Health & Fitness

By Louise Albert, CFP
The spring blooms are upon us as we finish up tax returns and begin contemplating spring projects. A financial “house cleaning” may, literally, pay dividends for you this spring. A few suggestions to get started are listed below.

Become familiar with your credit report.
You can get an annual credit report for free at www.annualcreditreport.com. A credit report contains information about your credit and loan history and is used by lenders to determine your credit worthiness. Review carefully for negative information and file a dispute if you find errors.

Shred documents.
As you go through your paper files, shred all papers that you no longer need. Consider scanning important papers and keeping digital files to avoid this task next year.

Update your will or trust.
Have you experienced a major life event in the last year such as a marriage, divorce, or addition of a new family member? If so, you may need to make adjustments to your will or trusts to account for this event. If you do not have these documents, now is a good time to have the issue reviewed. Also, make sure your accounts are titled appropriately.

Rebalance your investment portfolio.
You may have gone through a risk tolerance questionnaire to determine the appropriate mix of asset classes for your investment accounts. Your asset allocation may now be askew due to the equity market run-up we have experienced over the last two years. Rebalancing your account is one of the best ways to ensure that you “buy low and sell high.”

Review college savings.
As college acceptance letters are mailed out this month, review the college savings accounts you have set up. Do you have a 529 plan? If not, now is a great time to set one up in order to benefit from some of the tax advantages. You also may need to do some rebalancing in this account as well.

Louise Albert is a Certified Financial Planner™ practitioner and also holds the ChFC® and CLU® designations. She is currently a Financial Planning Specialist at Samalin Investment Counsel in Chappaqua.Prior to that, Louise spent 13 years at TIAA-CREF specializing in retirement planning and assisting individuals in reaching long term financial goals.

By Sarah Ellen Berman

Sometimes the ties that bind us become problematic. Interpersonal relationships occasionally impede rather than nurture a happy, healthy life. When this occurs within a family, restoring harmony to the home becomes a top priority and professional counseling is often sought. Dr. Melissa Camhy is a psychologist who specializes in the treatment of children, adolescents, and families. She defines family therapy as, “a form of psychotherapy which brings the family together in group sessions to work on problems.” Individuals and subsets of family members are convened in her Mount Kisco office.

What catalysts compel clients to seek professional advice? There may be problems at work or school, resulting in poor job performance and learning issues. Dr. Camhy related that she is often consulted by families, “When they feel that their patterns of communication are creating unhappiness.” Parents often call when they feel that one of their offspring has become a source of tension within their unit.

Symptoms of depression, anxiety, or eating disorders may manifest. Dr.Camhy enables “family members to gain perspective on how their communication and relationship patterns may be perpetuating these problems.” In her role as facilitator in the healing process, Dr. Camhy provides families with the tools needed to achieve a sustainable, loving environment.

When working with individuals and families, Dr. Camhy adopts a “very collaborative approach.” Consultations with pediatricians, occupational therapists, teachers, and other relatives as well as observations of patients in their normal milieus provide her with valuable insight, which in turn informs her prescribed method of care.

Destigmatize is a buzzword most commonly associated with the treatment of mental illness. People are often hesitant to seek assistance. “The more that we can show how prevalent psychological dysfunction is and how it can develop in families where there’s tremendous love and affection, there won’t be this fear,” Dr Camhy noted. Disclosure and discussion of mental illness by celebrities such as Catherine Zeta-Jones and productions such as “Next to Normal,” on Broadway have greatly contributed to acceptance and understanding.

In response to a query as to whether the current lackluster state of the economy has contributed to an increased level of discord in American homes, Dr. Camhy answered in the affirmative. In her opinion, “loss of employment” as well as “divorce and undue pressure to succeed,” often cause an increased level of stress in the family.

Dr. Camhy recognizes that it takes tremendous courage to take the first step in seeking treatment. By placing their trust in her, families establish a “therapeutic alliance.” Dr. Camhy teaches family members how to draw on their inner strengths to build peace within their home.

Sarah Ellen Berman is a frequent contributor to Inside Chappaqua who believes that the family who reads and plays together, stays together.

This article is a public service provided jointly by Inside Chappaqua Magazine and Dr. Levy Lombara

PREVENTING EATING DISORDERS

Eating disorders involve extreme emotions, beliefs, and behaviors regarding eating, food and weight. They are a serious health risk, with the highest mortality rate of any mental illness and occur in boys as well as girls from a variety of ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. This article provides a summary of the eating disorders, major risk factors for their development (especially those we can influence), and suggestions for how to best protect children from developing them.

