IIN Homework - Goals & Intentions

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I am currently enrolled in school at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. It took me two and a half years to get there, but I'm finally in! I was inspired to look into nutrition education by some really awesome people - Golda Poretsky at http://www.BodyLoveWellness.com, Dr. Linda Bacon who wrote "Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight," Michelle Allison at http://www.FatNutritionist.com and Ragen Chastain at http://DancesWithFat.wordpress.com.

One of the first assignments I was given in as I started school was to write out my intentions for the coming year, what I want to learn and the things I want to accomplish with my nutrition education, so I thought I would share my goals and intentions with you! I have chosen to write out my goals in Positive Affirmation format, as though they have already happened.

1 - I know how to deconstruct food cravings so that I can help myself and others deal with them in a positive, healthy manner.

2 - I know how to heal my body and those of my clients using food and nutrition instead of conventional allopathic medicine.

3 - I help my friends, family and clients design nutritional plans that work for them as individuals instead of following "one size fits all" diet plans.

4 - I educate my friends, family and clients using health facts and not diet hype.

5 - I help my friends, family and clients ditch the dieting mentality and replace it with body love, self acceptance and true health.

6 - I have a thriving career as a Health Coach, working with clients individually and in group settings three to five times each week.

More goals and intentions to come as I think of them!

IIN Homework - MyPlate and the building blocks of good health

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In June of 2011 the USDA did away with its latest Food Pyramid in favor of a new icon - MyPlate. The idea of this new icon seems to be teaching the American public how to put together a healthful meal. As someone who has struggled with meal planning in the past and who has asked the question, "What actually constitutes a healthy meal?" I appreciate the idea of this new icon.

MyPlate is divided into four sections, representing the major food groups that should be represented at each meal: Fruits, Vegetables, Grains and Protein. On the up side, the MyPlate icon suggests that half your plate at each meal should be made up of fruits and vegetables, replacing earlier recommendations that grains should make up the majority of our diet. MyPlate also allows each person to decide what each section of the plate means to them. For example, "Protein" could mean meat or it could mean beans, soy or eggs.

On the down side, when just looking at the icon, there is no way to tell what sorts of grains and proteins you should be eating. As far as the plate is concerned, whole grains like quinoa and brown rice are nutritionally equal to processed white rice and mashed potatoes. Another problem with MyPlate is the presence of a round icon off to the side of the plate labeled, "Dairy," implying that we should all be drinking a minimum of three glasses of milk each day. The MyPlate icon also leaves a lot of information out. In the same way that it does not specify whole grains over refined grains,  it also does not address fats, desserts, snacks or cooking techniques, among many other things.

The real problem I see with MyPlate is that it originates with the USDA, a government organization that serves two opposing interests: The promotion of health AND the marketing of agricultural products. And it's not the promotion of health end that gets the majority of attention. This is why you will never, ever see any recommendation from the USDA that, maybe, you shouldn't be eating so much red meat. Nor will you ever see them revise their MyPlate icon so that that Dairy icon is replaced with one labeled Water. Because, if they even attempted to make these recommendations, the lobbyists for the Beef and Dairy industries would be up in arms. After all, recommending that you eat less red meat and that you drink more water doesn't sell products!

Also problematic to me, the USDA food pyramids, plates and guidelines fail to address the other areas in a persons' life that contribute to good health. Have you known someone in your own life who ate what you believed to be a poor diet, but who somehow managed to be healthy and happy? Or, on the other side, have you known someone who ate what would be considered an excellent diet, yet they were sick and miserable?

Let's take a look at your Junk Food Junkie friend. Even though most of his meals come from a drive-through and he avoids fruits and vegetables like the plague, he somehow manages to be pretty healthy. He doesn't have the major medical issues that you would associate with poor diet - Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, Heart Disease and the like - and he maintains a pretty healthy weight.

First off, let's remember that you cannot look at someone and diagnose health. Even though your friend doesn't weigh 300 pounds, that doesn't mean he is necessarily healthy. Unfortunately, diseases like Diabetes and Coronary Heart Disease are often overlooked in thin people because they are so closely associated with body weight. This means that larger people are often diagnosed earlier because they are tested more frequently while smaller people are often not diagnosed until their symptoms have become very severe because their doctors simply don't think to test them. So, even though your friend may appear to be healthy on the outside due to having a lower body weight, this doesn't mean that he is truly healthy.

But, we're talking lifestyle here, so let's assume for the moment that the Junk Food Junkie really is healthy.

So, why would that be? How could this person eat this diet and still maintain good health?

