ACCENT + HEALTHY LIVING

What you were thinking, doing or feeling right before your last binge episode might be a trigger for out-of-control eating. GETTY IMAGES Say goodbye to binge eating

Angie Ferguson Special to Fort Myers News-Press USA TODAY NETWORK – FLORIDA

There is a saying that awareness is curative and when it comes to binge eat- ing, it is spot on. Being aware of the emotions attached to your eating be- haviors can get you on the path to healthy food habits. Start by identifying the emotions that trigger non-hungry eating. For ex- ample, are you angry, sad or scared pre- ceding an episode? Make a list of alter- native things to do when you experience non-hungry eating emotions and stick it on the fridge and the pantry. The pri- mary reason people overeat is to soothe overwhelming emotions. Next, map the events that lead to binge-eating episodes. With knowledge comes the power to change. You know that you’re likely to binge eat at night when everyone else has gone to bed, but do you know why? Work out what you were thinking, doing and feeling right before your last binge episode. Chances are one or more of these things will be a trigger for an out-of-control eating epi- Author Bruce Feiler will hold a virtual discussion, presented by Festival of the Arts Boca. JONICA MOORE PHOTOGRAPHY sode. When you work out what the trig- ger is, you can change it. Write down why losing weight is im- portant to you and commit to reading your list before every single meal or Learn how to cope with snack. It sounds like a chore, but it inevitable ‘lifequakes’ See EATING, Page 3D

Transformed festival Festival of Inability to focuses on resiliency the Arts Boca Festival of the Arts Boca runs from smell after Saturday through March 14. All events are free and will be streamed online. Boomer Health The performance schedule is as COVID-19 Steve Dorfman follows: Palm Beach Post Saturday, 7 p.m. : Nadine Sierra & USA TODAY NETWORK Friends. agonizing Sunday, 7 p.m.: James Ehnes in Concert. The 15th annual Festival of the Arts John Leicester Boca — which kicks off Saturday and Monday, 7 p.m.: Admiral James ASSOCIATED PRESS runs through March 14 — will be unlike Stavridis Talks Geopolitics. any other in the event’s history. March 9, 7 p.m.: Bruce Feiler on NICE, France – The doctor slid a min- That’s because all performers and Transitions. iature camera into the patient’s right speakers will be appearing remotely. nostril, making her whole nose glow red March 11, 7 p.m.: An Evening with But rather than bemoan the lack of Sonia Shah. with its bright miniature light. in-person audiences, event organizers “Tickles a bit, eh?” he asked as he have chosen to focus on a silver lining. March 13, 7 p.m.: Constantine rummaged around her nasal passages, “Our 15th installment will celebrate Kitsopoulos & The Festival All Stars. the discomfort causing tears to well in the tremendous talent in South Florida, Inspired by author Bruce Feiler’s 2010 March 14, 7 p.m.: Festival Finale with her eyes and roll down her cheeks. showcase the beauty of Boca from vari- best-selling book about his journey Nestor Torres. The patient, Gabriella Forgione, ous venues and honor the legacy of our with a rare form of bone cancer, NBC’s For more information or to register for wasn’t complaining. The 25-year-old late co-founder, Charlie Siemon,” said “Council of Dads” premiered in March events, visit festivalboca.org. pharmacy worker was happy to be prod- Joanna Marie Kaye, executive director 2020. PROVIDED ded and poked at the hospital in Nice, in of Festival of the Arts Boca. “Charlie southern France, to advance her in- would have been thrilled to see that, creasingly pressing quest to recover her paradoxically, we have the opportunity ing the Bible: A Journey by Land ble transitions. sense of smell. Along with her sense of to reach our biggest audience ever in Through the Five Books of Moses,” “These are what I call ‘lifequakes,’” taste, it suddenly vanished when she 2021 with all of our events filmed and “The Secrets of Happy Families” and says the 56-year-old Feiler of those fell ill with COVID-19 in November, and broadcast worldwide.” “The Council of Dads: My Daughters, times when your existence is upended neither has returned. One of the most anticipated speak- My Illness, and the Men Who Could Be and forever altered. Being deprived of the pleasures of ers is best-selling author Bruce Feiler, Me” (the latter of which was turned into Originally, the project was simply food and the scents of things that she whose latest book — “Life is in the an NBC drama in 2020), is especially aimed at helping people tell their sto- loves are proving tough on her body and Transitions: Mastering Change at Any well-equipped to offer wisdom during ries. But after collecting so many biog- mind. Shorn of odors both good and Age” — speaks to both our current mo- these unique pandemic times. raphies, Feiler says “I saw that certain bad, Forgione is losing weight and self- ment and the timeless challenges all of That’s because he’s spent the last patterns started to emerge.” confidence. us eventually face. His discussion be- several years traveling near and far, ex- Among them: “Sometimes I ask myself, ’Do I gins at 7 p.m. on March 9. ploring how those of all ages and from h We all go through at least three to stink?’” she confessed. “Normally, I Feiler, whose other works include all backgrounds, cultures and walks of the New York Times best-sellers “Walk- life successfully navigate life’s inevita- See DORFMAN, Page 3D See SMELL, Page 3D palmbeachpost.com | TUESDAY, MARCH 2, 2021 | 3D

