Today I’m speaking with McKenzie Zanjonc. McKenzie has a Masters in Nutrition and a Counseling Degree in Health Psychology and helps trade in their food and body struggle for a more meaningful life through her practice, Inner Nutritionist. You can find more about McKenzie at www.innernutritionist.com.
In this episode McKenzie talks about how to tap into our “Inner Dieter” and our “Inner Nutritionist” to begin to heal our relationship with food. Here’s a quick summary of the distinction between the two, but definitely give the episode a listen for the full scoop.
The Inner Dieter is full for “shoulds” and “shouldn’ts”, is constantly judging food as good or bad, and is always in “fight or flight” mode. The Inner Dieter is full of unrealistic goals (which can especially creep up around New Years!). The Inner Dieter is sneaky. It can also show up as a Diet Rebel. The voice that is telling you to “have a cheat day” or “go off the wagon.” In those moments you might feel like you are not listening to your Inner Dieter, but in fact, you are.
The best way to distinguish your Inner Nutritionist from your Inner Dieter is that in Inner Nutritionist is in the NOW. It is not rolling up past dieting experiences or planning the future. It requires a pause, a checking in. It requires curiosity: What’s my hunger? What’s my fullness? Do I want hot food? Cold food? Something resh? The Inner Nutritionist is your ally and it’s main concern is that you are able to nourish yourself in the present moment.
McKenzie believes the first step to tapping into your Inner Nutritionist is simply being aware of this. Give the full episode a listen to hear more about how to be more satisfied around food by releasing control and listening to your Inner Nutritionist.
Links & Resources
Sign up for email updates: www.JessiHaggerty.com
McKenzie Zajonc: www.innernutritionist.com
Christy Harrison, Food Psych Podcast, “Intuitive Eating Intuitive Everything” - https://www.christyharrison.com/foodpsych/3/amie-roe-therapist-intuitive-eating
Today I’m speaking with Paige Smathers. Paige is a registered dietitian in Salt Lake City, Utah in private practice who specializes in helping people heal their relationship with food. Paige recently launched her online Intuitive Eating Course, Educate, Embrace, Empower: a 10-week course where you learn to tap into your inner wisdom and become your own eating expert. You can learn more about Paige and this course at www.paigesmathersrd.com.
About 15 minutes into this show, Paige paints a beautiful picture to show how she teaches intuitive eating. Here it is, in a nutshell: Imagine two ends of a spectrum. On one end there is food obsession, and the other is food apathy. To a black and white thinker, intuitive eating can sound like it’s telling you to just stop caring about food. But now imagine that spectrum becoming a much smaller range. On one end, instead of food obsession, you have food concern, or awareness. On the other, you have food flexibility. You get to choose where you want to fall. Do you want to pay attention to nutrition a bit more? Or do you want to be more flexible? Or, do you want to fall right in the middle? Paige says, there is space for both.
Throughout the episode Paige offers a lot of great tips on how to set up your environment so you can tap into your intuition. To those with a diet history or black-and-white thinkers, Paige offers tips to provide you with the structure you need to dip your toes into the process of intuitive eating. We know how hard it is from diet mentality to body and food acceptance. But, there is a space between those two places that can offer you both structure and flexibility and freedom. As long as you stay aware! Listen to the episode for the full scoop.
Links & Resources
Sign up for email updates: www.JessiHaggerty.com
Paige Smathers: www.PaigeSmathersRD.com
Nutrition Matters Podcast: nutritionmatterspodcast.com
Paige Smathers Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paigesmathersrd/
Paige Smathers IG: https://www.instagram.com/paigesmathersrd/
Educate, Embrace, Empower Course: http://www.paigesmathersrd.com/course
Today I’m speaking with my good friend Kara Lydon. Kara , AKA The Foodie Dietitian, is a nationally recognized nutrition and culinary communications expert and yoga teacher based in Boston. Kara believes that the secret to a holistically happy life is nourishing the mind, body and spirit and she instills this integrative philosophy in the kitchen, yoga studio, working one-on-one with clients, on her food and healthy living blog, The Foodie Dietitian, and in her e-book, Nourish Your Namaste: How Nutrition and Yoga Can Support Digestion, Immunity, Energy and Relaxation. Her blog features delicious seasonal vegetarian recipes and simple strategies to bring more yoga and mindfulness into your life and has been most recently featured on SHAPE, TODAY, Fitness, SELF, The Kitchn, Prevention and Buzzfeed.
Kara also partners with like-minded food brands and organizations on recipe development, food photography, nutrition communications, and media and spokesperson work. Kara is an avid writer too and has recently been featured in Yoga Journal, Food Network’s Healthy Eats Blog, Today.com, Environmental Nutrition, and Eating Well Magazine.