One major reason could be physical activity. Your friend may work at a very physically demanding job that keeps him moving and working hard all day long. Or, he could engage in a hobby that is equally physically demanding. Physical activity is known to help the body deal with a wide range of challenges, including poor diet. Exercise will help your friend process all of that extra fat and sugar, staving off Heart Disease and Diabetes much longer than if he lived a more sedentary lifestyle.

So what about the Health Nut? Why would someone who eats a healthy diet including large amounts of fruits and vegetables, low amounts of fat and very few processed foods be unhealthy?

As I've said, there are other factors that contribute to health besides what you eat. Your healthy friend may be eating a great diet but not taking care of themselves in other areas of their life. For example, they may be working at a job that makes them miserable. We spend one third of every day at our job, and if we find that experience stressful, uninspiring, boring, depressing or in conflict with our personal values, this experience can wreak havoc on our physical and mental health.

The same is true of our personal relationships - from friendships to romantic partnerships, if we do not have positive relationships in our lives we can quickly become ill from the stress and isolation. It is a well known fact that elderly people who continue to participate in activities outside their home and who maintain close friendships live longer and happier lives than those who isolate themselves and rarely interact with the outside world. It isn't too great a leap to realize that this effect is the same for younger people who have chosen to isolate themselves.

We also know that having some form of spiritual belief and practice can hugely benefit our lives and our health. This doesn't mean that we all have to join in on organized religion, although there is nothing wrong with that if this is what speaks to you, but it does mean that we should give some thought to maintaining some sort of daily spiritual practice such as meditation or yoga.

Maintaining good health isn't just about what you put in your mouth. When thinking about health, it is important to look at your whole life. Joy is just as important as saturated fat in maintaining a healthful life.

So, while I think that MyPlate is a good starting point, I recommend taking it with a grain of salt. Remember that it was put together by people who are given the task of selling you agricultural products and who are subject to powerful lobbies who are always at work making sure that their industry is being promoted as vigorously as possible. And remember that diet isn't the only thing that makes for good health.

What is a Diva? My Take on HAES

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According to Wikipedia, a Diva is:

1 - ... a woman of outstanding talent ...
2 - ... a Goddess ...
3 - a being who is more powerful, longer-lived, and lives a more contented life than the average human being

As a Reiki healer, I believe that all types of DISease in our lives are caused by blocked energy caused by our own negative thoughts, beliefs and emotions. If left unchecked, this blocked energy can cause every physical and mental condition we may suffer from - from depression to cancer. Through using techniques such as Reiki healing, color therapy, positive affirmations, EFT tapping and meditation - just to name a few, I believe that all DISease may be banished from our lives, allowing us to become the beautiful, powerful, divine beings we truly are. I believe the first step in this process is learning to love and cherish ourselves for who and what we are. After all, as human beings, we do not take great care of things we hate, including our bodies.

It is this process of learning self-love and self-care, of embracing My Inner Diva, that led me to the practice and principles of Health at Every Size.

The Five Principles of HAES℠:

1. Accepting and respecting the diversity of all body shapes and sizes.

This means recognizing that no one body type is better, healthier or more attractive than another. It means acknowledging that we all come in different bodies. We are different heights. We have different hair color, eye color and skin tone. We recognise that these things were decided by genetics and cannot be changed without going to very extreme measures. We do not say that one eye color is better or healthier than another, nor would we ever say that one skin color is better or healthier than another. But, every day, we look at ourselves and others and pass judgement based on body size. We, as a society, assume that thin people are fit, healthy, energetic, smart and hard-working while we assume that larger people are unfit, unhealthy, lazy and less intelligent. All of these assumptions are based ONLY on body size, which is every bit as damaging as making those same assumptions based on skin color - or height or eye color or any other physical trait alone.

2. Recognizing that health and well-being are multi-dimensional and that they include physical, social, spiritual, occupational, emotional and intellectual aspects.

For decades, the diet industry, fashion magazines, television and the media, and society at large, have been telling us that if we would only lose weight that would solve all of our problems. We would instantly become more attractive, more loved, more outgoing, more successful ... Our marriages or dating lives would get better. We would get more promotions or make more money at work. We would be instantly loved and accepted by others. But this is a lie. Simply changing your weight won't save your marriage or make your boss appreciate you more. And we are all so much more than a number on a bathroom scale. We have many other needs that we postpone and leave unmet, waiting for the magic day when the scale displays the number we've been waiting for. THEN we can start to live. THEN we can start caring for ourselves. But what if that number never comes? Or, what if you reach that number and like 98% of people who lose weight, you end up gainging all the weight back - and then some - in a year or so? What then? Do you stop caring for yourself because you are no longer at your "goal" weight? Do you never start because you never make it to a low enough weight to feel satisfied? Recognize that the time to start caring for yourself and meeting ALL of your needs is NOW!

