In 2006, the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) released a study which showed that, for 1 in 4 people, obesity was linked to an anxiety or mood disorder, though the exact relationship between the two remained unclear.

The data came from a face to face survey, National Comorbidity Survey Replication, and found that obesity is on the rise in the US, along with increasing rates of depression, bipolar disorder (also called manic-depressive disorder) and panic disorder.

There was no difference between men and women in the study. Societal and cultural factors did influence this connection, with highest correlation in non-Hispanic, white participants who are college educated, and aged 29 or younger.

The link between obesity and anxiety and depression still needs to be studied further, though it is also common sense. Obesity is a problem you can’t easily hide, and one that may lead to poor treatment from others. That’s the bad news.

The good news is that it doesn’t need to be this way. You can take action, today, to conquer your obesity.

Why not start by listening to the free audio interview with Dr. Jo Lynn and Lynette Patterson? You can access that by signing up on the top right of this page.

High blood pressure, or hypertension, is a serious problem for a lot of people.  It is especially common in the United States, in people who are 10 or more pounds overweight, and in people 50 and older.  However, a plenty of young and otherwise healthy people also suffer from high blood pressure.  Because having a high blood pressure increases your risk of heart disease, heart attack, and strokes, it is not to be taken lightly.

A number of different factors can contribute to high blood pressure.  First of all, an inactive, sedentary lifestyle greatly increases you likelihood of developing high blood pressure.  Being overweight will also likely result in a high blood pressure.  Both weight and a lack of exercise contribute to high cholesterol, which in turn boosts blood pressure.

Some other factors that lead to high blood pressure include smoking, drinking, and excessive use of salt or high sodium products.  Also, most stimulants including caffeine, ephedra, pseudophedrine, and diet pills will boost your blood pressure, sometimes into dangerous levels. 

Blood pressure is measured by two different numbers, the first is your ‘systolic’ pressure, and the second is your ‘diastolic’ pressure.  Systolic represents your blood pressure during the period of ventricular contraction in your heart, and diastolic pressure represents your blood pressure when the atria are contracting and the ventricles are filling up.  Because the ventricles are the larger and more muscular heart chambers, the systolic reading is always higher than the diastolic. 

Blood pressure readings are given as systolic over diastolic.  An example would be 120 over 80, which is considered to be a textbook standard for healthy blood pressure.  Systolic readings from 100 to 140 and diastolic readings of between 70 and 90 are considered the normal range.  A systolic pressure of more than 140, a diastolic higher than 90, or both is considered high blood pressure. 

If you suspect you have high blood pressure you should see a doctor.  If you’re not sure, you should see a doctor.  A doctor can help you determine if you need to be on blood pressure medication, or if simple lifestyle changes will be enough to help fight your high blood pressure.

Free Gift: You can listen to a 20 minute audio Interview with Dr. Jo Lynn by signing up at the top right of this page.

Many times, weight loss management programs focus on the immediate benefits of losing weight, such as reducing high blood pressure, or looking better, or fitting into your skinny jeans. These are all very specific benefits of weight loss. Aside from these specific benefits, though, life, overall, is much more enjoyable if you’re healthy and in good shape.

When you’re in good shape, the entire fabric of your life run easier. You are able to move easier, walk easier, and to play with your children. Your body is carrying around less fat, and so your heart doesn’t have to work as hard. You feel more confident, and more capable- and proud of yourself. You are likely to be more self accepting and to focus more on your strengths than on your flaws.

The tricky thing about weight is that it’s a difficult struggle you just can’t hide. Anyone can look at you and know you’re overweight, which makes this a more public flaw than others you might have.

Losing weight relies on eating right and exercising correctly; so you burn more calories than you take in. Meal replacements are one of the best ways to be sure you’re eating right. When your body is well nourished with the proper blend of nutrients, food becomes less important- you stop thinking about it all the time.

Water should be the main beverage you consume.

Eating healthy is awesome, but if you want to get that body conditioned, then you have to adopt a fitness exercise routine that works for you. If you’re currently overweight, then you may want to begin with light cardio exercises. Try an elliptical machine, treadmill, jogging around your neighborhood, and plenty of crunches. It’s good to mix up your exercises, because this keeps the body guessing. This way your muscles don’t get too used to the routine. Cardio is your best bet for burning calories.

Once you get down to the weight you prefer, you can add a few strength training fitness exercise regimens. The reason this is better left until after your weight is down, basically concerns weight gain. As you build muscle with weight training, you’ll naturally gain weight. This makes losing weight confusing for some. Remember, the key is sticking to the program. This is how you’ll see results.

If you want to lose weight, you know you have to exercise. Even though cutting calories is very important, the most successful long term weight management relies on reducing calories and increasing exercise. 

