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By Michelle Andrews June 23, 2017

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Earlier this week, an influential group of experts in preventive care affirmed that children age 6 and older should be screened for obesity and referred to intensive treatment when necessary.

While the Affordable Care Act requires that nearly all plans cover such treatment, most kids dont have access to programs featuring exercise, nutrition and counseling, according to an editorial published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

After rising for three decades, obesity rates for children and adolescents have leveled off in recent years. Still, nearly a third of kids are overweight, and 17 percent meet the standard for obesity, meaning that for their age and sex they have a body mass index (weight measured in kilograms divided by height measured in meters squared) that is in the 95th percentile or higher.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a nonpartisan group of medical experts that issues recommendations on preventive care, evaluated the evidence related to screening and treating children and adolescents for obesity. Based on that analysis, this week the group affirmed its 2010 recommendation.

Under the ACA, preventive care recommended by the task force must be covered by nearly all health plans without making consumers pay for it out-of-pocket. But despite the task forces recommendation, insurance coverage is spotty, said Dr. Jason Block, associate director of the Division of Chronic Disease Research Across the Lifecourse at Harvard Medical School, who co-authored an editorial about the new guidelines.

Even when plans cover obesity treatment, they may not pay for a range of services.

Its a problem for obesity treatment programs across the board, Block said. They may cover the physician role in treatment but they may not cover the role of the exercise physiologist or the nutritionist.

In addition, many obesity treatment centers are located in urban areas, far from where many children who need their services live. And many obesity programs dont offer the minimum 26 hours of personal contact that the task force determined is necessary for effective treatment, Block said. (Programs that incorporated 52 contact hours were even more effective, the task force found.)

We need to be more creative about accommodating strategies like telehealth and other technologies that can facilitate [access], he said. A health coach could engage by phone or email and help to facilitate some of that contact.

Please visit khn.org/columnists to send comments or ideas for future topics for the Insuring Your Health column.

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All Kids Should Be Screened for Obesity - Kaiser Health News

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Home Harvard Health Blog Lifestyle change: I know what to do, I just need to do itbut how? - Harvard Health Blog Posted June 23, 2017, 6:30 am

I hear this nearly every day in my primary care clinic. Many of my patients are overweight or obese, which mirrors the national trend: two out of three adults in the US are overweight or obese. Many of these folks suffer from medical issues such as low back, hip, knee, and foot pain; asthma; obstructive sleep apnea; fatty liver; type 2 diabetes; high blood pressure; high cholesterol; or depression. We know that these conditions often improve with weight loss. So, I often recommend weight loss as a first step in treatment, and the usual approach is through lifestyle change.

Lifestyle change programs for weight loss have been extensively studied, and across the board, those that incorporate diet and exercise are very effective if people can stick to the program.

And that is exactly my patients lament. They know theyre suffering, they know that weight loss can help, and they know all about diet and exercise, but many have trouble sticking to the program. Why is this, and what can I do to help?

A recent study examined what things hinder or help people to stick to a lifestyle change program. The authors scoured the research literature for high-quality studies. Whats really important about the studies included is that they did not look at actual weight loss, only at lifestyle change success or failure.

While lifestyle changes including diet and exercise can work, many people struggle to stick to a program, and its not for lack of willpower. Many factors can get in the way, but with a little work you can figure out what those are. Your doctor can help you figure out ways to overcome the barriers to healthy living. Tell your doctor whats working or not working for you. Ask about resources, possibly including life coaches, therapists, and/or nutritionists, who can help you be successful with your lifestyle change program.

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Overweight and Obesity Statistics.

Global, regional, and national prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adults during 19802013: A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013. The Lancet, August 2014.

Lifestyle interventions for weight loss in adults with severe obesity: a systematic review. Clinical Obesity, October 2016.

Management of obesity. The Lancet, February 2016.

Obesity as a Risk Factor for Low Back Pain: A Meta-Analysis. Clinical Spine Surgery, November 2016.

Is body mass index associated with patellofemoral pain and patellofemoral osteoarthritis? A systematic review and meta-regression and analysis. British Journal of Sports Medicine, May 2017.

Obesity and the role of bariatric surgery in the surgical management of osteoarthritis of the hip and knee: a review of the literature. Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases, January 2017.

Foot pain severity is associated with the ratio of visceral to subcutaneous fat mass, fat-mass index and depression in women. Rheumatology International, May 2017.

Co-morbidities in severe asthma: Clinical impact and management. Respirology, March 2017.

Bariatric Surgery or Non-Surgical Weight Loss for Obstructive Sleep Apnoea? A Systematic Review and Comparison of Meta-analyses. Obesity Surgery, July 2015.

Effect of Weight Loss, Diet, Exercise, and Bariatric Surgery on Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease. Clinics in Liver Disease, May 2016.

Treatment of metabolic syndrome. Expert Review of Cardiovascular Therapy, March 2004.

