Advertisement She was 5-foot, 9-inches tall by sixth grade. In high school, she was tall, thin and athletic.
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Amanda Roush and her husband Nick do yoga at the Franciscan Skemp gymnasium.
Erik Daily |
But Roush started gaining weight while in college, and she says she didn’t find much time for healthy eating or exercise.
“The more I gained, the more I felt bad about myself,” Roush said. “It was part of my college life not to be active. My body was changing and I put on a lot of weight pretty quickly.”
Roush, a 1995 La Crosse Central High School graduate, received an undergraduate degree in community health education and health promotion from the University of Wisconsin- La Crosse.
For the past four years, Roush has been a health promotion specialist at Franciscan Skemp, and she says she felt a bit strange and uncomfortable at times promoting healthy lifestyles considering her unhealthy lifestyle.
“I wouldn’t walk the talk,” Roush said. “I knew what I needed to do, but I felt so exposed at the gym and I was so down on myself.
“I was much harder on myself. Other people saw me as large-boned and not overly obese.”
She said she blamed her weight gain on being big-boned, stressed out and having no time to work out.
“I’ve struggled with body issues all my life,” she said.
Two years ago, while looking for a dress to party, she couldn’t find one in a regular clothing store. She wore a size 18 to 20, and most stores she looked in carried only sizes up to 16.
She said she couldn’t stand looking at the wedding pictures.
“I remember breaking down in tears, seeing myself in a size 18 dress,” Roush said. “I had no energy and I felt tired all the time. I was not feeling good.”
Roush decided to make some changes in her life in January 2006. She started walking and running one block at a time.
“I started looking at myself, and accepting who I am,” Roush said. “I believed every small positive change would lead to a more healthy life.
“I had more energy, and I started feeling better and happier,” she said.
She lost 30 pounds after six months and was running up to two miles.
Then Roush said she had a life-changing experience at Franciscan Skemp’s Women’s Wellness Retreat in March 2006.
She said she was inspired by the retreat and the keynote speaker Deborah Kern.
“It was about loving and accepting myself, and it reinforced what I was trying to do,” Roush said. “I felt refreshed and renewed being among a bunch of women with the same struggles and stressors.”
She said it was powerful sitting next to her mother and realizing it’s OK to let go of the past and focus on today.
“You have to love and accept the person you are, and I feel like I’m finally implementing and living what I’m teaching,” Roush said.
She started eating a little bit less and consuming more whole-grain foods, On the advice of Kern at the retreat, Roush began avoiding the five stress foods — refined sugar, refined flour, artificial sweeteners, processed deli meat or cheese and caffeine.
By July 2007, the 6-foot tall Roush had lost 85 pounds, and she has been maintaining that weight ever since. She won’t say what she once weighed.
“Part of it is my history of body images, but I think women generally don’t like to let you know their weight,” Roush said. “I have accepted what I look like in a mirror and I’m less focused on the scale.”
She ran the Maple Leaf half-marathon last fall and turned in a time of 1 hour and 52 minutes. Roush plans to run the St. Clare Health Mission half-marathon in May and has started training for her first marathon.
Roush runs five days a week and does yoga the other two days. She also does strength training.
“My message is people need to start accepting themselves as they are,” Roush said. “You can’t start making positive changes until you do that. That’s what I struggled with for all those years.”
If You Go
WHAT: Franciscan Skemp Healthcare’s 2008 Women’s Wellness Retreat’s “Press Pause”
WHEN: 4 p.m. Friday, March 7, to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 8
WHERE: Stoney Creek Inn, Onalaska, Wis.
COST: $115 without hotel; $60 Friday only; $85 Saturday only. For more information or to register, call (608) 392-4172 or e-mail pupp.cathleen@ mayo.edu
KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Mary Marcdante, contributing author to “Chicken Soup for the Soul” books, will conduct workshops about three transformation tools — inspiration, appreciation and enthusiasm — and life-changing strategies.
Fearless Friday
During Eating Disorder Awareness Week, Gundersen Lutheran’s Eating Disorder Program recognizes February 29 as Fearless Friday, a day designated to go without dieting, especially for our youth. Instead of dieting, Fearless Friday organizers recommend you treat yourself with respect by listening to your body’s signs of hunger and fullness, eating a balanced variety of foods, avoiding the categorization of food as good vs. bad, and finding and participating in an enjoyable physical activity.
Gundersen Lutheran experts say the following are things you can do to help promote healthy body image in children:
Learn how to model healthy eating and a positive body image. Try not to classify foods as “good” or “bad.” Discourage dieting or weight-loss fads. Listen to hunger and fullness cues.
Recognize people for who they are and what they do, not for what they look like or how they appear. Focus on internal attributes and strengths vs. physical appearance. Educate yourself on normal growth and development.
Commit to helping children, both male and female, understand the ways in which television, magazines and other media distort the true diversity of human body types and imply that thinness is the only way to succeed.
Encourage your children to be active and appreciate what their bodies can do. Help them enjoy the “good feeling” of being active. Make exercise fun and positive.
Terry Rindfleisch can be reached at trindfleisch@lacrossetribune.com, or (608) 791-8227.
