If you aren’t in the mood for it, it’s not going to happen. Think of how many times you didn’t go work out or make love because you were too tired and lacked the energy. Often what can rob you of energy and dampen your enthusiasm to make love or exercise is not feeling good about yourself.

Being depressed drains you of energy and is a surefire prescription for weight gain. If feeling good and staying positive is a prerequisite for making love and going to the gym, it seems to me that it would be a smart idea to learn how to maintain a positive state of mind in the face of life’s disappointments. Perhaps it would be helpful to develop a Zen like attitude assuming everything is perfect in the moment and there is a gift waiting for you no matter what happens. All you need to do is relax, stay calm and find the gift.

If you stay calm and don’t let life get you down you will have the energy to do what it takes to lose weight and probably be more interested in sex. So here is my suggestion. Choose to be happy. Don’t let others bring you down. You will find yourself exercising more often and enjoying more bedroom gymnastics (pardon my sense of humor).

Have a great day!

Dr. Bob

Hi Friends,

My 17 year old son Jonathan woke up at 6:30am this mornng. That in itself is a miracle. He looked somewhat like he was in la la land. I could tell he was contemplating going back to bed. Since I am interested in making him an early morning riser like my self (somthing teenagers don’t seem to get excited about) I told him I could show him some neat exercises that would give him energy to start his day. And guess what, he said yes.  Boy that made me happy. Two people exercising is more fun than doing it by yourself. There I was showing him a set of isometric exercises that could make even a 90 year old feel like dancing.  At one point while I was sort of running on the spot  I told him to say out loud with me “I am happy and free now that energy is revitalizing me.” Try saying positive statements to yourself when you exercise. Affirmations can make it an even more positive experience.  

To show you how much he enjoyed it, he showed me the tree pose. For those of  you who don’t do yoga it’s balancing on one leg with your other foot balancing on your calf or just above your ankle and arms raised in the air.

When we were done our 12 minute energy booster, he said to me  I feel good and off he was starting his day.  And I felt equally alive.

I went upstairs and got Dave Garett on Youtube playing a violin rock version of Billie Jean by Michael Jackson and cranked up the volume. You got listen to this dude. His exciting music will make you feel young again (in case you aren’t feeling that way now).

But there’s more. My 20 year old son Daniel and I had agreed to work out Monday, Wed. and possibly Friday so off we went to the gym at 8:00am. Again two is better than one. We ran side by side on the the treadmill for around 20 minutes and then lifted some weights.   He showed me some new ab exercises. Maybe I will  have a six pack before I turn 61. 

But there’s more.  We drove to Tim Hortons and went inside to enjoy a coffee and  a bagel with cream cheese. I deserved that considering all the calories I had burned.  Then I drove him to Chinook LRT and as he got out of my car, we said goodbye and Daniel happily headed for the University.  We both felt terrific partly due to the love we feel for each other and part due to our early morning workout that had gotten us both in a great frame of mind. 

Yes it is true - your mind is sharper and clearer after you exercise and I don’t know about you but that’s the way I want to be to function at my best.  If you are having trouble getting into a physical routine, my advice is do it with your son or daughter or a friend or bunch of friends.  And most importantly - No More Excuses! 

Have a Great Day!

Dr. Bob

 I brought my 17 year old son yesterday morning at 10:00am to the hospital Emergency because his life force was just sputtering. He was so weak he could hardly walk and was cluthching his chest in pain and had a terrible  sore throat.  It wouldn’t be so  bad had he not been progressively worse over the last month.

I was so worried that I didn’t want to wait another 5 days for his internist appointment.  I thought he might not make it.  They admitted him and took his vitals heart rate, pulse etc and found nothing medically wrong and wanted him to send him home.

I blew up and said I brought him here for some answers and till they found out what was wrong I wasn’t leaving.  No they didn’t call security. They did a battery of tests and even finally did CAT Scan. And guess they didn’t find anything. But  that turned out to be a relief. The doctor concluded that he was suffering from Mononucleosis.

And that made the difference. My son felt better and now he knew what was the matter with him and understood that what he was going through was a normal mono reaction.

And that brings me to the point.  A lot of you have wondered why you are as overweight as you are.  Many of my clients have confessed to me that they don’t eat enough to merit the weight.   But I am here to tell you againg food and lack of exercise isn’t necessarily the primary cause of your problem.

It’s internal and a kind of mind virus that you can’t see but is just as lethal. There is a reason for your weight problem but unlike my son’s virus it won’t go away by itself.  You have find out what is unconsciously drawing the weight to you.  In othe words what are the hidden reasons that you are regainining the weight.  When you eliminate that mental virus you will be able to not only loose weight but more importantly keep it off.

