By in Nutrition

Tired, Stressed and Overwhelmed? Not Anymore!

A few weeks ago, Anne (not her real name) called me to book a 1:1 Weight Loss Programme with me. Anne is a 45-year-old mother of two, juggling a part-time office job and family life. She told me that some would think it silly that she was going to embark on a weight loss programme as she isn’t actually overweight. However, she had noticed over the last couple of years that a spare tyre had settled above her waistband. All her life, Anne had been slim and this ‘love handle’ made her very uncomfortable.

But there was more: Anne often experienced bloating, something she found annoying in her yoga class where not only was it very obvious, it could also get in the way with certain positions. She didn’t sleep very well at night and was then tired during the day. Anne propped herself up with caffeine and biscuits, and cravings made her reach for the biscuit tin more than she knew was good for her. Her job is stressful at times, and more and more Anne found that there were days when she was close to tears, which is not just bad enough in itself, she also ended up being embarrassed about her tears –  more stress. Needless to say, she also didn’t have much patience at home, finding herself snapping at her husband and children without much provocation. Anne contacted me, because she knew that her diet wasn’t brilliant and probably not helping. She’d had enough and wanted to make a change.

My recommendations are based on a low-GL (glycaemic load) eating plan. The focus is on keeping blood sugar stable, and in their first session, clients learn how to do that. Follow-up sessions are then used to coach them through the changes, focus on particular health issues – which are of course different for every client – and tweak the diet to suit their individual requirements.

The first week was tough for Anne. She first lived through three days of headaches from caffeine withdrawal, followed by a weekend of lower back pain, which, too, might have been a detox symptom. After that, however, things were looking up very soon, and her sleep improved even in that first week.

When I saw Anne for the third time, she had lost some fat and built muscle, a combination that doesn’t change weight much but means a leaner and more toned body. Her ‘metabolic age’ (a way of expressing the efficiency with which our body uses energy) had dropped from her actual age to 39 – a number Anne was thrilled with. She reported that she felt more alert in the mornings, was ready to face the world right after waking, and had noticed to her amazement that work didn’t get to her anymore. Nothing about her job had changed, of course, but she was now able to tolerate stress much better and not get emotional. Her family also noticed an improvement in her mood and patience.

Sweet cravings were a thing of the past. Anne, who likes to cook and bake and have friends round to share meals, found that while she catered for her friends just as she used to, she wasn’t all that interested in desserts herself anymore and wouldn’t snack on biscuits either.

After four weeks, Anne reported that her lifelong constipation had disappeared. She was used to going only every three days or so. Since it had always been that way, Anne had thought that that’s the way her body worked. Clearly not. But not only that, she was used to her stomach gurgling a lot, making quite loud noises. Again, something that had been with her all her life, just one of those things. Now, her stomach is quiet. No bloating, no gurgling, no constipation. Oh, and her ‘metabolic age’ had dropped to 36. Clearly, her new way of eating was delivering much more than she had bargained for.

This is something I experience in practice all the time: Many of my clients come to me, because they want to lose weight. At the same time, most of them live with other, maybe not dramatic, but annoying, niggling health issues that have been with them for a long time, decades sometimes, and that they have come to accept as part of themselves: tiredness, lack of motivation, difficulty concentrating, irritability, cravings for sugar or bread, bloating, sleep disturbances, constipation, acid reflux, indigestion, and of course the spare tyre. It’s not that weight loss takes priority over these other issues, it’s just that they aren’t aware that there is anything that can be done about them.

As we adjust their diet and lifestyle all clients without exception experience at least improvement of those other issues, if not complete resolution, just like Anne. And what’s more: It doesn’t even take long! Change is possible, and it is not in the distant future. You just need to know what to do and get a little support in putting into practice. After that, there’s no stopping you!

Melanie
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