Being overweight often transcends the physical to become a more abstract heaviness: a psychological and emotional burden that can impact negatively on one's mental health. This week's book Fast Like a Girl by Dr Mindy Pelz highlighted an added dynamic to this, and I felt a shift in my motivation that favoured the abstract over the physical.

Weight is a contentious subject. Much like mental health, it is often still spoken about in hushed tones or in a denigrating way, like the cruel manner I mentioned in What Actually Lit The Fire Under My Butt. Weight stigma is a form of discrimination that devalues and socially excludes anyone who does not fit into the skewed societal framework of what an acceptable weight or shape is. Having been a victim of this discrimination at certain points in my life, I can attest to the fact that it weighs heavy (pun not intended) on one's mind and has long-lasting effects. The Harvard Medical School published a good article called Weight stigma: As harmful as obesity itself? which touches on these effects. I'll refer to this article alongside Fast Like a Girl during this blog post.
Body Positivity (What Is It?)

'Body positivity' is about having a positive body image irrespective of how popular culture and society view the ideal weight, size, appearance, or shape. It means accepting and loving your body, no matter how it looks. The term has been widely used since the 1990s, but the first wave of the body positivity movement began in the late 1960s. The movement has lost some of its momentum of late, even garnering criticism for shifting the focus from one particular appearance to another.
I like the idea of body positivity, though. It encourages acceptance and inclusion and extends beyond size to shape, gender and the tone of one's skin. Certain brands, particularly in the beauty and clothing industries, have hopped onto this bandwagon, obviously cottoning on to the benefits of inclusion (not least of which are fiscal). I didn't see any plus-sized models in the media when I was growing up, let alone a plus-sized model of colour. The younger version of me may have had a more stable sense of self if I was exposed to media representations I could relate to. Nevertheless, I mentioned body positivity to emphasise that we have the right to be or look as we please. We shouldn't have to worry about the validity of our existence because we don't conform to a social construct that favours a slender build.
If I Knew Then What I Know Now
"Don't waste so much time thinking about how much you weigh. There is no more mind-numbing, boring, idiotic, self-destructive diversion from the fun of living." (Meryl Streep)
Gosh, I love Meryl Streep, and I love this quote. If memory serves, the above was her response to a question about what she'd tell her 18-year-old self if given the opportunity. That's the thing. With age comes wisdom, and I approach the struggle with my weight very differently now. But I would have loved to hear this when I was 18 (or 28 or 38 or 48...). It can take a while, but time changes us; we evolve. Whether we're aware of it or not, we become more self-aware and less prone to the opinions of others. We do things for our own reasons.

So, if I believe so strongly in body positivity and not falling victim to social constructs, why have I chosen to write a post about weight loss? My reasons are multi-faceted, but my reference to weight loss is mainly about bridging the divide between then and now. You see, the younger version of me naively subscribed to that societal construct and over many long years, the excess weight became yet another thing I agonised and obsessed over. I was anxious about reaching a goal weight and became depressed when I didn't. It's a vicious cycle, a reciprocal loop of cause and effect that only worsens matters, and it is nearly impossible to create anything in that state. This older version of me wants to break that cycle, but thankfully, she looks at things from a completely different perspective. Societal dictates no longer govern her choices. Whether it is through healthy eating or exercising, the impetus for wanting to shed a few kilos is that it will help my depression and anxiety and improve my overall health. Weight loss, while important from an accomplishment point of view, has become secondary.
It's All About Intermittent Fasting

