Raw, as I have said here before, will most certainly get you up to the vegetable and fruit requirements you NEED to lose weight. I was eating them before, but not like now! Not to mention the fact that I do not have the same digestive issues with the “raw” diet as I did vegetables in the cooked diet. Is that weird? I guess not because none of my protein comes from bean sources; you can’t eat beans or soy raw!  And honestly? I feel much better without beans and soy (which has been replaced with mostly hemp seed and kefir). I am not 100% vegan raw, although most days I am 100% raw since I do consider kefir raw because of its probiotic content.

I have also been drinking coffee and alcohol. lol. The dirty little secret of “raw” was how quickly I recovered the next day from a night of martini drinking festivities. teee-heee.  Raw fruits and vegetables are so refreshing!! I always crave GREASE the day of a hangover, like pizza. My hangovers last all day. Not this time! I did not give into getting a slice of pizza to make myself feel better I had a fresh fruit smoothie and essene bread. It sure made me feel better! lol!

Busy now coming up with a list of foods that seem to taste good raw and in raw recipes for the dehydrator and salads……..

Check out this article that was on CNN this week:

Extreme Diets: Life on 800 calories a day

“Extreme Diets.”  LOL.  800 calories is not extreme for sedentary people that are obese. This is why almost every obese person that walks through the doors of these popular “Diet Centers” comes out with a thin wallet and an obese body. Every “diet program” out there serves those who are obese too many calories. This is another set up for failure. Weoght Watchers for example (And I’ve actually tried and failed Weight Watchers several times) will start someone at my size on 1500 calories a day. This just extends the misery! They start you high and you gradually decrease calories as your body decreases in weight. I’ve found out that this is completely backwards for the person with obesity. You increase calories little by little as weight drops and exercise increases.

800 calories a day, consumed in the form of highly concentrated nutrients and whole foods is NOT a starvation diet.  It’s not a “lose weight fast” diet either. The problem is that you do have a lot of people out there that are nutritionally ignorant and/or have a McDonalds problem and try to stick to a very low caltorie diet, and select all the wrong stuff to eat, feel sick, tired, etc. At 250lbs I had no problem at all from day one starting out at 800 calories a day in the form of highly nutritious foods, feeling less tired, less hungry and less sick that I did gorging myself at the trough.

You see, the more these “Diet Centers” and plans that recommend these higher calorie diets and people will spend years with them shelling out money to keep trying to lose weight.  You’ve got their proponents publishing and saying things to scare people away from the very low calorie diet, and it’s just not based in scientific data. Very low calorie diets that are highly nourishing have set me up for the success that keeps me going every day! And at the end of the month, I save on food costs too. But if you’re someone who prefers a more guided weight loss journey, check out the diet reviews at NextAdvisor.com to see if they might work for you

Quitting smoking was a similar situation. We’re both successfully quit for almost 6 months now using those electronic water vapor cigarette  — otherwise known as an e-cig. We both wanted this with the same passion and desperation. How much better we both feel since we stopped smoking!

But when it comes to food, dude can pack it away and when I bring out the barks and seaweeds, he can’t deal. He’s skinny, andl except for his little potbelly, which, for him is a non-issue that goes away if he runs around the block every day for a month. lol.

So today after an especially painful cuisine experience, I’ve decided that our kitchen is going to be transformed into a health center. He has no say in this. He can eat his food out if he wants to have anything that is not in the kitchen, and I’m chucking a whole truckload of food out, that doesn’t need to be here. But really, I don’t have much on hand that is necessarily “bad,” but for example, peanut butter… it’s just too damn easy to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, you dig???!  This kitchen needs to be a restricted area, with barks and seaweeds, lentils and hempseed.

And that is what is going on tonight. The transformation of the kitchen from a feeding trough to a health center.

I haven’t told my husband yet.

You’ve seen her on Fox News.

She takes candy from babies. Literally.

She’s been called the “Ann Coulter of fat.” She’s the bull in a china shop that likes to point out the elephant in the living room. She’s the devil incarnate if you are planning to invite her to a party where donuts are served.

