obesity matters wellness workshop: embracing wellness beyond the scale
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obesity matters has developed a series of 12 wellness workshops starting this fall to bring wellness resources and experts free of charge to all people through informative and actionable virtual gatherings.
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no matter your size or shape, the drive to be thin can lead to overwhelming problems of restrictive dieting or binging, yo-yo weight loss and weight gain, and crumbling self-esteem dictated by the number on the scale and fear of never being good enough.
“the scale is the least accurate measure of how hard you are working and how much you are changing,” says sandra elia, food addiction counsellor in toronto and leader of a food addiction recovery program integrated in medical clinics across canada. “i tell people, ‘my weight is none of my business. my business is to eat whole natural foods, move my body and wherever my weight ends up is the best i can do.’ the real work is to love and enjoy the body i have today.”
elia is chair of obesity matters, the national patient advocacy group for people living with overweight and obesity. she joined to help end the stigma of carrying extra weight and promote access to care. science has shown that obesity is a chronic medical condition that needs to be treated with a personalized plan that may include targeted medications like other chronic issues.
no one should be pointing the finger of blame at someone who struggles with weight – least of all the individual themselves.
obesity matters has developed a series of 12 wellness workshops starting this fall to bring wellness resources and experts free of charge to all people through informative and actionable virtual gatherings. the approach is holistic, looking at strategies for body, mind and soul that start from a place of self-love and compassion. the aim is all about inclusivity, benefiting people living with overweight and obesity and those without. the support sessions with elia run as follow-up meetings two weeks after each monthly workshop where she offers her guidance and initiates conversation among participants, building community.
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“the thing with obesity is we forget that it’s not only about body weight or body image. it’s a human vulnerability. people are very vulnerable when they’re living with obesity and it affects your whole life. it is ridiculous to me to believe that we can send somebody living with obesity to go on a diet and that’s going to fix it.”
for elia, the message is personal. she has lived experience with obesity that sent her into a downward spiral in her late 20s where she ended up taking a sick leave from her work in marketing for a firm in the city’s financial district. “that’s the best thing that i ever did because it was like i caught my breath and i was able to say, ‘ok, i don’t have another diet in me and i will never diet again.’ that happened over 22 years ago. i was over 100 lbs. overweight. i remember thinking, ‘i just can’t keep eating this way. i can’t keep eating compulsively, and i can’t keep living like this.’”
she starts the support sessions by talking about her own vulnerability so that people know that they are in a safe space where they will be heard and understood. her mother lived with obesity and bipolar disorder, so elia was born with a 70 per cent chance that she would live with obesity like her mom, as research has now shown the genetic link. during her struggles with obesity as a teen and young adult, there was no evidence-based treatment or medication for obesity that we have today. at one point, she had a consultation for bariatric surgery that would shrink her stomach to the “size of a shot glass” to prevent overeating.
“and i thought, ‘but i don’t eat because i’m hungry. that’s not my problem. my problem is i eat to comfort, to escape, to obliviate pain, to forget.” she got help through a program for overeaters that resolved her destructive food behaviours. elia decided to make a career of helping others, and being healthy for her young daughter who’s now 13. (her daughter asked for a treadmill as a gift when they recently moved into a new house, so elia knows her at-home exercise routine has set a good example.)
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the wellness workshops and support sessions are designed to give people confidence and empower them so they can start their own path to better health. experts in obesity medicine, nutrition, physiotherapy and self-care, for example, lead a focused workshop that gives people research-backed information, resources and an opportunity for questions.
“it’s patient-centred and it’s accessible because of the virtual nature and it’s free,” priti chawla, toronto founder and executive director of obesity matters, says of the workshop format and intention. “so, there’s no social barrier, there’s no geographic barrier and it’s inclusive for everyone, whether you are an advocate, a healthcare provider, an employee or whomever. there’s a lot of remote areas where people may not have access to specialists, so bringing topnotch experts to your doorstep no matter where you are.”
chawla is also sharing polls with participants to collect data to evaluate the content and effectiveness of the impact on people’s well-being. she stresses that the series is focused on wellness and positivity in all aspects of life.
as her team emphasizes, the sessions are not about numbers on a scale but offering support and hope.
“if you can change somebody’s mindset and the way that they perceive themselves and their relationship with food as well, then there’s durability to that,” says dr. sandy van, medical advisor at obesity matters who has helped shape the workshop series. van is an obesity physician and gp psychotherapist in toronto who treats patients with a blend of pharmacological and psychological techniques like cognitive behavioural therapy.
“somebody has been living a long time with obesity and having strong negative attitudes about their own weight and beliefs about what society also says about people living with high weight, it starts to chip away at their self-confidence and their feelings of self-worth. once they see that this is actually biologically driven and might be beyond what they can manage just with lifestyle alone, that’s when people start to understand that what they’ve thought of themselves for so long was untrue and unwarranted. they start to show self-acceptance and kindness to themselves. that is rewarding, because then i know their mental health is good, which is the durable thing,” she says.
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“even if i help them lose weight, i could never bet money that it’s going to be fixed for decades.”
when van started her residency to become a family doctor about 10 years ago, she realized that physicians were treating so many comorbidities that are related to obesity, like diabetes and hypertension, without addressing obesity. “obesity happened to be the thing that i noticed people wanting to talk about but that we had little to offer,” she explains. she recognized the significant quality of life impact for people with nowhere to turn. “excess weight or obesity is the most common chronic disease that we’re faced with day-to-day that has this pervasive, insidious impact on the people who live with it.”
the extra weight is not only putting people at higher risk for high blood pressure, diabetes, osteoporosis and heart disease and stroke, as research shows. so many people also live with the psychological impact, “whether it’s internalized weight bias, body image dissatisfaction, anxiety, helplessness and so on,” van says.
the wellness workshops by obesity matters are comprehensive and relevant, she adds. “they serve as a touchpoint for people who don’t have access to somebody who can help them manage. i think that’s really important as a doctor that the touch points matter. having a community is a very important aspect to somebody’s treatment or management of weight, so they’re not feeling isolated.”
to learn more and register for a free wellness workshop, visit the obesity matters website.
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