Dear Dr. Gary.

Dear Aware Of Cycle,

You are smart to be aware of your cycle. Recognizing that this is part of a regular cycle is an important beginning to addressing your problem.

Your cycling is part of a process that needs a process to change it. Having a short answer will give you the answer but by failing to participate in the process you won’t get the long term solution that you desire.

I wish I could give you a short answer to your question. Your question is too complicated to answer in a blog. It is what my You Didn’t Get FAT From Breathing! is about. Please go to the website of the same name; www.youdidntgetfatfrombreathing.com, register, read the material and if you like what you see and read, sign up for the program.

Your question will be professionally answered during this program and you will be able to participate in a process that will give you the solution to ending this cycle once and for all.

Dear Dr. Gary.

Your career is important. So are the Choices about the rest of your life. I am assuming that your comment about your career that it is both rewarding financially and spiritually yet there is a conflict of stress and lack of balance.

You need to build a plan that includes stress relief and balance as part of the plan and then become an expert at balancing all. Otherwise rewards of body and spirit will be lacking and their absence will catch up with you.

Your commitment to yourself and your well being needs to equal if not surpass your commitment to work and ambition.

In the same way you have regular hours and responsibilities at work, you need to have regular eating, exercise, rest, relaxation, stress relief, sleep and spirituality away from work.

You owe it to yourself to make those guarantees to yourself. If you can’t succeed on your own, get a life and wellness coach.

Without taking care of yourself first you will eventually burn out and all you work and responsibility at work will be for naught.

Dear Dr. Gary.

You can model healthy living and can serve healthy choices. You can respect their not liking what you serve and serve it anyway. You can say that you love them and show it by emphasizing wellness and nutrition rather than enabling them though contrition and allowing their refusal and complaining to dictate what you buy or serve.

Don’t get into a power struggle with them. Smile, say I love you and serve them and yourself wellness.

Eat what you have prepared with a smile on your face and engage in meaningful and supportive conversation.

They don’t have to eat what you have prepared.

They can choose from any and all other offerings available in the refrigerator or pantry.

Dear Dr. Gary.

It seems like it would be a losing battle trying to fight against our genetics since it is proven that there is such a link as a “Fat Gene” and that it can be hereditary. Do you believe that　some people just meant to be fatter than others?

Dear Fat Gene,

Yes, some people are going to be fatter than others and heredity plays an important part in who you are. As of now, we are both blessed and stuck with the genes that we inherited.

Body type is something that we inherit. You can’t change what you inherited. You have control about what you consume, food and beverage, how much you exercise, stress relief, sleep and support. You can foster wellness and accept your individual control and responsibility.

You can say the Serenity Prayer, then focus on wellness and enjoy being you.

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

the courage to change the things I can

and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Dear Dr. Gary.

Do you work with people who are bulimic or have other eating disorders?

Dear Bulimia Question,

Yes and no. I deal with the mindset not the psychological.

I can address how important it is to address the ravages of a psychological disorder such as bulimia or anorexia. I can teach my You Didn’t Get FAT From Breathing program as applicable.

The health risks and deep psychological underpinning of these diseases require intense psychotherapy and possible medical and hospital interventions that are beyond the scope of my coaching practice.

Dear Dr. Gary.

Dear Specific Diet.

Since I am about mindset, I follow a mindset that focuses on eating healthy, taking some supplements and exercising, de-stressing and sleeping regularly.

My most obvious regular diet consists of lots of water and a health shake that I developed. It keeps me healthy and full.

It consists of:

Water, cranberry/raspberry juice, pomegranate juice, Superfood; i.e. a blend of antioxidants and greens, soy protein powder, raw oatmeal, walnuts, broccoli, carrots, an apple, banana, frozen strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and marionberries.

My most important suggestion is that you develop your own mindset about how important wellness, nutrition, exercise, stress relief and sleep are to you.

Details of what to DO and how, when, where and with whom follow having a mindset that your health and wellness are non-negotiable aspects of your life.

As you guarantee you commitment to your well being, you can add details to your plan as you proceed, the way that I decided to add frozen Costco berries instead of fresh to my morning shake.

Dear Dr. Gary,

Can we ever get this economy turned around with different priorities than we have now?

Dear Economy Hopeful,

Our Economy Is Based On Illness Not Wellness!

Since I am neither an economist nor a political scientist, I am not sure how we allowed our economy to be dictated by the illness industry. I just know that it happened and like a cat’s hairball, it is difficult if not impossible to unravel.

I, however, know a lot about mindset and if you are ever going to fix a complicated problem, you “gotta” start someplace!

So I suggest that begin with mindset as we go about the enormous task of converting from an illness economy to a wellness economy.

My belief is that once a wellness model is firmly entrenched, we can figure out the specific steps to get us out of the mess we are currently in.

We need to start with the end in mind and build our plan backwards from where we want to be to where we are now. It gives us the chance to make proactive decisions about what needs to be done.

My purpose is not to assess blame. It is to simply choose an appropriate target: Wellness and to identify those parties most responsible for directly helping us to get there.

I start with the doctors. Historically their job was to treat illness. We need doctors to continue to treat illness. We, however, need them to recognize that they can have a major hand in establishing wellness as a preemptive strike against combating illness. With greater energy devoted to wellness they can us help prevent illness.

The same is true about the insurance and pharmaceutical industries. They were created to insure against catastrophe, accident, death etc.

Change the mindset from reaction to death or illness to a proactive mindset of prevention of catastrophe or illness and we create new industries. Research and develop drugs that cure illness rather than just treat its symptoms.

Our schools can be learning labs for wellness, exercise, social and work skills, safe havens for learning about successful healthy living.

Keep the schools open longer, with meaningful activities available so that healthy fun and recreation are encouraged and supported.

Kids and families can be taught to learn together about fun safe wellness.

Like I said at the beginning of the article, I am about mindset.

Once wellness mindset is in place, creative details from creative others can be worked out and integrated into a new economy, with more people working in new jobs to support wellness rather than the present after the fact cleaning up after illness and societal degradation.

It is cheaper to do the job properly the first time: wellness, than to clean up and repair the mess later.