Vim & Vigor - Spring 2020 - Northside Hospital - 31

31

Decoding
Your Nutrition

For help understanding what foods to eat
and what foods to avoid in your daily diet,
turn to a dietitian at Northside Hospital.
Learn how you can make an appointment
at northside.com/nutrition.

Steph Greegor, inspired by her daughter,
Kerrigan (top left), made healthy changes
in her life, including kayaking and running,
and switched from an unsatisfying job to a
career in filmmaking (bottom).

She also addressed her mental health,
using a workbook program to deal with anxiety and depression, and problems from her
childhood. Slowly, she noticed a difference in
her mood-and on the scale. She felt more
positive, and the weight started to come off.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF STEPH GREEGOR

Eating to Lose and
Starting to Move

While she was making big changes in her life,
Greegor was making small changes to her
diet, focusing on one food or habit at a time.
One week, she would stop drinking soda.
Then, a week or two later, after adjusting to
that change, she would tackle another habit,
like eating too much candy or potato chips.
"When you're starting at a high number,
like 300, 400 or 500 pounds, you've just got
to start one thing at a time," she says. "You
have to start turning the ship."
When Greegor got down to 250 pounds, she
cut calories to about 2,500 per day-compared

with the 4,000 or so a day she estimates she
was consuming before.
As she lost more weight, she gradually reduced her caloric intake and paid
more attention to portions and nutritional information.
When Bauman heard about Greegor's
story, she applauded the approach to losing
weight in such a healthy and sustainable way.
"It can seem daunting to say, 'I've got to
lose 100 pounds,' but to say, 'I'm not going
to have soda this week' is something you can
do," Bauman says.
Greegor incorporated movement gradually, too, starting with walking and adding
weightlifting and later running. She started
running races, collecting a bunch of 5K medals before tackling two half-marathons.
"I felt like I could breathe easier," she says.
"I literally had nothing weighing me down."

Dealing with Plateaus and
Finding a New Normal

After steadily losing weight for five years,
Greegor hit a plateau at 183 pounds. No
matter how she ate or worked out, the scale
would not budge. "Weight plateaus are super
frustrating," Greegor says.
She talked to a doctor, who advised her to
be patient and give her body time to adjust to
the massive amount of weight she had lost.
She waited and kept up her healthy habits.
Finally, after about a year, she got on the scale
and saw a different number: 179. She kept
losing weight and eventually got down to
151 pounds. That weight didn't last, though.
"That was hard to maintain, because I was
not eating a lot," she says.
In the past decade, Greegor, who is 5 feet,
10 inches tall, says her weight has fluctuated
a bit, currently sticking between 180 and
200 pounds.
"I did gain some weight back, but I got control of it much faster," she says.
Along the way, as Greegor has worked to
maintain her new lifestyle, her daughter has
followed her lead. The two work out together,
and Kerrigan, now 17, says she's been inspired
by her mom to be healthy.
"She's definitely a good role model," Kerrigan
says. "I'm really proud of her." *

3 Realistic
Goals for
Weight Loss

Losing weight isn't easy,
but it helps if you set
small, realistic goals rather
than trying to change
everything at once.
If you're not sure where
to start, April Alexander,
an exercise specialist
with Northside Hospital
Duluth's Center for Weight
Management, shares some
of her go-to strategies:
Avoid sugar-sweetened
beverages. "It isn't just
soda that's full of sugar.
Juices and sports drinks
are also full of sugar,
which can cause you to
crave it more and more,"
Alexander says.

1

Eat at home more
often. "When you eat
out, you're getting highly
processed foods, which
means they're high in fat,
salt and sugar," she says.
"Instead, stick to fresh
ingredients, and prepare
them at home."

2

Start moving. Aim for
150 minutes per week
of moderate exercise. If
you work in a sedentary
job, be sure to get up
from your desk at least
once an hour. "After all,
your body naturally craves
movement," Alexander says.

3

VIM & VIGOR SPRING 2020
http://www.northside.com/nutrition
Vim & Vigor - Spring 2020 - Northside Hospital

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