Mika Brzezinski’s Book About Her Disordered Eating

Co-host of MSNBC’s weekday morning talk show Morning Joe Mika Brzezinski opens up about her struggles with disordered eating on Katie and in her new book, Obsessed: America’s Food Addiction-and My Own.

In the book, Brzezinski discusses her addiction to certain food substances and decades of disordered eating – bingeing, then running excessively to burn off the calories, while also discussing America’s obesity epidemic.

After years of denial and secrecy, she finally decided to admit and confront her struggles while talking to a friend about her friend’s obesity. While talking with her friend, Mika realized that though they were different body sizes, her and her friend were struggling with similar feelings and issues.

And because Mika was doing research and talking about America’s obesity crisis on Morning Joe, she learned that along with millions of other Americans, she had been addicted to salt, sugar and fat and began to take notice of the overwhelming amounts of these substances in restaurants and fast food joints.

And part of confronting her own issues–and the therapeutic healing–came in the form of her writing this book.  Because she is in the public eye, she wanted people to know where she was coming from. Mika says that she is sharing her story and struggles so others can relate and hopefully find the treatment and healing they need.

If you or a loved one is struggling with a diagnosed or undiagnosed Eating Disorder or are feeling “addicted” to certain food substances, contact Metro Behavioral Health Associates for a FREE 30 minute phone consultation at 914-723-6242 or info@mbhany.com.

Christine Quinn Opens Up About Her Struggles With Bulimia and Alcoholism

Thank you to Council Speaker Christine Quinn for sharing with uncommon courage and insight what is unfortunately a rather common co-occurrence of bulimia and alcohol abuse.

After years of secretly bingeing and purging, Quinn finally shared her eating disorder struggles with a close friend who was a recovering alcoholic, and entered a 28-day rehabilitation facility upon his recommendation.

According to today’s New York Times article, when she first returned from treatment, she remained quiet about her addictions and recovery, but through therapy sessions, a prescribed meal plan and occasional soothing walks, Quinn eventually began to talk and deal with her shame, which put her “on a path to letting go of the blame and responsibility.”

Quinn explains that the rehabilitation and therapy were essential to her overall healing. “Asking for help, going to rehab, dealing with bulimia, cutting back on drinking, getting drinking out of my life altogether-all of that helped me put the pieces back together.”

Metro Behavioral Health Associates Eating Disorders Centers treats all forms of eating disorders using a team approach with carefully selected nutritionists, psychotherapists, psychiatrists, physicians, etc., whether on our own team or in collaboration with existing health professionals who may already be in place.

There are many different approaches to resolving eating disorders, and each patient’s treatment plan is custom tailored to address their root causes whether environmental, genetic, medical, psychological or behavioral.

If you or a loved one are struggling with an eating disorder, contact us today for a FREE 30-minute phone consultation at  (914)-723-MBHA (6242) or  info@mbhany.com.

Marco Grob/Trunk Archive

Congratulations to New Jersey’s Governor Chris Christie for taking steps to address the battle with obesity that he’s been struggling with for much of his adult life. Kept under the radar until earlier this week, Christie’s lap band surgery, a procedure that separates the upper and lower parts of the stomach to limit the amount of food the stomach can hold, “was motivated by my family’s concern for my health.”

The health implications of carrying extra weight and obesity are costly both physically and economically. Diabetes, heart problems, high blood pressure and numerous other complications are just the beginning. Obesity is the second-leading cause of preventable death in the U.S., second only to smoking, according to the FDA.

Now there is a non-invasive, safe, cost-effective alternative to the expense and risks of weight-loss surgeries. It is called Gastric Bypass Hypnosis or GBH. And it is offered as part of an integrative therapeutic approach at Metro Behavioral Health Associates Eating Disorders Centers (MBHA). Trained in New York by GBH developer Sheila Granger, MBHA’s consulting hypnotist Sara Oppenheim-Somerville has seen consistently successful results with patients who have achieved and maintained long-term weight loss for the first time in their lives after trying countless weight-loss programs. Through Gastric Band Hypnosis, in the theater of the mind, the subconscious is helped to believe that one’s stomach has been surgically constricted to a fraction of its original size, reducing one’s appetite and producing weight loss.

Metro Behavioral Health Associates combines Gastric Band Hypnosis with individual and group counseling designed to finally understand and overcome whatever is driving overeating, as well as nutritional support to create individually tailored and manageable meal plans.

