Tag Archives: lose

William Anderson a ChooseHelp.com Expert in their “Ask the Expert” Q&A’s

Posted on April 18, 2012 | 1 comment

In it’s infancy, before it became a national clearinghouse for mental health and addiction treatment information, ChooseHelp.com asked me to write for their Q&A “Ask the Expert” column.

Martin Schoel, founder of ChooseHelp.com, envisioned a website that would provide resource information for people looking for help with mental health and addiction problems.  I had been working and publishing in the field since the mid-1980’s and he liked what I had been doing. He asked me if I would consider being a featured expert in their Q&A “Ask the Expert” columns. Here is the result:  http://www.choosehelp.com/profile/TheAndersonMethod . This is my “Expert Page” on their website. My latest Q&A’s are at the bottom of the page. Explore the whole site to see what is there.

I’m glad I said, “Yes”. His website has proved to be a very professionally done work, attracting many professional helpers and many people seeking help so that they can meet on common ground to find each other and accomplish important work. I know that even in it’s early life, ChooseHelp.com has helped many people, mitigated a lot of suffering and promoted a lot of healing.

I am listed as an expert in depression, anxiety disorders, mental illness, addictions, alcoholism, eating disorders and,  of course, weight loss.  Martin has kept me busy, too busy sometimes, answering the growing avalanche of questions coming in from people needing help and not knowing what to do. He laughed when I said I liked being the “Dear Abby” in this realm. I know what’s it’s like to be sitting by yourself, needing help, and being stuck. To be able to provide the right words, at the right time, to people sitting at their computers and otherwise stuck,  is a blessing. I know that sometimes, sending a text is all people have the energy to do.  In this age, like no other, even that little act can actually get people going in the right direction because of what ChooseHelp.com is doing. It’s a miracle, compared to the days I began working in the field.

Please take a look at what Martin has created: http://www.choosehelp.com/

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Welcome, Lynne Coon, MS, LPC!

Posted on March 31, 2012 | Leave a comment

 

Here is our latest certified provider to offer The Anderson Method in Portland, Oregon:

Lynne Coon, MS, LPC
1020 SW Taylor Ave., Suite 448
Portland, Oregon 97205
(503) 243-2283
counselingforweightloss.com

Here’s a bit about Lynne from her website,   “I started my private practice in 2001 and focus on weight control, depression and self esteem issues. I have a master’s degree in counseling with a specialty in community counseling, and I am a Licensed Professional Counselor in the state of Oregon, serving communities in the greater Portland metropolitan area including: Portland, Vancouver, Lake Oswego, Tigard, Tualatin, Beaverton, Milwaukie, Oregon City, Hillsboro, Forest Grove, King City, West Linn, Wilsonville, Gresham, Troutdale, Scappoose, St Helens, Camas, Brush Prairie, Battle Ground, and Multnomah County, Clackamas County, Washington County and Clark County.

I use a cognitive therapy approach to help clients think about things in a different way, a way that creates less suffering and a greater experience of success and joy in living. I bring my experience, my expertise and my desire to make a difference into the room with each of my clients. We’ll work together to discover the path to a better life.”

Welcome, Lynne!

 

 

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Qnexa, the New Weight Loss Pill

Posted on February 23, 2012 | 10 comments

From the New York Times: “A federal advisory panel on Wednesday overwhelmingly recommend approval of what could become the first new prescription drug to treat obesity in 13 years. The advisory committee to the Food and Drug Administration voted 20 to 2 that the benefits from the weight loss provided by the drug, Qnexa, more than offset the potential risks of heart problems and birth defects.”

Qnexa is a combination of two existing drugs — the stimulant phentermine, which was the surviving part of the fen-phen combination, and the epilepsy and migraine drug topiramate, also known by the brand name Topamax. If you google around, you’ll get all sorts of details about the effectiveness in trials and the dangers.

I have had clients who have used these drugs. Sometimes they have helped, modestly. Sometimes they have done no good.  I’ve also had clients who have had the bariatric surgery, only with surgery, the dangers were greater, and the negatives were assured, not just possibilities.

As an obesity treatment expert, let me emphasize that weight loss cannot be achieved without behavior change, establishing habits that result in eating fewer calories than used. If a medication can help a person to do this, without adverse risk, I am all for it. The prospect of an effective medication that would make it easier to actualize healthy behavior is much better than surgery, though I encourage the surgery if it is the only way to sustain life, and time has run out.  

 As a Licensed Mental Health Counselor with a lifetime of treating mental disorders, let me make it clear that an array of thought and behavior disorders are affected by disorder in brain chemistry, and the effective treatment is medication. Good examples are depression and OCD, a relative of compulsive overeating. Treatment with medication alters the brain chemistry to relieve depression and OCD symptoms. We know that medications can reduce appetite and eating compulsions. Are drugs the solution to obesity? No. Behavior change is. But in some cases, drugs help, and in some cases, it seems behavior change is not possible without drugs. 

