Suzan Terzian doesn’t have much patience for the current focus on diets and dropping the pounds. For this Abu Dhabi nutritionist, who radiates both positivity and health, the words we use to talk about ourselves and our bodies are important. Focusing on weight loss through deprivation – particularly if the individual has a long way to go, and if they have a start date and end date in mind – will most likely be temporary.
“I feel like we should just drop that kind of language and just have the resolution to be gaining health,” she says. “And if we focus on that, then whatever your goals are for weight loss will actually happen.”
People who take a long-term view, instead, focus on adding knowledge and good habits one step at a time so they can sustain lasting change, she says. “It’s just going about it in a different way. Going about it in a more empowering way.”
That’s the basis of Terzian’s popular four-week Reset Program, which she conducts through BodyTree Studio in Abu Dhabi. The program offers The Guide, which is Terzian’s highly reasonable road map to health and wellness, three group sessions, a dedicated WhatsApp group and discounts on future private consultations. The package also includes 12 fitness classes, four of them exclusively for the reset group.
The focus is on adding health – incorporating whole foods and cutting through nutritional misinformation – and movement that can be sustained in the long term.
Terzian wants to cut through the behavior and beliefs that surround “bad” food, the messages that have people believing they’ve failed if they have slice of pizza.
“There’s no mistakes — ‘Oh I fell off the wagon, or I did this wrong or I did that wrong’ — there’s no wrong,” she says. “This is life. We’re striving for health, so you’re not eating processed food, packaged food, because you care so much about your health. You want to be healthy.”
Terzian’s approach is not only steeped in moderation, but it is also tailored to the individual. Whatever is healthy is for you to discover. “Not one size fits all,” she says. “But as long as it’s giving you energy and you are living the best life you can,” then that should work.
Terzian wants people to know that over time, adopted gradually, healthy habits become so ingrained, and the benefits become so obvious, that people will prefer the healthy option more times than not. “The energy we feel… you wake up and you’re like, ‘I got this.’ I want to translate that.”
• Call (02) 4434448 or email info@bodytreestudio to book a spot in the next edition of The Reset Program, Dh1,950.
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