The question of childhood obesity, health, and fitness is a complex one. There are no easy answers. But I'm signing a petition put out by the Ontario Home Economics Association to "Urge the Government of Ontario to make at least one food and nutrition course compulsory" because giving kids a solid foundation of skills is a pretty good place to start.

I've been asked to blog about parenting obese children and how to address the issue early on. Well, that's a pretty massive hornet's nest to tackle. This? This is one fragment of an answer, but given how much we know about processed food contributing to poor health, and how meals prepared at home are almost always healthier, surely teaching the skills needed to cook for one's self should be as mandatory in the curriculum as math and reading are.

If you choose to sign the petition (and I hope you do), this is what you're agreeing to:

The Ontario Home Economics Association (OHEA) calls on the Government of Ontario to make at least one food & nutrition course compulsory.

Despite healthy lifestyle trends, there is growing concern about a general lack of time, knowledge and skills to prepare healthful, affordable meals at home.

Kids today rarely learn to cook. Families microwave a commercially prepared entrée, or eat-out en route to their next activity. Not a serious issue − until the habit becomes a frequent practice. And it does!

Many people can’t understand food labels, make a meal at home, stick to a food budget or reduce food waste. The irony? Those exact topics are integral parts of high school Family Studies curriculum.

Home Economics was re-branded Family Studies, years ago. Twenty new and revised Family Studies courses were released by the Ontario Ministry of Education in 2013. Several of these optional courses are Food and Nutrition related and need to be prioritized. Healthy eating must be a focus in all grades.

Whether destined for college, university or the workplace, all students need food education to put healthful, safe, affordable meals on the table. That’s a societal responsibility.

For more information visit www.food-literacy.ca


I took Family Studies in grades 7 and 8. No high school courses were mandatory, so I never took them. Fortunately, I had a mom and grandma who were pretty handy when it came to home economics, and while I don't put a lot of my skills into practice, the foundation is there. I don't cook because I don't enjoy it, I don't prioritize it (it's just me, no family, not worth the time and effort), but not because I don't know how. But a lot of domestic skills are dying out. When it's more convenient to pay someone else to do it, kids don't grow up having those role models to watch. Whether it's learning to sew, bake, cook, remove stains, administer first aid, or plant a garden, most daily life skills are hands-on. They don't have the opportunity to try, fail, and try again, with someone providing wisdom and guidance. That's where school comes in. Just as at least one Phys.Ed. credit, and Maths, English, and Sciences are required, I agree that high school students should have to take at least one Food and Nutrition course.

Because, as those cheesy NBC public service announcements taught us, "the more you know..."

I got an email from CRC Health Group, "a national behavioral health care company. CRC recently created a graphic which I believe helps to illustrate "almost" anorexia. I thought I would send this over to you in case you felt your readers would benefit from it. A copy of the graphic is embedded which you are free to publish as you see fit. Thanks for your time and all that you do to educate your readers about eating disorders."

Well. This is kind of cool. The information is coming to ME, now.

While Anorexia has not been part of my own journey or Binge Eating experience, I'm obviously pretty aware of the complexities of eating disorders, and even how some symptoms and behaviours can have cross-over between the official diagnoses. In fact, I've already written about the prevalence of "almost" disorders, because when those are factored in, it makes one ask "is disordered eating the new normal?"

This graphic is based on a book by Jenni Schaefer, called Almost Anorexic.

From the CRC Health website:
We created the above infographic to generate awareness about a phenomenon that recently came to our attention called “almost anorexic.” There are a lot of gray areas around the diagnosis and treatment of anorexia(and all eating disorders), and these disorders are becoming more prevalent in the United States (and around the world).

While only 1 in 200 adults meet the clinical diagnosis of anorexia, 1 in 20 people meet the criteria to be considered almost anorexic. The percentage is much higher for teen girls.  Since eating disorders are among the deadliest of all mental disorders, our treatment community is urgently reaching out to improve awareness about the symptoms and warning signs of anorexia.