And best of all, this safe, cost-effective combination of treatment most often results in long-term and sustainable weight loss.

MBHA is offering free introductory consultation groups. Call 914-723-MBHA (6242) or write to info@mbhany.com.

If your son or daughter has been diagnosed with Anorexia Nervosa, you may be overwhelmed by information about the wide variety of treatments available when now, more than ever, your priority is to keep your child healthy and safe during a vulnerable, dangerous time in his/her life.

The Maudsley Method incorporates the family into the patient’s treatment plan, focusing less on figuring out the reasons someone may be suffering from anorexia and more on restoring regular eating patterns and gaining weight because anorexia nervosa is often a chronic, severe disorder in which mortality rates can be high. In fact, in the worst cases, it has the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric diagnosis, bar none. Maudsley sees the family as a system and assumes that, particularly for a child or adolescent, it’s not possible to treat the individual without integrating the entire family in order to prioritize the patient’s physical health in a moment of crisis.

Studies suggest that Maudsley works best for patients who are at 75% of their ideal body weight and have been sick for no more than 1-3 years, both important factors in the decision about whether or not this treatment may be the most effective one for you and your family. The Maudsley Method isn’t for everyone, but if you and your therapist and/or pediatrician and/or nutritionist think it might be a good fit for your daughter and your family, the data on short and long term recovery rates is encouraging.

How does it work?

With the Maudsley method, parents, with the assistance of siblings if applicable, are shown very carefully step by step, how to re-feed the patient and reestablish a family environment in which patients have to eat. The program is divided into three phases, and generally takes place over 12 months with 15-20 family counseling sessions.

Phase I: Weight Restoration

During phase I, parents assume all responsibility for feeding their child, ultimately deciding when, where, and what the child will eat. The goal is for the child or adolescent to begin to gain weight at a time when her brain and body are severely malnourished. Parents must be available around the clock to supervise meal and snack times and to ensure that the patient doesn’t purge or burn off calories by exercising.

During this time, your child may still be gripped by fears of gaining weight and plagued by negative self-talk and obsessive thoughts about food, eating, and weight gain. With coaching and therapy from a Maudsley trained therapist, parents learn to work with their son or daughter directly at meal times in ways that are non-judgmental, supportive, and loving, in spite of what are often very stressful times.

Phase II: Returning control over eating to the adolescent

Once your son or daughter has accepted that eating and weight gain are something that’s expected of him/her, parents can begin to slowly cede control to the child in order to relearn how to eat and feed him or herself in a healthy way. The continuing goal of this phase is the child or adolescent’s physical health.

The adolescent may still be having eating disordered thoughts, feelings, and issues with body image, but during this phase, the expectation is that he/she is starting to learn to deal with those feelings at the same time that she’s also becoming more comfortable with eating and gaining weight.

Phase III: Establishing healthy adolescent identity

During Phase III, the patient has shown that she can maintain her own weight, and outside restrictions and demands on her eating cease. Now the focus is on the patient and the family getting back on track and on the patient establishing age appropriate and developmentally appropriate relationships with friends and family that aren’t limited by and don’t revolve around the eating disorder.

What are the advantages of the Maudsley Method?

• Inpatient eating disorder clinics can be expensive, and the cost of a 2-3 month stay may be not be covered by insurance. In many but not all cases, Maudsley intervention at an early stage can prevent the need for higher levels of care.
• The data supporting long-term recovery rates is compelling. Within a year, 90% of patients were in recovery, and after five years, 90% of those who had had positive results were still recovered.
• It is an opportunity for families to learn more about how to support each other, communication is improved and families much less helpless in the process.

Let Metro Behavioral Health Associates help you determine if The Maudsley Method is the correct method to treat your Anorexia.

Call one of our friendly staff members to schedule an appointment today.

With all the recent data on this topic you may be feeling like you should be coming off your sleeping pills, but perhaps you’re concerned that without them, you won’t get the valuable sleep you need.

Did you know that Hypnosis is very beneficial as an aid to sleeping?   Hypnosis has no adverse side effects, is 100% safe and is also a rather useful tool for helping to break certain addictions and for changing behaviors.

In order to get a good night’s sleep we need to be able to turn the mind off and relax the body.  For sure, easier said than done, but there’s no greater way than hypnosis to train the mind and the body to do what it was designed to do naturally. So if you’re worried about getting a good night’s sleep,  consider trying some hypnosis so you can turn it over to your unconscious mind, which, after all, controls every system.

