How to Spot a Diet
Many who start a new diet or “lifestyle change” just want to live healthier lives and feel better in their bodies. It can get more and more difficult to spot a diet before you’re fully in it, stressing about the next time you’ll get to eat. Here are some big red flags to look for next time you’re tempted to jump on the diet train.
Easy Meals for College Students
College doesn’t have to mean living solely on plain ramen noodles or pizza (though these can be delicious and easy options), and it certainly doesn’t mean skipping meals or snacks! It’s super important to prioritize eating so that you can be nourished and full of energy to make it through classes, study sessions, and fun with friends. We searched the web and compiled a few suggestions for easy recipes you can make with minimal prep and cooking equipment needed.
Around the World in San Diego: A Restaurant Guide
We compiled a list of just a few of our favorite restaurants and grocery stores/markets as a guide to international cuisine in San Diego to help you “Celebrate a World of Flavors”!
Navigating The New Year
As 2021 wraps up and 2022 begins, many people find themselves reflecting on this past year and setting goals for the future. The pressure to reinvent ourselves with the reset of the calendar can be daunting. It can be easy to set goals that are unrealistic or even harmful to the progress you have made already. In this post, we’ll talk about how to navigate New Year’s resolutions without falling into the trap of diet culture.
Intuitive Eating Thanksgiving “Swaps”
Many of us are all too familiar with the diet culture-based idea of healthy “swaps” for Thanksgiving food out of fear of weight gain. But depriving yourself of your favorite holiday foods on a day that revolves around food only sets you up for disappointment, dissatisfaction, and increased cravings for those foods. Instead of swapping out your favorite foods for diet-y substitutes, here are some “swaps” you can make to practice intuitive eating this Thanksgiving.
The Sweet Life: 3 Myths About Sugar
Diet culture and the current obsession with “wellness” create fear around “bad” foods, which in turn creates stress and confusion with eating. This undermines our ability to make choices that feel good for us, both mentally and physically. In this post, we’ll be debunking some of the most common myths about sugar and how you can help foster a healthy relationship with sugar.
Inside The Brain of an Eating Disorder
Eating disorders as much a biological illness as a psychological one. There are real differences between the brain function of those who suffer from eating disorders and those who do not.
It’s Okay For You (and your kids) To Eat Halloween Candy
If you had a history of an eating disorder, disordered eating, dieting, or just have a complicated relationship with food, Halloween can be a stressful time. If you’re a parent with young children, this may also be a stressful time for you as you navigate how to incorporate Halloween candy into your child’s eating. The principles of Intuitive Eating can be a useful guide in navigating the holiday.
No Period – A sigh of relief or a cry for help?
Menstrual cycles are often associated with a long list of negatives including mood swings, painful cramps, and fatigue. Because of this, it might initially seem like a good thing if your period were to suddenly stop. However, loss of your menstrual cycle is a red flag that something is physiologically off-balance and is cause for concern. One of the main causes for loss of the menstrual cycle is hypothalamic amenorrhea.
What Is Binge Eating Disorder?
Binge eating disorder, or BED, is perhaps one of the most misunderstood eating disorders. Eating disorders often come with the stereotype of someone who significantly restricts their food intake and is of a very low body weight. However, binge eating disorder is the most common eating disorder in the US and has the potential to be just as serious, distressing, and life-threatening as anorexia or bulimia.
Dear Men: RED-S is a color you don’t want to wear any season.
Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport, or RED-S, is an acronym that describes the effects of having energy deficiency. This is seen primarily around the athletic community and highlights the side effects of having insufficient energy intake. This term is a broader and more comprehensive name for what was previously known as the female athlete triad.
All About Caffeine
Coffee and caffeinated drinks can be a normal and enjoyable part of eating. If you enjoy a hot cup of coffee in the morning, or a green tea as a mid-day pick me up, remember to pair that with some food, ideally including protein, carbohydrates, and fats. Caffeine is not a substitute for meeting our bodies’ biological needs of food, water, and sleep.
Caring For Yourself When You’re Ill in Eating Disorder Recovery
As we continue to live our lives during the global COVID-19 pandemic, it seems especially important to talk about the impact that illnesses and getting sick can have on eating disorder recovery, and how to best protect and maintain recovery when you become ill.
Summer Pasta Salad
This meal is delicious served chilled on a hot summer day and so convenient to just take out a serving whenever you’re in need of a complete meal. This is also a great way to incorporate pasta into your meals if pasta is fear food for you. What makes this a complete meal is the inclusion of all of the macronutrients- carbs, proteins, and fats- plus the addition of veggies for some color, fiber, and added nutrients.
Social Media & Diet Culture
Diet culture in social media is deceitful. Many of the people giving diet and exercise advice have no degree or background in nutrition or exercise science. With the internet at our fingertips, it’s all too easy to find misinformation. On top of the diet and nutrition misinformation, diet culture promotes unrealistic beauty standards. With all this harmful messaging out there, it’s now more important than ever to be mindful about how we use social media and to create a safe space for ourselves in the midst of diet culture.
Breaking Free From The Diet Cycle
The diet cycle is one that can be extremely difficult to break out of. Diets are sneaky because they put the burden of failure on the dieter when it’s the diet itself that is set to fail from the beginning. If you’re reading this, maybe you’ve had experiences with dieting before where you “fell off the wagon”, regained weight, and vowed to start over again, this time for real. Breaking free from the diet cycle starts with letting go of restriction and deprivation- not following more food rules!
Creating a Healthy Relationship with Movement
How you choose to move your body is 100% up to you. You are the expert of your own body and the only one who can know what feels good and what doesn’t. When you remove the attachment to calories burned or appearance-based measures of success, exercise becomes satisfying and enjoyable.