Awareness and information is crucial and can save lives. It's not just the librarian in me saying that. If you see yourself or a loved one in these descriptions, check out crchealth.com for suggestions on how to find help.

And if there's a chance at free training sessions, you bet your patootie I'll be doing it through My Fitness Pal. I'll
overlook the fact that it makes it easier for Mat to check what I'm eating than my giant binder with photos that I'd bring him each month. Prizes! Free stuff! I'm in.

And, hopefully, I will also soon be back on track.

I've been mulling over how to write about the dichotomy between finding balance and losing weight. What I've been stuck on is the angle from which to approach the topic. Can I re-lose the weight I've put back on, and continue to lose, while still aiming for a balanced approach to health?

It doesn't feel like it. And I wasn't sure why. But I think it's because for binge eaters, there IS no balance. Just as an alcoholic can't have "just one drink", there are some foods which I can't have just a little of. There is no such thing as "just one bite" when you're not able to stop, so cheat meals or occasional indulgences don't work the way they do for most people. Which, y'know, could be fine except that I can't stop eating altogether and go "dry" to sober up.

But maybe I'm not as alone as I thought. Diet talk is everywhere. Mixed messages are everywhere. Confusion is, well, everywhere. An article I've been holding on to brought the point to the forefront: Diet talk has become inescapable. "Many of the behaviors that today’s diet books and food trends promote are straight out of the DSM Diagnostic Criteria for Eating Disorders. Preoccupation with food and eating, making excuses for not eating, elimination of large categories of food, rigid food rules and rituals, guilt and shame associated with food and eating, avoidance of social activities because of anxiety about food, isolating oneself from friends and loved ones because of dietary ideology, the list goes on. These are not normal or healthy behaviors, they are hallmarks of disordered eating, and they are PROMOTED in diet books and blogs and between friends, with distressing and escalating regularity."
She concludes that we are, as a culture, developing a collective eating disorder. What started as a desire to improve the quality of our diets has turned into a national obsession.

It makes it pretty difficult to distinguish between truly disordered eating habits, and healthy habits. Where do you draw the line? How do we recognize in ourselves or others when it has become a problem? Another recent article attempts to shed light on "the most common eating disorder you've never heard of." The problem is that they've taken the designation of Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorder - which is a catch-all category used to diagnose anything other than anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder - and called it "the most common." That part doesn't make sense, but what is striking from the article are the statistics. It sheds light on how many people fall on the eating disorder spectrum. Most often, the focus is only on those who are at the farthest end.

Consider some of these statistics:

• One in 68 adults will develop clinical anorexia, bulimia, or binge eating disorder, but at least one in 20 have demonstrated symptoms of these disorders.
• 74.5 percent of women said concerns related to shape and weight interfered with their happiness.
• In one study on adolescent boys and young men, 17.9 percent reported becoming “extremely concerned” with their weight and physique by adulthood.
• One in 20 adults exhibits symptoms of an eating disorder, and the prevalence of dieting and disordered eating behaviors among male and female young adults is particularly high.
• Among women ages 25 to 45 without a history of anorexia nervosa or binge eating, 31 percent reported having purged as a means of weight control.

Dieting and poor body image don't mean you have an eating disorder. But your behaviour doesn't have to be extreme in order to have one, either. The best way to consider whether there's a problem to address is to ask whether your relationship with food, shape, and weight is truly interfering with your life. Ultimately “the main feature that cuts across all eating disorders… is feeling like your shape and weight is one of the most important factors that determines how worthwhile you are as a person,” Dr. Thomas says.

When I lived out west, I met the clinical criteria for Binge Eating Disorder: "eating much more rapidly than normal; eating until feeling uncomfortably full; eating large amounts of food when not feeling physically hungry; eating alone because of being embarrassed by how much one is eating; feeling disgusted with oneself, depressed, or very guilty after overeating; a sense of lack of control over eating during the episode; at least two days a week for six months."

