If your doctor wants to address the excess weight you’re carrying, she’s being advised not to use loaded words such as “obesity” – even if it’s the proper medical term.
    According to a new study of 390 obese patients, certain phrases can lead people to clam up and stop talking about the issue with their physician.

When I maybe 12 years old, I talked Donald, the sometimes-shaven caretaker at the synagogue my family attended, to let me take home the leftover challah after Saturday services. It was just a few slices, but they was free, and I wouldn’t have to share them with anyone.

Are you sure it’s OK with your folks, Donald would ask, and of course, I’d assure him it was, just as assuredly that it was not.

I don’t remember how many times he gave me the leftovers, but I remember why he stopped: My mother found a crumb-filled bag under my bed, and the jig was up.

Though I've been invited, I haven't experienced the COR Retreat in suburban Minneapolis, but I'm very interested in what they're doing. Cofounder Burt Nordstrand, whom I met when our similar-themed books were released about the same time, sent me this video to share:

As many readers know, I used to weigh as much as 365 pounds. Today, I hover between 205 and 210, with a height of 5-foot-10 1/2. I often say that for 20-years-plus, I’ve had a normal-sized body.

I choose that description because I’m certainly not thin, and besides, during the dark years when most people knew I was freakishly fat before they knew a single other fact about me, normal-sized was as lofty as my goals ever got.

I mentioned after my appearance at the Commonwealth Club of California a couple of weeks ago that a podcast would result, and that I would mention when it was available. Well, it is, which I learned when someone who'd listened to it tweeted to me about it.

My opinion is that anyone would be best served by listening to the whole recording. Please do not overlook that point when I say the following:

We went out to the Madrona Tree for dinner Saturday night, and soon after we ordered, the waiter returned with a question from the cook:

You realize that you've ordered bacon on your veggie burger?"

I saw this over at Dances With Fat, Ragen Chastain's blog, and am passing on.

Researcher Roland Sturm of the Rand Corporation throws cold water on the notion that so-called food deserts have a role in the obesity crisis.

Another round-up of recent tweets, hoping to revivify them beyond the typical tweet’s shelf life ...