 Every month in my newsletter my goal is to educate and inspire you to live a healthier and happier life. I am a firm believer in the need to feed oneself with foods, thoughts, and movement that nourish the body so one can live a healthy and vibrant life. However, as I share articles and recipes that promote health and wellness, I don’t want to create a “diet” mentality. Therefore, this month I am sharing with you a concept to help break free from the dieting cycle and embrace who you are and where you are today in your journey in health and happiness. Health at Every Size is a book written by Linda Bacon, PhD which takes a compassionate approach to helping people make peace with their bodies and support people of all body shapes and sizes.
I hope you enjoy this month’s newsletter and are inspired to love yourself and others, no matter one’s shape or size.
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Health at Every Size®: The New Peace Movement
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“Let's face facts. We've lost the war on obesity. Fighting fat hasn't made the fat go away. And being thinner, even if we knew how to successfully accomplish it, will not necessarily make us healthier or happier. The war on obesity has taken its toll. Extensive "collateral damage" has resulted in food and body preoccupation, self-hatred, eating disorders, discrimination, poor health. Few people are at peace with their bodies, whether because they think they’re fat or because they fear they will become fat. Health at Every Size is the new peace movement. Very simply, it acknowledges that good health can best be realized independent from considerations of size. It supports people of all sizes in addressing health directly by adopting healthy behaviors.”
- An excerpt from Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight by Linda Bacon, PhD.
The Health at Every Size® (HAES) approach suggests that everybody is different, and a healthy size will not look the same for everyone. The HAES definition of a healthy weight would be the weight at which individuals settle as they move toward a more fulfilling and meaningful lifestyle—one that includes eating in an unrestrained manner guided by internal cues and participating in enjoyable, reasonable, and sustainable levels of physical activity. This supports a holistic view of health, with a focus on feeling good about yourself, eating well in a natural and relaxed way, and being comfortably active. For the HAES belief, thin does not necessarily indicate health and beauty, nor is fat indicative of unhealthiness or being unappealing. The creators of these beliefs believe the differences in our body shapes and sizes and our preferences for food and physical activity are what lead to our uniqueness.
When we try to change the way we are made through dieting, the typical outcome is:
- weight loss followed by weight regain
- frustration which sometimes leads to depression
- decreased self-esteem
- increased risk for disordered eating
Begin your journey towards loving your body:
- Make peace with food
- Eat in response to hunger and internal cues
- Avoid dieting and overly restricting foods
- Think of all foods as part of a balanced diet with variety and moderation
- Accept that there will be times when you eat more than necessary for enjoyment or social reasons, and do so without guilt
- Exercise to move your body, not change it
- Exercise for enjoyment and to make your body feel good and have increased energy
- Accept your body at the size it functions best
- Address issues of body dissatisfaction and hatred from the inside out
- Establish healthy relationships around you to help promote your new body image
- Accept other people of all shapes and sizes as well as yourself
Want to learn more? Read the HAES book or check out the HAES website at http://www.haescommunity.org/.
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7 Reasons to End Your Diet Today
- 80-95% of diets fail. Although you may lose weight initially, 80-95% of dieters gain back the weight they have lost over time, or even reach a higher weight than their previous one.
- Diets can be expensive. The cost of special foods, supplements, etc can really add up. Instead of spending your money on “diet” food, invest in your health with real food and maybe even some cooking classes!
- Diets become mundane. People on diets become consumed with food and monitoring their progress. This can lead to a lack of interest in other areas of life, and an overall loss of joy and spontaneity.
- Dieting can lead to health complications. Losing weight can lead to health improvements, but these are generally short-term. An extremely restrictive eating plan or lack of proper nutrients in a diet can ultimately lead to more damaging results later on.
- Diets can lead to eating disorders. Being extremely focused on what you eat and how much you eat can lead to an unhealthy obsession with food, and even anorexia or bulimia.
- Dieting can lead to low energy levels. If you are not consuming enough calories to meet your energy needs for the day, you will not have the fuel to live your active life the way you desire to. This can lead to having a lack of energy and not being able to function at the level you desire to.
- Diets can decrease self confidence and self esteem. Chronically restricting calories and basing your worth on the number on the scale can lead to long term damage to your self esteem and confidence.
Want to break free from diets? Contact me today, I can help!
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Recipe of the Month:
Watermelon Cake |
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 Recipe by Watermelon Board
Ingredients
- 1 watermelon oblong and seedless
- 16 ounces whipped cream or light frosting
- 8 ounces blueberries
- 8 ounces strawberries
- dash powdered sugar
Instructions
1. Wash the watermelon and pat dry. Cut a three-inch thick slice from the center of an oblong, seedless watermelon. Place flat on a cutting board and use an oversized star-shaped cookie cutter (or sharp kitchen knife) to cut a star shape. Set on paper towel to drain excess water.
2. Place on a serving dish or cake stand.
3. Pipe whipped cream or a light frosting between the bottom edge of the star and the plate. Dot with blueberries.
4. Frost the cake with topping and arrange blueberries and cut strawberries on top. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.
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Quote of the Month:
“Love life, engage in it, give it all you’ve got. Love it with a passion, because life truly does give back, many times over, what you put into it.”
~Maya Angelo
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About Allison |
Allison Topilow, MS, RD, CEDRD, CDN, is a private practice nutritionist in New York City and New Jersey. In her private practice, Eat and Be Well, Allison specializes in eating disorders, weight management, pre/postnatal nutrition, family nutrition, and general wellness. She also counsels individuals seeking guidance for cardiovascular health, vegetarian nutrition, sports nutrition, diabetes, meal planning and disease prevention. Allison emphasizes making realistic lifestyle changes and will focus on healthful eating patterns, physical activity and behavior modification. Using a non-diet approach, she will help you to eat mindfully and intuitively. Allison will work with you in a nonjudgmental environment to learn how to listen to your physical hunger and fullness and develop a more healthful relationship with food.
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| Contact |
| 152 Madison Avenue (at 32nd Street), 10th Floor, Suite 1000, New York, NY 10016 |
| 124 St. Paul Street, Westfield, NJ 07090,
Tel: 917.685.8791 |
| allison@eatandbewell.com | www.eatandbewell.com |
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| Copyright © 2015 Customized Nutrition Newsletters, All rights reserved. |
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