The family wellness makeover: Part 3

Recap: Last October we introduced the Morfidis family of Bowmanville, Ont., (George, 41, Despina, 42, Ria, 14 and Stefi, 11) as they started a yearlong health makeover program with Canadian Living.

Though they are eight months into the program, the Morfidises are still discovering what works for them and what doesn't.

Making changes to lose weight and get healthy isn't a simple task – even if you are being featured in a magazine and things appear to be going well. Here are some of the biggest hurdles the family has stumbled on, what the experts have advised to get over them, and what the Morfidises have learned. Working with our team of professionals – dietitian Fran Berkoff, physician Dr. Suzanne Buchanan, personal trainer Sue Forest and life coach Cassandra Gierden – the family identified goals to get healthier through exercise, healthy eating and weight loss.

HURDLE: Lack of support for healthy choices, which can sabotage efforts
When Ria packed leftover salad with goat cheese, apples, tomatoes and oranges for lunch one day, kids in the cafeteria made fun of her (“Why'd you bring salad, it looks gross?”). One of her good friends came to her defence, but Ria still didn't like being teased about what she was eating and wondered, “why would they say that?”

Perhaps it's because they don't know any better. There's a whole world out there that doesn't encourage healthy eating habits. There are many people, young and old, who don't practise healthy
eating – and they may be asking for an unhealthy future. But it's important that the Morfidises build confidence around healthy choices in their children, say the coaches. Here's how.

• Talk about healthy eating at every opportunity. Perhaps Ria has a slim friend who always has fries and pop for lunch. Explain that the friend may stay skinny but that doesn't mean she's healthy from the inside.
• Encourage Ria to join friends for healthier favourite teen foods such as pizza (she can select vegetarian or one with whole wheat crust).
• Suggest Ria sometimes share her healthier choices. (She could invite some of her better friends to try the salad. She has also invited those friends home for dinner – and made sure salad was on the menu.)
• Communicate boundaries, says Gierden. Suggest that Ria let friends know this is how she prefers to eat and tell them, “I'd like it if you'd not make fun of what I'm eating.” Suggest that Ria invite friends to try her food.
• Lobby the school to provide healthier choices in the cafeteria and in snack machines, if it doesn't already.

HURDLE: Long-established relationships with food
“Food is still a huge problem for me,” says George, who adds that he's worried because he still has cravings for foods he knows are unhealthy, such as chips, chocolate and doughnuts.

Everyone has their own distinct and complex relationship with food that has been shaped and reshaped over a lifetime, says Berkoff. “We all eat in response to different emotional and situational cues – and these become habits.” For this hurdle, here's what the coaches recommend.

• Include emotional triggers for eating in food journals. This will make you aware of these triggers (for instance, if George has a bad day at work and reaches for a chocolate bar), which is the first step to changing them.
• Explore eating behaviours. When George asked Gierden to help him adhere to various healthy eating habits (for instance, “How do I cut out snacking after dinner?”), she suggested he ask himself a number of questions: What are the benefits of reducing snacking? What's going to help you do it? (In George's case, going to the gym after dinner instead of snacking in front of the TV.) Why do you snack so much? Talking through the answers reminded George of his big goals again (to lose weight and lower cholesterol) and his own accountability and control in making choices to succeed.
• Research the subject of overeating; there is a lot of information on the Internet and at libraries about overcoming food obsessions.
• Look for groups such as Overeaters Anonymous in their community.
• Get a referral to a health professional who is trained in issues related
to overeating.