WOD Map

Let me introduce myself. I am a 64-year-old, hardworking, Southernish, Black woman. By day, I work for WYPR, the NPR news station in Baltimore. At all other times, I am a woman on a mission to eradicate obesity amongst Black women – obesity, a disease which is linked to depression, anxiety, high blood pressure, irritability, alcohol or substance abuse, chronic sleep deprivation, diabetes, cardiovascular disease,stroke, reduced immunity, and a number of other maladies.

For over 40 years, I was a yo yo dieter, stress eater, emotional overeater, experiential eater, and morbidly obese, for most of my life. I grew up on fried chicken, fried fish, fried corn, rice and gravy, cornbread and collard greens, biscuits, and pound cake – sometimes all in the same meal. I tried everything to lose weight, even surgery, but I always gained the weight back, and then some. On the outside, I was all smiles all the time, but deep inside, underneath all the extra weight, I yearned for a body I could be proud of. Shamefully, I am not alone. Four out of five African American women are either overweight or obese, struggling with this life robbing disease that silently, secretly, yet publicly steals your pride, prosperity, power, freedom, peace, confidence, and joy. In 2019, I discovered the secret that freed me to step into my rightful body. I created Brand New beliefs about hunger which led to Brand New behaviors around food and eating— and ultimately a BRAND-NEW body and more importantly, a BRAND-NEW purpose in life. Today, I am a food addict in recovery on a mission, not just to wear cuter clothes – which was my original intention, but to raise our collective consciousness around why we eat what we eat. Now I look better, live better and feel better than I did at 24, 34, 44 or 54! Now I use writing-for-healing and storytelling to teach high performing, overstressed, overwhelmed, overweight Black women – and anyone else who is ready – how to make the necessary mental shifts to lose weight and keep it off for good.

New Year Resolutions (That Quiet Place)

It’s that time of year again. Celebrations. Bidding farewell to the year gone by. Reflecting on what it was like. Making plans for the year to come.

The fitness industry looks forward to January. It is one of their biggest revenue spinners. We are flush with the hope that a new year inspires. We set fitness goals and make resolutions around improving our health.  Sign up for gym memberships. Sometimes these good intentions last. Sometimes they don’t.

Have you ever had that feeling? Made a New Year’s resolution to improve fitness, work on your health, lose weight and so on? Only to find that it is June already, and your new Nikes are as pristine as they were the day you bought them. If yes, read on, you may find something that speaks to you.

Childhood Obesity

I have struggled with obesity since I was a child. In primary school, the standard-issue school belt wouldn’t fit me. My parents had to purchase the high-school student size separately. Medical check-ups were a particular kind of hell. My weight would be nowhere near the average range, it would be at least 20 kgs heavier. I would dread my classmates laughing at me, and so I would wait until the end to weigh myself. Those of you who may have struggled with childhood obesity or have obese children know the pain I am talking about.

Swimming

Thankfully, my mother decided that enough was enough. She enrolled me in swim classes at the Basavanagudi Aquatic Centre, one of the top swim centres in the country if not the whole of Asia-Pacific. I loved it. 

I loved it so much that not only did all the excess weight melt away, but I also went on to become a competitive swimmer. A few years later, I was captain of the Karnataka women’s water-polo team at the National Games in Imphal, Manipur.

My teenage life was a happy blur of training sessions. In the summer, we trained three times a day. In all seasons, we showed up at 5:00 a.m. to warm-up on the running track. At 5:30 a.m. we were in the water, come rain, shine, or the chill of 1990s Bangalore winters. (Have you ever swum in a deep pool when it is pelting with rain? The water envelopes you from all sides. You are immersed in its quiet depths from below. At the same time, you experience its fury from above. Time and space fade away. There is nothing but that moment. There are no sounds from the land to distract you. Just you and the water. It is pure action-in-inaction, meditative bliss.) I became athlete-fit and body positive. I even appeared on a television show, and somehow managed to find the time to top my school as a state ranker in the Class 10 board exams. Life was great! (or should I say, going swimmingly well 😉)

Then came the Law

Then came law school. From intense physical activity multiple times a day, to next to none. And all the glories of hostel food. ‘Vegetables’ meant things like deep fried bhindi. No fibre or anything raw. Many of you will know exactly what I am talking about when I talk about hostel food! I slid a little way down the slope. Gone were my athlete levels of fitness.