She’s MeMe Roth, a one woman war machine against obesity. She’s such a skilled warrior that she even refused to share low-cal recipes with me, instead, taking the focus off of food.

It’s about time someone put the brakes on the obesity crazy train, no excuses, no whining and blubbering about “fat rights;” what I like about MeMe is that she’s no skinny outsider to what us fat folks have gone through. Almost all of MeMe’s relatives are in the 200 lb+ range. She’s got the fat genes in spades, yet she makes no excuses. She’s overcome her genetics to have a healthy body and you can too.

I sat down with MeMe for a quaint fireside internet chat (no snacks, just unsweetened green tea) because I wanted to know more about the woman that takes candy from babies. What I found was a little bit of the devil and a whole lot of energy, health, vitality and a woman on a mission to heal the world.

————————————————-
MeMe, I want to talk to you about plate size/portion size.

If you’ve ever bought any dish sets made in the 40′s-70′s you will be amazed at how small the plates, cups and bowls actually were back then, compared to the sets of dishes you can buy off the shelf these days. Plate sizes are double or triple. I was shocked when I ordered a nice 1950′s dinner starter set of 16 pieces off of Ebay a while back. The dinner plates are literally the size if the average SALAD PLATE in modern dishware sets! Now, I use these plates exclusively on my diet to “measure” my portions. It works fantastic for me to eat the same portion sizes that people ate back in the 1950s.

Sad part is, I can’t find any modern dishware that is sized appropriately, and I have looked! I tell people now that you can order the vintage sets off of ebay pretty cheaply (unless you are going for jadite or something like that).

Any other suggestion, comments, ideas, thoughts on portion sizes in the past, and now and how that may correlate with the obesity epidemic?

I’ve been told that our portions of daily food intake should equal  approximately 3 fistfuls. Seems like hardly any food… I think you can eat a lot more if you heap on non-fried, non-starchy veggies!  The truth is we have a warped sense of how much food to eat, what kind of food to eat, and when to eat. Forget the clock, forget social pressure, simply eat based on the demands of your day and the needs of your body, and you’ll find this approach amazingly freeing.

Obviously, ya gotta eat a mostly vegetarian diet (again, non-fried, non-starchy); drink water instead of soda, juice and sports drinks; and exercise about an hour a day. If everyone in America followed this advice, there would be no obesity crisis. We’d have a natural bell-curve distribution of weights–a few at the extreme–but most of us falling within the healthy medium.

We also have cultivated a bizarre sense of entitlement when it comes to eating junk food. I think we believe all the “you deserve this” advertising messages. The reality is you can’t live without inhaling, but that doesn’t mean you have to inhale nicotine and tar.  You can’t live without eating, but you certainly can survive just fine without a Snickers bar. People are confused about what is, and what is not real food.

People have no idea how many calories they should be eating. I don’t  really count calories per se, but I testified on behalf of having calories posted on all restaurant menus and menu boards. And informed customer makes better choices. I know I don’t have room in my life for a 900+ calorie Cinnabon, or a 700+ calorie milkshake–I mean coffee… or even the Outback Steakhouse sweet potato with its topping.

Take the number of your ideal healthy weight and multiply it by 10. That is your estimated daily calorie allotment. What the what?? That’s not a lot of calories is it? Longevity studies show us more and more that if we want to rev up our quality of life, we likely should be eating far less. If that number isn’t high enough for ya, (mine isn’t), then simply exercise to give yourself more calories to eat. I run 4 miles a day for health, for sanity, and so I can have some tasty indulgences without hurting my health.

What is your favorite exercise and why?

I love the flying trapeze and adult gymnastics classes. I also have run at least one sprint triathlon a year since 1992, even the years I had babies. Again, we’re talkin’ SPRINT distance; I like old-school body sculpting classes with lots of squats and lunges and push ups and sit ups too. But, I really love running the best. Why? It takes no equipment or appointment other than your sneakers and a willingness to force yourself outside. Speed-walking is the same. For working parents, running or speed-walking is an EXCELLENT exercise choice. You have no excuses. Plus, you’ll love the cardio benefits from doing the hard work, the rhythm of the exercise, and the dopamine high. I’ve never done yoga, but love the LuLuLemon clothes. I’m a huge proponent of stretching EVERYDAY.

