Have you been told recently that you’re obese? Maybe you know someone that is obese and struggling with sadness and isolation? Maybe it’s a close friend, or family member that’s struggling. We at Move Happy want you to know you’re not alone.
There are over 300 million people globally that are dealing with their own level of obesity and over 1 billion people globally that are considered overweight. That’s just the individuals diagnosed. If we break it down into how many people in their immediate families that impacts, the number rises even higher. Economically it is an expensive diagnosis and emotionally it can be devastating for some. The following blog is about empowering you to be aware of obesity and depression from what science says, some personal and professional insights and I try to keep things light with some fun GIPHYs. Remember the goal is to empower you to move towards your own happiness. Some of what I write might make you uncomfortable if you’re not ready to change your behavior. Know that I come from the deepest most compassionate perspective and I want YOU to be happy and healthy. This is the no judgment zone but it doesn’t mean we can think ourselves thinner. We have to put in the work deal? If you stay to the end, I share about a program I’m really proud about.
Rule #1: 💃🏽 🏃♀️ 🤸♀️ 🧘♀️ 🙏👩⚕️Know what depression looks like for people who have obesity.
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According to this article by Healthline, people with depression using medications have a higher chance of having weight gain problems and other symptoms associated with it. Obesity is often associated to emotional issues such as sadness, and depression. ⠀
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For me personally, I struggled with obesity as a child, and then some again in college after I was taken advantage of from my boyfriend. I’m 5’5.5″ and I weighed 175lbs or there about. I stopped caring about my weight after being taken advantage of from my boyfriend because it wasn’t just him, it was the cop that told me “you don’t want to ruin his career do you?” and it was also the therapist at PLU that said, “yes if you share thoughts about harming yourself or others I’d have to report it to the school and you could potentially get kicked out.” So I shared nothing, stuffed everything and ate and ate until I got fat and obese. The BMI standard for my height says a healthy range is between 113lbs-152lbs.⠀
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I didn’t want to be kind to my body because I had been abused for so long I had been conditioned that it was my normal. I gained weight to protect myself from unwanted attention. ⠀
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It wasn’t until my professor and advisor from PLU Dr. McConnell announced that I was eating healthy food but minutes before I said I didn’t want pizza and was eating a slice. I wasn’t sure what I wanted, but I was trying to be healthy and not over eat, and found myself eating 2 meals in one sitting. I realized people were paying attention to me. I realized I did matter, and that she was helping me to see I needed help. ⠀
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I decided to set a goal for myself to start running again because it made me feel healthy and happy at 14 years old so I trusted it would help me feel healthy again. I signed up for a half marathon (never having done it before). The most I had ran prior to that was maybe 2 miles. ⠀
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I started training on the sidewalks in Parkland, WA. ⠀
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My longest run day was about 10 miles down and back in about 3 months. The race was a trail run (13.1miles). I didn’t know I needed to train in the environment of the race conditions 😂. I completed the race, dead last 😭 But I finished 💃. I was the only one that didn’t fall in the mud, because I had gotten lost on the way. 😂
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I felt I could accomplish anything after that race. Therapy didn’t help from the university but running did. And it was FREE. It took a lot of social encouragement to get me feeling confident enough to even sign up for the race (not to mention pay the $70 fee). My friend from elementary-high school, Natasha Thurmon was running and hitting the gym a couple times a week. We both went to PLU. She was a positive role model for me to get back into fitness. There were other runners around campus too and it felt good to do something healthy like other people that seemed happy.
I was also was working at the pool in the summers as a supervisor, lifeguard and swim instructor. It was 5 miles from my parents house (where I lived for most of college life). I decided I’d walk to work to save on gas money and to be healthier. One lecture from Dr. Hacker’s Sociology and Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity taught me how important cardio exercise was on depression. I took that knowledge and applied it immediately because I was sick and tired of being tired, exhausted, sad, irritable, moody, etc. You get the idea.
