So last fall, when he heard about the kickoff of Dr. Oz’s Transformation Nation: Million Dollar Challenge—which has since helped more than a million people lose an estimated 3 million pounds—Lamb decided to join. “I knew it was time,” he says.

His transformation began in the classroom, where instead of “wolfing down” snacks in the hallways, he began sitting down to healthy lunches—fruit and veggies, yogurt and granola. At first, his students were skeptical. But as they noticed their teacher slimming down, they began to cheer him on. In the process, they learned a little themselves about healthy diet and exercise.

Setting a good example in his classroom was one thing. But for Lamb, the scariest step of his journey was the day he set foot in a local gym. “I was scared to go in,” he recalls. To his relief, he found the trainers truly cared, and soon he was known around the place as Big Mike.

Lamb’s transformation hasn’t stopped with just weight loss. His whole health has improved. “I attend a gym … relax and sleep seven hours a night,” he says. And he hasn’t lost sight of his ultimate goal.

“If and when my wife needs a kidney,” Lamb says, “I won’t have any regrets that I didn’t do everything in my power to give her one of mine.”

Visit the Transformation Nation finalists’ page for more inspirational stories. And watch The Dr. Oz Show on May 23 to see who won the Transformation Nation: Million Dollar You!

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These days I’m pretty serious about safety when I’m on a bicycle. I follow the law, I pay close attention to my environment and I always wear a helmet—even if I’m just going for a leisurely spin around the neighborhood.

That last policy probably just saved my life. In April, I hit an obstruction in the road and landed on my head. I broke five bones in my face; the surgeons used three titanium plates and a dozen screws to put me back together. (And no, they don’t set off the metal detectors at the airport.)

The injuries were serious enough, but my helmet probably kept me alive. The portion that covers the upper part of my forehead was smashed into pieces.

May is National Bike Month, and Bike to Work Day is Friday. There are many reasons to get on your bike and celebrate these events, among them: Commuting on a bike can save money and time. Riding a bike is good for the environment. And cycling is great exercise.

But whether you ride all the time or haven’t cycled in a while, here are three tips to help you ride safely:

1. Wear a helmet and make sure it fits properly.
This week I caught myself yelling at a restaurant delivery guy who, like many in the area of Atlanta where I work, wasn’t wearing a helmet. As he wove through traffic, hopped a curb and deftly ran a red light, I wondered just how hard his head was. I bet the concrete was harder

Bicycle helmet usage estimates vary widely, but the government puts the number between 25 and 50 percent of all cyclists. That’s not nearly enough. (By comparison, nearly 85 percent of people wear seat belts.)

Cyclists accounted for 2 percent of all fatalities involving motor vehicles in 2009, according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. Many more people end up in the emergency room after crashes not involving cars. Bicycle injuries are the number one reason kids visit the emergency department for nonfatal traumatic brain injuries.

2. Share the road.
This is the battle cry of many cyclists, but it goes both ways. I see a lot of cyclists with poor road etiquette. They hop curbs, run lights, travel in the left lane or fail to signal. They’re a danger to themselves and to motorists. If you’re going to commute to work or ride in traffic, give cars a wide berth. If cyclists expect motorists to share the road, they should too.

3. Join a group ride.
There is safety in numbers. Many urban bike shops sponsor rides during the week, and bicycle clubs offer regular weekend treks. Where I live, these rides are usually on established routes that have less traffic. And other riders are familiar with the roads and hazards. Plus, the sponsoring groups tend to enforce safety protocols.

In a number of cities, bicycling organizations are organizing group cycling commutes and other rides to celebrate National Bike Month. Get on a bike and join them. Just remember to follow the rules of the road and don’t forget to wear your helmet.

Do you bike to work? Let us know in the comment box below.

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1. Eat this, superwoman
Here’s a super food that’s not too hard to take: Cacao. Studies show it has many positive effects, from soothing headaches to smashing belly fat. Find out just what else cacao can do for you in this video with dietitian Ashley Koff.

2, How NOT to prepare for the Pap
There isn’t anything special you need to do to prepare for a Pap test, but there are a few things you shouldn’t do. Dr. Lauren Streicher explains here.

3. Boost your libido
Is your sex life going nowhere fast? Dr. Evelyn Minaya explains how you can rev up your sex drive—and why that’s good for you.

For more ways to eat your way healthy (and other tips), check out our Women’s Health Center.

Do you think women go to the doctor more or less than men? Share your opinion below! We’d love to hear from you. 