Kara is often sought after for her passion and expertise on yoga, food photography and social media to speak at events and professional meetings, including Today’s Dietitian Symposium, Texas Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Massachusetts Dietetic Association, Rhode Island Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Nutrition Entrepreneurs Dietetic Practice Group, Massachusetts Dietitians in Health Care Communities Dietetic Practice Group and the Bariatric Summit.
Prior to starting her own business, Kara led health communication strategy for one of the fastest growing food start-ups in history. She began her career in clinical nutrition and weight management at The Weight and Wellness Center at Tufts Medical Center.
Kara graduated with honors from Boston University with a Bachelor of Science in Nutritional Sciences and completed her dietetic internship at Mount Auburn Hospital, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. She completed her 200-hour yoga teacher training at Back Bay Yoga Studio (now YogaWorks) in Boston. When she’s not working, Kara loves going for nature walks and hikes, trying new restaurants, traveling, and spending time with her husband and furry cat, Constantine.
In this episode Kara and I talk a lot about her e-book, but also about how to tap into your intuition, when it comes to your career. Interestingly enough, it involves very similar practices as to when you’re trying to tap into your intuition when it comes to eating. Kara talks about how taking frequent social media breaks (and quieting your external environment in general) is a great practice for tapping into your intuition, because it gives you an opportunity to think about what you want without being influenced through blog posts and photographs of what everyone else is doing. On top of that, she talks about the importance of distinguishing between “should” and “want.” Many times when we’re looking to make a move in our career transition (OR trying to reach a health goal) there are a lot of people telling us what we “should” do. But, if we’re not careful, we can spend most of our time getting “should” on, and very little time considering what we actually want. Sound familiar? A great life lesson.
Links & Resources
@karalydonRD || Facebook || Pinterest || Instagram || YouTube
Today I’m speaking with Lana Simmons. Lana is the founder of The Lana Simmons Show and sizeHUMAN. Lana is a recovering chronic dieter who does have a long sordid past with the dieting roller coaster (to include LapBand surgery). In 2012, Lana decided she’d had enough calories, points, low carb, no carb, paleo, food scale drama to last her a lifetime. She threw away the scale and practices a Health at Every Size® approach concerning health and fitness.
In this episode Lana and I talk about how diet culture has made the idea that women need to be small to be valuable, a difficult myth to bust. We talk about Lana’s journey from chronic dieter to her path to practicing self-love (while discovering what loving yourself actually looks like). If you’re someone who has “struggled with weight” this is a must listen.
Learn more about Lana at www.LanaSimmons.com.
Today I’m speaking with Christy Harrison, a registered dietitian nutritionist and certified intuitive eating counselor based in Brooklyn, NY. She offers online intuitive eating courses and individual nutrition therapy to help people make peace with food and their bodies. Today we dig a little deeper to decipher the difference between the following a diet, and clinging to a diet mentality.
Christy explains that Intuitive Eating is about self-care, not self-control. When clinging to the diet mentality, you’re likely coming from a place of self-control. This involved a lot of black and white thinking (good foods and bad foods), negotiating (I ate something “bad” now I have to make up for it, via restricting or exercise), and thinking in “shoulds” and “shouldn’ts.” Intuitive eating is more gray. It involves asking yourself questions, pausing to notice what true hunger, fullness, and food satisfaction feels like, and approaching food from a place of curiosity.
At first glance this might all sound a little “woo woo” so make sure to give the full episode a listen to hear a more in depth discussion on the diet mentality. Find out more about Christy at www.ChristyHarrison.com and make sure to subscribe to her amazing podcast, Food Psych in iTunes. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Resources Mentioned:
Today, I’m speaking with Marci Evans, Certified Eating Disorder Registered Dietitian and Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor running a private practice right here in Cambridge, MA. In addition to her private practice and three adjunct teaching positions, Marci runs an online eating disorders training for dietitians and is currently co-developing a specialized eating disorder internship at Simmons College. You can follow her @MarciRD on twitter and Facebook, and visit MarciRD.com to check out some nuggets of wisdom on her blog.
In this episode Marci offers some really concrete tips on how to get started with the practice of Intuitive Eating (outlined below). As she defines it, Intuitive Eating is about knowing yourself first. Then, it’s learning how to integrate the knowledge of the mind, with the wisdom of the body. Contrary to what most people believe, this practice is not simply just about “eating whatever you want.” It’s about getting to know your body on both an intellectual and intuitive level, so you are able to fuel properly, while also enjoying your food.
In this episode Marci highlights three key factors (plus so much more wisdom) to help you get started:
Focus First on Meal Timing
While the word “Intuitive” might imply to simply just eat when you feel hungry and stop when you feel full, Marci explains that eating at regular intervals (every 4ish hours), you’ll naturally heighten those sensations of hunger and fullness, and become more in touch with what those sensations feel like, and how to respond to them.
Use Calorie Counting as an Experiment
Calories are everywhere! They are hard to avoid. So if you’re someone who relies solely on external factors, think about using that information as a detective might use a clue. If you have a meal that is X number of calories, ask yourself: Did that satisfy me? Did that hold me over until my next meal? Did that help fuel my workout?