I had lost my zest for life and didn’t feel safe talking to anyone about it since the therapist at PLU lost my trust. So I decided to continue doing what worked for me to get my mood right. Dr. Hacker shared in that 1 lecture for patients with clinical depression any amount of cardio exercise that was consistent for at least 12 weeks was more powerful than any prescription medication alone and the combination of both could be great for some as well. Finishing the race gave me a great level of accomplishment and helped me forget about any pain I was feeling for the hours I was running. I also felt great the rest of that day and decided to identify myself as a runner. I knew I could accomplish anything after that point and no man would ever take advantage of me again.
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What does depression look like for you or your loved ones struggling with obesity? ⠀I’d love for you to tweet us @MoveHappyTeam your thoughts or insights. We’ll be retweeting those in alignment with empowering people to move towards their own happiness through Mindset-Community-Fitness category specifics.
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Rule #2: 💃🏽 🏃♀️ 🤸♀️ 🧘♀️ 🙏 👩⚕️ Know what the signs and symptoms look like of depression for people with obesity.
According to this article by Everyday Health, there are empirical based studies for depression causing obesity as well as for obesity causing depression.⠀
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The signs & symptoms include: lowered energy and mood, higher caloric intake, lowered movement/exercise. For me personally, I grew up with a father that was obese for most of my upbringing. ⠀
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I remember when I was 3 my parents arguing over his weight and my father pulling me into the middle of their argument, “Erin you don’t think I’m fat do you?” He said. It wasn’t clear in the moment why he did it. It is clear now. It was very immature of him to do that, and it also was immature of mom to try and control dad’s weight. ⠀
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Dad was the sole income earner for the 🏡 & his health meant whether we had groceries on the table, whether our mortgage was paid. I was molded into the family mediator and loved my dad. ⠀
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However, he had some personal choices that affected the entire fam. ⠀
Mom had her own choices too and chose to eat like a 🐦 for most of my upbringing and still today. ⠀
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She modeled healthy eating habits to us children and always had fruit on the counter readily available. We had 🥗 at every dinner and ate as a family at 5pm sharp. ⠀
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The only 2 times dad was not obese was when he lost 1 kidney to cancer & lost about 100lbs in a few months, and when he had double knee replacement surgery & in his recovery started taking silver sneaker fitness classes at LA Fitness. The later surgery & recovery was a time when dad had started getting therapy and started taking care of his body and mind. ⠀
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I’m proud of him for making the decision to take care of his body. He invited me to the fitness group one time and MAN it was challenging! He was smiling and laughing and enjoying fitness. I know it helped his mood because he told me it did. I only wish he’d have had the confidence to take care of his body sooner in life. He told me he wished he had as well.
One day he and I were chatting and he mentioned how he had a realization that he hadn’t been intentional about being social with friends for so long that when it came time for him to need help it was difficult to ask for it. He was off of work for a year in recuperation after the knee replacements and decided to volunteer at the soup kitchen down the street. He said it felt good giving back to others that were less fortunate than him. It gave him a reason to get up in the morning.
He struggled with depression for a long time. He never spoke up about it but I’m his daughter and I am very in tune with people’s emotions as the empath that I am. He made a lot of mistakes in his earlier years as a parent but I never stopped loving him. He made a big shift and got serious about therapy in his last few years. I’m proud of him feeling safe to talk to me about it. He worked so damn hard for our family and tried to be a good ethical sales person. I know he was good his job because of all the people that showed up at his funeral. I just wish he would have taken care of his mental health sooner, his physical body sooner, and taken a more challenging role professionally that didn’t break his body down. Since I can’t change that for my situation, I hope you reading this might consider a different scenario for your life or your loved ones life.
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Let’s commit to 1 healthy act today together. I’m moving a minimum of 20 minutes away doing some form of physical activity that I enjoy. Tweet us @MoveHappyTeam what your 1 healthy act is and we’ll retweet the ones in alignment with Mindset-Community-Fitness.
Rule #3: 💃🏽 🏃♀️ 🤸♀️ 🧘♀️ 🙏 👩⚕️ Know what the global prevalence of depression in people with obesity.