I no longer meet that criteria. The work I've been doing, on my own, with Mat, with doctors, by blogging, has helped tremendously. But I will probably always call myself a binge eater. I don't know what "recovery" looks like, or if there is such a thing. I really do think of it in terms of an alcoholic. It's always going to be there, under the surface. As evidenced by this weekend's near-binge, moments of relapse can happen without warning, at times that aren't obvious. That's kind of scary to me.

Which brings me back to my conundrum. All-or-nothing thinking is a big part of the problem that got me into this mess in the first place. If I can't be perfect at eating all the time, why bother? If I mess up a diet, then I give in and go overboard the other way. If I'm not good at an activity right away, then I must not be able to do it at all. You see where I'm going with this? All-or-Nothing is the hallmark of a lot of eating disorders. That's why I'm striving for balance. And, yet, I'm not sure that balance is really, truly, possible when it comes to eating. There ARE whole categories of foods I have to mentally eliminate and take off the table. I DO need to track what I'm eating and weigh myself and account for it all. There still is fear, for me, around food: there's something "bad" about everything, so nothing feels "safe"! And certain foods will likely always be triggers. Not exactly the definition of balanced.

It tells me that there's still a long way to go. But also that it's possible and there is hope, even if that hope is to inch along the spectrum back towards the middle. I think I believed that I could jump from one end to the other - all-or-nothing - and that it could be like flicking a switch. Make the lifestyle changes, lose weight, get into shape, you're done, move on. It's not like that, at all. I don't know why I thought it would be. Like much of the population, I'm living in the grey areas, the always moving grey areas between the ends of the disordered eating spectrum.

When 1 out of 20 are also living there, at least I know I'm in good company.

Also known as "why I will continue to workout."

Confession time: I did something dumb. I went grocery shopping while I was hungry, when I knew I was craving sugar. I walked in to the store with the intention of getting two glazed croissants, very specific donuts that are only made at Zehrs. Only, they didn't have any on that day.

For most people, that would be the end of it. Or, they would just choose another kind of donut from the full rack. But there are some foods which, once they're in my head, I need to either have or replace with something similar. See, I'm pretty specific when it comes to cravings and binge eating and what I can and can't say no to. I'm learning what items are the dangerous ones that signify the start of the spiral, and that if I can just avoid THOSE, I might be okay. With the donuts, I thought "if I can just have one or two and get out of there, it's bad but it's not over-the-top bad, and the icing/sugar craving will be satisfied and go away."

I am able to walk away from every other kind of donut they have in their bakery, except these glazed croissants, so I didn't put anything into the paper bag. But the sugar craving was still there, and the seed of a binge had been planted, and I knew I was in trouble. Heart rate increases. Face gets warm. I keep shopping, though, because I need groceries, especially the good stuff that will sustain me, like fruits and vegetables and cottage cheese and eggs. Aisle after aisle, I look at items that are on my mental binge-trigger "bad" list. I walk away from the cookies. I walk past the ice cream. I pause but keep moving past the chocolate bars, especially the Aero Bubbly mint ones. There are some aisles I do not even go down. With every item I say no to, my heart rate goes up, so by now I'm actually sweating. I know what it is I want. I try to talk myself out of it. It's like there are two voices in my head, and I honestly don't know which one is stronger. When I get like this, it's a little like being in a trance. I see it happening from far away, there is still a voice in my head trying to rationalize and argue why I should walk out of the store, but my body doesn't listen. It turns back towards the bakery.

In the end, I fall back on a very old habit. I buy a single-layer vanilla celebration cake and a jar of cream-cheese flavoured icing, because what's on the cake itself is not enough.

I haven't talked very much about the specifics of Binge Eating Disorder because, frankly, it is humiliating. I've alluded to it a bit, but never described it or admitted to what I do when I binge. Normal people don't consume an entire cake by themselves. But, there I was, with no explanation as to why I was lapsing. It's been awhile since I've had a true binge. I can't honestly say what started this one, since I've been happy, on track, and doing well lately. I just woke up craving sugar and couldn't shake it, I went to the grocery store hungry, and I fell into an old vice.

