It’s not all diet and exercise: The importance of joie de vivre

The other day, a Facebook friend posted pictures of two 51 year olds: Gillian McKeith and Nigella Lawson. To be fair, he used an awful picture of Gillian (the first one pictured below), and an airbrushed one of Nigella. I have also included an airbrushed picture of Gillian (the second one below), for which she was clearly better prepared for the photographer. Gillian McKeith is a nutrition guru who had a British reality show on which she chose obese individuals to live with her and undergo a diet and exercise boot camp. What I liked best about the show was that she would show people what they were eating in a week by putting on one table everything they said they had eaten in the past week. It turned out to be a huge mass of mainly brown and white foods. Then she would show them a table of foods they should be eating in a week. It was a colourful rainbow of mainly vegetables and fruit. What I didn’t like about the show is she often belittled the individuals in her care, and showed an unpleasant autocratic streak. She also didn’t care whether these folks enjoyed their meals or exercise. At one point, she gave her charges some vile concoction they could barely swallow.

In contrast, Nigella Lawson is a TV cook. She does not shy away from meat, butter or dessert. I have no idea whether she gets cosmetic help or can afford a personal trainer. My Facebook friend’s point was that Nigella looked a lot happier.

Through my research and my own life, I know that people can become obsessed with heath, like Gillian. They can focus on what not to eat, what not to do, forcing themselves to do the right thing, even though they would rather do something else. It’s the “no pain, no gain” mentality. Sooner or later it can lead to falling off the wagon, and a scathing round of self-blame that can actually jeopardize your health plan (“I can’t do this,” “I have no willpower,” “I’m such an idiot,” etc.)

Enjoying life is a very important part of keeping on track with a healthy lifestyle. If you don’t enjoy your eating and exercise plan, you will probably not stick with it. All around us, we are bombarded with messages that reaching and maintaining a healthy weight is all about diet and exercise. However, factors such as stress, sleep, and social life are integral too.

Enjoy healthy pleasures in moderation, such as red wine, dark chocolate, nuts, full fat yoghurt, and smoked salmon. I am lucky that I live close to two bakeries. I can buy very fresh, still warm whole wheat bread on occasion. I try to focus on what I can eat, rather than what I can’t. I can eat as many vegetables as I want, in fact, the more the better. However, I have to retrain myself to think of vegetables as a yummy treat. I grew up with overcooked mushy vegetables that had no taste. I discovered the scrumptiousness of vegetables roasted in olive oil, and the simplicity, ease and refreshing qualities of eating raw cucumber alone, with a bit of salt or with hummus.

I still have a ways to go. During a time in my life in which I had very little money, I bought starchy foods because they filled me up for little cost. I still think of starches (rice, pasta, breads, etc.) as the main part of the meal. I bought one of those portion control plates recommended for diabetics. There is a small place on the plate for starches, a small place for protein, and half the plate is for vegetables. I am on my way to retraining myself to think of food this way, but years of habit are hard to undo.

The social aspects of eating are important for a healthy life. I have always insisted that my husband and daughter and I eat dinner together as a family. For breakfast, my husband insists on eating with headphones on with his computer plunked right on the dining room table. At least I succeeded in getting him to put the computer away during dinner. I found that often, we have little to talk about once we have all answered, “How was your day?” So I purchased a series of family dinner table questions, which not only gets us talking, but also discovering things about each other. This means we talk and linger at the dinner table, rather than wolfing down our food as quickly as possible and taking off.

Many people live alone, so unless they go out often with friends (which can become unaffordable) or invite people home (which some people are embarrassed to do), they may eat by themselves in front of the TV. Research has shown that people eat more and faster when they do this. If you have the equipment and live alone, would you consider virtual dinner parties? You could Skype a friend or a faraway family member and eat dinner together.

I have tried applying the enjoyment principle to moving my body too. But I have a hard time viewing exercise as anything but a chore. Even exercise that I enjoy, such as walking or dancing, feels to me like a waste of time. Of course it’s not. It helps me stay mentally and physically healthy, which in turn allows me to help my family and community. However, carving out time for my own exercise remains a psychological challenge. The other psychological challenge is that human beings have evolved to conserve our energy. When food was scarce and labour was hard, as it still is in some parts of the world, we needed to eat as much filling foods as possible, and only use energy when necessary. Now many of us live in the opposite kind of environment. Food is more than abundant, it is ubiquitous. Many of us have sedentary jobs, and use labour-saving technology. Many of us are still stuck in the survival mode of our ancestors, and have not adapted well to this new environment.

I don’t just want to be healthy, I want to be happy. Research shows that what makes people happy is good relationships with others, a sense of belonging, and a sense of meaning in their lives. Being psychologically well will help you feel worthwhile enough to do the things that will make you physically well. A healthy weight and a healthy life are much more than an eating and exercise plan. They require a happy life plan. Investing in healthy friendships, in a healthy community, and in projects that are meaningful to you will help you be the healthy person you can be.

Enjoy!

Weight of the Nation fact sheets and infographics

The Institute of Medicine, the health arm of the US National Academy of Sciences, is launching an awareness and action campaign on obesity called the Weight of the Nation (http://www.iom.edu/About-IOM/Leadership-Staff/Boards/Food-and-Nutrition-Board/TWOTN.aspx). The following page contains share-able fact sheets and info graphics: http://theweightofthenation.hbo.com/digital-assets/

According to the research, much of the obesity epidemic is laid in childhood. Most people’s knee-jerk reaction is to simply blame the parents, and do nothing at all about the unnecessary life-long suffering inflicted by poor childhood nutrition. According to the Institute of Medicine, of the 10 states with the highest obesity levels, nine are among the poorest states in the US. Junk foods are cheap and easy,. Not only to buy, but for corporations to make. You use the cheapest ingredients, extensively use preservatives to lengthen the product’s shelf life, and add substances that are essentially addictive because they are geared to natural human tastes that have evolved over hundreds of thousands of years to enhance our survival in times of scarcity. Blaming parents and doing nothing entrenches health inequalities between kids whose parents have the education, interest and resources to learn about and take action on information about healthy foods, and those who don’t.