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According to this article by Psych Central published in October 2018, the world has over 300 million people with obesity (30.0 or higher BMI) and over 1 billion are overweight. ⠀
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What this means is there are a LOT of people struggling with their weight, feeling less confident, feeling body shame, and dealing with a world that shames them for the most part. ⠀
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For me personally, my family friend and pseudo aunt, Rebecca was obese the entire time I knew her except the last couple years of her life. She was married to my dad’s best friend Tim. Rebecca had a lot of medical allergies and issues and was a caretaker for everyone she could help. ⠀
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She chose to be kind and demonstrate kindness in my entire upbringing. I never saw her as an obese woman. I saw her as my aunt, whom I loved and who helped me feel connected in this world. We’d have sleep overs at her house with my friends from school and go to her brother Steve’s house for BBQs in the summers. ⠀
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She had a lot of health problems she didn’t deal with for her diabetes until she had a minor heart attack. She was told by her doctor she needed to lose 100lbs so she could have open heart surgery and be healthier for recovery. She did it. She lost the weight by eating less and moving more. It took her over a year but she did it without any paid programs. ⠀
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She had a successful surgery and my mom helped her with her recovery. She lived a few more years and was able to help our family during the funeral arrangements for my father in 2016. ⠀
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The following summer she had suffered multiple heart attacks and was resuscitated 11 times in 1 night. I rushed to the hospital and she was awake but couldn’t see out of her eyes. The diabetes side effects took her eyesight away when blood vessels burst behind her eyeball. She said they were like poison to the vision.
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Tim helped her know I was in the room and called out, “It’s Erin, Bernie and Elizabeth’s daughter.” ⠀
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Rebecca said, “Erin, oh what day is it? Your birthday was on Thursday. Happy birthday.” ⠀
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I never once cared about her obesity. I cared about having more time with her. She was the bulldog person that helped protect me when people in my family were being assholes or people in society weren’t treating me right. She helped give me the right words to say to stand up for myself. It was really hard losing her and my father less than a year from each other.
Around that time my fiancé and I had 5 wedding venue changes, 4 date changes, 3 therapists refused to see us (including his personal therapist the day of our scheduled appointment canceled on us). There were so many red flags and I started paying attention to them. I had gotten the promotion at the hospital around this time as well and worked in the role for a week and took vacation. I came back from my vacation and was told the Washington State legislature voted against the new hospital building being built and 60 people lost their jobs that day and I had to go back to my original role within the hospital.
I went back to the role but it didn’t feel the same anymore. I had worked so hard and was so consistent doing my part. I was told I wouldn’t be interviewed and beat out 17 other people. I was told it was between me a non-licensed MS level person with practical experience in the hospital and another gal that was licensed but had no experience. I was given the promotion and worked it for a week and then lost it not due to my own doing. It was humiliating. And at that point my fiancé and I had finally found a couples therapist that was willing to work with us and he demanded I get my own therapy by myself. I agreed it was the right thing to do.
My therapist listened to my situation and said, “Erin I don’t normally advise this to my patients but what you’ve told me is enough for me to feel like you’re in a dangerous situation. I strongly suggest you move yourself out of his home as quickly as possible.” I knew in my heart it was the right move, despite him mailing out our wedding invitations that same week 😭. One failed marriage and a failed engagement. A loss of a promotion I worked so hard on and now I had to find another home.
I prayed and prayed and looked at 13 locations that turned me down because of my credit from my divorce process and the expenses that got racked up. I finally found a spot that took me in a mile from my ex-husband’s house 🤮. But I was relatively safe in a house with 5 strangers. I made it work by cooking meals and sharing food with everyone.
If Rebecca would have been alive she would have had 10 options lined up for me. She wasn’t alive though and my mom was busy taking care of my eldest bro and his 3 kids. I found my own way to survive like I always have. I miss Rebecca and I feel like I was around her so much in my upbringing that I’ve absorbed parts of her to keep her memory alive forever.
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Who has made an incredible impact on you that is obese or overweight? Tweet us @MoveHappyTeam what they did to impact you positively. We’ll retweet those in alignment with Mindset-Community-Fitness
Rule #4: 💃🏽 🏃♀️ 🤸♀️ 🧘♀️ 🙏 👩⚕️ Know what causes depression in people with obesity.
