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Kidney foundation plan targets financial barriers to donation

admin — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 11:36:00 +0000

There are more than 78,000 Americans waiting for a kidney transplant, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. Worse, the gap between the number of patients waiting and the number of kidney transplants performed has grown by 110% in the last decade.
Cutting the lengthy wait for a kidney will take more than innovative changes in medical practice, according to the National Kidney Foundation. As part of a new initiative unveiled in late January, the patient service and advocacy organization said compensation should be part of the solution.
That represents a shift from the group’s 2003 position that “offering direct or indirect economic benefits in exchange for organ donation is inconsistent with our values as a society.” Now, NKF recommends that deceased donors’ families and living donors be reimbursed for donation-related costs or medical care. For living donors, that would include lifelong coverage for any medical problems related to the donation.
It does not make sense that donors must sacrifice wages when their gifts help save money as well as lives, said NKF’s CEO, John Davis. He said it costs $71,000 annually to care for a patient on dialysis but $17,000 a year to care for a kidney transplant recipient.
The new proposal “is simply reimbursing for costs incurred directly by the donation,” Davis said. “We believe that in deceased donation and living donation, no one should profit from the decision to donate, but no one should be penalized, either.”
There is no estimated cost for the initiative. NKF President Bryan N. Becker, MD, said the proposal does not amount to paying donors for their kidneys.
“We’re focusing on [paying for] things related to your event that make you transform from a healthy individual into a patient and making sure that you have appropriate health insurance and a safety net financially, given the commitment you’re making,” said Dr. Becker, a transplant nephrologist and professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
NKF said eliminating financial barriers to donation, along with a series of improvements in education and medical practice, could, within a decade, cut the wait for a kidney from the current five years to less than a year.
The American Medical Association has policy supporting studies on the effect of presumed consent as well as financial incentives for cadaveric organ donation. In November 2008, the AMA House of Delegates called for federal legislation to allow such studies.
Initiative prompts cheers, doubts
Goran B. Klintmalm, MD, PhD, immediate past president of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, said the NKF’s proposal is significant because the group serves as a voice for patients.
“This has a huge importance,” said Dr. Klintmalm, who is chair and chief of the Baylor Regional Transplant Institute in Texas, but speaking on his own behalf. “The fact that they are stepping into this and changing their position and taking this on is very encouraging.”
Others were less enthusiastic. The notion that covering a limited set of donation-related expenses would cut dramatically the wait list is “an absurdity,” said Sally Satel, MD, a kidney transplant recipient and editor of
When Altruism Isn’t Enough: The Case for Compensating Kidney Donors.
“What [NKF] tried to do as specifically as they could is to make it so narrowly tailored to donation per se that they can’t possibly be fingered as promoting incentives,” said Dr. Satel, a psychiatrist. She described the proposal as “stingy” to kidney donors and their families.
At best, the NKF proposal would double the number of kidneys donated each year, but that still would leave about 40,000 patients on the waiting list, according to Bahar Bastani, MD, medical director of the renal transplantation program at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine.
Dr. Bastani is from Iran and has studied the government-run kidney donor compensation system there that claims to have virtually eliminated the kidney waiting list. He said he welcomed the NKF proposal and the broader turn in the American debate on compensating organ donors.
“Ten years ago,” he said, “nobody would dare to even talk about it.”
This content was published online only.