3. Promoting all aspects of health and well-being for people of all sizes.

The "War on Obesity" gets a lot of attention in this country. You can't watch a news related show without viewing at least one report on some new health risk that is now associated with being overweight or a segment on the newest diet trend sweeping the country. As a whole, we are obsessed with weight and with saving the fat people from themselves. But, there's a whole other segment of society that we ignore completely when it comes to health and fitness. THIN PEOPLE! Have you ever seen a report specifically advising thin people to exercise more? If you have, I bet it's only been once or twice in your lifetime! The assumption that all thin people are fit and healthy is completely false. How many thin people have you known in your life who don't exercise and live on fast food because they're thin and don't need to worry about things like high blood pressure and diabetes? After all, if you were to believe the news media, those are things that only happen to fat people. Naturally thin people have nothing to worry about. But, if you think about it for a few seconds, you realize that this is completely false. The same things that make heavier people unhealthy are the same things that make thin people unhealthy - living a sedentary lifestyle and eating unhealthy foods. Just off the top of my head I can think of at least four people I've known most of my adult life who are thin and very unhealthy. And, I have to think that maybe, just maybe, if we weren't such a size-obsessed culture, these dear friends of mine who are on the verge of developing classic "weight related" illnesses (if they're not struggling with them already) would have gotten the message that trying to live healthfully isn't just for fat people.

4. Promoting eating in a manner which balances individual nutritional needs, hunger, satiety, appetite and pleasure.

If you are a lifetime dieter, like I am, the whole idea of factoring in appetite and pleasure to eating may seem downright blasphemous. After all, we've been trained from an early age that if we want to be thin and pretty, we need to survive on carrot sticks, celery and salad with no dressing. Instead of indulging in a fabulous dessert, we are to white-knuckle it through yet another day of calorie-restricted eating. We must stick to our rigid diet plan even when our stomach is growling and our blood sugar is crashing. But, in the end, our bodies always win. We struggle along, trying to be "good" on our diet so that we can lose the weight, only to end up binging on cookies and ice cream in the middle of the night because we couldn't stand being hungry for one more second. Or we go to the birthday party and stare longingly at the cake that everyone else will get to eat while we try to make due with the vegetable tray and end up eating three bags of chips once we get home. Wouldn't it make more sense to follow a more balanced eating plan that factors in ALL of your food needs - including appetite and pleasure? I know which way I'd rather live ...

5. Promoting individually appropriate, enjoyable, life-enhancing physical activity, rather than exercise that is focused on the goal of weight loss.

I can't tell you how much I hate to exercise. Really, I truly, truly loathe it. This is because it has been forced on me my entire life, against my will, as a means of weight loss and humiliation. Gym teachers would make fun of my thunder thighs in grade school - and in Junior High (the last time I took a "conventional" gym class) they graduated to calling me a fat cow in front of the whole class. My parents purchased treadmills, Nordic Tracks and other fitness equipment and would extole the virtues of using these machines, though none of us ever used them more than once or twice before they became laundry racks and dust catchers because they either became incredibly boring after the novelty wore off or caused one of us to become injured. My experiences with competitive sports were even worse. To this day, I have no interest in watching sports - let alone participating. Who needs that kind of pressure and humiliation? No Thank You. There have only been a few times in my life when I've been able to engage in a physical activity and enjoy it - and I was told by yet another set of fat-hating gym teachers that those activities weren't REAL exercise, so they didn't count (at the time they were pushing this "exercise at home" program). (For the complete rundown of Bullying Teachers in my life, check out THIS BLOG POST.) And, looking back on all those experiences, I have to wonder how different my relationship with exercise would be today if the focus had been on moving my body, enjoying the activity and becoming more fit and healthy for participating. Maybe it wouldn't be such a struggle today.

With all of this in mind, I am turning over a new leaf. I have decided to end the diet/binge/shame/diet cycle in my life. Instead, I am focusing on intuitive eating, self-love and self-care. In the coming months and (hopefully!) years, I plan to share my journey with you by posting blogs, thoughts, "Diet Book Deconstructions" where I review various diet books from a No Diet standpoint and my own personal experiences. It's certainly not the "norm" for someone who has just enrolled in "nutrition school," but I feel it is a valid point of view and one that desperately needs to be heard. I hope you enjoy exploring this new perspective with me.