Overweight and Obesity Associated with Higher Depression Prevalence in Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Journal of the American College of Nutrition, April 2017.

Determinants of adherence to lifestyle intervention in adults with obesity: a systematic review. Clinical Obesity, March 2017.

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For the better part of 25 years, Kurt Krueger has harbored a vision.

I remember learning to swim as a kid at a YMCA in St. Louis, says Krueger, a UVA School of Law graduate and downtown attorney, and a long-time supporter of the local Ys satellite youth sports programs. I knew that a full-service Y facility could be much more than just another gym or pool, of which there are plenty in town. A modern YMCA recreation center, he felt, could be a focal point for community engagement and a vibrant hub for the health and wellness of people of all backgrounds across the region. He dreamed of helping to open one in Charlottesville.

A week from now, after two decades, two lawsuits and hundreds of hours volunteered by people with the same vision, Kruegers dream will become a reality.

In 1992, after a storefront YMCA on Park Street dissolved, the national YMCA organization asked a group of interested community members to figure out whether Charlottesville would support a new Y. Convinced that it would, 12 of that groupincluding Krueger, realtor Stephen McLean and businesswoman Suzanne Brooksincorporated the Piedmont Family YMCA in 1994. With no physical presence except a small office, the Piedmont Y ran youth sports programs for the city and county on a modest budget, mostly by renting space from schools.

Successful for a time, the Piedmont Y began to face sharply increasing rental costs and capacity constraints. It was clear we were going to run out of steam, says Krueger. We knew we needed to build a facility. His hope was to partner with the city. Parks and recreation departments always struggle with how much to centralize. Neighborhood recreation centers can be one way to go, but building eight or 10 of those would be phenomenally expensive. Most communities of our size start looking for a way to do something centrally.

Krueger became chair of the YMCA board in 2000, and he and former Y director Bob Vanderspiegel spread out a big map of Charlottesville. The very center of the map was McIntire Park, which was a fairly underutilized public space, says Krueger, and he set to work making the case for a brick-and-mortar Y to be located there. Both the city and the county had done studies that projected the need for another 100,000 square feet of indoor recreation space for the community within 10 years.

Our reasoning was, if the city built a facility, theyd spend $10 million or more taxpayer dollars on it and then have to operate it as well, says Krueger. If, instead, the city helped us secure the land and we raised private donations for the building, and then of course as a Y we dont turn anyone away, then its very close to a public facility at an enormous savings for them.

Over the next five years, Krueger appealed to anyone who might see his logicthe mayor, the city architect, the county executive, the city manager. Though other, more remote sites were available, the board felt that the community as a whole, both city and county, would be better served by a central Y. Slowly, Kruegers plan gained traction, and in 2006 he and the board brought it before the City Council.

Though some on the council expressed support, the plans detractors were not easily persuaded. On the heels of the heated Meadowcreek Parkway debate, some councilors balked at the Ys placement in the park, arguing against any diminishment of green space, while others questioned its potential benefits to city residents. Bob Fenwick, then a candidate for City Council and a member of the Coalition to Preserve McIntire Park, declared that the proposed lease was illegal and that construction of the Y would destroy the parks softball fields and end the annual McIntire fireworks display and the Dogwood Carnival. For its part, the Y group pledged minimum disruption while emphasizing planned community partnerships and outreach.

The Brooks Family YMCA

Square footage: 79,000

Cost: $19 million

Construction start to finish: 19 months

Number of employees: 90-100 part-time staff, 7 full-time employees

Number of fitness/activity rooms:3 group exercise studios, 1 functional training area, 1 community room, 1 Play Zone

Number of lap lanes: 10 in rec pool, 3 in family pool

Number of basketball courts: 3

Number of kids/teen areas: 3

Number of parking spaces: 158

After several rounds of meetings and refinements, the city agreed to the plan in a 3-2 vote in late 2007, and donated five acres of land on the far west side of the park in a 40-year lease for $1 per year. Todd Bullard, a long-time YMCA volunteer coach and owner of local design firm VMDO, and his colleague Jim Richardson were among the architects who prepared the original renderings and site studies.

As a stipulation of the ground lease, the design was a very public process and required input and approval from the citys Board of Architectural Review, the Planning Commission and the City Council, says Richardson.

Public comment was invited and integrated into the plans. Four or five tracts in the park were considered, and the Y was eventually sited on a hilly, and thus architecturally challenging, location that preserved all of the existing athletic fields and flat areas of the park. Nestling the building into the backside of a slope meant the building would have a lower profile, scaled better to its surroundings.

The city and county donated $1.25 million and $2 million, respectively, to the project, which was matched by contributions from Piedmont Y board members and followed by the launch of a capital campaign to raise the remaining $8.5 million. The citys donation was predicated on the Ys promise to construct a diving well and lap pool to accommodate the Charlottesville High School swim team, and to give CHS priority access to the pool after school hours. Loughridge & Co., bidding against more than a dozen firms, won the construction contract, and the board planned a groundbreaking ceremony in 2010.