Here is one clue why some of you keep regaining the weight and it comes from a client I worked with today. She lost 90 lbs through hypnosis and real strenous exercise but had regained 50 lbs and wanted to not gain the rest.  She told  me that when she has lost the weight, nothing in her life changed.  She was just a smaller physical version of herself. She had hoped she would be happier and she would go out more often etc.  But none of that happened.

And then she said I still didn’t like myself.  And so she stopped caring. When she realized that losing the weight didn’t change her life, she gave up or let’s say her mind once again caused her to regain the weight as it was her mind’s way of showing how disgruntled and unhappy she felt. The body expresses what the mind is hiding or incapable of expressing.  Or stated somewhat differently, the body simply reflects your state of mind.

Again it proves the mind is the master and the body is the servant.

So start looking for that mental virus.  It could be something else so try and find out what it’s message is. It might be the first step towards gaining your freedom from weight gain.

Keep dreaming and never give up searching for the solution.

Dr. Bob

Last night I found this splint that I had used to try and stop this cut on my 4th finger from bleeding.  You’re probably wondering why I put my finger in a splint to try and stop my finger from bleeding instead of just applying a simple bandaid. The reason is the cut was on my knuckle and so bandaid wasn’t enough.  Everytime I bent it, it started to bleed. A pharmacist suggested keeping my finger straight would help stop it from bleeding.  Well the bleeding indeed stopped but the cut turned into this rather ugly growth that looked like small mushroom and very painful when touched.  I finally was forced to see a dermatologist who told me it needed to be cut out and biopsied. He surgically cut it open and had to cut all the roots that were feeding that sucker.  By the time he was done I had 7 stitches.  I am happy say he got all the roots and its fine now.

Your’re probably wondering what this has to do with weight problem.  Here is the answer. The solutions being used today are like splints for my finger. They do fix the problem because they fail to get to the roots of the problem.  Diets, weight loss pills rigorous exercise programs, and all the weight loss gismos do not address the deeper roots of the problem. And so like my finger they can’t get rid of the problem. 

The roots of the problem are to be found in your mind. Without dealing with the mental causes of the problem, the body will not be able to keep the weight off. You can fool the mind for a little while and lose some weight, but eventually it willl get wise and cause the weight to return.

So my recommendation is stop dieting.  Spare yourself the hard work and the bitter dispointment of yo-yoing back up again.

One of the common roots of the problem is the tendency for overweight people to be carrying a tremendous amount of guilt. They are constantly overextending themselves because they feel guilty if they say no to others.   A good  example of this would be mothers who are trying to be superwoman managing kids, house, work and hubby. They are so exhuasted at the end of the day they have no energy to take care of themselves.  Try going to exercise when you haven’t enough time to catch your breath -let alone spend 2 hrs at the gym.

Now feeling guilty as far as I can involves your thinking.  Change your thoughts and you change your world.  Get what I mean.

Last tidbit of information. I went to yoga this morning, I felt great after. I had a fantastic day.  I had tons of energy.  Need a energy boost, try some yoga.

Wishing you health and happiness,

Dr.  Bob

Today is an incredibly beautiful fall day. Woke up at 6:30am.  At 8:30am went for a 6 Kilometer run around the Glenmore Resevoir here in Calgary, Alberta with my running group. The September leaves are a mix of bright yellow and vibrant orange.  It looked like a painting.  I ran in awe of the beauty of nature.

Feel better than a million dollars now that I’ve taken my shower.  I can just feel the vibrant energy coursing through my body and mind.

Yet it could have just easily been a so so day had I awoken on the wrong side of bed.  If I wasn’t feeling great I might have chosen to not go running because I lacked the motivation to do so.  In another words it may have been a beautiful day, but if I Iacked the enthusiasm or wasn’t feeling good it, I wouldn’t have wanted to get out for a run.

Isn’t that the problem that you face at times?  For example you get home from work and even though you had an intention to walk or run just don’t have the energy or desire to exercise.  And yes you may be genuinely tired after work, but if you had the right attitude, I bet you could find the energy to get out there and give your body the exercise it requires.

Which only goes to prove that everything is mind over matter.

One of the best ways to motivate yourself to exercise is to look forward to it the night before. See yourself getting out there the next day and sporting a happy smile. Another helpful motivator is to hold onto the memory of how great you feel after you have a good workout and let it spur you on to looking forward to the next one.  I am savoring how good I felt today during and after my run, because it will make me want to get out there and run again.  

Which only proves once more that the key to being in healthy and in shape is to use the power of the mind to get you there.  With the right mindset anything is possible.  

Have a Great Day!

Dr.Bob