I have to know: what size do you wear? lol. Right now I’m aiming for anything between a 4-8. (I’m 5’10).

I’m 5’6″ and stay somewhere in the low 120s… I should be a  “medium.” I used to be a freakin’ medium, but with vanity sizing, I  keep getting smaller and smaller.  I have to return a size small hoodie to Lands End because it’s HUGE. With my broad shoulders, I  shouldn’t have to be buying size extra-smalls and size 2 anything. But sometimes I do. Mostly, I buy size 4 or 6, but in better stores, I  usually need a 6 or 8. In Marilyn Monroe’s generation, I probably would have  been a size 8, maybe a size 10. My shoe size is a size 7, and hasn’t changed over the years. Are we not doing vanity sizing in shoes yet??

Everyone cries they couldn’t possibly be a size 2. WIth today’s gen-er-ous cuts for sizes, the average American woman at 5′ 4″ should comfortably be fitting into a size 2. Remember, that’s your momma’s size 6–maybe 8.

Give us a list of healthy celebration snacks and treats for kids. Maybe a recipe you like to use with your kids?

Buy some fresh veggies, rinse them, then steam them in a drop of olive oil and garlic–or ginger– or  tumeric– or lemon– or whatever rocks your world. Get your kids hooked on water instead of soda, juice or sports drinks. And give ‘em veggies or chick peas as snack. Those cookies, crackers and whatever else is wrapped in crinkly paper is for losers.

Want to celebrate with your kid? Do something far out fantastic together! Who cares what you eat?? Just eat a normal meal, then do something fabulous–or at least a meaningful experience that will be remembered long after the cake or cupcake or whatever passes on into the plumbing. Kids want to feel special on their birthdays. And we parents want our kids to feel special on their birthdays. That’s about a little creative thought and effort, not candy.

And remember, the greatest treat you can give your child is a treat you don’t eat–treats like family bike rides, or roller-blading, or swimming together. Kids want to be with you doing fun activities   where they’re the center of your attention. Your child will associate your love with all things active, positive and life-affirming, not apple pie. Later on when they’re feeling blue, they’ll think of you and go for a walk instead of downing a tub of ice cream.

Savvy parents are figuring out just how dangerous sugar is. It’s a  pro-inflammatory, it raises bad cholesterol, it desensitizes a child from enjoying natural flavors, it creates a chemical dependency, it sets off a cycle of cravings; it tricks you into thinking you’re hungry when you’re not. And remember, sugar includes table sugar, brown sugar, raw sugar, agave nectar, and refined carbs found in white rice, white flour, cookies, crackers, pretzels, white potatoes, most boxed cereals, etc.

And for Zeus’ sake, don’t serve your kid soft drinks unless you really, really don’t like him.

Visit MeMe on the web:

http://www.actionagainstobesity.com/NationalActionAgainstObesity/NAAO.html

Remember, if you are severely obese, bariatric surgery remains a legitimate option for you in your weight loss journey.

I’ve posted here about my online pal, The Bariatric Girl. Today I’m going to post the little fireside chat we had about weight loss surgery recently. Enjoy!

1. Yvonne, you have been fighting obesity your entire life; tell us something about the transformation of your mind that happened during the transformation of your body?

My mind lagged well behind my body and that still hasn’t gone away entirely. Old habits die hard and so did the memories of my body. The strange one was when I was in the grocery store and felt like people walking by were literally on top of me. I was so used to people going around me and since I don’t require as much room, they walk closer and it was almost claustrophobic at first but I’ve adjusted.