5 years of legal education later, I began my career. I lived all over the world, first in the Netherlands, then in Bombay, then in the United States until I finally found my way back to my hometown of Bangalore. I was clear about the kind of workplace I was looking for. I wanted to work with very smart people, do excellent work, and have time for my fitness regimen. I remember my interview so clearly. I was asked if I had any questions. I said yes, I must go to the gym every day, will I be able to do that if I work here? (The answer, I am happy to say, was a resounding yes).

Fitness, then, has clearly always been a priority for me. How then did I end up weighing a whopping 108 kgs? Yes, you read that right. 108 kgs is what I weighed in 2019. Here I was, a triumpher over childhood obesity, an athlete, over-achiever, star performer, superwoman, call me what you will (I have been called it all). And I was back where I started. How was I different from that child in 4th grade shuddering at the sight of the weighing scale?

From that scary place at the bottom of the proverbial barrel two years ago, I have now lost over 20 kgs. The number is less important than how I feel; how much energy I now have, to devote in every area of my life: work, home, fitness, writing. 

How did the weight go? What did I learn?

How I lost all this weight is equally as important as what I learned about myself in the process.

As lawyers, we live in our heads in a world of words. Our professional world really is about carefully constructing our words, on paper, on email, on text, in meetings, negotiations, arguments, while reading, while analysing, while writing, in person, on the phone, with a range of communication electronics, not just with face to face. When you think about it, we are master communicators with the outside world. We have just forgotten how to communicate with our own bodies.   

We are so socialised into our profession that we lose touch with our bodies. Why do some former athletes put on weight? Because we don’t listen to our bodies. Food is a big part of an athlete’s life, and for swimmers even more so. As many of you may know from your direct experience, there is something about swimming as a workout that makes you hungrier than any other sport does. And after a while, even if you have stopped swimming, vast quantities of food become a crutch. Something you rely on even when you are not hungry, because it makes you feel good. Because it may even remind you of the good times. Especially when things are happening that don’t make you feel so good. Stress, in other words.

Stress

Our professional lives these days can be enormously stressful. It becomes easier to dull the pain with a gooey chocolate cake or a mac ‘n cheese (insert your favourite poison here).

Think about it. Where in your life are you using food or any other addiction, really, to blunt some stress or the other? Most people will just tell you to stop doing it. I am not going to say that. That is the easy part, that you already know.

This is the interesting part, right? We already know everything we need to do to get the outcomes we want. Yet, we don’t take action. We are happy to live inside the patterns that we know, don’t work. Why? Isn’t this so glaringly obvious? Yet we can’t break out of the spiral? Why, why, why?

The answer that I have found (and it may be different for you, I encourage you to find yours, nothing is as potent as the discoveries you make on your own) is because we don’t know how to listen to ourselves. Nobody has taught us this skill. Not in school, not in college, not in the fancy foreign universities we spend an arm and a leg to attend. 

It gets curiouser and curiouser, as Alice says in Wonderland. Not only do we not listen to our bodies, we don’t know that we are not listening, because we live so much in our heads! With this level of disconnection from the body, learning that listening skill seems next to impossible.

Is all this sounding like a trip into la-la land? Don’t worry, I am landing right back down into the world of practical tips and immediately actionable suggestions.

Breath as the Bridge Between the Mind and the Body

Believe it or not, it is quite easy to start listening to what the body is saying. Once you get the hang of it. Getting the hang of it does require effort and patience.

It all starts with the breath. The breath is a bridge between the body and the mind. One that we pay hardly any attention to. Making friends with the breath is like having your own personal bodyguard protecting you and on duty 24/7/365. Ready to help you listen. To take the wisdom you already have, from pure gut feel into powerful action. From the unconscious mind, to the conscious; and from there, to action.

