by Glenn Gaesser, Ph.D.

Written by Associate Professor of Exercise Physiology, Univ. of Virginia

Fat. F-a-t. Perhaps no other word in our language is despised as much, nor focused on so intensely. Americans are obsessed about fat--body fat--and how to get rid of it. We have been conditioned to view health and fitness in strictly black (fat) and white (fit) terms: A "fat" body cannot possibly be fit and healthy. This fat-versus-fit dichotomy, made popular in the 1970s with the publication of fitness guru Covert Bailey's "Fit or Fat?" (5), has become the mantra of many a fitness and health professional. You don't have to read any more than the title to grasp the fundamental message of this perennial best-selling fitness bible: A person is either fit, or fat- -but not both.

The implications of this myopic fitness philosophy are obvious: The road to a fitter and healthier body is a very narrow one indeed. In order for a fat person to become fit and healthy, that person must lose weight and become lean. This of course implies that "lean" is inherently good and "fat" is inherently bad. Not only is this lipophobic paradigm overly simplistic, it does not stand up against a substantial amount of medical and scientific evidence.

By, Michelle Morand, Founder and Director of The CEDRIC Centre.

Choice

If you are conscious of a choice that falls within your value system that will remove a current stress or will prevent a future strife, make it.

You will never benefit from choosing not to act if that act will spare you from harm and unnecessary stress or worry.

If it seems like too much energy to make that life enhancing choice; if it feels like too much work to take action now to prevent future harm, know this for certain: something is draining your life energy. Something is keeping you stuck in the belief that you deserve to suffer or that you do not deserve to be peaceful and free.

Something is robbing you of the will to choose joy and peace over fear. I implore you: set all your remaining energy against that thing. Work with your last burst of strength to uncover the belief, the relationship, the behaviour that is sucking the life from your very soul. Whatever it is that prevents you from choosing to honor and care for yourself must go. Your effort will not be wasted. For with each blow you land in the face of that demon you affirm your right to peace and you and contentment. You will find the strength to remove the thorn in your side.

Never be ashamed to seek help in your battle. It is a sign of courage and a statement of your intent to succeed. Only those who fear your success will judge you for reaching out. And so, here is your first choice: will you choose to be driven by the fear and disdain of those whose own insecurities drive them to control you and rob you of your freedom? Or will you choose to learn to let yourself live in peace and joy.

It is just a choice. It is your choice to make. It is no one's choice to make for you. And I, for one, hope you choose peace and joy.

Our special thank you to Sandy Szwarc RN, BSN, CCP, the writer of this article, for letting us reprint her fabulous work from Tech Central.

Like newspapers across the country, the Des Moines Register has published a special series addressing the "obesity crisis." The Register series, which began last Sunday, was entitled "The Losing Battle" -- appropriately named, just not in the way the newspaper believes.

The weight loss industry faces a losing battle selling their diets and bariatric surgeries among residents there. Iowans are known for their old-fashioned common sense and aren't getting on board with the panic over their body weights and the need to lose weight being marketed. The Register, however, has. And their series offers consumers across the nation an eye-opening illustration of obesity doublespeak at work.

Iowans don't know that obesity is a deadly medical condition, the Register tells readers. Writer Anne Carothers-Kay reports that 60% of Iowans are either "overweight" or "obese." This "bad news," she notes, makes Iowa the 15th-most obese state in the nation. According to reporter Jennifer Dukes Lee, this is a "crisis."

But is it?

The Seattle-based National Eating Disorders Association is not amused by Kirstie Alley's new TV series, "Fat Actress."

The group says Alley poking fun at her own weight problems may send the wrong message to people with eating disorders, the New York Daily News reported Thursday. The show premiered Monday on Showtime.

That's not funny. She's eating a cigarette so she can clear her stomach -- it's appalling. I'm meeting people who lost their children to eating disorders. There's nothing funny about eating disorders. There's just no punch line," said Lynn Grefe, the head of the group.

Showtime maintains the show is in no way intended to ridicule eating disorders and is "a fictitious program loosely based on Kirstie Alley's experiences."

Grefe says her association is getting calls and E-mails complaining about the show.

Your Say

Movie Central in Canada started showing episodes of the show last week and we'd like to know what you think about the show. Send us an e- mail and let us know.

First, the client and the therapist work together to collect basic information about the traumatic experience.

The most disturbing part of the incident is identified and becomes the processing target. Example: image of rapist's face. Next the negative belief connected to the trauma is identified. Example: "I'm dirty, I'm ruined for life." Next a positive, preferred belief is named. Example: "I'm safe now, it's over, I can move on with my life." Next, the client is asked to rate, (on a scale of 1-7), how true the positive belief feels when paired with the target image. Usually, the number is very low, the positive belief does not feel very true at this point.

The client is then asked to name the feelings, emotions that the target memory elicits, and to rate the associated distress level (on a scale of 0-10). Example: Target memory of being raped elicits fear and shame with a distress level of 9. Client is then asked to name where this target memory is experienced in the body. Example: solar plexus. This completes the information gathering portion of the session. The therapist has a worksheet that she follows in order to gather this information, exactly as stated above.

Our thanks to Beth Burton-Krahn, the newest counsellor at The CEDRIC Centre for sharing her handouts of what a typical EMDR session looks like. If you're interested in having an EMDR session with Beth, feel free to call or e-mail the office to arrange a date and time.

A Three Day Seminar to End Emotional Eating

Aileen Pickard, 55, of Salmon Arm attended a CEDRIC Centre weekend workshop in April 2004, to end her fifty year struggle with emotional eating. Aileen says, "As a very young child I used food to escape. It was my best friend in a very unhappy, abusive childhood."

"I found it very hard to trust and believe in what the counsellors at The Centre, said at times," says Pickard. "But I have not binged for months now, and that in itself is amazing. The weight is now sliding off."

According to Michelle Morand, Founder and Director of The CEDRIC Centre, Aileen's story is a typical one. "Many of our clients have spent years trying to treat their unbalanced relationship with food by using diets, only to find they gain more weight, and become more unhappy with their bodies."

"At our three day Seminar," says Morand, "we help women get to the root of their emotional eating. We help them see that food is not the problem. And we help them deal directly with what is. This seminar is a perfect fit for people who identify they have issues with food, but don't necessarily fit into the category of a clinical eating disorder."

April 8 th, 9 th, and 10th 2005 from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm, The CEDRIC Centre, (Community Eating Disorders and Related Issues Counselling), is hosting its 3 day New Perspective Seminar , $374.50, at The CEDRIC Centre, 307 - 1005 Broad Street, Victoria, BC. To register: 1-250-383-0797.

This month I'm reviewing Can't Buy My Love, by Jean Kilbourne.

Can't Buy My Love is about our relationship with advertising, and how advertising encourages us to remain in unbalanced relationships with ourselves, and the world around us.

Written in the late 90's, Kilbourne uses ads from that era and deconstructs their meaning. Her main targets are advertisers for fashion/women's accessories, alcohol, food, and cigarettes. She believes that advertisers, (who often employ motivational psychologists), exploit our most basic emotional impulses by subverting those desires through consumerism.

Far from eliciting those mixed feelings accidentally, Kilbourne believes they do it purposefully. And not just with cigarettes. Advertisers give us food porn instead of love and dissassociative alcohol ads that encourage us to indulge in destructive impulses.