2. One thing that we’ve discussed via email is how our “no cheat rule” has contributed to success. A lot of people think that having the bariatric surgery is the “easy way out” in a sense, because you’ll never have to worry about wanting to cheat ; ie, no self control needed after you get the surgery, it just “happens.” Further reading into this topic though, and you will find that some people that have had the surgery actually cheat and get fat again. I’m sure having a tiny pouch that you can’t fit a lot of food into helps tremendously, but if some people are still getting fat, then it seems to me that yes, a transformation of mind in also necessary. Talk to us a little bit about why you feel a no cheat rule works for you and why some people gain back all that weight even after surgery.

ABSOLUTELY. We did not get brain surgery. We just got a smaller stomach but if we don’t change what we were doing before, you can go back to obesity or switch to something new to abuse or another method to self medicate. Now you’re pretty safe the first year because your metabolism is still being tricked so you can eat pretty much what you want and still lose weight. We call that the honeymoon period. Approximately after a year that’s over with so it’s just like being put magically into this thinner body but your metabolism has smartened up. You must start the lifestyle change immediately after surgery because if you wait until the honeymoon period is over, it is much MUCH more difficult because you’re days of losing no matter what are pretty much done. For me that was a good trade. Take me back to normal and I promise to eat right and get some exercise….like getting a do over. If you start right after surgery, you’ve had a year of forming good habits.

With certain kinds of weight loss surgery it is designed to make you ill if you eat certain things like too much sugar. The truth is you will lose your cravings if you stop eating something completely. The no cheat rule makes it black and white. I look at sugar as poison so it’s very simple. I tried to stop drinking Coke for years and the funny thing is…now I don’t even remember what a Coke tastes like. The reason some people gain weight back is because they didn’t deal with the issues in their head that causes them to use food to self medicate. There’s another group of people that gain back 20-40 pounds and end up being more miserable than when they weighed 300 pounds. You must fight to keep that goal weight when you reach it or a whole bunch of head games start telling you that you’ve failed again. It may seem impossible to most that a woman that has lost over 100 pounds can feel like a failure because she’s gained back 20 pounds but it happens every day. We must learn what really makes us happy in life and what we want will follow. FOLLOW YOUR BLISS! Don’t expect the bad or that’s what you’ll get.

3. Let’s talk about shakes. I know that people that have had bariatric surgery often live on these things for the first few months. I haven’t had the surgery, but I enjoy the unrefined, low sugar shakes I prepare myself as meal replacements. Have any good suggestions or recipes for the kind of highly nutritious shakes bariatric people use?

I actually still drink a shake every morning. It’s super important to put something in your body for breakfast so you won’t throw your body into starvation mode. When you do eat, the body hangs on to those calories like crazy because after sleeping for 8 hours and then waiting hours to eat after waking makes your body think it’s starving. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a college kid with a maxed out charge card. I actually drink MetRX extreme chocolate. I put a lot of ice in it and blend it so it comes out like a chocolate shake…at least as much as I can remember a chocolate shake. There is a great blog called “the world according to Eggface” that has some of the best recipes for weight loss people. Great recipes and a great blog!

4. Talk to us about exercise. I hate exercise. I have a rebounder and that’s the only thing I do; it is excellent. Do you love/hate exercise? What exercise has been the most entertaining for you? What is the most useful for health?

I always hated exercise but I am asked often if I “work out”. I found yoga. Many people automatically assume that yoga is only for people that can bend like a pretzel. For me yoga is like slow dancing by yourself but at the same time you are increasing your range of motion and burning calories. It is said that ten minutes of yoga is as good as an hour on the treadmill. There are great videos online for beginner yoga and there’s a great DVD called “Heavyweight Yoga” that you can get at www.heartfeltyoga.com. I think it’s super important that you find something you like and something that is easy to do. I can do yoga anywhere, anytime. If you absolutely cannot find an exercise you like, then dance! Walk your dog. It has been proven that exercise can be a huge benefit to people that are depressed. Whatever you do, it’s just really important not to “hate” it. If you believe it’s a drag, it will be!

