Join Me: I’m a Rule Breaker

I’m a rule breaker. I’m about to tell you why, and ask you to join me!

I recently heard the statement that recovery from disordered eating is not linear. After my experiences this year, I would agree.

I have felt pretty great about my nutrition and body image for the past few years. If you asked me, I would say I was pretty healthy, and had a pretty healthy relationship with food.

This January though I started a new workout program that I knew would be intense. It used the principle of timed nutrition to fuel the mentally and physically demanding workouts.

This workout and the nutrition program is not one meant to be followed long-term. Think of how an athlete training for a big race or competition would eat leading up to race day. Or a fitness competitor getting ready for the stage.

What Happened

All was going great, but throughout the early weeks of the program, I had conversations with one of my best friends about how I believed this program could be a trigger into disordered eating for some. So I should have seen it coming. After about ten weeks of extreme restriction following the “nutrition plan” for the program, it was like something snapped. My cravings for sweets were so intense that I spent about a week eating donuts, ice cream, cookies, and more cookies. It was like my appetite couldn’t be satiated.

I did finish the program, following the nutrition plan a bit more loosely, and loved the workouts so much that I did them for a couple more months. But my behavior that week was a wake-up call.

My Saving Grace

Luckily, in that time, a few things happened. I was “introduced” through Instagram to a friend of a friend, Cara Harbstreet. She is a non-diet approach Registered Dietitian.

She recommended I read the book, “Intuitive Eating.” It. Was. Mind-blowing.

Coinciding with these events, in April I signed up for and over the course of seven months, completed my nutrition coaching certification through Precision Nutrition. They are a science-based coaching and education company and are “nutritionally agnostic,” meaning they don’t subscribe to any one dietary philosophy.

They believe, as do I, that “all dietary protocols have their pros and cons.” And every body is different.

My New Normal

With the new type of messages that I am now privilege to from my nutrition course and from the non-diet Dietitians that I have come to respect and admire, I recognize how diet culture is all around us and has such a heavy influence on our thoughts and actions.

I have learned so much about diet culture and about myself.

With my new knowledge and education, it is so easy for me to see how such a strict eating plan earlier this year set me up for my disordered eating patterns again. It’s the most obvious thing in the world to me now—of course extreme restriction for all those weeks led to my week-long sweets binge.

The restrict/binge cycle is well-researched and well-understood. It’s one of many reasons that diets fail.

With some work, I have been able to make some changes in my mindset that have made huge differences. The simple act of giving myself permission to eat whatever I want to eat has changed my relationship with food. No longer do I feel like certain foods are off-limits. No restrictions means an end to bingeing.

I have removed morality from food too. Food is not “good” or “bad” and I am not “good” or “bad” for eating certain foods. This means there is not guilt associated with food.

I wholeheartedly believe that all foods fit, and that all things in moderation (except coffee:-) is a pretty good motto!

I’m not saying I threw out nutrition. I know eating nutritious foods makes me feel good. I also know that a cookie every now and then when I want it will not matter to my overall health.

I feel silly for not realizing that just because I *thought* my disordered eating was a thing of my far past that it couldn’t show up again. It might have looked different this year, in the form of strict food rules and measuring my food versus what it was in the past (extreme calorie restriction and compulsive exercise), but it showed up again nonetheless.

Break the Rules with Me!

I know my experiences this year will serve me well. As a nutrition coach, my education is important, but my first-hand experiences will help me to better understand others.

My journey also makes me unique. If you are looking for a coach who will help you count calories, or measure your food, or “eat clean,” or follow any other set of rules, then you have come to the wrong person. If you are looking for a coach who is constantly “on the wagon” or “off the wagon” herself, then you have come to the wrong person.

If promoting a non-diet approach to health and fitness is against the rules of my profession as a nutrition coach, then F the rules.

If you’re looking for a coach who follows the non-diet approach, then you’ve come to the right place. Come break the rules with me!

If you would like information about my one-on-one nutrition coaching services, head to my landing page and hit the Contact Me button! I’ll be in touch with you soon!

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