Bear with me; there is a silver lining to this story. Because I ended up throwing most of the cake out.

After putting the entire jar of icing on the cake, licking the knife, and having a few frantic bites - one never binges slowly, it is always urgent - I checked my watch. It was close to the time that Group Core was meant to start, and I had said I would be there. Decision time. Go and work out, or stay and eat? I had a few more bites of cake, got dressed, and went. The craving had been temporarily addressed, and I knew the cake would be waiting for me when I got back. So, I went and worked out.

I have never been able to interrupt a binge, once begun. I am getting better at talking myself out of starting, of exercising some degree of willpower and not putting myself into dangerous situations in the first place, but I've never, ever stopped mid-binge. Once the dam of willpower breaks, the food flood leads to a feeding frenzy. Except for this time. When I got home, after Group Core class, I felt different. Sweaty. Tired. Good. Maybe it was the endorphins. Maybe it was just the interruption itself. But the workout worked. And I put the cake into a garbage bag and took it directly to the dumpster.

That same afternoon, one of the fitness week-in-review emails that I subscribe to linked to an article arguing whether we are really exercising less than a few decades ago. It's a great example of how science can easily be misinterpreted, and data manipulated, but the argument is that we are not actually moving much less than ever and still we collectively continue to grow. The conclusion is that exercise has little impact on weight loss or weight management.

The longer I work at this weight thing, the more I am coming to accept that fat is all about food, and exercise correlates to strength and health. At least , the way I do it, it seems to. If I really want to lose the belly, lose the weight, ever hope to be skinny-ish, it's going to be from even more major changes to eating than I've already made. I wanted to believe that if I just worked hard enough, if I exercised often enough, long enough, intensely enough, I could make the 'calories in, calories out' sum work. I wish it worked that way. It really doesn't. It's all so much more complex than that.

But exercise does have an impact on my weight. It may not be from thermodynamics, burning off more than I consume. The mental influence a workout has on losing weight is harder to measure scientifically, yet for me it can't be underestimated. Even when working out and getting sweaty leaves me hungrier, it also helps me to make better choices because I know how hard I've worked and I don't want to undo that. The endorphins lift my mood. I create energy which then doesn't leave me tired, in need of a quick sugar fix. I get out of my apartment, around other people, and physically interrupt the binge pattern when I walk in to the Y or step onto a hiking trail. I don't feel quite so bad about myself after working out, and in the absence of guilt or self-loathing, the power of binge eating is reduced. Most importantly, exercise helps me to think more clearly.

I don't know if I will always be able to interrupt a binge. This is new territory for me. The fact that I've done it once gives me hope, though. It's one more tool in the arsenal.

When in doubt, I'll go work out.

Warning: rant ahead.

People need to learn to keep unsolicited opinions to themselves. Mutually-agreed-upon diet talk among friends is one thing, and even then should be kept to a minimum. But it's been awhile since I've had relative strangers make comments and assumptions about my body, and I forgot just how much it sucks.

When you work with the public, you never know what they're gonna say. I usually take it in stride, even when it's personal, because they don't really know me. Except for when they do. Some of our regulars DO know me a little bit. One lady brings the kids she babysits to my weekly story times and always wants to diet talk, usually right as I'm setting up and in front of the kids. I do my best to shut her down. She shames other staff who don't actively diet or exercise, and tells them all about what she does, but because I am able to say "why yes, I do work out" and she could see that I had lost weight, I just got the chitter chatter, I didn't get the shame.

Until today.

I was walking on my rounds, and she saw me, waved me over, started yammering about nothing that I cared about. I was trying to politely extract myself from the conversation because I was on my lunch break, and she was going on and on about which kind of bagels and bread her kids will eat, and how she prepares her spaghetti sauce, and how many calories in her brand of yogurt, when she looks at my belly and says, "so, you've quit the diet and exercise, eh?"