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“We both feel younger and healthier than ever,” she says.

Villanueva, who is from Ewa Beach, Hawaii, is a finalist in Dr. Oz’s Transformation Nation: Million Dollar You Challenge. You’ll have to tune into the Dr. Oz Show May 23 to find out if she’s the winner, but Villanueva already feels like one. “I am now 40 and fabulous,” she says.

More than a million people took Dr. Oz’s Transformation Nation: Million Dollar You Challenge, losing an estimated 3 million pounds and transforming their health in a thousand different ways.

For Villanueva and her family, those ways included eating healthier. The family added lots of fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy and lean protein to their diet. They’re also getting more exercise. In February, they ran a 5K together. Villanueva came in second in her age group, her husband came in 10th, her daughter came in fourth and her son in third.

The lifestyle changes helped Villanueva go from a body mass index of 29—overweight—to a BMI of 21.  But the effort may have helped her husband even more—he no longer suffers from sleep apnea and he’s been able to cut the dosage for one of his high blood pressure medicines in half.

How are you transforming our life? Tell us in the comments box below.

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Are you empathetic? Is your partner? It might be the secret to a happier marriage. According to a recent study from Harvard University, being able to accurately read a partner’s emotions and—believing that your partner is trying to understand your emotions—is related to couple relationship satisfaction.

This study highlights certain gender differences that echo dynamics I’ve seen in my clinical practice and in my 23-year marriage:

1.  Women are more satisfied in their relationship if their partner accurately empathized with negative emotions.
2.  Men were more satisfied when they could read their partner’s positive emotions accurately.
3.  Women’s ability to read their partner’s negative emotions was positively linked to both men’s and women’s relationship satisfaction.

The authors suggested that for men, being able to understand and be empathetic to their partner’s negative emotions may feel threatening to the relationship, but women don’t seem to find negative emotions threatening. Findings suggest that effort, not just accuracy, positively impacts relationships.

Developing Empathy
If your relationship is distressed or if you simply want to make a good relationship better, here are some ways to work on your empathy skills.  

Listen for emotional messages
The emotional message isn’t the same as the words that your partner is saying. Your partner may be criticizing you for not spending enough time together, but the emotional message may actually be, “I miss you and I’m afraid I’m not important to you.” 

Push the pause button on your own emotions
When your partner is expressing something critical, it’s easy to respond defensively.  Before reacting, take a deep breath and try to slow down your own emotional response so you can hear the emotion behind the criticism.

Reflect back your partner’s emotional plea
Instead of coming back defensively with, “What are you talking about? We just went on a walk yesterday, and we went to dinner last weekend!” respond to your partner’s emotional plea by saying something like, “You really miss me and want to spend more time together. Thanks for letting me know. I love you.”

Even if you read the emotional message inaccurately, your effort to understand your partner’s emotions will pay off!

What is your secret to a happy relationship? Tell us in the comment box below.

Join the largest health conversation in 140 characters or less! Tweet what you want to talk about to @SharecareNow and let’s start chatting!

Join the largest health conversation in 140 characters or less! Tweet what you want to talk about to @SharecareNow and let’s start chatting!

Every participant deserves a celebratory pat on the back, but our 10 finalists are especially inspiring. You’ll have to wait until Dr. Oz reveals the winner on May 23, but until then I’m going to celebrate a finalist each day. These finalists will appear in no particular order and I have no idea who the winner is (they’re all winners to me). What they share is the determination to stick with the Transformation Nation 7 steps and really impressive results.

Take Jen McElroy, for example. For years the 36 year old says she’d been on a roller coaster of diets. A family history of weight problems plagued her and she wasn’t able to lose weight and keep it off. At her lowest point, she weighed 382 pounds and was battling Crohn’s disease.

“My self esteem was lower than low. I never felt good about myself. I never was confident in anything I did,” McElroy says. Until she joined Dr. Oz’s Transformation Nation: “For the first time in my life, things started to click,” she says. “The seven steps really made sense and I joined Weight Watchers. And the weight kept dropping dramatically. And what’s even more incredible is the Crohn’s disease is in remission.”

McElroy started to walk—and then to run. Along the way she lost 46.4 pounds and helped her husband lose 50 pounds, too.

“I’m a healthier person now,” she says, ”and I can live a healthier life—forever.”

This is what Transformation Nation and Sharecare are all about: Inspiring people to be the best they can be and giving them the action plans and support to get there.