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The verdict is out. Some say obesity causes depression, some say depression causes obesity. What the research does agree on is that adding movement and decreasing caloric intake can help both mood as well as weight loss. ⠀
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Talk to your medical provider for specific recommendations for your situation. General rule of thumb for exercise is 30-60 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise and more if you’ve established a baseline. After you’ve established a baseline and you’re in the obese/overweight category, add 5-10 minutes/week of cardio exercise specifically that gets you in to your target heart rate zone (varies depending on age and RHR) until you’ve reached 60-90minutes of cardio exercise 5-6 days a week. Preferably choose cardio exercises that you most enjoy so you’ll stick with it. Walking is great, swimming, biking in well lit and well maintained roads/trails, dancing, aerobic classes, etc.⠀
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A great resource for recommendations and where I learned most of my info from outside of college is the American College of Sports Medicine website. They have a lot of good free resources and if you’re looking to become a certified trainer, I recommend them or NASM. ⠀
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Tweet us @MoveHappyTeam your favorite way to move your body that gives you joy and why it does. Include what country you live in too! We’ll retweet the most creative ones in alignment with Mindset-Community-Fitness.
Move Happy Updates
The Move Happy Movement Podcast© is in full swing! Together we are bringing awareness to mental health, providing practical strategies to empower those with depressed states to move towards their own happiness and inspiring the joy of movement! Tomorrow I’ll be releasing episode 44 with Stephanie Lauren Moore. She is a consultant for Dissociative Identify Disorder (DID) previously labeled Multiple Personalities Disorder (MPD). She is a speaker, trainer, and author of a mental health book. She also has a great YouTube Channel where she brings some comedy to the condition because she is self-identified and wants to help bring awareness and appreciation for people as a whole. You’ll love the episode!. Make sure to tune in tomorrow by 6p EST for official release. Once its out, go to iTunes and give her a thank you in the reviews so she knows we want her to come back!
Follow the Move Happy Movement Podcast wherever you listen (iTunes and Spotify) and Tweet us @MoveHappyTeam if you’d like it on a different platform. Once we have 10,000 listeners we’ll be offering a sweet giveaway! You must be one of the monthly listeners to qualify and be active in commenting/liking/sharing/tweeting Move Happy content on any and all social media platforms. The more platforms you follow us, the easier it will be for us to remember your name when deciding on random giveaways 😘. We’ll keep things updated from the distribution website below ⬇️⬇️⬇️
Social Media University Intensive (Online) Workshop Available Now! I saved myself $192,000 in 2 years by doing the work myself. I teach my system of how I went from 30hrs a week posting 1x/day 5 days a week to 3-5x/day 7 days a week, added a blog, and podcast interview production upload and file conversion all while cutting down my time to about 4-6hrs a week. You learn my system and get live training with me. To sign up for the group workshop email me subject line “SMUI Workshop Interest Blog Discount” here and include some times/days requesting with your time zone preference ($997 value only $197 for the month of March). Once I get enough interest for a group (max of 8) I’ll organize the next one. If you want to have a more private 1:1 setting and don’t want others around, it costs more for my time but I’m willing to help the first 2 people that sign up here ($9,997 value). Email me your preferred days/times and respective time zone and I’ll do my best to accommodate. I reserve the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason.
The World Health Organization estimates that $1 trillion dollars is lost annually due to lack of productivity from employees specifically diagnosed with depression and anxiety and not receiving adequate resources from their workplace. I designed a solution to help decrease this statistic. “Work Happy: The Practical Tools For Effective and Inclusive Workplaces©” is in beta. Employees will benefit from this because the workshop is designed with you as the main focus in a positive manner. Employers will benefit from this because people that are cared for work harder and take less sick days, thus increasing your bottom line 💰. The workshop includes a follow up refresher (2 days total). It starts at $1,997 for online training for a company of 5 total employees. Have more employees? We can discuss pricing. First 2 businesses/EAPs to sign up get prioritized scheduling. Email me “Work Happy Workshop Interest” here to get on the waitlist along with your role.
Rule #5: 💃🏽 🏃♀️ 🤸♀️ 🧘♀️ 🙏 👩⚕️ Know how Move Happy can help people with depression that have obesity.