My jaw clenched.
Pretty sure my face went beet red.
"No," I snapped. "Still going to the gym. Every day. Bitch."
Okay, the "bitch" was silent, in my head, but I really wanted to say it.

Because body shame sucks, and it should never be okay to comment on people's bodies, and only assholes assume things about people, and unsolicited diet talk is never ever acceptable. If I hadn't been at work, if I didn't only know this lady in a professional capacity, I'd have likely launched into a "you can be fit and fat, you know" tirade or try to school her on why my weight loss has stalled and gone back up, or why it's none of her fucking business anyway. But I didn't. I clenched my smile, said, "well, I have to keep going" and got the hell out of there.

The worst of it is, I let her. I let her get away with it, and I let her get to me.
I'm sitting at my desk, staring at my lunch. My healthy, vegetables-and-chicken whole-foods lunch.

And I can't eat it.

Because I know how hard I work.
I know what I eat, and don't eat, and what I have given up, and what I feel deprived of.
And it's not enough. It may never be enough.

Those words, those unsolicited words based on one glance at my body and an assumption, those unsolicited words undid a few months' worth of work.

I know she's wrong.
I know she's wrong.
I know she's wrong.

But I am still staring at my lunch sitting on my desk.

When Facebook puts a "Gut" related news item in my direct path, it begs to be shared. How much gutsier can you get than the G.I. tract? I've heard about "gut flora" but it's one of those things that you can't see, that you don't necessarily feel until it's out of whack, and that is harder to manage because it's not at all sexy. But it's important. So check the full article out: The Case for Good Gut Health by Jaime Martinez

Here are some highlights from the article:

The primary focus of every nutrition plan should be the health of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. It doesn’t matter if you’re sedentary, an athlete, overweight, or lean. The gut is key to your optimal health.

The GI tract is an impressive and intricate organ. About 30 feet long and comprised of trillions of cells, the GI tract provides a secondary line of defense (after the skin) against toxins, and is the primary line of defense for anything harmful we ingest.

70-90 percent of our immune system is found in the gut.  Of the trillions of cells in it, 100 trillion are bacterial cells, and these cells have a profound effect on our health.

The collective group of both good and bad bacteria in the gut is called the gut flora. Gut flora help maintain the integrity of the lining of the GI tract three ways:

• First, they convert unabsorbed dietary sugars into short-chain fatty acids, which are a major source of energy for epithelial cells.
• Second, they adhere to the mucosa, forming a protective layer and blocking harmful bacteria.
• And third, they secrete immunoglobulin A (IgA or sIgA), which is an antibody that plays a critical role in immunity and helps prevent infection.

The gut flora can also assist in preventing allergies by balancing the histamine response and down-regulating inflammation.

Sugar, additives and preservatives, pesticides, herbicides, hormones, and antibiotics all have an impact on the balance of good and bad bacteria. Non-dietary influences include prescription and over-the-counter medications,
such as NSAIDS, stress (physical, psychological, or physiological), radiation, immune deficiencies, and aging.

As harmful bacteria levels rise, the intestines become more permeable, making them less likely to keep harmful pollutants out and to aid in the absorption of nutrients. Bacteria, toxins, and undigested proteins and fats can leak into the bloodstream and trigger an autoimmune reaction, which increases the levels of histamine, cortisol, and cytokines.  This situation is often referred to as “leaky gut syndrome.”

When the health of the gut continues to decline, food sensitivities and autoimmune disorders can develop.

Our digestive health and function largely determines our ability to maintain optimal health, fitness, and performance.

Sorting and sifting through the mountain of information about nutrition can be overwhelming. There are so many conflicting opinions, so many interpretations of data. It's why most of my posts are about feelings and personal experiences. It takes me much, much longer to write about anything factual because I don't want to be wrong.

After awhile, you start to notice patterns, though. Look at enough "diets" or dieting articles and there are things they all have in common. These, for me, become the basis for universal truths. Vegetables are good, no matter what. The fewer ingredients on a label, the better, so any whole food in its raw form is the best choice. Processed and packaged food is the lesser choice. Sugar is evil. Water is essential. And, no matter how hard I've looked, there is no diet that supports alcohol consumption. Trust me; I've looked.

