The Mayo Clinic Diet: Welcome to our new blog

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Welcome and congratulations! Welcome to this blog where you can share your thoughts and experiences about managing your weight. And congratulations because you've taken the initiative to do something good for yourself in an area that's not easy.

You've probably tried to lose weight a number of times in the past, but The Mayo Clinic Diet is different from other diets you've tried. Using the principles outlined in our book, The Mayo Clinic Diet will help you to not only better manage your weight in the future, but also improve your health and quality of life.

Why is weight management so challenging? It sounds deceptively simple — eat less and exercise more. But that simple statement doesn't reflect how tremendously complex weight management is. If it were easy, a third of the population in the United States wouldn't be classified as obese and two-thirds as overweight.

Just think about all the things that influence what we eat:

What our brain tells us regarding our appetite and feeling fullWhat we grew up eatingOur taste preferencesFood availability (it's everywhere)Time pressures (that's why they call it fast food)Money (calories are cheap when supersizing)Habits (that's a big one)

And the list goes on and on.

In addition to the hundreds of different influences on what we eat, there are just as many for physical activity. No wonder it's challenging.

Another aspect of this is that the specific influences are probably different for each of us. For example, some of you may be in the habit of eating while watching television. For others it may be snacking at night after dinner. Still others may not have time to exercise. Or perhaps you just love to eat.

I'm an optimist regarding weight management. I believe that for every challenge there are potential solutions. The solution may not be perfect, but it will help. By using problem-solving techniques, we can overcome virtually any barrier.

Think about something you accomplished despite numerous obstacles. I'd love to hear from you. Tell us about a challenge or habit related to weight management that you overcame and how you did it. You may inspire a lot of people.

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