3 Tips to Help Lower Cholesterol Through Diet

Working with a  Health at Every Size (HAES) Registered Dietitian Nutritionist will look a little something like this:

Our work together won’t be dictated by the scale, your food choices and when you eat won’t be lead by diet rules. Instead, we’ll focus on improving your relationship with food, getting you off the diet roller coaster, and ADDING to your day to optimally nourish your whole body health.  

Are you or your loved one interested in making lifestyle modifications to lower your cholesterol?

Here are three simple tips to help lower your cholesterol through diet:

1) Increase unsaturated fats. Increase intake of heart healthy unsaturated fats found in nuts, canola and olive oil, and avocado. Recipe suggestion: avocado toast on whole grain bread drizzled with olive oil.

2) Fill up with fiber. Choose whole-grains like oatmeal and fill your plates with fruits and vegetables. You know what they say about beans. Beans, chick peas, and lentils are the magical fruits to fill up on fiber. Fiber helps to keep us full and reduces cholesterol absorption. Recipe suggestion: overnight oats topped with berries, flax, and walnuts.

3) Eat your omega-3s: Omega-3 fatty acids are found in fish (such as salmon, tuna, and mackerel), walnuts, and flax. Aim to consume fish 2-3 times per week to help lower the LDL cholesterol.

Disclaimer: This post is for informational and educational purposes only. For more personalized recommendations, schedule an appointment with a HAES Registered Dietitian Nutritionist near you here

Creating a Healthy Body Image by Practicing Body Respect

The phrase “healthy body image” is somewhat misleading. A healthy body image is not one narrowly-defined body type or size. It goes beyond your physical appearance, and it’s rooted in how you feel about yourself. A healthy body image stems from personal satisfaction with your body and comfortableness with the way you look. 

If you flip through fashion magazines, or go clothes shopping, it may be difficult to believe that a healthy body image can be independent of weight. Often it feels like every model or mannequin is uniform in size, shape, and height. Despite progress in body diversity representation, weight is still a highly stigmatized quality. 

Internal and external pressures can drive our insecurities and lead to a negative body image, where we don’t feel good in our own skin. Let’s be honest, everyone has something that they dislike about themselves, which makes it challenging to unconditionally love ourselves. Thus instantly loving yourself may not be attainable, nor may it be the solution. 

Luckily, we can focus on building respect for our bodies in order to achieve a healthy body image. Rather than ignoring perceived flaws, we accept our physical appearances and learn to properly take care of ourselves. Body respect goes hand in hand with other non-diet approaches to health. The Health At Every Size (HAES) method celebrates body diversity, and asserts that health and wellbeing do not have to begin with weight status, size, nor physical appearance. It’s best to be physically and emotionally healthy regardless of weight. Additionally, eating intuitively teaches us to listen to our bodies instead of scorning them.

Ultimately, dieting boxes us in, restricting personal relationships with food and our own bodies. It can make us feel like we are not beautiful nor seen until we look a certain way. Rather than being consumed by insecurities, body respect teaches to celebrate the qualities that make you unique. 

To create and sustain a healthy body image, here are the areas you can practice body respect:

1. Nutrition - honor your hunger cues. Eat what you want, when you want to eat it, and stop when you feel full.

2. Physical Activity - Find a method of exercising you enjoy, whether it be walking, yoga, or hiking. Exercise based on the way it makes you feel, not on the way you look. 

3. Expression - Show off your personal style and wear clothes that are comfortable to you. 

4. Appreciation - Think of all the things your body allows you to do every day. Share words of kindness and encouragement with yourself. 

Interested in finding out other ways you can personalize and actualize your methods of body respect? 
Schedule a discovery call with an intuitive eating HAES dietitian here:

How to Navigate Emotional Eating As It Relates to Intuitive Eating

Emotional eating is a challenge that many people face, and there are many reasons why a person may struggle with emotional eating. Restriction, both physical and mental, plays a huge role in emotional eating. On a physical and biological level restrictive diets that are low in calories and nutrients throw our hunger cues and appetites out of whack. This is because when we diet and severely restrict our intake, we force our bodies to operate in a state of deprivation. Our bodies naturally respond to this deprivation by increasing our hunger signals and appetite, causing us to intensely crave foods that tend to be higher in fat, salt, and sugar. It becomes harder and harder to resist these foods, until we finally give in to the temptation, and go all out - consuming large quantities of the very foods we are restricting. 