Denial and secretiveness can make eating disorders difficult to detect. Other than the obvious symptoms, any of the following may indicate a problem:
• Refusing to eat or denying hunger
• Excessive exercising
• Social withdrawal
• Development of lanugo (downy hair on body)
• Damaged teeth or gums
• Puffy cheeks (swollen salivary glands)
• Sores in the throat or mouth
• Scars or calluses on hands/knuckles
• Loose or baggy clothing (to disguise weight loss)
• Traces of vomit, laxatives, or unexplained missing food

If you are certain a child has an eating disorder, get professional help immediately. If you are concerned but not certain, be as nonjudgmental as possible when broaching the topic. Eating disorders are an illness. Treat them with the respect and concern you would any other illness.

Convey your genuine concern and desire to help. An ED is often a child’s best solution to a complex underlying problem, often a family one. If you are the parent, share in the responsibility for the problem (children are often the “identified patient” in a troubled family system) and be willing to seek help along with your child. With early detection and appropriate treatment, ED can be effectively resolved.

RISK FACTORS
• Low Self-Esteem: A potent risk factor for a range of behavioral problems, low self-esteem occurs when children hear and internalize negative ideas about themselves.
• Criticism and Teasing: Children whose parents and siblings are overly critical or who tease them about their appearance are at a higher risk for developing an eating disorder.
• Perfectionism: The belief that nothing-but-perfect-is-good-enough is fertile ground for developing an ED.
• Dieting: Excessive food restriction leads to binge eating (even in people without ED); think of the pendulum effect. Our “old brain” ensures survival by stockpiling food in the face of real or perceived threat of starvation.
• Family Conflicts and Lack of Emotional Support: Ongoing, unresolved family conflicts are toxic for children. Lack of emotional support due to a family conflict–or any other reason–can leave a child vulnerable to using food to regulate their feelings and environment.
• Rewarding Weight Loss: The overwhelming positive response and attention children get when they lose weight may cause children to take dieting too far.
• Genetics: Children with a first degree relative with an eating or mood disorder are at higher risk for the development of one themselves. D
• Transitions: Transitions like moving, changing schools or divorce are often “the straw that broke the camel’s back,” directly precipitating an eating disorder. Everyone experiences emotional distress during transitions but children without a good emotional support system are particularly vulnerable.
• Activities such as ballet, gymnastics, running, wrestling: When appearance and weight requirements are rigorous, children are at risk for eating disorders. Coaches and parents may unwittingly contribute to eating disorders by encouraging young athletes to lose weight.

PREVENTION
Too much outside control inadvertently distracts children from their internal instincts which, if heeded, naturally regulate eating and weight. (Think of a baby who eats with gusto then can’t be forced to take another bite when full.) Establishing healthy eating often requires parents do less not more. Consider the following suggestions:
1. Adults choose what food is bought, kept in the house and served at mealtimes. From these selections, children choose what and how much of what is served to eat.
2. Stay neutral about all foods. Demystify sweets.
3. Offer attention, praise, and hugs instead of food to placate or soothe a troubled child. When foods are used to reward children and show affection, they may start using food to cope with stress or other emotions.
4. Find things other than food, weight and body to talk about in social situations. Diet and weight talk can leave everyone feeling bad.
5. Encourage diversity by accepting your own and other people’s bodies as they are.
6. Do not participate in jokes that belittle another person, especially jokes based on appearance.
7. Be critical of messages from the media. Marketing is intended to make us feel as if we need whatever is being sold, even if that means making us feel bad about ourselves first.
8. Compliment children on things that truly matter, not a number on the scale.
9. Reduce competition. Your child does not have to the be the thinnest or best at anything to deserve your love and adoration.
10. Listen for and address thinking errors. How children interpret and respond to events, particularly difficult ones, powerfully predicts susceptibility to eating (and other) disorder. Inaccurate beliefs, negative thinking and faulty assumptions (termed cognitive distortions) left unchecked can leave a child feeling depressed and vulnerable to a host of self defeating behaviors.

SUMMARY

The value our society places on an unrealistically thin ideal creates a baseline of dissatisfaction, putting children at risk for the development of an eating disorder. The best prevention tips work by fortifying a child’s self-esteem. Self-esteem is nothing more than a collection of thoughts that together form a general belief in oneself as capable, likable and worthy. Children often see themselves as the adults in their lives see them. As their mirror, ensure good health by making sure that your own focus is on your child’s strengths and unique abilities.

Cognitive Distortions:
All-or-Nothing Thinking. Seeing things in black and white categories: “I blew the test,” in response to a single error.

Overgeneralization. Seeing a single negative event as a never-ending pattern of defeat: “I’m always late”-when rarely are such absolutes true.

Jumping to Conclusions. Assuming a negative outcome before sufficient data is available: “I’ll never get chosen” – unless one is either a mind reader or a fortune teller, it is impossible to know the outcome.

Disqualifying the Positive. Rejecting positive experiences or feedback as “not counting” to maintain a negative belief.

Personalizing. Seeing oneself as the cause of some negative external event: “The team lost because of me” when really everyone played a roll in the loss.

