Weight Loss Challenges and Solutions - " Alicia is a 34-year-old new mom"

Case study ( 17189 views as of March 19, 2024 )

Alicia is a 34-year-old new mom to an 18 month old girl. Alicia has booked a session with a Registered Dietitian in the hope of finding solutions to her weight loss struggles. She currently weighs 200lbs is 5”8 and has a BMI of 30.7. She describes herself as always being on the heavy side.

Before her wedding 2 years ago she had a lot of success with the popular weight watchers program. She liked the recipes and found counting points fairly easy to do. She was able to lose 30lbs and kept it off until she got pregnant. She admits that when she was pregnant she “ate for two” and found she gained weight quickly throughout the pregnancy. After her daughter was born she found she’d gained back all the previously lost weight plus an additional 10 pounds.

Alicia has attempted to use the weight watchers program again but with a toddler and husband who are both “picky” eaters, she has found it most challenging. She also feels a lack of support in her weight loss efforts as her husband “doesn’t understand” why she needs to lose weight.

Alicia knows that her excess weight can have significant impacts on her health and her anxiety level around this is starting to climb. She has had many sleepless nights thinking about weight loss and her health. She is incredibly afraid of falling ill and not being able to care for her daughter.

After analyzing Alicia’s diet the dietitian is able to give her some quick tips to get started. Small dietary changes that will have big impacts. The Dietitian has also suggested booking a family session with her husband to help them find middle ground that will support Alicia’s goals.

Alicia could benefit from seeing a life coach and/or a psychologist. She may also find it helpful to see a personal trainer in order to fit in some kind of exercise regime along with her dietary changes.

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Weight Loss Challenges and Solutions - " Alicia is a 34-year-old new mom"

