Eating As Self Care
Could eating be the path to more love for yourself and your body?
Self Care, the Latest Buzzword?
First I would like to start on what I think the definition of self care is because I think that it can get a little lost, especially now that companies have picked it up as a marketing buzz-word.
To me, self care can be anything that recharges you. Everyone is a little different so it could be exercise, sitting in the park, painting, getting you hair done, swimming in the ocean, gardening, playing with your dog, building something, etc. I think there is also an element of rebellion that can come with self care. In this western society there is a culture of hustle, individuality and perfectionism. To which rest, vulnerability and being a human can be rebellious acts. This is where I think eating can come in as a rebellious act of self care.
So how does eating play into this?
When we think about it, eating should be the most instinctual thing we do. Along with sleeping, drinking fluids and practicing safety measures (ie. not getting hit by a car or eating poisonous mushrooms) it is the thing we do every day to keep ourselves alive. So why is it so confusing and sometimes so hard to do?
Because we humans are complex creatures with emotions, memories, social influences and preferences. We have seemingly endless access to overwhelming amounts of information and opinions. Along with all this information, there is $$$ to be had. Each time that a company, magazine article, program, etc can plant a seed of doubt that you don’t know how to feed yourself, they can come in with The Answer. I also want to pause for a second and point out that this is coming from a dietitian, a profession where I literally learned all about how to nourish a human body. If eating is so instinctual, why should you need me, a dietitian, to tell you what to eat?
First I would like to say that this is a major misconception about what I do. I actually don’t want to tell you what to eat. I am more interested in helping you facilitate a relationship with your body so that you can listen to those instincts. Where I do use my degree is when I’m working with people with disease states like allergies, kidney failure, diabetes, etc because there are important food and nutritional components to that. When I think about my work with eating disorders and disordered eating I think of it as a way to help people weed through the noise of nutritional marketing and fear mongering and provide the actual science. So much more of it though is giving permission. Permission to eat when you are hungry. Permission to have your favorite foods. Permission to gain weight. Permission to listen to your body.
If we think about the typical meals, we usually feed ourselves 3 times a day, maybe with some snacks in between. When did this concept become so radical and so out of the norm? To me, it is when weight loss became the gold star indicator of health (which it’s not) and the fear mongering that is the “o*esity epidemic” that was deemed to be running rampant throughout the US (which was wildly misrepresented). Starving ourselves, “hacking” our internal body cues, cutting out entire food groups like carbohydrates or fats, taking laxatives, throwing up after meals, drinking water instead of eating lunch, exercising three hours a day (when we aren’t professional athletes); when did this all become the norm?
I will have to admit, sometimes I get self-conscious about giving up on diet culture. Usually I can ward off remarks about what I am eating or my body with comments like “I am a dietitian that works with eating disorders so actually I don’t really follow the diet trends” or “I don’t know if I’ve lost weight, I don’t track that.” People will comment on if I am eating a salad “Oh you’re so good!” or if I am eating chocolate “Wow, the dietitian eating candy, didn’t think I would see that!” I have to admit sometimes it gets tiring. It feels like I am swimming upstream all the time because not engaging in diet culture is going against established norms. But then I remember that every time I eat when I am hungry, I am standing my ground. Every time I eat a donut or a salad because my body is telling me that is what I need, I am engaging in self-care. Every time I go for the full fat yogurt or the vegan ranch dip because that is what I want vs what I think I should have, it is self care.
Feed yourselves, I give you permission.
I won’t even say that you deserve to eat, because that shouldn’t even be in the conversation. You ALWAYS deserve to eat, no matter the circumstances. Eating is as fundamental as breathing. If we were on “oxygen deprivation cleanse” or working towards taking less breaths in a day, people would look at us like we were in a cult. Eating is no different. Eating when I am hungry, trying out a new baked good recipe, discovering a new favorite restaurant are amongst the things that bring me joy. These are my self care.
