Fostering Reflection

As should be clear by now, obesity management often involves reframing the story, changing misconceptions about obesity, managing expectations, reorienting from weight to health goals.

All of this requires reflection both on part of the patient and the provider.

Thus, fostering reflection was one of the key themes that emerged from out interviews with patients and providers published in Clinical Obesity.

“For many participants, the insights and shifts in beliefs about self and health required time to reflect and integrate.People processed new understandings in different ways and internalized them to different degrees.”

While some patients went though this process of reflection in conversations with family, friends or their clinician, many reported that keeping a journal of their progress was a key instrument:

I routinely tell my patients to write down key events, emotional issues, stressors, milestones, challenges, and successes in their journals (not just their food intake and physical activity). Many have told me how helpful they find this and how much they have discovered about themselves through this exercise.

@DrSharma
Copenhagen, DK