Client Spotlight: 3 Lessons Learned

I have been working with a client who has made tremendous strides with her eating habits and her relationship with food. She is currently 37 years old and describes herself as a long time emotional eater and “on again/off again” dieter. She grew up with a father who equates food with love and has had trouble adjusting her diet now that she is no longer an athlete in training. When we began our work together she felt no forward progress with her diet, despite her recent successes with a new exercise regimen.

I asked her to share with me and with you what she feels are her biggest successes. She title’s her thoughts “3 Lessons Learned.”

3 Lessons Learned

I began meeting with Marci in September of 2009 and feel that I have made tremendous success and progress. Below are the three most important lessons I have learned.

1. Find someone who you click with to discuss your nutrition issues. Finding Marci has been the biggest key to my success. Prior to working with her, I had tried both group counseling and the online program with Weight Watchers. In the group sessions, I didn’t connect with the team leader and I felt very excluded from the group. In fact, it left me feeling resistant and frustrated. I also struggled doing online nutrition programs since they were so sterile and generic. After trying to follow the prescribed program during the week I felt starved and usually overate on the weekend. I ended up gaining weight, which left me feeling like a failure.

2. Be gentle with yourself. Every day brings its unique challenges. A process or regimen that works on Monday, might not work on Friday. So don’t beat yourself up! Keep with it and think of each meal is a new start to your day. I was quite familiar with the start of a Monday morning diet. If I felt I messed up on my nutrition plan I used to say “I’ll start again on Monday.” Well, if I got off to a bad start at the beginning of the week, the following Monday was a long way off. Now, I think of each meal as a fresh start. If I overeat on carbohydrates in the morning, I focus on veggies and protein at lunch to balance it out. I’ve learned that by eating more balanced meals, my cravings for sweets have diminished. But I’m happy to respond to a craving if my body is asking for it.

3. Divorce yourself from “good” and “bad” foods. For years I defined pizza, soda, macaroni and cheese, desserts, and everything that I wanted and craved as “bad” foods that I tried to expel from my diet. I did my best to live off salads and 100 calorie soups because they were “good.” It didn’t work. I vacillated between feeling virtuous (yet miserable) while filling up on “good foods” and like a failure when I caved and binged on the foods I had been depriving myself. This kind of eating led to a constant loss and gain of the same 10 lbs.

I can confidently say that through my work with Marci I have learned to ditch the cycles restriction and overeating. I feel less pre-occupied with food, more trusting of my body, and more confident in my ability to take care of myself. I’m feeling better and grateful that I’m adopting a healthier way of eating that will last a lifetime, rather than a work week.
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Client Spotlight: Honesty as a Tool for Change

Client Spotlight: Physical Activity

I'm often inspired and amazed at the changes my clients make to improve the quality of their lives. Sometimes these changes are quite major, but most of the time they are small yet significant steps to better health.  So I thought it would be fun to anonymously spotlight my clients once a month.  I'll focus on actual behavior changes these people are incorporating into their daily routine.  And regardless of your stage in life and current habits, they just may inspire you to keep making healthy choices, one small step at a time.

We'll start with a client I'll call Lucy.  Lucy has battled emotional and binge eating for decades.  But it wasn't until a recent series of health crises that she realized that her food addiction had seriously implications for her health.  Years of overeating and an extremely sedentary lifestyle was taking a toll on her body.  While Lucy has made some significant changes over the past month, one of the most impressive is her commitment to daily physical exercise. Despite the extra 150 lbs she is carrying on her frame, she now gets out of her house and takes a walk every single day.

The benefits of daily physical exercise is astounding: it helps regulate sleep, improves mood, prevents the development of chronic disease and excessive weight gain, improves brain function, preserves body function, improves the ability to perform simple tasks of daily living, enhances metabolic function, and even reduces symptoms of chronic disease (i.e. helps regulate blood sugar control for people with diabetes).

So if you aren't all that active now, how can you follow Lucy's lead and start incorporating a little more movement today?
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