This is the million dollar question — once weight is lost, how does one keep it off?
As a nation of yo-yo dieters, no price is too high to keep extra weight off forever. The industry would have us believe that the solution is in the next book, superfood, pill, or diet plan. Their livelihood depends on you believing you need something outside yourself - some magic potion or wise words - to keep the weight off for good.
The reality is this — the answer, in most cases, cannot be purchased. Put your checkbooks away.
Keeping weight off forever involves change between your ears, not change in your purse.

Susan Kayman and her cohorts set out to investigate the difference between formerly-obese women who relapsed and those who maintained their weight loss. The results were published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Those who maintained their weight loss had mad skills. Not calorie counting skills, or kung-fu skills, but mad stress-coping skills.
Most people who are overweight have an unhealthy relationship with food. Food is one of the ways we can numb out, tune out, suppress rage and pain and console ourselves. For some of us, it was a behavior learned as a child when we had no power and no modeling of appropriate coping skills. As adults, it’s the easy way out. It’s legal, socially acceptable, easy to hide and even when we find out it no longer works we still don’t have a replacement. Food is always there, and goodness knows we are always being encouraged to partake.

In the study, those who maintained their weight responded to stress differently than those who relapsed and gained the weight back. Relapsers lacked skills to cope with their stress and were more likely to use avoidance or escape techniques to numb out. 90% would not directly confront their problems, and 70% ended up unconsciously consuming food to deal with their emotions. They were also less likely to exercise and seek outside support.

The maintainers had developed a different approach. A whopping 95% of maintainers confronted problems directly rather than avoiding them. They also utilized external support, remained conscious of their behaviors and developed their own strategies for dealing with stressors. No big surprise, most were also exercising. Their coping strategies were similar to the control group of women who had never been obese and included relaxation techniques, exercise, seeking professional help, social support or talking about their feelings with trusted friends.

You can be your most powerful advocate or you can be your own Judas. Everyone experiences challenges and stresses and everyone needs support and encouragement from time to time. When you hold your tongue, bury your opinion, and play nice you deny your very self. You say, “I don’t matter,” “I’m not important,” and “I am invisible.” The pain of silencing yourself can be suppressed, for a short time, with some Ben and Jerry’s or pretzels or wine. But it won’t go away completely until you reverse your silence, speak your voice, and make your Self known. It is a fundamental human desire to be known and acknowledged.

If weight is one of your struggles, I’d like you to focus this week on utilizing your voice. Speak up! It doesn’t have to be about the huge issues you have been stuffing down for years. It can be as simple as expressing where YOU want to have for dinner, asking a friend or coworker to go for a walk with you, saying no to a second helping of potato salad, or taking initiative with a problem you have been avoiding. Brainstorm solutions to stressors in your life rather than commiserating with those who just like to complain.
Be a bad girl, I dare you! Stop playing nice when it makes you feel anything less than sheer joy. Say no to those who step over you, share a controversial opinion to raise a few brows, and shock people around you by being direct. Share the feelings you have that you are most unlikely to share with a dear, trusted friend.

See what happens. Play with it. You can always change your mind later.

A belated congratulations to Keith of Thundering Hooves for his prize-winning potluck entry at the VIBRANCE open house in late April. Keith won a $25 gift certificate to Sur La Table to further cultivate his culinary imagination!

Keith’s grass-fed Mongolian Beef recipe was a fantastic addition to the potluck, and narrowly pulled ahead of a southwest quinoa dish contributed by the Purcell family. The mongolian beef was rich with multi-colored veggies and contained very added fat. Grass-fed beef is not only more humane, but it contains less saturated fat and has omega3 fatty acids from the cow’s natural diet of wild plants. VIBRANCE guests raved over the flavor and vegetable variety within this dish.

Thundering Hooves Grass-Fed Mongolian Beef with Veggies

• 1 lg head broccoli, chopped into florets, stalk diced
• 1 lg. onion, thinly sliced
• 1 each - red and green bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 1 sm. serrano chili, diced
• 2 cups snap peas
• 1 bunch scallions, cut into matchsticks
• 1 lb. grass-fed top sirloin steak (skirt or flank steak will also do nicely)

Coat the beef in the following marinade for an hour, then stir-fry until browned:

• 1 tbsp. corn starch
• 1 tsp. sea salt
• 1 tbsp. dry white wine
• 2 tsp. grated ginger
• 1 tbsp. oyster sauce
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed

Whisk together the following sauce for the veggies:

• 1 tbsp. sesame oil
• 1 tbsp. hoisin sauce
• 1 tbsp. dry white wine
• 1 tbsp. oyster sauce

As meat is browned, add veggies and stir fry with sauce until crisp tender.

Last month, a client came to me, surprised at her exacerbated PMS symptoms. She was under some extra stressors at work, but had made marked changes in her diet to reduce sugar and increase her vegetable consumption, both of which are known to decrease PMS. Not two weeks later, I was also shocked to discover some crazy mood swings preceding the start of my own cycle. I’ve had a marked increase in stress myself as of late – an impeding graduation in NYC and a teary farewell to wonderful people I have bonded with over the last 10 months, moving into a new office and launching an event, ramping up marketing efforts and trying to find that delicate balance of meeting the needs of my Love, myself, and my business.

After the fact, I was laughing about my own experience with Michael (who had the misfortune of receiving some of my inner-teen angst) and marveling over how I didn’t see it coming - even when I was in it and wondering what on earth was wrong with me (it seems amnesia is a PMS symptom as well).

The little voice in my brain that stores every bit of information on natural medicine and holistic health I’ve read piped up with the word “liver”.

In Chinese Medicine, anger is associated with the liver. Excessive anger impairs the liver from doing its job; the Chinese would call this “Liver Qi Stagnation”. Anger is resistance, a response to refusing to accept what is presented to us because it does not fit within our ideas or beliefs. It isn’t always aggressive – often taking the form of guilt or frustration, and it even has a positive role – perseverance and determination.

Biologically speaking, the liver is the filter. It filters and breaks down many compounds in the body. Among these is estrogen. Liver is responsible for breaking down excess estrogen in the body.

Estrogen dominance, or an abnormally high estrogen to progesterone ratio, is a common factor in PMS symptoms. Excessive estrogen is common in this country due to environmental toxins (plastics, fertilizers, pesticides, hormones in livestock, etc) coupled with a diet which stresses the body and is poor in nutrients needed for protection and detoxification (ie; sugar, caffeine, alcohol, refined flours, and so on). On a day to day basis, our liver already has a full plate (pun intended). Add some extra stress to constrict and tighten the body and we have a situation ripe for mood swings, bloating, and cramps.

Next month I will talk about what can be done to detoxify the liver and alleviate PMS through our food and lifestyle choices. In the meantime, I’d like to hear your thoughts on this piece, and if you would be interested in a workshop or detox weekend focused on cleansing the liver and alleviating PMS. Please email me with your PMS tales and what you have noticed about stress and PMS in your life! Does this ring true to you?