Let’s not forget that the solution to obesity is in behavior change. Sometimes, drugs can help, but drugs can only be a part of the answer. Most of the time, drugs play no part. Always, the answer is in Behavioral Medicine.

When I was young and obese, out of control and in the dark about how to solve my problem, I would have jumped at the chance of one of these miracle cures. I am so glad that I learned the real solution and lost not only the 140 pounds, but the risk and danger of these false promises. If you are overweight and hoping for a drug that will help with the problem, I am with you for that. But don’t wait to learn what you can do in regards to other Behavior Medicine technology to make the changes you’ll need to make. You’ll need to learn them anyway, even if a drug comes along that really works. Why not learn it now? You may find that you’ve solved the problem before a foolproof drug appears, which may or may not happen.

 

 

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Celebrating 27 and a Half Years Of Losing 140 Pounds!

Posted on January 26, 2012 | 2 comments

As we begin 2012, I have, at age 62, now spent as much of my life at my ideal body weight as I did being obese, over 300 pounds as an adult. I can almost think of myself as a naturally thin person now!

I was an overweight kid, failing my first of a thousand diets at seven, the fattest kid in school almost every year and rejected by the Armed Services at 18 because of my weight. By the time I was thirty I was a veteran of every diet on the planet and a failure at more weight loss attempts than you can count. In my early thirties I had endured 27 and a half years of regular doses of misery because of those tribulations, between periods of trying not to think about it. The stories and insights I can tell you will fill volumes. If you’re overweight they would sound familiar and it might surprise you to learn that you are not alone in the way you’ve acted, thought and felt.

But now, I celebrate 27 and a half years of maintaining my ideal body weight! I found a way out of the misery of obesity. I haven’t been perfect, or free from having gained some at times that I had to beat back down, but I’ve been successful. I still love to eat, and truth be told, I’m better at it and enjoy it more than I ever did!

If you want to know how, I can tell you.

I just wanted to stop and mark milestone in my journey.

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Can You Really Lose 15 Pounds in a Week?

Posted on October 26, 2011 | 7 comments

A reader has written, “I see the tabloids in the supermarket that talk about ways I can lose 15 pounds in a week. Is this really possible? Isn’t it better if I try to lose just 5 pounds a week?”

(The author is a psychotherapist who lost 140 lbs. when he discovered Therapeutic Psychogenics,  and he’s kept it off for over 25 years. Read about his method of fast permanent weight loss and the clients who have used them by clicking on the menu above.)

Whoa! Let’s leave the supermarket tabloids to reporting about celebrities giving birth to aliens and come back to planet Earth and reality.

While my program is known for fast permanent weight loss, losing 15 pounds in a week is not possible for most people. I have seen it only with very obese people, and only in the first week of a weight loss regimen. After that, things slows down. Even 5 pounds a week, after the first week, is unrealistic. In the long term, with a healthy weight loss regimen, it’s more realistic to expect 1 to 3 pounds a week. However, speed of loss is not the most important thing. Making the loss permanent is.

If you are like most of us, you’ve been struggling with a weight problem for a long time. You’ve found that diets and exercise binges don’t solve the problem, even when they are sensible, never mind the crazy stuff.  If you’ve lost weight with those approaches, you’ve put it all back on and more.

If you really want to solve your weight problem for good, if you want to lose your excess weight and keep it off, it can be done, but you need to stop looking for unrealistically fast weight loss.

I lost 140 pounds in 18 months in 1983-1984 after 25 years of getting worse every year with diets and exercise schemes. In real medicine, that’s considered fast weight loss, but not dangerously so. I’ve maintained an ideal weight since then, over 25 years.  I was very lucky to have discovered the real solution to chronic weight problems in Behavioral Medicine, and now I teach it to others.

It’s an oversimplification, but succeeding with permanent weight loss is a matter of reprogramming habits, not diets, and not using “will power”. It’s a matter of using technique to reprogram the habits, not a matter of “just making up your mind”. It involves enjoying food even more than ever and winning every day, not waiting months or even a week to feel victorious.

Please read my articles here on my website, especially the letters from clients when you click on “testimonials” and you’ll learn how I and my clients have lost enormous amounts of weight  sometimes rather quickly, but always with the goal of forming a way we can live with forever, not fast weight loss at all costs.

Just so you know, a realistic pace for healthy weight loss is 50-75 pounds a year for women, with sometimes 5-10 pounds the first week. When you think about it, wouldn’t having that happen be a lot better than chasing crazy weight loss that will only disappoint and leave you worse?

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