5. What is a typical day of meals and drinks for you?

Well you might be surprised. I have completely changed the way I feel about food. I look at it as fuel. For me I had to not look at food as a sexual experience anymore. If every time we went to fill up with gas there was an ocean breeze (in Texas), dancing naked men (or women), hot music etc…. well you’d be wanting to go get gas again sooner than necessary. I eat as boring as possible because it works for me. I look forward to that shake in the morning and the rest of the day is mostly protein. I try to eat vegetables and fruit in the right amounts. The more water you can drink the better. I actually hate water so I have to put something in it to make it possible for me to drink. There are so many things on the market that you’ll find one you like if you keep looking. I know a lot of people don’t want to hear this answer about boring food but too much food and the wrong food is the substance that makes me an unhappy person. I will not go back to the obese person I was and food can no longer be the end all/be all for me. It is fuel and I cannot afford for it to be the thing I look to for self medication of my anxiety in life. Food is fuel now…no longer a drug.

6. Do you have a favorite “appetite busting” food or drink?

I love these meat sticks called “Ostrim”. You can put them in your car or purse or pocket and it doesn’t matter what temperature they are. When you are out somewhere and you allowed yourself to get so hungry that you’ll eat anything you will certainly mess up. Ostrim meat sticks keep me from going through that drive through when I shouldn’t. They come in 4 flavors and taste great. Being prepared for what you’ll eat each day will keep you out of a lot of trouble in the long run.

7. I gotta ask… when you were fat, did you have really wide feet and a hard time finding shoes to wear? If so, after you lost the weight, did your feet return to a normal width? This is a crisis issue with some fatties I know, including myself. When I got fat I could no longer wear pretty shoes.

I was asked this just the other day. I lost a shoe size but some have reported as much as a size and a half. And yes you can wear those pretty shoes again. I know when I was obese, it was so painful and I really didn’t feel like putting those pretty shoes on my big body. I’ve made up for a lot of lost time now.

8. If someone is considering bariatric surgery, give us a spiel on your best advice for them.

My best advice would be to go online and research people that have succeeded and ask them how. Ask them what they did that make the difference between success and failure. You can find a ton of things for and against anything you research. Some people have lost loved ones due to surgery and they are just as upset as you would expect them to be. You will find blogs telling you that you are an idiot to consider it. For various reasons you will find blogs that say it’s the easy way out.

I also know people who have lost their lives because they were obese…one was a friend of mine. If you have tried and I mean sincerely tried and failed tons of diets, and if you are ready to sincerely put the effort into the lifestyle change, you could be a candidate. Even though it is difficult to believe, you also cannot buy into the belief that when you lose all the weight that your life will be perfect. You must be willing to educate yourself on what’s going on in your head and how you got obese in the first place. Choosing to have weight loss surgery is an extremely personal decision that no one should ever push on someone else. All I can do is live my life as an example and show others what a successful weight loss surgery journey looks like. You are the person that lives in your body so it’s your decision. Just like anything you do in your life that is a major undertaking, talk to those that have been in the trenches. My blog in particular will tell you a lot about what to expect.

9. In your layman’s opinion, what do you think is the best surgery, that is the safest and with the best outcomes?

The best surgery is the one you decide to have. It is important to go to a surgeon that offers all of them. Some want lapband because you can reverse it. Some want something else because they don’t want a foreign body inside them and have to go back for fills. Some don’t want their guts rearranged. That’s why it is so important to talk to your bariatric doctor because he or she is trained to ask those questions so that you can pick what is best for you.

I have known people that have succeeded and failed with every kind of surgery and even though you will see a lot of fighting online about which surgery is the best, that’s between you and your doctor and whether your insurance will cover it or not. Some people do not have insurance and self pay. The thing that is important is believing in the one you pick. Treat it as the miracle it is and show your surgery some respect. If you go in expecting failure, that’s what you’ll get. Don’t let naysayers rent space in your head. There’s always someone that will have something nasty or critical to say. Surround yourself with successful, happy people and you’ll find it easier to be that way.

10. What do you look for in a doctor?

Experience and the way you feel when you talk to him/her. Get feedback from his other patients. I am a member of Obesity Help.com and each member has their doctor’s name under their user name. The doctor’s page has feedback from his patients. Check out how extensive the aftercare program is BUT it is far more important to go to a good doc first. A doc with good marketing could make his program look like a million dollars but that doesn’t tell you how good he is. The proof is talking to other patients and asking a lot of questions.

