Tag Archive for: dietitian

Dieting Information Overload – When To Start Taking Action

to-do-listI’ve been a registered dietitian nutritionist in private practice for over 28 years now. Wow, hard to believe. And a lot has changed in the industry in the last 28 years. When I first got out of school and opened my business, I was mostly treating patients for medical conditions using nutrition therapy. These conditions included uncontrolled diabetes, cardiovascular disease, high cholesterol, hypertension, gastrointestinal conditions, to name a few.

 

In most of these cases, except for some of the gastrointestinal conditions, weight loss was always a part of the treatment plan. I created a nutrition plan that included a meal plan tailored to the patients’ medical condition and weight loss goals. My patients were getting better and losing weight. It all seemed so perfect.

 

At some point, I asked myself what can I do to help prevent these illnesses or the complications from occurring due to their diseases. Again, weight loss was usually part of the prevention plan and my patients wanted a meal plan to follow, which I obliged to.

 

Yet, at some point about 5-6 years ago, I realized that these meal plans are actually doing a disservice to many of these patients. The meal plan turned into a diet for them to follow and they just didn’t know how to navigate certain situations in their lives when they couldn’t “follow” the meal plan I created. These included vacations, weddings, deaths, job loss and other events and circumstances. They then felt guilty, ashamed and upset that they just couldn’t “do it”. They lost total confidence and trust in themselves.

 

Can you relate?

 

This is when I turned my attention to helping people break free of dieting to learn how to re-trust themselves and their bodies again to make the food choices that feel right for them. Yes, this is where my intuitive eating work comes in.

 

But here is what I have found.

 

As I started talking about and spreading my message about giving up dieting, all of a sudden the internet was swarming with coaches doing the same thing. It caught on like wildfire! It seems like every other day there is another summit with ‘expert interviews’ telling you how to give up dieting.

 

I’ve been on these summits, and I do believe they can be very helpful. But I also believe that there comes a point where you need to stop collecting information and start taking action. That’s when the real change happens.

 

So, in theory, yes, giving up dieting is your answer to finally achieving the body and life you want without food restriction, deprivation and feelings of guilt after you eat. But, if you don’t begin to practice this, you will continue to struggle.

 

3 Tips to Help You Start Taking Action

 

  • Stop signing up for every “end dieting” summit that pops up in your newsfeed. Choose 1 or 2 experts that you resonate most with and follow them (hint…I hope I’m one of them).

 

  • Pick one action step and focus on that for one week. Self-assess each evening to see how you feel with your progress. When you are ready, add a second action step and so on. Don’t take on too many changes at once.

 

  • See support to help you on your journey. These changes are tough! Anyone who tells you otherwise is not being truthful! There is no reason to go this alone. An RDN coach can walk the journey with you and support you. If you’d like to see how I can help you, just contact me here.

 

I am excited for you that you have made the commitment to give up dieting forever. I also know how scary that thought is. Please don’t let that fear keep you in the “gathering information” phase. Start taking action today. I am here to support you.

 

Is Intuitive Eating a Weight Loss Program or Not?

Woman with question marksMore often than not, people struggling to lose weight will say yes to a new diet that hits the market. Whether the catch phrase is diet, program, system or technique, if it is something they haven’t tried, you can bet they are going to get suckered into the claims that THIS is the diet, program, system or technique that will finally help you achieve the weight loss you pray for.

 

So when I was having a conversation the other day with a woman who was asking me about the intuitive eating work I do with my clients, I wasn’t surprised when she asked me about the “weight loss program” that she was interested in learning more about.

 

I quickly stated, “Intuitive eating is not a weight loss program”.

 

Whoa! Wait a minute! That stopped her dead in her tracks. Her mouth dropped open. “If it is not a weight loss program, then what is it”, she asked.

 

I proceeded to explain to her that the intuitive eating work I do with my clients is a step-by-step process to help them transform their relationship with food, where they end the battle with food and their body and achieve great pleasure in eating once again.

