You Have Permission to Skip
Despite what you may be seeing on social media, no amount of exercise can make this moment less frightening.
If you’re feeling stressed, living in fight or flight mode, (which most of us are, to some degree) actually ENGAGING in the flight response via movement, can keep you in the stress cycle.
Am I saying that all exercise keeps people stressed? Of course not. But if your relationship with movement is unhealthy, perpetuating a practice out of stress won’t make it healthy. And might not do anything but exasperate your stress.
Clients are “arriving” to sessions feeling overwhelmed by the volume of home-based HIIT exercise routines that are espoused as critical for making it through this moment in time. Frustrated by the push-ups and sit-ups and feats of athleticism that are being featured on social media.
Comparison, in a moment calling for compassion, is good for nothing & no one.
If your well-intended friend, coach, influencer, whatever, is making you feel crummy, unfollow. Mute notifications.
Protect yourself.
If you are safe and able to move your body, that is your prerogative. But you do not need to exercise to successfully get through this long moment.
This is not forever, but how you care for yourself now will impact the future. .
#eatingdisorderrecovery #fitness #wellness #well #influencer #healthylifestyle #healthcoach #personaltrainer #nutrition #health #haes #optout #selfcare #covid_19 #quarentine #dietitiananna
Normal Responses to Right Now
If your relationship with food and body is changing or challenging in this moment, I see you.
If you are someone who wants to have all the answers and are struggling with uncertainty, I see you.
If you are watching the news and staying informed, I see you.
If you can’t watch the news and are choosing to make your bubble safe and self-protection oriented, I see you.
If you are chatting with friends via virtual connection, I see you, and if you’re feeling extra lonely in this moment, I see you, too.
None of us have been here before. Everything, every response, is normal.
Human.
Be gentle, friends.
So much love,
a
#EatingDisorderRecovery #Food #Eating #Eat #weightloss #weightgain #weightneutral #allbodiesaregoodbodies #haes #recovery #sobriety #bingeeating #healthylifestyle #healthyfood #health #wellness #well #love #dietitiananna
Need Structure? Use Food
So many of us are contending with the reality of life at home. Lacking the structure that we use to allow our days to feel scheduled and comfortable.
If you’re in that boat, consider using food as structure. Eating regularly will not only help keep your blood sugar stable, your mood as regulated as possible, (no hangry) and your regulars, regular (💩) but it can also promote the creation of a schedule that might otherwise be lacking.
It doesn’t matter when you do this. You can start at 1 AM, and that’s fine. Despite what diet culture suggests, your body doesn’t care what time you eat. Food is metabolized without judgment.
But aim for the guideline of threes: all three macronutrients, grains, fats, proteins, approximately every three hours.
Meals are a combination of 3 to 6 food groups at a time, and snacks are a combo of 2 to 3 food groups at a time. Thereby, the guideline of threes.
Ask yourself, what I feed this to a friend?
We are in this together.
Join me for breakfast, and utilize the extensive support that is available here via @covid19eatingsupport and @theshirarose and others, for comfort and connection and EATING in this wild moment in time.
#EYFF
Love,
a
#EatingDisorderRecovery #Meal #Snack #Eat #mealplanning #structure #metabolism #metabolismbooster #antidiet #allfoodsfit #protein #macro #carbs #fat #nutrition #rdchat #covid_19 #dietitiananna
Your Recovery Might Feel Shaky Right Now
If this unprecedented moment is leaving you feeling stressed and vulnerable in an unprecedented fashion, you are so human.
If this unprecedented moment is leaving you feeling less equipped to manage urges that you are usually able to ride out with relative ease, you are so human.
If this unprecedented moment is making you question your efforts for recovery, you are so human.
If this unprecedented moment is resulting in a reemergence of behaviors that have long since been extinguished, you are so human.
Most all of us need comfort and connection and humanity right now.
At the same time, we are being asked to practice social distancing and are using virtual connection, instead. Harder than hard.
So stay connected if you can.
Stay connected to your team.
Utilize the daily Weekly Support hours with the crew tagged here.
Have weekday breakfast with me.
Tune in to other sources of support that are available on social media.
