Dr. Kushner blog

Maintain Health Behaviors despite Life Transitions

By Dr. Kushner / September 12, 2023 /

Many life transitions are anticipated – a new home, moving to a new city, starting college or grad school, getting married or starting a family. As your daily routines change, so can your health behaviors. Eating healthfully and exercising may be challenging if you have a longer commute, different work hours, new school deadlines, more…

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Who to Partner with to Manage Weight and Achieve Better Health?

By Dr. Kushner / August 24, 2023 /

With all the exciting new treatments available to help those who struggle with weight, you may be wondering who you should turn to for help? Though your primary care professional (PCP) may not be an expert in weight management, they are likely to be an expert in knowing about you and your medical history. This…

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Build on Weight Loss Motives to Boost Success

By Dr. Kushner / August 13, 2023 /

So much focus surrounding weight management is on the ‘WHAT’ to do and ‘HOW’ to do it to lose weight and keep it off. However, it can be helpful to step back and review the ‘WHY’ managing weight is important to you at this point in your life. Although the ‘WHY’ for losing weight can…

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Treat Yourself Better – You Deserve it!

By Dr. Kushner / July 21, 2023 /

When I see patients who are doing well following their new healthy lifestyle behaviors but complain that the scale isn’t budging fast enough, I ask them to make a list. On one side are all the positives they’ve been experiencing with their newfound healthier lifestyle such as being more active, easier to sit in an…

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Make Your Weight Management Practice a Judgement-Free Zone

By Dr. Kushner / July 4, 2023 /

One of the greatest barriers to accessing care for people with overweight or obesity are patients’ feelings of being judged by others because of excess weight. As I educate health care professionals about caring for patients with the disease of obesity, I address this by making sure that clinicians are firstly aware of their own…

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50 Ways to Build More Fun & Fitness into Your Busy Life!

By Dr. Kushner / June 12, 2023 /

For the past 35 years, my wife and Six Factors to Fit co-author Nancy and I, have had a Fun Club. Basically, we formed a social group of 6 couples – that expanded to 13 – who get together on a few Saturday nights per year for fun-filled group activities. Though our group took a…

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Social Exercise is Good for Your Health

By Dr. Kushner / June 4, 2023 /

The more you enjoy being a physically active person, the more likely you’ll stay a physically active person. One way to do so is to make time for social exercise. We know that improving social connections can improve both your physical and mental health. And according to the 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee Report,…

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Improve Social Connections, Improve Health

By Dr. Kushner / May 12, 2023 /

Surgeon general Dr. Vivek Murthy recently warned that loneliness and a lack of social connections are having negative effects on both the mental and physical health of Americans. And surprisingly, this seems to be affecting young adults at almost twice the rate of those over age 65. According to Dr. Vivek’s advisory poor social relationships…

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Boosting Your Energy Level can Make Weight Management Easier – Here’s How

By Dr. Kushner / April 16, 2023 /

Many people know that to manage weight better, you also need to manage your time so you can take better care of yourself; this may involve making time to stay active, eat regular, nutritious meals, get enough hours of restful sleep and practice de-stressing activities. But this isn’t always easy to do when low energy…

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Improve Your Health – One Self-Care Behavior at a Time

By Dr. Kushner / April 9, 2023 /

One of my yearly medical student classes I teach is helping our future physicians practice improving their own health, one self-care behavior at a time. You may be surprised to know that health care professionals can also struggle to fit in time for exercise, plan healthier meals into a busy day, take time to de-stress…

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