Weight Loss Winformation

Here’s a couple of fun facts for you. In 2013, the American Medical Association recognized obesity as a chronic disease. That’s not very long ago… especially when you consider that it was way back in 1956 when the American Medical Association recognized addiction as a chronic disease... at least addiction to alcohol. Increasingly, as more and more research is conducted on the addictive potential o...

Eating in response to feelings of frustration, loneliness, sadness, fear, or boredom – or emotional eating - is an unhealthy habit in which far too many of us engage. Maintaining weight loss isn’t easy to begin with, but if you regularly engage in mindless, emotional eating, regain will be an inevitability. When we engage in emotional eating, we are unlikely to be making a mad dash to the produce...

Getting rid of unhealthy habits requires mindful effort. Surprise! Just like developing healthy new habits, when we work on letting go of negative habits, we have to focus on doing so! This requires mindful effort. It takes work! As does most everything we work for in life. Going to work to get money requires effort. Having a healthy relationship requires conscious effort. When working on developi...

Navigating Social Outings and Travel. Going to sporting events, concerts, the theater can be difficult for those who suffer from the disease of obesity. As can attending dinner at a restaurant, going to the doctor’s office and attending children’s school performances. Mobility issues are always a concern when traveling for those who carry extra weight. Dana shares great tips for loved ones who ass...

Most of our daily routine is made of up habits we established throughout our lives. Some of our habits help us and others get in the way of our health and happiness. Some habits, either good or bad, we learned through observation by the people most prominent in our young lives. Other habits, or consistent behaviors in which we engage without really thinking about them, we learned along our journey...

In order to maintain weight loss, a person has to develop and engage in healthy lifestyle habits. As I thought about this, knowing that habit formation requires pairing a cue, or trigger or situation with a behavior I started thinking of “pairing” my ear buds with my phone… which can be frustrating! Sometimes I get the message that the earbuds and phone are connected, or paired - and then immediat...

I hear it almost every day, “Dr. Stapleton. It’s hard! This whole weight thing is so difficult!” I agree. Weight loss and maintaining a healthy weight are very difficult things for many people. What makes it so hard? In today’s talk, I discuss the difference between behaviors that are objectively difficult versus subjectively difficult. It’s often the case that we say things are “hard” or “difficu...

Humans… we love to find something or someone to fault – usually when things are going the way we would like them to. If I’m arguing with my husband, I want to blame him, whether or not he started the argument. It’s easier and definitely more emotionally comfortable to point the finger at him than to look at what part I play in the situation! The same can be true regarding diseases… we want to find...

Motivation seems hard to come by at times. When people regain weight, they often talk about lacking motivation and not knowing how to ignite more motivation. Well, here’s the reality (which you may translate as not such great news): motivation will never, ever descend upon you from the heavens or the universe. Motivation can, however, and this is good news, be corralled, harnessed, or created. Wha...

Sometimes the family members and good friends of persons suffering from obesity feel very alone with their thoughts and feelings. They may be afraid to share some of their innermost thoughts and feelings for fear of what others may think and because they feel conflicted themselves about what they are thinking and feeling. Dana shares how she experienced love for her husband (who suffers from the d...

What motivates you to continue doing what it takes to maintain your healthy lifestyle after losing weight? And what does the title of today’s episode, “When the Lights Go Down in the Stadium” have to do with maintaining weight loss? Listen as I present an introduction to the topic of motivation and how some people relish the attention they receive as they lose weight. While not everyone enjoys bei...

Many times, when people working to maintain their weight loss hear exactly what is required to do so (you know… eat breakfast, get enough sleep, exercise… those sorts of things), they start in with the “Yeah, but’s…”. “Yeah, but I’ve never been a breakfast eater.” “Yeah, but, I like to stay up really late at night and I still have to get up early for work.” “Yeah, but I really, really hate to exer...

You have done some pretty incredible things in your life that have required consistent effort. In fact, you do things every single day of your life that require a great deal of effort! So what’s up with the idea some people have that they “can’t” keep up the effort to maintain a healthy lifestyle or that it’s “too hard?” You put forth effort to complete high school or college and that took a lot o...

