Libra Fitness

In our Libra Fitness workshop Maximizing Wellness by Rearranging Your Toolbelt, Dr. Lynn Zipoy talks about commitment versus motivation. So often we wait for the motivation to come, but is that really the way to bring about significant change in our lives? Here, speaker and confidence coach, Donna L. Johnson, shares her thoughts on this topic. What gets you moving?

by Donna L. Johnson

We’re three months into 2010. Have you kept the goals and resolutions you so eagerly set for yourself at the beginning of the year?

Have you ever stopped to think why you can’t stay motivated to do the things that once excited you? Or maybe you didn’t have any motivation to begin with. Could that be the problem?

Motivation to do something is what gets you started. Commitment is what makes you follow through – long after the motivation is gone.

I wasn’t turning cartwheels and jumping for joy when I decided to give up coffee for lent last month. My 2 ½ cups per day is what motivates me to get out of bed in the mornings. I wanted to break free of the hold the external influence (caffeine) had on me. The only way I could do that was by committing one day at a time. At the time this post was written, it has been 21 days since my last cup. It’s much easier to stay on track when you commit to something that’s doable and realistic. I wouldn’t have made it 21 days clean and sober if I declared to not drink coffee for the next 40 days.

“Do the thing and you will be given the power.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson

Often times we’re told the exact opposite of this quote – get motivated and then get moving. This advice is counter productive and will set you up for failure. The reality is that we’re rarely enticed to do things that are good for us. It’s so much easier to be unorganized and have bad eating habits. Think about it for a minute. What things do you procrastinate about the most? Let’s say housecleaning for example. If I waited until I wanted to clean house, you’d be seeing me on an episode of Hoarders! Instead, I decide to focus on one task. I accomplish it and relish in the delight of getting that one thing done and move on to the next one. The end result is what motivates me although I haven’t gotten there yet.

You have to remind yourself of what it is you’re striving for. Lack of motivation can sometimes be attributed to temporary memory loss – you’ve forgotten about or gotten out of touch with what it is you really want. What made you hire a personal trainer in the first place? Those very things should be the motivators that keep you on the path to commitment. One session at a time. Seeing the positive results of your hard work and dedication should be more than enough to keep you pressing forward – whether you feel like it or not.

Commitment is about taking one immediate step to get you from where you are to where you want to be. What are you going to do differently to keep your momentum when the enthusiasm has fallen by the wayside?

About the Author:

Donna L. Johnson, The Unemployed Entrepreneur™, is a speaker and confidence coach with a passion for empowering and serving others.  Founder of an Austin-based women’s entrepreneurial group, she gives workshops and teleseminars on attraction marketing, relationship building, and personal development. To find out more, visit www.iHiredMe.net. Donna can be reached at 512.228.9436 or by email at info@donnaLjohnson.com.

So many people, successful as they may be, have insecurities and self-doubts that originate, in part, from a lack of confidence or self-esteem that has haunted them since their youth. I am no exception. I see it in my clients on a daily basis, and many times it has manifested itself as a weight issue or a negative relationship with food. I believe that anything that we can do to help young people build the self confidence it takes to feel fabulous in the skin they are in can only be a good thing. That’s why I am so excited about the Miss Black Central Texas Pageant that takes place in Austin on Sunday, February 28, 2010.

Now, pageants sometimes get a bad rap because some of them are mostly about skimpy swimsuits, make-up, and fanatical backstage moms. However, there are many, many more pageants out there that are well-balanced. It can be an excellent venue for young girls and women to perform, develop stage presence, and hone their public speaking skills. The Miss Black Central Texas Pageant falls into the latter category. I am extra excited about this pageant because physical fitness is one of the criteria that will be judged (along with interview, evening wear, impromptu speaking, and talent).

The mission of the pageant is: “To cultivate young black women into proud leaders who strive for a better future for both themselves and their community.” In addition to the glam of a traditional pageant, the participants will spend the preceding Saturday attending a series of workshops with topics ranging from health care and careers to public speaking, etiquette, and make-up application. Several leaders in the Central Texas community will be on hand to share their inspirational stories with the contestants.

