Page 10 THE BATTALION
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1980
Local
Local groups give support, advice
to overeaters who lack will-power
By SALLY J. DREYFUS OA members help each other It takes the stomach 20 minutes to $11, witha weekly fee of $5.
Battalion Reporter
No magic formulas, no pills or
drugs and no simple solutions are
available for losing and controlling
weight.
For many overweight people,
weight control, weight loss and
weight maintenance are difficult, if
not impossible achievements.
Some people can’t diet alone. Sev
eral groups in the Bryan-College Sta
tion area give help and support.
One such group is Overeaters
Anonymous. OA has a 12-step prog
ram based on the Alcoholics Anony
mous recovery program.
The alcoholic in AA is there to quit
drinking. The overeater goes to OA
to quit overeating.
“I’ve come to OA meetings before,
wiping away the cookie crumbs from
my mouth as I’ve walked in the
door,” one OA member said.
“None of us are perfect, ” she said,
“and if we slip-up we just get back on
the program.”
solve compulsive overeating prob
lems, to be cured from their “dis
ease.”
Abstinence from compulsive over
eating, OA says, is most important in
an overeater’s life. This means
“staying away from all eating be
tween planned meals and from all
individual binge foods.”
An overeater said, “If I can be ab
stinent for one minute, that minute
leads to an hour, one hour leads to
one day, one day leads to one week,
one week leads to one year. Every
minute that I am abstinent, helps
Another weight loss method avail
able in College Station is through
registered dietitian, Frances Henry.
“I try to teach people how to get
along with their diet,” she said.
“A lot of overeaters are cooking
right, but they’re eating three por
tions instead of one. You can eat the
things you like as long as you do it in
moderation,” Henry said.
tell the brain it’s frill.
“To lose weight, people need to
push away from the table and eat
slower,” she said.
The $20 first visit to Henry in
cludes a consultation about a pa
tient’s weight problem and working
out a suitable diet. Each visit there
after is $10.
Weight Watchers in Bryan-
College Station has about 200 mem
bers attending weekly meetings,
concentrating on retraining eating
habits rather than on counting
calories.
“We try to make people aware of
their bad eating habits and we try to
change them,” Pat Hennessey, man
ager of the Weight Watchers in the
Bryan-College Station area, said.
Ruth, a Weight Watchers lectur
er, said, “We even run camps for
overweight kids. Weight Watchers is
for men, women and children with
different overeating problems.”
Weight Watchers’ initial fee is
' (D . ^
Cepheib Variable presents V
“Fvqer Zelazny \
TWsbay, Nlavcwber 11
7:00
Tree
701 JvyiSScr
with TAMVI ID.
UNIVERSITY CENTER
SCHEDULING NOTICE
APPLICATIONS FOR MEETING ROOMS IN THE UNI
VERSITY CENTER COMPLEX FOR RECOGNIZED
STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS, CLUBS, AND GOVERN
ING BODIES WILL BE ACCEPTED FOR THE 1981
SPRING SEMESTER (JAN. 19 - MAY 15) IN THE
SCHEDULING OFFICE, 2ND FLOOR, RUDDER TO
WER BEGINNING AT 8A.M., MONDAY, NOVEMBER
17, 1980. APPLICATION FORMS MAY BE OBTAINED
IN THE SCHEDULING OFFICE, 2ND FLOOR, RUD
DER TOWER.
THIS WEEKEND,
YOU’RE AS GOOD AS HOME
ON GREYHOUND.
With convenient, economical
Friday departures and Sunday returns.
Weekends this school year can be the best travel time ever with
going-home bargains from Greyhound. And, as always, whenever you
go Greyhound, you get the comfort, convenience, and reliability we’re
famous for.
Just check the schedules below for the Greyhound routes going
your way. Most schedules stop at convenient suburban locations. Call
your local Greyhound representative for information,and you’re as
good as home.
TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
Friday Sunday
Lv College Station 4:00 PM Lv Houston Greyhound Term.
