Each month I look forward to posting a client spotlight.  And I'm so grateful that "A" was willing to share her story with all of you.  It has been so gratifying to work with her as she has worked hard to develop a happy/healthy relationship with food.  She has fought hard in her recovery from an eating disorder and along her path found two keys to healthy eating and exercise- cooking and climbing.  Read on and enjoy.




Six months ago I hit a low point in my battle with an eating disorder. I had literally run my body into the ground through a long-standing combination of over-exercise and under-eating. It took three full months in a treatment center to restore my body to health, but it continues to take work to restore my mentality surrounding food and eating healthfully. Thanks to the support of Marci and my therapist, (as well as constantly checking in with myself on a daily basis), I can honestly say that I am in a place that I haven’t been in for years. My approach to both food and nutrition has been transformed. No, I don’t pretend to say that disordered thoughts and tendencies don’t exist – but I know how to fight them.

Background
I never intentionally tried to compromise my health or destroy my body with an eating disorder. Rather, it felt like something I could control in the middle of an emotional tornado. I had always been an athlete, rowing through college then running marathons in the years afterward. I thought I knew about sports nutrition and healthy eating. But what was originally a way of staying healthy became an addiction; I only allowed certain foods into my body, at certain times, in certain amounts. I shut off everything my body was telling me. I continued pushing myself physically, until my body nearly gave out. I was mentally, emotionally, and physically spent. I had a brutal awakening in January of this year and realized that I couldn’t continue treating my body this way. So I decided to give up all control for the sake of getting both my healthy and my life back.

The early stages of treatment were both physically and emotionally intense, uncomfortable, and even painful.  But the challenge now is regaining a healthy perspective around eating, exercise, and maintaining life balance. I am a different person now – physically, yes, but more important, mentally. While there is clearly no single thing that helps individuals recover from an eating disorder, two processes have remarkably helped me find my way to a fresh food mentality: cooking and climbing. Let me explain. :)

Cooking
I had never really cooked a meal to share with others; sure, I cook my own food, but I had never truly enjoyed food preparation because of my tight restrictions on what I allowed myself to eat. I ate a baked sweet potato but never cheesy mashed potatoes. I grilled fish with lemon but would never have given it a maple glaze, for example. I can’t explain it, but there were so many foods I wouldn’t eat in the midst of the eating disorder simply because the dish, as a whole, terrified me. I met a friend, however, whose joy was in cooking delicious meals and who graciously began to share that skill with me. I began to help with the cooking a couple times each week as we made dinner for ourselves. Something about the process of creating a meal and being involved in each piece of onion dicing or butter melting made something in my head suddenly click. Once I prepared a “challenge food” in this context, from start to finish, it was no longer scary or off limits – I could easily see exactly what it was, and in breaking it down into ingredients and steps. What had been a looming pasta nightmare, for instance, became a delicious, hearty pasta dinner that I could enjoy with a great friend. So challenge by challenge, I realized the key to tackling my fears was just to cook them! And I know now that all I have to do when confronted with something that I hesitate to eat, or when I think twice about whether something is “healthy enough,” is cook it myself and understand that it is simply food – delicious and nutritious in all of its forms.

Climbing
Coming from years of exercising for the wrong reasons, I have been careful, in my recovery, to approach exercise as something that I WANT to do for the sake of enjoyment. The same friend has recently reintroduced me to hiking and backpacking as a fantastic form of physical activity. I must admit that in recent years I haven’t been an enthusiastic hiker…it did’t provide the physical challenge and intense vigorous exercise that I thought I needed. But in re-learning what is healthy and good for my body, as well as what is thoroughly fun in the process, I am coming to absolutely love the periodic hikes and trips I have been taking through New Hampshire’s White Mountains. But they have been invaluable as well in what they have taught me about my body’s needs regarding nutrition.

I have realized through the months of treatment that I need to put a lot more food into my body in the course of a day than I was ever aware of, simply to get through a normal, busy weekday. Butthrowing in about 4000 feet of elevation and miles of trail, I discovered that food is, plain and simple, fuel for my body. Without sufficient amounts of food, I cannot perform. I have been at the point of tears on a trail, body exhausted. Yet after refueling I’m suddenly happy and able to continue going.
Of course, we all know that proper nutrition allows us to live and have the energy our bodies need. But it wasn’t until a hard day of hiking that I was able to see the direct correlation between food in and energy out. Easy. It was so freeing to realize that to some extent, it doesn’t matter what I put in – I need the fats, the carbohydrates, EVERYTHING, in order to do what I want to do.