The directives of the pageant include:

•     To celebrate the many shapes, sizes, and colors of the African-American Girl and Woman.
•     To provide a forum to showcase their talent and both their inner and outer beauty.
•     To aid in social, economic, spiritual, cultural, professional, and academic development for African-    American girls and women.
•     To offer a viable mechanism for attaining leadership status within our region.
•     To nurture and encourage opportunities.
•     To perform community service and leave a positive impact.
•     To provide economic empowerment.
•     To promote healthy lifestyle choices.

I encourage you to join Libra Fitness in supporting this pageant. For just $25, Libra Fitness will be sponsoring one lucky participant! If you would like to do the same or are interested in becoming an official sponsor of the pageant, please follow this link.

Let me know what some of your favorite opportunities are to help young people (male or female) build confidence and self-esteem. I’d love to let my readers know more about them.

Several of my clients travel frequently on business. They struggle to stick with their exercise routines and eat well while on the road. However, the trick is not to try to do it all but to find small ways that work for you to incorporate as many healthy elements as you can while on your trip. When we choose to make a good decision during difficult moments, we know that are making progress.

This week, I blog about Honoring a Healthy Lifestyle When You Must Travel on Business for The Work at Home Woman.

Photo by: donners

Sugar, high fructose corn syrup, crystalline fructose: whatever your favorite delivery system is, refined sugars are wreaking havoc on our health. Sugar addiction is real, and its effects have severe health consequences.

Writer Ethan Moore follows up on his review of “Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days” for Libra Fitness by telling us about his own food story, especially his current struggle with sugar consumption. Let us know if you identify with Ethan’s story by commenting below.

Check out Ethan’s blog: Ethan’s Essays: Reflections on Life (Often Through a Funhouse Mirror). (While Ethan’s articles cover a range of subjects, many humorous, his blog does have one series of health related articles. Ethan is in fact soliciting reader input for this series.) You can also follow Ethan on Facebook or contact him via ethan@vesperfire.com.

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I am not diabetic, but I do have three components of the Metabolic Syndrome, which is a frequent precursor to type-2 diabetes. My father had similar issues and eventually did develop type-2 diabetes. I am clearly at very high risk for becoming diabetic myself. I have become determined not to let that happen.

I became a Coca-Cola addict when very young; young enough that I can’t recall how and when that began. My mom did her best to limit my consumption, but I became extremely adept at circumventing that. I now know that I was using the caffeine to self-medicate for my mild Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). The sugar came along for the ride, promoting the development of a gigantic sweet tooth. (This was well before the introduction of Diet Coke in 1982, and I can’t stand artificial sweeteners anyway).

Unfortunately, my mom committed many horrible crimes against perfectly innocent vegetables in the kitchen when I was growing up. OK, I exaggerate, but I certainly never developed any appreciation for vegetables and rarely included them in my diet when I started cooking for myself in my early teens. I got away with a high carbohydrate and high junk food diet throughout my teens and through college due to a high metabolism and high activity levels.

I gained a modest amount of weight quickly after college though. When I began seeing a new doctor in my late 20s, he found my triglycerides were astoundingly bad, with poor cholesterol levels too. I improved them a great deal with medications, but for over a decade they have remained borderline at best. During a period of higher alcohol consumption four years ago, I gained enough weight to cross the line into the Metabolic Syndrome (by most definitions).

(Amazingly, my doctor never told me of the clear correlation between alcohol consumption and high triglycerides. It has since become clear that alcohol changes my metabolism such that it induces much more weight gain than its calories alone would predict.)

For many years, doctors and dietitians have stressed limiting intake of fats to deal with high cholesterol and triglycerides. That is still the conventional wisdom. But limiting my fat consumption only led to modest improvements. No one ever suggested to me that high sugar intake by itself could raise those levels, especially triglycerides. I remember one period when I worked out a lot, tried to eat low fat, and lost about fifteen pounds, only to have my next blood test show no change in triglycerides at all (though my cholesterol was better). Now I realize that it was probably because I had started drinking Coke again and had more than doubled my sugar intake. Thus sugar has moved onto my radar, becoming my primary target.