Cutting calories alone will not get the job done. When you are making such a big lifestyle change, your whole life needs to be considered, and you have to rethink how you live each and every day. There are a lot of ways to get more motion into your day, but one of the best ways is by increasing your aerobic activity. Aerobics will raise your heart rate enough to get those pounds to start coming off.

If you have any serious medical condition, you should be careful with aerobic activity. It is always wise to see a doctor before you begin any aerobic activity program for weight loss. The doctor may tell you what you should and should not do, and they may say that you should limit all aerobic activity.

Even if you are healthy for the most part, you may still want to see your doctor and get a check up before you begin any program containing aerobic activity you are not used to. At minimum, you’ll get some tips for minimizing the risks of injury and pain which can happen when you try to do too much too quickly.

The key to effective aerobic activity is to make sure you are doing it the right way. If you aren’t getting your heart rate elevated, you really aren’t getting the benefits you are seeking. Along the same lines, you have to get your heart rate elevated, and it must remain there for a certain amount of time.

This helps your body effectively burn off calories and build muscle. This will be hard for you to do at first, but as your body gets used to the aerobic activity, it will become easier and you will be able to add time to your workout. Research has shown that shorter, frequent bursts of exercise (such as 10 minute workouts, completed 3x per day) are as effective as 1 longer 30 minute workout. This means there is no reason not to get more aerobic.

Don’t forget that aerobic activities are all around you, and you don’t need a gym to find them. You can jog around your neighborhood, or you can run in the backyard with your kids. You can dance with your children to their favorite songs, or you can go for long bike rides together. You don’t have to sweat at home if you don’t want to, though.

You can find programs that feature aerobic activity at your local gym. The most common kind that come to mind are dance aerobic programs, but don’t forget that cycling and rowing are also aerobic in nature. You may also try step class, or something as simple as running or swimming. The most important part of aerobic activity is doing it. Make a commitment to yourself, get moving, and watch your life, and body change!

Weight loss is a personal journey that is about more than just food. It’s about developing a healthy self esteem and mastering positive life skills.

We at Chrysalis understand and can help. We offer a comprehensive diet program that combines a tasty and nutritious eating plan with proper exercise and personal coaching so you can change from the inside out – just like the beautiful butterfly.

We identify and change the behaviors that contributed to the obesity in the first place. Accountability and behavioral coaching are the most effective tools in permanent weight loss and are therefore the cornerstones of our program.

We help you examine the elements of your lifestyle that is endangering your good health. You can’t change what you can’t see. The new skills and habits you will establish with us will help you successfully manage your weight in the future. Immediate weight loss is a by-product of this program, but permanent weight loss is the real goal.

Through this blog, we will help you along this journey toward optimal health. So please check back often as we post relevant articles, insights, health tips and much more!

Lynette

Over the past year, I’ve shifted my career from being an OB/GYN to addressing the epidemic of obesity. It has been a wonderful year, I’ve learned a lot and I realize that I am very good at helping people return to good health. In 2009, I am determined to help as many people as I can reach and what I’ve learned is to do that, I must learn to speak professionally. The thought scares me and I’m not one who is easily frightened.

You see, I’m a board certified OB/GYN and I love what I’ve done these past 18 years. There is no greater miracle than to deliver a baby, be the first to touch a new human being and then present that miracle into the arms of people who will love him or her for life. Each time, I’m blessed.

As wonderful as it is to be a part of such a miracle, I have found a new passion. I’ve fallen in love with helping adults get their lives back.

When a person is very overweight, their life is limited. It is limited because of illness or disability. It is limited because they aren’t physically able to do the things they would love to do. It is limited because when they look in the mirror they often don’t like what they see.

By helping people lose weight and find a healthy way to live, they regain and reclaim their life. And I find that rewarding. A blessing. Its own miracle.

So, here I am, looking at how to do this foreign thing….become a public speaker. And I’m turning to an expert, Dave Lakhani, to help propel me to a place where I can touch more people’s lives, make a bigger impact in defeating the enormous epidemic of obesity in our country.

Please wish me well,

Dr. Jo Lynn

P.S. Do you know Dave? You can find out more about him at: http://www.boldapproach.com/profitablespeaking

“People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things. When they believe in themselves they have the first secret of success.”

~ Norman Vincent Peale

The donuts are sitting there.  Staring at you.  Suddenly, one is in your mouth.  Then another and another.
Hateful donuts!

As you lick the sugar glaze off your fingers, you declare “it’s not my fault, I have no willpower.”

What a great excuse! If you don’t have any willpower, then it truly isn’t your fault when you give in to sweet/ salty/ snacky/fatty foods.

But here is the catch: thinking that you don’t have willpower is simply a belief that you hold to be true.  And, if you believe you are powerless around food, you’re probably going to keep falling off your health plan.