Mentally, the more we deprive ourselves of something the more we want it. We see this concept all the time with children - the more we tell a child they can't do something or have something, the more they want it. It works just the same for us as adults. The more we tell ourselves that we can't have chocolate, or we can't have ice cream, the more we want it. Our brains tend to hyperfixate on the things we mentally emphasize. The more we emphasize what we can’t have, the more our brains will fixate on it, reminding us of what we are missing out on, making it nearly impossible to resist every temptation we face. Instead, it is much more effective to approach eating from an “all foods fit” model, giving ourselves unconditional permission to eat any and all foods. Doing this takes the emphasis off of food, and removes the moral virtue we attach to food. Once the emphasis is taken off food, it becomes much easier to enjoy it, and to make healthy rational choices about what and how to eat. 

Principle #7 of intuitive eating states that in order to make peace with food, we must learn to cope with our emotions with kindness. Using food in any way to cope with emotions, whether it's loneliness, anxiety, or depression, is a significant hindrance to practicing true intuitive eating. Getting down to the source of the problem and the core of the emotions that we are experiencing is key to resolving emotional eating. There are many ways to learn to cope with emotions. Journaling is one very powerful tool for gaining self-knowledge and a sense of control over our emotions. Journaling can help us to get in touch with ourselves and to understand where our thoughts and feelings are coming from. Additionally, consulting with a mental health professional is always beneficial. Mental health professionals provide guidance, compassion, and a safe space to discuss thoughts and feelings. They are also trained to identify and resolve any problems we may be facing. Registered Dietitian Nutritionists who operate from an intuitive eating model are also a key resource for healing our relationship with food and for developing positive coping mechanisms. 

What is "Diet Culture"?

It’s always important to prioritize living a healthy lifestyle, and making choices that are good for your overall health and wellbeing. We all want to do our best to eat right and feel good. However, dieting isn't, and never will be, equivalent to living a healthy lifestyle. In fact, dieting is just about the worst thing you can do for your health. The extreme calorie restriction and nutrient deprivation that we put our bodies through when we go on a diet puts the body into a state of stress, which actually sets us up to gain weight rather than lose it. The stress caused by dieting is also bad for the immune system and for maintaining stable moods. In our culture today, diets go in and out of fashion the same way clothes and hairstyles do. It seems that there is always a new trendy diet to try. This is diet culture. Diet culture has completely warped our sense of what it really means to live a healthy lifestyle, by prioritizing weight and shape over health and wellness. Diet culture convinces us that we need to resort to drastic actions, such as cutting out entire food groups, or adhering to rigid ways of eating, in order to be healthy. Diet culture promotes fad diets as legitimate options for achieving optimal health and nutrition. Diet culture teaches us to fear food, and to distrust our bodies. 

It is easy to spot the influence of diet culture around us when we know what to look for. Any person, brand, or company attaching any kind of moral virtue to food is promoting diet culture. When we look at food through the lens of diet culture, we are only able to see “good” and “bad” foods, and as a result, start to see ourselves as “good” or “bad” for eating them. This is where the concept of “cheating” comes from. You can “cheat” on a diet, and the outcome is feelings of guilt, shame and worthlessness. However, when you are living a life of true health that is balanced and focused on overall wellness, foods no longer have a moral virtue attached. There is only food, and how your body responds to the food you put into it. You are not a failure or a “cheater” for eating cake, cake is not “bad”. You are simply a human being, listening to and honoring your body, and choosing to nourish your soul as well as your body. It is about time we reject the influence of diet culture, and stop attaching morals to the food we eat. Food just simply doesn’t have that much power!

Diet culture can be extremely toxic, but you can choose to consciously reject diets and diet culture, and live a healthy and balanced life. The mixed messages coming from diet culture can make it very difficult to make decisions about food and nutrition, so it’s always advisable to consult a qualified Registered Dietitian Nutritionist about implementing good eating habits. Registered Dietitian Nutritionists use evidence based nutrition principles, and are trained to give expert health advice.