I only recently read Dr. Mindy Pelz's book Fast Like A Girl. A colleague mentioned it to me one day and suggested we do 'The 30-Day Fasting Reset', a key focus of Dr. Pelz's excellent book. More about that later.
In What actually lit the fire under my butt? I mentioned losing 12.4kgs in 4 months by doing the 18:6 intermittent fast, where I only ate healthy, primarily ketogenic food within a 6-hour window and fasted for 18 hours. That's a significant amount of weight, with the first four dropping off in the first week. What I didn't mention in that post was the effect the altered eating plan had on my blood work.
As a near-lifelong vegetarian, I was sometimes low on iron and B vitamins. In addition, despite a strict vegetarian diet, my cholesterol levels had risen several months before I started intermittent fasting. Having read some of Dr. Joe Dispenza's work by this time, I knew I did not have to be genetically predisposed to high cholesterol, so I had begun connecting some significant dots. Three months into the intermittent fasting, having witnessed the weight come off, I made an appointment to see my doctor to run a full blood test. I passed with flying colours.
Until I read Fast Like a Girl, I knew about intermittent fasting primarily from hearsay or good old Google. People were discussing it, and I spoke to a couple who had tried it successfully. Dr. Pelz's book is clearly directed at women. She examines the effects of intermittent fasting when linked to a menstrual cycle and provides strategies and nutrition advice on maximising fasting windows within different stages of that cycle. The book is jam-packed with interesting, thought-provoking information that any blogger could ponder and write about for hours. I'm not going to do that in this post, but I will say that the primary focus of her book is balancing hormones, two of which are cortisol and oxytocin. This is the aspect of the book that appealed to me most.
If cortisol represents stress, oxytocin is its opposite (it's not called the love hormone for nothing). The impact of stress is that it leads to elevated levels of cortisol, which in turn leads to lower brain 5-HT (serotonin), which can then lead to depression. According to Dr. Pelz, oxytocin can correct that. She maintains that in the hierarchy of hormones, oxytocin is queen and can balance all hormones.
In the blog post Spoiler Alert..., I mention both cortisol and oxytocin in the following context:
" Laughter releases 'feel good' hormones, reducing cortisol levels in our bloodstream (i.e., the stress hormone) by raising dopamine, endorphin and oxytocin levels."
Dr. Pelz discusses how cortisol and oxytocin interact in great detail before launching into chapters dedicated to how, when, and what to eat at specific times in your cycle to regulate hormone levels. She offers a detailed programme on resetting and correcting your approach to nutrition, even offering recipes. All in all, it's a fascinating read, but I'm only going to reference one quote from her book before ending this post with this week's footnote:
"Oxytocin has a direct effect on the hypothalamus of your brain. When oxytocin is on the scene, it tells your brain that you are safe and loved and the crisis is over. The brain responds by ceasing the production of cortisol."
PS: If you didn't know, one of the critical functions of the hypothalamus is to regulate mood.
FOOTNOTE: Atomic Habit 2

In addition to last week's habit of writing regularly, I have added consistent intermittent fasting to my list of habits. These now run concurrently. I also started a couple more last week but will deal with them individually. One week after picking up the intermittent fasting habit again, I am another 1.7 kilos down. Coupled with the 12.4 kilos last year, I have lost 14.1 kilos by intermittent fasting. Before embarking on the '30 Day Reset', Dr. Pelz's advice is to surround yourself with positive people, not naysayers. When I started intermittent fasting last year, I shared a house with my sister, Shereen, and she began her fasting journey on the same day as I did and with similar results. Funnily enough, she also happened upon Fast Like a Girl around the same time I did. Having someone alongside me, especially my big sister, was great because we could share ideas, offer support and track our collective progress, and I valued that. We also benefitted from our Mom (Zaide) often preparing healthy meals, so the environment was conducive to success. It is a lot harder when one doesn't have the support. Shereen and I don't live together anymore, so besides my virtual accountability partners (i.e., you kind folk), I invested in a habit tracker that James Clear recommends in Atomic Habits. It's good to see even the tiniest bit of progress across the week, and I look forward to seeing that upward curve become steeper. I'm unsure how to consolidate all these at the end of the twelve weeks, but there's still time. For now, one crucial question remains: It is clear that intermittent fasting results in weight loss, but with the right food choices, can it regulate my hormones to the extent that I can better manage anxiety and depression? The next twelve weeks and the books I choose to read and/or write about during this time will be the best gauge. Like Matthew Johnstone's I Had A Black Dog: His Name Was Depression, next week's book choice hit hard.
Fast Like a Girl is available to purchase at the link below.
#selfhelp #mentalhealth #mentalhealthawareness #mindfulness #eatwell #intermittentfasting #fastlikeagirl #anxiety #depression
Comentarios