Almost half of kids’ calories come from food eaten at school. According to the Institute of Medicine, the availability of junk foods in schools is a significant factor in the rise of obesity in American teens. There is no US federal law mandating physical education in schools. Portion sizes of snack foods have ballooned since 1983, and so have people. The Institute of Medicine also documents the skyrocketing increases in portion sizes of children’s food.

Although people may be aware that junk foods are fattening and that exercise is necessary, most people are completely unaware of the full extent. For example, how many people know that it would take a 150 pound adult over an hour of running at 5 miles per hour to burn off a single average serving of French fries?

What’s missing from the info graphics?

• The cost of obesity-related disease
• The cost, in billions, of food industry advertising
• The amount, in billions, of food industry profits

Public health lawyer Michele Simon is not going to be watching the Weight of the Nation series when it appears on HBO on May 14 and 15. Simon is the author of Appetite for Profit: How the food industry undermines our health and how to fight back. She finds that the series is too focussed on the individual obese person, who is already publicly vilified and discriminated against, rather than on the food industry’s role in creating and maintain obesity. After all, when did people started becoming obese? Did they suddenly and mysteriously lose willpower just when increasingly processed unhealthy foods were beginning to be created and heavily marketed? Here is Simon’s blog: http://www.appetiteforprofit.com/

I also believe the food industry should be more heavily regulated to ensure that no carcinogens are used in food products, and that junk foods should come with warning labels like cigarette packages. Why do I think this is necessary? Almost every day, my child is plied with junk food by well-meaning people who consider it a treat, almost a childhood rite of passage. Other kids bring it to school and give it to her. Her after-school program’s “cooking” time is about making some god-awful confection. My choice is to tell the staff she can’t have it, and to let her watch all the other kids eat it and feel deprived, or to just let it go. I let it go because I don’t want to create some mystique around the junk as a forbidden food that every other kid can have and she can’t. Her dad and grandmother see nothing wrong with frequent visits to McDonald’s. They know I don’t like it, and their response is to try to hide it from me. However, I can tell because all of a sudden, we have a new useless plastic toy about the place that came from a Happy Meal.

I grew up in a household in which I was fed on formula on a schedule as a baby. Both the formula available in the 60s and feeding babies on a schedule rather than when they are hungry have both been shown to contribute to obesity later in life. Later, I was admonished to eat everything on my plate, whether I was hungry or not. I was told that eating everything on my plate would make me strong and healthy. I was told I had a moral obligation to eat everything on my plate because there were starving children in Biafra. I didn’t know where Biafra was (it’s now a part of Nigeria), or how my eating would make a difference to the starving children there. Nevertheless, I was a good girl and learned to override my body’s natural hunger and satiety signals. I learned to eat when food was there. Unfortunately, in our society of overabundance, food is always there.

Others also have developed unhealthy relationships with food based on childhood experiences. Dr. Nick Yphantides , author of My Big, Fat Greek Diet, was told to eat everything on his plate because not to do so was an insult to his father who earned the money to buy the food, and to his mother who cooked it. I think mothers in certain cultures and places also ply their kids with food because there really is a belief that it will make them strong and healthy. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out for Dr. Nick. He gained over 400 pounds.

We need a culture change. Whereas many of our parents and grandparents grew up in a culture of scarcity, for those of us who are middle class or well-off in industrialized countries, we need to learn how to ensure our own abundance doesn’t kill us. For those living on low incomes in industrialized countries, particularly those with little or no food security, the current outlook is grim. When you are living on what is given away at food banks or soup kitchens, or the cheapest things in the grocery store that can fill you up and keep you full, you are unlikely to have a balanced diet.  I remember living on a low income and eating primarily pasta. When your food budget is a couple of dollars a week, you learn to spend it on very high calorie foods that will keep you full for the longest period of time. Vegetables don’t cut it.

There are other modern practices that contribute to obesity, apart from the highly processed unhealthy foods that are ubiquitous. Whereas most of our ancestors went to bed shortly after sundown and rose at dawn, our bodies are off track. Lack of sufficient sleep contributes to obesity. So does shift work. So can anxiety. There is an awful lot to tackle, and few of us can do it alone. I am managing to lose weight now, but during periods of high anxiety and low income, this was not possible. We need to work together as a society to fight the obesity problem that is making so many of us sick. We should not try to do this by attacking obese people, or by pretending it’s all a matter of individual willpower, but by together working towards healthy environments in which everyone has access to healthy foods, healthy work schedules, and everyone feels safe walking, running or playing in their own neighbourhoods.

Ten things to stop doing if you are stressed

Elizabeth Scott’s tips: Get enough sleep, eat healthy foods, exercise, say no to additional projects and duties, force yourself to remain optimistic, avoid rumination and toxic relationships.

Read whole article here: Feeling Stressed – Ten Things to Stop Doing If You Are Stressed.

Work burnout tied to ’emotional eating’ in women

Globe and Mail (Canadian national newspaper) article on the link between work-related burnout and emotional eating. It describes my situation exactly.

Work burnout tied to ’emotional eating’ in women – The Globe and Mail.