I also want to lose weight, of course. I don’t like looking in the mirror and wondering who the person with the fat face is. That’s always been my personal threshold for weight and appearance; when someone’s face becomes fat, they become much less physically attractive to me. With the last round of weight gain, I crossed that line myself. Though I have lost weight before despite my sugar consumption, losing weight would clearly be much easier if I could curtail it.

I had to deal with many other issues before I could tackle my excessive sugar consumption. Because I got my caffeine from sweetened colas (and don’t care for coffee), the dragon of caffeine addiction had to be slain first. That is a huge story all its own, but it has now been over eight months since I last had caffeine.

I also have a mild hypothyroidism (low levels of thyroid hormones) that was incompletely treated by the standard medical approach; I finally learned enough to realize that and get more complete treatment just late last summer. (Again, a story all its own.) I also discovered I was vitamin-D deficient (which is quite common) and have addressed that. Only after my metabolism and energy levels were addressed could I wage a battle with sugar.

I didn’t really think of it in those dramatic terms though. Last summer, I didn’t realize how big a problem sugar itself was for me. I didn’t think it would be easy, but I didn’t think my hands would start trembling during the third day of an attempt to go a week without sweets. (No, it wasn’t low blood sugar. I had just eaten half a pizza.) Sometimes, you can’t know the strength of the enemy until the battle is joined.

That episode re-framed the issue. Before, I wouldn’t have used the language of addiction to characterize it. Going brief periods without sweets let me see how they can affect me: how eating one cookie often spurs cravings that lead me to eat two more cookies, which lead in turn to still greater cravings in a cycle that echoes my struggle with caffeine. Many of the same psychological demons arise as well. The similarities let me draw strength from my successes with caffeine. As one wise friend said, “You know you have won such a fight before.”

Since I just can’t bring myself to cut sweets from my diet indefinitely, I’ve been waging my latest effort, begun in late December, in a series of what I call “junk food fasts”. (My definition of junk food is personalized to my particular food issues, but it basically means sweets plus drive-through fast food.) I first tried to go three days without junk food, then allowed them for three days. I managed that, though it was hard, so I tried to go seven days without junk food, followed by two days of indulgence. The second junk food fast was actually easier than the first, despite being longer, and I overdid it less afterward. The third, ten day junk food fast was easier still, especially towards the end. I allowed myself just one day of indulgence, which was actually rather controlled at first. But the spiral of cravings was clearly starting to kick in again before the end.

I’m now trying to settle into a repeating pattern of thirteen days off junk food, with one day of indulgence, which I’ll try to keep restrained. I’m currently in day five of the latest round. I’m actually struggling a bit more now, mostly because I haven’t had time to replenish my healthier food staples recently, leading to the temptation to grab quick and easy junk food. Time will tell if this is an effective strategy for me or not. I’ll post progress updates on my blog, using the tag “LF Follow-up”.

My approach clearly would not be effective for everyone. Some people have encouraged me to learn moderation instead, warning me that deprivation can only lead to greater binges. This is certainly the conventional wisdom regarding dieting. So far I’ve found the opposite. The fast breaks the pattern of abuse, so I can be moderate right at first. Only later does the downward spiral of cravings and over-eating begin. I hope I can learn moderation someday, but right now I cannot sustain it. (Chris recently posted an interesting link on Libra Fitness’s Facebook Page to an article contrasting “Abstainers” and “Moderators”. No question whatsoever: I’m an abstainer.)

(One friend argued that this strategy encourages an obsession with food rather than a healthy attitude. I see her point, but wouldn’t it be better still not to view being restricted to “as much as I want from a cornucopia of vegetables, fruits, grains, dairy, and mostly lean meats” as a “deprivation”? I know people who can’t eat so bountifully because of severe food sensitivities; I should be glad all I have is an out of control sweet tooth.)

I think the key point is that I am not dealing with an addiction to food in general, but sugar in particular. That’s not a trivial distinction, at least in my case. I don’t binge on anything but sweets. I would eat an entire package of cookies, never an entire loaf of bread. And (once again) contrary to the conventional wisdom, I’ve found that high glycemic index starches (e.g., white bread, white rice, pasta) neither provoke nor satisfy my sugar cravings.