Nantucket — their first time alone since I’d live my life and how I would take care 2. Mark it. This can be a form of liter- Dorfman their identical twin daughters had been of the three little girls I might leave be- al or figurative memorialization of your born three years earlier. hind.” former reality. Continued from Page 1D “Up until then, my life had been a It also set the stage for him to embark 3. Shed it. Now you’re taking con- pretty linear progression — college, ca- on “Life is in the Transitions.” crete steps, whatever they may be, to five major lifequakes. reer, marriage, parenthood,” he says. He believes there’s a three-tiered move away from or beyond your old re- h From onset to full acceptance of Feiler would undergo an incredibly structure to life’s transitions. The first ality. one’s new circumstances, they tend to complicated surgery that affected his stage is “the long goodbye.” This is when 4. Create it. A new reality means you last on average around five years. femur and quadriceps muscle, then you feel all of the visceral emotions of now have to come up with a new inter- h They’re equally split between being spend the next two years on crutches having your life upended. nal — and perhaps external — narrative. voluntary and involuntary transitions. and endure a year of arduous chemo- The second stage is “the messy mid- 5. Unveil it. This is when you begin h Involuntary lifequakes — such as therapy. dle,” when you try to shed the old ver- taking real steps toward doing or being job loss, death of a loved one, major ill- “I was scared of dying. I was scared of sion of yourself and your life, and estab- whatever your new reality requires. ness, etc. — are usually far more emo- leaving my wife a young widow and my lish new habits and new internal identi- 6. Tell it. Now your new internal nar- tionally traumatic. daughters without a father.” ty. rative — whether you verbalize it aloud h About 92% of lifequakes are per- So he reached out to six of the most The third stage is “the new begin- or not — becomes more apparent to the sonal — as opposed to being “collective,” important and influential men in his life ning,” when you tell, and truly project, a outside world as you start truly living in which is how he’d term the lifequake and asked them to be present in the lives new narrative about yourself. your new reality. that COVID-19 has imposed on all of us. of his daughters. During each phase, Feiler says “we all 7. Share it. Knowing that you’re not Feiler, a Savannah, Ga. native and As he wrote to them: “I believe my have transition superpowers and tran- the only person who is going through, or longtime Brooklyn, N.Y. resident, suf- daughters will have plenty of opportu- sition kryptonite.” went through, a life transition like yours fered his own involuntary lifequake in nities in their lives. They’ll have loving Recognizing the areas that trip you can be incredibly beneficial — both to 2008 — just months before the collec- families. They’ll have each other. But up during transitions is the key to mov- you and to others. tive lifequake of the global financial they may not have me. They may not ing through each phase as quickly as Feiler’s voluminous research — and meltdown — when he was diagnosed have their dad. Will you help be their possible. own firsthand experiences — have con- with an osteosarcoma in his left leg. dad?” Feiler says he’s found that the three vinced him that we’d all be well-served It’s an incredibly rare form of what is And thus was born the “The Council most prevalent emotions people feel to learn how to cope with transitions in usually a pediatric bone cancer. Doctors of Dads.” during transitions are fear, sadness and our unpredictable and everchanging see just 600 cases annually in the U.S. — As CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta said of the shame. world. and fewer than 100 of them are in adults. simultaneously heart-wrenching, To cope with transitions, he believes “The old idea of a linear life,” he says, At the time, Feiler and his wife, Linda heartwarming — and ultimately uplift- people should incorporate the following “is dead.” Rottenberg, were planning to celebrate ing — tale, “The story of Bruce Feiler seven tools: their fifth wedding anniversary. They profoundly connected with me and left 1. Accept it. You must internalize the were going to take a short vacation in me speechless. It made me rethink how fact that your old reality is no more.