What is Health At Every Size (HAES®)?

It seems like every time you watch TV or go online, you get bombarded with advertisements for products related to weight loss. Whether it be the pioneer Weight Watchers, or the sketchy calorie-burning supplements, there is a giant business built on getting people to shed the pounds. Like me, you may be disheartened to see weight loss touted as the cornerstone of health and wellbeing. But what if health didn’t have to revolve around weight status?  

 This is where the HAES approach comes in. HAES stands for Health At Every Size, and it dismisses the notion that one size or one weight is synonymous with good health. Rather, physical and emotional wellbeing can occur at any size, and improving the quality of life begins with practicing healthy behaviors, not losing weight.  

 You may wonder, if HAES is a weight-neutral approach to good health, what are its guiding principles? According to the founders of the movement, there are three main components: Respect, Critical Awareness, and Compassionate Self-care. Respect involves celebrating body diversity, and appreciating differences in our attributes, like size, age, race, and gender. Critical Awareness relates to challenging scientific assumptions about people living with overweight and obesity and honoring personal experiences. Lastly, compassionate self-care is about finding joy in movement and eating according to what we need and what we like.  

Unlike dieting, the HAES approach is not meant to induce stress. Traditional weight loss methods are purely a numbers game, whether it be counting the calories you consumed that day or tracking the scale value each night. Not meeting these goals can lead to a sense of failure, which induces stress and undermines good health. Furthermore, it drives the faulty assumption that you cannot be healthy until you reach one size. Instead, the HAES approach values emotional wellbeing, encouraging people to celebrate who they are and to prioritize self-care over body size.  

Since HAES is a relatively new approach to health improvement, there aren’t any long-term studies that show its impact. However, several short-term studies suggest that the HAES approach has positive effects on behavior and appetite. For example, in one study, a group of 78 people using the HAES approach maintained their weight, while improving their energy expenditure and eating behaviors. Psychologically, groups members improved their self-esteem, body image, and depression. Even one year after the study, the HAES members were able to sustain the results, unlike the comparison diet group that initially lost weight but gained it back.  

Now that we understand what the HAES approach is, how do we incorporate its principles into our own lives? Some concrete actions include eating honoring hunger cues without limiting intake, incorporating walks into daily routines, or setting a defined sleep schedule every night. If you don’t know where to start, it’s always worth chatting with a local dietitian nutritionist. 

Benefits of Intuitive Eating

Whether you are new to intuitive eating or have been an intuitive eater for many years, getting in touch with your body and your internal cues is perhaps the most beneficial thing you can do for both your physical and mental health. We all know how mentally and physically draining dieting can be. Meal planning exact portions, weighing food, and counting calories. Feeling like you can’t enjoy your favorite foods, or have fun in social settings because your diet is so limited. Dieting is a mental mind game that nobody enjoys playing. On top of that, dieting is also physically exhausting! Trying to live and thrive on a calorie deficit just leaves us feeling irritable, moody, and tired all the time. Intuitive eating introduces a whole new perspective on health and wellness that is energizing, refreshing, and sustainable long-term. Intuitive eating is one of the best things you can do for both your physical and mental health. 

Dieting doesn't only drain your energy, it drains your wallet as well! Think about how much money you could end up spending on various diet plans and weight loss products. The health and fitness industry is currently valued at over 2.3 billion dollars. These companies prey on our insecurities in order to target us with overpriced, gimmicky weight loss products that aren’t sustainable and aren't focused on our health as a whole. When you embrace intuitive eating, you reject the mindset that you need to rely on some kind of rigid diet plan to achieve optimal health and reach your goals. Trust yourself, and your body, not the companies making false promises in order to sell their product. 