It’s not the same, and we’re glad to be with you.
As a practitioner, working virtually does not feel the same as sitting in a room with another person. I am fortunate to feel deeply connected to all of my clients, so know that we can withstand this moment, however temporary, and come together on the other side while still having made progress.
And progress is going to look different. And the way I might support a client is going to look differently than it would have, were we not contending with a global pandemic.
This is the reality of now. Thank you for being human with me.
I see you.
I care about you.
I believe in you.
Love,
a
When Did Joyful Movement Become Exercise, Anyway?
Hopscotching
Swinging
Skip-it
Biking
Rollerblading
Swimming
Bug catching
Kite flying
Rope jumping
Treehouse building
I joined my first gym in response to being diagnosed with MS at 15. Rather, my family enrolled and incessantly encouraged my engagement. I probably went 10 times in the four years of high school. This wasn’t rewarding. I didn’t do it. Even though it was supposed to halt my disease. Also, child.
I found joy in running right before I lost my ability to run.
I used my first pedometer as part of my training to become a dietitian. Because counting steps makes me better at this job? Nope. But it makes a lot of folx obsessed with hitting some arbitrary number. Absolutely no joy in that.
I’ve never turned on the health app on my phone, but I’m sure that I’d never be given positive or kind input. I’d perpetually be under the step/stand/move (are those the categories?) recommendations.
If your gym is closed, please take this moment to rest. And if you’re in a place to safely move, please consider finding a method of movement that strikes joy.
THOSE are the activities you’ll go back to. Those are the activities that will result in you being called back into the house for food. (Remember that?) This is an opportunity to redefine your relationship with movement.
Make it feel good.
Don’t do it if it feels ungood.
Rest because you can, no questions.
Rest because stress is exhausting.
Rest because resting is part of a healthy relationship with movement.
#rest #exercise #fitness #training #fun #eatingdisorderrecovery #influencer #influencers #healthcoach #wellness #health #nutritioncoach #nutritionist #diet #dietculture #dietculturedetox #trainer #fitness #healthylifestyle #weightloss #carbs #protein #lifestyle #rdchat #thoughts #haes #antidiet #covid_19 #dietitiananna
The Quarantine Fifteen
Do you see what diet culture did there? ✨Made a rhyme? ✨That is super impressive.
And also a skill that is taught to children as early as age four.
I AM NOT IMPRESSED.
The quarantine fifteen not a thing. It is made up, fear-mongering, and fatphobic nonsense.
The worst-case scenario here is not weight gain.
Do not let diet culture suggest that it is.
Your body is the least interesting thing about you. And your earth suit might change in the coming weeks and months. You are a human. You are a living thing. Living things change. Please be gentle with yourself in this moment that requires the utmost gentle care.
Let’s play a game!
Comment below with your best anti-diet culture rhyme!
“#keto, oh no.”
#inluencer #influencers #healthcoach #wellness #health #nutritioncoach #nutritionist #diet #dietculture #dietculturedetox #trainer #fitness #healthylifestyle #weightloss #carbs #protein #lifestyle #rdchat #weight #thoughts #eatingdisorderrecovery #haes #antidiet #covid_19 #dietitiananna
I Am a Full-Time Disabled Person
I am a full-time disabled person.
I am a full-time dietitian&business owner.
I am a full-time human in need of assistance.
I am a full-time human of privilege.
I’m moving into a phase of illness that requires my asking for help. I’m fortunate to be connected to humans who are willing to step in. How lucky.
And as I’ve become increasingly disabled, I’ve distanced myself. For the sake of not inconveniencing, avoiding being seen as different, wishing to avoid a planet that is not designed to accommodate my needs, skipping hard feelings. And I’ve felt it.
Lonely. Less than. Should. Shouldn’t.
Lucky. Unlucky. Seen. Invisible.
I have missed events, for lack of sense of ability to navigate spaces. For requesting accessible hotel rooms and being put in rooms with steps. For not wishing to be seen as needy, while needing. Human.
And now events that have required physical attendance are being adapted to virtual. With challenge, to be sure, but it’s happening. And I wonder and hope that this reality will persist. And most of me assumes that it won’t.
