News

Carl Meyer, PT
Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI — Grad Date: 05/08/2021
In the midst of the current health crisis and social justice demonstrations, I see a world needing communities to be filled with sparks, small bright lights that the darkness cannot overcome. Indeed, as I examine my own education, talents, and abilities, I know that it is not just an opportunity, but my responsibility to step into my community as this light, and I write this encouraged, knowing that I have been equipped by those who have come before me to be that exact spark in the community I call home.

As a physical therapy student at Marquette University, my work at the local Milwaukee Rescue Mission as the Sports and Recreation Coordinator has been a foundational piece of my education. My time at the Mission has opened my eyes to the health disparities in the inner city of Milwaukee; particularly among young African-American men and in the communities they call home. The first time I drove one of my high school students to his home in north Milwaukee, I encouraged him to get his ankle examined, as he had badly sprained it that day at our Youth Center. Laughing, and shaking his head, he told me that he’d never been to the doctor before, and he wouldn’t even know where to find one. As I watched him limp to his door, the reality of Milwaukee’s environment settled in and my passion was sparked, leading me to choose a career in the medical sciences to reduce health disparities in the impoverished communities of Milwaukee.

My passion for impoverished communities and my calling to these areas of need started long before Milwaukee. Growing up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I was a minority in the diverse and ethnic landscape of New Mexico, often witnessing the hardships of my classmates, and the health disparities experienced by Native American and underserved classmates from the reservations and poor communities of the southwest. These childhood experiences became the foundation of my mission to serve the poor by reducing health disparities, and led me to Colorado State University.

In my time at Colorado State, I was able to experience leadership as an Intern for the Office of Admissions, as an Academic Success Coordinator for the Department of Health and Exercise Science, and as a Resident Assistant. Most importantly, however, was my undergraduate thesis, which was titled “Project Play: A Mission to Study and Improve Areas of Need for Health and Wellness in Homeless and Underserved Youth Populations.” My work was written after spending a semester working with youth at the Matthew’s House, an organization that provided programming for homeless and immigrant families in northern Colorado. If my foundation was forged in New Mexico, my vision was truly carved during my time in Colorado. After graduating as a cum laude Honors student with Dean’s List distinction, and
with the Myron Ludlow Brown and Eddie Hanna Awards, my experience at the Matthew’s House led me directly to Milwaukee, and into the ZIP code with the highest rate of incarceration for men in the nation.

At the Milwaukee Rescue Mission, I provide exercise and leadership programming for homeless youth at the Mission, as well as for local students. I have frequently witnessed the impact of health education on the outcomes of the inner city youth that I work with, and this service has given me the vision of how to use my education to be a part of the outreach in Milwaukee, with an emphasis on communities with health disparities due to socio-economic divisions. I was able to start a local mentorship program for area youth at the Mission, and as my education has progressed, my vision of how to make this goal a reality beyond graduation has coalesced. I see an incredible opportunity for physical therapy to provide low-income healthcare, at clinics with high accessibility, leading to the training that can make
community mentorship a reality.

My first year at Marquette only enhanced my awareness of these disparities through my work as a Student Physical Therapist at Marquette’s Pro Bono Clinic for the uninsured. Like the Mission, I have seen the hard realities of limited access to healthcare, including one gentleman who visited our clinic after suffering from crippling pain for years and came to our clinic as a last resort. Bringing access and resources to communities that lack both has the power to drastically improve quality of life, making the reduction of health disparities not simply an opportunity, but a matter of justice. As a service-oriented University, I found further opportunity at Marquette to practice leadership by being elected Vice President of my class, and as a WPTA Emerging Leader Nominee.

