Vtrim Community Blog      Vtrim Online

Our March inperson classes on the UVM campus are just around the corner. And to get you all excited, we interviewed our inperson facilitator Sally Ross Nolan for you all to get to know her better and learn what she loves about Vtrim. We think you’ll all love Sally’s down to earth personality and way of telling it like it is!

Facilitator Name: Sally Ross Nolan

Education/background: M.S. from St. Michael’s College in VT.  I worked for years in several counseling/education positions at Planned Parenthood of Northern New England.  My day job for the past 11 years or so is at The Clinical Neuroscience Research Unit at UVM doing research studies.  I’ve been a Vtrim facilitator since 2006.

Years experience in health area: 30ish years (where’d the time go?!)

Favorite form of exercise: snow shoeing in the winter, tennis in warm weather

Favorite meal or snack: tamari almonds

My top 5 favorite foods: Chocolate-need you ask?, Tofu-there’s so much you can do with it and it can be put together quickly,  my mother’s chicken salad- pure comfort food,  turkey sandwich the day after Thanksgiving (and don’t tell, but I use white bread this one time).

What do you enjoy about facilitating Vtrim weight management groups? It’s a privilege for me to witness people taking hold of their life and making positive changes.  And it’s fun-we laugh a lot!

If you had a day to do whatever you wanted, how would you spend it? Working with a documentary film crew

What is one of the most common hurdles you see people face in changing behaviors and what are 1-2 things you find helpful for overcoming that hurdle? Negative self talk can keep people stuck..  It takes awareness and then conscious practice to change an attiude/belief AND it can be done.  Replace negative thoughts with a positive ones.  And if you’re not there yet-”fake it till you make it”.

One thing you would love to do in the future/personal goal for the future: Spend more time doing photography

Any favorite tip you love to share about behavior change: Just keep learning from each challenge and keep getting “back on the horse”.

Interested in one of Sally’s classes? She’ll be teaching on Tuesdays beginning later this month. Check out our schedule at http://www.uvm.edu/vtrim/register/