I haven’t discarded all conventional wisdom though. Increasing my consumption of protein, which dampens swings in blood sugar level, does significantly ease my sugar cravings. Thus having a lot of healthy pre-prepared high protein snacks and breakfast foods is essential. I’ve been hard-boiling a lot of organic, omega-3 rich eggs recently. (It is amazing how much better they taste than standard grocery store eggs.)

I have been slowly improving my eating in other ways too over the last six months, by moving as much as possible to organic foods, by increasing my consumption of fruit and vegetables, and by substituting lower glycemic index grains for higher ones. For example, I used to eat Mexican rice, from a frozen brand, as a filler in many meals at home; now I am experimenting with recipes for Mexican Quinoa instead, made with fresh organic vegetables. (I’ll post a recipe on my blog when I’ve finished revising it, and we’ll create a direct link from here when I do.) Even the sweets I eat are better: I now overeat home baked cookies made with all organic ingredients instead of store bought cookies filled with high fructose corn syrup and preservatives. The main issue in the rest of my diet is money and time. You must invest a bit more of both to eat well.

I’ve had one other key tool for enduring cravings and temptation. If you read through my blog, you’ll quickly realize that I tend to view the world through a lens of humor. I deal with life through absurdity and exaggeration. If sugar is going to be a big, noisy monkey on my back right now, then I’m going to play “Mock the Monkey”. I can’t hear his protests when I’m laughing at him. It’s probably given my Facebook friends a very distorted picture of this struggle, since I’ve posted many exaggerated stories and comments there, but it let me cope without surrendering.

While doing that, I played around with the lyrics to the George Michael song “Monkey” and accidentally came across something more profound than funny. I inverted a pronoun and got: “Why can’t I do it? Why can’t I set my monkey free? Always giving into it: Do I love my monkey or do I love me?” Good question. So far, so good, but the final answer is still to come.

On January 10, 2010, Libra Fitness hosted a showing of the movie “Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days.” Our goal in showing this film was to expose people to how much what we eat affects our health. Eating all raw foods (i.e., uncooked plant food not heated to higher than 116 °F) is probably not realistic for most people, but what if you doubled your raw food intake? What if you cut your sugar intake by a third? This movie makes you think about all of that. Ethan Moore attended the event and gives his impressions here. If you have not seen the movie, we highly recommend that you purchase a copy and host a showing for your friends and family or attend an upcoming showing in your area.

Ethan Moore is a writer, currently focusing on short essays and articles on a wide range of topics, frequently humorous.

He has also been, at times, an entrepreneur, a photographer, a programmer, a web designer, a scientist, and a teacher and tutor — but no matter what, he’s always a gentleman and a scholar.

Check out Ethan’s blog: Ethan’s Essays: Reflections on Life (Often Through a Funhouse Mirror). You can also follow him on Facebook or contact him via ethan@vesperfire.com.

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I participated in Libra Fitness’s recent showing of “Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days”.

The simplest endorsement I can give is to tell you that after seeing it I immediately ordered a copy of the DVD as a gift for my father, who has type 2 diabetes.

Prior to seeing the movie, I saw Woody Harrelson and Anthony Robbins listed prominently in the credits for it, and I became a little dubious. I feared it would feature a lot of cheer-leading and artificially created drama. Fortunately this fear was unfounded. Woody Harrelson appears only briefly to discuss his own experiences with a raw food diet, and Anthony Robbins has just two tiny snippets concerning change and motivation. The two together probably only take up a single minute of the ninety-two minute movie. Presumably somebody felt they were needed to give the movie “star power”.

The real stars of the movie are the six people, all diabetic, who agree to go to a remote clinic in Arizona to eat only raw foods for thirty days. They are a diverse group, in age, race, origin, and personality. They are all motivated by the fear that diabetes will shorten their lives and by frustration with the regimen of treating diabetes with traditional medications and insulin injections.

