Am I Hungry? Foreword
by Michael Fleming, M.D.
Past President of the American Academy of Family Physicians
I have been obese as long as I can remember. I am the son of obese parents and my sister shares this chronic problem. As I look back, I realize that I was not like most of my slim friends: I thought about food all the time. I went to bed each night thinking of what I would eat the next day. Any disappointment, stress, or even success was an excuse to eat more. I had tried many times to lose weight but instead confirmed for myself that diets just weren't the answer. That is why I take the revolutionary yet common sense tenets of Am I Hungry? to heart ... and soul.
Like so many physicians, I have cared for countless overweight patients and treated the complications resulting from unhealthy dietary habits and inactive lifestyles. Some of my patients told me openly that they had chosen me as their physician because they felt I couldn't tell them to lose weight since I hadn't been able to do it myself. The issue really hit home when several years ago, after having one kidney removed for renal cell carcinoma, I was diagnosed with high blood pressure and dangerously high cholesterol. I started one, then two, and finally three medications, yet still my blood pressure was out of control. I blamed it on the remaining kidney, but in my heart I knew better. It seemed absurd that after surviving cancer, I hadn't been able to do what was necessary to improve my own health.
A few months before I was to be inaugurated as president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, my wife, Sally, and I were traveling home after visiting our grandchildren. As we talked about my health she asked if I expected to be around to watch our four grandchildren grow up. I thought back to the day in college when I came home to see my grandfather in the hospital after what would be the last of his many heart attacks. I vividly remember his doctor saying, "Mr. Charlie, you have to quit smoking," while crushing out his own cigarette. Had I become that doctor?
When the American Academy of Family Physicians' Commission on Public Health asked if I would be willing to be the "poster boy" for the Academy's AIM (Americans in Motion) fitness initiative, I made the commitment but wondered how I would do what I had never been able to do before. I knew I would have to do it differently this time. This would require a real lifestyle change---not just another diet. I had to fundamentally change the way I thought about food, eating, and fitness.
Michelle May, M.D., along with Lisa Galper, Psy.D., and Janet Carr, M.S., R.D. have discovered and written about just such a radical paradigm shift for becoming healthier---Am I Hungry? Dr. May's approach is all the more compelling because as a family physician, she has struggled with her weight and has successfully applied this system to her own life. Dr. May's recurring question, Am I Hungry? is one of the keys to this rational new approach and represents a significant tool for bringing good health within everyone's reach.
My quest has been successful; so far I have lost over 40 pounds. But more importantly, I have a whole new concept of health and wellness that I can share with my patients. It has become an almost spiritual journey for me, and I have never felt better---or better about me. Now, after reading this book, I finally understand what I never could have known all those years ago---that I can take charge of my health and feel happier in the process than I have ever felt before.
I also know that I will, indeed, be there for Thomas, Andrew, Elizabeth, and Patrick; I am confident that Sally and I can enjoy a healthier life because I have learned to ask, Am I Hungry?
Michael Fleming, M.D.
Past President, American Academy of Family Physicians