" Physician, heal thyself " Luke 4: 23   My professional goal is to assist the human body in healing itself.  Be it through medication, lifestyle changes, surgery or other interventions, my efforts are for people to live better, healthier lives.  I have spent 11 years since I graduated from High School working toward this, with at least another 4 to go.  The vast majority of my waking hours are spent caring for others.  It is truly one of my passions...

I had heard all the stories.  100+ hour weeks, staying up for 40 hours straight, not seeing your family for days.  The thoughts of a career in medicine frightened me. I also thought it was all ludicrous, the holdover traditions of an archaic, out-of-date and out-of-touch system.  It was all about paying your dues to enter this boy's club.  They did it, so you have to as well if you ever want to be accepted.  I was positive it was another in a long series of hoops that...

I have been hesitating posting these, but I decided I might as well.  I'm not going to take my shirt off and flex for ya'll, but I will post these.  Just so you know, the pants I am wearing in the following pictures fit me perfectly on January 1st, 2006.  Not too tight, but not loose, they fit just how I wanted them to.  Now, well, you can see for yourself.  Oh, and sorry about the sweat on the scrub top, I just got back from lifting. Just going to keep...

Meh. That pretty much sums up my attitude about the weight loss last week.  I worked out every day, did pretty well.  Never got on a scale.  Just didn't feel the need.  My clothes continue to fit too loose, but I don't want to buy new ones until I stop slimming down, which will still be a while I hope.  I was able to go for a 7.2 mile run Saturday morning.  That is what excites me the most. See, when I first started exercising after the beginning of the year I...

It seems to come and go in fits and spurts.  For two weeks I hovered at about a 20 lbs. weight loss.  No change, just sort of sat there.  Then, suddenly, take a few days off from checking and *BAM*, another 5 are gone. So, now I am up to 25 lbs gone.  More encouraging even is the fact that I could do up a pair of pants that are 6 inches smaller in the waist than those I was wearing 2 months ago.  Now, they aren't still quite what I would want to wear out in public, bu...

Well, with the downtime last week, along with not getting an article written early enough, I figured I would just combine the last couple of weeks. I think one word best describes the past couple of weeks: Frustration. I wrote about a week and a half ago that I was done 20 lbs since the beginning of the year. Still true. But still just 20 lbs. I have sort of plateaued there and am having a hard time breaking through that. Again, as I can feel my clothes still getting more loose, as ...

Well, after a couple of weeks of little progress, I was astonished yesterday to hop on the scale and see what my weight was at. I was down 20 pounds! I was astonished, excited, all of the above. It was great to have reached that milestone, and in under 6 weeks no less. It has been very motivating to see the loss in terms of numbers, as well as in terms of my clothing. It is also a little difficult, as I don't think I often notice the change as much as others. But my wife has been ...

This week was all right. Nothing big either way. Down about 1.6 pounds, and the clothes continue to fit more and more loose. I already have some I need to retire as they are simply way too big and bulky to look decent. I felt mostly hampered this week by continued sickness. Whereas last week it was all in my sinus (and draining down my sore throat), this week it decided to migrate south and park itself firmly in my chest. This sucked. If I started to push it and really get going I al...

So in the month or so that I have earnestly been striving to improve my health I have stumbled upon a discovery. I have finally realized how to make it stick. I can't tell you the number of times I have started working out, and gone good for a week or two. Maybe even three. But then it starts to fall apart. And the reason is simple. I was forcing myself to make a change. And when you are forcing yourself to make a change on a daily basis, you just get tired of it. It becomes more ...

I will count this week as a success. In fact, I will count it as a pretty big success. In short, down another 5 pounds, making it a total of 15 for the month of January. But other successes include: I ran 4.5 miles this morning, with a 3 mile split time that was 2 min 30 seconds faster than the 3 miles I ran last week. That was big. I like seeing those kinds of improvements. My pants continue to fit more loose: I can now take off my favorite pair of pants without even unbottoning or...

This week was a frustrating one. Even though I was exhausted I managed to exercise every day. In fact, exercise went very well. Considering that 3 weeks ago I had to force myself to run 5 minutes while on my long walks, the fact that I was able to run 3 continuous miles multiple times encourages me considerably. In fact, my wife and I are planning on doing a 5k together soon. Again, I was able to go up on the weight I was lifting. All good news. However, the frustration results from ...

So, my second full week is over. I am feeling good. I have noticed a definite rise in my stamina when I am working out, as well as a good increase in my maxes while lifting. That is promising. Also, I have dropped another 4.4 pounds, making it 9.4 pounds for the two weeks. One of the big things I wanted from this was to sleep better. Sadly, due to the stress of this past week, with the match and all, I slept terribly. Oh well. Hopefully that will change now that we know the results....

Well, since I made my resolution to get in shape and improve my health, one full week has now passed (I started mid week, so though it has been 9 days of exercise, I am going for the first full week). And I think that posting here will help me have a certain level of accountability, so I will report in. The first week went really well. I was able to exercise every day (except for Sunday, my workout 'day off'), and exercise substantially for the most part. I did a minimum of 40 minutes o...

I'm not a small guy, by any means. 6'3" tall, I have always had a large frame and a fair amount of muscle mass. But in the past few years I have added some unneeded and unwanted insulation to all that. However, I hadn't really realized just how much until, on a whim, I stepped on a scale the other day. Needless to say, shocked isn't quite the word. No, I won't say how much, but it was a lot more than I or my wife thought. So I made a resolution. And while it has felt good to get mo...

Medical miracles occur daily. People are alive far longer than the could have been even just a few years ago. Diseases that were death sentences in the memory of many who may read this are now thought of as minor speed bumps in life. The volume of new medical knowledge is amazing, and the unexplored horizons seem even more vast than they did prior to this explosion of understanding. With this knowledge has come the ability to stave off Death. This dark and minatory specter still lurk...