Intro to diet, nutrition and weight loss
by Marcelle Pick, OB/GYN NP
Without a doubt, eating well and having optimal nutrition is the number-one strategy for creating lifelong health, regardless of your starting point. You may be highly conscientious and diligent about your diet, or you may be in despair about your nutrition and miles from reaching your goal. Or, you may be “good” one day then wobble or fall down the next. Whatever the case, this section of our site is all about how to make nutrition and eating well the cornerstone to your health foundation.
As much as my patients know they should eat well, the concern that looms largest for them is their weight. Whatever their age and station, most women care deeply about what they look like. It is unfortunate, but in the minds of many, their figure is not their friend! As a consequence, women “do battle” with their weight, adopting any number of extreme and unhealthy patterns over the course of their lifetime to keep things “in check.”
From my point of view, the first thing a woman must do instead is befriend her body. The next hurdle women must overcome is the “calories-in, calories-out” myth. When a woman struggles with issues of weight gain or body image, she intuitively knows that something is wrong with this equation. It is just not that simple, and the fact is, the most effective strategy is not a battle of willpower, but all about self-care and homeostasis.
When it comes to diet, nutrition, and weight loss, it is so much more important to look at the whole picture. Some of the many components that affect your overall weight and wellbeing include thyroid health, adrenal health, the lymphatic/immune system, toxicities, serotonin imbalance, insulin resistance, and levels of bioavailable vitamin D in your system — to name just a few!
Tips for Personal Program Success
Warm up, cool down. Be sure to give yourself at least 5 minutes on either end of your workout to get your muscles loosened up. This helps prevent injuries, feels great, and helps your muscles elongate and restore balance.
At Women to Women we have spent years developing our perspective on the subject of diet, nutrition and weight loss. But despite the many angles to this complex picture, there is just one simple rule: you must first balance your hormones and create a foundation of health in order to lose unwanted pounds and retain your health and well-being.
So whether you are interested in optimizing your health through nutrition and lifestyle, or you want to learn how to regulate your weight without compromising your health in the process, we offer the many articles listed below as a guide. We hope you will read over the material, then decide for yourself if Women to Women’s Personal Program rings true for you.
Our most popular resources on diet, nutrition and weight loss
To access an article, just choose from the list of excerpts below. To find more articles, use the search function below. Don’t see a topic that’s important to you? Let us know.
Weight gain in perimenopause and menopause
After years of barely keeping their weight “in check,” many women entering menopause are shocked and dismayed by sudden weight gain in the waist, hips, and belly. But this is not the beginning of the end, rather an opportunity to make the changes that keep you strong and healthy for decades to come.
Natural weight loss
If you want your weight loss to last, you have to shed those unwanted pounds “from the inside out.” Here is our effective holistic approach — including the vital emotional piece.
Soy for menopausal symptoms
An outline of what we’ve observed about soy from over 20 years of clinical experience, when and why we recommend it to women in perimenopause and menopause, why it works for many but not for everyone, and how to determine for yourself whether to give it a try.- Personal Program Nutritional and Lifestyle Guidelines
How well your body is working right now, and how well is it able to handle its daily challenges? With Women to Women’s Nutritional and Lifestyle Guidelines, you will delight in how well you begin to feel when given the right ingredients!
- The set point
Your optimal weight range was pre-programmed in utero. That’s right — you did not actually choose this figure! But how did the set point evolve and why ... and did you know you can fine-tune yours?
- Body Mass Index (BMI)
A quick look at the BMI, bioimpedence, and waist-to-hip ratio models for determining your optimal weight.
- Emotional eating
Understand the emotional underpinnings that lie at the foundation of our eating patterns — both healthy and unhealthy. Learn the signs of emotional eating and take the first step to address and reverse its adverse effects.
- The trouble with fad diets
We live in a diet culture, where countless numbers of all ages devote themselves to the latest craze. But weight loss is different for women than it is for men, and depending upon your age, fad diets rarely work — and can even significantly harm you. Let’s talk about why, then look at how you can lose weight in a healthy way — and keep it off.
- The truth about cholesterol and fat
When it comes to human nutrition, we say fat is a good word. From our heart to our brain, our reproductive organs to our skin, we depend on fat to grease the wheels. Read up here on the best fat you can eat, and where can you get it.
- New health information on the controversy about soy
Competing claims about whether soy can be used safely to address menopausal symptoms create confusion about soy’s health benefits. Women to Women looks at the science behind both sides of the controversy to help you sort fact from fiction.