Let us help you get a good night sleep…

Call Metro Behavioral Health Associates for a free of charge phone consultation today.

– by Sara Oppenheim, CHt

Getting back in control of one’s life and one’s eating is a welcome feeling.

We understand that many people are sick of counting calories and yo-yo dieting. We also know that those who suffer repeated episodes of emotional eating are striving to get back in control of their eating and their lives. Some get so desperate they consider having surgery in the hope that it will force them to eat less. If only…..

What happens in gastric band hypnosis?

Hypnosis is exactly the same state as meditation – the only difference is that hypnosis uses the power of suggestion to make behavioral changes possible. Anyone can be hypnotized. In fact, the state of hypnosis (which is very similar to day dreaming or going on automatic pilot) is totally safe, pleasant and relaxing. It produces very predictable results, and has been used in clinical settings without adverse effect, ever since the 1950’s.

If someone wishes to change at a very deep level – at the subconscious level – hypnosis can help make changes in one’s life and one’s behavior.

In the first of four sessions, a trained hypnotist takes a patient through the virtual gastric band procedure in the theater of their mind. Using hospital sounds and carefully chosen suggestions, patients experience no adverse side effects, no pain or scarring, just a very pleasant, relaxing experience without the trauma of real surgery.

After that first session patients are amazed to discover that they are very satisfied with much smaller amounts of food, because their subconscious minds believe that they have had a gastric band placed around their stomach. Happily they don’t feel it, as they simply benefit from the positive experience of being satisfied with much smaller food portions.

What is involved:
• One hour sessions, once a week, for four consecutive weeks
• Listening to a short CD once or twice a day for 28 days
• Willingness to follow some simple guidelines
• Monthly follow-up sessions for several months.

Is hypnosis as a way to lose weight simply a fad, or can I trust it?

In fact, “thinking yourself thin” via hypnosis is a method for weight loss that has gone mainstream. Consider that doctors at many reputable institutions like Harvard, Columbia, Mount Sinai and the Cleveland Clinic are backing the belief that going under hypnosis may indeed wake up your willpower to lose weight.

One of the trailblazers in this methodology is Paul McKenna. In this video clip from his recent appearance on the Doctor Oz show, he demonstrates how the imagination is more powerful than the will. That is, we can reprogram our minds just like we reprogram a computer, so that we eat less and we feel good about ourselves in the process.

Reasons to choose the Virtual Gastric Band or Gastric Hypnotic Band procedure over actual surgery in many cases:
• It is 100% safe
• It works (In trials in the UK 95% of subjects reported success with no adverse side effects)
• No need to go through actual surgery, the inherent risks, recovery time and surgical scars.
• The fee is very much less than the surgical procedure.

Our approach at MBHA, however, addresses the underlying emotional issues as well, and in conjunction with the support of the other services that MBHA provides – in some cases individual and/or group therapy, nutritional counseling, etc. –  virtual gastric band hypnosis can be even more effective than any medical option.

Of course if you have any of several medical conditions that may result from chronic obesity, we also strongly encourage ongoing medical monitoring and support.

Virtual gastric band surgery is a pragmatic, much less drastic way to get back in control of your eating and your life.

If you wish to explore hypnotism as a way to control eating habits, and especially as a powerful alternative to more drastic procedures such as gastric band surgery, Sara Oppenheim is Metro Behavioral Health’s resident hypnotist. She welcomes your inquiries.

Photo courtesy of Creative Commons 2.0, HNBD.

Big idea number one: make a plan for attending holiday parties while avoiding binge eating (or emotional eating)

Here are a few tips around the big idea of making a plan:

• Don’t go to a party on an empty stomach. Always grab a fruit or a healthy snack beforehand, so that you are not really hungry heading out the door.
• Set reasonable expectations so that if you want to taste something novel or try a favorite food, you allow yourself to do that in moderation; instead of wrongly thinking you are being “good” or perfect in refusing all delectables, try a small taste of treats you may really enjoy.
• If you cannot be disciplined in taking a small portion at this time, do some positive self-talk before you head out. Your inner dialogue might be something like this:

“I know there will be lots of foods that tempt me. I know that I might want to eat more than I really need. I don’t have to do that. I’m not being sequestered to a desert island or having my last meal before execution. There will always be enough. There will always be enough.”

Big idea number two: You want to count something? Instead of calories, how about blessings?

It can be humbling and joyful to focus on the joy of your relationships and the sweetness of life, and less on the food.