chocolate cookies before classes, Cesa Smell still chewed without joy, as though swallowing cardboard. Continued from Page 1D “Eating no longer has any purpose for me,” he said. “It is just a waste of time.” wear perfume and like for things to Cesa is among the anosmia sufferers smell nice. Not being able to smell both- being studied by researchers in Nice ers me greatly.” who, before the pandemic, had been us- A year into the coronavirus pandem- ing scents in the diagnosis of Alzheim- ic, doctors and researchers are still er’s disease. They also used comforting striving to better understand and treat fragrances to treat post-traumatic the accompanying epidemic of CO- stress among children after a truck ter- VID-19-related anosmia – loss of smell – ror attack in Nice in 2016, when a driver draining much of the joy of life from an plowed through holiday crowds, killing increasing number of sensorially frus- 86 people. trated longer-term sufferers like For- The researchers are now turning gione. their expertise to COVID-19, teaming up Even specialist doctors say there is with perfumers from the nearby fra- much about the condition they still grance-producing town of Grasse. Per- don’t know and they are learning as they fumer Aude Galouye worked on the fra- go along in their diagnoses and treat- grant waxes that were wafted under Ce- ments. Impairment and alteration of sa’s nose to measure his olfactory im- smell have become so common with CO- pairment, with scents at varying VID-19 that some researchers suggest concentrations. that simple odor tests could be used to “The sense of smell is a sense that is track coronavirus infections in coun- fundamentally forgotten,” Galouye said. tries with few laboratories. “We don’t realize the effect it has on our For most people, the olfactory prob- lives except, obviously, when we no lems are temporary, often improving on longer have it.” their own in weeks. But a small minority The examinations on Cesa and other are complaining of persistent dysfunc- patients also include language and at- tion long after other COVID-19 symp- tention tests. The Nice researchers are toms have disappeared. Some have re- Evan Cesa, a patient, smells a small pot of fragrance during tests in a clinic in exploring whether olfactory complaints ported continued total or partial loss of Nice, France, on Feb. 8 to help determine how his sense of smell and taste have are linked to COVID-related cognitive smell six months after infection. The been degraded since he contracted COVID-19 in September 2020. A year into the difficulties, including problems with longest, some doctors say, are now ap- coronavirus pandemic, doctors are striving to better understand and treat concentrating. Cesa stumbled by pick- proaching a full year. patients who lose their sense of smell. JOHN LEICESTER/AP ing the word “ship” when “kayak” was Researchers working on the vexing the obvious choice on one test. disability say they are optimistic that “That is completely unexpected,” most will eventually recover but fear edly and apologetically responded with Losing the sense of smell can be more said Magali Payne, a speech therapist some will not. Some doctors are con- negatives. than a mere inconvenience. Smoke from on the team. “This young man shouldn’t cerned that growing numbers of smell- Only the last tube provoked an une- a spreading fire, a gas leak, or the stink be experiencing linguistic problems.” deprived patients, many of them young, quivocal reaction. of rotten food can all pass dangerously “We have to keep digging,” she said. could be more prone to depression and “Urgh! Oh, that stinks,” Forgione unnoticed. Fumes from a used diaper, “We are finding things out as we see pa- other difficulties and weigh on strained yelped. “Fish!” dog’s dirt on a shoe or sweaty armpits tients.” health systems. Test complete, Vandersteen deliv- can be embarrassingly ignored. Cesa longs to have his senses re- “They are losing color in their lives,” ered his diagnosis. And as poets have long known, stored, to