LifeWise Health Plan pulling out of Arizona

admin — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 05:57:20 +0000

Unsuccessful in reaching a critical mass of members,
Health Plan of Arizona is pulling out of the Arizona market.
The health plan serves 16,000 Arizona members, but needed at least 50,000, said Cliff Klima, Arizona market relations executive for LifeWise.
Klima retired from LifeWise as Arizona president and CEO in 2007, but he was lured out of retirement last May when his replacement, Tom Dameron, returned to his roots at
Klima plans to stick around to help wrap up the company, which will close its Scottsdale office June 30.
The goal when the health plan entered the market in 2004 was to become profitable by 2010, but it wasn’t gaining membership quickly enough, he said. At one point, membership reached 32,000, but then sank to 16,000.
“We just didn’t get there,” he said.
On Thursday, BCBS agreed to take LifeWise’s enrollees without further medical underwriting — so, if a previously healthy enrollee developed cancer after LifeWise coverage began, that customer still would be covered by a comparable plan with comparable pricing at BCBS. If that same customer tried to get coverage elsewhere, he or she could be denied coverage for a pre-existing medical condition.
Individual enrollees have until September to move over to BCBS to get those benefits, and employer groups need to move over by May, Klima said.
Before BCBS agreed to take LifeWise’s members, underwriters checked out the membership pool in compliance with state and federal regulations, said Renee Hunt, spokeswoman for BCBS.
“For us, it’s all about helping people get the health insurance they need for themselves and their family,” she said. “Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona welcomes the opportunity to provide LifeWise customers the option of transitioning to our health plans.”
Jason Holmes, a health insurance broker with Mesa-based Employee Benefit Exchange Corp., said he is impressed with the way LifeWise is handling its exit.
“Even though it’s a bad situation, they’ve done a really good job of making the best out of it,” Holmes said.
The only group that will require new medical underwriting under BCBS is businesses with two to nine employees that have been insured for less than 180 days, Klima said.
LifeWise’s 40 employees in Scottsdale and Tucson will have opportunities to take positions with LifeWise operations in other markets, Klima said. Otherwise, they will be offered severance packages.
Jim Hertel, publisher of the
, said Arizona is an extraordinarily tough market for new insurance companies to enter.

New York's 'Real' housewife Bethenny Frankel has a diet plan for you

admin — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 02:55:16 +0000

Sunday, February 15th 2009, 1:25 AM
The struggling economy is working wonders for Bethenny Frankel. At least for her diet plan.
One of New York’s straight-shooting “Real Housewives,” she claims the secret to skinny is akin to financial planning in her new book, “Naturally Thin: Unleash Your Skinny Girl and Free Yourself From a Lifetime of Dieting” (Simon & Schuster, out March 2009). “It’s a no-more-dieting-forever book,” says Frankel, a natural-food chef who once cooked healthy treats for New York celebs like Mariska Hargitay and Denis Leary.
“If people like Britney Spears or Oprah or Jessica Simpson have problems maintaining their weight, how is someone who doesn’t have any money in the middle of the country working at a supermarket checkout going to do it? It’s the be-all end-all weight-loss book – it’s what Oprah needs.”
Frankel encourages readers to think about eating in economic terms rather than the ooey-gooey sweet self-help jargon of typical diet books. And don’t worry, you don’t need to understand Obama’s economic bailout plan to master the economy of your diet.
1. Your Diet Is a Bank Account. “Eating should be treated like a bank account – if one day you decide that you want to have chocolate cake for breakfast, you can, because there’s no ‘No,’ but you need to account for it,” explains Frankel, who confessed during our interview that she had eaten “a bite of cheesecake, a half a piece of red velvet cake and some ice cream” because she was “PMS-ing.” “If you spend in one place, you need to save in another.”
2. The Differential. “In the differential, you can have turkey chili and meat chili,” says Frankel. “To me, the differential between the two isn’t that big. I would just as soon have turkey chili as I would meat chili. But there’s a huge differential for me between a piece of plain grilled chicken breast and a fatty piece of New York steak. Go for it when the differential is really great to you. You have to find where it’s worthwhile to splurge.”
3. The Point of Diminishing Return. Frankel explains: “For example, if you order fried calamari, you taste it, it’s delicious, have another bite, dip it in the sauce, it’s delicious, but then there’s a point where it’s as good as it’s ever going to get. And that’s when you stop.”
4. Downsize. We need to do this in all other aspects of our lives right now, so why should our diet be any different? “We have unrealistic portions in this country and you can order an appetizer as your main course,” says Frankel, who recommends “canceling your membership to the clean plate club – no matter if you’re eating broccoli or fried chicken – it’s good to get into the habit of leaving a little.”
If the concepts are hard to grapple with, Frankel’s famed SkinnyGirl margarita goes down easy. “Every single diet says alcohol is the devil,” she says. “I’m not promoting it, but I’m saying people have to live their lives. … I broke up with a boyfriend last season” – she’s currently dating someone new but says she’s not ready to use the “B-word” – “and I drank my weight in margaritas.”
2 ounces clear tequila (Sauza or clear premium tequila (count 1, 2 while you pour; no need for measuring)
A splash of Cointreau, Grand Marnier or Triple Sec
Combine all ingredients over a glass of ice.
Garnish with a lime wedge and salt (or sugar) if you’d like.
www.bethennybakes.com/skinny_margarita.htm