A raw food diet is even more restrictive than vegan; it means nothing but unprocessed and uncooked plant foods. The subjects are fed this diet by specialist gourmet chefs at the clinic, who also teach them preparation methods for these foods. They are overseen constantly by medical personnel (and, obviously, film crews).

Some of them experience phenomenal gains very quickly, dropping all their medications and insulin within days. Others have less success at first. Most of them struggle through a period of detoxification as their body purges the remnants of their previous diet and adapts to the new one. You come to like these people enough to root for them and be disappointed by their failures. But I found these failures made the program more real. No one is pretending even for an instant that this is easy.

They follow two of the subjects briefly after they leave the clinic. I would like to have seen more of this, more of all of their struggles to maintain this diet out in the world. Perhaps the makers feared that showing some failing at this would undercut the message or bolster skeptical claims that this is impractical to implement. Certainly it is not easy, but the subjects they do follow show it is possible. We see one of them, a young man, invite his family to dinner, and the expressions on the faces of his older, overweight relatives as they look at the food he serves are comic. Tragedy appears too however, when one of his guests with kids says “Oh, those kids won’t eat food like that!” She had gotten them McDonalds instead. Thus the cycle is perpetuated.

The movie was followed by a brief discussion of preparing raw foods by Julie McAllister of Healing Inside. She also demonstrated how remarkably easy making fruit and vegetable juices is with a good juicer.

(Both Libra Fitness and Healing Inside have additional books and resources on raw foods.)

I found the movie worthwhile. I suppose I could have learned more in the same amount of time by reading a book on raw foods, but I doubt a book could ever have the emotional appeal necessary to inspire such a radical dietary shift. This story could. The ultimate question after such a movie is, “Would you try a raw food diet?”

I find that I cannot answer that yet. The subject’s diets before-hand ranged from the horrific to the merely bad. I thus can’t help but wonder if a less radical shift might have achieved similar results eventually. What if they had been put on a diet full of organic fruits and vegetables, some cooked and some raw, along with modest amounts of organic complex grains and organic free-range meat and dairy? Would that have worked, or could their past excesses only be balanced out by moving to the other extreme? That question is beyond the purview of this movie, yet the movie immediately inspires it.

I am genetically disposed towards type 2 diabetes and want to avoid it. I have been slowly moving toward the broader diet I suggest above, but one necessary step has been very difficult. In next week’s blog entry, I will tell my food story, the story of my current struggle to contain my excessive sugar consumption. I hope and believe that these dietary changes should be enough for me to stave off type 2 diabetes. But if they aren’t, then the movie “Simply Raw” has shown me the next step to take.

Believe it or not, having workout gear that is functional and that you feel comfortable in is a critical component of helping you stick with your exercise routine, especially for women. Fellow momprenuer friend, Michelle Rodriguez with Well Styled, invited Karen Shopoff Roof of Balance Personal Fitness Training and myself to share our thoughts on the best fitness gear. Above all else, you need to be comfortable and confident in your workout attire. Be sure to read Michelle’s most recent blog post to get the full scoop! Feel free to leave a comment if you have additional tips to share with her readers.

By the way, if you need wardrobe help or if shopping completely intimidates you, Michelle can help you figure out what to buy, what to toss, and what you can reinvent. Check out her services on her website for more information.

So, all week I’ve been avoiding writing what seems like a no-brainer post about New Year’s resolutions. Given that I work in the fitness industry, I should have been milking this marketing opportunity for all it’s worth for the last month. A friend called this week and said, “You must be gearing up for being swamped in January!” No, not really. There’s something about New Year’s resolutions that has always felt a little artificial. Although I always make them myself, something about them never quite feels right. I always feel a little guilty that I didn’t make the change sooner. I shouldn’t need a contrived holiday tradition in order to choose to make a change in my life. I almost feel obligated. “Everybody’s doing it.” So the idea of preying on other people’s guilt in order to get more clients just seems wrong.

Please don’t misunderstand. I would like, and need, more clients, but so far my clients have come to me in their own time, when they are really ready to make a change. There is a mental shift that happens for them when they have decided that the time is now, no more waiting to put themselves first. It has nothing to do with an arbitrary date on the calendar. It comes from within. It is a joy for me to honor that, and I am blessed to get to go along for the ride.

