Ann Louise Gittleman’s Big Fat Plan
“America has a big problem,” observes Ann Louise Gittleman, Ph.D. “We do not
understand about fat!”
Addressing this problem involves more than willpower and bathroom scales.
Knowledge is always our ultimate power. Clayton College’s new Adjunct Professor for Holistic
Nutrition is an expert on how to fuel our bodies for top performance, how to nurture our
healthy habits, and how to release habits that do not serve our optimal health.
The author of many best-selling books, including The Fat Flush Plan, Guess
What Came to Dinner? and Before the Change, Ann Louise Gittleman’s articles and books have
moved beyond the health media’s attention, reaching to each end of the general media
spectrum: from CNN to Seventeen, plus The New York Times, Family Circle and Parade, among
others. Our masters program in holistic nutrition features two weight management books by
Ann Louise Gittleman: The 30-40-30 Phenomenon and The Fat Flush Plan.
This Clayton College graduate, first trained as a clinical nutrition
researcher, later became the director of the nutrition department at the renowned Pritikin
Longevity Center in the early 1980s. There, the “beautiful people” of films, television and
modeling flocked to learn the quick and easy secrets of weight loss.
The young nutritionist soon became troubled by what she saw. At that time the
Pritikin protocol offered a very low-calorie and practically no-fat diet that also excluded
vitamins, minerals and other supplements. High in complex carbohydrates, low in protein, and
devoid of the essential fatty acids (EFA), this “diet plan for the stars” seemed, instead, to
create other health problems of its own.
Observing clients become anemic and fatigued, but unable to vary Pritikin’s
existing protocols, Ann Louise set out to prove her own theories of weight loss: that America’s
attempts to virtually eliminate fat from our diets have resulted in a feeding frenzy, leading
us to pig-out on unsatisfying, synthetic low-fat and no-fat products. “No fat is not natural,”
adds the traveling nutrition expert who is healthy and slender, even striking, in her natural
beauty.
Holistic Times caught up with Ann Louise Gittleman earlier this year, during a
one-week lecture series in South Florida that launched a floating spa adventure: her own The
Fat Flush Western Caribbean cruise.
HT: The Fat Flush Plan is all about cleansing the liver and tuning-up
the lymphatic system. This seems like a pretty fresh, new approach. Why aren’t these body
systems considered part of a typical weight-loss discussion?
ALG: The liver and lymphatic system are actually the bookends for
optimal health, energy management, and weight control. Our liver is the body’s fat-processing
center. If the process bogs down, fat accumulates there and places pressure on the lungs and
heart. That’s why extra weight that presents as a round, pot-bellied midsection is considered
more dangerous than the fat that accumulates as lower-body saddlebags.
Our lymphatic system is the “almost invisible” parallel system for our circulatory system. The lymphatic system doesn’t have its own catalytic pump (as with the heart pumping our
blood). We need to participate in sustaining this system’s optimal flow, because lymphatic
fluid moves toxins. It is the body’s garbage filtering mechanism.
HT: The Fat Flush Plan includes exercises that help with lymphatic
flow. The mini-trampoline is a favorite of mine. What else helps?
ALG: Five minutes a day on a mini-trampoline is a great starting
point. It’s okay to start by marching in place, or you can begin by just shifting your weight
from foot to foot. If you can’t do that, someone else could even do the light bouncing and
just by sitting on the mini-trampoline you can stimulate the lymphatic system. Bouncing for 10
minutes or more a day is even better.
Also try power walking. Basically, that means to walk
at a brisk pace and “add your arms.” Swing your arms and incorporate other rhythmic, balanced
arm movements. To improve lymphatic flow, think vertical: try dancing or stair-climbing.
HT: So I guess that being able to chart our progress with various
activities is one reason that are you such a strong advocate of journaling?
ALG: When you walk that little dog of yours, you might be
strolling a quarter-mile several times a day without even thinking about it. When you come
back, you’re feeling better and you’re right to think it’s because you spent time in nature and
time with your pet.
But journaling might also help us realize how much we enjoy the activity itself. You might
double the length of your path once you can really see progress. You might find it easy to
double the duration of your exercise routine by just adding a minute at a time. By allowing
a moment to catch our breath and reflect on lifestyle choices, journaling puts us in touch
with our emotions—and our emotions want us to choose healthy activities.
Journaling shifts our thinking out of autopilot.
HT: Within your 20-year career, you’ve done a lot to raise America’s
consciousness about nutrition and other lifestyle choices. One of your women’s health books,
Before the Change, is essentially credited with introducing the term “peri-menopause”
and helping healthcare providers and consumers to better anticipate some of the subtler shifts
so that ‘the big change’ is, instead, addressed more gradually.
ALG: A lot of this is kind of a grassroots effort, to help shift
people’s awareness regarding the various stressors in life—and that certainly includes
menopause. From as far back as the cave-dwelling days, our ‘fight or flight’ response continues
to exacerbate, which doesn’t help.
From a researcher’s point of view, it did not take me long to realize that the Internet
could help me form huge ‘focus groups’ and easily gather a great deal of information. One
thing I continue to see is that too many women try to be all things to all people. By
paying more attention to ourselves, we nurturers can actually do a much better job of
nurturing from a state of fullness. You can’t continually give and give, when your own
well is dry.
One very simple stressor during peri-menopause is fatigue. At a certain age we realize that when we completely wear ourselves out, it becomes harder to bounce back. So we learn to take better care, to choose our foods more wisely, and to be vigilant about the health of our immune system.
Guess What Came to Dinner? was one of my earlier books, about internal parasites that can invisibly leach away at our health from deep inside.
I like to say that beauty is an inside job, as is our overall health.
HT: Your Fat Flush series—the book, a cookbook, a journal, and your
upcoming fitness book—all grew out of one chapter in Beyond Pritikin. So from first
being described as a ‘nutrition heretic’ and now being recognized in the media as
The First Lady of Nutrition, what’s your next big move?
ALG: I am now working with Joanie Greggains of WKGO in San
Francisco (author of Fit Happens) and our new book is called Fat Flush Fitness.
Our program encourages smoother, not necessarily easier but less jarring, forms of exercise. I
strongly recommend yoga, Pilates and t’ai chi because they allow us to be more in tune with
the activity itself, our energies and emotions.
The idea is to move more, and to move more easily. Exercise is not about competition.
This total lifestyle program incorporates aromatherapy, breathing exercising, body brushing
(dry brushing) and various other ways that we can really attend to ourselves. It’s all about
self-care.
Mary Grace McCord
Editor’s note: Ann Louise Gittleman is keynote speaker for our 2003 Natural Health Conference, “Building on Tradition.” Her topic is “The Missing Link in Weight Loss,” with a book-signing to follow. Come meet our newest Adjunct Professor for Holistic Nutrition May 15-18 at beautiful Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, GA. For more information: 1-866-699-2264 or travel@ccnh.edu.
