Happy Healthy Valentine

This article is from LIVESTRONG, Lance Armstrong's foundation that I am hoping to connect with to do some patient and doctor education.

I point this one in particular as it features my same friend Dr. Larry Deutsch who did those great tapes on CLL and hypnosis.

A much bigger health problem in the USA than CLL is obesity and Dr. Deutsch offers a no gimmicks honest approach to weight loss that I think is spot on. That is what this article is about. It is just nice to see a a honest doctor who doesn't dress up the truth get the recognition he deserves. I hope a million people buy his lean book Calorie Wars: Fat, Fact and Fiction. There is nothing in it for me other than helping a friend and those who read it, as it does lay out the bare facts.

See http://www.livestrong.com/blog/blog/five-healthier-alternatives-to-valentine-u2019s-day-food-favorites/

Or read below:

5 HEALTHY VALENTINE'S DAY SWAPS

By Dr. Larry Deutsch and Dr. Jeff Schweitzer

Just like love, losing weight can feel like a complex equation. But that doesn’t mean success is a lost cause. That’s because dieting—or the process of choosing what to eat—isn’t as complicated as it seems.

In fact, any good fat loss plan really consists of three simple rules:

Eat Less

Eat Well

Exercise

If you forget everything else and do these three things, you will see results. If you eat just a little bit less each day – for example, by cutting a half a piece of toast off of your breakfast plate, or taking a small handful of cereal out of your usual morning bowl – you will take the steps needed towards making change.

What won’t work? Self-deprivation. People who cut out every treat for the sake of a diet usually fall off track sooner or later, and sometimes wind up bingeing. So the key to long-term, sustained weight loss is to satisfy your needs without completely sacrificing what you enjoy.

On this Valentine’s Day, you can keep your relationship on track without derailing your weight loss plan. Here are five small changes you can make to indulge intelligently on the holiday of love, so you can get all of those traditional pleasures in a healthier way.

1. Instead of: A box of chocolates

Try: An edible fruit arrangement

Still a thoughtful gift for your loved one, most fruits are low in calories per gram because they have high water and fiber content. Chocolate is empty nutrition, a high energy density food, meaning the calories are more densely packed into the sweet than a piece of fruit. Timing may be everything on this one, so give your sweetie a fruit arrangement in the morning, when they’re more used to having those types of foods, rather than after dinner when they might be craving something richer.

2. Instead of: Chocolate covered strawberries

Try: Strawberries with light whipped cream

When you eat whipped cream, most of what you are eating is air. One or two tablespoons of light whipped cream typically have less than 30 calories and little to no fat. A little dollop on strawberries is a delicious alternative to dipping them in high-calorie, high-fat chocolate.

3. Instead of: Eating out at a restaurant

Try: Cooking dinner at home

At home you can control your portion sizes and what goes into your meals. At a restaurant, most people have more difficulty avoiding high-caloric food and giant sized portions. Plus, dining at home can be much more intimate and personal than eating out. Your perfect night in can offer just the right food, hassle-free parking, and no rude waiters.

4. Instead of: A cocktail

Try: Red wine

Alcohol may seem innocent but it’s loaded with calories. When you add in mixers, juice, sugar, and other ingredients, the calories can really add up. A glass of red wine, in moderation, is lower in calories and has been shown to increase levels of "good" cholesterol and protect against artery damage.

5. Instead of: Cookies or cupcakes for the little valentine in your life

Try: A smaller portion of their favorite treat

Putting your little one on the road to healthy eating can never start too early. When you enjoy a delicious dessert with your kids, cut down their portion size by about 10 percent. This little change will keep calories in control – and it’s unlikely that they’ll notice that an extra spoonful of icing is missing.

Follow these guidelines, and you and your loved ones can have a Valentine’s Day that’s just as delicious, but a little healthier. And over time, small changes yield big results.