All of that being said, if getting in shape, eating better, or otherwise improving your overall wellness is one of your resolutions, I salute you and wish you my best. Just do me a favor. Do it for YOU and not just because it’s January 1st and you feel obligated or guilty. Most importantly, don’t beat yourself if you stumble along the way. If you need some help, I’m here. Just give me a call.

And…if you are determined to make resolutions but aren’t sure what you want to do, might I suggest checking out the January/February issue of the Wheatsville Breeze? I got my copy last night, and on the front page is a nice article by Niki Nash, Merchandising Manager, with some great resolution recommendations. This finally got me thinking about what my top 10 resolutions will be for this year. (See, I still feel compelled to make them). So here I go…

10. Break my Sonic and diet soda addiction. I hate to admit it, but between the tater tots and the soft drink happy hour, I’m hooked.
9. Go more local: shop more at Wheatsville and farmer’s markets, start my garden, etc.
8. Develop a solid marketing plan for my business.
7. Get certified as a Lifestyle and Weight Management Consultant.
6. Stop coloring my hair. (This will so never happen, but I can dream).
5. Read more books.
4. Blog more.
3. Keep working on living my life one day at a time (i.e., be in the moment).
2. Eat more raw foods.
1. Take more naps.

There. It’s done. Let me know how you are approaching resolutions this year and feel free to share any other good articles or lists here.

Here’s to a rockin’ 2010! Cheers.

Photo by: (A3R) angelrravelor (A3R).

Working from home is such an amazing gift. There is so much more freedom and control over both your work and your personal life. I’ve been a “mompreneur” and “work at home woman” for over 5 years now. I started off slowly, working part time after the birth of my daughter for the laboratory that I gave my heart and soul to for all six of my full-time working (pre-kid) years. After about a year, I left that company to work mostly from home for another lab, but I still had to go into the office a few days per week. Then I started consulting on the side. Eventually, I left the part time gig and just ran my consulting business. Last year, I added my personal training business, Libra Fitness, to the mix, installing a gym in the back room of my house.

I love being my own boss. I love that I get up every morning and do something that matters to me. I love helping others find a path to a healthier lifestyle. As we approach the new year, I challenge you, if you have dreamed of working from home, to give it a shot. Start slowly at first. Along the way, you will need help! One of the best resources out there, by far, is Holly Hanna with The Work at Home Woman. Even if you are not a parent or a woman, you will find her resources and insight invaluable. Check out Holly’s website, sign up for her newsletter, read her blog, and follow her on Facebook and Twitter for all sorts of good advice. Keep your eyes peeled, too, for guest blog posts by yours truly!

I have been thin, OK, skinny, all of my life. Other than wanting to go out to eat to celebrate or the random craving now and then, I don’t have “issues” with food. If anything, I don’t think about food, and I have been known to regularly let my blood sugar get too low because I forget to eat. As a personal trainer, I feel confident in my abilities to help people learn to make exercise a part of their daily routine. I am proud to know that I can help people feel stronger and more confident, but when it comes to dealing with people’s eating habits, sometimes I feel stuck. Sure, I can suggest a food journal or ways to cut hidden calories. I can recommend that people eat more fresh fruits and vegetables and less processed food, but at the end of the day I think, “Is that really getting to the root of the problem?”

So, when I heard about the book Obese From the Heart: A Fat Psychiatrist Discloses by Dr. Sara L. Stein, M.D., my interest was piqued. Hmmm . . . this seemed like I book I should read. So I did, in about two days.

What I loved about this book was its brutal honesty. Dr. Stein is a psychiatrist who works with bariatric (obese) patients, but she’s obese, too. How does that work? Why would someone want to get help with their weight problem from someone who obviously hasn’t quite figured it out themselves? I know why now: because she understands. She knows the struggle, the self-doubt, the fear, and everything else associated with food addiction. She gets it like no skinny person can.

