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

Many people experienced the benefits of weight management medications, only to find that all the pharmacies are out of them everywhere....

There is a recent “news cycle” in weight loss medication. Tirzepatide (Mounjaro) was approved to treat Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus on May...

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.

Before the pandemic, I would have said that many people spend as many waking hours at work as they do at home. Now, many people spend a lot of time at home, and many people enjoy it (to a point). Studies tell us that engineering your environment is the most powerful action you can take to realize a change in your actions. While we speak of motivation, the power of habit and your surroundings are hard to overcome, so why not make it work for you instead of against you! We spen

Alcohol has somehow managed to take a significant place in our society. Primarily in the form of ethyl alcohol (ethanol), it has occupied an important place in the history of humankind for at least 8,000 years. In most Western societies, at least 90% of people consume alcohol at some time during their lives, and 30% or more of drinkers develop alcohol-related problems. Severe alcohol-related life impairment, alcohol dependence (alcoholism), is observed at some time during the

Yesterday, it hit me once again; I failed my patients. In April 2020, faced with the start of the Covid pandemic, school closures, and...

Very Low Calorie Diets using meal replacements have been well studied as a medical protocol for both non-surgical treatment of obesity and for the treatment or induction of remission of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. They have been shown to lead to new 15 to 20% weight loss with an excellent safety profile using medical screening, monitoring, and nutritionally fortified medical food formulas in studies such as this one .

For better or for worse, managing weight is a lifetime journey. Obesity Medicine is the specialty of diagnosing and managing the chronic...

Exercise is very exciting because it so quickly changes how you feel and how your body works. While all types of exercise provide...

“Managing Macros” is a relatively precise way of doing a nutrition plan using grocery store food. I am doing a blog on it to illustrate...

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

The Perfect Week

Don't worry, this is a good "new normal!" With an average weight loss of 22%, the question for most people who do the Rainier Medical...

It is week 2 of the Fall Challenge. Congratulations to everyone who has decided to invest some space in your brain, time, and life to take care of yourself. The Fall Challenge is based on engagement with the Color My Day portion of the HealthTrac app. A video on how to do this was sent out to everyone signed up for the challenge and is posted here on the website. The Color My Day is a holistic way of looking at weight management. It does not just look at “calories in, calori

In my old practice, I used to spend most of my time writing prescriptions (many of which the patients did not want!). In my current practice, I am frequently stopping prescriptions (the cover photo is the medications one couple got to throw away after doing the Rainier Medical Program!), but one of my favorite prescriptions to write is an Exercise Prescription! Let’s look at those!

“Learning how to eat,” that is a goal that I sometimes hear. It is true, eating has gotten quite complicated. When did we forget how to...