Given my experiences, without the traditional corporate limitations of healthcare, I truly believe that physical therapy can reduce health disparities in a unique and practical way. My vision is to supplement my clinical practice with an initiative called The Friday Project, a project crafted during my time at the Rescue Mission. Supplementing normal clinical income with grants, those physical therapists partnered with the initiative would be able to offer community health screens every Friday, along with youth mentorship activities, including job shadowing for local students and scholarship assistance. As experts in musculoskeletal conditions among a population in which millions suffer from chronic pain, I believe we carry the education to refer high need patients, and to economically help and treat all others, bringing equity to the communities that need it most. As doctors face increased demands on their time, in which patients get less and less time, physical therapy offers the opportunity to partner healthcare with the mentorship needed to truly treat the disparities we see in the clinic.

My connections to Marquette and the communities of Milwaukee have given me the passion and platform to increase healthcare access for those who are underserved, and this is why I am applying for the SPARC scholarship from Ensign Therapy. From my experiences, my hope is that you can see my desire to use any financial assistance with the gratitude and humility worthy of such generosity. While such generosity is not intended for repayment, if I am selected, you can be sure I would pay it forward. For this reason, I believe I would make an excellent candidate for your scholarship program, as my vision and action to reduce health disparities in the Milwaukee community are already being enacted in my education as a physical therapy student at Marquette University, and as I actively live out service
in the Pro Bono Clinic and at the Milwaukee Rescue Mission.

In this way, I do not have the opportunity, but rather the responsibility to use my education to be a spark for the communities of Milwaukee. This is why I chose my profession. It gives me the chance to be a light in the community I call my own. My passion for leadership and service centers on my belief in the power of education to help those who need it most, and my learning has been supported and guided by the power of a calling found and a goal pursued. This is the legacy and strength of the many leaders who have come before me, and they continue to teach me how to translate potential into selflessness Indeed, it is the first spark that brings the light.

“If I have been able to see further, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.” ~ Isaac Newton

 

April Westbrook, OT
Keiser University, Ft. Lauderdale, FL — Grad Date: 12/31/20
Fidelity is a core value of Occupational Therapy. Through trust and loyalty, this value can “spark” others toward healing. In order for patients to open up and allow a therapist to truly impact their lives, they must gather a sense of loyalty and empathy first. This value is paramount in OT and is one that I had to refine within myself prior to jumping into the field. I had to truly trust my passion, dedication, and commitment to learning before making such an immense life change.

I fell in love with Occupational Therapy when a friend of mine introduced me to the field. As I read through the qualities and qualifications of an occupational therapist, I knew that OT would provide me with a unique opportunity to make a difference in the lives of others. It was a pivotal time in my life when I made this career change; I was a mother with three young children who had just undergone a divorce from a ten-year marriage, and I was working as a small business owner where I was unable to make an impact on the lives of others the way I knew that I could. Although it was certainly not an easy time to follow this “spark,” it is one of the most rewarding decisions that I have ever made. Through this decision, I have modeled for my children that you can follow your dreams and make the necessary changes in your life at any point. Through fidelity and dedication, anything is possible.

Upon beginning my career as a COTA, schooling became my full-time job. I would care for my three children in the mornings and evenings, study until midnight, and work my part-time job on the weekends. This dedication afforded me the opportunity to serve the most endearing of people and made me stronger than I ever thought possible. I have practiced the perseverance that I encourage in others and have gained a true insight for empathy.

After working as a COTA for six years, I began to consider making another life change to provide the best possible opportunities for myself, my children, and my future patients. I began to consider becoming an OTR through a bridge over program through Keiser University. I understood that gaining more knowledge in this field would provide opportunities to make a greater impact in my community, one individual at a time. Becoming an OTR meant that I would be able to create goals for my patients that would allow them to become their most successful and independent selves. I sought the opportunity to dedicate myself to my patients through the entire OT process, from evaluation, to creating goals, bonding through treatment sessions, all the way through discharge. This wasn’t within my scope as a
COTA, and I knew that it is what I needed to do to feel fully fulfilled in my career.

The most rewarding opportunity in the field of OT is to become the agent of change in one’s life. It is incredibly humbling to connect with those who are sick or disabled and provide a means to aid in their healing and create change. When an individual looks you in the eyes and says, “thank you for understanding, encouraging me to heal, and getting me to where I am today,” it makes every sacrifice worthwhile.