In this episode, you’ll hear a compassionate approach to acknowledging the malarky or  “shenanigans” we let ourselves get away with. You’ll also experience a gentle verbal kick in the rear to remind you that every choice we make has corresponding consequences, good or not-so-good. A healthy parent who reminds their child that homework is a priority over video games, forgetting to take your gear to...

We all want to have a winning hand in life. Use these 4 ACES to make your weight loss journey one of lifelong winning. The 4 ACES are tools to use on a daily basis to keep your head in the game! You’re in it to win it! The 4 ACES stand for winning words; words that, when used as active, healthy coping skills will help you live your healthy lifestyle in all areas of your life! Awareness, Acceptance...

Talking to your loved ones about weight concerns: DO's and DON'Ts! Listen as Dana shares her wisdom about the healthiest ways to share your thoughts and feelings with loved ones who struggle with the disease of obesity. Dana and her husband have been partners in the journey of dealing with the disease of obesity in their immediate family. You and your loved ones will relate as Dana expre...

We all have stories we tell about ourselves and our lives. Are the stories you tell helping you or harming you? If your goal is to maintain a healthy weight, consider what you tell others (and yourself) about creating time to meal prep or exercise… are you “just too busy” to make time for those things? Or is your story, “It won’t be easy, but I’ll make time to do what it takes to keep my blood pre...

S elf - esteem is used to describe the overall personal worth or value a person believes he or she has.  The way you talk about yourself and the ways you treat yourself (your health included) tell others a lot about your sense of self-esteem or how much you appreciate and like yourself . Our self-esteem involves the beliefs we have about ourselves , to include how we appraise our own appearance, b...

Have you known people who have been in an abusive relationship with another human being? Ever wonder the reasons they stay in relationships where their self-esteem is damaged (by another person and by themselves)? You probably can’t imagine remaining in a relationship in which your physical, social and emotional health are constantly being threatened and eroded. And yet, so many people remain in u...

We all have a personal and unique relationship with food. Research, as presented by the National Eating Disorder Association, suggests that up to 50 percent of Americans have a “disordered” relationship with exercise, their body and with food. While that does NOT mean that half of all Americans have what we typically think of as a clinical “eating disorder,” such as anorexia, bulimia or binge eati...

People sometimes make promises they are not prepared or keep! This applies to brides and bridegrooms, as well as to those preparing to have weight loss surgery. If you promise to run a 5K next week but do not prepare, chances are good you will not complete the race! No matter where you are in the process of bariatric surgery… waiting to have it, had it within the last year or are several years pas...

I am SO excited to share this very first FAMILY and FRIENDS talk by Dana Mitchell Rosser, author of the book Thru Thick & Thin! Dana shared the microphone with her amazing husband and post-op, Dr. Butch Rosser to share part of their story that led to Dana writing her book. Enjoy this tremendous talk and look forward each month to a special episode hosted by Dana as she speaks openly about what...

We are all too familiar with unhealthy coping skills in our own lives and the lives of those we love: overeating, too much alcohol, too many drugs, way too much time escaping life through binge-watching or social media, and lashing out at others, especially those we love and don’t want to hurt. In order to feel better about our lives and ourselves, and to remain in line with what we really want –...

People needs SKILLS in order to develop and maintain the healthy lifestyle that allows them to maintain a healthy weight for their body following bariatric surgery. These skills help you when your motivation is low, when temptation is high, or when you want to give in to something that would make you feel better in the present – knowing that what you REALLY want is a healthy life in the longrun. ...

This is a bonus episode! I usually only use the first “live” talk of the week from the BariAftercare program as a podcast and save the second talk for the members of the BariAftercare program. I liked this talk as a follow-up to Tell Me What You Want… What You REALLY, REALLY want, that I had to share! Maybe it was all that talk about the movie While You Were Sleeping that inspired me! In this epis...