Check all the boxes that apply to you and fill in the others we missed in the spaces or comments below.
Wife, partner, advocate, director, economist, mother, disciplinarian, teacher, nurse, daughter in law, artist, model, cleaner, chef, caregiver, community leader, lead negotiator, nurturer, health officer, chief financial officer, homemaker, caregiver, ___________, ________, _________________, _____________, _____________, ___________, ________, _______________, ____________, ____________, ________, _________________, _______.
The actress and comedian Lily Tomlin said: “For fast acting relief, try slowing down.” This week, National Women’s Health Week gives women and by extension all of us who treasure the women in our lives a time to pause, reflect, and amplify awareness about the health challenges uniquely faced by women. It is a time to highlight essential health topics, preventative care practices and hopefully start and continue dialogue that encourage and empower women to prioritize their health.
Why Women’s Health Matters
Implicit in the list above women juggle numerous responsibilities, balancing careers and family, the grind of everyday life along with personal aspirations. Amidst these responsibilities, prioritizing one’s health can sometimes become secondary. However, focusing on general women’s health is vital to achieving long-term wellness and vitality. Regular health screenings, maintaining a balanced diet, staying physically active, and addressing mental health are foundational to comprehensive women’s health care.
The Importance of Mental Health
According to American Psychiatric Association 1 in 5 women in the United States has a mental health problem such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), or an eating disorder. Mental health is integral to overall health, women in particular may face distinct mental health challenges linked to hormonal changes, life experiences, societal pressures, caregiving roles. Recognizing common mental health symptoms can lead to timely intervention and improved outcomes. Below are some symptoms that women should be attentive to include:
- Frequent feelings of sadness or hopelessness
- Noticeable mood swings, energy fluctuations, or appetite changes
- Difficulty sleeping or excessive sleeping
- Persistent fatigue or low energy
- Excessive worry or anxiety
- Increased irritability or anger
- Physical symptoms such as headaches, body aches, or gastrointestinal issues
- Reliance on alcohol or drugs as coping mechanisms
- Social withdrawal from friends and family
- Thoughts of self-harm or suicide
If you or someone you know experiences these symptoms, it’s crucial to speak urgently and openly with a healthcare provider to discuss potential treatments and support strategies. However, for this discussion we will discuss one challenge where it is reasonable and viable to gain control – our eating and weight, and how the rising tide – the field of Behavioral Nutrition, a comprehensive and odyssean approach and model to weight control can enable those goals to become a reality.
Behavioral Nutrition: Strategy > Willpower
Food situations are part of every day of life. They come up again and again, and there’s an amazing amount of predictability to what you can expect to encounter. Most of us rely on a very small assortment of foods – the same vegetables, the same meats, the same snack foods that satisfy an eat and run diet, an always accessible 24/7, a text away from contact lifestyle. Despite the fact that we can buy practically any food at any time, no matter how exotic or out of season, few of us venture beyond the limits of our favorite foods. And most eating occurs in only about seven situations:
- At home
- In the workplace
- In restaurants
- In other’s homes
- When travelling
- On vacation
- Celebratory events, i.e. holiday dinners, weddings, and parties
The realm of food is not a sprawling metropolis, but a small village. The same scenarios come up over and over again. You face the same foods, the same temptations. Despite all the seeming variables with food and life, if something is something is 100% predictable, it is 100% controllable.
Behavioral Nutrition represents an approach to weight-loss and maintenance that emphasizes individual differences in habitual food behavior and the consequent implementation of specific strategies to effectively navigate the modern food environment. This approach seeks to incorporate evidence form diverse disciplines, including behavioral economics, habits psychology and neuroscience and provide individuals with weight control advice that is sustainable and effective.
The word behavior comes before nutrition and for good reason. How a person really behaves and interacts with food needs to be taken into consideration to build an actionable plan based on an individual’s “food history” – how you have behaved with food over the years of your life, and the unique history you have with any food. Your whole life experience is an immediate predictor of how you will next behave with this food. This perspective towards weight control “cuts out the fat” in that no weight control program could possibly discuss every single food you will encounter on your road through life. But by using your own history with food you have an almost perfect guide.
Power Tip to Shift Your Thinking: Ask yourself: “What is my history with this food or this type of food?”
Empowering Women Through Behavioral Nutrition
Thomas Wade Landry, World War II veteran, regarded as one of the greatest head coaches of all time in the NFL said: “A coach is someone who tells you what you don’t want to hear, who has you see what you don’t want to see, so you can be who you have always known you could be.” While a coach for a football team is quite different from a life coach, the principle of being transparent, and honest, while providing practical sustainable strategies, and continuing support especially in critical times of need is a hallmark of my practice. Strategy triumphs willpower is one of the mantras that I tell my patients.
Here are a few strategies for you to quickly implement and give you the opportunity to peer into the window of the principles of a Nobel Prize Laureate I have operationalized in the field of Behavioral Nutrition.
Getting Rid of Food That’s Sabotaged You, Again And Again
- Set a date when you are going to stop eating it and reward yourself for the decision. Buy yourself a present, such as a new outfit in a smaller size. Tell yourself you can have the food again, from a certain age on, such as 77.
- Tell yourself: It’s not an options. The human psyche is prone to negotiate boundaries when pleasure is involved, but when it hears an unequivocal: “No!” it becomes surprisingly obedient and respects the line.
- Avoid eye contact. No one ever graduated from baking school for turning out hideous, revolting cookies, cakes, and tarts. No eye contact allowed is a smart strategy.
National Women’s Health Week is a giant post it note on our calendar that wellness encompasses physical, mental, and emotional dimensions. By prioritizing preventive care, embracing healthy lifestyle and food choices, addressing mental health openly and paying attention to controllable areas in our life women can lead fuller, healthier, and happier lives.
Behavioral Nutrition represents a renewed focus on behavioral strategies that honor an individual- their thinking, their habits, their life pattern. I am a Behavioral Architect, I don’t build with stones, but I build with the cornerstones of a person’s unique food history, lifestyle and personality. In the book, “The Seen Lands of Architecture” John Rushkin wrote: “When we build let us think we build forever.” Human behavior is not as enduring as stone, but my goal is what I build with the individual will endure for a lifetime.
Let’s celebrate National Women’s Health Week by committing ourselves—and supporting each other and the women in our life—in making weight control and our health a priority. Your health, life and happiness truly matter!