I’ll be honest I hate talking about nutrition and teaching it for the most part. When people find out I teach health or work in the fitness industry they often jump right into telling me what they eat, how they eat, what supplements they take, etc. It is exhausting to hear, talk about and discuss for several reasons.

1. It is disheartening to hear of countless people who are measuring their worth and value in this world based on how they eat or how their body looks.
2. It is sad and alarming how media illiterate we are as a society. As a health teacher we talk about the power of advertising and teach media literacy schools throughout the K-12 experience. Students and consumers seem to get it for the most part. EXCEPT when it comes to nutrition.
3. It is amazing how personal eating habits are, and how much we tend to believe in our own eating habits. While I love discussing one’s eating history (how they were raised around food in terms of family and culture) and learning about the eating patterns in different cultures, it is how amazing and quick to attack people become if you talk about “their foods” in the wrong way. Listen, if someone were to attack the apple pie my grandmother made from scratch, using the apples she picked from her neighbor’s tree, in the micro kitchen she had with no air conditioning, I would be triggered too. But when someone starts screaming about how “NO HUMAN SHOULD EVER EAT _____ ” it becomes exhausting and in my opinion and experience is taking things too far.

I used to eat all the low fat ice cream and cookies, would only eat the egg whites, could not keep peanut butter in the house without risk of literally eating the whole jar at once and then accidentally throwing it up (because there was a literal pound of peanut butter trying to fit in my stomach). After 8 years of studying health, nutrition, dietetics and intuitive eating, I have finally (mostly) made peace with food.

I eat wayyy too many servings of fruit according to the dietary guidelines but that is one of my pleasures. If I have the opportunity to try I new food that looks tasty I’ll do it. Yes, I do eat pizza, and burgers, my brother-in-law even owns a burger restaurant. I always have a Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate PB cups in the pantry and Salt and Vinegar chips are my favorite thing (but I don’t eat them often because my husband is repulsed by the smell of vinegar). I don’t drink protein shakes or take supplements (not for me) and I do NOT have a naturally fast metabolism that keeps my body in a normal, privileged body size. I am just your average girl who has been listening to her body for several years now and is finally in-tune enough to know exactly what I need (95% of the time).

If you clicked here looking for recipes I am happy to share some of my favorites.

If you are interested in starting your journey toward intuitive eating and breaking free from diet culture, please reach out!