- Health benefits of soy
From soy’s role in allergies to breast cancer, thyroid health, and menopause, conflicting reports abound. Read about Women to Women’s own findings on soy foods, proteins, isolates, and isoflavones in this update from Dr. Dixie Mills on the safety of soy.
- Sugar substitutes and the danger of Splenda
As humans we are biologically programmed to love sugar, leading us to seek out sweets in any form we can find them. Unfortunately, too much of it knocks our hormones off-balance. Find out how you can put sugar back in its proper place and in the process regain your health.
- Diet soda — how healthy is it?
With the peculiar evolution and convergence of the soft drink and diet industries, consumption rates of soda pop and diet soda have soared in recent years. But a healthy weight and a healthy body come from supporting your body’s natural balance, and the chemicals in soda compromise that balance. Here is a guide to making informed choices about soda for you and your family.
- High-fructose corn syrup
Recent studies indicate that there are differences in the way our bodies respond to different forms of sugar. With high-fructose corn syrup and other corn sweeteners overtaking regular sugar on mainstream grocery shelves, this could be contributing to the rapid rise in obesity rates. Here’s some information that will help you prevent HFCS from troubling your sweet tooth.
- Health and vitamins — who should take dietary supplements, and why?
We’ve been recommending nutritional supplements and dietary changes as medical therapies for over 20 years, and we’re ready to answer your questions on the vitamin controversy. We also discuss how dietary supplements can work to reverse the impact of genetics, as well as that of nutritional deficiencies and other environmental stressors, on your overall risk of disease.
- Choosing the best multivitamin
Not all dietary supplements are created equally, so here’s a primer on what to look for when you pick the perfect multivitamin for your individual needs.
- Why doctors are often opposed to nutritional supplements
True, many doctors have little background in nutrition, but there are genuine reasons behind their hesitancy to advocate for nutritional supplements. We share their concerns on how multivitamins are marketed and used. Here’s a look at how we reconcile their line of thinking with our own.
- Preventing vitamin D deficiency — the new breakthrough?
Vitamin D plays multiple roles in the body. It helps us to absorb calcium, keeping our bones strong; serves to regulate our metabolic rate, playing a key role in weight loss; wards off several forms of cancer; and may help regulate mood. Learn how to address symptoms of deficiency and how to maintain optimal levels of bioavailable vitamin D in the body.
- Are tanning beds a safe source of vitamin D?
Tanning beds are inviting for many of us, especially as the winter months drag on and we haven’t seen the sun for days, or when we just need a little glow to prepare for a special event or a holiday in the sun. But here’s a word of caution about using tanning beds as a substitute for the benefits of natural sunlight.
- Basics of nutrition and healthy eating
Written by Liz Lipski, PhD, CCN, author of Digestive Wellness, this article covers the fundamentals of healthy eating and how to choose healthy foods.
- Omega-3 fatty acids — essential to health and happiness
From the day we’re conceived to our golden years, each and every cell in our bodies requires EPA and DHA, the omega-3 fatty acids that trump all other fats. Learn how omega-3 fatty acids benefit your health on every level, and why they hold such great promise for health, happiness, and long life.
- What’s the difference between omega-3’s, 6’s and 9’s?
Many women are confused about the differences between fatty acids and may wonder what the fanfare’s all about. Read the ABC’s of the 3’s, 6’s and 9’s and learn why they matter.
- Omega-3’s, phytonutrients, and the Mediterranean diet
Your body understands the language of the Mediterranean diet, rich in plant nutrients and omega-3’s that speak to it with greater clarity and truth than fast food, junk food, or any other facsimile of true nourishment. Simplicity, beauty, and health — the concepts embodied in this way of eating are timeless.
- Vegetarians and omega-3’s
Two factors limit an adequate omega-3 intake in people today: their relative scarcity in our diets; and our bodies’ limited capacity to convert other fats into them. For vegetarians and vegans, the first limitation is an even greater one than it is for omnivores. If this includes you or your loved ones, here’s important info about the best plant sources — old and new — of these supercritical nutrients.
Our Personal Program is a great place to start
The Personal Program promotes natural hormonal balance with nutritional supplements, our exclusive endocrine support formula, dietary and lifestyle guidance, and optional phone consultations with our Nurse–Educators. It is a convenient, at-home version of what we recommend to all our patients at the clinic.
Original Publication Date: 11/14/2005
Last Modified: 06/26/2008
Principal Author: Marcelle Pick, OB/GYN NP