Constantly Create a Positive Food Environment
A lot of what I hear when I approach clients and readers with the idea of Intuitive Eating is, “I don’t trust myself.” Marci suggests to start simple practices to build trust, such as building a positive food environment. She offers an example of one of her clients, who after seeing her mother-in-law, felt stressed and exhausted, and ate a half pan of brownies. Taking care of yourself, physically and emotionally, and approaching food in a positive, or at least neutral mindset, helps develop intrinsic trust around food.
Subscribe: bit.ly/bodylovestudiopodcast
Resources
Intuitive Eating and The Intuitive Eating Workbook (available for pre-order) by Evelyn Tribole, MS, RD and Elyse Resch, MS, RD, CEDRD
The Art of Money by Bari Tessler
Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin
Today, I’m speaking with Elyse Resch and Evelyn Tribole, Co-Authors of the Original book on Intuitive Eating. Elyse Resch is Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, a Certified Eating Disorder Dietitian and a nutrition therapist in private practice in Beverly Hills with 35 years of experiences, specializing in eating disorders, intuitive eating, and Health at Every Size.
Evelyn Tribole is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist with a nutrition counseling practice in Newport Beach, CA, specializing in eating disorders. She also trains health professionals how to help their clients cultivate a healthy relationship with food, mind, and body through the process of Intuitive Eating, a concept she co-pioneered, with Elyse in 1995.
You can find out more about their book, their new workbook, and their training for health professionals at www.IntuitiveEating.org.
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Perhaps you’ve heard the term Intuitive Eating before. Perhaps you’ve shrugged and thought, sounds interesting, but it wouldn’t work for me, I don’t trust myself with food. Or perhaps you’ve thought it’s too “woo woo” and “unstructured” to try. Or maybe you’ve heard the term, but being that you really need to “lose weight for health reasons” you’ve never considered it. No matter what your experience with Intuitive Eating, this episode will help establish facts and break down myths associated with the nuanced practice of Intuitive Eating.
The first myth-buster being that, Intuitive Eating is not another diet. In fact, it’s more of an anti-diet. Let me explain: All diets, no matter how progressive, are structured in a way that forces followers to rely on external cues. Calorie counting. Eliminating dairy. Measuring portion sizes. Daily bootcamps. You see the pattern?
Intuitive eating is a practice to teach you how to rely on internal factors… your intuition. Instead of micromanaging your meals, you now get to experience your meals, and take note of how those meals make you feel. With intuitive eating you look at your diet with curiosity instead of judgement. And through this process, you build trust with yourself.
At first glance, it looks like the Intuitive Eating approach is saying, “eat whatever you want!” And in a way, it is. But the research suggests that when you ask your body what it actually wants, the answer might surprise you. This is the Paradox of Permission: when you give yourself permission to eat, you get to ask yourself if you actually like the food you’re eating. Then, you get to enjoy the food in a way that feels good for you, instead of sneaking, bingeing, or restricting.
Another thing you might be thinking (and hey, I’m only assuming you’re thinking it, because I’ve thought it before) is: You’re a dietitian. Isn’t it unethical to just tell people to eat whatever they want? Aren't’ you supposed to educate people on how to make healthy choices? And the answer is DUH. Yes. As a dietitian, and a person with access to the internet, it’s obvious that all foods are not nutritionally equal. However, they do all need to be emotionally equal. Because attaching a negative emotion like guilt or shame to a specific food or type of food, is not a healthy practice either.
And what about people who need to lose weight for “health reasons?” The Intuitive Eating approach focuses on Health at Every Size. That means if you’re 90 lbs, or you’re 500 lbs, or anywhere in between, you deserve to be (and can be) healthy today. Not once you lose a certain number of pounds. And while the research suggests that most Intuitive Eaters do hang out at a lower BMI, it’s considered a benign side effect of the practice, not the primary goal.
At this point you might be wondering… what is the goal?!?!
The goal is to get off the dieting carousel and find peace with food. The goal is to develop a healthier relationship with food and your body so you can show up for the things that matter most in your life. The goal is to clear your head of the guilt, shame, and judgement that comes with every bite of food that you put in your mouth, and use that space for something more useful, like creativity, career advancement, building relationships, or saving the world.
Resources
Intuitive Eating and The Intuitive Eating Workbook (available for pre-order) by Evelyn Tribole, MS, RD and Elyse Resch, MS, RD, CEDRD
Playing Big by Tara Mohr
The Obesity Paradox by Carl Lavie, MD
Welcome to the BodyLove Studio Podcast. I’m Jessi Haggerty a Registered Dietitian and Personal Trainer living in Boston and, your host! Each episode we’ll dive into a different topic where we dig deep to form a healthier relationship with your diet and body. In these first few episodes coming up, I’ll be focusing on digging into the topic of Intuitive Eating, and sort of seeing where that journey takes us.