New Focus, New Lifestyle Drives 60-Pound Weight Loss During the Pandemic
For many people, the pandemic and its associated lockdowns have upended daily routines, sleep schedules, and overall activity. We often forget that changes in our routine — in particular with regards to sleep, meal timing, and activity — can lead to changes in our appetite hormones, energy and mood, which can in turn lead to a vicious cycle of emotional overeating. Changes in mood and energy compound new sedentary lifestyles, and together these can quickly lead to weight gain and all its associated health challenges. But here at Enara Health, we have been helping clients change this narrative by identifying these factors and tackling them.
I’ve been deeply gratified to work with a number of members who have been able to overcome obstacles during the pandemic and develop new healthier lifestyles. LuAnn White, 65, a hair stylist living in Palo Alto, Calif., is one such member who has found amazing success since the onset of the pandemic back in March.
When LuAnn first came to Enara Health at the beginning of 2020, it’s because she wanted something more than a diet or weight loss fad. She wanted a new lifestyle that was both holistic and sustainable. “To me, it was absolutely key that I was going to be under the care of a doctor,” LuAnn says. “I didn’t want to choose a program based on a commercial or the latest fad. I chose Enara because I heard about it from a client of mine, and when she described the program, I heard the two little words that mattered most to me: ‘my doctor.’”
Getting Started
LuAnn formally began the Enara Health program on March 1, and since then, she has dropped an impressive 60 pounds — down from 255 to 195 pounds at present. Over our time together, her pre-diabetes indicators (fasting sugars) have declined by 21 percent, her bad cholesterol has dropped by 24 percent, and her triglycerides have dropped by 38 percent. For her, it all started with a focus on meal planning and preparation.
“I couldn’t believe how critical a new understanding of food was — lentils for high-protein fiber, choosing the right vegetables, understanding the right kind of fat and what sugar can do,” LuAnn says. “The balance of the diet makes you feel immediately better — immediately. For me, the weight loss that came after was a bonus.”
LuAnn’s intense meal-planning program was initially crafted with the goal to lose weight, but her thought immediately when she arrived was that it was for a lifestyle change so that never again would she be thinking about food in the same way.
“I wanted to get healthy and feel better under the care of a doctor who understands how my body works with the food I eat,” LuAnn says. “I wanted something just for me.”
LuAnn got off to a strong start and then, 10 days into the program, a giant curveball was thrown her way: COVID-19 hit. California locked down. Salons closed for months. Suddenly, LuAnn found herself at home, without work and with new financial stressors. This type of immense stress would typically lead to weight gain, but instead of reverting to comfort cooking and snacking, LuAnn took everything she’d learned through the Enara Health program already and doubled-down on her focus through our virtual program of daily, checking in for support and accountability.
LuAnn says the constant routine of Enara represented the only steady thing for her in what felt like total chaos. Trusting that the process that was working, she says sticking to the program became easy for her. “For the first time in my life, I was on a program that covers every facet of dealing with weight issues,” LuAnn says.
“The timing of COVID and losing my job was actually quite serendipitous,” LuAnn says. “As suggested, I had already emptied the kitchen of all the things not on the program, and I was already feeling so much better due to my new style of eating. That certainly helped cope with the stress.”
For LuAnn, the Enara Health program became a focal point of her new reality in the pandemic. “Everything around me was chaos,” she said. “The only normal, consistent thing in my life was Enara. Every day — talking to my team, focusing on my habits and meal planning.”
LuAnn stayed focused during lockdown and resisted the urge to turn to comfort eating, even funneling her love of baking into providing comfort for others. “I grew up in the Midwest, and I’m an excellent baker. I have always loved baking, cooking for friends, and using the things I bake to help people feel better. I found I was able to still do that without indulging myself. Rather than comfort eating, I funneled my energy into giving comfort to others — neighbors who were working long hours, ill, or just not home cooking themselves.”
Looking Past the Pandemic
For LuAnn, the initial lockdown in COVID-19 helped her immerse herself in a new style of eating and self-care. But now, as she’s gone back to work and reengaged in more daily activities, she’s setting the stage for sustainable success by layering on additional elements of healthy living, including physical therapy and exercise with Enara staff.
In 2016, LuAnn sustained a severe broken leg that required major surgery, an injury that left her feeling off-balance when exercising. In recent months, she’s started physical therapy and through Enara Health in order to better retain her balance and open up new opportunities for activity and exercise that will help her keep the weight off.
“What I love about Enara is that they meet you where you’re at,” LuAnn says. “I hate gyms — I’ll never join one. I am with people all day inside, so I like to get outside at the end of the day. So Enara’s staff is helping me incorporate exercise into my life in a way that makes sense for me.”
Importantly, LuAnn says, she never thinks of her weight loss journey as a diet. “It’s a lifestyle,” she says. “I didn’t want to just get into that outfit in the closet. I don’t want to think of food ahead in ways like ‘the cake I will have for my birthday.’ I will meet the food in the moment differently. I wanted to fundamentally change how I was doing things, and that’s what I’ve done. This isn’t short-term thinking.”
Working with Enara, LuAnn says she’s realized just how multi-faceted combating obesity is. “It’s not just about food,” she says. “So many things affect obesity. Sleep, stress, activity. I’m learning how to manage all those things. And it’s not about being flawless. There will be setbacks. Sometimes you eat that dessert with friends. But the important thing is that you realize that’s not a big deal. You know what to do. You have the tools. Enara is there for you. What really matters is that you get back on track right away and keep moving forward.”
Disclosure: Rami Bailony, MD, co-founded Enara Health, which has developed a platform that empowers individuals to take control of their health with confidence and “ get surgical weight loss results without the surgery.”