I have endured many obstacles, and at times, thought the tribulations were too great to persevere through. However, those obstacles became the pivotal points to leading me into this field. I look back at these obstacles and use them as a springboard to provide the most meaningful conversations with my patients. Conversations are driven by empathy, compassion, encouragement, and a “spark” for change in the lives of others. When we fight to endure challenges, dedicate every ounce of ourselves, and then overcome these adversities, it provides a platform to help others through truly understanding by way of empathy and perseverance. Occupational Therapy provides a perfect balance between technical knowledge and compassion through our code of ethics, core values, and standards of practice, all of which come together to empower others.

I am currently working towards completing my degree as a master’s student to become an OTR. It has been a long road, especially while completing my internships in the midst of a global pandemic, but fidelity and perseverance continue to lead the way. Becoming an agent of change for individuals whose voices are not always heard and to physically improve that person’s health, is what makes Occupational Therapy the most rewarding of fields. I plan to address those needs through compassionate service, a holistic approach, creative interventions, local advocacy, and evidence-based practice. I look forward to making a lasting impact in the lives of others by creating a “spark” for healing, hope, and endless opportunities.

I appreciate any support received and am committed to paying it forward through my dedication to serving others through Occupational Therapy

By Mira Waszak, Therapy Resource, Washington

Another gift of a grant in Washington. Pictured is Lynnwood Post Acute getting their setup and initial training.

The Eldergrow G.A.R.D.E.N Project would enable each of the nine participating Washington communities to help residents cope with this difficult time of isolation and loneliness, while also providing an interactive and meaningful activity to improve their quality of life now and long into the future.

Numerous health care studies show a positive link between gardening and healing. Contact with gardens and nature can augment a resident’s medical treatment, including mental, physical and emotional needs. Therapeutic horticulture has been proven to deliver tangible wellness benefits, including improved self-esteem, improved memory, reduced depression, improved motor skills, and increased socialization. The project goals include, but are not limited to: 1) Increasing the quality of life by improving the residents’ emotional states and 2) improving the quality of care by focusing on the six therapeutic horticulture wellness goals set forth from the American Horticultural Therapy Society. Eldergrow strives to reach an 80% resident attainment rate on both goals.

The plan to accomplish this for the nine communities will be to launch the Eldergrow G.A.R.D.E.N program as soon as possible, even if on a limited basis initially. The Eldergrow program is a well-managed, supported and respected therapeutic program offered through horticultural gardening which many residents enjoyed previously. It has been successfully used to engage residents in long-term care facilities with the best outcome of enhancing their quality of life. Eldergrow Educators use engagement and a hands-on approach, and they enable everyone in the care center — residents, staff and family, regardless of experience, physical or intellectual abilities — to participate in this program. Eldergrow enhances residents’ quality of life through therapeutic gardens physically, socially, cognitively and creatively.

Submitted by Mira Waszak, Therapy Resource, Pennant – WA

Connecting and training with our teams has been challenging in our new normal. So how do we make training effective and fun on a Zoom call? Introducing PDPM Brain Benders by Jessika Booth, MDS Resource/Pennant WA. She created a simple but effective exercise bringing the 9 Washington IDTs together on a 30-minute Zoom call.

 

 

Jessika forwarded Reference tools the day before the Zoom meeting, which included:
PDPM quick reference guide
PDPM ST comorbidity CMI guide
NTA workbook
PDPM ICD10 Mapping
PDPM Nursing quick reference guide
And a sample diagnosis list

Zoom call format
Brain Bender Rules:
• Mute your lines unless called on or when conversation is opened to the group
• First facility to type facility name in chat answers the question
• If wrong, the second facility with name in chat will get opportunity for half of the points with correct answer
• Next question picked by facility with correct answer

Teams were only given the diagnosis sheet to answer some of the sample questions below:

Question: What PT/OT Clinical Category does the current primary diagnosis of OSTEOMYELITIS Unspecified – M86.9 map to?
Answer: Other Orthopedic

Question: Based on the diagnosis list provided, are there currently any SLP CO-MORBIDITIES available?
Answer: No, none of the diagnoses listed will map to an SLP Co-morbidity 410.

