The holidays are over and for the entire month of December, as well as parts of November and maybe even late October, if we’re honest, we’ve managed to avoid the bathroom scale with its blinking lights or reeling dial of truth and shame.

The sad fact that we won’t be alone as we trudge our way back to the gym or wander the health food aisles of the grocery store filling our carts with good intentions provides no consolation as we try to squeeze ourselves into those favorite jeans that only a couple months ago fit just right.

According to statistics compiled by the OneMaine Health Collaborative and provided by Shanna Rogers, of Healthy Androscoggin, 39 percent of adults in Androscoggin County and 15 percent of children in grades 9-12 are overweight or obese.

Admittedly, the path to maintaining a healthy weight can be difficult to negotiate. With limited time, we often reach for prepared foods or “fast” foods that usually contain too much of everything we don’t need, and our stressful lifestyles find us eating as a way of coping.

Karen Burke Lane, of Life Ideals in Lewiston, “works with individuals to examine their relationship with food … in order to create a healthy eating plan.” According to Lane, “It takes time to explore ways to make healthy eating easier by making] healthier foods more accessible, familiar and tasty.”

Working with her clients one-on-one, Lane discourages them “from just looking at weight loss as a number and encourage[s] realistic lifestyle changes (both cognitive and behavioral) that ultimately make their weight loss more sustainable in the long term.”

Lane’s process includes six “life ideals” or “self-care practices” which support successful weight loss, including: nutrition, sleep hygiene, physical activity and social support, as well as relaxation to counteract the stress response and thought restructuring to nurture productive thought processes.

As with the “Life Ideals” program, St. Mary’s Health System’s “HealthSteps” offers a weight-loss program called “Lose with Me!” According to Jennifer Smith, MS, who co-teaches this 12-week class in a group setting with Jamie Pepin, MS RD, “Lose with Me!” focuses on obtaining and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Smith said, “Classes include goal setting to get you started, exercise planning to get you moving, nutrition education to ensure you eat well, food and movement journaling to keep you on track, and peer support to keep you motivated!”

Mend-A-Body Solutions, a “wellness and waistline management” program, has recently gained popularity in the Lewiston-Auburn area. According to Tina Plummer, a Mend-A-Body wellness coach, “Our goal for each client is to target changes in their lifestyle that will bring about better health and wellness. Inflammatory foods and high glycemic foods are the major cause of weight gain and health problems [and] Mend-A-Body Solutions is a low-inflammatory and low-

glycemic lifestyle.”

Plummer said, “Mend-A-Body Solutions offers education and wellness coaching, along with great grocery support, supplements designed to work specifically with the program, and recommendations endorsing a holistic approach to optimize wellness.” Like Lane, Plummer does not necessarily measure success using a scale.

Plummer and Lane agree that an exercise program is as important to the wellness and weight management process as good nutrition. According to Lane, “Exercise is integral to weight loss, but, for many people, finding the time to exercise is the greatest struggle [and] Life Ideals works to identify the barriers to getting enough physical activity.”

Adriane Kramer, of Girl Power Fitness in Lewiston, is a Mend-A-Body coach. Kramer also takes the exercise element of the Mend-A-Body program to a whole new level with her popular “Zumba” classes.

“Zumba classes combine exotic rhythms and high-energy Latin and international beats to help class participants get fit and promote soaring energy levels” said Kramer. It’s “a calorie-torching, strength-training dance fitness party,” and the class culture is as welcoming, encouraging and supportive of every individual’s fitness goals as it is pure fun.

Need something a little slower? While Life Ideals offers various forms of yoga as part of its exercise program, St. Mary’s Health System offers everything from tai chi and Pilates to belly dancing and racquetball.

Need a challenge? Healthy Androscoggin, “the local Healthy Maine Partner that works in public health initiatives and education,” hosts “Get Fit & Win” every year. Rogers said, “Get Fit & Win [is] a healthy weight and physical activity program” and Healthy Androscoggin has seen significant weight loss and healthy lifestyle changes in many of its participants.

According to Lane, “Lifestyle change is the answer, and eating healthy is key” to losing weight, maintaining a healthy weight and overall wellness.

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