Diet Dr Pepper Serves Up Stimulus Plan for America's Tastebuds

admin — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 16:23:22 +0000

PLANO, Texas
,
Jan. 30
/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — While Congress debates the particulars of the economic bailout, Diet Dr Pepper is ready to serve up its own stimulus plan for Americans — a diet soda that doesn’t taste like a diet soda — for free.
“It’s clear that 2009 is going to be a year of sacrifice for our country, but we have good news for people thirsting for something to lift their spirits. We’re giving away up to 2 million coupons for free Diet Dr Pepper to stimulate the tastebuds of America,” said
, director of marketing for Dr Pepper. “No one should sacrifice great taste – and Diet Dr Pepper delivers because there’s nothing diet about it.”
March 31, 2009
or until coupons run out. Here’s how to get yours:
1. Go to
.
2. Be one of the first 2 million to register your information online to receive a coupon for a free 2-liter or 20-oz. bottle of Diet Dr Pepper.
3. When your coupon arrives, redeem it wherever Diet Dr Pepper is sold.
Allow 4-6 weeks for coupon to arrive. Coupons will expire
June 30, 2009
. Must be 13 years or older. Limit one coupon per person. Full terms and conditions available at
.
Diet Dr Pepper is a leading brand of the Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Inc. (NYSE:
), an integrated refreshment beverage business marketing more than 50 beverage brands to consumers throughout
. In addition to its flagship Dr Pepper and Snapple brands, the company’s portfolio includes 7UP, Mott’s, A&W, Sunkist Soda, Hawaiian Punch, Canada Dry, Schweppes, Squirt, RC Cola, Diet Rite, Penafiel, Rose’s, Yoo-hoo, Clamato, Mr & Mrs T Mixers and other well-known consumer favorites. Based in
Plano, Texas
, Dr Pepper Snapple Group employs approximately 20,000 people and operates 24 bottling and manufacturing facilities and more than 200 distribution centers across
,
,
. For more information, please visit
.