Though sometimes it is hard, I will continue to stand my ground that I will always and forever, deserve to eat - and you do too.
Katy Gaston Nutrition
Katy is a registered dietitian nutritionist and owner of Katy Gaston Nutrition based in San Francisco, CA. Katy is passionate about her work in eating disorders and disordered eating (AKA dieting) and wants to help people heal their relationship with food and body. If you would like to work with Katy in counseling sessions, she is available virtually via her services page below. If you are unable to be a client at this time but would like learn more, click here for a free introduction into intuitive eating workbook!
When You Want to Stop Dieting, For Good
You’re fed up with dieting. You want to break the cycle of diet after diet after diet. Some of them “work” for awhile and then stop. What is the alternative to this?
I have been thinking lately how so much of our lives are leaps of faith and really it is more the norm than we think. We really have much less control than we want to believe, something that can be both scary and exhilarating.
Where does this concept come into play with healing from disordered eating, eating disorders or just repairing your relationship with food and body? I say it all the time, society and its constructions as we know it are very anti-recovery. We have normalized disordered eating patterns, disliking and disconnecting from our bodies and the never-ending quest for weight loss. So when people come to me and say “I can’t do this anymore, I want to stop dieting.” They are taking a huge, brave, leap of faith. They want new, positive patterns with the way that they eat. They want to be able to exist in their bodies without constantly feeling ashamed. They want to stop this toxic cycle of pursuing weight loss that is only causing them to misunderstand and hate the way their body functions.
So much of the work I do with clients is to show another side, another idea. Another way to both pursue health and accept yourself just as you are. To have compassion for yourself and create sustainable routines. But this all takes lots of leaps of faith, both large and small.
When we are in the midst of an eating disorder or disordered eating our relationship and connection with our bodies is either severed or misunderstood. To learn to trust our bodies again is to learn to trust ourselves. This trust looks like being able to tune into hunger and fullness cues with neutral curiosity. It looks like allowing ourselves to enjoy the foods that taste good without guilt. To be able to have routines with less rigidity and more adaptability. But to get there takes a leap of faith because everything around you will tell you to not trust yourself. To use external factors like Calories, portion sizes and timing to control your intake. A scale to determine if you give a gold star or punish yourself depending on what it says in that moment in time. The camaraderie that dieting with your friends and family provides. The familiarity of this cycle of “failing” a diet, starting a new one with pronounced gusto to have it “work” for awhile and then “fail” again.
What I ask of my clients is something I have had to experience myself. To wade into unknown waters of unconditional permission to eat food and re-learn how to approach helpful things like eating vegetables and exercise but not from a disordered place. A leap of faith to give up this pursuit of weight loss and the fallacy of perfection, guaranteed love and ultimate happiness that it provides.
It feels like the world will crumble at your feet. It feels like you are clinging to a life raft in the ocean with people standing on the shore yelling “Let go! You’re safe now, you can swim to shore!” but that feels terrifying. I get it, it is really really hard. But when you do, when you take those first little mini leaps of faith that probably feel more like teeny baby steps, it will grow. The fire inside your soul. Who you are outside of this need to control the world around you. Your creativity, passion and joy. That is what I see happen before my eyes when I work with my clients, and it is incredibly powerful and beautiful. Because you are incredibly powerful, beautiful and brave to take that vulnerable leap into something new.
Katy Gaston Nutrition
Katy is a registered dietitian nutritionist and owner of Katy Gaston Nutrition based in San Francisco, CA. Katy is passionate about her work in eating disorders and disordered eating (AKA dieting) and wants to help people heal their relationship with food and body. If you would like to work with Katy in counseling sessions, she is available virtually via her services page below. If you are unable to be a client at this time but would like learn more, click here for a free introduction into intuitive eating workbook!
How To Be Healthy, From a Dietitian Nutritionist
Health is complex and the pursuit of health can leave you with more questions than answers. What are the benefits of seeing a dietitian nutritionist for health?
