Great Physician's RX for Weight Loss

Introduction: A Weighty Problem ;Not long ago, Maria Elena Perez was sitting in her Miami living room, visiting with her sixty-six-year-old mother, Juana Acosta. ;"Would you like some cafe, Mima?" Maria inquired. ;"Yes, that would be very nice," her mother replied. "But let me help you." ;"No, no, you sit right there. I'll be right back." ;"I insist," her mother interjected as she strained to stand up. Mrs. Acosta, weakened by Parkinson's disease and hobbled by diabetes, labored to bring herself to her feet and put one foot in front of another. ;A look of concern came over Maria. "Mima, you don't have to--" ;"Don't you worry about me. I'm just getting old and infirm," she said. ;Maria Perez came alongside her mother, but as they shuffled tentatively toward the kitchen, Maria noticed that she struggled to walk as well. I weigh too much, she thought. For years, she had carried forty extra pounds on her five-foot, four-inch frame, and now they were exacting a toll on her body. Maria realized that the spring in her step had left her many years ago, which explained why she went through life feeling constantly fatigued. ;Then everything came rushing together for Maria: I'm forty-two years old, and I have many of the same aches and pains as my mother. What is my health going to be like when I'm her age? I need to do something. . . . ;She had gained weight during her first pregnancy twenty years earlier. After bringing three boys into the world, Maria was resigned to the reality that she could never match the slim look she modeled when she married the love of her life, a handsome physician named Rodolfo Perez. ;When she accompanied her mother into the kitchen that day, Maria weighed in the neighborhood of one hundred and seventy pounds. She had some company, too: over the years, Rodolfo had tacked on a few extra pounds as well. Standing at five-foot, eleven inches tall, he tipped the scales at 250 pounds. ;Their expansive waistlines had not dimmed their love, however. Maria and Rodolfo enjoyed strolling hand-in-hand through air-conditioned malls, shopping together in supermarkets, traveling to medical conferences, fishing in the Florida Keys, or watching TV together. They even took pleasure working in the same office, where Maria managed Rodolfo's busy medical practice. Her husband was an endocrinologist who saw patients with metabolic problems, as well as obese patients suffering from diabetes and hypertension. The irony of an overweight couple offering medical care to the overweight didn't escape them. ;Not that Maria and Rodolfo had never tried to turn things around. This couple, who loved doing everything together, even started periodic diets simultaneously. Over the last decade, they had tried them all--low-fat, low-carb, grapefruit, even the "starvation diet," which limited them to one meal a day: a small piece of chicken, veggies, and a salad. "We did starve ourselves on that diet," Maria said. "I think we lasted a week." ;Maria and Rodolfo were classic yo-yo dieters: lose a few pounds by "being good" but gaining them right back whenever they resumed their normal eating habits. In their desperation, they even tried diet shakes containing herbal extracts purporting to be "fat burners," but all those did was burn a hole in their wallets. ;"I was married to an endocrinologist, so I should know about these things," Maria confessed. "But I didn't." ;Then Maria heard about me and the principles behind the Great Physician's Rx from Brian Russell, her oldest son's best friend. Brian had lost his mom to a devastating cancer, but duRubin, Jordan S. is the author of 'Great Physician's RX for Weight Loss', published 2006 under ISBN 9780785213666 and ISBN 078521366X.