Here’s the simple rule of getting through that rough period when you are just starting out: Be kind to yourself. Don’t set yourself up for failure. Slowly reduce your calorie intake over the period of a week if that will help you.  I have failed more times than not setting myself up with a militant diet plan and then feeling sick all day, just to end up cheating bigtime. This time though, I let myself have a little wiggle room that first week. Now, a little wiggle room does not mean that you can down a half gallon of ice cream if you feel like it, what it means is that if your plan has sent you over the edge wanting to cheat, try something a few steps up.

For example. My first week was a planned shake diet. One thing I’ve done this time around is that I switch-a-roo my diet plans, I don’t stick to the same one all the time, although I do stick to the calorie limit as closely as possible. My first day on this diet was a living hell. 800 calories of living hell. So what did I do? Instead of ordering a pizza, I went into the fridge, took out a small piece of whole grain bread, slapped some fat-free pizza sauce on it and some grated parmesan cheese. For about 150 calories, I chased the pizza monster away. So instead of my first diet day being 800 calories, it ended up being 950. Whoopdedoo. You are NOT a fail whale if you do this! You have succeeded much more than if you broke down and ordered that pizza!

I went the entire day without cheating and by bedtime I was ready to order 10 pizzas. lol.  That one little snack for 150 calories filled my belly and I fell blissfully asleep. And guess what? The next day I woke up feeling much less bloated, not as hungry, and not as tired as the first day on my diet.

Remember to be kind to yourself.

• They use larger plates. When offered two plate sizes, 98.6 percent of those with the highest BMIs took the larger of the two plates to the buffet. A bigger plate tricks your eye into thinking you’re not eating as much, and stuffing more food onto your plate — and into your mouth. Use a smaller plate, get a smaller belly.
• They eat while looking at food. 41.7 percent of those with high BMIs took seats that overlooked the buffet, instead of sitting in a booth or facing in a different direction. The site of food tends to make our minds think we have more work to do, eating-wise. Keep your food stored in the fridge or the pantry, not out on the countertops.
• They eat with maximum efficiency. While Chinese buffets offer chopsticks, 91.3 percent of obese patrons opt for forks. That just makes it easier to shovel in the food!
• They clean their plates. Of those patrons who were heaviest, 94 percent cleaned their plates so there was nothing left. Ignore Mom’s advice — let a little linger.
• They chew faster. Researchers actually monitored the chewing habits of the buffet-goers and discovered that the heaviest 1/3 among them chewed their food an average of 11.9 times before swallowing. The middle 1/3 chewed an average of 14 times, and the leanest 1/3 chewed 14.8 times.
• They dive in. The leanest people in the study typically took a lap around the buffet first, to plot out what they wanted to eat. But the more overweight group charged right in; doing so means you may fill up on some less-appealing items, then have to go back to snag that one nosh you have to have, but missed the first time.

APPETITE.

Now, the way this works is like the typical catch 22 — and I will explain this the way my Dr. explained it to me:

Your appetite responds to how much your digestive system is working. The more you eat, the more hungry you are. The less you eat, your brain then adjusts to that as well and responds with less signals for food and less tolerance for massive amounts of food. The problem is that it takes a while for your brain to sort out either one.

Eventually, if you are eating less, your stomach will stop signaling your brain so often. If you cheat and give in to the pizza or whatever makes your belly growl like a lion, it’s a step backwards that may set you back at square one, depending on how FUBAR your digestive system is. Obese people have lame digestive systems that are overworked. If someone tells you they are obese and they eat normal sized healthy meals and get regular exercise, they are liars. You get obese when you consume more energy than your body can use. This is basic 6th grade science. No one, not even God, defies the laws of physics.