Perhaps the biggest benefit of intuitive eating is that it is flexible, it works for you and your lifestyle. You don't need to worry about points or calories, counting grams of carbs or proteins, or buying special diet foods. When you learn to eat intuitively, you get to truly live your life to the absolute fullest; never feeling like you have to deprive yourself or miss out on social settings because you are limited from your diet. When you approach food from a dieting perspective, food becomes an enemy and every meal is a battle zone. Dieting sucks the enjoyment out of food and eating. But eating should not be so complicated and frustrating. When you approach food from an intuitive eating perspective, meals become an enjoyable way of honoring and taking care of yourself and your body. Instead of trying to force yourself to not desire certain foods, or trying to limit yourself to tiny portions, you get to truly enjoy the food and the atmosphere around you. 

Have questions about becoming an Intuitive Eater? Book a free discovery call below.

How to Respond to Diet Talk as an Intuitive Eater

We live in a culture that is obsessed with diets. From celery juice cleanses, to the ketogenic diet, to intermittent fasting, it seems there is no shortage of new diets out there. There always seems to be a new trendy diet to try, and if you are an intuitive eater, you are probably all too happy to spare yourself the headache of jumping onto new diet bandwagons every other week. However, it can get tricky when well-meaning friends, family members, or colleagues bring their diets into social conversations. As an intuitive eater, handling diet talk can be very difficult. Hearing about the results of a new diet can make it very tempting to give the diet a try. However, it’s important to remember that just because a friend is experiencing certain results from a certain diet, that doesn't mean the diet is good for you, or is sustainable for long-term health. These kinds of fad diets that promise dramatic results are not usually backed by evidence-based nutrition practice, and usually backfire. One out of every three people who go on a diet and lose weight, will gain the weight back within three to five years. When tempted to try a new diet, it can be helpful to remind yourself of the true reality of diets: they don’t work long term, and they aren’t sustainable!

If you are an intuitive eater, and you have people in your life who are chronic dieters, it may be helpful to explain intuitive eating to them. It can be difficult at first, but explaining how intuitive eating works, and clearing up some common misconceptions can go a long way. Firstly, it’s important to explain that intuitive eating is not a diet; it's a long term lifestyle change that focuses on a balanced and sound approach to food and nutrition. It’s also important to clarify that intuitive eating diets do not have “rules” and “meal plans” ; rather, intuitive eating is a skill developed over time, bringing people back to being in tune with their bodies and their internal hunger and satiety cues. One of the biggest misconceptions that people have about intuitive eating is that it means eating whatever you want. It can be helpful to explain that intuitive eating doesn’t mean eating “junk” food all day. Rather, it’s about eating in a way that optimizes both physical and mental health. Explaining intuitive eating clearly and simply to your friends, family members, or colleagues can make a huge difference in their lives. Intuitive eating is how we are meant to eat, we were never meant to try and conform our lives and appetites to fit rigid diet plans. Explaining intuitive eating clearly and simply can help the people in your life to finally break free from the misery of endless diet cycles. And, of course, if you or someone in your life has more questions or concerns about intuitive eating, reach out to a non-diet Registered Dietitian who can help guide you on your intuitive eating journey.

Nutritionist vs Registered Dietitian: What’s the Difference?

When you’re looking to make changes to live a healthier lifestyle, working with a registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN) can be very effective. RDNs provide expertise, guidance, and accountability, which are very important when implementing new healthy habits and lifestyle changes. When looking for a nutrition professional to work with, it’s important to be informed about what types of nutrition certifications are out there, what they mean, and how to determine if the professional you are working with is knowledgeable and qualified. 

A Registered Dietitian Nutritionist is someone who completed a four year degree in nutrition or related health sciences, completed a Dietetic Internship which provides rigorous training in many areas of nutrition practice, and passed a comprehensive RDN exam. Most Registered Dietitian Nutritionists have also done a masters in nutrition or a related field, and have areas of specialization or expertise. The credential of “Registered Dietitian Nutritionist” is a legally protected term, which means only someone who successfully completed all the requirements of education and training can be considered a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist. Someone who obtains this level of certification is qualified to work in many areas, including hospitals, clinics, and can offer private counseling, and can accept health insurance.

