Dr. Kerri Fullerton

"It's because you ate the thing."

I’ll admit, not proudly, that this voice still pops up in my own life 😒

Anytime that I don’t feel awesome, my brain tries to link it up to food 🧠

Recently a patient was talking about their sinus congestion and how they were told to avoid dairy to help🥛

Instead of taking that as fact, I asked more questions. Turns out it was a dust issue not a dairy issue 🤷‍♀️

I’m not saying that it’s NEVER food, I’m just saying that it’s OFTEN not food. Our current wellness culture has made food the villain and the saviour in all things health (physical and mental) and it’s causing harm. If we don’t take our blinders off then we miss things. If we lose our curiosity then food becomes unnecessarily complicated.

Try asking yourself this: what if my (insert symptom here) isn’t because of what I’m eating? What if it’s something else?

Let your brain explore new avenues of thought 💭

Self-compassion has been the most valuable skill that I've ever learned.
Not just in my but also in my parenting, my business...my life.

I held the belief that I was lazy for most of my life. One day I shared that with a friend and they gave me the most perplexed look. "YOU are NOT lazy! You are the exact opposite of lazy". Huh? Could this be true??

Perfectionism, childhood trauma and living in a world where nobody is enough had distorted my impression of what's reasonable. Living in a world where rest is perceived as a luxury instead of basic human need didn't help. I'm still dismantling this belief years later.

Kristen Neff and Brene Brown's work has helped me so much.

My mantra this year has been : I am doing the best that I can. My best changes day by day depending on many factors. How much sleep I got, what demands are placed upon me, my self-care routine, my cycle, how much sun we've had...you get the point.

Self-compassion lets me see all that contributes to what makes up my best. It allows me the grace to re-assess my values and my schedule regularly. It's what allows me to choose which cultural beliefs that I will buy into and which ones I'll put down.

I feared that by 'letting myself off the hook' I would just get lazier. The exact opposite happened. As it turns out, when I stopped berating myself for not measuring up, I created a lot more space in my mind. When I started to treat myself with respect and dignity, my heart lightened, my creativity flourished, and my capacity grew.

I trust my body to tell me what, when and how much it needs 🥰
This trust wasn't established overnight. It happened from the accumulation of small moments strung together:

💝 every time that I was kind and compassionate with myself after eating something that didn't feel good
🍴every time that I chose to feed it when it asked for food
💛 every time that I stopped eating when I became aware that food wasn't what my body needed
🥰 every time that I tended to my basic needs of sleep, connection, nature and rest

If you love the idea of trusting yourself but don't know how to even start, let's chat

Life provides us with so many opportunities to evaluate our values.

Having a baby is one of those times. Covid is certainly another opportunity that has been thrust in our faces.

While many influencers will tell you how to 'get your body back' (a serious rant for another post) it's important to ask yourself some important questions:

🥱 What kind of sleep are you getting? Most new parents are very under-slept. As such, prioritizing a work-out over getting more sleep isn't likely in their best interest.

⌛️ What kind of time do you have? Adding a whole new person to your family changes things. Like A LOT. So ask yourself if what is reasonable right now? Can you dedicate time to cooking or do you need to rely on more convenience foods right now?

🚫 How full is your bucket? We all have a capacity to cope. Covid has filled everyone's bucket at least half-way. Then there's family, work, finances...the list is endless. Be compassionate with yourself. You can cope with as much as you can cope with. Adding more to a full bucket isn't helpful.

When this patient said "I have better things to do with my life" they were reflecting on how they want to spend their time. Physical time like I've mentioned above but also their MENTAL time.

Do you really want to give your mental time and energy to worrying about how much you weigh? Or would you rather spend those precious resources in other ways?

I don't know about you, but I want my kid to see me taking care of myself, not missing out on things (bathing suit anyone?) or speaking to myself in a disparaging way.

A patient recently asked me if they should be eating beans. I asked what their history was with beans. Do they enjoy beans?

