I remember my first week of basic training in the United States Air Force. There’s a lot to learn. Really, it’s indoctrination. Military bearing. You’re learning to stop being a civilian and act like an Airman, a Marine, a Soldier, or a Sailor. They teach you how to salute. They show you, then have you…
Are You Addicted to Food? I was a precocious five-year-old. Very curious. Very talkative like my mother. And like most children my age, innocent. My parents said that I was the easiest of nine to raise. Maybe I misheard them, but that’s what I want to believe. And so, I’m guessing that it would surprise…
Look in the mirror. What do you see? You might see your mother or father. I do. I try remembering when my father was my age. My father was 30 years older than me, so I was 37 when he was 67, the age that I am now. That was 1993. I had moved to…
What Was the one Moment That Changed Your Life? I tell my sons and granddaughters that they are here today because the Navy Recruiter had gone to lunch. Let me explain. I graduated from high school in 1974. Geez, I’m getting old, yay. I went to work with my father and Jackson Engineering after high…
Breaking Up with Food by Using Self-Binding Strategies “Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in an Age of Indulgence,” by Anna Lembke My wife and I love to use bed and breakfasts when we travel. We stayed in one called Cactus Cove in Tucson on one of our recent trips. We had a desert view of the…
Why Can’t I Stay Broke Up? Because You Got Issues! I’ve been a therapist for almost 30 years. It’s hard to believe. In those early years, I trained as a Child and Family Therapist. Lots of parent trainings. For many of the children, I became a surrogate father. I would take them on walks through…
What’s the Hardest Thing You’ve Done? Seven days. Six nights. 17000+/- ft. of elevation. 41 miles. 45 lbs. Minus 2 toenails. One of the hardest things I’ve done. The Grand Canyon. I wanted to test myself. What a better place to do that than the Grand Canyon. It was 2009. I was 52 years old,…
Keep It Simple Stupid “What has been will be again. What has been done will be done again. There is nothing new under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 1:9 How many diets are there? Lots! Wikipedia has a page entitled, List of Diets. There are belief-based diets. Buddhist diet. Jain diet. Islamic diet. Kosher diet. 70 Adventist…
Why is Breaking Up with Food so Hard to Do? (Part One) I confess. I love the series, The Office. In the past, Rommie (my wife) and I would start watching it on December 21, the first day of winter and try to stretch it out throughout the winter until March 21. We hated the…
“The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man’s Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America,” by Tommy Tomlinson I have tattoos. Don’t ask me why. I started getting them in my early 50s. Maybe I am a bit of a rebel. My son gave me my first two tattoos. He was learning to be…
