Nutrition

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Monday thoughts from @morganharpernichols ✨. • Comparison is so natural and a helpful human skill when survival was integral on you fitting in with your tribe. But it can have a tendency to run on overdrive, for me particularly when I spend too much time in these little squares. • I’m finding through conversations with a lot of my friends that this time in our 20’s seems to be the time when we need to start challenging that tendency to compare. When we’ve been more or less on similar paths to a lot of our peers through school, now some are buying houses, others have babies, or travelling, or moving cities. And it can take courage to know that their path is not your path and that you’re ok where you are - even if it looks different. • I also know that these musings are nothing new! Just the musings of a nearly-25 year old in a society where your 20’s are seen as the decade to be ‘getting shit done’ 😂 (and everyone told me this would happen!)

Continuing the conversation from the post on @intuitiveeatingldn this evening ... • ✨ Our bodies are meant to change throughout our lives. • ✨ It’s a myth that we’re done growing, developing and blooming once we enter into our 20’s. • ✨ Our beautiful bodies are meant to carry on changing - it’s entirely natural. You don’t need to keep your ‘late teen’ body. • ✨ Plenty of things will play into how and why our bodies change and none of them mean we’re doing anything wrong. • As @tansleytansley put it, “here’s to [our] fluctuating, ever changing, ever blossoming bodies” 🌺. • 📷: @emmadarpino - her page is a treasure trove of beautiful, gentle photos and thoughts on our relationships with our bodies + food 💕

Morning! And happy Sunday 🌸. • I’ve shared a post on the blog this weekend with a few ideas, suggestions, inspirations for snacks - you know, the kind that are actually satisfying and don’t leave you hungrier than when you started?! 🤷🏼‍♀️ With no sad rice cakes in sight!. • FYI there are no serving sizes because I’m not into that - you find what’s best for your appetite - somedays you’ll be hungrier and other days maybe not. • And it’s not an exhaustive list - so I’d love to hear what your favourite snacks are 👇. • • • 📷: @daria.shevtsova

We all need rest ✨ whether that is rest from using your ‘work brain’ (🙋‍♀️ me this weekend), doing something just for the fun and frivolity of it, or physical rest (maybe in the form of a Netflix/sofa session). • As a recovering perfectionist + all-round ‘do-er’, learning to take time to rest and relax was hard - even now I sometimes have to remind myself, “my productivity is not my worth” 💕. • Do you struggle with this sometimes too?. • How do you like to rest + relax? . • 📷: @morganharpernichols

Earlier this week @cr_uk launched an incredibly stigmatising and harmful campaign (after a serious amount of pushback and criticism for their similarly hateful campaign last year, may I add!). • My wonderful colleagues have worked incredibly hard this week to write an open letter to @cr_uk calling for the immediate cessation of the campaign and to emphasise #supportnotstigma #wellbeingoverweight . • An open letter to CRUK has been published on @medium (link in my bio) and a petition has been launched (link also in my bio) and I’d be so grateful if you have a read and sign the petition. • We’re calling for @cr_uk to: ✨Prioritise well-being over weight - deliver health messages that are weight-inclusive and focus on empowering positive health-promoting changes for every body. • ✨ Accurately communicate cancer risk - stop misleading the public by stating “ob****y is a ‘cause’ of cancer” and instead more accurately communicate risk, acknowledging that improvements to health, and reductions in cancer risk, can be made without changes to body weight. • ✨ Make a commitment to end weight stigma - recognising weight stigma as a form of discrimination and taking action to reduce its impact, for example by exploring weight stigma as a barrier to cancer screening and treatment. • ✨ Refocus policy action in the social and environmental determinants of health - research shows that a person living in one of the most deprived areas of England is twice as likely to die from cancer compared to someone living in one of he least deprived areas. • This campaign has negatively impacted people on a personal and emotional level + we want to make sure that @cr_uk understands this impact. • Please consider signing the petition and holding CRUK accountable!

