So, after Saturday’s Team WODs at CrossFit, there was a brief nutritional seminar. It was an introduction to Paleo and The Zone diets and I decided to stick around and see if I could learn something new.
The guy leading the seminar introduced himself, explained that he wasn’t a nutritionist, he just kind of figured stuff out on his own and from reading stuff online. Then, after losing some weight, he took the CrossFit trainer certification classes and learned why the stuff he did worked.
“And it does work,” he said proudly. “I lost 35 pounds doing this.”
And…that’s when I stopped listening. Don’t get me wrong, losing any amount of weight is an accomplishment. I don’t care if it’s 10 or 110 pounds. But, it’s like he just finished a 5K and now he’s telling me how to train for a marathon. Losing 35 pounds is nothing to sneeze at, but we’re not exactly coming from the same place. When you are a hundred pounds or more overweight, you look in the mirror and think something along the lines of “Fuck. I’m going to die.” If you haven’t had that thought, you don’t understand. Period.
Most of the people in charge of helping the overweight – trainers, nutritionists, counselors -- seem to miss the fact that people who are seriously overweight (let’s say 75 pounds or more) are different in attitudes and needs than their moderately overweight counterparts. To that end, I’ve created some pointers aimed at those who are meant to help us:
1. Recognize that our journey is a lot different than yours. If you hold nutritional seminars or classes, you may want to consider having a separate session for people with serious weight issues. You don’t have to divide people up between the two different groups. When you’re announcing the seminars, just add “we’re having another session the following Saturday but it’s restricted to those who want to lose 75 or more pounds.” (Keep in mind that some who are further along with their journey, and only have 30 pounds or so left to lose, may still identify with the seriously overweight group.)
2. Don’t give us a choice between Paleo and The Zone. To be honest, if I could make good food choices, I’m pretty sure I never would have ended up more than 100 pounds overweight. Just tell me what to do.
3. Don’t talk to me about Glucose, Glucogen, my pancreas or what my liver actually does. And, if you must tell me about this stuff, don’t throw it all at me at once. Over the years I’ve managed to retain some information. Patty Pittman taught me in one of her blogs that tryptophan is in all meat (not just turkey) and it helps stabilize your mood. Guess what? That was basically what the entire article was about. Well, that and a recipe. Give me the basics in bite-size, fourth-grade terms and I might be able to retain some of it.
4. I really, really hate the whole “30 Day Paelo Challenge” concept. I think one of the reasons I’ve been successful is because I never viewed Paleo as a “diet” in the traditional sense. Now, maybe the idea is after 30 days, we feel good, we’ve lost a lot of weight so we stick with it. When my hypnotherapist introduced the diet, he said, “This is how your going to eat for the rest of your life.” It was a little hard to wrap my brain around the idea, but there was a security in it, too. If eat like this forever, the weight can’t come back.
5. Don’t ask for the food journal too soon. Food is never “just food” for us. We’ve spent years hiding what we actually eat from other people. This is a trust issue. If you ask for the food journal too soon, we’re going to lie – maybe not purposefully. But we’ll … act better on days we’re keeping our journal. Give us time to work out the kinks, first.
OK, Fat Karate-ka, now’s your chance. Are these guidelines Stacy-specific or do you think they hold true for most of the “seriously” overweight? You’ve already started your journey. What do you want to tell fitness instructors and nutritionists that could help them help those of us who have much more to lose?
