Please Help Me Lose Weight for my Health!

“For the vast majority of Americans, diet is at the core of their illness.” – Dr. Timothy Harlan
Georgia feels desperate about her weight. Her cheerful round face and huge brown eyes are welcoming, but at 5-feet, 4-inches and 212 pounds, she feels hopeless about attracting and partnering with a man as intelligent as she is. 
Georgia, 48, is in the middle of menopause and looks forward to an even harder time losing weight than before. She has never really dated because she is shy, and is busy as a nurse and family caretaker. She is perceptive about her battle with weight loss: “I’ve managed things much harder than my weight. I take care of sick patients every day without blinking an eye. Why can’t I get to a normal weight when I know the obesity is literally killing me? I know I’m in danger. Why can’t I take charge?” 
Georgia’s mother died recently at 73 from diabetes and obesity. Georgia considers her mother’s death a wakeup call. Because of my extensive training in eating control work, she is doing psychotherapy around eating control with me. Together we are beginning to help her face her shame and deep worry at the self-destruction she is suffering. “I know better. When will I ever learn?”
I begin by taking stock of her eating habits and life patterns. Then I helped her learn how to think about eating control. Only after we do these key steps do we discuss eating differently: unless there is a foundation of self-knowledge and self-respect the eating regime feels too punitive to stick lifelong. And her new self-discipline must extend to every day of her life!
Always on the lookout for superb resources on this national killer of obesity, I recently found The Goldring Center for Culinary Medicine (GCCM) at Tulane University. This is the first dedicated teaching kitchen to be implemented at a medical school. The center offers community cooking classes, residency training, practical, evidence-based nutrition, and general consultation. Timothy S. Harlan, MD, FACP, practicing physician, is the multi-talented executive director.
“Eating well and eating healthy is the same thing,” says Harlan. His 2002 public broadcast program “The Dr. Gourmet Show” earned an Emmy Award for excellence in medical programming.  His book, “Just Tell Me What to Eat!” is a 6-week meal plan that emphasizes delicious, hearty meals, a Mediterranean-style diet, high-quality calories, and home cooking whenever possible.
This is groundbreaking work! GCCM was honored as a national innovator at the Clinton Foundation’s Health Matters Activation Summit in Little Rock, Ark. The award recognizes leading health professional training programs that provide innovative nutrition, physical activity and obesity counseling education to their students. GCCM is the first teaching kitchen to be implemented at a medical school. It teaches medical students and doctors culinary skills so they can help patients make practical dietary changes to improve their health. Staff and medical students also teach free community cooking classes for the public. Harlan states, “For the vast majority of Americans, diet is at the core of their illness. By changing the dialogue between doctors and patients from a discussion about diet to one about food, we can dramatically lower morbidity and improve mortality outcomes.” 
Fewer than 30 percent of medical schools meet the minimum number of hours of education in nutrition and exercise science recommended by the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. While most physicians agree that nutritional counseling should be a part of the visit with a patient, only 14 percent of doctors feel they have adequate training to do so.
What about Georgia? We have the resources to create a new future for her health and her happiness. The therapy is crucial to this endeavor. Can she do it? It is hard. Is it worth it? Her eating patterns could cost her an early death.
Her future is up to her.
To consider: Whom do you love that could benefit from this approach to health? Will you speak with them? Why? Why Not? http://www.culinarymedicine.org.
Find Dr. Judith Coche helping clients battle addictive eating at The Coche Center, LLC, a practice in Clinical Psychology at Rittenhouse Square and in Stone Harbor. Reach her through www.cochecenter.com.