“Help me be healthy!”
Whether from clients, co-workers or any stranger that hears what I do for a living, this is one of the most common requests I get after “how can I lose weight?”
This question is always interesting to be because it is so complex, yet we throw around the word “healthy” like we are all supposed to know what it means. So what does it mean?
The definition of health used to be simply the “absence of illness” but now has rightly been corrected to mean so much more. Health involves so many things including your social and physical environment, your access to food and healthcare, the oppressions you face. It is a mental, physical and emotional embodiment. Health is both individual and involves the environment around you.
So why do people constantly ask dietitian nutritionists to make them healthy?
With so much media messaging and marketing around food, bodies and health it makes sense to me why this is everyone’s goal. However, this can be a very dangerous way to try and create a positive outcome for yourself because it often involves a perfectionistic idea of what health means. Because like perfection, if we think of health as a goal to seek, we will never get there. We will never be perfectly healthy. NEVER. Because we are human. Perfection is not in our nature or DNA, sorry not sorry. So why do I say it’s dangerous? This idea of perfect health can lead us to disordered patterns with food and our body because perfection cannot be obtained yet we shame, chastise and berate ourselves when it isn’t.
I believe that our western society definition of what is healthy is warped. We think low weight, clean eating and constantly going to the gym is our ticket. Where is reality, our bodies can determine what the best weight for us is. Eating routinely and happily might be our key. Enjoying the movement that feels best and right for our bodies is where we shine. We understand that chronic stress wears down our bodies, but what about the chronic stress of trying to control our weight, eat the exact right thing and workout even when our bodies are begging us to stop?
Where is health that includes the pleasure and joy we can get from food. The hug from a loved one. The walk through the park to hear the birds sing. The security of knowing where your next meal is. The nurse listening to your when you say you don’t want to know what your weight is. Taking time from work when need rest.
Health is complex.
I understand why we want to pursue it and I also know that not everyone has the same privileges. When we have this narrow view (AKA perfection) of what health can be we cause harm to ourselves and others. We judge ourselves and others for their choices where they might not be choices at all. It becomes right and wrong instead of nuances and individual.
There are no set parameters, no target to reach or gold medal to obtain. You can expand what your definition of health is for you.
Katy Gaston Nutrition
Katy is a registered dietitian nutritionist and owner of Katy Gaston Nutrition based in San Francisco, CA. Katy is passionate about her work in eating disorders and disordered eating (AKA dieting) and wants to help people heal their relationship with food and body. If you would like to work with Katy in counseling sessions, she is available virtually via her services page below. If you are unable to be a client at this time but would like learn more, click here for a free introduction into intuitive eating workbook!
How To Respond To Diet Talk
Seeing people in person again can be a bit of an adjustment. How to cope, navigate and respond to diet talk when it arises.
We are still very much in the midst of a global pandemic…
As we go into a time where we are seeing more of our friends and family there can be a lot of diet talk. If you are trying to recover from an eating disorder or seeking the path of a non-diet life, how do you navigate these comments and questions?
First I just want to say that it is a weird time right now in general. Here in the US and especially in California, life is starting to “open up” again. We are starting to come out of our houses, go back to the office, see groups of friends and family, and go to events. This can be nerve-wracking and an adjustment just like when we were going into lockdown (and all the changes that happened inside of that.) As part of this adjustment, we might be seeing people in person that we haven’t in a long time and we might be more self-conscious because we have gotten used to being on video from the comfort of our homes.
How do I respond to diet talk?
Since we all have varying comfort levels depending on our mood, personality and context I have included categories of “soft” and “bold” responses, but one is not better than the other. You need to protect your energy first and foremost.
Comment: Wow, you look great! Did you lose weight??
Soft: Thanks, I’m not sure, I don’t track that.