How much do food and fitness contribute to your identity?. • 🤔 Do you pride yourself on being the ‘healthy’ one?. • 🧐 Do you enjoy it when people comment (seemingly positively) on how much you work-out or what you’re eating?. • 👌 Do you put a lot of pressure on yourself (consciously or not) to eat or exercise ‘perfectly’? (P.s. also see prev post about ‘perfection’ )❣️. • Don’t worry if these questions resonate with you/make you feel uncomfortable. I’ve been there too! 🙋‍♀️. • And this isn’t to say that food and movement can’t form a part of who you are - I still love cooking and eating delicious food, for example. But is there currently space for other stuff? Are food and movement the only things you’d include when describing yourself?. • What are your other interests + characteristics? Do you have any hobbies or passions?. • Is this something you’ve considered before?. • • • This snap is from when @thealimentalsage and I spent a dreamy morning reading the Sunday papers over ☕️ + 🍌bread in Edinburgh. • • • #intuitiveeating #intuitiveeatingofficial #thesimplenutritionblog #registereddietitian #nosuchthingasperfect #nondiethealthcare #ditchthediets #joyfulmovement

Your body + what you eat were never meant to be ‘perfect’ 💕. • ✨ There is no such thing as a ‘perfect diet’ - eating a wide variety of foods (including fun foods) with unconditional permission means that we’re far more likely to meet all our nutritional needs than by micromanaging our food intake. • And possibly an even more important message given all the messages about ‘getting ready for summer’ and problematic TV shows: ✨ Our bodies are not static. • ✨Our bodies are meant to change as we get older, our lives change, we have babies, we move house, we get ill, or experience trauma or injury. • Let’s stick a 🖕up at the notion that we should be striving for perfection in any way! . • 📷: @esther.lauren • • • #effyourbeautystandards #effperfection #intuitiveeatingofficial #effdietculture #bodyimage #loveislandsucks #thesimplenutritionblog

Good luck to any dietetics students going on placement this summer! 🍀. • My top tips: 📒 Use a notebook to write down any abbreviations and/or medications you don’t understand to look up when you get a chance. • 🤗 Remain curious - of your own abilities as well as feedback from other dietitians + HCPs. It can be hard to take sometimes, but also so helpful!. • ❣️ Look after your own well-being - whether that’s having fun weekends planned with friends or scheduling in time for a rest!. • Don’t forget about the student resources on The Simple Nutrition Blog, incl.: ✨ A shortcut to estimating nutritional requirements. • ✨ Inpatient + outpatient crib sheets. • ✨ Helpful tips from fellow dietitians (students at the time of writing!) feat. @sarahtrmbll @raachwatt @ollyjhoward @esther.lauren @alicewright96 @harriet_rose94 @minnie_brandt @bex_tux . • Head on over + join us in The Simple Nutrition Network Facebook support group for students and new grads too! 🤓. • • • #thesimplenutritionblog #thesimplenutritionnetwork #studentdietitian #rd2be #dieteticsplacement #studentplacement #dieteticsstudent

Your periods are important!! • It’s #menstrualhygieneday - a global movement with the goal of reducing stigma and taboo around menstruation, improving access to hygienic menstrual products + sanitation for anyone who menstruates. • (FYI - it’s not just women + girls who menstruate - transgender + intersex people may also menstruate ❤️). • And whilst we’re talking about periods I wanted to draw your attention to a topic that I come across a fair amount in clinic ➡️ irregular or absent periods. • If you are not taking a form of hormonal contraception + you are experiencing irregular or completely absent periods (amenorrhoea) this can be such a helpful indicator that something else is going on. • 🤓 Secondary Amenorrhoea = when you used to have a regular period, but you haven’t had a period for at least 3 months. • 🤓 Primary Amenorrhoea = absence of menstruation by the age of 16. • There may be medical reasons underlying loss or irregularity of periods (incl. PCOS). • 😣 But irregular periods + amenorrhoea can also be a warning sign that you’re not fuelling yourself adequately, exercising too much, are under a lot of stress (or a combination of all 3). • ❗️Regardless of your body weight or BMI, if you are not eating enough and/or exercising too much it can affect your period. I’ve heard from so many people, “oh but my Dr told me that my BMI is ‘normal’ so it can’t be that”. • Your body doesn’t care - if it feels under threat - either from under-fuelling, over-exercise or stress it will down-regulate your reproductive hormones - our cave-person brain thinks “what’s the point in getting pregnant if you’re body needs to prioritise survival?”🤷🏼‍♀️. • So now I hear you think - “I don’t want to get pregnant, and I’ve had investigations done and I’m all clear - what’s the big deal?” ➡️ bone health, that’s what!. • I know it may seem more convenient to not have a period, but amenorrhea/oligomenorrhoea (irregular periods) have far reaching consequences for our long term health of which bone health is one - the low levels of oestrogen seen in amenorrhoea significantly increase risk of developing osteoporosis 😳. • So what do we do? {cont in comments}

