Chief among those are how to determine

your caloric balance. While this is the most

common concern of many weight control approaches

it is not the only factor that is related

to weight loss. At ABODE we also look

at things like: Food allergy; Candida syndrome;

Carbohydrate imbalance; hormone

imbalance and other lifestyle concerns.

A: Fundamental to our beliefs at our ABODE

is that given a perfect diet your nutritional

concerns should be nil. However, how many

of us have perfect diet? Also, has your primary

care physician told you need medications

if your diet was so great. At ABODE,

we make a diagnosis and then based on scientific

research and physiology we recommend

either medication, dietary changes or nutritional

supplements.

A: While we can put you on a specific dietary

regiment that will enable you to lose as much

as 20 lbs in a month, our goal is to teach you

the principles to enable a loss of 1-2 lbs a

week until your goal is achieved. This takes

time. Lifestyle change is the greatest magic

pill that I know, but it is a lot of work. Just

remember you are always only one meal away

from eating right again.

A: You can, but I cannot accurately predict

that what it says on the bottle is what is in

the supplements you buy there. I do know

that the supplements that we have at our

ABODE are made for and marketed to physician’s

offices and I feel a lot more confident

about recommending them than anything

outside of our office.

A: Absolutely not. I will never make anyone

switch from something they feel

works for them. There are many responsible

and reputable companies making supplements

out there.

A: Allergy testing is usually done by the

scratch test at the allergists office, but this

only tests for one type of immune cell, the

“E” cell. It is often helpful to test for the

“G” cell, but this can only be done with

blood testing. The bottom line is some insurance

companies pay for this testing and

some don’t. If this turns out to be something

that needs to be addressed for you

then we recommend identifying what they

pay for in advance.

A: Since lifestyle changes are the hardest

to make we start with weekly visits and

wean after that.