For more inspirational stories, visit the Transformation Nation finalists’ page.

Tune in to Dr. Oz on May 23^rd to find out who won Transformation Nation: Million Dollar You! 

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But it sounded like such fun that I knew it was time to pull out my five steps to overcoming fitness fear. These are the same ones I used the first time I faced a steep downhill on my mountain bike, took a kayak through the rapids, ventured onto the blue trails on my downhill skis—well, you get the picture.

Here they are:

1. Allow yourself to be a beginner
It always looks so effortless when you watch an expert in motion, right? It’s worth remembering that nobody starts out amazing. “When we compare ourselves to those who’ve already perfected a skill, and then are not able to perform at an advanced level right out the gate, we give up,” says NASM Elite Trainer Serena Rain. “Recognize you are a beginner and start slow.” After all, even that guy jumping moguls on his mountain bike was a first-timer once.

2. Ask for help
Before I set a foot onto the ladder to the first zipline platform, I confided to one of the guides that I was nervous about heights and said I might need an occasional encouraging word. He was more than happy to oblige. “It is always good practice to have a strong support staff to help you through the difficult times,” notes NASM Elite Trainer Aaron Lawson. “Be sure to express to them your goals and fears. They can really help to keep you motivated and on track.” My husband, also on the tour, was quick to tell me how great I was doing, and it made all the difference.

3. Acknowledge the fear
Yes, it’s there—but that’s not a deal-breaker. “Fear is a force everyone has to deal with from time to time,” Lawson says. The key is how you deal with it. Admit that yeah, it might be frightening the first time you hop on that bike or walk into that new class or head down that mountain. Allow yourself to feel afraid for a few moments. Then move on.

4. Talk to yourself
I’m not usually a big talker—until I’m facing a big challenge. Then the words come tumbling out: “You can do it. You’ve got this. Stay strong.” Tell yourself how great you are (even if you don’t quite believe it) and you’ll feel better equipped to handle the tough stuff. Here’s how Sharecare mental health counselor Brooke Randolph puts it: “Create your own script, rather than repeating those things that others tell you that you should believe.” Amen, sister.

5. Allow yourself to fail
It’s going to happen sometimes—and that’s okay. You can always try again. “People who do allow themselves to fail usually learn about themselves and learn a lot about what they need to do differently to move forward,” explains Sharecare fitness expert Michelle Cleere, PhD. “If you allow it to, failing can give you some good information about how to not fail the next time,” says Cleere.

So why bother going through all this? Because the moment you step off that bike, or finish that class, or climb down that ladder, you’ll feel so powerful and exhilarated that you’ll wonder why you were ever afraid in the first place.

What fitness fear have you faced down? Tell us about it in the comment section below.

Join the largest health conversation in 140 characters or less! Tweet what you want to talk about to @SharecareNow and let’s start chatting!

Join the largest health conversation in 140 characters or less! Tweet what you want to talk about to @SharecareNow and let’s start chatting!

I once read an article by an academic attending physician. She described how when she arrived for hospital rounds with her team of medical students, interns and residents, she would ask which patient they would like to present to her. They replied that there was no one worth presenting.

She responded by telling them that everyone was worthy. She asked them to pick out any patient on their team and she would find something interesting about them. They chose a woman in her 80s who was awaiting nursing home placement.

As the attending physician started taking a history, it was revealed that this patient had been a passenger on the Titanic and had quite a story to tell. She held the group spellbound. The students learned quite a lesson that day.

I am lucky to have some of the most wonderful octogenarians and nonagenarians in my own practice. One was a model in New York in the 1940s, another worked on the atom bomb and yet another was a genuine beatnik. I have a couple of patients who lived through the holocaust. They have many life lessons to teach and wonderful stories to tell.

So many times in life we pass by an elderly person or just seem to tolerate our older relatives. If we could stop for a moment and talk to them we might learn about their life and perspective. They can become important teachers and resources.

They have taught me about what it looks like to age gracefully. They have shown me what life is like as we get closer to the end and further from the beginning and what ultimately is important. Not one has looked back on their life and wondered if they could have stayed in their office an hour longer or filed more reports.

Many have expressed regret that they did not have more time with their family members or were unable to mend torn friendships. I think they would all agree that their health, relationships, love and kindness are what matter most in life. Find out what is important to the elders in your life. You might be surprised and delighted with what they have to say.

What have you learned from a family elder? Tell us in the comments below.

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