Question: Based on Diagnosis review, what would the IDT need to clarify in order to get the resident into a Special Care High Category?

Answers:
● The type of Quadriplegia — as you can only code I5100 Quadriplegia if it is a result of spinal cord injury.
● Sepsis — related to osteomyelitis and or UTI
● Respiratory Therapy — Hypoventilation Syndrome
● COPD and other restrictive lung disease — Hypoventilation Syndrome

Special thanks to Jessika Booth and our MDS partners! Congratulations to team Park Manor for winning this round of PDPM Brain Benders.

Ashley Sells, an OT student at the University of Texas at Tyler, is our SPARC winner this quarter. She plans to graduate in December 2020 and already practices our Ensign culture.

Read her awesome essay below:

I have always known I wanted to pursue a healthcare career since high school. When I was a junior in high school, I was selected to join an elective group called Health Science Technology, which allowed us to shadow different departments in the medical field to better understand what we are interested in. From the beginning, I was always drawn to therapy, and once I learned what distinguished occupational therapy and physical therapy, I fell in love with occupational therapy.

I have been a full time COTA in home health for 4 years and I can honestly say I’m happy with my job and couldn’t imagine anything better. The deciding factor for me to return to school for my master’s degree and become an OTR was job security. The medical field is ever changing, and I want to secure my place in the field of occupational therapy as a supervising therapist because I have such a passion for this career field. This career and setting allows for flexibility of treatments and building rapport with my clients in their natural environments in addition to balancing my personal life as a special needs mother. Raising a special needs child makes it very easy for me to have empathy for all my clients and their families, regardless of age. I am the kind of therapist who has a passion for my patients. I am dedicated just as much to building rapport and relationships with my patients as I am to provide skilled intervention for them. I look at my patients from a holistic view and consider many additional aspects besides reason for therapy referral. I strive to build lasting relationships with my clients and their families and make a lifelong impression.

I understand that, many times, I am coming into my patient’s lives during one of the lowest valleys they may ever encounter, and I see that as an opportunity to provide perspective and motivate them to keep trying. As a therapist, we live for success stories; you know, the ones that remind you why you fell in love with this profession. One of my favorite memories included a patient who had spina bifida and was transferred to my caseload from another therapist who “couldn’t handle her”. I was expecting a rude, non-compliant patient, but I received a humble, respectful 36-year-old woman who had been through 27 surgeries and just wanted to take a shower and learn to put her clothes on by herself again. Before she became my patient, she hadn’t had a shower in 3 months. In fact, she cried the first time I helped her in the shower and stated, “You have no idea how much this means to me.” And, after 4 months of hard work, dedication, and creative thinking, she was able to shower with supervision and dress herself independently. She will never have to go 3 months without a shower again.

Often, my most difficult patients are the most rewarding. In fact, I recently had a gentleman on caseload who has been depressed since he had his stroke several months ago and didn’t ever want to participate in therapy because he just didn’t see the point in it; he didn’t think he would ever come back from this diagnosis. When encouraged to participate, he would often lash out, asking “Have you ever had a stroke? Then you don’t understand what it feels like.” After just 2 weeks of seeing him, he smiled at me and cracked a joke. In addition, he walked twice as far as he did the week prior. And when I mentioned possible discharge the following week at his reassessment, he even asked if I could keep coming a few more weeks and made phenomenal progress those last few weeks. As a therapist, physical improvements are often what we work towards and they are great, but words cannot describe what kind of victory it feels like for me to connect with a patient who continuously shuts everyone out.

