I'm Not a Damn Vending Machine!

I'm Not a Vending Machine

There are plenty of doctors who will hand you a prescription and send you home. I'm not one of them.

Let me tell you what you're not going to get if you come to my office.

You're not going to walk in, describe your problem, and walk out with a pill and a "good luck." That's a transaction. I'm not interested in transactions.

The Vending Machine Model

A vending machine approach to medicine looks like this: patient comes in with a complaint, physician selects the corresponding medication, patient leaves. Problem processed. Next.

It's fast. It's simple. And for weight loss specifically, it doesn't work — because the problem isn't a missing pill. The problem is a missing understanding of what's causing the weight, what the body is doing with food, and what actually has to change for the weight to come off and stay off.

If that understanding isn't there, the medication becomes a crutch at best and a dead end at worst.

The Advice That Isn't Advice

Here's what you'll hear from most doctors if you bring up your weight: push back from the table and get some exercise.

Technically accurate. Functionally useless.

That's like bringing a car in with a knocking engine and being told to change the oil and not drive it so much. It addresses the symptom in the vaguest possible way while doing nothing about the actual problem. And it doesn't help you because you already knew to eat less and move more. What you didn't know is why that hasn't been enough — and what specifically needs to change.

That's the conversation worth having. And it takes longer than a prescription pad allows for.

What Actually Happens Here

When you come in, we talk. Not a quick intake form and a brief consult — an actual conversation about your diet, your habits, what you've tried, what you think is working and what isn't, and what the math looks like.

Then we build a plan. Specific, informed, and based on what's actually going on with your body rather than a general recommendation that applies to everyone and therefore really applies to no one.

Medication may be part of that plan. For some patients, appetite suppression is a necessary tool while they build new habits. But the medication is never the plan. Knowledge is the plan.

If you want a vending machine, there are plenty of options. If you want to understand what's actually happening and fix it — that's what we do.

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