Here are some comments from the Huffington Post about my most recent posting. One of my friends wrote me saying that she would be interested to “discuss or see more about how we think about diets relates to the real obesity crisis we’re currently experiencing in the US - eg 57% of children in Philadelphia are overweight or obese- and it’s  epidemic in the African American community.”

The very same forces selling us messages that cause feelings of inadequacy are also helping to insert cornsyrup products in to our food, hooking us on tastes of sweetness, and our portions are twice (I’m not exaggerating) the size of standard portions in Europe. We are a culture of overeating on empty calories that promote cravings for more rather than satiety for what they have just eaten. A lot of research has been done about dieting and it is a wide held understanding that dieting leads to cycles of going on and off diets, with the in between times increasing the likelihood for binging. Fat cells also grow in such ways that with each cycle of weight gain and weight loss, fat cells multiply, and keep multiplying. While we can shed pounds on the body, we cannot shed fat cells; they’re ours for life.

I wanted to share some of the responses to this article about dieting, looking at Oprah’s most recent step in recognizing her addiction to food, dieting and the alluring sense that we can attain perfection

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-shure/how-to-diet—-the-dietin_b_535062.html

“The greater concern for Oprah is her health. She clearly has metabolic syndrome and is at great risk for “diabetes.” The problem with her “diets” is that she has followed misguided advice from such as Dr. Oz who is clueless about proper diet for those with insulin-resistance.”

“This just goes to show that Oprah is not the omniscient person that many people think she is! She is a very good person and has done worlds of good for the people of our country, BUT, she doesn’t know everything! Just because Oprah endorses something, be it a product or a method of eating/dieting, doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do!
When considering weight-loss, dieting, or a lifestyle change…go to an expert!”

“The problem is the idea of diets itself - something that is 1 time fix and temporary. if oprah or others want to lose weight and be healthy they have to change what they eat PERMANENTLY, and commit themselves to exercise PERMANENTLY. and the changes have to become part of everyday living and normalized. read “eat, drink, and be healthy” for more info.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-shure/how-to-diet—-the-dietin_b_535062.html

I’ve been waiting a long time for this day. Oprah has finally come to see the light, recognizing that dieting promoted more of her negative body image rather than remedy it. This is a huge leap forward and provides hope that her influential voice may now be heard touting a different, more empowering public message.

A lifelong devotee of weight loss at any cost, Oprah has come to see that her years of yo-yo dieting have kept her on a roller coaster ride of weight gain, weight loss, with concomitant highs of excitement and lows of defeat, never guiding her toward fuller body-esteem. “I don’t like the term food addict,” she said recently in O, The Oprah Magazine, “but I realize that I’ve been one, and it has taken me years to learn (and relearn) that the choices we make about what we put in our mouths are only stand-ins for the beliefs we carry in our minds and our hearts.”

Throughout her life, Oprah rejected her mesomorph shaped body and revered the gods and goddesses of thinness, committing herself to battle with her hunger and her body. We know from watching the changes in her physical self, that Oprah struggled with the demons that drive obsessions with food, weight and body size. As a professional keenly aware of the complexities involved with body image, I’ve ached at particular moments when Oprah’s actions lent direct endorsement to the diet industry’s marketing gurus, reinforcing messages that encourage striving for a body size, shape, and thus, image, discrepant from one that can be sustained with a healthy approach - involving acceptance of our genetic body structure, willingness to feed our bodies enough foods to quell hunger and sustain energy and the practice of speaking to ourselves without judgment and blame for “who we are not,” and “what we do not look like.”

After all, we live within our bodies; they are the vessels that house us. If we support attitudes of dislike toward our bodies, not accepting them and cherishing for all they do for us, our deepest self suffers.
Oprah was hooked on the fanatasy that having a different body would heal her deepest wounds and release her into a life of internal ease. In fact, years of dieting did nothing of the sort for Oprah, nor does it do so for anyone else. Instead, it releases the follower in to a state of dis-ease…a path of continuous anxiety about how long they will stay at their worshiped weight and what they will feel like when they lose that “position” in life.

The statistics on dieting are staggering, suggesting that 95% of people who lose weight from diet regimes are certain to gain most of it back within a year or two. The multi-billion dollar diet industry seduces us into believing that cycles of dieting are the best way to achieve the “right” body for each one of us. They never admit that diets prevent us from learning how to regulate our body weight or balance our eating patterns, and they never mention that diets increase binging, moodiness, and the potential for developing an eating disorder -the full spectrum from anorexia to obesity - they don’t mention that patterns of dieting increase cardio vascular disease, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, and even some cancers.

Despite the facts, many of us fall under their spell and argue in favor of dieting - saying that it is healthy and good, even something to be admired and rewarded, a virtue worth pursuing. Talking to Oprah in March, author Geneen Roth, assures us that “Unless you really see what your core beliefs are, what’s making you overeat, and until you name those beliefs, they will shape your life willy-nilly. You’ll just keep acting them out by punishing yourself with food. But if you can finally get to understand the beliefs underneath, you can learn how to live.”

At this time of transition, tune in to quiet the volume of your Inner Critic. Spring is a time of shedding- uncovering- reseeding & cultivating. How might you do one of each in the coming season? To read more on this subject, click the link below…

http://webmail.aol.com/31144-311/aol-1/en-us/Suite.aspx

This Month’s Message: Spring Growth

by Robert Gerzon

Today is the Spring Equinox–the beginning of spring! It’s a special day of balance day when the hours of light and dark are equal.

You can feel Mother Nature getting ready to grow. The energy is building, the seeds are sprouting, the buds are unfurling, and the birds returning.

Human beings like to grow too. It makes us feel alive and it gives meaning to life.

Our commercialized consumer society tends to keep us too busy and too frazzled to even think about our goals and our life purpose. Then it takes the resulting frustration and boredom and channels it into the desire to consume more food than our body needs, buy new gadgets to clutter our homes, and snack on more media mind candy to distract us from that nagging feeling of meaninglessness.

During this season of growth I always remember that great line from a Bob Dylan song — “He not busy being born is busy dying.”

The biological truth is that within our body cells are busy dying and being born every day. It’s thanks to the new ones constantly being born that we’re still around and have the opportunity for growth. Growth is not optional — it’s required for survival.

Personal growth helps us meet our individual goals and keeps life fresh and exciting. It’s the best anti-aging strategy around today. And its companion, spiritual growth, is the best strategy for finding meaning and joy in each day as we live it.

Why not reserve one of these beautiful spring days as a “spiritual health day”?

Something new is emerging in you this spring. Take time to listen to your inner voice. Make room for the new growth by letting go of outworn habits and thoughts.

Take a walk, paddle a canoe, sit in the sun. Ask your inner child what he or she has been waiting all winter to do. Ask your soul what sort of growth it wants to guide you toward during this new season of your once and precious life.

Enjoy your day! http://www.gerzon.com