Kaiser's Cleveland Clinic-only plan didn't work out for hospital …

admin — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 18:27:27 +0000

Kaiser’s Cleveland Clinic-only plan didn’t work out for hospital, insurer
Kaiser Permanente’s decision to send nearly all its patients needing hospitalization to the Cleveland Clinic was designed to enhance the health-maintenance organization’s reputation and boost profits by consolidating care from 11 hospitals to one.
A decade and a half later, Kaiser has gone back to using numerous community hospitals as well as its own health centers for members who do not need transplants or specialized care, abandoning the Clinic-only strategy.
The Clinic, which added services to grab the Kaiser contract, has gone back to its original focus of specialized medical care.
Why the about-face? Kaiser never saw the increase in Cleveland-area customers it expected. In fact, it went from 206,000 members when the decision was made to 150,000 today.
“Many [patients] didn’t want to come downtown for health care,” said Kaiser spokeswoman Renee DeLuca. “We’ve been listening to our members,” most of whom, as Cleveland’s population drops, are in the suburbs.
“Since Kaiser made the move over the past few years, membership has been on the increase,” DeLuca said. Members “want the right care, at right place.”
When Kaiser and the Clinic made their announcement in late 1991 that nearly all of the HMO patients would be admitted for all care at the Clinic, the hospital world in Northeast Ohio was very different.
Cleveland had a glut of beds, and the average hospital occupancy was about 57 percent. Hospital executives struggled to find ways to attract patients to their facilities.
Mt. Sinai Medical Center, Deaconess Hospital, St. Luke’s Medical Center and St. Michael Hospital
all were still open, operating hospitals. And Kaiser had its own hospital in Parma.
The two giants — the Clinic and University Hospitals — hadn’t yet bought up most of the community hospitals in the suburban and outlying areas.
The Clinic’s decision to partner with Kaiser signaled the world-renowned hospital wasn’t immune from needing local patients to fill its beds.
Kaiser’s market research indicated that area residents thought of the Clinic as “one of the world’s finest health-care facilities.” Indeed, the Clinic had carved out a niche nationally and internationally as a place to go for complex medical problems, especially heart surgery.
At the same time, Kaiser’s focus was on preventive care — helping members stay healthy rather than just treating them when they were ill. Experts said then that melding the two organizations would take time.
move to the Clinic over several years, while the Clinic made changes of its own.
The Clinic had planned to expand its emergency department anyway but decided to add a separate area for Kaiser patients in 1994 to accommodate members’ needs. The Clinic also restarted an obstetrics program in 1995,
which it had closed nearly 30 years earlier to make room for cardiac care.
Restarting obstetrics, expanding its emergency department and other changes weren’t just for Kaiser. Instead, to compete in the local market, the Clinic needed to be “full-service,” J.B. Silvers, professor of health systems management at Case Western Reserve University, said at the time.
Kaiser’s decision to align with the Clinic was a major hit to St. Luke’s and MetroHealth Medical Center, both of which had substantial numbers of Kaiser patients.
St. Luke’s — which had a $14 million-a-year contract with Kaiser though 1994 — never recovered from losing those insured patients. The hospital closed in 1999.
MetroHealth, which had a $10 million-a-year contract for specialty care for Kaiser patients, has spent the ensuing years trying to win back more insured patients. A new plan aimed at Cuyahoga County employees has attracted about 1,200 workers this year, a nice bump for the county-owned hospital.
The Clinic’s occupancy level now is usually over 95 percent. The special emergency room constructed for Kaiser patients has been converted into a critical-care transfer area — for patients arriving by ambulance or helicopter — and a minimally invasive surgery pre-operative unit. The Clinic, in fact, isn’t listed as an approved emergency center for Kaiser patients.
To meet what it calls “the demand for community-based” medical services, Kaiser two years ago spent more than $14 million to add a new emergency department to its Cleveland Heights center and to move its pharmacy from the Clinic to the new facility.

FDA reform likely to take back seat in Obama plan

admin — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 07:19:10 +0000

And instead of assuming more direct control of the inspection system, the government seems likely to remain heavily dependent on growers, food processors and others in the industry to police themselves and the food supply.
Durbin and others on Capitol Hill nonetheless plan to push ahead with legislation to try to strengthen the FDA, the much maligned agency responsible for overseeing about 80 percent of the food Americans eat. While most meat and dairy products are regulated by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, fresh produce and most processed foods are the responsibility of the FDA.
Obama, who has backed Durbin’s efforts and sponsored his own legislation to strengthen state and local food oversight, will continue to back them, according to an official working on his transition.
The federal government’s food oversight was once seen as a model. But after years of neglect – and Bush administration distaste for aggressive government regulation – a series of deadly food-borne disease outbreaks involving peanut butter, spinach and peppers called public attention to gaping holes in the FDA’s capacity to stay on top of a rapidly expanding market.
The agency struggled to identify the sources of contaminated foods, most recently this spring when federal officials initially linked a salmonella outbreak to tomatoes before concluding that jalapeno peppers from Mexico were the likely culprit.
At the same time, contaminated pet food from China exposed weaknesses in the agency’s system for regulating imports. Consumer groups lambasted the agency for failing to protect the public; food-borne illnesses sicken as many as 76 million people and kill an estimated 5,000 each year.
Growers complained that the FDA’s failure to identify the source of contaminated food quickly intensified public fears. That, in turn, severely hurt the market for products like leafy greens and tomatoes.
“The spinach industry has never recovered,” said Tom Nassif, who heads the Western Growers Association, a leading national trade group based in California.
Independent reviews by the Government Accountability Office and others found the agency lacked even basic information technology capabilities to analyze data and assess risks.
“We need some radical shifts,” Dr. David Acheson, FDA’s associate commissioner for foods, acknowledged in a recent interview.
A year ago, the FDA announced its own plan for reform, promising a major expansion of overseas inspections, better systems to identify where risks are highest and more cooperation with state and local authorities as well as industry.
The agency opened an office in China this year and plans to open ones in India and Latin America in 2009. But the promised changes have not come soon enough for critics, including many on Capitol Hill. “There is little question that the FDA is dysfunctional,” said Democratic Rep.
of Connecticut, who has pushed for a more sweeping overhaul of the agency. “The current structure is incapable of addressing food safety problems.”