How do you speak to yourself? 💕. • It might sound like a silly question but we all have an internal dialogue. And sometimes that dialogue can get a bit neggy. • Now whilst it makes sense from an evolutionary perspective to have a ‘negativity bias’ - you touch a flame 👉 it hurts 👉 you don’t touch a flame again, sometimes it can go a little bit into overdrive when it’s focussing on something that we did wrong at work today, you ate something ‘off the plan’ or you feel like you’ve ‘failed’ at intuitive eating (FYI - there’s no such thing 😘). • Does your brain jump to “oh 🤬 I’m such an idiot, can’t believe I did that wrong...” and on and on down the rabbit hole of self berating?? 🌪. • Or are you able to take a step back and think, “I messed up, but I’m human. I did by best but it didn’t quite go to plan. That’s ok” 💕. • It might seem fairly innocuous (and yes, fluffy) - I sure thought it did when I first came across the idea of treating yourself with self compassion. But in the long run, it’s a hell of a lot more motivating + nurturing to speak to yourself a little more kindly. • Before even trying to shift the tone of your self-talk, maybe start by noticing it. Is it critical? Are you talking to yourself as you would to a friend, or even a child - I sometimes try and think about how a loving but firm parent might speak to a slightly wayward child 👧. • If you notice that it’s mostly negative self talk, how does this make you feel?. • Can you think of a way that you could switch the narrative to make it a little kinder?. • What are your thoughts? Do you find yourself engaging in perfectionist, self critical talk? No worries if you do, we’ve absolutely all been there! But I invite you to be curious about switching things up!. • 📷: @esther.lauren . • • #selfcompassion #selftalkmatters #intuitiveeating #selfkindness #perfectionismsucks

Thought for the day via @themindfuldietitian + @marcird ✨

Let’s talk about calories ... • Some of the most common food rules that I’ve noticed people hold when working through IE has to do with calories: ⚠️ that they should be watchful of calories ⚠️ not eat ‘too many’ calories ⚠️ avoid ‘high-calorie’ foods Etc etc. • And these messages have likely come from a range of sources - friends/family, magazine articles, food marketing, even healthcare professionals. • And the reason I’m flagging this as not being a very helpful behaviour is because it’s a form of restriction - trying to use our brains or external rules to “set a calorie limit” overrides our own internal cues for hunger, fullness and pleasure. A key step of working on Intuitive Eating is to challenge these food rules in order to make peace with food - a vital step in breaking the dieting cycle. • So firstly, what are calories?? • They are a unit used to measure energy - just as we measure temperature as either degrees Celsius or Fahrenheit, or height in feet or meters, calories literally measure the amount of energy in things. • And since we’re talking about energy let’s remind ourselves what our body needs energy for: ✨ digesting our food ✨ producing hormones ✨ brain power! ✨ the mechanism of breathing ✨ maintaining our immune system ...etc. And that’s before we even get to movement within our typical day! So in case you hadn’t got the picture - our bodies need energy for literally everything! • So then, can we now see that energy is entirely necessary and not something we want to be restricting? • Very often we can intellectually get why a diet-y, food police thought is unhelpful, but those pesky things can still pop up! So it can be helpful to have some quick responses to those thoughts: • ✨ At the heart of them, messages around restricting calories are based on a fear of getting fat - which is fat-phobic as hell! (It’s not your fault - we’re all living in this horrendous diet culture which idolises thin bodies.) But notice when thoughts like this arise and question where they come from with curiosity. • {cont.}

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