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DietitianAnna

• Heal your relationship with food & body • Certified Eating Disorder RD & Supervisor Intuitive Eating Counselor Disabled Dietitian

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I have two degrees in nutrition & health promotion. I have advanced certifications that underscore by expertise. (And privilege.) I have been a dietitian for over a decade. Want to know a secret? I DON’T TELL MY CLIENTS WHAT TO EAT. I might help them plan to nourish themselves over the course of a day or a weekend. I might ask them to get curious about their appetites. I might suggest that we explore the role that emotion plays in the eating experience. I might encourage a client to get good at identifying hunger and fullness cues. I might spend time chatting about satisfaction. But I don’t tell anyone what to eat. . . . Even though I know your intentions are good, please refrain from projecting your food experiences on other humans. It stinks to be on the receiving end of that conversation. And if you are on the receiving end of food advice, know that you have choice about the degree to which you apply said advice. Your eating experiences are for you.
If you’re not eating enough food, no food will serve as to ‘fix,’ anything. No food with special powers as dictated by the diet and wellness industries: No super food. (Not a thing.) No clean food. (Not a thing.) No immune boosting food. (Not actually a good thing.) No food for mental clarity. (Not a thing without enough food.) No food for healing or physical health. (Not a thing without enough food.) No food for changing a body or combating illness or prevention of the side effects of being human. (Not a thing. And even if that’s not 100% true, it is 100% impossible without enough food.) Nutritional adequacy trumps nutrition specifics, every time. 👋 if you’ve lost time to nutrition “fix,” efforts. I’ll go first… . . . *my page exists for educational purposes & is not nutrition therapy or medical care.
Bodies change. It’s ok. 🤟
Sweating is normal. Sweating is normal. Sweating is normal. This is a normal bodily function to help you regulate body temperature. Without this, one might experience heat stroke. Heat stroke is a medical emergency that can cause damage to internal organs and the brain. This can be fatal. Sweating is better than not sweating. If you’re comparing your summer body to a previous version of your summer body, and noticing that this one sweats more, I would argue that this one is more efficient at cooling itself off. Neat-o. . . . . ✌️ . . *my page exists for educational purposes & is not nutrition therapy or medical care.
Swipe, first. If the quality of your day is based on a series of integers, that vary throughout the day, and likely, vary from day today, I’m curious about what it might feel like to move away from using numbers to track anything. If you weigh yourself, and feel poorly about the number, how do you take care of yourself during that day? If you weigh yourself, and feel good about the number, how do you take care of yourself during that day? If there is a response that differs between the two, then I wonder about the value of engaging in a practice that can be, and certainly is from where I sit, I’m not wholly helpful practice. In fact, having a deeply entrenched relationship with a scale isn’t really a relationship. Thought questions: 1. If I didn’t weigh myself, what do I believe would happen to my body? 2. How does my self-care differ on days when I am pleased with an integer or days when I am displeased? 3. Would I encourage the people around me, or the people that I love, to be reliant on a scale? 4. Make a pros and cons list of taking space from your scale. I’m not here to convince you that you would be better off not weighing yourself, although I believe that very fiercely, but I am here to tell you that it is possible to live a full life without specific knowledge of your relationship to gravity. Which slide feels like the most important invitation from me to you? Save it and let me know! . . . *my page exists for educational purposes & is not nutrition therapy or medical care.
Save this reminder. It will make sense next summer and all the summers after, too. Most consistently acknowledged fact of the last few weeks: it has been hot. There have been other things happening, sure, and when we cross into temperature danger zones, this becomes a focus of discussion. The second most consistently acknowledged fact of the last few weeks: navigating being it hot outside and adequately nourished, simultaneously, is tough. I appreciate the reality of these challenges. It is hot. It has been hot. It will be hot again. And while your body may register outdoor temperature, I’d like to offer a gentle reminder that your body does not have fewer energy needs, while you feel toasty. Eating food, consistently, regularly, throughout the day, every day, is one of the primary ways that we can communicate to our bodies that we are on the same team. There might be a million reasons why you don’t have an appetite at any given time, lack of appetite cue is not the same thing as lack of need for nourishment. This is a really important fact to remember. Your body always needs to be fed. What I am not saying? That you need to eat, ALL the time. (because someone somewhere will misinterpret this. And then talk about it. In comments. Love it.) What I am saying? You need to eat, enough food, at regular intervals, always. What are your go to “it’s hot outside” meals? Snacks? . . *my page exists for educational purposes & is not nutrition therapy or medical care.
Join me in a thought experiment: Consider yourself three years ago. What was the most challenging thing you were contending with at that time? What felt hardest? What took up space that you wish didn’t have any? Did these things go away in March of 2020? When the world became a lot more challenging? Differently? Did they stay as challenging as they were, in the before? Or did you surprise yourself? Because the things that were so hard before became less challenging in relation to other things? I don’t think any of this life and living stuff is easy. We will all be faced with challenging things. Things that will take our breath away, and make us cry or scream or shut down. Life is beautiful, and life is challenging. Anyone who says differently is selling something. (I needed to be a whole adult to appreciate that expression, fully.) In this chapter, I am so much better at hard than I ever thought that I could be. And I want ease. For you and me. I want it, so much. And when I think back, it never felt easy, not really. Even though, in relation to today, it was easier. Getting better at hard has allowed me to enjoy and appreciate ease. And getting better at hard also made it possible for me to appreciate and endure hard, too. If you care to share, what is something that once felt very hard and now feels less so? . . . *my page exists for educational purposes & is not nutrition therapy or medical care.

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