Appetite supression was something I struggled hard with for a long time, and still have struggles with. Yes, the no cheating rule, no cheating no matter what, although it has over time helped to lessen my appetite, my digestive system still has a long journey from here to normal. Now it is not so often, but sometimes, a HUGE WAVE of hunger will swallow my entire soul. You know the feeling, fellow fatties. It’s pure torture. Normal sized people cannot comprehend the pain. In their minds, we’re “weak.” But, there is so much more going on biologically with these kinds of brain signals… it’s not weakness and it’s not demon possession. I can say that normal sized people cannot comprehend the pain because I was once, and for most of my life, a normal sized person.

Instead of trying to sit it out, I’ve taken a shine to embracing the thing. Embracing it and then setting my personal tools to work on it. 1. Specific low volume, low calorie, easy digested foods (probiotic foods are my personal favorite) 2. My cookbooks. My cookbooks are like porn to me. (I can “get off” on them whilst sipping on my kefir shake, I don’t need the “real thing.”) 3. Getting up and jumping on my rebounder after I indulge in food porn.

Go ahead and laugh. But you know what? Everyone has tools like this that can keep you from cheating and lessen the impact of these moments of digestive system/brain horrorshows. The key is you have to figure out what yours are. Losing weight, I have discovered, is such an individual process that there isn’t any “diet” or “weight loss plan” on the planet that really works.  It is within YOU.

I’d like to hear from you what tools work to keep you on the path. Where you learned about them and how long it took you to discover what is working for you and what does not.

First, let’s take a look at what the “fat acceptance” movement says. You can find that over on their website.  Some quotes:

Size Discrimination Consequences are Real!

• Creates medical and psychological effects
• Results in wage disparity
• Affects hiring and promotion
• Affects academic options and advancement

I would agree 100% with all of this. There is absolutely an issue with fat people getting decent medical care, being treated like human beings on the job, etc. I compare this to what people with mental illness used to suffer a lot more in the past (at one point being burned at the stake for “demon possession”) and the stigma they still suffer somewhat today. Doctors and nurses often do not even make an attempt to hide their disgust with the obese and the mentally ill.  A fat person or a mentally ill person may have enormous intelligence and brain power, but that is overlooked in the workplace in many cases when someone finds out you are on psychiatric drugs or are obese.

Obesity is an illness. Just like mental illness is an illness. Just like cancer is an illness. And my primary issue with the “fat acceptance” movement is not any disagreement with what they say about the way fat people are treated by doctors or on the job, but the fact that they will not acknowledge that obesity is an illness which needs medical/health intervention.

If you are fat, you’ve taken some kind of abuse at one time or another. Insipid narcissistic idiots that can’t see beyond their own nose might tell you what they told me: “You belong in a concentration camp!” (totally real. i’ve been told that about my weight before)  None of this abuse is ever helpful with losing weight. In fact, the more abuse someone endures for being obese, the more obese they get; which is why some doctors will give you SSRI anti-depressants (I happen to take Prozac myself) because the lower the serotonin in your brain, the more carb and sugar cravings you have. The more abuse you take, the more your brain chemistry goes out of whack and so forth. Prozac helps me laugh at the assholes while staying on the path to get this weight off. Your mileage may vary, but it helps me.

I’ll say it again: obesity is an illness. Obesity is not “laziness” or a “character flaw.” But it is an illness, and the people that have a fat person in their lives that they care about should be treating it like an illness and trying to help the fat person get healthy again. You wouldn’t abandon your spouse if they had cancer, would you? Once we begin to clearly see obesity for what it is, a chronic, debilitating illness, then we can actually get on the path to treating this monster. If you have an obese loved one, you must, YOU MUST, behave as if they have a grave illness, because they do.

Before I went through a million diets and scams to try to lose weight, I had the same opinion that a lot of people out there have about obesity, that it is a “character flaw.” And if my character is flawed and I’m just a piece of blubber, why even bother? It wasn’t until I fully accepted the fact that I have an illness that requires medical/health intervention that I began to lose weight, and keep it off.

The fat acceptance crowd is right about some things, and totally wrong about “fat people can be fat and healthy.”