Turns out they were raised on beans. They spoke fondly about all kinds of different bean and lentil dishes from their childhood. When I asked why they stopped eating beans?

You guessed it. Food rules.

Many current diets mostly exclude legumes: Paleo, FODMaps, Keto

The question that I encourage you to come back to is: What does YOUR body say?

Once you’ve healed your relationship with food, then you can use Intuitive Eating to take in nutritional information without taking it as truth or fact. This is principle 10: Gentle Nutrition.*

What do beans do in MY body?

The final check in is with your own body not some list of foods on a website or handout.

*This principle is the last for a reason. Often nutritional information needs to be set aside until the first 7-8 principles are more comfortable. Otherwise diet mentality may interfere with your ability to hear your body

It's baaa-AAA-aack!

That's right, daylight savings time is making its return soon. Why do I mention this?

Because an important part of your body's healing and regenerative process is . Sleep does more than just resolve the issue of energy, it can improve cognitive functioning, physiologic processes, immune function and mood.

In the fall, this can present as bad sleep, increased mood swings, depression, and Seasonal Affected Disorder (SAD). Making sure you get enough sleep can help address issues such as anxiety, muscle tension, and hormonal imbalances.

Knowing that this change is coming, why not set a reminder to help you get to bed on a regular basis? Creating the routine can help you take into account factors that could be contributing to any insomnia you experience this fall. Letting you reclaim control your life and sleep again; leading to a sense of health and well-being.

Having trouble settling your brain down at night?

Check out in my blog how actually planning to worry at a set time every day can clear your mind for sweet sleep every night.

http://www.kerrifullerton.com/2021/04/27/put-your-thoughts-to-sleep/

A healthy mind and body does not grow from self-hate, it grows from self-compassion

Judgement keeps the mind closed.
Compassion keeps it open and curious.

A curious mind can be creative in problem-solving.
A closed mind cannot.

I encourage my patients/clients to start saying "Isn't it interesting..." in lieu of the usual self-deprecating thoughts.

"Isn't it interesting that I ate the row of cookies when I got home. I wonder what's happening there?" is very different than "I can't believe I ate the whole row of cookies, I'm such a pig".

One allows a curious look at what led up to the cookies - did I eat enough today? did something happen to trigger me? am I exhausted? did I take any breaks today?

The other closes down any discussion. It labels both you and the cookies as bad. No need to investigate any further.

Self-compassion allows us to learn from our perceived failures and to move towards our goals with our self-esteem intact.

As much as you can love social media, it's not always the best thing for your emotional and mental health. Especially not during times of extreme stress. Often, social media posts act as a trigger for negative self-talk. One of the simplest things you can do is to limit social media on your vulnerable days. Choose something else, like a good book, a walk in nature or a chat with a supportive friend.

When I first started to practice, I did what every other health professional did. I gave people treatment plans with the goal of losing weight. I’d already been exposed to the anti-diet movement but it was still a little spark inside me – not like the raging blaze that exists now.

What I saw was people coming in desperate to ‘be healthy.’ And I was desperate to help. Sadly, the plans never worked.

(1️) Their initial weight loss was not maintained. After about 6 months, if they even made it that long, the weight would start to creep back. I’ve since learned that this is a consistent finding in weight loss studies. 6-12 months of weight loss followed by weight regain. In fact, 2/3 of people of have regained all of the weight by year 2.

(2) They stopped following the treatment plan when their weight loss stopped.

One of my mentors told me “Kerri, there’s no such thing as a non-compliant patient. The problem is in the treatment plan”. So I knew that I had to change my approach.

This is why I took on a Health At Every Size™ approach.

It’s behaviour based interventions as opposed to weight based interventions.
Why does this matter? This distinction matters because our behaviours are within our sphere of control; our weight is not.

We know from research that certain behaviours consistently lead to improved health outcomes across all body sizes.

That’s a win-win. Patients are improving their health outcomes AND they keep up the treatment plan. The difference? We measure what matters – our behaviours.

Sleep.

