ARTICLE: Hartsdale Woman, local market offer health program . . .Don’t Weight!

By HEATHER MURRAY

Although many seek out Lynn Klein of Hartsdale hoping her expertise will help them lose weight, she doesn’t think of herself as a dietician. Nor does she like being called a nutritionist, because she won’t tell you what to eat, but encourage you to think about how you eat whatever it is you choose to eat. Klein’s proper title is certified holistic health counselor; if that’s too much of a mouthful for you, she also goes by “myth buster.”

Busting myths about losing weight and what it means to live a healthy lifestyle is what Klein hopes to do in her “Don’t Weight!” 10-week program that starts up Thursday, Sept. 11 at DeCicco’s in Ardsley.

“Low carb doesn’t work. Low fat doesn’t work. People have been led astray,” she said.

She tells her clients not to diet and not to deprive themselves. “The trick is eating when you’re hungry and stopping when you’re satisfied,” she said. The tough part of that equation is sensing when you’re actually hungry and not simply eating out of boredom, or to quench thirst or feed depression.Klein sips green tea at the Scarsdale Starbucks while talking to the Inquirer. She isn’t bone thin or über-athletic looking like others in her profession. The silver-haired, youthful 57-year-old looks the right weight for her age, like she practices what she preaches.

Klein wasn’t always committed to living a healthy lifestyle. When she was in her 20s, she went on the Scarsdale Diet and lost 7 pounds in only two weeks. “It all came back and then some and that started the yo-yo dieting,” she said, explaining that the several pounds she had lost through deprivation was just water weight.After trying out diet after diet over the years, a bout with adult-onset asthma in her early 40s triggered her life-changing career switch from investment adviser to health counselor.

She was inspired to develop her “Don’t Weight” program — and to go back to school — while on a trip to Italy in 2004. “I didn’t see anyone that was fat walking around,” yet Italians eat all these foods we’ve been told aren’t good for us, she said, like bread and pasta. During her first night in Rome, the restaurant she ate at served lard as an appetizer. “Americans are taught that fat is bad for you, but not all fats are created equal. We are stuck following conventional wisdom, but the truth is that we need fat, especially as we get older,” Klein said.

In her program, Klein uses Italian, Japanese and French societies’ relationships to food as models for her clients. 

“What they all have in common is a respect for food and mealtime as an important part of the day. They are emotional about food, passionate about it, but in a good way. They respect themselves enough to respect the need for nourishment,” she said. 

Klein will also unveil some “secrets” to healthy eating gleaned from these societies. Italians, for example, cook their pasta al dente, a little on the chewy side, which takes more energy to digest. The Japanese stay slim even though the staple of their diet is white rice (not whole grain!). Klein said white rice is easier on the stomach. Servings of pasta and rice are smaller in these countries than they are in America, she said. 

Klein’s family hosted a Japanese exchange student and she was impressed with the girl’s ability to gauge when she was hungry and full. “It’s not about what you eat, but how you eat,” she said.  

Klein feels that too often Americans tend to graze on food all day long. She recommends sticking to three meals a day. Clients aren’t told to count calories or balance the four food groups or master the pyramid. Klein considers only three “food groups” relevant to track in one’s diet: carbohydrates, fat and protein.

Klein has studied energy healing, an important aspect of which is meditation. Finding a way to deal with stress apart from eating, whether through meditation, prayer or some other means, is essential to changing one’s life, she said.  

Her Don’t Weight! Program pinpoints habits that thwart weight loss and shows participants how to incorporate new food habits into their lives. She estimated it takes roughly five to twelve weeks to change a habit, a goal her clients would work toward reaching during her 10-week program. Follow-up group sessions are available for those who need additional support.  

A tour of DeCicco’s healthy food selections is included in the program along with food demonstrations and recipes, a writing journal and handouts. Klein doesn’t tell her clients they need to go to the gym, instead suggesting ways for them to slip exercise into their normal daily routines.  

She also works with clients to “get them past the notion that cooking is difficult and not fun.” 

She tells clients that depriving themselves of a food they crave often backfires. If they want lasagna, but eat a hardboiled egg to be “healthy,” they might still be unsatisfied at the end of the meal. That often leads to binging later on to satisfy that unaddressed craving. Klein said she gives into her cravings, but doesn’t go overboard. She recently ordered cake at a restaurant, but split the piece with her husband, Anthony Riotto, and 16-year-old daughter Lily Riotto. 

Her healthy habits have rubbed off on her family — even her teenager. Lily recently came home from a trip to England and told Klein that all she wanted was a vegetable. She then ate a whole cucumber right out of the fridge.  

Klein helps her clients create a lifestyle plan and stick with it to attain a healthful weight, but cautions that for most women that weight won’t turn them into supermodels. “There are lots of people that come in lots of shapes. Everyone wants to be Barbie, but that’s unattainable for most people. They say if a real woman had Barbie’s proportions, she would stop menstruating,” she said.

She advises clients to steer clear of undergoing surgeries to slim down, which can have “serious side effects. “Unless the condition of morbid obesity is life-threatening, it’s better to sit down and just face your bad habits. It’s common sense,” Klein said.  

Although she doesn’t tell clients what they can or cannot eat, she encourages them to “eat as close to nature as you can.” 

Klein was inspired to approach co-owner of the Ardsley DeCicco’s, Joe DeCicco Jr. about holding her program there after she saw the store’s meeting room space one day. DeCicco said in a press release, “Lynn impressed us with her tremendous knowledge and a passion for food that rivals our own. She is also teaching us, advising us on new product selections that minimize processing and promote healthy eating.” 

Store assistant manager, Paul Heskestad, said what most stuck in his mind from a meeting he had with Klein was her suggestion to offer organic non-homogenized milk as an alternative to standard milk. “That blew me away,” he said. “She proposed brands to us and it’s something we’re pretty close to nailing down. We expect to have a couple of varieties in the store in the next few weeks,” he said. 

Heskestad said offering a program of this nature at DeCicco’s is a first for the store. “We realize people are changing their lifestyles to eat healthier and we welcome Lynn’s guidance with her product knowledge,” he said. Klein was a familiar face to the family-owned store before the partnership. Klein’s brother, Marc, works at the store as the flower expert, Heskestad said. 

Klein was born in New York City, grew up in Yonkers and has spent much of her adult life in Hartsdale.