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Updated: January 9, 2022 @ 1:39 pm
Courtney Miller is a health coach at Valley Health. She is shown Thursday inside the Valley Health Fitness & Wellness Center on the campus of Winchester Medical Center.
Katherine Sellors is a clinical dietitian at Valley Health Wellness Services.
Courtney Miller (left), a health coach at Valley Health, said she often takes a new patient for a walk on the indoor track at the Wellness & Fitness Center where they can discuss the patient’s wellness and weight loss goals. She is shown walking Thursday with Winchester resident Rosie Schiavone, a member of the Valley Health Wellness & Fitness Center since it opened in 2008.
Courtney Miller is a health coach at Valley Health. She is shown Thursday inside the Valley Health Fitness & Wellness Center on the campus of Winchester Medical Center.
Katherine Sellors is a clinical dietitian at Valley Health Wellness Services.
Courtney Miller (left), a health coach at Valley Health, said she often takes a new patient for a walk on the indoor track at the Wellness & Fitness Center where they can discuss the patient’s wellness and weight loss goals. She is shown walking Thursday with Winchester resident Rosie Schiavone, a member of the Valley Health Wellness & Fitness Center since it opened in 2008.
WINCHESTER — The key to a good weight-loss plan is accessibility and realistic expectations.
Health experts at Valley Health’s Wellness & Fitness Center use the acronym SMART when helping clients reach their fitness goals.
That stands for specific, measurable, action-oriented (or attainable), realistic and time frame.
One of the first questions Health Coach Courtney Miller asks her clients is, “What makes you happy when you’re moving?”
There’s no sense in committing to an exercise that you hate or aren’t going to keep up with, she said. So she plans programs around things they already like or are excited to try.
“We’re that cheerleader,” Miller said.
Furthermore, she encourages people starting a new fitness plan to tell their family and friends to make a new lifestyle feel more real.
“’Cause you want to be in that language,” she said.
It’s not about becoming an expert runner or learning to be something you aren’t already.
“I’m a runner ’cause I’m working on it,” she said.
Weight-loss and fitness are a journey, said Tracy Mitchell, director of wellness services and risk reduction at the wellness center.
Diets give the illusion of a temporary commitment toward a fast solution, she said, but good health is “a life-long journey.”
Miller often tells her clients that they didn’t gain the weight all at once, so they shouldn’t expect to lose it all at once either.
“Little things got me there,” she said, “and now it’s going to take little things [to lose weight.]”
Mitchell suggested building new healthy habits as a way of confronting former unhealthy behavior.
Try adding less sugar than usual to your sweet tea or baking your food instead of frying it.
Trying new things can make a weight-loss plan exciting and fun while also helping you develop healthy habits.
But don’t force yourself to eat foods that you don’t like. Raw broccoli isn’t essential to a weight-loss plan, so if you don’t like it, find another healthy food that you do.
Being unrealistic when starting a plan is a sure way to feel discouraged and likely give up, said Registered Dietitian Katherine Sellors.
“It’s deflating,” she said.
So many people set themselves up for failure by committing to a program that doesn’t allow for their interests, their history or their ability.
A realistic weight loss goal for most people is half a pound to two pounds a week, Sellors said.
“Be easy, be realistic,” she said.
It can be particularly tough for people who had success with a restrictive plan in the past to get past the idea that it might not be the best option for them anymore.
They might think, “If only I’d stuck with that plan,” she said, even though a reasonable person wouldn’t want to stick with it.
It become a food rule that we live by, she said, but it doesn’t need to.
Also important is to consider your reasons, she said. Is your goal to improve your health or avoid health conditions? Do you have high blood pressure or problems with your heart and lungs?
Your current health and reasons to want to lose weight or eat healthier can determine the type of program you need, she said. Knowing the reasons will also give more motivation throughout the journey, she said.
Fitness plans, weight loss plans and healthy eating plans are all highly customizable, Miller said, and gym equipment isn’t required.
“Use what you’ve got,” she said.
“I have soup cans,” said Miller, who’s also used five-pound potato bags and sugar bags as weights.
Plus, she said, there’s “nothing wrong with walking.”
When coaching clients, Mitchell said, the team focuses on “the whole person, the total person.”
In addition to interest, ability and overall health, she said the plan needs to consider a person’s lifestyle, work schedule, family support and financial situation.
“Your environment,” she said.
People tend to think that healthy food needs to taste bad and that a fitness routine needs to be painful. But Miller likes to dispel the noise of all the misconceptions that people might read online or hear from naysayers.
“Go to an expert,” Miller said. “Stop searching online.”
Valley Health Wellness & Fitness is located at 401 Campus Blvd., Winchester, and accepts patients with a referral and also offers physical rehab services. Community rates are monthly — $60 for an individual, $95 for a couple, $130 for a family of three and $165 for a larger family. It offers reduced rates for seniors and their families, students and Valley Health staff.
For more information, call 540-536-3000 or visit vhwellfit.com.
Contact Josette Keelor at jkeelor@nvdaily.com
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