Registered Dietician
Are You Struggling To Maintain A Healthy Relationship With Food?
Have you been confused by mixed media messages about nutrition lately?
Are you struggling with an eating disorder such as anorexia, bulimia, ARFID, or binge-eating disorder?
Has body dissatisfaction led you to obsess over your appearance and the foods you eat?
Maybe you’re constantly checking yourself in the mirror and comparing your body to other people’s. Your desire to lose weight and change your appearance could lead to unhealthy eating habits. Over time, this could cause nutrient deficiencies, stomach ailments, and other medical problems. As a result, you may be considering working with a registered dietitian.
Negative Eating Habits Can Impact Every Area Of Your Life
Not only can a poor relationship with food affect your body, but it can also impact your mental, emotional, and social wellbeing. A lack of nourishment could exacerbate anxiety, depression, and other mental health conditions. Your fear of certain foods could also limit your social life, since so many outings and events involve food. You might resist socializing altogether rather than risk feeling pressured to eat something you don’t want to.
If you want to free yourself from this kind of life, we encourage you to connect with us. Here at Lift Wellness Group, our approach to nutritional consultation can help you have a healthier relationship with food, feel less anxious about what you eat, and improve your self-image in the process.
Our Culture’s Unhealthy Body Standards Are The Culprit Behind Many Eating Disorders
While there is nothing inherently wrong with trying to eat “right,” our society often pushes unhealthy forms of dieting and weight management. So much of modern diet culture revolves around trying to become as small as possible. All over billboards, TV, and social media, we see thinness being held as the only ideal. This issue is especially prevalent among women—roughly one in five women struggle with disordered eating, and about 91 percent of women in college have tried to control their weight through dieting.*
In our area of Boca Raton and Fairfield County, this pressure to look a certain way is especially high. We are a community that prioritizes image and appearance to an extreme degree. Not surprisingly, this causes many people to suffer from negative self-image and disordered eating.
Overcoming Negative Eating Habits Isn’t As Easy As It Seems
Oftentimes, people simply aren’t taught about adequate nourishment. They might fear certain foods that are incorrectly labeled as “bad” for them or think that the body’s natural changes are a negative thing. What’s more, many people don’t know about the troubles of refeeding. When you have an eating disorder and your body is used to unhealthy eating behaviors, trying to “refeed” or return to a normal eating routine can often lead to other health complications.
This is why it’s so important to get professional support. A nutritionist can help you learn about what’s healthy and unhealthy for you and develop a more intuitive relationship with food.
Seeing A Registered Dietitian Is One Of The Best Ways To Heal Disordered Eating
The hallmark of eating disorders is being out of touch with the body. When your mind is consumed by rules and restrictions regarding food, it’s hard to listen to your body and pick up on its needs. At Lift Wellness Group, our goal is to help you get back to the basics of eating, listen to your body, and improve your sense of intuition. We’ll teach you about the importance of eating a variety of foods to ensure mental and physical stability and adequate mineral and vitamin intake.
Our registered dietitian, Kelsey Riesbeck, takes an individualized and empathetic approach to medical nutrition treatment. She prioritizes establishing trust with you so that you are comfortable challenging yourself and trying new food routines. She’ll help you work on meal planning, dietary variety, and tracking your calories and intake. She can also connect you with one of our therapists if you’d like mental health support for your eating struggles.
Tailoring Your Nutritional Treatment Plan
As a practice, we believe in “Health at Every Size.” We’re not going to tell you to lose weight and we seek to respect all differences in size, race, age, gender, etc. We’ll help you practice self-acceptance and teach you to be okay with your body’s natural changes. You’ll learn to find joy in moving your body and eating in a flexible manner that suits your lifestyle.
One of the main approaches that we use to assist clients with eating problems is called Intuitive Eating. At its core, the goal of Intuitive Eating is to help you listen to your body for its emotional and physical cues. Doing so can help you form a better relationship with food and find more joy in physical activity.
Additionally, we often draw from an approach called Exposure & Response Prevention (ERP) to treat eating disorders. By slowly and gradually reintroducing you to foods that you’ve avoided, you can overcome your anxiety around food. ERP is always done in a safe, controlled environment so that you never feel uncomfortable. You’re welcome to reincorporate your avoided foods on your own, during dietary sessions, or even out at restaurants with the provider (there are lots of restaurants in our area).
No matter what approach works best for you, it’s important to know that recovery is possible. With our unconditional support, you can relearn to trust your body and fuel yourself in a way that makes you feel energized, happy, and nourished.
You May Have Some Questions And Concerns About Nutritional Consultation…
Will you tell me what I can and can’t eat?
No! The focus of dietary sessions is to find a style of eating that works best for each individual. There are no “good” and “bad” foods when you eat in a way that nourishes your body and mind. We will work together to challenge negative thoughts about certain foods and normalize eating patterns so that you can listen to your body cues. We won’t tell you that you have to eat certain foods—the entirety of treatment is done at your own pace and comfort level.
Will my weight change?
There is no way to guarantee that your weight won’t change—after all, your body fluctuates every day as it’s supposed to. A lot of diet culture says, “If you do X, you’ll get X results,” but we’re not here to make false promises. The purpose of seeing a dietitian is to figure out a way of eating that supports not only your physical health, but also your mental, emotional and social health. Sometimes weight changes coincide with positive changes in your life, and together we will work on finding ways to navigate these changes.
What happens if I can’t make progress?
Treatment of any sort is not linear! Sometimes making changes requires additional effort, whether that means increasing your support system at home or adding family members and loved ones to treatment sessions. Regardless of how long it takes, we encourage you to be patient with yourself—there is no way to fail treatment. Everyone heals at their own pace.
Let Us Help You Cultivate A Healthier Relationship With Food
If you want to free your mind and body and develop eating routines that are healthy for you, we would be honored to assist you. To connect with our registered dietitian, use the contact form or call our intake number at 203-908-5603
https://eatingdisorderfoundation.org/learn-more/about-eating-disorders/facts/