Catastrophizing. Exaggerating the importance of negative things: “My vacation is ruined” in response to a flight delay.

Labeling. Instead of describing an error, attaching a negative label: “I’m selfish,” rather than I want to enjoy my new doll today but will happily share it tomorrow.

Emotional Reasoning. Assuming negative emotions necessarily reflect the way things really are: “I feel fat” when one isn’t actually overweight.

Should Statements. Trying to motivate with “shoulds” as if one must be punished to get something done.

Mental Filter. Picking out a single negative detail and dwelling on it exclusively so that your vision of all reality becomes darkened: focusing on a single error in an otherwise beautiful performance.

TYPES OF EATING DISORDERS
ANOREXIA NERVOSA involves refusal to maintain body weight at or above a minimally normal weight for age and height, feeling or intense fear of becoming “fat” even though often dramatically underweight and, in menstruating females, loss of menstrual periods.

BULIMIA NERVOSA involves binge eating (eating an abnormally large amount of food in a discrete period of time) followed by purging to prevent weight gain. Purging is usually done by vomiting, laxatives, diuretics or excessive exercise. The bingepurge cycle feels “out of control” and is accompanied by dieting and extreme concern with body weight and shape.

BINGE EATING DISORDER involves recurrent episodes of binge eating. While there is no purging, sporadic fasts, repetitive diets, and feeling shame or selfhatred following a binge are common.

EATING DISORDER NOS is used to describe subclinical or mixed symptom eating disorders, as in someone who binges and purges but not frequently enough to warrant a diagnosis of bulimia nervosa.

Rachel Levy Lombara, Ph.D. is available to provide a seminar on the prevention of eating disorders in children, free of charge, to your nonprofit group or organization. Please contact her at (914) 773-4223 or DrLevyLombara@aol.com with your request.

For additional information:
·The American Psychological Association: http://www.apa.org
·The National Eating Disorders Association Helpline: 1-800-931-2237 Burns, D. Feeling Good . Harper, 1999.
The Yale Guide to Child Nutrition , Ed. by W. Tamborlane. Yale University Press, 1997.

By Sue Treiman

If you’re feeling a bit long in the tooth, odds are you’re getting wide around the tummy, too.

As we age, metabolism slows, muscle mass declines and, sadly, the dreaded middle age spread often debuts. The round-the-belly bulge actually consists of two layers, the subcutaneous fat lying just beneath the skin and the deadlier visceral fat. Lying close to vital internal organs, the deepest fat layer can actively interfere with metabolic processes, wrecking havoc with insulin levels and increasing the risks for high blood pressure and other conditions.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that the right tools can help anyone let the air–or the fat–out of their spare tire.

“People can and do lose weight well into their 40s and 50s,” reassures Dr. Maria Briones, an attending physician in Cardiac/ Orthopedic Rehabilitation Services at The Burke Rehabilitation Hospital. “The thing is, the older you get, the more aggressive you have to be about weight loss. Once you’re 45 or 50 you have to be very into it and know a lot to simply maintain your shape.” Sadly, metabolism declines by an estimated five per cent per decade, which makes yesterday’s jelly donut far more fattening today.

So Dr. Biones’ strategy is create educated, aware and committed patients. Shunning the strict no-carb rules of the Atkins diet, she opts for foods that are low on the glycemic index, releasing their calories gradually. High glycemic founds, causing the most dramatic fluctuations in blood glucose and insulin levels, are avoided. They include white bread, potatoes and certain fruits. Starvation is also verboten, since dramatic reductions in calories can send the body into a fat–protective mode that can drop the metabolic rate by 25 per cent.

Dr. Briones designs controlled portion meals rich in vegetables and choc-full of lean proteins to guard against the loss of muscle mass.

In addition to a sensible eating plan, Adam Pliskow, owner of New Castle Physical Therapy in Millwood, prescribes regular cardiovascular routines and frequent weight resistance exercises. “If you want to get rid of the spare tire, you need to do cardio work three to five times a week and strength train two to three times, while controlling your diet on an everyday basis. There’s no shortcut,” he insists. Pliskow and Dr. Briones agree that quick-fix remedies hawked on infomercials–from fat-melting pills to ab exercise machines –just do not deliver.

“You cannot spot reduce,” Pliskow emphatically states. “It’s a myth.”

He focuses on large muscle groups routines, squats, leg curls and others lower body exercises, to jump-start the burn, also emphasizing core training for people concerned about their mid-sections.

“I work on postural awareness and isometric exercises for the abdominals, which are basically the foundation of Pilates. A simple stabilization exercise, where you tighten up and draw in the muscles just below your belly button, offer the best chance of reaching the deepest corset muscles,” says Pliskow.

Hastings on the Hudson resident- Sue Treiman, an Emmy Award winning writer, TV producer and online executive, is a Sunday Business contributor to the New York Post and runs her own communications business.