Prout - Live in the Balance

P eople seeking relief from chronic illness, low energy, cravings, and excess weight are drawn to my unique combination of Western nutritional science and Chinese medicine. I reach thousands of people through classes, TV, workshops, group speaking and in my private practice at the Claremont Resort and Spa in Berkeley, California. My clients often say they came to me because they are intrigued by this blend of Eastern wisdom with Western science. Most of them know a fair amount about nutrition but still cant stay with a diet or find a way of eating that provides a satisfactory level of health. By recommending specific foods and preparation techniques for specific situations and conditions, I not only help to alleviate my clients symptoms but also give them the tools they need to maintain long-term health, weight control, and energy

I work with a surprisingly wide range of people and health dilemmas. Theres the stressed-out advertising account manager who says, Ive gained fifty pounds since taking this job. She eats to calm herself at the end of the day. Im working with a lawyer who wants off Prozac without slipping back into depression. I look forward to sessions with a grandmother who wants to know how to eat to stay mentally sharp and agile so she can enjoy her grandchildren for years to come. Several clients have found relief from seasonal hay fever and allergies through a change in food choices. Another was able to come off migraine and hypertension medications and actually become free of the headaches and, for the first time in twenty-five years, lower a tenacious blood pressure problem.

Many of my clients have found relief from the bloating, cramping, diarrhea, and constipation of bowel diseases. Women find they no longer need to suffer from PMS or menopause symptoms at midlife by simply altering their food choices.

A remarkable success involved a seventeen-year-old girl who came to me with such debilitating arthritis that she couldnt even open my office door. Her parents had to turn her over in bed at night. Her pain kept her from virtually any movement so she had put on 100 excess pounds. She swallowed sixteen prescribed pills each day. However, within a few months after changing her food choices, her pain had eased. She was down to one pill, and she was exercising. Less than a year later, shed lost seventy-five pounds and started a college teaching program.

My own experience taught me how the right balance of food choices and lifestyle can change ones life. A former overweight stressed-out overeater with close to 100 weight-loss diets under my belt, I was able to balance my moods, gain control over my appetite, become slender, and restore my naturally energetic nature by incorporating Eastern culinary wisdom with Western science.

My own mood, weight, and overeating problems started at age thirteen, about the time I started dieting. Though my weight was normal, I was convinced I was fat and embarked on a number of restrictive weight-loss programs, including the Air Force Diet, Dr. Stillmans diet (a high-protein regimen), a vegetarian diet, an all-fruit plan, juice fasts, a bananas-only diet, Dr. Atkins diet, a cabbage-soup diet, and Weight Watchers. Despite protests from my mother and the luscious smells of lasagna and other goodies coming from the kitchen each evening, I persisted as best I could with the diet of the week. With each one, I did lose weight, but I would feel anxious and eventually go off the diet by bingeing on cookies, bread, pizza, and pasta.

The weight always seemed to come back much more quickly than it came off, leaving me a few pounds heavier each time.

By age fifteen, I was several clothing sizes larger than when I started my first diet, yet still hopeful Id find the right regimen. It was about that time I began a vegetarian diet, focusing on lots of salads, pasta, and beans. The cravings seemed to escalate. My moods and energy levels fluctuated as radically as the diets themselves. On some days, I felt too depressed to leave my bedroom. I often shunned friends and high-school activities. Sometimes I was too tired to go to school or even have dinner out with my family, while at other times I became angry at the slightest provocation. I later realized that this erratic and unhappy behavior had much to do with my brain chemistry, which was impacted by what I was eating. I was following diets that ultimately led to insatiable urges to devour plates of pasta with garlic bread, cookies, and carrot cake, foods that left me tired and depressed.

I thought that if I could just learn more about nutrition, my problems would be solved. I was determined to discover a diet that would help me to stay slim, energized, and happy. I enrolled in one of the countrys best four-year nutrition programs at the University of California at Davis. You can imagine my reaction when I saw that several of my nutrition professors were overweight, including a renowned obesity expert. In fact, many of my classmates suffered from eating disorders, either bingeing and purging or stuffing themselves between diets. One young woman was running six to seven miles a day just to burn off all the extra food I eat. During final exams and high-stress semesters, I binged and my weight climbed; during summers, when things were more relaxed, I binged less frequently and the weight went down a bit. Eventually, I graduatedthirty pounds over my ideal weight. My belly was bloated and distended from eating so many salads, and I was still besieged by intense chocolate and sugar cravings, the very foods I knew werent healthy. I was tired, depressed, and disillusioned.