You can start by spending five minutes a day watching your breath. Sit down in the same space at roughly the same time every day, and just watch your breath. The mind will wander. It is alright. Bring it back gently. Keep the spine straight. Place your hand on your stomach and feel the gentle rise and fall of the abdomen, as the diaphragm does its blessed, much overlooked work. Exhale. Exhale. Exhale. Inhale, and receive. Make it smooth, make it circular, make it beautiful. 

(If this doesn’t work for you, there are many other techniques you can try. You can mentally count numbers in the inhale and exhale. You could find breathwork audios on YouTube that you could play alongside. One of my favourite techniques is to repeat mentally as I exhale, ‘Empty, empty, empty.’ And then as I inhale, ‘Receive.’ Have some fun with it. Figure out what you like, what works for you.)  

Over time, you will find that the pounding of thoughts, reduces. To continue the swimming metaphor, the rain stops battering you from the outside. You can access that quiet, deep place inside.  

That Quiet Place

That Quiet Place helps you. Your best friend and bodyguard, it will ask you: do you really want those deep - fried donuts, or is it because you are stressed about the number of documents still pending? Do you really want that samosa or are you just upset because of that conversation?

That Quiet Place gives you the power to stop displacing. We displace our emotions about one thing into something else. And we never give ourselves the time to understand what exactly these games are. Games that we are playing with ourselves, constantly. Games that in the long run, are ruinous to our health.

Watching the breath, understanding this bridge, hanging out with this friend and bodyguard, helps us become more self - aware. The first impact is on our health.

How can the Quiet Place help you at work?

The Quiet Place is much more than just an aid to better physical health, though. It is the path to improved cognition, clarity in thinking, empathy, and a range of other benefits. In a nutshell, the quality of your life improves dramatically on all levels, in all areas.

Discover for yourself, also, the dramatic positive effect watching your breath can have on the quality of your own work. On the quality of your thinking, your analysis, and your writing. The effect it has on the quality of your interactions with your clients, your colleagues, your subordinates and bosses, your workplace and hopefully ultimately the industry. 

What effect? I am deliberately going to leave that unanswered so you can find out yourself. If this has piqued your curiosity. Don’t believe a word I am saying, experiment on your own.

Can you give yourself the gift of 5 minutes a day to watch your breath?

New Year Resolutions

Go ahead and make those resolutions. Do you need to knock off a few kilos? (I do, another 20 kg, and I am making the resolution now. Hold me accountable, people!). Reverse chronic conditions? Diabetes? Hypertension? Give your knees a break from lugging around your weight? You can, easily.

Just don’t expect the fitness industry to do it for you. Don’t think that the diet – exercise mantra is the only one you must chant. Be willing to invest the time to get to know yourself, understand your own body, what makes it tick. Find your own Quiet Place inside. 

Finding the Quiet Place is what makes the weight loss sustainable. This is how you ensure the weight you have lost, stays lost. It doesn’t find its way back to you. That Quiet Place helps you love and accept yourself the way you are. That is a big part of what makes the weight melt away (counterintuitive as that sounds).  

It’s how you stop waving goodbye to your personal trainer with one hand, and reaching for that bagel with cream cheese, with the other.

Haven’t we all done that? I certainly have. I may still do it, and so can you, occasionally. Except that now I can relish the taste of cheese without needing the bread. Even if I choose to have the bread, I may enjoy a few mindful, well – masticated bites. I don’t need to finish the entire bun, or reach for another, or wolf down the entire pack.

My fellow morbidly obese friends will know exactly what I mean. 

It all starts with the breath.

Let the magic begin.

Welcome, 2023.

***

P.S: If you are interested in how I did it, you can read the story of the first milestone (10% weight lost) here. There’s even a little video at the end: https://novoliver.in/how-the-science-of-4-pillars-saved-neela-from-spending-her-hard-earned-money-on-medical-bills/

P.P.S: Thanks to Malavika Prasad for helping with insightful comments on the first draft.

https://neelabadami.substack.com/p/new-years-resolutions

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/new-year-resolutions-quiet-place-neela-badami/

Mental health plays such a crucial role in our overall well-being. When we're feeling stressed, anxious, or depressed, it can be easy to turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms, such as overeating, which can lead to weight gain and eventually obesity. On the flip side, being overweight or obese can also worsen our mental health, creating a vicious cycle. That's why it's so important to prioritize our mental health and find healthy ways to manage stress. Taking care of our minds and bodies go hand in hand, and there truly isn't health without mental health.