And thats when the next major obstacle rolled into the path.

In May 2010, a group of private gym clubs led by ACAC founder Phil Wendel sued the city and county over their arrangements with the YMCA. The lawsuit claimed the citys offer of a contract to build a fitness facility in the park was a public procurement, and thus unfairly excluded the private clubs from the bid process. The city countered that the lease and seed funding were a gift, not a procurement, as the city would neither own nor manage the facility. As a gift to a charitable organization whose purposes were in line with the citys purposes, the donation was legal, says Krueger. The language of the statute was clear.

The Charlottesville General District Court agreed, dismissing the suits against both the city and county by 2011. The battle continued, however, as the private club owners appealed the decision to the Virginia Supreme Court. Though ultimately dismissed by the Virginia high court in 2013, the lawsuits drained the project of its momentum and created a new set of hurdles. The legal process took three years to play out, says Krueger, and a lot had changed in the interim.

During the delay, the Y was forced to ask City Council for repeated extensions on the lease agreements required start date. The saddest thing about the lawsuits was that construction prices were going up every year, says Richardson of VMDO. That really stung. It meant wed have to reduce the size of the building, or keep the same space with fewer attributes. Fortunately, Loughridge & Co. graciously agreed to manage costs and honor their original bid as much as they could.

Regaining the lost energy for the project was a top priority for Krueger and the board, as was finding additional donors to bridge the gap created by the increased costs ($4 million more). Suzanne Brooks, an early and significant donor to the project, credits Kruegers unwavering perseverance as the key to getting the facility built. Really and truly, if it hadnt been for Kurts stick-to-itiveness, it wouldnt have happened, she says.

With the retirement of CEO Denny Blank in 2014, the board was faced with the prospect of a long national search for a replacement. Krueger and veteran Y manager Bill Blewitt sat in Kruegers office and talked about the options. With a long-standing and cohesive board of directors in place, there was no need to bring in an old hand from out of state. On the contrary, says Krueger, we needed a person whose heart and soul was in it, who was intelligent and could pick up a lot of things all at once, and who could quickly form bonds with people in the community and in the regional Y system.

We looked at each other, and we were each thinking the same thing, says Blewitt. We already knew the perfect person for the job.

Jessica Maslaney, a dynamic young Y director with a head for organization and a heart for community recreation, was in the right place at the right time for a big undertaking.

Maslaney grew up in Arlington and majored in English literature at UVA, reading novels instead of textbooks, she admits. In her fourth year she interned with the Piedmont Family Y for 10 hours a week, developing sports and camp programs for kids. Attracted to sports programming for its direct connection to health and fitness, she took the program directors position that opened up just as she graduated in 2004.

Overseeing 2,400 children in the basketball program, 400 in lacrosse, 300 in flag football and an army of adult volunteers as coaches and coordinators, Maslaney quickly made connections throughout the Charlottesville/Albemarle region. My philosophy has always been, the more people the better when it comes to recreation, and the Y is about inclusivity, she says, so my goal is always to grow the programs.

In 2010, a group of volunteers in Crozet decided to make Claudius Crozet Park a year-round swim destination, and launched a capital campaign to enclose the park pool during the winter months. The project became a joint venture with the Y, whose job it was to run the operational side of the facility and to add other fitness elements. Maslaney ran the Crozet Park summer camps and became site director in 2012. Along the way, her family fell in love with Crozet and moved there in 2013.

My ultimate goal was to be CEO, says Maslaney. I did have a trajectory planned, though I didnt think it would come about for another 15 years. When Blewitt, serving as interim CEO in 2014, met with each member of the staff, he didnt have an agenda for the meetings, but Maslaney arrived with detailed analyses and projections for the Crozet Y. I dont like to go into any meeting unprepared, so I had all my ducks in a row.

When Blewitt floated Maslaneys name for CEO of the new Brooks Family YMCA, as it was to be called, Krueger knew instantly it would work. The narrow mission of a fitness center is about youto help you become physically fit, but the mission of [the] Y is all about connections between people with similar goals, says Krueger. So Jessica, being a program-oriented person, is perfect for us, because programs are how we get there.

Maslaney had to hit the ground sprinting. I started on my birthday in January of 2015, she recalls. I was 33 years old, and on that very first day I went to City Council with Kurt [Krueger] to ask for another one-year extension on the lease agreement. Their message was, Yes, but do not come back and ask for another. Construction had to begin in 2015 or the agreement would be null and void.

Amid critical updates to the construction contract and the boards efforts to secure the remaining financing, Maslaney and the Ys construction consultant, Jay Kessler, traveled around the state to the newest Y facilities to look at trends and meet other managers. The joke is, if youve seen one Y, youve seen one Y, because theyre all so different, says Maslaney. But she saw several things she liked, did some research and suggested a few modest but impactful changes to the design.

