Plenary Session #2

The second session was my favorite of the entire day. it was led by Dr. Robert Kushner of Northwestern University and was on the major events that impact a woman’s weight. Basically in his work with Northwester, Kushner began asking his women patients to chart life events as they charted their weight. He began to see certain links between spikes in weight and life events. He also noticed that at different periods in a woman’s life, different factors effected her weight and that some of those factors could also affect others as well. I learned that:

• Women who give birth as obese women can “imprint” the risk of certain diseases on their fetus, such as obesity and diabetes. He cited studies that found that children born to women after they’d lost weight did not carry the same level of risk.
• That in adolescence many girls experience weight gain because of a variety of factors, including psychological. Teenage girls can be affected by socialization, the media and a host of other factors.
• Stress is a major factor in weight gain for women but not just for the reasons you may think. He relayed that our coping mechanisms have as much to do with resulting weight gain as the stress itself.
• He shared that people who lack sleep tend to gain weight more easily.
• And finally he shared that menopausal women, due to hormonal changes, can experience a change in weight and size. This, coupled with lifestyle changes associated with age (which can include a decrease in physical activity) can lead to significant weight gain.

Plenary Session #3

This one was on weight bias. I admit I didn’t even have a great conception of how deep weight bias runs until I listened to the presentation from Joe Nadglowski and Ted Kyle, both members of OAC’s national board. They pointed out such influences biases as:

• Those in the media. Do you ever notice many times in pictures and videos in the media obese people’s chest and stomach are shown but not their faces? Showing someone’s face gives them an identity and dignity and I admit even I had become used to those images!
• In the healthcare industry: Studies have shown many doctors don’t spend as much time with obese patients and don’t offer them as many preventative services. What made me the most sad is that in a poll taken, 24% of nurses reported being repulsed by obese patients.
• In the work place. Obese people can be perceived as lazy, unkempt, unintelligent or “not a good fit” for a job or a promotion. They can experience lower pay and fewer advancement opportunities.
• In education. Obese youth can be considered not as smart or not as great a candidate for college.

• Obesity is bad. Obese people are not bad.
• Obesity is a disease, not an identity. Reject the label of “being obese.” You suffer from the disease of obesity.

Break-out session #1: Home is where health begins: Creating a healthy home environment

This session wasn’t exactly what I thought it would be about. It was mostly about the habits of people who have successfully maintained weight loss. There is a national registry of weight control that studies the habits of people who have lost and maintained weight. The habits were nothing new. People who maintain their weight tend to eat breakfast, exercise, weigh themselves routinely. But they also:

• Think of themselves as having a healthy lifestyle, not as being on a diet
• Don’t get fazed over plateaus. They persist through them because they are living an overall healthy lifestyle
• Set S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic & Timely) goals

One thing that was stressed here was something I say all the time. The only way to replace good habits with bad is to habitually practice the good habit in place of the bad. It will feel strange and out of place at first but eventually the good habit will become second nature.

Breakout session #2: Planning, Shopping & Dining: Practical Tactics for Good Nutrition

I enjoyed the speaker, Dawn Jackson Blatner, very much. She’s a registered dietician and author of “The Flexitarian Diet.” She taught us that just as we consider a manicure or pedicure or sweets a treat, so should we also look at feeding ourselves healthfully. So she gave the following tips.

• Planning: plan out your meals. She suggested planning just two meals of each kind (breakfast, lunch and dinner) and rotating between those meals or variety. 
• Shopping: She also suggested writing down your list when you go to the grocery store to avoid bad decision purchases and shared that the best time to go grocery shopping to avoid crowds and stress are either during the day on a weekday or later in the evening. She suggested that the ratio of types of products in your shopping cart should mimic how you eat. So for me my shopping cart should be 40% protein products, 35% carbohydrates (and remember carbs are not just starch but fruits/veggies too!) and 25% fat. She also empowered us to remember reasonable condiments like sauces and dips. They can make eating healthy foods more enjoyable!
• Eating: Many people talk about mindful eating and Blatner issued a challenge. You want to eat more mindfully? For 7 days commit to eating every meal at a set table, off a plate with silverware. I know that’s not always possible but to the extent that we can do it, I think it’s a great idea!

This session was led by a very charismatic and dynamic woman named Merrill Littleberry, a psychotherapist. She challenged us to change how we look at ourselves by changing our behavior in relation to others.

• Stop holding onto the negative. Write new “cue cards” for yourself. Instead of focusing on everything you haven’t done, focus on what you have done.
• Show Gratitude. When someone compliments you on your progress, learn to say thank you instead devaluing what the person has said. If you practicing gratitude, eventually you may begin to believe those compliments.
• Be careful of the people you surround yourself with. Are they just taking and taking? Healthy relationships are give and take so if people in your life aren’t giving it’s time to re-examine. Unhealthy relationships can be a drain on your psyche and can further damage your self-perception. 

I look forward to sharing another great day with you in the second day of the conference!