DONATE HERE

Lifetalk with Roberta Russell: Do You Feel Isolated? Have You Gained Weight?

Lose Extra Fat Permanently Without Costs by Doing What it Takes 

By Roberta Russell

From the stoop of my Federal townhouse on West 9th Street, a weathered copy of WestView News addressed to a former tenant caught my attention. I wondered if contributing to WestView News would be a way to connect and contribute to Greenwich Village, an historic mecca for talent and creativity? 

Covid-19 has robbed many of us of the warmth of human companionship. Suicide and divorce rates are up, along with consoling trips to the refrigerator. “Covid-15,” the reputedly average 15-pound weight gain during Covid-19, is further sapping our vitality. Nevertheless, for some of us, divorced from the distraction of other people and office life, now is the perfect moment to turn the wear and tear of this pandemic into an opportunity to redefine ourselves and find allies. 

This before & after is separated by ten months. Twenty years later I am lighter still. Photo: Harold Krieger.

As a veteran dieter myself, I have reduced my own size by more than 70 pounds and have maintained a normal weight successfully since the year 2000. Now I devour new findings as I used to devour whipped cream and pastries. The newest research confirms that the burden of carrying excess weight is an insidious time bomb that demonstrably cuts away at our most precious endowments: vitality, health, and time. 

Researchers continue to discover more and more physiological events that relentlessly draw your body back to its highest weight, contributing to a recidivism rate of almost 100 percent in five years. Of those who manage to overcome the hurdles of losing weight, more than 60 percent will gain it all back within a year, and almost all the rest will do so within five years. 

What, then, works? The bottom line is harsh: only a calorie deficit will make you lose unwanted fat. Only a calorie and exercise equilibrium will keep you where you want to be. Starving yourself is not the answer; constant hunger is not sustainable.

I have reinforced my motivation to keep from regaining my lost weight by joining with others. See www.permanentweightloss.org for links to free downloads of my book, Report on Permanent Weight Loss, and a video talk I gave at Columbia. Following the methods of those who lose weight and keep it off long-term, rather than signing on to expensive hypes which lack long-term evidence of success, will help you change permanently. 

We keep daily records of calories, activity, and weight, and share them by email. The volume of our food is high enough to feel satisfied and our activity level starts at two miles per day. This is not a one-time adjustment. The actual amounts of exercise and calories needed to achieve your weight goals are a moving target. If you are interested, please get back to me at russelk100@gmail.com. If you are ready, I will be delighted.

See you lighter soon.


Roberta Russell is the author of R.D. Laing & Me: Lessons in Love with R.D. Laing (Hillgarth Press, 1992), www.rdlaing.org, Report on Effective Psychotherapy: Legislative Testimony (Hillgarth Press, 1981, 1994), www.effectivepsythotherapy.org, and Report On Permanent Weight Loss (academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/D8SJ1KV9). She has also been a contributor to various international magazines and journals including: Psychologie Heute (Germany), Japan Times (Japan), The Psychologist (U.K.), Human Potential Magazine (U.K.), Changes (U.K.), Clinical Psychology Forum (U.K.), Psychoanalytic Studies (U.K.), and Bottom Line (USA). Russell, has also founded and facilitated The New York Calorie and Exercise Logging Group which is now international and online. Occasionally she hosts a New York City cable television show called Lifetalk with Roberta Russell which has featured interviews with movers and shakers in controversial areas of psychology, weight loss, nutrition, medicine, environment, and population growth. 

Leave a Reply