Architect Richardson says that Maslaney always focused on how program areas would best support membership. She suggested that some extra locker room space could be converted to three additional fitness rooms to hold more classes, and so we did that without increasing the square footage of the building. Careful budget management by Kessler allowed Maslaney to go ahead with construction of a large mezzanine, originally slated to be added in the future, that will overlook the double-height fitness room. Its always cheaper and less disruptive to build things while the crews are already out there, says Richardson.

No stranger to job sites, Maslaney loved tagging along as a kid with her father, Jim, who supervised commercial construction. I remember going with my dad to his site and climbing in cranes, standing behind drywall studs, getting in the pool before it was finished. She gets the same thrill now when she dons a hard hat to watch the progress at the Brooks Y site.

Though accustomed to operating independently as director of the Crozet Y, Maslaney recognized that in the CEO position she would benefit from the experience of others. She relied on Blewitts advice to pull back a bit from her habitual micro-analysis of the details and concentrate on hiring talented staff to help with the workload. She also took his counsel and began to meet weekly with Krueger, so that her decisions were transparent and her plans in sync with those of the board.

It was quite a feat to get to groundbreaking, with an almost overwhelming number of details to keep track of, says Maslaney. We made a huge countdown, we called it a moving-parts timeline, where we identified everything that needed to be done by categoryfundraising, political, banking, construction and facilities, operations, marketing, communicationsin long lists, and wed just check things off as we went. She refers to herself, half-jokingly, as a nave optimist, and says, Theres never been a day that Ive doubted this would come to fruition.

Maslaneys immediate family is living the Y life as well. Her husband Chris manages UVAs North Grounds Recreation Center, where they met when Jessica played club basketball in college, and has served as basketball site supervisor for the Piedmont Y. Their children, now 7 and 4, are true Y kids: She brought her son to work with her for seven months after he was born, and her infant daughter was the first (and for several weeks only) resident at the Ys new child care program at the Jefferson School City Center. My son has been holding off on his birthday party this year, she says, hoping to be the first kid to celebrate his birthday at the new Y.

She is most proud of the new buildings kids and teen areas, which she helped design. In the Stay and Play [kids] space, we have a jungle gym and we lined that area with benches because we want parents to come in and interact with their kids and each other, she says. Elements of the teen center were selected by CHS students in the AVID college preparatory program. They met with the architect and picked colors, graphic features and furniture, and they designed the invitations and the inspirational word wall, which contains words such as collaboration, determination, generosity, integrity, caring and original, printed in varying sizes.

Krueger couldnt be more pleased with Maslaney at the helm. Jessica has two phenomenal character traits: loyalty and honesty, he says. Shes got the courage of her own convictions, plus a personality that makes people want to work with her. The pair are like-minded about the real mission. The focus is naturally on this beautiful new building, but for us its a means to an end, says Krueger, and the end is to improve the community by forging relationships between people of all economic classes and races and abilities and experiences and backgrounds.

Toward that end, the Brooks Y staff linked up with the Center for Nonprofit Excellence in December to hold three half-day meetings designed to connect groups with similar missions in the community. According to Maslaney, the youth development aims of the Y connected with similar goals of the Boys & Girls Club, Big Brothers Big Sisters and City Schoolyard Garden at those meetings.

Whats been gratifying about the Y is that as they considered how to use all of their new capacity, they wanted to first find out what was going on in the community, says CNE Executive Director Cristine Nardi. The three packed sessions focused on the Ys core missions: social responsibility, youth development and healthy living, and how the Brooks Y can fill gaps and extend resources.

One suggestion was that the Y could offer its demonstration kitchen to teach healthy cooking for community groups such as elderly populations or for people who have or are at risk for diabetes. Another idea that surfaced in the sessions is that the Ys central and large presence can serve as a clearinghouse for information dissemination, so Maslaney was excited to install a community information wall where people can learn about all of the resources available in town in one place. In addition, the Ys large community spaces can be used as a hub to help other nonprofits with training if they dont have space of their own to hold larger meetings.

Maslaney is also part of an informal leadership circle, along with leaders from the Charlottesville Free Clinic, Big Brothers Big Sisters, CASA and Madison House, to share ideas and inspiration. The opportunity for groups to partner on programs addressing issues such as autism, healthy food or inter-generational interaction is so exciting, says Mary Davis Hamlin, CNE senior consultant. The Y will be a community anchorit will honor health, and all walks of life will use it. Thats remarkable in our segregated world these days.

Suzanne Brooks, whose family name is on the door, says her devotion to the Y project stems from its fundamentals. One of the reasons that Ive stuck with it for so long is because of the principles that the Y teachescaring, honesty, respect and responsibility, she says. Everything they do goes through those. Can you imagine if everybody in the world lived by those four values, what a great place it would be, everywhere?

