Helping women feel good about themselves, their bodies and their relationship with food.
The goal in my approach is to help you learn how to connect with internal cues like hunger and satiety and rediscover the enjoyment of food. It's an approach that values you as the expert of your own body and me as the nutrition expert guiding and supporting you through this process. This is a 'weight-neutral" approach because it recognizes that people come in all shapes and sizes. The goal is not weight loss.
We need to have a healthy relationship with food, connect with our body's internal cues and be accepting of our bodies before we can delve into "healthy' eating.
Find enjoyable ways to get your body moving. Someone told me what exercise or movement meant to her:
"Swimming laps helps me focus. I can think about all sorts of things. I don't need to worry about being too slow or fast for someone. It's like a big release where I can really swim and 'exercise' while having fun and letting my thoughts wander"
I think that says it all..
I have been a nutritionist/dietitian for 20 years. I have helped clients with the nutritional management of diabetes, gastrointestinal problems (IBS, diverticular disease, etc), dyslipidemia (high cholesterol) and weight management.
Over the years, it became increasingly apparent that many of my clients were experiencing a disconnect between their eating and their body’s inner cues. So, I started taking trainings to understand this disconnect.
In 2019, I trained to become a Certified Intuitive Eating Counsellor. Intuitive eating is an approach to eating and food that takes into account many factors including our inner cues of hunger, fullness, food preferences, our personal and family food rules, emotional eating, our surrounding environment and diet culture, etc. Intuitive Eating is a framework that fits with my approach as a compassionate, empathetic and caring health professional.
More recently I enrolled in Motivational Interviewing training. The motivational interviewing approach assumes that when we are faced with a change, we are always ambivalent. Even if the change is something we know is important. Even if it’s something we want. This approach is collaborative. This means I take an interest in you as a person with all your needs and wants and unique circumstances.
I became interested in food and nutrition through my own struggles with food, dieting and body image. In my teen years and a good portion of my 20’s I struggled with BED (binge eating disorder). It was only through therapy, adopting a healthier approach to eating, and learning better ways to cope that I was able to begin the process of having a better relationship with food
It was also around this time that I came to discover my love for endurance activities like swimming, running, cross country-skiing and hiking. I love being in the outdoors and I love that feeling when I get in the "zone" and feel like I can just go on forever.
Maybe you have struggles with food and yoyo dieting. Maybe you feel stuck with no idea how to escape the vicious cycle of dieting. Maybe you're just fed up but have no idea what to do or where to go from here.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel
The first thing I will tell you is stop the dieting.
Accept where you are right now in your body.
Give yourself permission to eat the foods you enjoy while respecting your hunger and fullness cues.
Take care of your emotional needs in ways other than by using food.
These are some of the principles of Intuitive Eating.
If you think this is something I can help you with, I would love to chat with you!
Just contact me to set up a FREE 15 minute discovery call.
Send me a message or call me!
I also offer FREE 15 minute discovery calls!