Surviving Obesity is something i am incredibly passionate about, as I am an obesity survivor and absolutely thriving in my health & fitness going on 8 years now. I was always overweight as a child, always having quality food but large portions. moving onto young adult years i kept gaining weight, trying every diet, shake, pill and with all of them i lost weight but soon after pile it all back on and some, because the chronic dieting had turned me to binge eating, everything i missed out on for 8 weeks i would consume too much of. At my largest of 127kg and a BMI of 42 i decided to have gastric banding surgery, as i was afraid of having the more permanent option. Gastric banding changed my life completely, loosing 20kgs, it gave me hope and confidence that i could change who i was destined to be, which then gave me the confidence and the fire to search for more for myself. But Banding was a major operation and the flood of emotions that came with the start of this new way of eating was really hard. With the monthly surgeon check ins & the two dietician appts I received, it was really not enough to understand my new stomach, my ever-changing body & the mental strain it took to forcibly break my old habits.

It was then that I met my personal trainer. An incredible man that helped educate me about proper nutrition, gave me an opportunity to try new things that I had deemed impossible, renewed my enjoyment for physical exercise & movement and gave me the self confidence that i needed to lose weight & tone my body. Navigating this weight loss journey became increasingly difficult with the band, as the more weight I lost the tighter the surgeon would make my band. When my band was tight it restricted every food that I could consume, no matter how much I chewed or cooked it down to nothing. I developed different aversions to food and I found myself opting for easier foods to consume ( generally these ended up being unhealthy or full of sauce in order for them to go down ok) The food that I enjoyed couldn’t be consumed anymore even the healthy food, my relationship with food changed negatively and my social interaction around food had once again become embarrassing, no longer because of my size, but because most of the food I would eat would have to come back up.

With the continued help of my personal trainer, I went back to my surgeon, explained to him my grievances and agreed upon having the band remain empty & dormant in my body while I pushed and challenged myself every day to lose 30kgs. After a few years of learning about proper nutrition, strength & conditioning & living an active lifestyle I finally went back into my surgeon and asked to have my band removed. The surgeon was highly reluctant to remove my band explaining that statistics say that without it I would re-gain all the weight I lost and more. It took me a long time to stand up to him and although grateful for his service and the start I needed for weight loss, having the band removed was the only way I could fully control my destiny & my health in a positive way. Much to my surgical teams disappointment I had my band taken out, (with no follow up) I went back to the new life I had created, training consistently, moving everyday and eating nourishing foods without guilt or restriction. Loosing a total of 65kgs and maintaining it for 8 years.

Because of my journey and the incredible impact my trainer had on my life, I went on to study to do the same. I am now a personal trainer & body transformation specialist in Perth Western Australia, offering in person coaching and online programs to guide the others trying to overcome obesity & for those that are undergoing bariatric surgery. By giving them the support & guidance, they need to get the most from their journey.

For me, my coaching is all about educating my clients & the community around obesity and how to overcome it. I want to be able to help others who are struggling, whether just starting out or to support their WLS journey through healthy lifestyle habits, nutritional education & providing comfort & safety from someone who has navigated her way through from surviving to thriving.

Obesity has become a challenge, a big one, in Nepal (a South Asian nation which continues to struggle with persistent under-nourishment among her people). Our review of evidence illustrates the increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity over the past two decades, while official responses from the federal government remains sub-optimal.

Traditionally, Nepal's malnutrition problem was characterised by undernutrition as expresssed in terms of sub-optimal growth among children, thinness among women and deficiencies of selected micronutrients such as iron. This still remains at high prevalence levels, despite the decreasing trends in prevalence. However, obesity, particularly amongst adults, has risen to epidemic proportions in the past two decades. So, Nepal faces the double burden of high - though declining - levels of undernutrition (including micronutrient deficiencies) and the rising challenge of obesity. 