Hi, I’m Renee Melton, director of nutrition services for Sensei.  I’ve been a dietitian for over 20 years and my career has taken me everywhere from hospitals to private practice, to research and teaching at a university and developing web based courses.

I’ve always been interested in using technology to educate people about health.  As it is, most people rely on the internet when they want to research something.  Sensei is the marriage of all things I love:  nutrition, preventive health, teaching and technology.

Hi Renee!

Tell us from a Dietitian’s perspective, what is the most important thing someone can do to lose weight and stick to their eating plan?

Planning is really the key to success.  Without a plan, your best intentions to eat healthier and lose weight go out the window as soon as someone says ‘Let’s go out to eat’ or brings donuts into the office.

Find a plan that works well with your life (rather than make you change your life to fit it) and lifestyle.  If you don’t like to cook or eat fast food at lunch, your plan should let you do that, but at the same time, it should teach you how to make better choices wherever you are.

I noticed that the Mediterranean diet plan that I selected uses yogurt frequently; can you tell us about the value of probiotics in maintaining good health?

Probiotics are healthy bacteria that help maintain balance in the intestines by helping to keep harmful bacteria under control.  They also appear to boost our immune systems.  Yogurt contains Lactobacillus acidophilus, which is one of the most prominent bacteria in the intestines.

Probiotics have been credited with reducing inflammation in inflammatory bowel disease and helping to control diarrhea due to antibiotics or infection. A recent study in new moms suggests probiotics might be helpful in reducing belly fat after pregnancy.  There’s ongoing research looking at the benefits of probiotics in treating some infections, allergies and even certain types of cancer.  But more research is needed before we can truly determine their effect in all these areas.

Bottom line, we know probiotics are good for our digestive systems and a good thing to have.  Check the label on your yogurt and make sure it contains live cultures.

We know water is important, but from a Dietitian’s perspective, for those that have difficulty drinking a lot of water, what is the minimum amount of water you need to drink; and what things can you do to help yourself get into the habit of drinking more water?

Water is one of the most important nutrients we can get…we can’t live without it.  How much you need varies greatly.  It depends on things like your gender, body size & composition, climate and activity.  Healthy conditions can also affect your need.

On average we lose 10-11 cups of water from the body each day through urine and breathing.  The Institute of Medicine says the average healthy women need about 9 cups and men about 13 cups of water per day.

You should drink enough so that you don’t feel thirsty throughout the day and your urine should be colorless or slightly yellow.  If the color is dark yellow (concentrated), chances are your aren’t drinking enough.

The good news is that not all your fluids need to come from water.  You get some water from all the foods you eat (about 20% of your needs), plus anything you drink.  But be careful of the calories in the drinks you choose.  They can add up fast and lead to weight gain.

If you don’t like water, try some of these:
low calorie sports drinks
water with lemon slices or lemon juice added
diluted juice (dilute with water as much as you can to your taste)
herbal teas (hot or cold)
green tea (hot or cold)

I thought that the pop up “behavioral ques” on Sensei were fantastic. Is it helpful to print things out like this from the site and tape them in your kitchen?

I’m so glad you’re finding the messages helpful.

How you use them is really a personal choice.  You’ll probably find that a couple of the messages really resonate with you, enough that you might want to take it on almost like a mantra.  When you find these, I think it’s a great idea to print these up and post them wherever you will see them frequently.

Anything that helps keep you motivated and on track is a good thing!

Why do you think, as a Dietitian, that a plan like Sensei is better than the pre-packaged plans that come with food? More variety? Cost effectiveness?  Fresher foods?

One of the biggest downsides of prepackaged plans is the cost.  Not only do you need to pay for the delivered food, which can be very expensive, but then you have to go to the store and buy all the fresh things too.  Sensei’s grocery lists are significantly less expensive that popular pre-packaged plans.  Plus the Budget Friendly plans can save you up to $100 per month on your grocery bill.

With Sensei you’ll have more flexibility and variety.  You can choose menus that have store bought frozen meals, or you can find really quick and easy recipes, or you can go out to eat.  The choice is yours and you can change it at any time.