The first YMCA was launched in London in 1844 as a way to give idle young men something productive and healthful to do with their time, and the organization made its way to the U.S. in 1851. Today there are more than 2,700 Y centers across the country. A few facts about Charlottesvilles YMCA history:

The University of Virginia was home to one of the first campus-based YMCA organizations, established in 1856. A permanent building for the chapter was completed in 1905, and UVA School of Law alum Woodrow Wilson delivered its dedication address. That building is the present-day Madison Hall, situated directly across University Avenue from UVAs Rotunda. The large field behind Madison Hall (Madison Bowl) was also owned by the Y and used for track and field events. By 1933, the building had been converted to a Student Union.

The large brick building on the corner of Second and Market streets in downtown Charlottesville housed a community YMCA from 1909 to 1927. The upper floors were hung for extra spring, the main floor was a basketball court, and there was a pool in the basement. This building now hosts the offices of VMDO, the architectural firm that designed the Brooks Family Y.

Charlottesville benefactor Paul Goodloe McIntire, who donated land and funding for city schools, libraries and parks, as well as several major buildings at UVA, was a strong advocate of the Y. He was quoted at a Y board meeting in 1923 as saying that to not support a YMCA would be a disgrace to Charlottesville, and that a YMCA was a necessity for a city of this size. The Brooks Family Y now sits in a corner of the park bearing his name.

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There are lots of reasons to lose weight. It helps lower blood pressure and reduces the risk of heart attack, diabetes, dementia and cancer.

Here's another one: It can help people with psoriasis.

The skin disease has long been associated with obesity. Weight gain tends to make it worse.

A study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition last year confirms that losing weight may help reduce the symptoms of psoriasis.

"Psoriasis and obesity are both accompanied by low-grade systemic inflammation. This is the chronic inflammation that we're starting to hear more and more about in research and that's being tied to all kinds of health conditions, said Jamie Kopf, a senior editor for the UC Berkeley Wellness Letter.

"The theory is that pro-inflammatory effects that are related to being obese might worsen the severity of psoriases and that could account for why people who have psoriasis tend to get worse symptoms if they gain weight or if they are obese, Kopf explained.

More Info: Weight Loss for Psoriasis

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One more reason to lose weight - KOMO News

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Too many American women are missing out on help fighting the single thing most likely to kill them heart disease, researchers said Thursday.

And one surprising reason women skip medical visits completely: theyre hoping to drop a few pounds first.

A new survey published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that that 45 percent of women questioned were not aware that heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women. And while most had seen a physician or other medical provider in the past year, just 40 percent said they got a heart health assessment.

Of the 1,011 women surveyed, 63 percent admitted they sometimes put off medical visits and 45 percent said they canceled or postponed an appointment because they wanted to lose weight first, the team at Cedars Sinai Heart Institute said.

Tracy Solomon Clark of Gardena, California said she had done it in the past.

The goal was to lose a few pounds, Solomon Clark, a regular spokesperson for the American Heart Association, told NBC News.

And then I would go to the doctor.

Related: Why Heart Attacks Are Striking Healthy Young Women

It never occurred to her that her weight could be dangerous. Shes had bypass surgery to help her blood get by clogged arteries and stents placed to prop open other clogged blood vessels.

I thought this was an old man disease, Solomon Clark said. Surely it wouldnt happen to me.

Worse, many doctors dont seem to realize, either. Dr. Noel Bairey Merz of Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles and colleagues talked to 300 physicians and found only 39 percent of the primary care physicians said heart disease would be their top health concern for female patients.

The majority of physicians did not feel well-prepared to discuss or to manage heart health in women, Bairey Merz said.

Related: Here's How Stress Might Cause Heart Attacks

American Heart Association CEO Nancy Brown says its not surprising behavior.

Cardiovascular diseases cause one in three deaths among women each year more than all cancers combined, she said.

Eighty percent of heart disease and stroke is preventable, yet womens heart disease is underdiagnosed, under-researched and underfunded, Bairey Merz and colleagues wrote.

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I find it stupefying and absolutely fascinating that the things that inspire us most, that have changed the course of history and can potentially change our life's trajectory are immaterial, have no physicality and thus are weightless: ideas, souls, gifts of the Spirit or charisms. For that matter, integers are also weightless and immaterial. When you see integers manifest in a student loan balance, for example they, too, can affect one's life trajectory and spur you to take action.

This weightless thought popped into my mind as my wife and I were on North Avenue Beach on the shores of Lake Michigan in Chicago. With a 2-and-a-half-year old, and another child on the way in August, I've got the perfect "dad bod," so perhaps my mind was trying to off-set my excess weight by pondering that which has no weight, a heavy thought.