It's vital to the health of your heart and your mind.
⁠
The time change, whether we're Falling Back or Springing Forward, causes changes in our health. There's an increase in heart attacks the next day when we go forward. And in the fall, it's a near identical percentage of heart attacks decrease the day after we get our hour back.⁠
⁠
Really, the most common sleep disorder is Insufficient Sleep Syndrome; affecting about a third of people. Here's what Insufficient Sleep Syndrome contributes to:⁠
⁠
- high blood pressure⁠
- diabetes⁠
- insulin resistance⁠
- pain⁠
- anxiety⁠
- heart disease⁠
- inflammation⁠
⁠
And yet, most medical practitioners will simply ask "how's your sleep?" and stop there - IF THEY ASK AT ALL. ⁠
⁠
The list above is familiar too. It's very close to what the Food Police peddles as validation for promoting weight-loss.⁠

As a naturopath, I understand that is a part of health. Changing your food habits has its uses (if done with a clear conversation about their being temporarily useful). ⁠

If we changed the conversation from to , what would happen to how we support our health? ⁠In fact, what if a proper sleep assessment and treatment was a prerequisite for starting nutritional therapy?⁠
Sleep should be a much bigger topic than it usually is for the medical community.

Have you done a sleep assessment? There's so much more to it than a sleep study - it could actually save your life, too.

It could be your Apple Watch, your Fitbit, a fitness app or meditation app.

I was watching the movie Sonic the other day with my son and there's a part where the woman says to her daughter (as she's doing laps around the kitchen) "put on my fitbit - at least I could get the steps in" and it made me laugh.

How many times had I gone for a walk and it didn't count because I'd forgotten my phone at home? Or when I'd skipped a meditation from one app because doing it would break my streak in another app?

That walk and that meditation "counted" towards my achieving my health goals even if my app didn't count them. So why would I feel like I failed somehow?

This is where our technology can interfere with our health instead of enhancing it. When it starts to be more about the numbers than the behaviours themselves.

Don't get me wrong - collecting data can be a useful tool. Just not when the numbers start to pull us OUT of ourselves. We must remain mindful that tracking any numbers (including our weight) can pull us away from listening and honouring our body.

I will be closing this page soon.
Don't be sad 😕 I'll still be posting on The Diet Rebellion
It will be my one and only page where I'll share:
- naturopathic info 👩‍⚕️
- content 🍽
- love 🥰
and blogs, videos, articles...you get the picture
See you there ❤️Tell your friends 🙌

Dr. Kerri Fullerton's cover photo

Can you be addicted to food? | Dr. Kerri Fullerton ND

I wrote an article about It's a hot and controversial topic for sure.
In this one I share a bit about my time in and what I found in the research.
What's your experience?

kerrifullerton.com In 2009 I attended my first Overeaters Annonymous (OA) meeting. I identified as a compulsive overeater and was certain that I was addicted to food.

When we're hungry, we go for what's easy.

That's not a issue, that's being human. We need food and we need it now. Not in an hour but right now.

I regularly say . Being over hungry is one of the biggest reasons that we end up and/or eating foods that we don't end up feeling good about after.

So I encourage my clients to make food that they do feel good about convenient. This is my spin on .

I routinely have a variety of cooked meats, cooked veggies, and cooked starches in my fridge.

There's also a variety of salad dressings and sauces.

When I'm hungry or need to pack something to take with, I can throw together a tasty combination.

This is different than meal prepping from a perspective in that I only prep things that I like; I choose what I'm in the mood for at the time, not what's 'on plan' that day; and I still have full permission to make something else should I choose to.

Sensible. Satisfying. Sustainable.

isn't about food at all.

I know that that's hard to swallow when you feel so our of control with food. 10 years ago I was a card carrying member of OA and felt very sure that I was addicted to sugar.

But my no flour and no sugar diet didn't free me from myself.

In the end I had to deal with why I kept using food to comfort in the first place.

Shockingly the first step of that wasn't about emotional work at all.

In my diet infused mind I was constantly trying to 'make up' for my by 'being careful with my portions' or 'cleaning up my diet'.

