TIM E F O R YO U
Stop Giving Yourself The Pandemic Pass Wri t t en by D r. Ka t ri na U bel l
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physician client of mine was recently talking with a few of her physician coworkers. She mentioned working on keeping her eating in check right now and was surprised by the response she was met with. “I can’t imagine trying to lose weight during this time!” one of them said. “It would be impossible to lose weight right now,” said another. “How could someone possibly get through this time without snacks and wine?” My client smiled and nodded, but knew deep down that there really was another way; a way of coping that makes overeating unnecessary. As a member of my Weight Loss for Doctors Only program, she is learning how to eat in a way that tastes good to her, plays nicely with her body, and is easy to follow through 4 6 | M AY / J U N E 2 0 2 0
on day-to-day with her personal schedule. She is also learning how to manage her mind so that she doesn’t need to ask food or alcohol to help her feel better. So many people, including physicians, have been overeating and gaining weight over the last few months. They eat to comfort themselves because being at work is terrifying. They eat to deal with the stress they feel because their list of worries seems never-ending. They eat for pleasure because they haven’t had so much time to connect with their families and other loved ones in this way for as long as they can remember. And since so many physicians generally find little time for hobbies, many have taken up baking and cooking as a way to fill their free time. Nobody could blame you for doing these things. After all, none of us have
lived through a pandemic before and we’re all figuring this out as we go along. But when we allow ourselves to use food, and possibly alcohol, to cope with our day, we’re giving ourselves a pass. We tell ourselves that we’d be crazy to try to manage our eating and drinking at a time like this. But this “Pandemic Pass” isn’t without consequences. Giving ourselves this pass to eat whatever we want whenever we want is similar to how many women approach their pregnancies. When we aren’t feeling well and are generally living in a state of self pity, it’s easy to indulge on all our favorite foods. We tell ourselves we’ll deal with the weight gain later, after the baby is born. But once the baby has arrived, we always wish we wouldn’t have gained so much weight in the first place.