Although I have been a practicing COTA for 4 years, I continue to learn and grow as a practitioner every week. My passion for learning contributes to my patients’ well-being daily due to various reasons. When I have a patient who has multiple comorbidities that prevent him/her from completing a functional task with a common or simple adaptation, I am able to research through online databases for alternative ways to achieve the same task. When I have a family who has a less than optimal bathroom layout that increases fall risk and compromises the patient’s safety, I am able to research and brainstorm different pieces of adaptive equipment and placement options that best fit the client’s needs. When I had a 300 pound client who had to painfully crawl on his hands and knees up/down 3 wooden steps outside his home in order to leave his home for doctors’ appointments, I attempted to call the home health agency to request a social work visit in order to get a ramp installed for the client. When my attempts remained unresolved after a week, I took it upon myself to research nonprofit organizations in his county that provided ramps for no cost to low income families. I contacted the organization, filled out the application, and had a ramp installed for him in less than 2 weeks, all while having no idea if I was going through the correct avenue or not. Since the first ramp application I filled out, I have filled out numerous more and had the opportunity to share my knowledge with other therapists in surrounding counties to better serve their clients.

In the home health setting, there are some instances when therapists and clients are unfortunately left with little to no assistance or guidance for problems that arise outside their believed “scope of practice.” With 4-5 professionals (including nurses, physical therapists, and even a home health doctor) entering the previously mentioned clients home before I did, it is a shame to me that no one had started the process to help the client obtain a ramp. This particular situation allowed me to realize that I cannot ever assume anyone else will help a client handle their challenges that arise on a daily basis; I am the type of therapist who remembers that anything pertaining to my client’s wellbeing falls within my scope of practice and it is my mission to help my clients be safe, independent, and have good quality of life.

These are a few of the reasons I fell in love with this profession and these are the reasons I will continue to be successful in my profession and spark joy in my clients’ lives. I know you have many deserving applicants that apply for this scholarship; I do not think I am any more deserving than the next applicant, but I would be very honored and appreciative to accept any type of assistance you may be able to offer. In May, I will have to stop working in order to complete my 6-month fieldwork and this will put a huge financial burden on my family. I am a single mother to a 6-year-old boy with autism who attends full time, intensive ABA therapy because he is not yet functional enough to attend public school. The insurance and therapy expenses alone are enough to cause financial struggles for any single income family, but when factoring in normal bills and not having a steady income for 6 months, it makes me very anxious to see if I will be able to finish school this year and not fall behind on my monthly bills. I take out school loans each semester to help me get through and I save as much as I can, but I am not sure I will have enough to cover all my expenses. I know this is a temporary financial struggle I have to push through in order to graduate, but I would greatly appreciate any amount of financial assistance your organization might be able to offer. Thank you for your time.

By Sarah Scott, SLP, Pointe Meadows, Lehi, Utah

About six weeks ago, my DOR asked me if I had any suggestions for therapy interventions for one of our Spanish-speaking residents who was having significant behaviors, including medication refusal, exit seeking, aggression, falls and throwing himself onto the ground. His diagnoses included Parkinson’s disease, severe anxiety, and repeated falls. We truly wanted to identify a plan that would address his needs and reduce the behaviors and anxiety.

We created, among other things, new simple Spanish communication boards, visual aids to support medication administration, functional problem solving, and protocol to prevent escalation of behaviors. With our therapeutic interventions, the patient started to demonstrate a dramatic increase in cognitive linguistic potential and decrease in adverse behaviors. His test scores increased, and he and his family also reported feeling happier. The nursing notes reported pleasant and compliant behaviors.

Our therapists are passionate about program implementation for diverse cultures, and understanding the backgrounds and stories behind the countries and cultures that our patients come from. The more we learn about and engage with our residents, the more we understand their lives that were rich with love, laughter, service, work, pleasure, pain, and purpose. Our therapists are becoming specialist in evaluating patients from culturally diverse backgrounds to help preserve abilities, maintain cognitive linguistic function, and facilitate opportunities for each unique need.

The interventions included extensive communication with and support from family to identify cultural, social, recreational, professional, familial, religious, educational, historical and experiential factors that could be utilized within a plan of including group and individual interventions. We continue to build our resources to understand and address different cultures.