It's in the details that the confusion lies. Good fats, bad fats. Low-carb, no-carb, what-the-heck-IS-a-carb? Gluten and wheat. Nutrient timing and when to eat and how much. These are the minutiae that get discussed and debated and from which the confusion stems. It's overwhelming.

So, for the average person (like me; presumably like you) who just wants to eat in a healthy and balanced way to maintain a weight they're happy with, without feeling deprived or restricted, having guidelines instead of rules is the way to go.

This article sums up nicely the basic truths that do seem to come up over and over again, certainly in the more reputable and evidence-based sources, and even in the lifestyle-magazine articles that will promise that you can tone your tummy in 30 days or lose 12 lbs in one week. Even the questionable sources seem to agree on these 11 basic premises. (Click the article link and check out the details behind each one for more thorough explanations).

Nutrition Truths That Everyone Agrees On

1. Artificial Trans Fats Are Extremely Unhealthy
Trans fats are man-made fats, made by “hydrogenating” polyunsaturated vegetable oils. These fats can cause severe harmful effects on metabolism and contribute to many diseases.

2. Whole Foods Are Better Than Processed Foods
Whole foods are much healthier than processed foods, which tend to be low in nutrients, high in harmful ingredients and designed to drive overconsumption.

3. Getting Enough Omega-3 Fatty Acids is Important
Omega-3 fatty acids are very important. They function as structural molecules in the brain and play key roles in important cellular processes.

4. Added Sugar is Unhealthy
Most experts agree that sugar is harmful and that people are eating too much of it. There is mounting evidence that sugar may be partly responsible for many chronic, Western diseases.

5. Green Tea is a Healthy Beverage
Although coffee and caffeine in general are controversial, most people agree that green tea is healthy. It is loaded with antioxidants and has led to major health benefits in many studies.

6. Refined Carbohydrates Should be Minimized
Although carbs are controversial, almost everyone agrees that whole, unrefined sources are much healthier than their refined counterparts.

7. Vegetables Are Healthy Foods
Vegetables are low in calories, but very high in micronutrients, antioxidants and fiber. Many studies show that vegetable consumption is associated with good health.

8. Supplements Can Not Compensate For an Unhealthy Diet
Whole foods are incredibly complex and contain thousands of trace nutrients, many of which science has yet to uncover. No amount of supplements can replace all the nutrients found in whole foods.

9. Olive Oil is Super Healthy
Extra virgin olive oil is high in healthy monounsaturated fats and loaded with powerful bioactive antioxidants, many of which have anti-inflammatory effects and protect against heart disease.

10. Optimal Health Goes Beyond Just Nutrition
There are many aspects besides nutrition that are just as important for overall health. This includes exercise, managing stress levels and getting adequate sleep.

11. The Best Diet (or “Way of Eating”) For YOU is The One You Can Stick to
There is a lot of debate about the different diets. There are the paleo folks, the low-carbers, the vegans, the balanced diet folks and everything in between. But the truth is… all of these approaches can work. The problem is not which diet (or way of eating) is “best,” the key is finding something that is sustainable for each individual. Losing weight and improving health is a marathon, not a race. What matters in the long run is finding something that is healthy, that you like and can live with for the rest of your life.


It's not in the knowing, it's in the doing.

The folks at Precision Nutrition have done it again: taken a complex topic and explained it thoroughly both in an article and in a handy infographic.

The full article can be found at http://www.precisionnutrition.com/workout-nutrition-explained. As always, I favour those who offer balanced and sensible advice, and the PN staff deliver. Not only do they break it down by body type ('cuz we're not all exactly alike, after all), there is also an acknowledgement in the article that for many people there is no need for the complex and confusing detail behind nutrient timing. First, figure out your specific goals, and THEN work your nutrition around it.