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I created a program in one of the most sensitive populations anyone could work in, a locked live-in psychiatric hospital. I had access to their BMIs from our monthly analysis report from our Registered Dietician. Sadly over 85% were obese and many were overweight. ⠀
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I knew most of them had 2 fresh air breaks a day and otherwise lived in a locked facility. There are only so many times you can walk down a 20-40 foot hall and keep it interesting 🙃 right?⠀
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One of my patients a former comedian that toured around the USA and Canada, we’ll call “Stan” said on day 1 round 3 of the program: “I’m not going to do any exercise or share. This is dumb.” ⠀
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Prior to this, I’d see him in the hall during 10min breaks and when I’d ask how his day was going he’d always say “So-So” for the first 8 months I was there, a real debbie downer. Think Snuffelpagus from Sesame Street.⠀
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He didn’t participate the first 7 days of the program and my colleague, LMHT asked me to encourage him to share. He sat next to my office in a chair every afternoon between active treatment groups and I said after week 1 of the 3rd round: “Hey Stan, how are ya today?”⠀
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He said, “Erin I’m doing great! I didn’t know what to expect out of your group but I really enjoy it and thank you for not pushing me to share my responses this week. I’ll be ready next week and will begin working out then too.” ⠀
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I debated sharing this testimonial because I didn’t know if “Stan” was serious or if he was just in a good mood from his treatment team meeting that same day. He was “forced” to join my group from his treatment team, according to him on our first day of the 3rd round. It made sense why he was mad at me because he didn’t want to exercise and his treatment team felt it would be good for him to be in my positive group both for the positive psychology/journaling aspect as well as the movement aspects. He was my fun challenge to see how I could get him to enjoy the group and contribute.
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Shortly after this conversation with “Stan” I received a promotion and had the 3rd round covered by my colleague Sue M. I trained for 2 weeks and towards the end of my training for my new role as Psych Associate, Sue M confirmed “Stan” was fully participating AND he made sure everyone shared in the group during discussion time & that no one got interrupted 💜 #EmpowerYourPatients. I was so relieved and excited that he went from day 1 – “This is dumb” to day 21 or so “Jan get your journal open to page 52, and Steve what did you think of the journal prompt today?”
The Move Happy group completely transformed him from an outsider, to not only being included but showing up as a LEADER. I cannot take credit for it as I wasn’t in the group at this point. I was training for my new role. What I can say is that there were 2 patients in the 3rd round that had participated in all 3 rounds and started taking the lead and helped keep the group going even when I got my promotion. I’m proud to have witnessed such growth in such a short amount of time. As you can imagine, the patients kept encouraging me to share it outside of the hospital because they were having so much fun talking about things that made them happy and working out together. It’s not rocket science people! I felt embarrassed about my personal life and didn’t want attention on myself back then so I didn’t want to share it. I decided enough was enough and they deserve to have the program shared because they helped make it better.
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If you’re a group facilitator looking to add a combo-positive psychology/fitness program with minimal equipment required, I’d check out the Move Happy Facilitator Program here. For every purchase, 30% goes towards mental health programs of YOUR preference and 10% to Big Brothers and Big Sisters local chapter to YOU. Some states and some countries don’t have a BBBS so just email me your preferences after purchase to help me keep things organized.
I highly suggest purchasing before the end of March as prices will be going up substantially. I’ve been having a lot of conversations with tech platforms and hospitals and once I get paperwork signed will be increasing it to meet the average prices for other curricula. I want YOU to have access before the prices go up so make sure to order now and share the link with a colleague you care most about.
So there you have it folks. Obesity and being overweight can contribute to feelings of depression. So too can depression help contribute to complications of obesity and being overweight from the medication side effects and behavioral norms of not wanting to move your body. There is hope though! You can choose to fight the feelings and move your body in small ways to start and gradually add more movement as you gain a baseline. You are not alone as there are over 300 million people at least in the world that are obese. This is a community issue not an individuals issue. We at Move Happy are here to support you. Find an activity that you enjoy most and start with that. If group fitness classes are your preference, look for some online offerings with the Pandemic going on right now. Planet Fitness is offering some fun at home workouts and there are a TON I’ve seen popping up online. If I get enough requests in my DMs and email to start a weekly community, I’ll do that too. For now, focus on 1 small healthy thing you can take action on to improve your life today. Tweet us @MoveHappyTeam what that is so we can help you stay accountable.
PS: Don’t forget to tell someone you love them today
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