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By Christine Graf
According to a study conducted by the American Psychological Association, more than 40 percent of adults have reported gaining unwanted weight, an average of 29 pounds, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Saratoga County professional life and health coach Laura Conklin said that many people have turned to food for comfort during the pandemic. The owner of HELD Life & Health Coaching, Conklin offers individualized weight loss programs to her clients and works with them to uncover the root causes of their weight gain as well as their motivation for losing weight.
“If you are struggling with your health or weight, chances are that there are some things going on in your mind that need some balancing and reframing. When people come to me wanting to lose weight, we start getting into some core issues of what they believe about themselves. It’s about a deeper level of transformation than just body weight,” she said. “Without strong motivation, it’s easy to put aside all of the strategies and revert back to overeating.”
There is no one-size-fits-all model for weight loss. Conklin said there is often trial and error involved.
“I am very holistic and multi-faceted, and it’s not as simple as saying ‘Eat these foods.’ I believe in using your body as a laboratory and discovering what works best for your body.”
Life and health coach Lisa Wolfe of Moreau also incorporates metabolic testing when working to develop individualized plans for her weight loss clients. By using a machine that measures oxygen consumption, she is able to determine the number of calories a person burns while at rest.
Based on those results, as well as an analysis of a person’s activity level, she said she can calculate a daily calorie consumption target for that individual. Wolfe also counsels clients on nutrition and offers meal planning and recipe advice. Because she is a personal trainer and group fitness instructor, she is also able to assist clients with exercise plans.
Registered dietician MaryBeth McCue of Saratoga Nutrition draws on her functional medicine and nutrition background when working with clients who are trying to lose weight.
“This is not conventional dieting for weight loss because that doesn’t work,” she said.
McCue stresses the importance of eating whole foods that contain no herbicides or pesticides. She also suggests limiting or eliminating junk food, white flour, gluten, and dairy.
“The science tells us that if you have toxins in your fat stores, it’s going to be more difficult to access fat for energy. You also need to understand what carbohydrates, proteins, and fats are and have a combination of each one of those nutrients at each meal,” she said.
“These are the basics and where we start, but if someone comes to me and they have been a dieter for 20 years and want to lose weight, I can almost guarantee you that they have other things going on that’s causing them to be overweight. It’s usually digestion. Imbalance in the GI is common with about 99 percent of my clients.”
Weight gain and anxiety and depression often go hand in hand, and the pandemic has exacerbated this country’s already serious mental health crisis. Researchers at Boston College found that during the first nine months of the pandemic, Americans reported rates of anxiety and depression that were six times higher than those reported the previous year.
Individuals suffering from clinical depression should seek help from certified mental health practitioners but can also turn to Conklin, Wolfe, or McCue for additional support. All three teach a variety of stress reducing techniques including breathing exercises and meditation to their clients. They also recommend a healthy lifestyle that incorporates exercise.
“People are feeling very run down because of the pandemic. Everything that we need as human being has been challenged,” said Conklin. “Undoing stress is key to a healthy mind and body. It’s about finding what you love to do that can bring you some joy and also get your body moving. Play tag with your kids. Chop wood. It doesn’t have to be about going to the gym.”
Wolfe focuses heavily on mental health in her coaching practice and is a board member of 4s4Life, a foundation that sponsors free local mental health events, as well as an ambassador for NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) New York. She specializes in the working mother demographic, and many of her clients are feeling especially stressed and overwhelmed because of the pandemic.
When they reach out to her for help, she provides guidance in four main areas—nutrition, exercise, self-care, and creating healthy boundaries.
“If you can get those four areas in balance, people automatically start to feel better,” Wolfe said. “My goal is to teach them how to put themselves first without feeling guilty, because if they are not the best version of themselves, they are not going to be able to help anyone. I teach my clients how to regain control over their lives.”
For those who are struggling emotionally, she suggests avoiding the news as much as possible. Wolfe also said it is important for people to surround themselves with positive people.
According to McCue, most of her clients who are experiencing anxiety and depression have other underlying issues.