What if I told you this – Willpower doesn’t exist.  It isn’t something you either HAVE or HAVE NOT.  When a baby is born, the doctor doesn’t take a look and say ‘no willpower in this one – 3rd one this week.’
So, now what?

First, focus on the benefits of the commitments you have made to yourself.  Since we started with donuts, let’s keep that theme going.

Why did you decide to lose weight and be healthier in the first place?  What were the reasons?  What were the goals?  By focusing on your commitment and remembering why you committed in the first place, you have a moment in time – before the donut hits the lips to decide if -your long term success is more - important than this five second reward.

Next, think about what experience you were hoping to gain by eating the donut.  Everything that we do, we do to create an experience for ourselves.  When your hand is reaching out, pause and take a breath.  What does the pause tell you? What are you needing or wanting in that moment?  Is it connection?  Is it energy?         What is it you are seeking?  And in that moment of pausing, that brief moment of choice, think of a healthier solution to create that same experience.

And the last thing – laugh. Aren’t we funny creatures?  We simply, sometimes without thinking, reach for a donut when we KNOW we are going to beat ourselves up five minutes later.  It’s just a habit -ha ha ha.  Lighten up on yourself, don’t be so quick to judge, to blame. Be kind to yourself.  It takes a little time to change the automatic response of reaching for food.  It takes a little time to create a new habit that supports our new vision of ourselves.  Be kind.

There are hiccups on the road to success, only you can decide how long you stay at the rest area.  And that is why Chrysalis was created.

We empower you to live the life you love with a body that doesn’t hold you back by assisting you in determining what is most meaningful to you. Then, we co-design a program for you and support and empower you to remove the obstacles that get in your way.  And, we hold a space of accountability that encourages and
motivates you.

That’s why, this time it will work.

Listen to the Recording of the Sneak Preview by clicking on this link. You will be able to listen and see the call just like if you had been live on the call.

Now Click Here to Listen to the Call.

Now Click Here to Listen to the Call.

Tennessee tips the scales among the nation’s fattest states, according to a new government study.

According to the study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 30 percent of adults in Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama are considered obese, making the South the nation’s fattest region. Experts blame Southern eating habits, poverty and demographic groups that have higher obesity rates.

The CDC defines obesity as a body mass index (BMI, a ratio of weight to height) of 30 or above. An adult who is 5 feet, 9 inches tall is considered obese if he/she weighs 203 pounds.

On the local front, Greene County doesn’t fare much better. According to the Tennessee Department of Health, 64.8% of the residents in the Northeast Tennessee area are considered overweight or obese. In this study, overweight is considered having a BMI of 25 or greater. “Obesity is very high here,” Dr. Jo Lynn Hawthorne, a local gynecologist and owner of Chrysalis Weight Management, said. “This is a fast food nation, people are stressed out running from here to there and as a community, we don’t take time for ourselves. As doctors, haven’t been trained to do anything substantial to address it. We might tell our patients to watch what they eat and to exercise, but the medical profession simply is not armed with techniques that create long lasting, significant results.”

Dr. Hawthorne has spent the past 1½ years studying obesity and is a member of the American Society of Bariatric Medicine.

“That’s why I Chrysalis was created,” Dr. Hawthorne explained. “I wanted to offer my OB-GYN patients — and the community – something that works. At Chrysalis, we offer a comprehensive program to lose weight safely and permanently.”

Like other weight loss centers, Chrysalis offers a personalized diet plan and encourages regular exercise. But the thing that sets Chrysalis apart is that they also offer a personal trainer and an on-site gym, as well as life coaches to empower patients get to the core of why they overeat.

“We all know that it’s not about the food. At Chrysalis, we create a space where our patients can take a deeper look at what triggers them to overeat, to not create the time to exercise” Dr. Hawthorne explained. “We teach patients how to calm, nurture and energize themselves so that they don’t turn to food to do it for them. We give them the tools to shift their perspectives so they can see different possibilities in life than the way they’ve been doing it.”

Patients attend one-on-one sessions with a life coach, as well as weekly group empowerment sessions. “This equips them with the skills they need to make permanent lifestyle changes and frees them from the baggage that ties them to food,” she said.

And the cost? For only $25 per week, patients receive one-on-one time with a weight management nurse, a weekly empowerment classes, two sessions with a personal exercise trainer and 6 one-on-one life coaching sessions. “We are proud to offer all that we do at a price most anyone can afford,” says Dr. Hawthorne. “Many patients need in-depth medical attention and may need lab screenings and/or an EKG, so cost runs more for them. And, we highly recommend meal replacement items to support our patient through their weight loss journey. But, at only $1.75 per meal, you can’t eat much cheaper.”

For more information on Chrysalis Weight Management, please call 423-798-THIN.