Dr. Larry Deutsch and Dr. Jeff Schweitzer are the authors of the new book “Calorie Wars: Fat, Fact and Fiction.” Deutsch is a family physician and hypnotherapist with over 35 years of experience, while Schweitzer is a biologist and consultant who served at the White House during the Clinton Administration as Assistant Director for International Affairs in the Office of Science and Technology. For more information, please visit www.DrLarry.com or www.JeffSchweitzer.com

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/blog/blog/five-healthier-alternatives-to-valentine-u2019s-day-food-favorites/#ixzz1mIwpc5cP

Sweet!

Have a happy healthy Valentine's Day.

Coping with Cancer: Living with Leukemia and Lymphoma

Friends,

Like my hero, Chaya Venkat at http://updates.clltopics.org/ I have avoided selling anything through my website or promoting anything more than a bone marrow drive or a worthy charity.

I am now going break that rule to make a heartfelt sales pitch for a project that I was involved with in an effort to help fellow CLLers or those with other cancers.

For the last several months I have been working with my friend, Dr. Larry Deutsch an international renowned hypotherapist.

Like me, Dr Larry is a Canadian family doctor. Like me he teaches other doctors. Like me, Dr. Larry has needed to change the nature and scope of his practice because like me Dr. Larry Deutsch has CLL.

We have been collaborating on an audio file that uses his expertise and empathy and my knowledge of the disease from the inside out to help patients cope and maintain a calm sense of control with the diagnosis of leukemia and lymphoma in particular and cancer in general.

I believe that the MP3 that we produced is strong medicine. Larry is a powerful hypnotherapist with an important message.

Let me be clear. We are not promising a melting away of your cancer by a sheer act of will. We are not promising any cures. We are simply trying to build your confidence in dealing with a process that can often feel overwhelming.

Dr Deutsch did the heavy lifting on this project, but I am very proud of the part I played and very happy with the final result.

Please listen to a sample on this webpage.

Please download the MP3.

You will be glad that you did.

Every sale will generate a donation to CLLPAG in Canada and LRF in the USA, two important organizations that help the CLL and lymphoma community. I have worked with them both. Their conferences are first rate and important to many patients and caregivers, but they could do so much more with more support.

We all do so much better when we can get some help that allows us to slow down, and let go of the stress.

As I have been known to say, we are all in this together.

Hope my readers are OK with this bit of a commercial, but I am a believer in getting behind what you believe in and I do believe that how we cope with our cancer plays a role in how we do with our cancer.

I will publish more links to ASH videos over the next few days, and some stuff on 11q deletion, but tomorrow I leave for a conference on CME in Orlando for a few days.

Getting closer

I am fully approved with my authorization numbers for the consult with Dr. Byrd at Ohio State to see if I qualify for the trial. Hard to imagine that if my insurance OK'd the consult to see if I was appropriate for the trial they would give me grief about enrolling in it if Dr. Byrd so recommends.

I am feeling pretty confident that Blue Shield, OSU, my docs here and I are all pulling our oars in the same direction now and it will all work out.

The reams of medical records as PDFs, photocopies, and on disc are slowly coming together.

Hotel is booked. Rental car will be done tomorrow.

My bone marrow biopsy FISH showed my 11q del in an estimated 11.5% of my cells. Surprisingly, this is the first time over the many years at UCSD at Kipps's lab or at City of Hope with all my blood tests, bone marrow biopsies and even the removal of the huge mass of CLL cells with my splenectomy that the FISH has confirmed my original finding of 11q deletion at time of diagnosis. That is a matter for a much longer post, but it will have to wait until a time I am more awake.

With the patient help of my son Ben, I have made good progress on getting the ASH videos online and they should be available by next week. I am very pleased with the project to educate primary care providers about CLL and transplants.

Watch here soon for more on a link to an audio file on handling the stress of CLL with hypnosis. Another project I am very proud of and one that I hope will not only certainly help those who listen to it, but will also raise a bit of money for CLL research. More later. I promise.

It's all getting closer.