Start a gratitude list. It is an uncanny coincidence that in addition to all the varied foods that are trotted out at holiday time, there is also an onslaught of direct solicitations for charities.

I was going through a mini-mountain of mail this morning. Included in a local newspaper article was an overview of how people from all walks of life in nearby towns helped out the more unfortunate victims of Hurricane Sandy. Just reading about the outpouring of support made me realize how fortunate I was, and by extension, how fortunate most of us are who did not lose our homes, our lives, or our loved ones.

When you start to think in terms of what is really important, and you start to appreciate your health and work you way down from there … everyone can start a gratitude list for the people they care about, and the experiences they relish.

Focus on the people who have contributed to who you are today, because nobody gets to where they stand by paddling alone. Reach for the phone and call someone. Volunteer your time in a meaningful way.

After all, if the food had previously provided comfort, you are going to need something else to channel those comforting feelings, and most people get that satisfaction from their connectedness to others, and an attitude of reflective gratitude.

Listing what I am thankful for helps me focus on the good.

Big idea number three: instead of eating while you are upset, journal, journal, journal: upload the feelings out of your head and onto the page.

We have covered two of the three most common scenarios for emotional eating at the holidays, including the party environment and the ordinary temptations of food that is around at home. But perhaps the toughest nut to crack is the ever-present feeling of helplessness that a person who is prone to overeating has when they are eating from “compulsion” or “stuffing” their emotions.

Time and again I deal with patients who have great insight gained from solving many problems they face in life, but feel unable to solve their emotional or even binge eating. I would venture to guess that oftentimes, they are upset at something and simply wish to avoid looking at what is causing the anguish.  It is a clever but harmful numbing technique. In the end, it is not a very satisfying way to anesthetize.

Rather than pushing the feelings and the pain away, it is better to try to drain the wound a bit. One highly recommended way is to write down what is making you upset.

You can do this in any number of formats. Use an online diary a la Google Docs. Or buy a beautifully embellished book that you tuck into your night table or purse. Other options include an app on your smartphone, where you can take notes.

Whatever format, the purpose is the same: It can be extremely cathartic to actually write about what is bothering you. It can take the pain down a notch. And in many cases, if you keep in mind your goal of living binge-free, and why it is your goal–what it represents for you–then as you finish writing, you can bring some closure to looking at the pain. In other words, you looked at the pain for the interval of time that you were writing, and then you were in control and chose to stop.

That little bit of “I wrote, I saw, I moved on” will give you the confidence to pass over the food, and make progress towards your goal.

Let me know in the comments other tips you may have for avoiding binge eating around the holidays.

Photos courtesy of Creative Commons 2.0, tempo (young woman) and rversde23 (gratitude list).

How do you measure RMR (Resting Metabolic Rate)?

Metabolic rate is measured by a breath test using indirect calorimetry.  A device you will breath into measures oxygen consumption vs. carbon dioxide exhalation to determine your specific calorie needs.  The measurement of direct oxygen in, and carbon dioxide out is applied to metabolic equations. This allows your MBHA Dietitian to make accurate nutrition recommendations for you.  With a simple breath test of 10 minutes, or less any person can have their metabolism measured with 99.8% accuracy.

What is my first step to get my metabolism tested?

You need to schedule an initial consult with a MBHA dietitian to go over the metabolic testing directions (in many cases this initial consult can be conducted via phone or skype), and schedule your test. Because the test must be conducted in the morning (in-person), your initial consult is used to review you history so your test calculations are as accurate as possible.

Will I get a copy of my results?

Yes, immediately following your test you will receive a copy of your results and your MBHA dietitian will review the results with you.

What do I do with my results?

Your MBHA dietitian will use your metabolic test to calculate the optimal meal plan for you.

Contact us today and get a Metabolism test scheduled:

*(denotes required field)

Name: *

E-Mail Address: *

Telephone

Message:

CAPTCHA Code: *

Jennie Kramer, MSW, LCSW, Founder and Executive Director of Metro Behavioral Health Associates Eating Disorders Centers will be moderator for this very special event at which the creator of the documentary, Judy Avrin, will also be present.   Please RSVP by reserving your seat through The Jacob Burns Theater in Pleasantville.

Photo by: Peter Cade/Getty Images

We have always encouraged the notion that it is NEVER too late to start treating your body well. This is a great article that underscores this idea in a rather balanced way.

NYTimes: The Benefits of Middle-Age Fitness

http://nyti.ms/ONn3I0