Body Renewal at Women’s Care Center
About two-thirds of adult Americans are either obese or overweight. Obesity is linked to many health problems, including diabetes, heart disease, cancers, and depression. Losing weight in a healthy manner can be very difficult. In fact, many adults have made multiple attempts to lose weight only to find that after successfully losing weight, it is often gained back.
St. Patrick Hospital’s Women’s Care Center is offering a new program called Body Renewal. The goals of the program are to help women identify problem foods or habits, to help make a long-term commitment to exercise and wellness, and to support them as they make a significant life change. It starts with a health assessment by Mary Huddle, APRN, CNM. She works with the client to take a health history, including nutrition and exercise habits. In order to re-program the liver and gastrointestinal system, she encourages the woman to first undergo a short-term elimination diet, which can help identity allergens or foods that are not tolerated well. Then, they create a plan together, a combination of nutrition changes, exercise, and social support. Weekly visits with Doria provide ongoing health monitoring and guidance.
At the same time, the emotional process of undertaking a change, and the personal challenges in making changes should not be underestimated. For this reason, the program includes weekly sessions with other women going through similar steps, facilitated by Joyce Hocker, PhD in Clinical Psychology. Dr. Hocker leads discussions and activities to help the women explore their own barriers to adopting and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. This can be challenging personal work, but the benefits of finally finding a way to choose health, and to live healthfully, are tremendous.
The program offers an individual, clinically guided approach. Some lab tests may be needed, and supplements are specifically recommended. Doria helps to assess each person’s nutrition, and make recommendations for improvement. Each person will be asked to closely monitor her daily life for how much she is exercising, and recommendations made for personal training and safe types of exercise will evolve from this monitoring. Because motivation is so important, Joyce Hocker’s first session will teach women to understand their readiness for change and their motivation to change. Techniques for “closing the gap” between wanting to change and intending to change will be taught.
If we have spent years eating the wrong foods, eating too much food, and not moving our bodies enough, we need to give our metabolism a chance to adapt and change. This means that weight loss should be gradual. We don’t want to starve our bodies in order to achieve weight loss. We want to gradually decrease the number of calories consumed while increasing the number of calories used. It is also recognized that overweight adults underestimate how much they eat by about 30%. Therefore, when adopting a new way of eating, it is important to learn what a normal portion size is, and to re-educate our bodies to be satisfied with an amount of food needed for fuel and nutrition. While many people may have an aversion to counting calories, doing so can help re-educate us about what is a normal amount to eat for our physical needs. This is the only accurate way to know how much is being consumed.
Additionally, our bodies are faced with multiple toxins found in our environment and our food. After prolonged exposure our liver can have a difficult time processing these toxins and irritants, leading to an accumulation in our system. This can also occur with our own hormones. Hormone imbalance can lead to excess hunger and weight gain. We want our liver to be functioning optimally in order for it to process hormones and toxins. One of the best ways to help our liver function at its best is to make sure our gut is working well. Most of us have taken antibiotics or other medications at some point in our lives. This can affect the function of the gastrointestinal system, or gut. We may also have intolerances to foods we encounter on a regular basis (wheat, dairy, soy, sugar) that can lead to inflammation in the gut and therefore poor performance. Gut health can be restored with good bacteria, fiber, and by eliminating irritants.
Healthy weight loss should be viewed as a life-long lifestyle change. There is no temporary “diet” that will lead to sustained weight loss. A healthy approach is to focus on getting a majority of our calories from vegetables, some from protein, and a bit from grains and fruit. We also need to move our bodies much more than the average American does. Approaches can include walking, yoga, exercise classes, hiking, or anything you like to do that involves moving your body. With this combination, over our lifetime, we will maintain a healthy weight while leading a healthy, active lifestyle. Not only will this greatly improve our chances of avoiding some of the leading causes of death, but we will feel better and have more energy while we are alive. And isn’t that the point of good health?
If you are interested in the Body Renewal program, call The Women’s Care Center at 327-3057 for more information. Clients can begin at any time. The four week sessions with Dr. Hocker are on Monday evenings at 6 PM. Please call to find out when the next session begins.