Last week: 390 lbs.

Start (Dec. 17): 470 lbs.

Total lost: 78 lbs.

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The original title of Sabine Weber’s upcoming workshop at Adirondack Nutrition Consulting in Lake Placid — “The Power of Food” — was changed because the program really covers more than food; it covers a mind-body approach to all kinds of challenges in life.

“I really want to get away from food being the main focus of the class,” Weber said. “I want the food part to come naturally after we learn all these skills.”

The class is now called “The Art of True Nourishment: A Guided Journey Through a New Way of Looking at Food, Life, Health and Happiness.”

“A lot of people have tons of knowledge about food. That’s not the issue, the knowledge, as much as looking at the whole self,” Weber said. “I think everybody has some kind of struggle, whether it’s with food or life or anything.”

To better understand the journey people are about to take in this class, I wanted to learn more about the guide. How did Weber get to this point in life? How did the student become the teacher?

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Weber’s journey

Weber is a Lake Placid native, and her journey to living a healthy lifestyle began early, but she didn’t necessarily struggle with food.

“As a young person in Lake Placid, I was athletic. I ski raced,” Weber said. “I understand the pressures of this town. There was a lot of pressure on me because my father was big in the ski industry, and I always felt like I had to be perfect, the perfect skier, so I never felt like I was good enough.”

Weber attended Northwood School, graduating in 1985. Like most teens in high school, she was trying to discover herself, and she found that competitive skiing wasn’t part of what made her happy. So she quit racing.

“I felt like if I was going to do it, I had to be the best,” Weber said. “And I wasn’t the best, so I wasn’t going to do it, which was unfortunate, but that’s what I did.”

During her self-evaluation, she began doing more solitary activities. Rock climbing became a favorite sport.

“By the end of high school, I was searching for more ways to be healthy because I didn’t feel healthy anymore, with Diet Coke and popcorn and not eating right and that type of thing,” she said.

In college, Weber found that a career in nutrition suited her well. She earned a bachelor’s degree at Russell Sage College in Troy and a master’s degree from the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut, completing a year internship and graduate work at the St. Louis University Medical Center.

“It was kind of a journey, and I found I really enjoyed it,” Weber said of a career in nutrition. “I found something that made me feel really good because I found something where I was able to help people.”

But life in the big city didn’t suit her. In her early 30s, Weber returned to Lake Placid.

“I was working in Boston at a very high-stress job, so I decided to move up here and have a simpler life,” she said.

Weber launched her private practice in 1999, opened the Bean’s Goods health food store, which she sold to Wynde Kate Reese and Tammy Loewy, who changed the name to Green Goddess Natural Market. Today, she still operates Adirondack Nutrition Consulting from her office at 183 Newman Road, across the street from the Adirondack Corner Store.

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Nourishment workshop

Weber is trained in mind-body medicine, and she will show people how to use these techniques during “The Art of True Nourishment” workshop. It will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. every Tuesday for six weeks, starting Jan. 13. This class is a fresh look at people’s relationships with food and how it translates to how they live their lives.

Participants will be introduced to:

¯how mind-body techniques help decrease stress and anxiety to help normalize eating patterns and live more peacefully;

¯how to change your relationship with food;

¯the art of mindful living, self-compassion, breath work, laughter, meditation, mind-body techniques and positive emotions as tools to change how you live and eat; and

¯how to improve your nutrition, live food and balance your life in synergy with each other.

“It looks at balancing a person’s life with aspects of their health,” Weber said, “so you kind of look at how you live your life and how food relates to it.”

Weber doesn’t like to tell people what to do. Instead, she’ll help people discover tools that can bring balance to their lives.

“Everybody’s journey is different,” she said. “Everybody’s story is different. So canned programs and giving everybody the same kind of things to do doesn’t work for everybody.”

Some of the mind-body tools are meditation, guided imagery, journaling, biofeedback and drawing. Yet mind-body is only part of Weber’s approach.

“The beginning of changing somebody’s relationship with food is learning mindfulness and learning self-love and self-compassion,” she said. “I think people really have to learn to quiet their mind to the point where they’re able to really be in touch with what’s happening. And the only way you can do that is to calm the system, quiet the mind and address things in your own head. And that’s where some of that life-changing realization comes in.”

In essence, it’s retraining the brain. But change won’t happen by simply by attending class.

“It doesn’t work unless you practice it,” Weber said.

Weber wants people to walk away from “The Art of True Nourishment” with the feeling of peace, to learn and be able to apply mindfulness in daily living which will help to foster a nourishing path ahead. She also wants people to have a better feeling of self-acceptance and self-love.

For those who want a more food-based class, Weber will be following up “The Art of True Nourishment” with “Clean Eating-Clean Living: A Whole-Food Approach to Improving Your Health.” It will be held for four weeks starting March 10.

For more information, call 518-523-0157 or visit online at www.adirondacknutritionconsulting.com.

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Open house

On Dec. 12 and 13, Sabine Weber will be holding an open house at the Adirondack Nutrition Consulting office, which includes space for fine art photographer Carl Rubino, at 183 Newman Road. It will run from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday.

The open house will give people an opportunity to meet Weber, who is an integrative and functional nutritionist specializing in functional nutrition, sports performance, disordered eating and mind-body medicine.

Weber’s passion is giving clients tools to promote optimal health and help them to self-discover how to feel better through a variety of modalities. She brings the nutrition component to a total body experience, connecting mind and body to achieve integrated health and wellness. She believes that nutrition is only one part of the puzzle to being healthy and the importance of a balanced life and mind body connection is a part of the consultation she offers in her nutrition therapy.

A registered dietitian and certified nutritionist, Weber has seven years of formal education and has years of additional training in integrative and functional nutrition with the Institute of Functional Medicine and the Center for Mind Body Medicine. She is also a certified food and spirit practitioner, and is trained in mind-body medicine.

Weber will explain services, answer questions, offer discounts on supplements, wellness books and CD’s, raffle favorite wellness items, offer gift certificates and give free samples.