 

You see, all the years of dieting has caused food to be your enemy, and has led you to feel guilty after eating foods that you deemed “bad” by the diet industry. On top of that, each time you eat one of these bad foods, or you overeat and feel shame and guilt, you also feel miserable about yourself and your body.

 

Intuitive eating puts all things back into perspective. Intuitive eating reminds you that you are in charge of your food choices and your body. You have the inner wisdom to know when you are hungry and when you are full, when you should start eating and when you should stop.

 

The process of learning to become an intuitive eater puts you back into the driver’s seat of deciding what foods you want to eat, how you want to dress, and helps you to love and respect yourself, and your body again.

 

In turn, as you learn to live life as an intuitive eater with an inner love that shows kindness to yourself, gentleness with yourself and ultimately acceptance of yourself, something wonderful happens. You start to release weight! You start to feel your pants become loser, your stride become longer, your walking pace become quicker and your breathing become easier.

 

Yes, you will naturally lose weight, returning to what is a “natural, healthy weight” for your body, not an ideal weight based on a calculation and a chart.

 

So, is intuitive eating a weight loss program?

 

No, it is not.

 

Can you release weight when living life as an intuitive eater making conscious food choices?

 

Yes you can!

 

Sounds pretty darn good to me!

 

Your turn to take action: Contact me if you would like to get started on your intuitive eating journey. Just click here to learn more.

 

Beta GluCAN’Ts- A Supplement Scam that Won’t Enhance Weight Loss

supplements (2)

Today I want to share with you a blog that is a little different from the ones I have posted in the past. My daughter, Jennifer, is taking her first nutrition course in college and one of her assignments was to write a paper about diet scams. Here it is below. I added some of my own thoughts towards the end.

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By Jennifer Giller

There are many supplements on the market that claim to help you lose an absurd amount of weight in an unrealistic amount of time. Often times, these supplements contain ingredients that are not even associated with weight loss.

 

A specific weight loss supplement I recently saw advertised (name withheld), claims to serve as an alternative to Gastric Bypass surgery. The company claims to have a 90% success rate in substantial weight loss. However, these are baseless claims.

 

The main ingredient in this product are beta glucans. Beta glucans are a soluble fiber. When ingested, these fibers absorb water and naturally expand. This limits the amount of food that you are able to take in, causing you to feel full throughout the day.

 

There has been research conducted to study the effects of beta glucans on body weight and health. One such randomized study looked at the addition of beta glucan supplements to a low calorie diet in 66 overweight women over the course of 3 months. The women were placed into 1 of 3 calorie reduced diet groups.  The first group was a control group, the second group received 5-6 grams of beta glucan, and the third group received 8-9 grams of beta glucan supplementations. Height and weight, blood glucose levels, insulin, triglycerides, and leptin measurements were taken at the beginning of the study as well as at the 3 month mark. Other markers of appetite regulation, such as cholecystokinin and ghrelin, were also measured.

 

At the 3 month mark, all 3 study groups lost weight. All groups also had a lower waist circumference and reductions in some metabolic variables. However, there was no significant difference in weight loss among the groups. Research concluded that the beta glucan supplement did not add to the effectiveness of the low calorie diets in these overweight women.

 

Other research however, puts a positive spin on this product. Multiple studies have showed that beta glucans may be beneficial towards lowering blood sugars and cholesterol.  The FDA (Federal Drug Administration) has already approved a health claim that beta glucans can lower cholesterol and the risks of heart disease as well as lower the risk of getting diabetes along with diabetes associated complications.

 

Personally, I view beta glucan supplementation marketed as a weight loss solution as a scam. The evidence shows that beta glucans do not have any effect on enhancing weight loss. It is instead putting a ‘band-aid’ on a bigger problem. If you believe that simply supplementing with beta glucans will help you lose weight, you will never learn how to eat or how to maintain your weight without supplements. On the other hand, if you find yourself at risk for heart disease or diabetes, I would suggest you include more food sources of beta glucans in your meals such as oats and legumes.

 

I hope you found this article as interesting as I did. Thank you Jennifer for your contribution to the blog this week, I am so proud of you.