FDA Commissioner and Other Top Health Officials Plan to Step Down

admin — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 23:39:31 +0000

commissioner, Dr. Andrew C. von Eschenbach, said Tuesday that he would resign on
Day, Jan. 20, part of a parade of expected departures at the nation’s crucial public health agencies.
Leaders of these agencies have sometimes straddled administrations, but the
is expected to make a clean sweep in part because of repeated assertions that the Bush administration allowed politics to play an unusually forceful role in science policy, and because each of the current leaders has fierce critics on Capitol Hill and in the public health community.
planning; and whether huge investments in bioterrorism prevention will continue.
The incoming administration’s vetting process at each agency has been unusually thorough, with transition officials speaking to current officials as well as a broad range of outside interest groups, according to people who have been through previous transitions.
Dr.
. Dr.
, director of the
, wrote in a November e-mail message to her staff that she expects to leave “after the administration changes.” And Dr. John E. Niederhuber, director of the
, is expected to surrender his leadership job, although he may remain at the institute.
Tommy Vietor, an Obama transition spokesman, declined to comment on any of these positions.
The most difficult of the transitions will be at the F.D.A.
Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, a pediatrician and health commissioner of Baltimore, is leading the Obama transition team for the agency and is widely considered a top contender for the commissioner’s job. Dr. Sharfstein, 39, made national headlines last year when he petitioned the agency to ban some pediatric over-the-counter
and cold medicines.
, Democrat of California, the incoming chairman of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee. Dr. Sharfstein declined to comment Tuesday.
Also on the short list for F.D.A. commissioner, according to people with knowledge of the situation, is Dr. Steven E. Nissen, 60, chairman of cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic who has gained fame in recent years as a fierce critic of the safety of several big-selling medications.
“This is a failed agency,” Dr. Nissen said in a recent interview, “and it has lost the public’s confidence.” He advocated greater transparency for the results of industry drug trials and said the process for approving medical devices needs an overhaul.
Dr. Robert M. Califf, a
cardiologist and vice chancellor, and Dr. Alan Garber, director of the Center for Health Policy at
, are also being considered, according to people with knowledge of the situation. Neither could be reached.
If Dr. Sharfstein or Dr. Nissen is chosen, the selection is likely to signal the end of an era at the agency in which the speed of the drug approval process often took priority over the certainty of a drug’s safety.
Drug makers and drug-safety advocates — normally fierce opponents — agree, along with powerful members of Congress, that the agency needs an overhaul.
“You really need some revolutionary changes at the F.D.A.,” said
, president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. Diana Zuckerman, president of the National Research Center for Women and Families, said, “The F.D.A. has increasingly lost its emphasis on public health, and all of us have been harmed as a result.”
In a farewell note to his staff, Dr. von Eschenbach wrote that he would return to his family in Texas.
“I have said it is hard to fall in love with the F.D.A. from outside the agency because so few can fully appreciate who you are and what you mean to this country, but it is impossible not to fall in love with the agency and its mission once you are inside,” he wrote.
The Obama transition team for the National Institutes of Health includes Dr. Harold Varmus, a former director, and Dr. Francis Collins, former director of the genome institute at the agency. Dr. Varmus declined to comment, and Dr. Collins did not return phone messages.
Several people with knowledge of the situation said top candidates for the director of the health institutes include Dr. Collins as well as directors of other institutes, including Dr. Elizabeth G. Nabel of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute; Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; and Dr. Griffin P. Rogers of the National Institute of
and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
Dr. Fauci has twice declined the job of director of the health institutes and is said by those close to him to be unlikely to change his mind.
At the disease centers, Dr. Gerberding is said to be interested in keeping her job.
But Dr. Jeffrey P. Koplan, who preceded Dr. Gerberding as director of the disease centers, is leading the Obama administration’s C.D.C. transition team. Dr. Koplan has publicly criticized Dr. Gerberding’s leadership.