Bold: I’m actually healing my relationship with food and my body that doesn’t include monitoring my weight so maybe that is what you are noticing!
Wow, you are eating so healthy, good for you.
Soft: I try to eat a little bit of everything!
Bold: Actually when I changed my mindset in knowing no good or bad foods it opened me up to so much variety! I’m craving a salad right now and definitely going for dessert later because it looks delicious.
Do you work out? If I ate like you I would gain so much weight.
Soft: Mmm. [changes subject] So how has the new dog been?
Bold: I’ve healed my relationship with my body and food so I enjoy joyful movement when I want. I’m not afraid of weight gain because I trust my body will figure out what weight it needs to be. I also know fear of weight gain is ingrained in us but I’ve been working on un-learning fat-phobia instead.
My friend just lost a bunch of weight on this new diet! Let me send you the book title, I think it could be good for you.
Soft: I’ve actually stopped dieting for a bit, thanks though.
Bold: I know that I tried a bunch of diets in the past that didn’t work but it turns out I actually needed to heal my eating disorder instead!
Someone looks hungry, what a big plate!
Soft: Yep.
Bold: Funny, I didn’t feel the need to comment on your plate of food.
Come-on, finish off the mashed potatoes! I don’t want them to go to waste.
Soft: Thank you but like I said I’m really full.
Bold: Definitely won’t go to waste, I’ll take them home with me because I am too full right now.
Ugh my thighs are so big, diet starts on Monday for sure.
Soft: I had parts of myself that I haven’t liked either but I’m choosing to send them some love instead!
Bold: We are some smart, passionate and funny ladies, isn’t there something else we could talk about besides what we hate about our bodies and dieting?
Navigating diet talk might seem like a never-ending battle. But like I said always put your energy first and see what you have the energy for. You are also not alone <3.
Katy Gaston Nutrition
Katy is a registered dietitian nutritionist and owner of Katy Gaston Nutrition based in San Francisco, CA. Katy is passionate about her work in eating disorders and disordered eating (AKA dieting) and wants to help people heal their relationship with food and body. If you would like to work with Katy in counseling sessions, she is available virtually via her services page below. If you are unable to be a client at this time but would like learn more, click here for a free introduction into intuitive eating workbook!
Organic vs. Conventional Produce, Is Organic Healthier?
What does it actually mean for something to be organic, and is that healthier?
Some food myth busting with organic vs. conventional foods.
The first myth I would like to bust is no, as a dietitian, I do not ‘only eat organic foods’. I am not going to knock eating organic, I just want you to know the truth sans the marketing. I also have some great resources on this topic that I will link below and cite throughout this post.
What is does organic mean?
I would like to start with the definition of organic. I think we have come to have it be a catch-all for this “clean eating” movement (which is another email for another time - lots of thoughts on this) but what are the actual parameters around something being organic? Because yes, there are parameters set by the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture), which has some pros and cons. Some farmers are producing crops via “organic” methods but may choose to not be labeled as such because it needs to be certified and therefore costs extra money, time and energy. Some farmers may also choose to not be certified because then it creates parameters for the “bare minimum” instead of being able to focus time and money towards practices that could be above even the USDA’s standard of what “organic” means.
All of this lead up to say is that organic is a term set by the USDA, not actually a term meaning any increase in nutrition, quality or safety of the item. From this point I will label anything not organic as conventional, meaning the “regular” stuff.
Myth #1: Organic means no pesticides
This actually is not the case, and in some cases the same pesticides with the same amount of residue on the produce can show up in organic and conventional produce. How does this happen? There are pesticides that are approved for use by the USDA and EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and like I said earlier some conventional produce farmers may not want to spend the time and money to get organic certified, even though they would meet the qualifications. “…the vast majority of conventionally grown produce tested by United States Department of Agriculture could qualify to be labeled “organic,” specific to their residue levels”¹. Conventional also doesn’t mean that the farmer doesn’t care about their produce and many only use pesticides as a last resort just like organic farmers.