On the other hand, “Nutritionist” is not a legally protected term. Almost anyone can call themselves a nutritionist. A nutritionist can be someone who took a basic online course in nutrition, someone who studied nutrition in college but didn't take the RDN (Registered Dietitian Nutritionist) exam, or someone who is completely self taught. A Certified Nutritionist is someone who took a short course (six months to one year) in Nutrition and passed a certification exam. There are many trustworthy and qualified nutritionists out there, however they have not gone through the rigorous training and certifications that Registered Dietitian Nutritionists have. Therefore, it is important to be sure, before working with a nutritionist, that their credentials are valid and that they are qualified to be offering you advice about your health and nutrition. 

When looking to make positive changes to live a healthier lifestyle, working with a professional is very important. Registered Dietitian Nutritionists work with you to give you guidance and support in making significant lifestyle changes. However, you want to make sure that whichever nutrition professional you choose to work with, that they are qualified and knowledgeable to be offering you advice about your diet and health. If your goals and concerns are more specific, you may find that the expertise of a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist is most effective. 

Intuitive Eating vs Mindful Eating: What’s the difference?

Emotional ups and downs. Restriction and deprivation. Anger at the scale. Anger at your body. Sound familiar? You may be a chronic dieter, and you’re probably fed up with frustrating diets that just leave you irritable and craving your favorite foods. That’s where Intuitive eating comes in. Intuitive eating allows you to make peace with food by focusing on your internal hunger and satiety cues instead of trying to force yourself to stick to overly rigid or restrictive diet rules. These kinds of depriving diets tend to backfire. They leave us feeling miserable and teach us to have a negative relationship with food and our bodies. Intuitive eating is about cultivating a sound and balanced approach to food and nutrition that isn't overly rigid or restrictive. Intuitive eating is about eating in a way that makes you feel your best both physically and mentally. 

If I was to sum up Intuitive eating in one sentence, it would be, “Eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re full, and don't go into any extremes”. If you are hungry, eat. Listen to your hunger cues. When you are full, stop eating. If you are in the mood for pizza, eat pizza. If you are in the mood for a salad, eat a salad. Don’t let diet culture convince you that you have to cut out any major food group in order to be healthy. In a truly balanced and healthy diet, all foods fit. It seems simple, but years of dieting and battling with food and weight can make this simple nutrition advice difficult to follow or trust. 

Intuitive eating and mindful eating really go hand-in-hand. Mindful eating is a practice of being focused and present while eating. It means paying attention to what you are eating - the taste, the texture of the food- and what you are doing while eating. Often, when we are distracted while eating, we consume more than we intend to, and we eat past satiety simply because we aren’t focused on recognizing our satiety cues. Mindful eating is about bringing the focus back on the food and enjoying what we’re eating. 

 It takes time to really learn to recognize and respond to your internal hunger and satiety cues, especially if you’ve spent years dieting and ignoring them. But you can begin to work on eating mindfully and intuitively today. The next time you sit down to a meal, make an effort to really pay attention and tune in. Pay attention to the food you are eating, how it tastes, and how it makes you feel. By learning to eat mindfully and intuitively, you will take steps to improve your long-term health and your attitude towards food for good. 

Why Work with a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist?

As a non-diet Registered Dietitian, I help ambitious young professionals learn how to nourish themselves without tracking calories, points, or macros, so they can feel free around food, achieve optimal health without focusing on the number on the scale, and get their life ready to build a family and career instead.

Registered Dietitian Nutritionists (RDNs) are trained to provide tailored recommendations and Medical Nutrition Therapy to help you improve your lifestyle. RDNs have an extensive background in nutrition science, successfully completed a one year accredited internship, passed a board exam, and maintain continuing education units to stay up to date with current research. All nutrition recommendations are evidence-based and individualized.

When working with an RDN, nutrition counseling sessions include helpful resources, small actionable steps, goal setting, and email support between sessions.

Unlike nutritionists or health coaches, Registered Dietitian Nutritionists (RDNs) can accept health insurance as they are licensed providers.

When looking for a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, check their website to ensure they have these qualifications.

For example, here are my qualifications:
Registered Dietitian Nutritionist
Licensed Dietitian in the State of Massachusetts

Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences Nutrition Emphasis, Ithaca College
Master of Science in Nutrition and Health Promotion, Simmons College
Dietetic Internship, Sodexo