celebrate the taste of pasta in said Dr. Thomas Hummel, who heads “You need an enormous amount of an scents and emotions are often like lov- carbonara sauce, his favorite dish, and a the smell and taste outpatients clinic at odor to be able to smell something,” he ers entwined. run through the fragrant wonders of the University Hospital in Dresden, Germa- told her. “You haven’t completely lost Evan Cesa used to relish meal times. great outdoors. ny. your sense of smell but nor is it good.” Now they’re a chore. A fish dinner in “One might think that it is not impor- “These people will survive and they’ll He sent her away with homework: six September that suddenly seemed fla- tant to be able to smell nature, trees, for- be successful in their lives, in their pro- months of olfactory rehab. Twice daily, vorless first flagged to the 18-year-old ests,” he said. “But when you lose the fessions,” Hummel added. “But their choose two or three scented things, like sports student that COVID-19 had at- sense of smell, you realize how truly lives will be much poorer.” a sprig of lavender or jars of fragrances, tacked his senses. Foodstuffs became lucky we are to be able to smell these At the Face and Neck University In- and smell them for two to three minutes, mere textures, with only residual hints things.” stitute in Nice, Dr. Clair Vandersteen he ordered. of sweet and saltiness. wafted tube after tube of odors under “If you smell something, great. If not, Five months later, breakfasting on Forgione’s nose after he had rooted no problem. Try again, concentrating around in her nostrils with his camera. hard on picturing the lavender, a beauti- “Do you perceive any smell? Noth- ful purple bloom,” he said. “You have to ing? Zero? OK,” he asked, as she repeat- persevere.” REVIEW FROM PATIENT: The Future is (still) TodaywasmyfirstvisitatDr. terward. However, a healthy eating re- Mittleman Eye office. I was beyond impressed Eating gime shouldn’t stop you from going out all about and enjoying yourself. When you plan with every single staff member with how they “greeted not just me but other patients. Continued from Page 1D ahead, you stop pretending that you’re Trust not going to treat yourself. Instead, you works. Write down your list of five or 10 accept that this is your reality, and you I will definitely recommend my patients and reasons why you must lose weight now. plan for it accordingly. family to this office. Enter it into your phone, laminate a By being aware of the emotions at- copy of it and keep it in your wallet, or tached to your eating behaviors, and fol- paste it on your fridge or inside the pan- lowing these steps, you can get on the Job well done everyone... I know some days try door. The important thing is to read path to healthy food habits. Keeping a aren’t easy working to take care of people but it, read it, read it. food and exercise journal is valuable too hang in there. Move! A positive approach to exer- – to keep you honest and on track. cise is an important key to developing Finally, don’t despair if you slip up – YOU ALL were TOP NOTCH. healthy habits. When it comes to rea- forgive yourself for being human and re- sons and excuses for not exercising, start the next day. lack of motivation to pound the pave- ment or hit the gym is right up there Angie Ferguson is an exercise physi- Google Review with feeling too tired. The fact is exer- ologist and Tony Robbins Results Coach February 2021 “ cise actually creates energy and im- from Fort Myers, Fla. She also is a Cor- proves mood. Emotion is created by mo- rective Biomechanics Specialist, USA TEXT Redefining Excellence. US! tion. Triathlon Advanced Level 2 coach, USA mittlemaneye.com Plan ahead. Some people dread Cycling coach, has a Specialty in Sports 561.500.2020 24/7 weekends or meals out because they Nutrition certification, and a PhD in re- 561.500.2020 know they are likely to overeat and sults! For more training tips, contact her struggle to get back to healthy eating af- at www.gearedup.biz WE-0000622722-01