This has occurred simultaneously with changes in society and economy. Owing to the easy and widespread availability of low quality foods produced by the industries and marketed aggressively using a host of business strategies, Nepali people's eating habits are changing towards increasingly high consumption of food products with refined carbohydrates, salt and fat. Also, prevalence of insufficient levels of physical activity has risen. 

In urban areas, a plethora of fitness centres have emerged, offering commercialised facilities and services to lose weight. Yet, there is no indication that the prevalence of obesity would decrease in the next several years, unless the marketing of unhealthy foods are controlled, and an environmental conducive for adequate physical activity is developed. 

Dana speaks to the importance of remembering the support offered by the loved ones of those living with obesity.

My name is Sandra Elia, I'm passionate about the work I do to help those living with obesity because my story includes overcoming obesity.

I’ve lived two lives. One life suffering from morbid obesity, eating out of control, and experiencing paralyzing depression, my entire life was spiraling out of control. Another life as a happy, healthy, vibrant woman, mother, and Food Addiction Counselor!

Travel back with me to 2001 where I begin my journey from the darkest point in my life. A point I never thought I would reach >>>

>>> I'm 29 and I’m out of control, detached from my body, my feelings, and my passions; merely going through the motions of the day, only seeing what’s exactly in front of me and nothing more. I have blinders on. I have no interest to plan, dream, or focus on anything but surviving.

Using food as my only source of power and comfort, it is my almighty drug. But this drug has left me feeling beyond empty, and with the reality of being 100 pounds overweight, I am uncomfortable and unhealthy.

My entire body aches from the extra weight, I can’t move freely. I isolate myself from friends, activities, and family. I feel like an outcast, as though I have no right to be a part of this world that values beauty so highly. My worth is measured by my size' the bigger the size the less I am worth.

The truth is my weight is merely a manifestation of the life I'm living . . . a life completely out of control. I am clinically depressed and in a bad marriage; it's chipping away at my spirit. I'm on extended sick leave from work taking care of my sick, bipolar, obese mother.

From this shallow point, I rebuilt my life.

Somehow through the fog, I realize no diet or get thin quick scheme could help me. No number on the scale can give me peace, acceptance, or love. The diets have all failed me. They've robbed me of money, dignity, and self-respect. They've given me false hope and brought me further into my disease.

Yes, I have a disease, it's called obesity and I sought treatment.

I start this journey by looking inward. I had to see my beauty and learn how to love and accept myself exactly as I was --- all 262 pounds of me. I had to change the mental tapes that had been on replay for so much of my life, that I was undisciplined, lazy, and ugly. This could no longer be my truth. I had to choose to love myself. Unconditionally.

What I learned very quickly was that love is energizing, and I needed all the energy I could muster to recover. I also discovered that no different than if I spent time with a negative hateful person, my own self-hating thoughts drained and exhausted me.

I could no longer speak to myself about myself that way. I made a pact with myself to not say anything unkind about myself. Ever.

Obesity is a disease that will require lifelong treatment that will give me a more rewarding life.

I'm a clinical dietitian and nutritionist, and currently, I'm a PhD researcher at UCL School of Pharmacy.

Weight-based stigmatisation in healthcare settings is associated with physical and mental health concerns and inequitable healthcare, health disparities and a lack of engagement due to discriminatory practices. Substantial evidence demonstrates that weight stigma can contribute to disordered eating, such as binge eating and emotional eating, increased caloric intake regardless of hunger and the risk of developing obesity.

Educating healthcare professionals in using non-stigmatising language and communication in managing obesity may positively affect the quality of healthcare and adherence outcomes in weight loss programmes and interventions.

Healthcare professionals have a strategic role in delivering brief opportunistic interventions and signposting patients to appropriate services. Interventions to reduce weight stigma in clinical practice with a patient-centred, health-focused approach are more important than ever. Techniques such as motivational interviewing and the 5A's model may facilitate health behaviour change in managing obesity in the primary care setting. Such training sessions can also support primary care practitioners in engaging with patients about weight in a non-stigmatising way.

More research is needed to develop a best-practice model that can be routinely implemented in healthcare settings to foster health behaviour change by using a weight-inclusive, more respectful, empathetic, health-enhancing approach.