Tampa Bay Times

Bulimia is an eating disorder, but it has little to do with eating. In reality, bulimia has more to do with low self-esteem, perfectionism, unrealistic expectations, anxiety, fear of losing control, depression and other psychological barriers.

Unfortunately, parents, spouses and others, when they become aware of a bulimic's problem, have a tendency to focus on eating and weight, just as the bulimic does.

The symptoms of bulimia include:

-- Recurring episodes of binge eating. Binge eating is characterized by eating large amounts of food in a short period of time.

They call it "Brotox" -- slang for Botox treatments for guys.

Evan Lo Balbo had never heard of the word until his girlfriend suggested they do something to fight the mean signs of aging on their faces.

A year ago, Dan McLaughlin spent hours every day at the St. Petersburg, Fla., golf course Mangrove Bay, putting, putting, putting. He was not quite a year into what he calls the Dan Plan.

McLaughlin had decided at 30 to try to become a professional golfer on the PGA Tour. He had never played the game. He had almost no interest in the sport. What he really wanted to do was test the theory that anybody could become expert at anything with 10,000 hours of measured, deliberate practice.

The resident of Portland, Ore., quit his 9-to-5 commercial-photography job and started living, frugally, on about $100,000 of savings. He came to Florida because of the warmer winter weather.