Barrhaven weight loss coach distills principles into book
- Barrhaven This Week Weekender, by Margaret Sambol

Barrhaven resident Roslyn Franken is a survivor.  She won a battle with cancer and her weight, having dropped 18 kilograms (40 lbs) and maintained a healthy weight for three years.

Her attitude is inherited as her parents were survivors too: her mother of a Nazi concentration camp and her father of a Japanese prisoner of war camp.

Now a personal coach, counselor and motivational speaker, Franken has distilled her experiences into nine principles to help others in her book, "The A List: 9 Guiding Principles for Healthy Eating and Positive Living".

The name refers to that fact that each of the principles begins with the letter A such as Ambition, Attitude, Activity and Acceptance.

"I was looking at the basic principles of how people learn and change," Franken says of how she began writing the book.   She drew from her professional training, her own experiences, reading and examining the patterns she saw in her clients in developing the principles.  Franken has a Master's degree in Human Systems Intervention from Concordia University and certification through the Professional School of Psychology in California.

"The principles are going to help people really look at their relationship with food.  It's not a diet that you go on and off.  It's about how you develop new habits to realistically maintain for the rest of your life.  It's a realistic approach to food," Franken says.

She approached the book with the idea of teaching others how to do what she does.

"How would I teach what I do without a structure, because it is so customized to each client?" she asked herself.  As she began to write, the book became ore of a manual for anybody to use as a supplement to one-on-one counseling.

The book is written in a workbook style with pointed questions at the end of each section.

"The questions are to get people to self-reflect and think about how the information applies to them personally," Franken says.

The book is designed to get readers to think of their own experiences and how the information will make sense for them.

"It's not a book you read once and just put down.  It's a book you'll want to pull out again and again as a reference when you need that boost," she says.

BUSY YEAR

In the last year, Franken has started a number of new ventures besides publishing the book.  She has begun motivational speaking engagements and has launched an adult continuing education course with the Ottawa-Carleton Catholic School Board.

"I feel because of my own personal experiences as a cancer survivor that I have a lot to offer on a personal level to inspire and motivate," Franken says. "Making people think about changing or causing them to seek out help is very rewarding for me."

Her course is called, "Healthy weight loss and lifestyle strategies for women." It is offered in sessions of three hours over three weeks ant the Continuing Education Centre at 893 Admiral Ave.   For more information, see the OCCSB course guide at winterconnections.com or call 613-228-3338.

This year, Franken was also nominated for a Women's Business Network "Businesswoman of the Year" award in the entrepreneurship category.

The winners will be announce at a gala in April.

Franken was nominated by one of her clients in her one-on-one counseling business, Health and Weight Loss Central.

"She saw how much I've done in the last year and she believes in what I'm doing and how I'm touching people's lives," Franken says of why she thinks she was nominated.

BOOKS

Copies of the book are available online at www.roslynfranken.com, or by contacting Franken at 613-843-0155 or info@healthandweightlosscentral.com.

The book is also available locally at Baico Books (102-C McEwen Av.) or the Ottawa Integrative Health Centre (1129 Carling Ave.)

Franken will be signing copies of her book at the Pharmasave located at 421 Richmond Rd. on Feb 2 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

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