Being a dietitian doesn’t make me the food police

2024-03-13T09:45:58-07:00By |

It’s a refrain I hear a little too often: “I just need someone to tell me what to eat.” In today’s age of rampant nutrition confusion, I sort of get it—but I'm not your boss, I'm not your mother, and I'm definitely not the food police! As adults, we need to develop the skills necessary to make decisions about the things that are important to our health and happiness.

How I discovered the pitfalls of motivation

2024-03-13T09:47:15-07:00By |

Let me tell you a little story about motivation. I really, really want to get into graduate school and study nutrition. I want it so bad I can taste it. I want it so bad that I spent all weekend working organic chemistry problems. I want it so bad that I am skipping a family camping trip over the July 4 weekend so I can work organic chemistry problems.

Save the (Food) Environment, Part 3: Eat Healthy on the Go

2024-03-13T10:10:02-07:00By |

If you are making a commitment to eat healthier, that commitment shouldn’t get tossed out the window the minute you experience a change in your daily routine. It’s pretty easy to get in the habit of eating healthy at home and bringing healthy brown bag meals and snacks to work. What’s a bit trickier is extending those good habits to what you eat when traveling upends your normal routine.

Save the (Food) Environment, Part 2: The Workplace Minefield

2024-03-13T10:10:03-07:00By |

If you work outside the home, a huge chunk of your day is spent in the workplace, which makes that your second most important food environment (after your home). It’s also an environment that can be unpredictable in what temptations it sends your way. If your job is stressful, and stress makes you want to eat, that’s one more factor you need to consider.

Save the (Food) Environment, Part 1: The Home Front

2024-03-13T10:10:04-07:00By |

Why is it important to be master or mistress of your food environment? To begin with, most of us lead busy lives, with multiple demands on our time. If we get hungry, and healthy food isn’t easily accessible, but non-healthy food is, guess what we’re probably going to eat? That's right, the non-healthy, easy-to-grab food.

I’m Your Dietitian, Not The Food Police

2024-03-13T10:10:04-07:00By |

It’s a refrain I hear a little too often: “I just need someone to tell me what to eat.” In today’s age of rampant nutrition confusion, I sort of get it—but on another level I don’t get it, not at all. I'm not your boss, I'm not your mother, and I'm definitely not the food police. As adults, we need to be able to make decisions about the things that are important to our health and happiness.

Defaults & Delays

2024-03-13T10:17:41-07:00By |

Default behaviors reduce the number of food choices you have to make in a day (since the average person makes more than 200 food choices a day, reducing this number is a good idea, especially since our willpower wanes as the day goes on), while delays are a way of creating space between an impulse to eat (or do) something and the final action.

Hello, 2016!

2024-03-13T10:17:47-07:00By |

Happy New Year, everyone! I realized in the middle of my very busy day yesterday (lots of patients!) that this is the best, most hopeful New Year I've had in a while. To make 2016 even better, I've chosen a few intentions for the New Year.

The Office: A Food Minefield

2024-03-13T10:23:18-07:00By |

The workplace food environment can be perilous, especially as we move into the fall-winter "food holidays." It starts with Halloween, when everyone likes to bring their extra candy to work to "get it out of the house." That rolls right on to the pre-Christmas free-for-all (which doesn't even wait for Thanksgiving to be over, anymore).

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