Southwest Florida's Health and Wellness Magazine Health and Wellness Articles
By Chrisanna Harrington, MA, RDN, LMHC
What would it be like to never diet again? What would it be like to finally feel comfortable in your body? Have lab work that shows your health and not your illness? At PASWFL, we can help you achieve permanent weight loss, without surgery, without a diet, without prepackaged food, without shots to risk damage to your metabolism. How do you ask? Simply we design a plan for YOU, an individual based on your body composition, based on foods in their natural state, which you are used to eating; based on your lab values, based on your lifestyle. And then, we will see you every two weeks to a month to follow your progress and coach you to understand nutritional science, understand metabolism, and understand what is happening in your body based on science, not magic.
We run labs, and a specific lab we are looking at is Fasting Insulin. The Fasting Insulin level will tell us if you are Insulin Resistant. What is Insulin Resistance? Insulin Resistance is when your cells become resistant to insulin, and so the blood sugar that is in your bloodstream cannot get into the cells.
These are the symptoms:
We treat Insulin Resistance, not with a High Protein Diet that can decrease kidney function, we design a program with 25% carbohydrate to get your Insulin production down, so your body can start to function normally again.
We have many people who come in and feel shame about their eating habits. Binge Eating Disorder is now a psychiatric diagnosis. The symptoms of binge eating disorder are:
• Eating at a faster pace than average.
• Eating until one is over-full and physically uncomfortable.
• Overeating even when he or she doesn’t feel hungry.
• Being embarrassed by the binge eating and often eats alone to hide it.
• Feeling guilty, sad, or disgusted with him or herself after the episode.
Even though this is a psychiatric diagnosis, this Binge Eating disorder, there is a physiological explanation as well. Binge Eating has to do with two gastric hormonal systems called Ghrelin and Leptin, as well. Typically, Ghrelin produced in the stomach goes up when your body needs food. You eat, then the fat cells release Leptin to shut down the Ghrelin, and you stop eating. As a human being puts on too much adipose or fatty tissue, this system gets dysregulated or goes haywire! Ghrelin then never turns off because your cells become Leptin Resistant. I tell my patients, “It’s like you are always hungry, and you can never get enough!” They usually say, “Exactly.” There is no shame; there is a physiological explanation. The shame is not seeking professional treatment, and the insanity would come from thinking that you can manage this yourself with a diet.
Believe it, or not our clients did not gain weight over the Holidays; they either stayed the same or lost weight.
How can that be? It is because they have a meal plan to eat on regular days, and then they learn cognitive changes or shifts to understand how to eat on holiday or at a party.
Within the first two weeks, our clients tell us they have brighter minds, fewer aches and pains, and the swelling decreases. We also track the lab values. We can track the reduction in C-reactive protein and improved mobility. We track fasting insulin to let us know if the Insulin Resistance is improving, and we track HgbA1C to measure the adherence to the meal plan. We will also track your GFR to measure kidney function, which lets us know what level of protein your body can handle.
Nutrition impacts every cell in your body. Your nutritional health is not a game of yo-yo dieting. Your nutritional and mental health impact the functioning of your life. Registered Dietitians are the only licensed nutritional professionals that are recognized by the State of Florida to provide nutrition care to the public. At PASWFL, we not only have a dietitian, but she is also a licensed mental health therapist, as well. We also have the oversight of a medical doctor and psychiatric nurse practitioners, allowing for a holistic approach to your nutrition and mental health!
Call for your appointment today: 239.332-4700 Ext. 107 and visit our website: www.paswfl.com to complete new patient forms! We look forward to helping you have brighter New Year’s Resolutions, such as starting a new hobby, because you will never have to diet again!
