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.