Dr. Gourmet Launches The Quality Calorie Diet Plan – Free Online …

admin — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 06:11:44 +0000

Free fully customizable diet plan offered by Dr. Gourmet
,
Jan. 7
Timothy S. Harlan
, M.D., also known as Dr. Gourmet, today launches the newest version of his free, customizable
, which is now available @
The name of the plan reflects Dr. Harlan’s belief that quality calories – found in healthy, delicious foods – are the key to eating healthy and sustained weight loss.
The software is based on the 5 areas that research has shown help people with both eating healthy and weight loss.
1. Meal Planning – The Quality Calorie Diet software provides users two week menu plans, complete with shopping lists, based on the number of calories required for a healthy weight. The completely free plan uses Dr. Gourmet recipes, but will also allow users to use recipes from a user’s own Recipe Box in planning menus.
2. Food Diary – Many research studies have shown that keeping track of their food intake leads to greater weight loss and also sustained weight management. Those who use a food diary consistently do better. The Quality Calorie Diet software offers a comprehensive online Food Diary.
3. Goal Tracking – By giving users the tools to track not just foods eaten but also an Exercise Diary, the Dr. Gourmet plan allows documenting of calories consumed vs. calories burned. Because research shows that regular measurement of such information as well as daily weights enhances weight loss the software offers a comprehensive Goal Tracking feature.
4. Groups Lose Weight Better – It is well established that those who work on their weight in a group setting do much better. The Quality Calorie Diet software is the only software of its kind that allows users to create a plan that works for their whole family.
“Families are taken into account – and embraced,” says Dr. Harlan.
Meal plans can be created for groups of any size, age, or weight. Leftovers are allocated into meals later in the week. Nobody wants to cook every day, and great leftovers have a place in our lives and in a healthy diet.”
5. Knowledge – The Dr. Gourmet web site offers extensive information about eating healthy, weight loss, and for a number of health conditions. It is important to understand what is in the food we eat. The new Recipe Box feature allows users to enter their own recipes for use in meal plans and also analyzes the recipes and provides Nutrition Facts.
About Dr. Gourmet
Dr. Harlan is a practicing internist, Medical Director and Assistant Professor of Medicine at
School of Medicine. Raised in the restaurant business, he is also an accomplished chef who owned his first restaurant at the age of twenty-two. Dr. Harlan is the author of cookbooks as well as patient education materials, and is the creator of Emmy-winning television programming that helps people better understand how to eat healthy.
Doctors now spend more time than ever helping their patients understand the impact of lifestyle on their health. Dr. Gourmet provides extensive online resources that help patients with the “how and why” of eating healthy. Dr. Gourmet’s mission is to show people how eating great food and
are one and the same.
The Dr. Gourmet website has extensive information about
. “Just as importantly we offer users the tools to put that information into action,” Dr. Harlan says. There are hundreds of recipes for low sodium diets, lactose intolerance and for patients who use warfarin (Coumadin(R)), as well as those with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and gluten sensitivity. Every recipe includes health-oriented information as well as tips for choosing healthier ingredients or improving your cooking skills.
All of the information on the Dr. Gourmet website has its foundation in evidence-based medicine. To this end, Dr. Gourmet is a
.
.

