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The Herald

WEIGHT LOSS RESOLUTION

By Tiffany St. Martin, Herald Staff Writer (January 5, 2006 reprinted)

It’s five days into the new year, and after packing on the pounds over the holidays, some of us already have started yet another weight-loss program.

Some of us already have admitted defeat, too.

So what’s the problem?

One expert says the only obstacle lies within us. We have to hold onto that ideal picture of ourselves and be willing to do whatever it takes to get to it, says Rena Greenberg.

Greenberg is certified in hypnotherapy and biofeedback therapy, and she’s held wellness seminars in Manatee and Sarasota counties since 1990. Her first book, “The Right Weigh”, was released Jan. 1.

Another expert says we should diet based on our DNA. Susan Mitchell co-authored “Fat is Not Your Fate,” which says that we should diet according to our genes and family histories.

Everyone’s body and family history are different, and our diets should reflect that, says Mitchell, a licensed nutritionist and registered dietitian. “We know one diet does not fit all.”

You’re getting very sleepy.

When Rena Greenberg was 25, she started to feel tired all the time. Though she exercised excessively, she was about 20 pounds overweight and had a severe addiction to sugar. Her whole life revolved around food.

After seeing several doctors, Greenberg learned that she had an irregular heart rate. She checked herself into New York Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn , where the chief cardiologist attached a temporary pacemaker to her heart but didn’t turn it on.

She experienced such intense pain one night in the hospital that she begged a nurse to turn the pacemaker on and prayed to God to spare her life for her mother’s sake. She knew that her mother couldn’t live without her.

Late in the night, the nurse raced into Greenberg’s room and switched on the pacemaker. Greenberg’s pain subsided, and the doctor put a permanent pacemaker in her chest the next day.

The scare changed her attitude toward food. She thought, “Wow, what am I putting into my body?”

Now 44 and slim, Greenberg, a Siesta Key resident, isn’t tempted to eat sugar. She doesn’t much care for it anymore, though she still eats the foods she loves.

She’ll eat a slice of pizza, which used to be one of her favorite foods, every now and then, but she balances it out by having water and a salad with it.

“If I can’t have balance with it, I don’t want it at all,” Greenberg says.

She also listens to her body and eats when she feels hungry, whether that’s at 10 a.m. or 4 p.m.

Most people know what they need to do to lose weight — eat healthy foods, eat in moderation and exercise — but they subconsciously feel deprived or think they can’t break their bad habits, she says. The weight-loss approach in “The Right Weigh” helps people break bad patterns and reprogram their subconscious minds the same way a computer programmer reprograms a computer.

It’s up to us to change our perceptions of ourselves and food, Greenberg says. “It’s all about changing those inner pictures. Once we change those inner patterns, our behaviors automatically change.”

The book, her first, contains a wide range of mental exercises, so there’s something for everyone: self-hypnosis, neuro-linquistic programming and the ancient Sufi practice of remembrance. “The Right Weigh’s” message is to develop compassion for yourself; it’s about letting go of your past and “going to where greater strength lies,” Greenberg says.

The weight-loss plan outlined in the book is a 40-day plan because, she says, it takes 40 days to reverse a psychological pattern. Greenberg says that for some people, weight loss happens almost as if by magic. For others, it requires regular reinforcement: those who continue to see that ideal image of themselves can’t fail. “The only one who fails is the one who gives up,” she says.

She didn’t plan to write about the weight-loss approach she advocates, but it came easily to her once she started writing. Greenberg’s publisher, Hay House, set Jan. 1 as the book’s release date.

New Year’s is a time to make positive changes in our lives, she says. “The new year’s like the new beginning. If we lose hope, what have we got?”