With Pentecost recently celebrated, I've been thinking about charisms, particularly gifts of the Holy Spirit given to the faithful for the common good and the benefit of the church. Religious congregations, through their founders, have a charism, a unique gift of the Spirit that orders the life, outlook and ministry of a congregation. Like any of the seven biblical gifts of the Spirit, these charisms are weightless. Sure, service, presence, hospitality, mercy, care for creation, these can all be manifest in each of us or through other materials things, but the gifts themselves cannot be quantified in ounces or liters.

The church uses the phrase "spiritual gift" when speaking of charisms. Gifts are unique in that they can be both material, think of birthday presents for children, and immaterial, think of time or affection. But regardless of type, for something to be a gift, it must be given freely (see: the life of Jesus Christ). And these spiritual gifts have borne much fruit, even for those of us who are not vowed or consecrated members of a secular or religious institute.

I suspect many of us in the church have experienced charisms and not even known it. If you've been educated by or been part of a Franciscan or Dominican parish, you'll get a flavor of what makes a Franciscan a Franciscan or a Dominican a Dominican, and at the bottom of this is their charism, their gift and concern in the world. Of course in America, the life of the church has been shaped by faithful of every rank immersed in the health care, social service, educational, and charitable ministries of women religious. As my wife and I walked from the Cenacle Retreat Center (Cenacle Sisters, founded by St. Therese Couderc) to the beach, we stopped by the National Shrine of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini (who founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus), and we remarked on the similarities and difference of Mother Cabrini and Mother Frances Xavier Warde, (Sisters of Mercy), a member of the first congregation of women religious to come to Chicago over 170 years ago.

Sure, there are people like our parents, historical figures and saints, our colleagues and our supervisors who also play a part in our life's trajectory, and they have a physical nature much like Cabrini, Warde or St. Therese Couderc who were mentioned above. But it was the gift, the charism, they were endowed with that was unique, purposeful; and that is what impelled their followers to engage in prayer, service and the works of mercy in their own way within the Gospel.

If you ask religious sisters or brothers why they joined their particular order (Mercy, Franciscan, Augustinian, Precious Blood, etc.), invariably you'll hear that the "mission" or "charism" of the founder and cheerful nature of the community is what drew them in. And from the charisms flow works of love, and works of love attract others, and then you are able to build up relationships, agencies, even institutions that feed, clothe, teach or heal tens of thousands of people for decades. And it all began with a gift, an inspiration that cost and weighed nothing.

With there being fewer women and men religious now, I also wonder what the future of those charisms might be in 10 or 20 years. Apart from their direct vocation ministries for new members, some orders are able to transmit their charisms to co-ministers, associates or parishioners of parishes they still staff. Some young adults who go to Catholic high schools or colleges sponsored by a congregation may not meet a priest, brother or sister or even adequately know the history. There are some young adults who join year-of-service organizations like Jesuit Volunteer Corps, Mercy Volunteer Corps, or Cap Corps. Those young adults are exposed to a part of a charism, but as mutually beneficial as these years are, relatively few go on to enter religious life, though I suspect many undergo significant discernment. And so, before I could come up with an answer on what will happen to charisms, the wind shifted, the shoreline cooled, and we left the beach.

Given the title, if you had hoped this article would have identified a pious diet to lose weight my apologies. While there is plenty of research, and from that, articles written on health benefits of religion and meditation, there is far less that I am aware of relating to those weightless religious charisms that have inspired the faithful of every rank and have been the underpinnings of ministries, decisions and lifestyles that have truly changed lives and the world. With the unofficial start to summer having come and gone, worry not about how beach-ready your body is but rather how you might readily find a place of rest and inspiration in the mystical body of Christ through learning of a charism. After all, if you're going to hit the beach, you might as well bring a good book with you, lest your mind drift like the sand thinking of the future of the church the future of us.

[Mark Piper is director of Mercy Associates for the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas West Midwest Community. He lives in Chicago with his family and holds a master's degree in public policy from DePaul University. He is an alumnus of Amate House, an AmeriCorps-approved year of service organization sponsored by the Chicago Archdiocese.]

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Get religion, lose weight -- sort of - National Catholic Reporter (blog)

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Women's Health

How Often Should You Eat Dessert If You're Trying To Lose Weight? Women's Health If you're trying to lose weight, an overhaul of your eating habits is a good way to begin. Focusing on whole foods, cutting down on sugar, and packing in fruits and veggies at every meal can go a long way. And while eating healthier overall is a great ...

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How Often Should You Eat Dessert If You're Trying To Lose Weight? - Women's Health

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Are you confused by all the weight loss diets out there?

It can be hard to know what works and whats healthy. Everyone wants a diet that promises to take weight off quickly. But the best kind of weight loss is slow and steadyabout 1/2 to 2 pounds a week. Youll want to find an eating plan you can live with for the long-term and that keeps the pounds off permanently.

This resource is about three diets that have been proven to work:

Are you ready to lose weight?

