A few years ago I had the pleasure of working with Elaine Murphy on one of my top personal goals, healthy eating. Not only did Elaine help me develop a weekly menu plan and grocery list, she worked with me at my pace... teaching me how to shop, cook and meal plan, and eat what's right for my body.

Elaine, and her business partner Lauren, offer nutrition coaching in person, via telephone and the Internet. If healthy eating is one of your empowering goals, schedule a complimentary appointment and get started...

www.weightohealth.com

A Passion for Nutrition

By Elaine Murphy

I have been in health-care consulting for over 20 years. Since the early 80's I have been interested in nutrition, and in the 90s took my certification from Bauman College as a Nutrition Consultant. I specialize in health and nutrition education, particularly diabetes, cardiovascular disease, menopause, weight management, and lifestyle modification.

I’d like to share my own story, because it relates to who I have become and what has driven my passion for nutrition consulting. And, because I know that many women have grappled with the same issues.

My interest in health began as an adolescent. In my mind’s eye I was just huge! In reality, I was just a little, well “fluffy” as a good friend termed it. The problem was, the struggle with weight didn’t end until I was almost 40. I felt like I had two personalities; one addicted to large quantities of junk food, the other dieted all the time. I also had some unrecognized emotional issues that exacerbated the problem. In my struggle to lose weight, I even seriously considered taking up smoking.

Whereas one personality was addicted to junk food, the other personality was the “perfect” dieter, ate all the “right” foods, measured and weighed everything, counted every calorie, and exercised regularly. However, I never learned about balance. It was all or nothing in my world. And, it wasn’t that much about health, primarily appearance. It takes some maturity to realize just how much health does matter.

The good news is that it is hard to diet without learning a little about nutrition. For some reason I always felt better when I chose the “right foods.” Funny thing! Years later, after having dealt with my emotional issues and realizing there was no magic pill, then and only then, was I finally able to maintain my weight in a more sane way and embrace healthy eating in its own right. I went beyond “dieting” nutrition and sought in-depth nutrition education to enhance health.

Today, working with clients, I see the same patterns and their variations over and over again…the same endless frustration, the desperation, the black and white relationship with food, the desire for the weight to be gone RIGHT NOW, and of course dealing with all the misinformation pedaled by the diet industry!

Other specific patterns: under eating, especially skipping breakfast-even when a woman is exercising like crazy and doesn’t understand how she’s actually teaching her body to store fat rather than lose it; high consumption of sugar, caffeine and stress, all contributing to insulin resistance and diabetes, and yes, making it even more difficult to lose weight; not addressing emotional eating and seeking the perfect “diet” that will fix everything; the desperate woman taking care of everyone else except herself and wondering why she can’t lose weight. This is why we named our company, Weigh To Health. Weight is an issue, yes, an issue that if not corrected leads to heart disease, diabetes and a whole gamut of other related health conditions. Even in my earlier years, I thought that if I could succeed then others could do it too. As a certified Nutrition Consultant, Certified Diet Counselor, and Certified Nutrition Educator, I am here to do just that.

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