Written by Frederic Leyd, Personal Trainer at Women’s Way
Having a hard time fitting in your work-outs? Finding time for yourself? Use the gentle way.
Go with the flow.
Sometimes schedule is not in our control….circumstances are not in our control…..so having attachment to a structure makes us feel defeated. The gentle way is to go with the flow and allow yourself a few minutes here and there to connect with yourself, nourish yourself, nurture yourself. A few minutes of exercises can be simple seated squats, a few abdominal breaths. Stop to bring awareness to your eating experience – to enjoy the foods you choose and dissolve the guilt.
In short, always honor yourself and your life by making yourself first and everything else you do second.
Earlier this month the American Dietetic Association published its position on weight management, which was endorsed by the American College of Sports Medicine.
It is the position of the American Dietetic Association that successful weight management to improve overall health for adults requires a lifelong commitment to healthful lifestyle behaviors emphasizing sustainable and enjoyable eating practices and daily physical activity.
The American Dietetic Association (ADA) outlined the evidence supporting this position statement in a paper published earlier this month (Journal of the American Dietetic Association) and also offered several recommendations. The following recommendations are those based on the strongest scientific evidence:
1) Estimated energy needs should be based on resting metabolic rate (through metabolic testing or metabolic calculations).
2) An individualized reduced calorie diet is the basis of the dietary component of a comprehensive weight management program. Reducing dietary fat and/or carbohydrates is a practical way to create a caloric deficit of 500-1000 calories below estimated energy needs and should result in a weight loss of 1 to 2 pounds per week.
3) For people who have difficulty with self selection and/or portion control, meal replacements (e.g., liquid meals, meal bars, or calorie controlled packaged meals) may be used as part of the diet component of a comprehensive weight management program. Substituting one or two daily meals or snacks with meal replacements is a successful weight loss and weight maintenance strategy.
4) A comprehensive weight management program should make maximum use of the multiple strategies for cognitive behavioral therapy. Cognitive behavioral therapy in addition to diet and physical activity leads to additional weight loss.
5) FDA Approved weight loss medications may be part of a comprehensive weight management program.
These recommendations are based on strong, science-based evidence. Other recommendations based on good and fair evidence are also listed in this ADA publication, such as portion control and glycemic index. I don’t think the word ‘comprehensive’ can be stressed enough in these recommendations. The reality is that weight loss is a complex journey, involving many different factors. It is the role of the dietitian or other health care provider to listen to each person who struggles with his or her weight as an individual and to then determine what the best and most effective strategy is for him or her. That strategy is very often not a simple one step process. Then comes the most important part: consistent and close follow-ups with adaptations as necessary. This is that critical step that most practitioners leave out.
Experiencing love comes in many forms – the love of another, the love of self, the love of food…. Food may even be the love of your life. Food may be the one thing that gives you the most pleasure in life, and perhaps at times even more so than intimacy with another. There is a great book written by Geneen Roth called “When Food is Love” that explores this topic in detail. This is a critical component of the weight loss journey that often gets overlooked, and that is worth thinking about this season of love.
When a baby learns to walk, she falls down a lot in the process. She ventures out to do something she has never done before, and then falls right on her face. She cries. She is loved and nurtured by someone. Then later, she tries it again. Soon, she will have tried and failed too many times to count. But something inside her pushes her to keep trying. She is able to do so because in between each new try, she is loved and nurtured and returns back to a state of contentment and security. It is then from this state of contentment and security that she has the courage and trust to again venture out and build on her past mistakes.
Trying to lose weight may take several attempts before you learn enough about the process and enough about yourself to finally succeed. When regression happens, and when you fall back into old patterns of food addiction, overeating, or binging, you MUST love and nurture yourself instead of beating yourself up. If you beat yourself up, you will not have the courage to believe in your success the next time…leading to a half-assed effort ending in failure. Recognize how you talk to yourself, and imagine you are dealing with a baby learning to walk. Nurture, nurture, nurture. Love, love, love. Have compassion, pateince, and understanding. Beating yourself help hurts. It is harmful. It induces nothing but pain and it in fact sets your projection for how you will behave.
Recognize how you talk to yourself. Try to love yourself. Pure love. Be your friend. Be your support. It is more important than you may ever realize.