{"id":26645,"date":"2020-06-09T10:22:58","date_gmt":"2020-06-09T17:22:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/?p=26645"},"modified":"2020-06-05T11:04:24","modified_gmt":"2020-06-05T18:04:24","slug":"whole-person-integrative-eating-a-dietary-lifestyle-for-attaining-and-maintaining-weight-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/all-mfn\/whole-person-integrative-eating-a-dietary-lifestyle-for-attaining-and-maintaining-weight-loss\/","title":{"rendered":"Whole Person Integrative Eating: A Dietary Lifestyle for Attaining and Maintaining Weight Loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cBy integrating the ancient physical, emotional, spiritual, and social dimensions of food, Whole Person Integrative Eating\u2026affirms the multidimensional healing power of food and leads us back to a deeper, healthier \u201cwhole person\u201d relationship to food, eating, and weight loss.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014DEAN ORNISH, M.D.,\u00a0Founder & President, Preventive Medicine Research Institute.\u00a0From the Foreword: Whole Person Integrative Eating<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At the beginning of our Whole Person Integrative Eating (WPIE) coaching sessions, Alison was a 64-year-old woman who weighed 235 pounds and wore a size 3x. A former businesswoman turned professional meditation practitioner, Alison\u2019s obesity began as a teenager. She had tried many \u201cdiets-du-jour\u201d over the decades. Each time she would lose some weight\u2014sometimes a lot; then she would return to her preferred \u201cgo-to\u201d foods and gain back the weight\u2026and more.1<\/sup><\/p>\n

Alison had called me after reading an article I had written for\u00a0Spirituality & Health\u00a0<\/em>magazine.2<\/sup> In the cover story on what I then called \u201cThe Enlightened Diet,\u201d readers, like Alison, were invited to take my 6-week, 18-lesson online e-course on the magazine\u2019s website.3<\/sup> The course offered my evidence-based Whole Person Integrative Eating program, which addresses both what\u00a0<\/em>(food choices) and\u00a0how\u00a0<\/em>(eating behaviors) to eat for weight loss and well-being by nourishing yourself physically<\/strong>,\u00a0but also emotionally<\/strong>,\u00a0spiritually<\/strong>, and\u00a0socially<\/strong> each time you eat. I call the multi-dimensional ways in which food heals the \u201c4 Facets of Food.\u201d The WPIE e-course also included my 80-item \u201cWhat\u2019s Your Overeating Style? Self-Assessment Quiz,\u201d which research participants (RPs) filled out\u2014along with weight and height\u2014both before and after the e-course.4-6<\/sup><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Overcoming Overeating with WPIE<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Here\u2019s what we found:<\/p>\n

More than 5,200 people took my WPIE e-course. The first breakthrough was identifying what I call the \u201c7 new normal overeating styles\u201d\u2014 ways of eating that lead to overeating and weight gain. What\u2019s especially powerful about the discovery of the overeating styles is this: All seven overeating styles strongly diverge from the perennial, optimal-eating principles that comprise the Whole Person Integrative Eating dietary lifestyle.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the more the RPs followed today\u2019s \u201cnew normal\u201d styles of overeating, the more likely they were to overeat and be overweight or obese.4-6<\/sup> Conversely, those who replaced their overeating styles with the perennial, optimal-eating principles that comprise the Whole Person Integrative Eating model and program were the RPs who ate less and lost the most weight <\/em>\u2014 as a natural \u201cside effect\u201d of practicing the WPIE dietary lifestyle \u2014 not <\/em>because they were following a traditional, regimented, restricted diet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhole Person\u201d Nourishment to Lose Weight and Keep It Off<\/strong><\/h4>\n

When Alison began our coaching sessions, she filled out the same \u201cWhat\u2019s Your Overeating Style? Self-Assessment Quiz\u201d that the RPs filled out, so both of us could get a better understanding of her overeating-style trouble spots, and the biological, psychological, spiritual, and social\u00a0root causes\u00a0of her overeating. In turn, we gleaned insights into her lifetime struggle with weight.<\/p>\n

After one year of coaching, Alison weighed about 165 pounds and wore a size 12. I talked with Alison in February 2020, and, having adopted Whole Person Integrative Eating as a lifetime practice, she has maintained her weight loss six-plus years later. What we both realized over time is this: A relationship to food and eating that provides multidimensional nourishment, and that is supported by our research and that of many others, enabled Alison to attain and maintain weight loss success.4-6<\/sup><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

WPIE Webinar with nutrition researcher Deborah Kesten<\/strong><\/h4>\n

In this webinar<\/a>, Deborah offers a paradigm-shifting, evidence-based foundation for nutritional health; an integrative approach that reveals the power of food to heal physically, but also emotionally, spiritually, and socially. Deborah will distill her WPIE program into seven simple, yet powerful principles that you can apply to yourself, clients, and patients.<\/p>\n

A WPIE Certification Course for Health Professionals<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Deborah’s WPIE Program has teamed up with the American Academy of Sports Dietitians and Nutritionists (AASDN) to offer the Foundations of Whole Person Integrative Eating Certification Course for certified and licensed health professionals. To find out more, please visit IntegrativeEating.com\/Training\/<\/a> or\u00a0WPIE.org<\/a> to enroll.<\/p>\n

\n

Deborah Kesten, M.P.H<\/a>., is an award-winning author, specializing in preventing and reversing obesity and heart disease. Her expertise includes the influence of epigenetics and diet on health, Lifestyle Medicine, and research on the Whole Person Integrative Eating dietary lifestyle to treat overeating, overweight, and obesity. She and her husband, behavioral scientist Larry Scherwitz, Ph.D., collaborate on research and writing projects.\u00a0<\/em>Her latest book, \u201cWhole Person Integrative Eating<\/a>\u201d was named the \u201cWinner\u201d in the Health category by the 2020 Book Excellence Awards.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

References:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Alison\u2019s case study is based on an actual client written about in my research paper, \u201cWhole Person Integrative Eating: A Program for Treating Overeating, Overweight, and Obesity,\u201d Integrative Medicine: A Clinician\u2019s Journal<\/em>, October 2015. (For the purposes of this article, \u201cAlison\u201d is a composite of an actual client and others I have coached who struggle with weight issues.)<\/li>\n
  2. Deborah Kesten, \u201cThe enlightened diet: integrating biological, spiritual, social, and psy- chological nutrition,\u201d Spirituality & Health <\/em>5 (2003): 29\u201339.<\/li>\n
  3. Deborah Kesten, \u201cThe enlightened diet integrative eating e-course.\u201d New York: Spiritual- ity & Health <\/em>(December 16, 2002\u2013January 24, 2003).<\/li>\n
  4. Larry Scherwitz and Deborah Kesten, \u201cSeven Eating Styles Linked to Overeating, Overweight, and Obesity,\u201d\u00a0Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing\u00a0<\/em>1, no. 5 (2005): 342\u201359.<\/li>\n
  5. Kesten D, Scherwitz L, \u201cWhole Person Integrative Eating: A Program for Treating Overeating, Overweight, and Obesity,\u201d\u00a0Integrative Medicine: A Clinician\u2019s Journal\u00a0<\/em>14,\u00a0<\/em> 5 (October\/November 2015): 42-50.<\/li>\n
  6. Deborah Kesten and Larry Scherwitz, Whole Person Integrative Eating: A Breakthrough Dietary Lifestyle to Treat the Root Causes of Overeating, Overweight, and Obesity<\/em> (Amherst, MA: White River Press; 2020).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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