The most humbling thing I realized in reading this book was that we are all really the same. We all turn to one tool (or vice) or another to soothe our anxiety or to try to get ourselves out of a funk or even a deep depression. We drink, we smoke, we do drugs, we exercise, we read, we watch TV, we stay up too late on the computer refreshing Facebook hoping that another friend is up late, or we eat. The underlying problems are the same. It’s just that the tools that we use to cope are different. Many of us are able to conquer our addictions, but the paradox of food, what makes food addiction so hard to manage, is that the over-eater can’t just give food up like cigarettes or alcohol or Facebook. They have to eat. So, the obese person must learn to deal with their food cravings while continuing to require calories to survive. What a nightmare. Stein lays it out in no uncertain terms: “So begins the brutal cycle of trying to control your addiction while still using.”

Sure, there are other factors that contribute to obesity: genetics, thyroid problems, culture, and chemical food additives in fast and processed foods designed to make foods taste irresistible. However, except for the rare few, there are deeper issues bubbling below the surface: depression, anxiety, anger, trauma, grief, suppressed emotions, multi-tasking, stress, exhaustion, boredom. Not only can a person become addicted to the substance that helps them deal with these problems, but they can get addicted to the problem itself. For example, a person can get addicted to the adrenaline rush that comes with productivity. Then, in response to their body’s signals to slow down, they may turn to food, alcohol, etc. to help them relax, creating another addiction. I clearly realized for the first time in reading this book that addictions come in layers and the repercussions, in turn, are complicated as well. In order to deal with any of it, you must treat the whole person and not just throw solutions at one part of the problem or the other. Dr. Stein doesn’t suggest that improved diet and exercise or bariatric surgery won’t help the obese person to lose weight, but she very clearly warns that failure is almost guaranteed if these approaches are seen as magic bullets.

I don’t have all the answers. Dr. Stein doesn’t either. I do know that my approach to helping my clients continue to make changes that improve their health will shift gears a little bit. Exercise is a good start. It helps the person feel like they are doing SOMETHING to deal with their problem, but they need more. A food journal or counting calories or boxing up half your lunch might work for those who are overweight simply because they are not paying attention, and I have those clients; but for the clients who struggle daily with what they eat, I need a different approach. Without playing dietitian or therapist, I will suggest. I will prod. I will offer ideas for small, realistic changes in eating like substituting fruit for processed sugar. I will encourage my clients to take time for themselves to relax and recharge. I will suggest that they get sunlight. I will recommend prayer, affirmation, meditation, gratitude. I will help my clients recognize negative thought patterns. I will honor my clients in the bodies they are in. I will encourage my clients to seek joy in everyday things. I will meditate on Namaste: “The divine in me honors the divine in you.” In so doing, I will remind my clients to honor the divine in themselves. When necessary, I will refer my clients to others who can help them better than I to deal with the underlying issues. I do a lot of this already. It’s in my nature. It is part of my mission. Now, I feel assured that it is the only way.

Maybe this is all just wishful thinking. Maybe the skinny trainer still doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Maybe. Dr. Stein calls obesity “the last unanswered prejudice. It is acceptable in society to ignore, demean, degrade, to be openly hostile toward, and to generally overlook obese individuals.” We allow ourselves to do this because we sometimes forget to see the obese as “individuals” at all. This is why looking at the whole person in trying to help makes so much more sense to me than a stupid food journal and calorie counting.

Thanks Dr. Stein for your insight and thanks to my clients who challenge me everyday to see a reflection of myself in them.

Namaste.

Update (01/12/2010): Just today I saw an interview with Dr. Stein on YouTube!

This holiday season, I promise to do it. I WILL slow down. I WILL let good enough be GOOD ENOUGH. I WILL keep it simple. I WILL enjoy the process. How will I do it? My plan is to take small moments to give thanks for all of the rituals and traditions that are supposed to make the holidays fun and not just a stress-filled month of blurry excess. Above all else, I will pray. I’m not sure to whom, yet, but I feel the need to let some higher power know that I am grateful. I want to share my gratitude with my family, but also with the universe. I’ll have to let you know how it’s going. I encourage you to do the same. Slow down, keep it simple, savor and be grateful for every bite. Let this be your time. Treat yourself well.

Photo by APatterson