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Fifty-three weeks ago I began this advice column in the Times Leader, but I have been giving advice, occasionally unsolicited and even sometimes unwelcome, for most of my life. I can recall being in grade school and having my friends seeking me out for support, comfort or advice. Now in my sixth decade, with friends, family and strangers wanting my guidance, I still marvel that some of the simplest answers elude so many.
Who knows why this behavior in me manifested early, but I think it may be similar to what those who naturally can sing, or can pick up a foreign language with seeming ease, wonder about. Why is it that we have these particular proclivities and preferences for how we use our time?
As I begin year two of Tell Giselle I would like readers to consider submitting to me what they feel are the most important topics they want me to focus on. Perhaps each month will feature a specific theme, so that issues will have a more concentrated examination. I welcome your input and questions.
For today, I’ll address the one topic that seems to eat up serious focus: weight. This from someone who is struggling to get to a place of balance:
“I have a wedding to attend in a few months and I would like to slim down. Ideally, I would like to lose fifteen pounds but I do not want to be miserable.
“Other than cutting back on calories, or eating mostly vegetables, what is a good way to jump start the diet?”
G: When I have been asked “How do you stay so thin?” I often want to ask the person “How do you stay so fat?” but I don’t do that. I refrain from this reply as I think it would not be taken in the helpful spirit in which I mean it.
But it is really a valuable question to ask yourself when you are looking at losing unwanted fat.
Before we go to that, I think it is wise to get an appointment with your physician and discuss your weight loss goal and overall health. The reason I recommend this is because many people are not aware of the various biological factors that contribute to either weight gain or loss, or being stuck on a plateau.
Without a thorough workup on certain nutrient, mineral and hormonal levels, any radical change might actually be detrimental or self-defeating.
So, start there … with lab work and a conversation with your doctor. Then, you can consider following any practice that helps you become more self-aware of the foods and drinks you take in all day long, all week long, for months. This will require you record the calorie and nutrient intake accurately, even if you have to look up the information to get it right.
Being self-aware by being accountable with actual documentation is the only way you can be honest with yourself. You will be identifying all of the moments in the day and week that you are consuming anything.
You will likely be surprised that you are taking in way more than you need. Plus, you will get an even clearer insight into what foods and drinks are your friends, make you feel great, or are not your friends.
Documenting everything will also give you the opportunity to examine the motivations for your consumption. I was raised in a culture that emphasized living to eat rather than eating to live. Within that realm I saw how many people were struggling to move in their bodies or who were living with varying degrees of discomfort or pain. Still, they prioritized their taste preferences over their responsibility to eat wisely, and to not consume more than is needed. In other words, more bluntly, not to be gluttonous.
For me, all of this focus on living to eat served as a life-long lesson in how not to live.
Another natural fascination with me concerns health and disease and learning what is within our control to help to reduce serious illness and any negative outcomes. As a result of that natural inclination or curiosity about the human body, it is standard operating procedure that I consume daily an inordinate amount of medical and nutritional research through books, articles, podcasts and other media outlets.
In my twenties and thirties, I self-experimented with one-day, three-day, five-day, seven-day and 21-day fasts. These were fasts that were just vegetable broth or diluted juices, not just water as I know prolonged water fasts are too stressful on my body. I learned, just as Siddhartha did in Hermann Hesse’s novel “Siddhartha,” that I can think, I can wait and I can fast.
Caveat: I have done a total fast for Yom Kippur, which requires consuming nothing, not even water, but I do not recommend long water fasts to anyone, unless they are prescribed by a physician and carefully monitored.
Other times I have experimented with giving my digestion a break of sorts, by limiting myself to ten days of eating only brown rice or eating only two meals a day, instead of three with snacks.
I have restricted my intake in a variety of ways for decades, though generally preferring a predominantly plant-based diet. It works best for me and the preponderance of the clinical research shows that this way of eating goes a long way in reducing the risks of all of the diseases I don’t want to get.
So back to your desire to lose weight.
Even while you await your doc appointment and the results of any lab work that is ordered, you can begin keeping track of every morsel or drop of fluid you consume.
You can also look at your pantry and refrigerator and clean out any processed foods. These generally contain more salt, sugar and unhealthy fats than what are ideal.
When I was on each of my fasts I would remind myself whenever the thought crossed my mind (it would happen frequently) that I wanted to eat something, that everything would be there when I finished my fast.
This practice of modifying my consumption to only those things that advance my goals of wellbeing and disease risk-reduction, has helped me enjoy my body and the advantages that a pain-free existence affords.
It also has helped me to appreciate the gift of fine health and reinforce my obligation to not take my body for granted. Like many of life’s experiences, we most appreciate things once we have lost them, or are about to lose them.
Let your desire to lose a stone be stronger than your accommodation of the extra poundage you are carrying. Keeping it is a choice, and losing it is a gift you give yourself as it will enable you to optimize your health and enhance your capacity for joy.
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Email Giselle with your question at [email protected] or send mail: Giselle Massi, P.O. Box 991, Evergreen, CO 80437. For more info and to read previous columns, go to www.gisellemassi.com