I have been remiss in keeping up with my blog and with Twitter and many other forms of social media recently. I apologize to my many friends whom I know through these venues. Perhaps you will forgive me when you see what it is I have been working on.

Several months ago, Cesar Lara, M.D. and I met to begin discussing a way that we could give back to the community. We are both feeling very fortunate in our respective practices and we have mutual clients. These conversations led to the birthing of our new project. We are giving the gift of health to a selected group of individuals in the community as part of a new program called Weight Away Tampa Bay.

While the economy, job losses and depression dominate the headlines in our community, we’ve decided to donate our time and expertise to bring positive, healthy changes to individuals as part of a scholarship-based weight loss program. (That’s right, scholarship based, as in FREE!) This program’s mission to not just change the person’s physical appearance but also their outlook on life. We believe that we can help change our community by starting with just one individual. However, we are actually looking for 10 candidates!

Through a combination of a proven medical weight loss program and weight management hypnosis, the selected participants will have the tools needed to find solutions in their lives, including the self awareness and self esteem it takes to overcome obstacles.

Tampa Bay residents can apply for this once in a lifetime opportunity or nominate a loved one, simply by gong to www.weightawaytampabay.com and filling out the form on the application page. There is a catch, the deadline for application is Friday, June 5, 2009.

So time is of the essence.