what you advise people who ask maintainers what they eat to answer. I want to help overweight people as I was, but I also get a lot of criticism that I'm not eating enough if I get into specifics about the diet I follow (no gluten, and very occassionally corn or rice if other vegetables aren't available).