For our Spanish speaking residents, we encouraged the patient’s participation in creating PowerPoint presentations on their home countries of Chile, Bolivia, Peru, El Salvador and Mexico. We created presentations of musicians, including Julio Iglesias, Jose Jose, and Armando Manzanero. Families emailed me links to YouTube videos of favorite songs with the lyrics that patients who otherwise never speak have sung out loud. We have created material on Mariachi bands, flute music from Peru, Tangos, etc. We used smells, tastes, colors, sounds, routines, pictures, objects, scarves, maracas, a guitar, etc. to facilitate engagement and participation. We have also created materials that we are using to support verbal expression and comprehension, memory, attention, reminiscing, sequencing, following directions, turn taking, following a schedule, orientation to place, TOD, and activities of choice. We have residents who previously have never left their rooms who are now tooling around looking for opportunities to interact and be involved.

The quarterly SLUMS in Spanish test scores that we administered increased between 2 and 12 points for EVERY one of these residents. We have continued progress with residents and are programming more complex goals and tasks with reading and other more complex activities because we have not yet reached the patients’ potential. COVID has slowed the generalization of our social/group programming, but we look forward to resuming the resident-created Club Espanol, which operates three times a week for half an hour. Restorative and Recreational Therapy have been highly involved and supportive of these residents and efforts maintaining the program once established.

During COVID, we have created social scripts and we’ve enabled patients to be engaged in therapy with family members via Facebook video messenger all over the state and as far as Bolivia and France, which has been fun and rewarding for all. A bright moment in a difficult time.

Here are a few pictures from these sessions.

A favorite song with Spanish subtitles

Reading large print script on Manzaneras aloud

Following social script on call to son in Bolivia.

Life Story Board for one of our residents allowing others to know him better and him to share information about himself.

By Aimee Bhatia, OT, DOR, Glenwood Care Center, Oxnard, CA

When we were given the challenge to get our physicians signed up for Clinisign, it seemed daunting. We had tried several years ago with no success and a lot of push-back. After our quarterly meeting in Las Vegas, I came back determined to make a change. I presented in QA that we would be switching to Clinisign and highlighted how much it would cut down on being hunted down for signatures, how much less work it would be for the facility to coordinate signatures and clarification orders to remain in compliance, and how easy it would be to do at their convenience.

I gave the physicians a deadline, and with Mahta Mirhosseini’s help, I got three of our main physicians signed up within a week. Two of our doctors preferred to have their nurse practitioners sign, and that was perfectly acceptable. Setting up the doctors also allowed sister facilities in the area to more smoothly transition to Clinisign because the doctors were already in the system.

Since we started, it is remarkable how much less time myself and the rehab aides spend chasing down doctors for signatures. There is less filing and fewer errors in typing clarification orders into PCC, and overall efficiencies have improved, eliminating the need to print and write clarification orders upon evaluation and re-certifications. Our physicians occasionally need a reminder to log in and sign documents that are waiting for them, but even with that, it is an efficient process.

If you have not mandated that your physicians jump on board, please do. Enlist your administrators if needed. Remember, once your physicians are using Clinisign to sign evaluation and re-certification documents, you will no longer have to write clarification orders, you will no longer have to type signed clarification orders into PCC, and you will not have to print because everything is signed in Rehab Optima. Our facility chooses to print the signed documents so they are accessible when needed in the medical chart, but that is just a preference of our facility. Happy Clinisigning!

By Angela Ambrose, contributing writer

With a wide array of diets on the market, it can be tough to weed out all the fad diets and find a nutritionally well-balanced diet that is rooted in sound science and also simple to follow over the long haul.

“It’s easy to be overwhelmed, but don’t get sucked in by all the fad diets,” says Katherine Beals, associate clinical professor of nutrition and integrative physiology at the University of Utah. “Sticking to the tried and true research-based recommendations is the best way to go. It’s pretty basic – fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean sources of protein and low-fat or non-fat dairy.” These nutrition recommendations stand the test of time and are summed up in the U.S. government’s “Dietary Guidelines for Americans” that have been around for decades.