But this applies to the rest of life too! Pretty much any food, in moderation, can and will be used by my body to live the active, healthy life I want to live. And in consuming every food, in a variety, I am happier. Eating what I want to eat, when I want to eat it, is less of a challenge when I acknowledge that food is fuel. End of story.

So of course, the mental battles of eating habits are there, and they may always be, but they are few and far between. And when they arise, I know how to fight them. I am committed to living a life that isn’t dictated by my food choices, but enhanced by them. And I’m getting closer!

So each month I try to highlight a client's success whether big or small.  And this month I'd like to showcase my good friend Laci.  Over the past year she has fully committed herself to her health.  She, like many of you, was overworked and overcommitted with her job, volunteer work, and taking care of her family.  Good nutrition and exercise were at the bottom of the list (if even on the list at all!).  After delivering her first baby and months of over-indulgent eating and neglecting exercise, she decided to take charge of her health.

Now, she's not a success story just because she lost weight (which she did- she's holding a pair of pants she was wearing to work over a year ago).  She's a success because she committed herself to re-prioritizing her needs and putting them at the top of her to do list!  After reading about Laci's story, I wanted to highlight a couple of the key things Laci did to accomplish her goals.


1.) She was willing to take a hard look at her list of excuses and create solutions for them
2.) She was willing to sacrifice momentary pleasure (favorite TV show) for the satisfaction of accomplishing a long-term goal
3.) She created a support network with both friends and family
4.) She re-created her environment by filling her home with nourishing food options
5.) She established accountability around the food she ate
6.) She signed up for runs and races to keep herself motivated and consistent with exercise
7.) She found out what worked for her and what didn't

Finding solutions to living a healthier life requires creativity and commitment.  What works for you, likely is not the same thing that works for your neighbor.  You are unique- with your own interests, family life situations, time constraints, and goals.  So follow Laci's example- make a decision to live a healthier life and start making creative solutions to keep those goals on track!

I find immense joy in sharing my client's successes (click on the Tag "Client Spotlights" for more inspiring stories).  Here's another spotlight that gives me goosebumps.  Check out J's story of learning to surrender control and find peace with food.

Recently, I've caught myself at random times having an unfamiliar feeling: I'm no longer controlled by food; I enjoy it and the nourishment it provides.

When I went to see Marci a few months ago, I could only say these words in the abstract and imagine what it would feel like to really mean them. At the time, I had a whole repertoire of strategies to prevent myself from gaining weight, among them eating Slim Fast bars with a few real foods thrown in around them. I was afraid to eat anything else, but would catch myself binging once my hunger reached an uncontrollable level. This was my secret burden; I carried it everywhere like an old jacket that no longer fits. It was having an enormous impact on my daily life, energy level, and well being (besides not being effective in weight loss), and by the time I saw Marci I was really ready for change: The jacket had to come off.

The first thing I had to do, and the most difficult step of all, was to surrender my logic and trust in a new way of thinking about food. Eating three times a day seemed impossible, and I was afraid of gaining more weight. Nevertheless, I stuck with the program and eventually became comfortable with it. Then, I noticed little changes: I wasn't thinking about food all day long. I had the energy to go to the gym, work better, and socialize more. Even if I couldn't trust myself with food at that moment, I could trust Marci, and this got me through.

Weeks later, I did lose a few pounds. But this seemed minimal compared to the freedom I felt for the very first time in my life. It was like a new beginning. Grocery shopping was enjoyable, and the world of food looked more manageable. Although I still struggle with emotional eating, I have come farther than I ever thought was possible -- and know that, with help, others can do the same.

Finding a healthy relationship with food is a journey.  And finding supports along the way is crucial.  If you find that you are struggling more than you'd like with food- considering enlisting support from family, friends, or a professional you feel you can trust.  I'm happy to provide you with a list of referral sources for therapy or talk to you about nutrition therapy if you feel it may be helpful to you or someone you love.

Your nutrition therapist in Cambridge,
Marci

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.

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?