Loudonville man loses 91 pounds by diligently following diet plan

admin — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:03:45 +0000

LOUDONVILLE ” Around New Year’s Day last year, Tom Motz was facing some significant health issues. His physician, Dr. Deborah Fast of Wooster, had warned him he had to lose some weight.
“She told me my cholesterol and triglyceride levels were both up to where they were items of concern, I was on medicine to control my high blood pressure, and I was having so much trouble sleeping I started participating in a sleep apnea clinic,” Motz said.
So he decided to join Weight Watchers.
“Weight Watchers, Dr. Fast told me, is an excellent program, as long as you stick with it, following their rules,” Motz said.
His first Weight Watchers session was Jan. 3. He weighed in at 299 pounds on his 6-foot-2 frame. As a high school senior and Redbird basketball player back in 1971, he weighed 184 pounds.
When he weighed in at Weight Watchers on Dec. 18, he weighed 208 pounds.
“I was successful in the Weight Watcher program because I stuck to it religiously,” Motz said.
The diet program, Motz said, “follows two processes, diet ” eating from a very specific menu ” and exercise. For it to succeed, you have to follow each process diligently.”
He praised his wife, Karen, for helping him with the diet side of the process.
“She followed the menus precisely as she prepared my meals,” Motz said. “One of the nice things about Weight Watchers is that you can eat as much as you want, but you are guided by a point system where you count what you eat. I found myself feeling guilty if I consumed more points than I was supposed to.”
The prescribed diet included eating lots of fruit, vegetables and dairy products, and drinking six eight-ounce glasses of water every day.
On the exercise part, Motz said it was his own determination that got it done.
“When the weather was good, I took 15 laps around the loop of our neighborhood, Stone Meadow Circle, and now, with it bad, I spend an hour and a half every day on our Nordic Track, set at a slight uphill grade,” he said. “That’s about five miles. I do that every day. When I am done, I am completely soaked with sweat.”
But the diligence and hard work is paying off.
Motz has taken off 91 pounds, but, he said, “I won’t go much lower. In fact, my doctor has warned me against losing any more weight.”
In addition to looking and feeling better, Motz has experienced some definite health benefits with his weight loss success.
“I took medical tests recently to learn that my cholesterol level has dropped 60 points and my triglycerides by 100, both taking me out of the danger zone,” he said. “Glucose tolerance tests showed me to be a borderline diabetic when I started Weight Watchers. Now they are at normal levels. My blood pressure, once so high I needed medication, is now normal. And best of all, I was recently cleared of having sleep apnea problems. I went through a sleep study and it determined that my sleeping patterns, so troubled before, are now normal.
“The health benefits of all this weight loss have been tremendous. I feel better, and I have much more energy,” Motz said.
“The Weight Watchers program here has about 45 participants, including four other men beside myself,” Motz said. “The leaders (Trina Swain and Mary Lou Wertman) do a fantastic job of keeping us motivated.”
The Loudonville unit meets 6:30 p.m. every Thursday in the United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall. Fees are $39 a month.
Motz is employed as a assembler on the pump line at Sealand in Big Prairie. He’s been there 10 years and met his wife there. They were married in 2002.
The Motzes have three children and three grandchildren between the two of them.
Looking back at his weight- loss success, Motz said, “Once I set my mind to do it, I did it. The key was being accountable for my actions, what I ate and how much exercise I got.”

Diet Plan for Building Muscle Mass

admin — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:32:43 +0000

They might intend to eat correctly, but they just can’t get around keeping it consistent. I know because this is something that I battled with myself for a long time. When I finally sat down and got serious, I finally got to the core of why most weight trainers fail in this department: improper planning.
Most of us can decide to start eating right, and some of us are even good at righting down goals and how we need to achieve them. But, if we don’t construct a diet plan for building muscle mass on a day to day basis, this can be a plan for disaster for most of us.
being consistent. Obstacles such as hunger, finding yourself in a situation where you don’t have any food prepared for several hours, such as school, work, a long car ride, temptations to eat fast food, and many others.
The reason why these obstacles are so hard to combat is because of the very nature of hunger. Along with sleep and water, eating is an absolute vital necessity for survival. And since our bodies are designed to alert us when one of these are lacking, it does so very intensely.
That is why when we are extremely tired we MUST sleep, or when we are extremely thirsty we MUST drink, and when we are extremely hungry we MUST
The pains from lack of these are too intense to bear for too long. So if we don’t properly plan beforehand our meals each day, then the urge to just eat whatever is most tempting or convenient will easily overcome our goals for gaining mass.
On top of that our bodies are also designed for one single purpose: survival. Your body doesn’t give a flip if you want to gain muscle mass, it’s designed
on keeping you alive. That is why it is important that you have a proper diet plan for building muscle mass and that you plan your meals on a day to day basis.
The better planned and prepared you are, the easier it will be to stay consistent with your diet. Then, on a positive note, since we are creatures of habit, once you stick to a diet schedule for about 21 to 30 days, it will become a habit and the process will be much easier!
-Plan on paper! Get a day planner if you don’t already have one and plan your eating schedule around your other daily activities
-Invest in some meal replacement shakes in case you have a busy schedule and are rarely at home – never leave home without a meal handy just in case!