So I’m taking social space. More than I have been. I’m leaving my house to take short walker walks and to get my monthly infusions. And that is it. My immune-suppressed body will take no chances. And because I live where I do, I can keep doing my job. I can eat with you. (And will have breakfast live on the weekdays until I’m back in my office.) I am lucky.
And I wish for the planet to make these accommodations permanent. And I’m saddened by the number of qualified disabled folx who have been sidelined. Because working from home wasn’t an option. Because maintaining certification requires in person conference attendance. Because ableism.
I started this career in an able body. I have the expertise I do because I could walk into eating disorder programs. I left my favorite job because I couldn’t. But I am lucky.
I don’t know how I came to be so fortunate as to have you here. I recognize that privilege is a big part of it.
I know what I know. I write well. I am white, thin, and with a nice face. I am also disabled & have a chronic illness.
So stand with me as I ask for access.
Now. Always. For me & those w/o my luck.
Unfollowing Is Your Superpower. Use It.
Truth #1: nothing you eat, no supplement you take, will prevent you from acquiring a virus.
Truth #2: no single food can boost an immune system. Eating regularly, getting enough rest, attempting to minimize stress enhances immune function.
Truth #3: the wellness gurus, licensed practitioners, and other influencers who are attempting to *sell* the idea that there is something that you can ingest/practice/manifest to prevent this illness are the same humans who have sold diet cures/weight loss miracles/cleansing nonsense. I promise.
Think of this as an opportunity to be selective about who you follow, who you give attention to. If they’re selling overt lies in the midst of the most frightening global event of recent history, they’ll keep doing so when the world is back to normal.
Unfollowing is your superpower. Use it.
Wash your hands.
Stay home if you can.
Practice safe distancing.
Seek out virtual connection.
We will get through this. TOGETHER.
And hopefully, with fewer influencers who willfully shatter ethical bounds. ✌️
#influencer #influencers #healthcoach #wellness #health #nutritioncoach #nutritionist #diet #dietculture #dietculturedetox #trainer #fitness #healthylifestyle #rdchat #manifest #thoughts #tgif #eatingdisorderrecovery #haes #antidiet #covid_19 #dietitiananna
C+ Effort & Results are Okay Right Now
If there was ever a time for extra self-compassion, now is it.
You don’t have to navigate this situation perfectly. There’s no such thing.
It is okay if you do less, if you parent differently, if you aim for self-preservation and little else.
This is a tough moment for the perfectionists among us. And while I appreciate that attempting to maintain standards may feel supportive, it is likely not realistic and not necessary.
Thank you for showing up.
Thank you for being part of this community.
Thank you for being you.
Be gentle.
#selfcompassion #intuitiveeating
#food #nourish #nutrition #nutritioncoach #dietitian #dietitiansofinstagram #rdapproved #rdchat #parenting #eatingdisorderrecovery #fearfood #allfoodsfit #healthcoach #trainer #exercise #fitness #edrecovery #mentalhealthawareness #edrecovery #dietculturedetox #diet #covid_19 #selfquarantine #selflove #dietitiananna
Eating Disorders are Chaotic
This moment feels chaotic. Because it is. And I appreciate that your eating disorder might be knocking on the door, promising relief from the chaos. And I would like to gently remind you that your eating disorder, in itself, is chaotic.
And your eating disorder is fibbing in suggesting that engaging in behaviors will make this moment feel less frightening. It can’t do that. Because this is a frightening moment.
I see you if you are struggling.
I see you if you have food in your home and feel overwhelmed by it.
I see you if you have been unable to access your safe foods or replacements for them, and are worried about access to food.
I see you.
Eating disorders are chaotic. They will not make this moment less so.
#food #foodhacks #eat #nourish #nutrition #nutritioncoach #dietitian #dietitiansofinstagram #rdapproved #rdchat #rd2be #wellness #eatingdisorderrecovery #fearfood #allfoodsfit #healthcoach #trainer #exercise #fitness #edrecovery #mentalhealthawareness #anxiety #edrecovery #dietculturedetox #diet #covid_19 #selfquarantine #selflove #selfcare #dietitiananna