Book Review: Strong is the new Skinny

As a counselor specializing in eating disorders, anytime I see a book promising it will be the “last diet book you will ever read,” it catches my attention. Part of my job is simply educating people on why the myriad diets advertised do not work. Strong is the New Skinny: How to eat, live and move is one of those new books out there promising a solution to the obesity problem - but this one takes a different approach.

Strong is the New Skinny: How to eat, live and move to maximize your power by Jennifer Cohen and Stacey Colino was a quick read. This was in part because the information presented is not new. When a person is trying to lose weight there is always information on what they should or should not eat, how much they should eat and how often. The need to exercise is also emphasized – calories in versus calories out.

So what makes this book different? The authors Cohen and Colino emphasized the need to work on the mental aspect of weight loss. You’ve heard the saying, “you are what you eat,” well when it comes to weight loss, “you are what you think” is just as important (this is true about most everything). What you think about yourself: how you look, self-worth, motivations for losing weight, etc., is what you need to look at first. Your thinking will determine why you eat and whether it is for fuel or to cope or out of boredom. Your thinking determines whether you chose to exercise and if you are going to stick with it. What we think about ourselves, what we tell ourselves plays a huge role in how we treat ourselves.

The book also played on the concept of strong versus skinny which was refreshing and the authors point out that we all have different body shapes and sizes and not everyone can be “skinny.” The book also promotes strength training as an important component of a weight loss program and includes information on the newest cardio trend – HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training).

The book included exercise with sample workout plans. This was good but some of them seemed difficult for a beginner. Also I would have liked to see more than one picture to demonstrate an exercise move. They provided two images for some but not all of the exercises. They did provide a description of how to move, but a picture really helps.

The diet section had good, neutral advice; promoting whole foods and not processed foods and did not push one specific diet. An example meal plan was included but no recipes. There were a few meal plan suggestions that sounded good but no idea how to make it!

Overall the book did not have new information but it does encourage the readers to think about their body in a new way - not just about being thin but the strength and functionality of our body. It seems to be easy enough to follow the suggestions for regaining strength and health and I liked the suggested exercises.

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·         Author Bio 

I received this book from Blogging for Books  for this honest review.

Obesity is the symptom, not the problem

I was very excited when I first read about the ACE's study-Adverse Childhood Experiences. My first thought was, "duh, I could have told you that your childhood has a role on who you are as an adult." I was shocked that this was actually news. I knew this was true, both from personal experience from my own childhood, and from my professional experience working as a counselor; I would see childhood trauma play out in my adult clients all the time. 

For those of you who have not yet heard of the ACE's study, the following is a brief overview:

"The research found that significant stress that occurs during a child’s first 18 years has a profound and long-lasting impact, not only on issues like obesity, but on their overall life expectancy, the risk of diabetes and other chronic health conditions, the likelihood that they will become involved in drugs, alcohol and crime, success in marriage and relationships and even their risk of suicide.  What they found was that children who experience more serious stress (“adverse childhood experiences”) in their childhood face substantially greater health challenges as adults.  In fact, children who face high levels of stress, such as child abuse, or a parent with a mental illness, may face a shorter life expectancy of almost 20 years!  A child who experiences extremely high levels of stress was found to be 460 times more likely than others to become an IV drug user. 

The study found that almost 4 in 10 adults have an “ACE index” of 2 or more – meaning the child faced a combination of more than one major stress event, a level which begins to greatly increase the risk of future health risks and problems.  Given this surprising prevalence, individuals with high ACE scores are our neighbors, our fellow employees, our friends and our families.  Many individuals may be resilient and successful in one or more parts of their lives, but struggle behind the scenes from the lasting impact dating to their childhood." *

Dr. Robert Anda and Dr. Vincent Felitti are the co-founders of the study. This 10 year study began when Dr. Felitti wanted to know why half of the clients of the obesity clinic he worked dropped out of the program even though they were losing weight. 

By interviewing the clients who dropped out, he discovered they all had one thing in common: an adverse childhood experience. Basically what he discovered was that most of the obese people in his program had experienced some kind of trauma in childhood. Dr. Felitti realized that obesity, which is what brings people in for treatment, was not the problem - it was the symptom.

What is the point of this? For so many people, their weight is not what they eat or do not eat or how much they eat. It is not about how active they are. It is about the thinking and beliefs they have about themselves. It is about what they do to manage trauma and abuse from the past. 

I believe that no weight loss program is successful without addressing the thinking behind the desire to lose weight, what the person believes about self, coping skills, etc. Some people become addicted to drugs, alcohol, gambling, or shopping. Some people are addicted to food. Food becomes the way to cope with stressors, with the negative thinking about who they are. Weight becomes a protective barrier. 

This is not necessarily true for every single person who is overweight, but it is something to seriously consider. I'll use myself as an example. I'm currently overweight because I decided to punish my body when I was diagnosed with mild emphysema. It was my own fault that I had it; after all, I did smoke for nearly 20 years. When I was diagnosed I had already quit smoking. Logic says I would have been motivated to continue to be active and eat healthy, but that's not what I did. Humans are, as we know, not always logical. 

As I continue my journey to be healthy mind, body and soul, I find information like that in the ACE study to be helpful. I do not use the facts from this study as an excuse to continue to be unhealthy. This is not about using abuse to stay stuck in the past. Instead, it can be powerful to know that what you do today can be traced back to an event in the past. Of course, once you have this knowledge, you need to use the information to change your current choices, thoughts and behaviors. Knowing how your past effects who you are today is not an excuse to continue to make poor choices!

Click here to learn more about the ACE's study.

Click here to learn more about the connection between ACE's and obesity. 

*http://preventchildabusenj.org/blog/2014/03/19/adverse-childhood-experience-ace-study-findings-by-rush-russell/