Not surprisingly, the Mediterranean Diet, which closely mirrors these guidelines, has been rated the No. 1 best diet overall for three straight years by U.S. News and World Report. Tied for second place is the Flexitarian diet and DASH diet, which stands for dietary approaches to stop hypertension.

Rather than strict diets, all three are more accurately defined as healthy eating patterns with no foods off-limits. Each emphasizes whole, plant-based foods with a few minor differences. The Mediterranean diet adds more healthy fats, such as olive oil and nuts, as well as red wine, if desired. The DASH diet is designed to lower blood pressure and focuses on cutting sodium and saturated fat. The Flexitarian diet is primarily a vegetarian diet with the “flexibility” of adding in an occasional serving of meat or fish, when you get a hankering for it.

The Downside to Fast Weight Loss

Choosing the best diet depends on your ultimate goal. For example, if you want to lose weight very quickly so you can look slim and trim in your wedding dress or tux in five weeks, then a weight loss diet like HMR, Optavia, Atkins or Ketogenic may be a good short-term option. Despite their popularity, these same low-carb, high-fat diets fall to the bottom of the list for diabetes, heart disease and overall health.

“You will lose weight fast, but it’s not sustainable,” says Beals. “You can only do it for so long and then you start adding foods back in that you’re missing. And before you know it, you gain weight back.” Plus, they are nutritionally unbalanced and often require vitamin and mineral supplements.

If you’re looking to cut weight and keep it off, Beals suggests skipping these trendy fast weight loss diets and following the universal rule for shedding pounds.

“I don’t care who you are or what you do – the only way you’re going to lose weight is if you’re eating fewer calories than you’re expending. How you do that is highly individualized.”

The best diet for losing weight is the one that matches your lifestyle, personality and food preferences. For example, if ongoing support and guidance is important to you, consider Weight Watchers (rebranded as WW), which received the U.S. News’ top rating for weight loss and best commercial diet. The Vegan and Volumetrics diets tied for second place in the weight loss category.

Carbs, Protein and Fat – Your Body Needs Them All

Instead of restrictive diets that eliminate entire food groups, look for healthy eating patterns that include all three macronutrients – carbohydrates, protein and fat – and adjust the amounts of each to match your health goals.

While many of today’s fad diets drastically cut or eliminate carbs, Beals says they are a critical part of a healthy diet. “Carbohydrate-rich foods like fruits, vegetables and whole grains are the foods that provide the bulk of our vitamins, minerals and fiber, so if you don’t eat carbohydrates, you’re missing out on all those nutrients,” says Beals. The key is to select nutrient-dense carbs and go easy on the empty calorie carbs like soda, sweets and refined grains that are easy to overeat.

Higher Protein Aids Weight Loss

One proven way to lose weight is to bump up the protein in your calorie-reduced diet. “There’s ample evidence to suggest if you increase your protein intake, while consuming moderate amounts of nutrient-dense carbohydrates and healthy fats, you not only will lose weight, but also the composition of that weight loss will be more favorable,” says Beals. “You’ll lose more fat while maintaining lean tissue.”

Whether it’s a pork chop, chicken breast, salmon fillet or beans, tempeh and quinoa, eating more protein can make you feel full longer, so you’ll be less likely to snack in between meals or fill up on empty calories.

Which diet is right for you?

For those concerned with lowering their risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension or heart disease, any of the eating plans that emphasize whole, plant-based foods and low saturated fats are sensible choices – from the Ornish, Mayo Clinic or Nordic diets to the MIND diet, which combines the Mediterranean and DASH principles with a focus on brain-healthy foods such as berries and leafy greens.

No single diet is right for everyone. Select one that is nutritionally balanced, allows you to maintain a healthy weight and matches your palate and lifestyle.

Don’t forget the other key ingredient for overall good health – regular exercise. All eating plans are more effective when combined with daily physical activity. Not only will you burn more calories and be more likely to keep the pounds off, but you will also build stronger muscles, bones and immune system, which may add years to your life.