Throughout my childhood I had my grandmother as a teacher with her simple, no less wise teachings on nutrition. Many of them, I even obtained proof in my academic training.
My family tree is basically made up of thin individuals. I've never had problems with being overweight, but a balanced and balanced diet, not restricted, has always been part of my life. I usually eat what I like, but consciously.
Only during the period of my two pregnancies I could feel the weight increase; my legs hurt, I got tired easily when going up a flight of stairs, I couldn't button my sandals without help, my heels were cracked and I completely lost my sense of space. He was always jamming his belly in ratchets. I gained exactly what I expected for my bone complexion and stature, but I could see that carrying too much weight is not comfortable.
For a few years I worked with the morbidly obese. And, so that I could better understand those cases, I tried to extract from the temporary experience (pregnancy) what it would be like to live overweight. I sought to “feel” something that could help me help them… You know that phrase we say without thinking: “I can imagine.”… No, you can't imagine something you've never experienced, or felt.
The testimonies and reports I heard in the anamnesis brought me closer to understanding those abusive and harmful behaviors with food. But still, he had no idea how it all reverberated inside.
I once asked: What gives you more pleasure, besides eating? The young man, in his early twenties, sitting opposite me, carrying 45 kilos above the indicated weight in his personal luggage, replied embarrassed and sad: “Nothing, doctor. I like to dance, but I feel awkward dancing, so I never dance in public. I would like to go to the club, but I don't have the courage to put on a bathing suit. I don't fit in the movie theater, I've never had a girlfriend, and I also don't have friends to hang out with or share a pizza with on Saturday night, so I order a pizza and eat it all by myself. I feel guilty afterwards, but at the time it's the only good thing I have…”
I remained silent for a few moments, so did he.
I was quickly trying to retain all that information and organize it in my mind. As I felt my heart blaring inside me like a SAMU siren. My rational and emotional side were in a meeting and trying to establish a consensus. The issue was not just calculating calories ingested, it was something deeper, like a void to be filled.
A complex human being who throughout his life had been deprived and limited to live. And I could conclude that I had no right to deprive him even more. But it could help you regain your self-esteem and show you ways to feel whole without gorging yourself on food. Carefully, I proposed behavioral changes that would result in an initially subtle but steady weight loss. The best way to not frustrate is not to generate high expectations.
I presented this young man with other models of hobbies, and suggested that whenever he thought about food, he looked for hobbies to take the focus off food. I taught some techniques of self-control and also of self-knowledge. One day, I asked him to close his eyes and mentalize how he would look and feel with fewer pounds, and then to do this mental exercise every day, when he went to sleep and woke up.
He told me that he almost never looked in the mirror. So I told him that we gain the strength to change a situation when we face it head on. It was necessary for him to look at himself, to welcome himself, only to transform himself later. You must be wondering what about the diet?
He knew by heart and sautéed what he should eat, he just couldn't bring himself to act. He had already done dozens of miraculous diets, had already taken medicine, among other extremely aggressive shenanigans to the body and mind. All to no avail. And each time he failed, the weight of guilt would arise which resulted in inertia and consequently, he quickly regained the weight and even gained a few extra pounds.
It was necessary and prescribed only a fractioned/balanced food script so that he could guide himself. I was careful not to use restrictive terms. Instead of the classic '"Can't!", I used "I suggest.". And he always punctuated “I believe in you!”.
In this patient, in particular, I did not perform any evaluation to know his percentage of fat (even because it was notorious). My concern did not revolve around recording numbers or following protocols, I preferred to use the consultation time to motivate him to continue with his purpose.
Day after day, within approximately 24 months, he was just 9 pounds overweight for his stature and bony build. Happy and fulfilled… like never before.
Two years to achieve something you crave, a long time? Serious!? He didn't, because he had never before experienced being a free and autonomous individual. As an obese child, he suffered from restrictions and bullying. He was victimized until that moment, when he realized that only he could be the protagonist of his own story, he assumed his role, occupied his space, took the reins of the situation...
That was the time needed for this young man to build his “new home”. Understanding his mind, learning to deal with his weaknesses and leveraging his strengths, he accepted himself, respected himself, and fulfilled himself to the point where he no longer needed food to do so.
It was nice to be part of this achievement and many others. But the process is painful even for me, who only followed trajectories. To verify to what point the lack of control and food/emotional imbalance reaches and how these disorders deprive, sentence and shorten people's lives.
Currently, obesity is considered the biggest public health problem, and a large part of the obese population has childhood as one of its main avenues. So, the universe provided my opportunity to overcome, to go beyond being cured.
My overcoming would become my work purpose. It has an unusual way of being applied, in addition to being very bold. But I'm like that, driven by challenges...
Resilience emerged as I went through dark valleys accompanying my adult patients who, many times, were with the health factor in trouble, remembering that the causes could have been avoided. Despite years in the clinic, I allowed myself to change boxes and enter a magical world, literally from a fairy tale…
Children… Some people think that it is very difficult to make them eat healthy. Well, it's not easy either! But let's say I got my hands on mixing the ingredients to create a strategic magic potion.
It's been 10 years since I started my journey in this enchanted world… as sweet as honey, as colorful as a rainbow.
Being a Nurture Fairy was the most beautiful thing that happened to me.
Someone needed to advertise the nutritious and magical foods of Heavenly Father, someone needed to tell the magic that occurs in nature and later in the human body. Yes, the magic of the seed that turns into another fruit, the magic of a food that turns into a new and tiny particle of energy and food for our little cells. The magic of growth and development…
Children don't know that there are microscopic lives living inside of us, so they never think about where food goes. Why should we eat? How important is it? What are the cell's favorite foods… Children, in general, tend to adhere to behaviors that make sense to them. And point.
Tell me, which is easier: building or renovating? Nutritional Education is mainly applied to children, and preferably in schools (in hospitals it no longer fits, it is out of context). Ah, I've already tested it in the collective, it has a rapid and multiplier effect. School is an environment that is part of the life trajectory of all of us. In it we experience knowledge and share moments that we take with us throughout our lives.
I particularly find the construction process more effective. As they grow in stature, if they have access to learning and critical thinking, children and young people will have more awareness and wisdom to know how to discern the difference between a food that nourishes the organism and that which only fills the belly.
Not to mention, with their innate ease of learning, their lack of shame in asking questions and their typical curiosity.
All this makes learning richer, more pleasurable and timely.
I don't lack patience, every week, in answering letters with cute and interesting questions. And with that, my conviction grows every day that these children will not forget the answers to these magic letters as adults.
Finally, I fully agree with the sentence spoken to the whole world by the courageous girl Malala Yousafzai, in 2014, in defense of her right to education: “A child, a teacher, a pen and a book can change the world. Education, the only solution.”
Yes, Malala! Nutritional Education is also the only solution to bring down statistical rates of Childhood Obesity on the planet. Health is already in a chaotic and agonizing process, almost in an ICU. And real food has the power to reverse that… Too bad many people still don't realize it. They need to go back to school. Lucky it's never too late to learn… We're together.
You may also like other articles by this author. Go to: Parents and Children
