Overeating? UVA Can Help

An innovative weight management program at UVA's Nutrition Counseling Center aims to eliminate the urge to overeat. Guided by a trained nutritionist, the Solution Method teaches "developmental skills training" designed to foster self-nurturing and effective limit-setting for adults who too often comfort themselves with overeating, drinking, smoking, overworking, people-pleasing or other excesses. Although new to the Charlottesville area, the method was developed 25 years ago by Laura Mellin of the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, and has shown better long-term results than most weight-loss programs.

Cynthia Moore, a UVA nutritionist and certified diabetes educator, has trained in the Solution Method and runs a four-week Great Start group that introduces the basic skills and concepts. Through discussions, guidance and home practice, participants learn to satisfy emotional needs in healthier ways. "The Solution Method is based on neurobiological research involving the limbic or ‘feeling' brain and the neocortex or ‘thinking' brain," Moore explains. "The feeling brain connection is less available after about age 13." As a result, adult brains require lots of repetition to change the "inner critic" and strengthen or develop the "inner nurturing" voice. Although the basic Solution skills are taught in four group sessions, a thorough "retraining" of the brain requires a year or more of practice and support.

Take Action
To find out about upcoming Solution Method group classes at UVA's Nutrition Counseling Center, call 434-924-DOCS (3627) or toll-free 800-251-3627.