  • Healthy diet: Your diet plays a crucial role in achieving a lean midsection. Focus on consuming a balanced diet that includes lean protein, whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats. Limit your intake of processed foods, sugary snacks, and drinks high in calories. Caloric deficit: To reduce overall body fat, including the fat covering your abdominal muscles, you need to create a caloric deficit. This means consuming fewer calories than your body needs, leading it to burn stored fat for energy. Combining a healthy diet with regular exercise can help create this deficit. Cardiovascular exercise: Engaging in regular cardio exercises can help burn calories and reduce body fat. Activities like running, cycling, swimming, or HIIT (high-intensity interval training) can be effective for burning excess fat, including in the abdominal region. Strength training: Building muscle mass helps increase your metabolic rate, making it easier to burn calories and reduce body fat. Include strength training exercises that target the abdominal muscles, such as planks, crunches, Russian twists, leg raises, and bicycle crunches. Core exercises: In addition to traditional sit-ups, incorporate a variety of core exercises to engage all the muscles in your midsection. This includes exercises like plank variations, mountain climbers, side planks, wood chops, and Pilates exercises like the hundred or the teaser. Consistency and progression: Consistency is key when working towards any fitness goal. Aim for regular exercise sessions that incorporate both cardiovascular and strength training exercises. Gradually increase the intensity and difficulty of your workouts to keep challenging your muscles. Posture and alignment: Pay attention to your posture and alignment throughout the day, not just during exercise. Maintaining proper posture can help engage your core muscles and promote better alignment of the spine, which contributes to a flatter appearance. Remember, it's important to approach fitness goals with patience and realistic expectations. Achieving visible abdominal muscles takes time and effort, and individual results may vary. Consulting with a fitness professional or personal trainer can provide personalized guidance and ensure you're performing exercises correctly.
  • The good news is that even a vegetable that is relatively low in nutrients still has a decent amount to offer nutritionally. Cucumbers contain between 2-4% per 100 gram serving of several nutrients of interest including fibre, zinc, calcium, potassium, iron and magnesium. Often seeing a local family physician or a physiotherapist in conjunction with a registered dietitian and athletic therapist is a great option to take control of this condition. and exercise is also optimal for overall health.
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  • What’s the relation between mindful eating and mental health? The first step is, you need to ask the question are you feeling depressed? Are you sad? Are you really stressed out? Are you anxious? Are you feeling angry? And then trying to see if you are feeling any of these emotions, is it affecting your food choice, or how you’re eating? So, first identifying mental state, to see if this is playing a role in how you’re making your food choices.
    • You want to eat a diet that’s low in fat and calories and rich in nutrients, including vegetables, fruits and whole grains. Your body can better use the insulin it produces or gets through a medication when you eat three meals a day at regular times.
  • The unit of measurement to describe weight in relation to height for people 20 to 65 years of age. It is calculated by taking a person’s weight (in kilograms) and dividing by their height squared (kg/m2). It is used to classify people as underweight, normal weight, overweight, or obese.
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  • In fact, incorporating more high-intensity activity into our daily routines—whether that’s by vacuuming the carpet with vigor or walking uphill to buy your lunch—could be the key to helping all of us get some high quality exercise each day. And that includes people who are overweight and unfit.
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    • Choose healthy carbohydrates, heart-healthy fish, healthy fats that contain monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fats and fiber-rich foods.
    • Choose healthy carbohydrates, heart-healthy fish, healthy fats that contain monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fats and fiber-rich foods.
  • weight loss is a chalange to everyone. They key is to keep thinking about food and exercise choises to keep feeling you are making progress and the right choises.
  • Sleep apnea treatment options include weight loss, a CPAP machine, a dental device and surgery.
  • Its never easy to stay consistent with eating in the holiday season
  • Visceral fat is fat that collects around the abdomen-giving a beach ball look in some cases and is associated with a host of medical problems including heart disease, diabetes, heartburn and sleep difficulties.
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    • When you’re on a diabetes diet, there are some foods to avoid, as they increase your risk of heart disease and stroke. These include trans fats, high-sodium foods, high-cholesterol foods and saturated fats.
  • Diet is not the only component to weight loss, although it is very important. Regular exercise is also key to getting your metabolism going. This mother could benefit from exercise not only to help her with weight loss but it would also help reduce her stress levels.
  • Do you eat any other vegetables for nutrients.
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  • I think one of the biggest problems with eating challenges is that they use food to replace an emotion they are not getting in another way. At the core of food is that it is something to fuel our bodies to operate at full capacity. Like gas for the car it's that simple a majority of the time.
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  • Cooking should be like sleeping or walking or talking. Just a normal part of everyday life with no real expectations of needing to.chamge your day.
  • In regard to Weight Loss Challenges and Solutions its always important to think about exercise and diet to control your weight loss goals.
  • One of the things that I found helpful in my weight loss journey was to stop treating cooking as "hard". you can follow weight loss plans like weight watchers while still dealing with your picky eaters - it's all in getting the prep work done at once
    • There are lots of challenges to a program like Weight Watchers though. Sometimes a girl just needs a cookie.
    • @K.Michael - I have found that as soon as you 'forbid' yourself from eating any type of food, it becomes almost impossible to stay away from it! I think cookies and other types of sweets and higher fat foods can still have a place in your eating plan if you are trying to lose weight, as long as moderation is practiced. A program like Weight Watchers is interesting because it assigns lower point values to the foods that are packed with fibre and protein, and gives the higher carb and fat foods a higher point value. When you are watching points, you definitely want the 'most bang for your points' so reaching for the fruits and vegetables and lean protein becomes habitual for those who succeed on the program.
  • @KMichael -- A description of a holistic nutritionist's job is explained here: http://bit.ly/1GEG8Yk I hope that helps.
    • That's very interesting. A holistic approach would involve eating whole foods as a method of weight loss and bringing your body in to balance ?
  • Thank you for your comment, @HealthyMama: "It's a shame holistic nutritionists aren't covered by all health plans. They are a wonderful source of information for weight loss and healthy living!" We need to advocate for the regulation of holistic nutritionists so that health plans will provide coverage for their invaluable services.
    • @Lisa Cantkier - how is a holistic nutritionists different from a regular one ? What can they do to assist with my weight loss challenges ?
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    • I think a dietician that specializes in diabetes would be the best solution here.
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    • I find drinking water to be my biggest health challenge! I really don't like to drink water or any liquid. it's quite challenging for me.
    • Considering how much of our body is water I agree with Cynthia in that water is the hidden secret that we need to be more aware of. In regards to Weight Loss Challenges and Solutions I have found when I am consistently drinking lots of water me need for snacking goes right down.
    • This is so true. I have upped my water intake and find that I feel more refreshed. I find with the walking and lifting of small weights I was feeling weighed down and tired. When I added more water to my daily routine it really helped. I have been using lemon or watermelon to add flavour to the water.
    • Tea is very popular now too. I find a nice glass of herbal ice tea incredibly refreshing. I add a little agave so I don't feel like I'm "missing" anything. It's replaced diet soda in my diet
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