When we are young, everything is a “first”. Every event, experience, holiday, and new person seems fresh and new. The possibilities seem...

August is glorious in the Pacific Northwest! Many people enjoy travel and special events. It is hard to believe that Fall and Back to School and the season change is almost upon us. Typically, people get out of routines in the summer and try to get back into routines in the Fall. This includes health routines. At Rainier Medical, we find that many people gain some weight during the summer and would like to get back to their "Peak" before the holiday season comes around again.

Congratulations! You have finished your sprint and you and it is time to settle in for the endurance portion of this journey. I wish I could say that you have finished your journey and arrived at your destination, but, like many things in life, weight and health management takes ongoing time and attention. Think of it as a very special garden. Year in and year out, as seasons change, it takes tools, processes, and work to keep the weeds from strangling what you have sowed. Re

Congratulations! You are on week eleven! Keep in mind that while these blogs are written for a 12 week program, the length of your program may be shorter or longer than 12 weeks, and the blogs are applicable throughout the maintenance phase as well. The steps and progression are more important than the actual timeframe, since people are losing different amounts of weight, lose weight at different rates, and may need to take breaks during the weight loss phase or come back an

Congratulations! You have completed 9 weeks on a 12 week journey! You are three quarters of the way there! It is like mile 20 of a marathon, otherwise known as “The Wall“ in a marathon (so I have been told, since I have never run one). This when your legs feel like jello and you think there is no way your body can go farther. In weight loss, this is when you may feel like you are hitting a weight loss plateau. What is a plateau, and what should you do about it? Don’t despair,

You are doing great! You have completed 8 weeks of your program! By now, you probably have experienced significant weight loss and are feeling much better! You may be at the lowest weight you have been in a while, so any additional weight loss is getting below a weight you have been lately. This is great, but it can also lead some people to lose focus. Wherever you are in your journey, remember to keep “running your own race.” Many people, by now, notice that people around th

Congratulations! You have now gotten down all of the integral parts of weight loss! Look at all of the wonderful things you are doing:

Congratulations! You are on Week 7 and half way through a 12 week program. This is a fun week. We are going to celebrate your victories! You have had many of them already and it is hard! Recognition and positive thinking is crucial for the adversity acceptance it takes to do something hard. We are all doing something difficult, swimming upstream and going against the grain. It is not easy, but it is worth it, and let’s see why!

Congratulations! You are on your sixth week of your program! If you are doing a 12 week program, which is typical for women losing about...

Your first four weeks are done! Time flies when you are on a program, for some. Hopefully, you have felt, like some others have, that this is, at least, not "as bad” as it sounded when someone told you about it! But, no matter what, making change is hard, so it is time for your first pep talk! At this point, your weight may be down about 5% from your starting weight. For example, if your starting weight was 250 lbs, it may be down 12 pounds. Celebrate this milestone! For com

Congratulations! After 3 weeks on the protein sparing modified fast, you are likely fully adapted to using ketones converted from stored...

Congratulations! Each week, you are getting closer to your goal! You have completed two weeks of a very low calorie diet/protein sparing...

Congratulations! You have made it through Week 1, or Adapting Week! The first week can be the hardest with physical symptoms. If you experienced more challenging “keto flu” or withdrawal symptoms, do not be disheartened. It is not portending what is to come. The goal of the first week was to get into nutritional ketosis, and to simply follow your plan, usually having 5 medical foods per day, spaced evenly throughout the day, usually at 7 am, 10 am, 1 pm, 4 pm and 7 pm, and to

Welcome! You have decided to change your health for the better and it is time to get started! You probably are feeling some excited anticipation but may also have some trepidation, uneasiness, or uncertainty. Some people feel like this is their last hope for losing weight, or like their health or life depends on losing weight. Whatever you are feeling, rest assured, it is normal, you are not alone, and I will guide you through this process and the follow up care. And, while i

New Year’s Day is a day of excitement for the future. There are many different traditions in different cultures and even different days on which New Year’s is celebrated. But, the sentiment is the same: we are all here and now and we have our future ahead of us. We have hope and aspirations for the best future possible. New Year’s resolutions, while sometimes getting a bad wrap, are based on the honorable desire to make a change for the better. How can that not be good? Rath

Most of my patients begin their weight loss treatment using medical food / meal replacements. These are shakes, soups, and puddings that...