Ar Houston Greyhound Term. 6:10 PM Ar College Station
5:30 PM
7:45 PM
Schedules operate every weekend with the exception of holidays, exam week,
and semester break. Prices and schedules subject to change. Some service
requires reservations.
GO GREYHOUND
And leave the driving to us.
The Nutri-Medic weight loss
program is based on a high protein,
low carbohydrate diet with vitamin
supplements.
At the first (free) consultation, the
overeater fills out a questionnaire on
eating habits and medical history.
Potential clients are shown before
and after pictures of previous clients
and given a guarantee that they will
lose the amount of weight they want
in a specified amount of time.
A $70 lab test determines any
medical problems that may deter the
client from losing weight. A weekly
fee of $35 is charged during weight
loss and for a six-week maintenance
program following weight loss.
Although the organizations for
weight loss use different methods,
they agree on basic guidelines.
First, the overeater must want to
lose weight and permanently change
his or her eating habits. The overea
ter needs to retrain old eating pat
terns through behavior modification
groups or individual counseling.
“Originally these techniques were
used to treat alcoholism and phobias.
But there is mounting evidence that
behavior modification is more effec
tive than traditional methods in a
variety of disorders. Its application
to the treatment of obesity is a late
development, but a fruitful one,”
according to Albert J. Strunkard in
the “Eating Patterns and Obesity.”
Second, a doctor should be con
sulted before beginning any kind of a
diet.
Third, maintenance of weight loss
is stressed.
Disease hits ‘model’ families
Anorexics examine illnes
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I
By BETH YOUNG
Battalion Reporter
She was the model daughter. They
were the ideal family. One disease
affected them all.
Untold thousands suffer from
anorexia nervosa — self-starvation
— each year and don’t realize it. De
spite a mortality rate of between 15
percent and 21 percent, few people
know about the disease and fewer
understand it.
A background look at the disease
describing symptoms, treatments
and other general information is
helpful in making the public aware
anorexia nervosa exists, possibly in
epidemic proportions since one of
every 200 girls in the United States
gets the disease.
However, by looking at the victim
and the part families play, people can
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FOR AGGIES: ,
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Anorexia nervosa ex
ists, possibly in epide
mic proportions since
one of every 200 girls
in the United States
gets the disease.
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see and possibly identify with some
aspect of the disease.
Two Bryan-College Station
women agreed to talk about their
dealings with the disease. Due to the
sensitivity of the subject, their
names have been changed.
Betty realized she was an anorexic
in the seventh grade. It continued
for seven years; she lost 30-35
pounds.
Jane began dieting over Christmas
vacation of her freshman year at
Texas A&M University. She went
from 137 pounds to 82 pounds, a 55-
pound loss in less than a year. After
seeking professional help for nine
months, she is recovering.
Though both girls suffered from
the same eating disorder and had
Texas Sum erj
FREE FRENCH FRIES
FREE FRENCH FRIES
With order of best burger in|
town & drink.
Southside Center
330 Jerey
Coupon good thru Nov. 14
B’NAI ffRlTH HILLEl* FOUNDATION
Igor Tufeld
Soviet Jewish Student talks about the plioht of
Jews in the U.S.S.R.
Nov. 12, 7:30 P.M.
MSC Room 206
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Sponsored by the Hillel Club and Network
SENATE
VACANCIES
OFF-CAMPUS
(Grraduate
OFF-CAMPUS
Undergraduate WARD III)
College of Medicine — AT LARGE
Education — Graduate
Business — Graduate ^
Liberal Arts — Junior
Applications being taken at the Student Gov-
enrment Office, Rm. 216 MSC, thru Friday.
similar symptoms, they each had dif
ferent dieting reasons, eating pat
terns and effects from the disease.
While reasons for dieting differ for
each person, the editors of the Com
prehensive Textbook of Psychiatry
say that for some, extreme dieting is
a way to gain attention, express an
ger or combat one’s family.
Betty says a desire for male atten
tion made her diet. “All the skinny
girls were getting the attention of all
the guys,” she said. “I wanted some
of that attention. I thought that if I
lost enough weight, I’d get it.
