Movara Fitness Resort: Weight Loss Doesn't Mean Biting Off More Than You Can Chew

IVINS, Utah - July 21, 2016 - PRLog -- Want to lose weight and keep it off? According to the fitness and nutrition experts at Movara Fitness Resort, in Ivins, Utah, healthy and permanent weight loss involves gradual lifestyle changes that are non-restrictive. Movara Fitness Resort is redefining healthy weight loss with a unique non-diet approach to eating and moderate changes to everyday life.

Emily Fonnesbeck, Movara's in-house registered dietitian believes that every individual has his or her own unique healthy weight regardless of Basal Metabolic Rate (BMI) measurements and body weight charts.

"I would describe healthy weight loss as being a product of self-care," says Fonnesbeck, "but I also wholeheartedly believe that health is a product of healthy behaviors and not determined by weight. So often individuals engage in very unhealthy behaviors in an attempt to lose weight (restriction, reliance on supplements or low calorie/low fat food alternatives, inadequate nutrient intake, binging, extreme exercise, etc.) which leaves them in poor health, even if their weight loss goals are achieved."

Fonnesbeck outlined four basic needs for self-care and achieving a healthy weight.

• Adequate sleep (the National Sleep Foundation recommends seven to nine hours for most adults 18 or older).
• Effective stress management - taking time outs, breaks, saying no, setting boundaries, and so on.
• Regular and consistent nutrition, emphasizing nutrient dense foods balanced with satisfying and pleasurable foods.
• Moving your body regularly in a way you enjoy.

In her lectures, Fonnesbeck teaches a very lax method of eating well, and Movara's nutrition staff makes a point of not introducing a strict diet. Instead, they demonstrate different ways to prepare healthy meals, they address the underlying emotional factors that pertain to poor health, they educate guests about metabolic functions in their body and they introduce guests to healthy cuisine.

"Our meals are actually structured the very same way we encourage our guests to eat," says Emily. "Most of the meal is comprised of vegetables and the rest is complex carbs and lean protein. While we do have a baseline of 1200 calories, guests are encouraged to take snacks and ask for extra food based on innate hunger and fullness levels.  They also can talk to our nutrition staff about possible concerns, providing a safe environment to experiment with their unique nutrition needs."

Movara takes a firm stance against fad diets, or creating a Movara Diet because diets usually involve extremism and restriction. Fonnesbeck says restriction will likely lead to chaos, as she explains in her "Restriction vs. Chaos Diet Cycle" lecture.

"To avoid extremes in eating, it's important to increase the window of tolerance for what foods and behaviors you find acceptable," she says. "When following a diet, you could even just eat a banana and feel like you have cheated, and who wants to cheat with a banana?  The mentality typically is 'if I'm going to cheat, I'm going to cheat good', and you ditch the banana in favor of the hot fudge sundae."

Fonnesbeck encourages guests to allow a wide variety of foods from each food group (fruits, vegetables, proteins, fats, carbohydrates and even desserts) into their diet. She says the results are feeling more satisfied, having fewer cravings and less likely to engage in unhealthy behaviors around food.

"As a dietitian, I definitely promote wholesome food choices, I just prefer to talk about them outside the context of weight. When someone chooses to manipulate food in order to manipulate their weight, I find that it comes at the expense of fueling their body in order to feel energized and satisfied and instead are left feeling unwell and unsatisfied. It comes back to self-care and balance.

"I actually feel that emphasizing weight loss, healthy weight loss or unhealthy weight loss prevents us from being consistent with self-care," Fonnesbeck continues. "If we are measuring success by numbers on the scale, it's easy to develop an all-or-nothing mentality.  In my experience, getting rid of numbers gives people the best chance to find their healthy weight. Then, changes are based on actual behaviors rather than numbers."

Movara's fitness program involves nearly six hours of exercise a day. Each day guests go hiking in the morning followed by classes like kick-boxing, HIIT (high intensity interval training) and circuit training in the late morning and afternoon. The resort also just added kayaking to the list of activities guests can do. The program is very results-oriented for the time that guests are at the resort, but they understand that the greatest challenge will come when they return home.

To learn more about this new lecture series at Movara Fitness Resort or to learn more about their fitness program, visit www.movara.com, or call (888) 870-2639 (tel:%28888%29%20870-2639).