Am I a dietitian?

I am not a dietitian. After years of independent research in the world of health and nutrition I gravitated towards nutritional coaching from a mind-body perspective rather than from a meal plan approach. I believe there is much more to health than managing macro and micro nutrients, and every clients story is unique. So should be their approach and relationship with food.

If you are medically unstable and need the type of advice and structure provided by a registered dietitian, I encourage you to seek one out. I am pleased to work alongside him/her as part of a team. But I am also pleased to help you write your food story independently and have a background of solid training and research to enable me to guide you.

Why did you choose Mind-Body Nutrition and Eating Psychology? And what is it exactly?

What we eat is half of the food story. How we eat is the rest of it. And life, with all of its ups and downs, affects both.

Mind-Body Nutrition is a field of nutritional science that combines the physiological aspects of eating, nutrition digestion, and metabolism with the psychological elements of eating. Emotions, including stress, sadness, grief, stuck trauma, loneliness, and feeling lack of purpose (only a few examples) often dictate with, or without, our awareness and understanding, how we eat and what we eat.

After recovering from my own multiple-decade long struggle with food, and learning about the wonders of nutrition and how it enables, supports, and sustains life and wellness, I developed a passion for health research. I knew a lot (perhaps too much) about food from my days of health obsession and diets, as well as from all I had learned through my journey back to health.

I wanted to be able to support clients struggling with all kinds of eating-related challenges, but the coaching aspect and psychology of eating alluded me a bit.

Rather than pursue a certification that would channel me towards prescriptive protocols or particular dietary ideologies to give clients yet another plan to follow, I wanted the skills to work with a wide variety of clients, meet them where they are at, and address the root causes of their challenges with food.

What is your thought on Paleo, Keto, Carnivore, Veganism, Vegetarianism, and pro-Metabolic diets?

I am not anti- or pro- any dogmatic dietary protocols. But nor do I think they are necessary or appropriate for most individuals. I encourage exploration by my clients, caveated by the fact that I have a pretty attuned radar for picking up a client using various socially-condoned diets as a cover for disordered eating and body dissatisfaction.

Many of these diets popularized by media, health influencers, and fitness gurus have components that are valuable and can be individualized to optimize the health outcome of a client. But there are severe limitations in each as well, often leading to problems of imbalance in hormones, emotions, and metabolism down the road, undermining a client’s ultimate goals.

My job is not to stop you from doing anything, or to force you to do anything you don’t want to do. My job is to help you decide whether any of these diets or combinations are appropriate to get your health to where you want it to be. After all, most clients come to me because what they have been doing isn’t working…

Do you create or provide meal plans?

No, I do not. While I am delighted and keen to help you come up with ideas for meals, plan meal timing, and educate you in a way that you feel empowered to make nourishing food choices to support vitality and health, I find that meal plans (in the traditional sense) can become a crutch at best, another “rule” or food rut working against freedom at worst.

In the case of serious eating disorders, structure is extremely important until medical stability is achieved, and meal plans can help tremendously. Some clients will need this level of rigidity in the beginning stages. But most clients on the spectrum of disordered eating (including dieting, dogmatic dietary protocols, and those with nutritional imbalances causing secondary concerns) are able to recover with a gentler approach combining a general nutritionally-sound dietary paradigm with individual accountability and choices.

Do you accept insurance?

No, unfortunately not. Although I wish I could, as a coach, services are not covered by insurance. My fees are designed to enable those who need help to get the level of support they need (so long as it falls within the scope of coaching).