The Mediterranean Diet

The Mediterranean diet is a way of eating thats common in Greece, Spain, southern Italy, and southern France. Traditional foods in those areas include fish, vegetables, fruits, beans, breads high in fiber, whole grains, and healthy fats such as olive oil or canola oil. Nuts are part of the diet as well.

The Mediterranean diet is low in red meat, cheese, and sweets. Many of the meals are vegetarian. A moderate amount of wine can be included daily. This type of diet can help lower your risk for heart disease, prevent type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome, and lower cholesterol. Some researchers also claim that this diet can prevent depression, dementia, and Parkinsons disease.

Sample Dinner Menu

A Moderately Low-Carbohydrate Diet

This diet, similar to the South Beach diet, promotes the use of lean protein foods and high-fiber, nutrient-rich carbohydrates, such as vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. The diet also includes some types of fat (healthy unsaturated fats) and low-fat dairy products. It excludes white flour products and most starchy carbohydrates like potatoes, rice, and pasta. In general, this type of diet is healthy and can result in weight loss. You dont need to count calories or do other complicated calculations to follow this diet. Nor do you need to deny yourself regular meals. Cooking for this diet is fairly easy. You can also modify the food choices if you are vegetarian or vegan.

Sample Dinner Menu

A Vegetarian or Vegan Diet

A vegetarian diet generally excludes animal products. But some vegetarians do eat small amounts of animal products; for example, some vegetarians eat milk and eggs along with fruits, vegetables, and grains. Other vegetarians might include fish but no meat. A vegan diet is a diet that excludes all animal products. People who follow a vegan diet need to take vitamin B12 supplements and include protein, such as nut butters, beans, and nuts, to make sure they get all the nutrients they need. Most vegetarians eat fewer calories than non-vegetarians. A vegetarian diet can help fight heart disease and high blood pressure.

Sample Dinner Menu

Vegetarian

Vegan

What should I do to get started with weight loss?

First, answer the questions above. Think about what works for your family or the people you live with. Then, meet with a registered dietitian for personalized advice. Seeing a dietitian will help you reach your weight-loss goals. If you have a medical condition, be sure to check with your doctor before starting any kind of diet or exercise program.

How can I keep the weight off?

Once youve lost weight, try these quick tips to keep the weight off:

Questions to ask your doctor

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Diets that Work | Hormone Health Network

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The paperback cookbook published by Arsenal Pulp Press in late 2015 is essentially sharing native foods and showcasing how popular and healthy they were to indigenous ancestors in the Americas. AuthorsLuz Calvo and Catriona Rueda Esquibel will be sharing their political vision for the book this weekend at The Esperanza Peace and Justice Center.

PartnersCalvo and Esquibel (both professors at California State East Bay and San Francisco State University, respectively) tackled "Decolonize" as a passion project that took nearly seven years to complete. After a 2006 breast cancer diagnosis for Calvo, the pair decided to take a hard look at what they call traditional foods in the landscape of Mexican-American cuisine.

Though both were practicing vegetarians long before Calvo's diagnosis, Esquibel recalls looking at work being done by food writers that concentrated on plant-based diets within the confines of European and Mediterranean fare.

During her experience with cancer treatment, Calvo says the diet focused on European sensibilities that weren't always appetizing. "I knew kale was good for me, and broccoli, but it was torture to me. It made me sad," Calvo says.

Their vision for the book was to help others re-indigenize their diets. With Calvo as the cook and Esquibel as baker, the two fleshed outtheir concept over the course of three summers. Pitching the book to mainstream presses was an entirely different story as they were often met with criticism of the book being "too niche," or lacking mass appeal. Calvo recalled racist rejection letters from publishing houses that argued natives were often "malnourished."

They widened their net and eventually clicked with Vancouver's Arsenal Pulp Press, an independent publisher that supports books on native cook by queer authors.

The result is a lauded tome broken downinto 12 chapters with topics ranging from decolonization that sets forth the books mission trifold. Calvo and Esquibel honor ancestors and future youth though native foods by recognizing food as medicine. They stress flaws in the standard American diet filled with processed foods. And finally they point to the Latino/a Immigrant Paradox as a reason to re-indigenize with urgency.

The paradox cited by researchers points to a decrease in immigrants' health the longer they stay in the states. During their book tour, as people share their food stories, Calvo notes that indigenous food is often shamed. Yet, eating thesame ancestral foods in poverty before coming to the U.S. is often what protected immigrants from diabetes and other maladies.

A chapter in the book is devoted to helping readers become more familiar with Mesoamerican ingredients such as achiote (or annatto), allspice berries, amaranth, avocado leaves, beans, butter, raw cacao, cashews, chaya ("tree spinach"), chayote, chia (not just for smoothie bowls, it turns out), fresh and dried chiles, fresh and frozen corn, masa, honey, hibiscus flowers, epazote and more. Not all ingredients are entirely new either the sweet potato and cabbage slaw tacos are a hit and easy to make. From there, chapters are divided by antojitos, ensaladas, sopas y guisados, platos fuertes, tacos, a la carta, salsas, postres (because we all need a little dessert in our lives), bebidas and desayunos.

