Thanks to All for Making the Canadian Obesity Summit Such a Spectacular Success
Monday, May 11, 2009
Words would not do justice to describing the fantastic vibes and enthusiasm emanating from the almost 500 delegates attending the 1st National Obesity Summit – my thanks go out to the Canadian Obesity Network staff, volunteers, organizing committee, members, board, sponsors, and all of the many speakers and presenters for making this such a spectacular success.
Congratulations to all the award winners!
Hopefully all of this will translate into a better understanding of obesity, effective prevention policies and improved access to obesity treatments.
A special thanks to The Consonance for their great music and to the the staff of the Delta Resort for their friendly and professional support.
Click here to read what Yoni Freedhoff, speaker and attendee at the Summit, had to say about it on his blog Weighty Matters.
Hope to see all of you again (and everyone who missed this one) at the 2nd National Obesity Summit, April 28-May 1, 2011 in Montreal.
Be there or be square!
AMS
Edmonton, Alberta
p.s. appreciate your comments!
Monday, May 11, 2009
Congratulations to CON for organizing and hosting one of the best conferences I have attended. I returned home with new project ideas, expanded networks and a renewed enthusiasm for research and continuing education. Well done.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Thanks to all involved for making this a spectacular conference. For me, the message that it is behaviours/actions that we should focus on to improve health, even if there is no weight loss, was a very powerful one. Robert Ross showed that if an individual exercises regularly their health improves using various biomarkers of health EVEN IF THERE IS NO WEIGHT LOSS. He pointed out that for many people this might be considered a treatment failure— even though it is not – we are interested in treating obesity afterall to improve health not in the pursuit of some idealized concept of beauty. On a similar vein, I think that many folks do not consider it success when they are able to change other kinds of behaviours if they haven’t lost weight, but I think that this too, would be the wrong belief. When our patients start eating breakfast, when they learn to deal with stress/emotions in a nonfood way, when they choose to purchase local produce and make a lovely meal out of it and learn to eat slowly and enjoy it – and know when to stop; when they have come to terms with the body they have, not the one they have always wanted, when they have the kind of food intake that meets their body’s inherent needs (from inherentl nutrients from real foods verus calories plus some fortified superstar nutrients in the current spotlight) , when they are joyful in their eating – all these things are successes, even if there is never any weight loss. All these behaviours improve health and these behaviours must ultimately be continued in the lifelong pursuit of health – irrespective of weight. Our goal should be to be as healthy as possible at any weight. Our current societal prejudice against obesity sees all these behaviours as irrelevant if they don’t lead to weight loss but these same behaviours may be exactly the ones that differentiate the metabolically healthy obese from the unhealthy obese.
Monday, May 11, 2009
As noted on my blog – an overwhelmingly positive conference.
Thanks to you and all of your hardworking staff (and lovely family – wish I could have spent more time with them too)!
Warmly,
Yoni
Monday, May 11, 2009
I had been requesting a chance to speak for months . IS FOOD OUR NEXT TABBACCO? What do you think of the Calgary Herald article?
I want to extend a warm welcome to our obesity think tank.
http://www.obesitythunderbay.ning.com
We are building a plan based on SHARED ACCOUNTABILITY and the food enviroment. I want to encourage all to feel free to explore the web site ,and add your voice to the obesity crisis, or obe$$$ity crisis.
Our group is disconnected from any industry ,and we hope to build a comprehensive obesity action model. We have contacts in 32 Nations ,and people are joining the advocacy movement daily.
I want welcome you to the obesity action plan, and I look forward to you adding your voice to our effort. Lets end weight bias stigma and Fatism. 70% of doctors stigmatize patients,who are overweight. You can help change this by adding your voice . On twitter I am 2fat2fly.
Thanks Paul
Our obesity task force will be having a round table discussion ,and we will have a seat for all . This includes the food industry and many agencies to discuss SHARED ACCOUNTABILITY.
Thanks Paul
We are fighting obesity , not fighting obese people.