Myth #2: You should pay attention to the “Dirty Dozen”
If I am being completely honest this was a myth that I myself did not know needed to be busted. I even learned in my nutrition courses about the Dirty Dozen and had to memorize what they were - meaning they were meant to be taken seriously as something I would counsel future clients and patients on. To those that don’t know, the Dirty Dozen is a list of 12 fruits and vegetables released by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) each year that is said to be the highest in residues and therefore should be avoided or bought organic. First, there has been research to show that the residues that show up on these fruits and vegetables are still negligible and that the methods that the EWG uses to come up with these are not accurate. In a statement by Dr. Carl Winter he clarifies this point: “To accurately assess consumer risks from pesticides, one needs to consider three major factors – 1) the amount of residue on the foods, 2) the amount of food consumed, and 3) the toxicity of the pesticides. The methodology used by EWG ignores all three.”¹ To see what this means I used a calculator available on the website SafeFruitsandVeggies.com to go through a real life scenario. I took one of the fruits listed on this year’s dirty dozen list - apples. I put into the calculator of how many servings you would have to eat in a day to consume unsafe levels of residue and here are my results:
If you are a….
Man = 1,190 apples/day
Woman = 850 apples/day
Child = 340 apples/day
Case and point, the amount or residue matters, not the fact that it exists. So why does this matter so much? The Dirty Dozen list is not produced by any credible entity, it is not like when the USDA or FDA issues a food recall on something that has been deemed unsafe to consume but it likes to come across as such. It uses fear-mongering to make people think that these products are dirty and therefore un-healthy.
Imagine if you are a conventional strawberry farmer that cannot afford to get the organic label and jump through all these bureaucratic hoops and then some random group releases a list saying the crop that you have poured your life into is “dirty” and will therefore negatively impact consumption rates.
I think everyone can agree that it is good to have fruits and vegetables in your diet and that many people do not get enough. This list has been shown to lower people’s consumption of fruits and vegetables because of the fear and/or inability to afford organic. Imagine the negative impact and shame that something like this can create if you cannot afford to feed yourself or your family with only organic versions of the Dirty Dozen so you either don’t eat them or eat the conventional versions thinking that you are poisoning your family.
So what is the takeaway here?
I am not against buying organic if you can afford it and it is your way of consuming produce. What I do want to do is take away the shame and fear if you DON’T buy organic. If you buy conventional it does not mean the foods have any less nutrition, quality or safety. It does not mean that the farmers do not have sustainability practices in place like crop rotations and soil enhancers. You are not “dirty” if you buy conventional, you are not consuming unsafe levels of pesticide residue (you can email me if you are consuming 1,200 apples in a day and we can talk more) and you are not dumping toxins into your body.
The fact is the “organic” label might not mean all that you think it means. I know as consumers there are 1,000 choices we have to make every time we go to the grocery store and we like labels like this because we think it makes the choices easier. “Clean”, “guilt-free”, “lite”, “all-natural” are all there to sell us comfort, peace of mind and the feeling of “being good”. “Organic” is just that, another marketing term that is used by products to make you feel clean and good.
I am here to say eat the fruit and veggies you like whether they are organic or conventional, you’ll still be doing your body good.
Citations: (because that is how serious this blog got)
¹ Facts About the Dirty Dozen List
Website resource: SafeFruitsandVeggies.com
Podcast episode: Sound Bites Podcast Episode 97
Katy Gaston Nutrition
Katy is a registered dietitian nutritionist and owner of Katy Gaston Nutrition based in San Francisco, CA. Katy is passionate about her work in eating disorders and disordered eating (AKA dieting) and wants to help people heal their relationship with food and body. If you would like to work with Katy in counseling sessions, she is available virtually via her services page below. If you are unable to be a client at this time but would like learn more, click here for a free introduction into intuitive eating workbook!