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Not Impressed by Five Pound Loss of Recent Diet/Exercise vs Relaxation Study

While I totally believe that stress screws your body and mind up, and destressing and learning to do things that involve quietness and meditation are healthful (they prove so to me), I can't get too excited about that study recently reported all over the diet world online. You may have heard about it, the one that says that destressing with meditation and Yoga and such is better for weight loss than diet and exercise.

The destressors kept off the five pound weight loss for two years, while the nutrition info and the diet/exercise groups didn't lose or keep off.

When you're big like me and five pounds barely registers, this is not big news. If the women in the study had lost and kept off 25+ pounds (just with destressing), I might perk up.

But I've struggled to keep off 25 lbs. I had lost 29, then regained, then lost, then regained a bit, then lost. After my last bout with asthma (3.5 weeks of ickiness), I'm up again. For me, 25 pounds is an ongoing battleground. Makes me nuts. So, excuse me if a five pound loss after two years doesn't make me go yippee for Yoga.

Five pounds. This is gonna solve the obesity epidemic? I think not.

I still think that it's a holistic thing that's gonna get us there--ie, dealing with sedentary habits and moving into movement; dealing with excess calories and outsized portions and learning to eat less; cutting down or out the junk and non-nutritive foods and snacks and focusing on whole and clean foods; working with internal/emotional issues and learning how to tap into the self-control we all have to some extent; tapping into our spiritual power (if we believe in such); creating support systems in and even beyond our family/friendship circles; committing to a lifestyle change that is lifelong; changing the societal landscape so that it is fashioned and structured to support healthful living; encouraging employers to make room for exercise at work and offer healthful snacks instead of junk on the jobsites; incorporating stress management techniques; eliminating all junk from schools; adding penalty taxes to junk foods and using that money to offset health care costs for obesity; tax deductions for gym memberships and buying at-home health gear (bikes, ellipticals, treadmills, etc); making health a top family and personal priority for life.

Destressing, as you see, imo is part of that holistic approach. But without diet and exercise and support, etc, I'm sorry, the very overweight and obese and superobese can't be satisfied with losing five pounds doing yoga. That's not gonna cut it.

So, I'll take the study for what it's worth. Yes, I'll continue to incorporate mind-body/destressing times and activities into my life. But that will not solve my obesity problem--or the nation's. Or the world's. Life is stressful, no matter what we do. Destressing helps, but when you'r mom is dying or your husband leaves you or your kid gets a major illness, or your car is totalled or your country is at war or your house is foreclosed on or someone robs you at gunpoint or a hurricane is coming--stress is hard to eradicate. I think the researchers who de-emphasize or pooh-pooh (or seem to) the role of diet and exercise ain't helping us as much as they might think.

They probably just make us worry about destressing enough. :)

The Princess Does Pilates

Yep.

I did it.

I finally decided that, unless I wanted to risk actually sprouting roots into my sofa, it was time to move.

I signed up for personal training in Pilates.

Yesterday was my first session.

It was hard.

Real hard.

I worked out on a classic Cadillac:



And I stretched on the Barrel:




The exercises were not painful in and of themselves. At one point, I was feeling some pain and stiffness in my lower back in a position, and Liza immediately got a pad and adjusted it and I was good to go. So, no agony.

Just hard.

As you gals with huge bellies know, doing some moves are amazingly tough, because the belly is an obstacle. So, bending legs up toward chest is, well, not possible. Bending over is impeded. Any good trainer, though, knows how to adjust, modify, and work around limitations.

And, upbeat as she is, Liza just kept saying about the big belly o' mine: It can be eliminated. It will be gone.

I need to hear optimism, since by nature, I tend to be broodily cynical about such things.

My instructor (Liza) is fabulous (and thin, and lithe, like all the instructors. What physiques!) and patient and encouraging and positive and really nice. (That's "Liza" like lee-za, not like Ms. Minelli.) She's co-owner of The Pilates Room in North Miami Beach, FL. She is certified in and teaches Stott Pilates (one of several modifications of the original technique created by Joseph Pilates.)

I had called ahead to ask if they had experience with the morbidly obese and could accomodate such a body type. And, Liza did. You can see her here.

I'm mildly sore EVERYWHERE, mostly in the sides, inner thighs, upper abdominals, back, upper arms, and butt. That's good, no?

This is not cheap, private training. I consider it an investment. I figure I'll try to go 3 times a week until I learn enough about the technique to cut back to 2x a week private and one class a week. Then once a week private and 2 classes a week. We'll see.

It's a nice workout space. Small, mind you (yes, one room), but clean and--very importantly in our subtropical summer--cool. See pics at their site.

Hubby and I discussed the investment aspect (moolah for health), and decided it was worth straining the budget.

I'll let you know how it goes. I'm working to keep a positive attitude, though it's hard to be in a room where you're twice the size of everyone else, sometimes nearly THREE times the size!

Wearing tight, movement-allowing clothing in public (my upper arms bare, egads!) while everyone else looks like a dancer takes a certain sort of courage. I almost chickened out. But I didn't. And that's my victory for the week!

If you are quite heavy, consider Pilates--also called Contrology--as it's low-impact and the focus is on strength, control, and flexibility, integrating mind and body for health. I'm interested in health--not looking like some fashion plate. I just want to move fluidly and tone and feel more in control of my body. This seems to be one of the best ways to get there.

And don't be afraid of the weird equipment. It's there to help you get well.

As I said, I'll let ya know. :)

To learn more about Pilates:

Pilates.com
Pilates at Wikipedia (including a pronunciation guide)
Stott Pilates
Positives and Negatives
Types of Pilates
Overview of The Cadillac
Youtube.com Video of Leg Spring on The Cadillac
Demonstration of The Barrel
Joseph Pilates himself