“Being a perfectionist,” she con
tinued, “I dieted the best I could.
Maybe too good. ”
Jane feels that homesickness and
her family caused her to want to diet.
“I was so popular in high school
and I was just one of the crowd at
college,” she explained. “At Christ
mas, my mother told me that I was
fat, so I decided to change that, hop
ing it would change my college life.
Boy, did it.”
Jane says her doctor said she
needed something to control and
dieting was her only mode of self-
control.
Editors of the Textbook say the
desire for acceptance and attention
plays an important part in the diet
ing. Patients want attention so much
that they do not want to recover and
are pleased with their condition.
The editors say anorexic’s eating
patterns vary greatly. Some go on
diets and lose their appetites while
others never had big appetites.
In describing her eating habits,
Betty says she ate like a bird.
“I kept exercising non-stop,” she
explained. “If I ate over 500 calories
a day, I had to do extra exercises to
get rid of the extra calories.” Normal
calorie intake is between 1,500 and
2,000 calories a day.
Bryan psychiatrist Barney Davis
says this is typical behavior. “There
are girls who will eat a salad and then
go run a mile,” he said.
Jane’s eating patterns revolved
around not eating anything fat
tening.
T used to eat anything,” says Jane,
but now I eat dry salads and broiled
meats. For awhile, I would eat a
bowl of oatmeal in the morning and
that was it for the day. I drank coffee
for energy and to keep warm.”
An article in Science Digest,
March 1980, describes these eating
patterns and hyperactivity as “bodily
punishment.”
According to doctors in an article
in the East Texas State University
Special, December 1979, anorexics
will do anything to keep from gaining
weight, including taking laxatives
and making themselves vomit.
I tried to make myself vomit
once, says Jane, “but that was too
gross. I d rather not eat or exercise it
off.”
Anorexia nervosa victims can be
nefit from realizing the problem,
learning from it and helping others.
\ou
“Even after I started s
doctor,” Jane said, "Iwsi
about eating. I became J
with school and was do\
if I failed at anything. t
Now I’m not so up
continued. I eat morekl | vpoor f
ercise about the samebi fh e Aggi
p 'B.r Jor Z f „ »* m »'
Betty said she IlnalW cWi
bone isn t beautiful. 0US t O n.
“I’m scared ofanorexiali f irs t
to me again," she says,1*i L s on i v
be myself and accept nd j a i] t p )e
am , ipped th<
While Jane says that n .
reason for dieting was topi '
mother, Betty gives her|*
dit for helping cure her. [I
“They showed me pictorB:
bad I looked and made mt:|
said.
Whether the family helpfi i
the victim is an unanswee r\
tion. s£
The editors of the Teitl i £
that there is no uniform t)|
rent, although they areusia ; gh
protective. Food was prok 1 :
lial concern early in the vitt ['
Davis agrees, saying tk: Ln
point the family might hau \\\
food. “Also,” he says,’ll
might have been squelckeij
family, not being given ii
ence.” ’
Burns DuBose, CoIle{t|
psychologist, says anoremfep
difficult on the family anak
"Interpersonal relationship!
teriorate,” he says.
The Textbook editors sap I
and malnutrition are powtii I 1
“For awhile, Iw|
eat a bowl of oabt
in the morning
that was it for thw
I drank coffe(
energy and to l
warm.
spicuous behaviors used la f
family and friends.
Parents play an import®
treatment. . >
“It’s necessary to get* I
involved in therapy, SJ !
“and to focus away from »
The Textbook editors si|
the time the disorder is»
parents become oyercontt
oversolicitous, bribing
weight any way P osslble ' 5.
Davis says the family«« .1 nxrr
but doesn’t understand. weeks
shame them into eating 15
thing to do, he says.
An inside look at the wj |
the familial roles in f
well as a general know
disease, can lay the
understanding anorexia
can affect anyone, even
daughter in the
BEAT THE HELL
OUT OF
ARKANSAS
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER
7 : 30 p. m.
ANIMAL HUSBANDRY
13,1980
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