What Calvo and Esquibel get oh-so-right is their mellifluous writing and improvisational style. "Luz doesn't use recipes," Esquibel says.

Moreover, though they encourage getting back to the land (Calvo also maintains a expansive garden filled with herbs, beans and hens for eggs), they acknowledge the cultural shift that's taken folks away from knowing where indigenous foods like esquites and verdolagas come from, while also pointing out market culture can be traced as far back to daily life in Aztec Tenochitlan.

"Our book provoked discussions among family members... [it] opens discussions about ancestral foods that nobody necessarily recognized as super valuable, and that's powerful thing for families," Calvo said.

"Decolonize Your Diet" is simple to follow and perfect for beginner cooks to understand, which seems to be a purposeful addition by the authors.

"Not everyone learned to cook from their grandmother," Esquibel said. "There were some things we had to learn how to make ourselves and now it's our turn to teach them to the next generation."

In fact, Calvo wasn't the pro tortilla maker she is now. Delving into fresh maiz andnixtamalization (the process of soaking and cooking maiz into an alkaline solution for consumption) took several attempts with misshapen tortillas before she felt comfortable enough firing up the comal with confidence.

Meet Calvo and Esquibel this weekend, first for a platica and book signing at the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center on Friday at 7 p.m. and on Saturday for a panel discussion withRebel Mariposa of La Botanica, and Ale Tierra of Mama Tierra and Food Not Bombs SA, moderated byLilliana Patricia Saldaa, a Chicana activist scholar raised in San Antonios Southside.

922 San Pedro Ave., (210)228-0201.

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Esperanza Peace and Justice Center Welcomes "Decolonize Your Diet" Authors - San Antonio Current

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How we feel when we wake up in the morning can tell us how healthy we are overall.

Our bodies display many symptoms throughout the day and night that show us what adjustments need to be made in how we care for ourselves.

Waking up with stiff joints, puffy eyes, a stomach ache or still being tired is the bodys way of telling us something is off.

Getting to know our symptoms is a fascinating step towards being our own health detectives and figuring out what changes might help.

Food as a modulator of wellness

Our society overlooks food as an important component of optimal health.

Mainstream medicine spends almost zero time thinking about nutrition and its impact on our health. Big food companies, schools and hospitals sell food that is toxic and lacks nourishment as if it were wholesome.

No wonder everyone is confused about the proper role of food in maintaining and regaining health.

Foods undeniable connection to health

I work in this forgotten realm where food is appreciated for its undeniable connection to human health.

The food we eat builds every single cell in our bodies and makes every single amazing function possible.

From waking up in the morning to sleeping soundly at night, from glowing skin, immune function and hormone regulation, to digestion and high level thought, a wholesome diet makes it all possible.

Malnutrition, stress and toxic load

Much of what people struggle with, from serious chronic disease to general malaise, is a combination of malnutrition, stress and toxic load.

Even those who are overweight often suffer from malnutrition due to the lack of nourishment in todays packaged foods. The frantic feeling of never being satisfied can be alleviated with targeted nutritional therapy.

Simplify. Detoxify. Regenerate.

Simplifying your diet, removing stressful foods and toxic triggers is the first step in helping the body function optimally.

Take notice of foods that cause negative reactions in your body like hives, swelling, joint pain, gas or headaches. Avoid them for a few months and see what happens.

Take note, simplifying the diet is not necessarily easy at first, but specialized strategies can help.

As the bodys stress burden is eliminated, feed yourself abundant nourishing foods. The body will detoxify and regenerate. You will notice the organs and systems spring back to life.

You will notice mornings become easier and more delightful.

Wholesome, plentiful diets

In general, I recommend a diet that is very low in processed packaged foods, and high in fresh, wholesome foods.

Fresh veggies should make up a significant part of your diet, along with humanely raised, pastured or wild animal products, some fruit and if tolerated, properly prepared grains and legumes.

Most people should be eating far more healthy fats than they do now.

These include lard or animal fat from healthy animals, egg yolks, raw full fat dairy if tolerated, and fatty fish. Other great sources of fat are coconuts, avocados, olives, nuts and seeds.

Summer is a great time to take charge of our health

Enjoy the local abundance available throughout the season. Pile your plates high with beautiful, fresh, wholesome, colorful unprocessed foods.

Allow abundant nourishment to color your summer with the contentment that can only be found when you are well nourished. Wake up feeling great and make the most of summer.

Liz Morgan, NTP is a Nutritional Therapist with a nationwide clientele. She lives in Buena Vista and supports her clients back to health with therapeutic diets. She helps people simplify, detoxify and regenerate for optimal wellness. Contact Liz at http://www.LizMorganNutrition.com.

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Wake up feeling great - Chaffee County Times

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