That led to me being underfed and hungry. That led to me being more vulnerable to the hyper-palatable foods that we refer to as 'junk'.

Thank goodness that was cool yet.

The first act of true -care was eating.

Only after I dealt with the discomfort of restriction was I able to even see what other discomforts I was avoiding.

Sometimes it was 'simple' - I was bored or restless.
Sometimes it was 'complex' - I was dealing with childhood trauma triggers.

Often it was 'in-between' - busyness, fatigue, boundary violations.

Slowly I learned new self-care tools and how to implement them. Food remains a tool of mine, it's just no longer the only tool in the toolbox.

And then food stopped being a problem. Even in this world of fast food and convenience, I'm no longer a victim. I have finally found .

Food journalling has many wonderful uses.

Sadly, culture has taken this lovely tool and turned it into a weapon. Instead of it being a non-judgemental way to look for patterns or create understanding, it's used for 'accountability' and it's used with judgement.

This is a picture of my journal.

I keep the Hunger Discovery Scale taped into the front cover. I track my hunger level before I eat and my fullness level after I eat.

From a non-judgemental space, I can then see that when I let myself get into the red zone of over-hungry, I make different choices with regards to not only what I eat but also how much. So when I do find myself I can be non-judgemental and look to see what happened.

I also track my satisfaction with each eating experience. Did it hit the spot? Was it enough?

There's also a note about the quality of my (another thing that influences my food choices).

Recently I've added an overall 'how'd the day go' number. This denotes the ease I found in my day. Was it a tough day? Stressful? Emotional? This can help me understand any or .

This would also be a great place to track any symptoms as well - like headache, heartburn, rash, etc.

By paying attention to my mood, my sleep, my hunger/fullness, my satisfaction and my symptoms - I create some really solid data that I can review to learn something about myself. I can see what influences my food choices.

Recently a women that was certain she was a learned that she only struggled with food when she wasn't honouring her needs. It was only through paying attention to the bigger picture that she was able to see that it wasn't about the food at all.

What do you see when you look in the mirror?

Do you see your flaws? Your fat, your wrinkles, your cellulite...

What if you looked for where your body was right? Useful? Functional?

Could you look for what's loveable?

I learned a long time ago that what I focus on gets bigger; more important; more visible.

So I consciously choose to look for what I can appreciate and respect about my body.

It's less about liking what I see and more about creating a thoughtful friendship with my body.

We take care of what we respect.

My body WILL continue to change as I age. That's a guarantee.

How I choose to live in this body is entirely up to me.

What will you look for today?

Do you ever ?

One of the ways that I feed my family homemade meals is by having quick options that I KNOW they like. One of the key lessons in my Mindful Meal Planning Masterclass.

When I make mashed potatoes, I make A LOT! Then I freeze them in glass dishes to pull out on busy weeks.

Cheap cuts of meat cook up nicely in the sous vide so that all I have to do is brown them quickly in a pan.

I do that while the veggies are cooking.

Having a flexible and a bit of helps a lot where is concerned.

is a strange place for anyone who's been stuck in for long.

It's a place where you're able to tune out the noise and tune into yourself.

Our bodies are brilliant.

They know what diet is best for us.

Intuitive eating is about finding YOUR diet.

I help you find the diet that is sensible, satisfying, AND sustainable.

Because we both know that you've done enough temporary diets with temporary .

My own struggles with and were rooted in trauma.

The most important work that I did to deal with my food issues had nothing to do with food at all.

It’s that work that's helped me be the wife that I want to be; To mother in a way that I feel proud of; To help me serve my patients better.

Doing the work has given me so much more than a healthier relationship with food and with my body.

My clients and patients often comment about how little we actually talk about food during our sessions.

It’s no surprise to me.

Halloween was always such a difficult time during my days.

I'd vow that I'd only buy enough candy to give away; that I'd not eat any before hand...only to have to go and buy more for the big night.

It was so hard on my self-esteem. My confidence took hit after hit. What little trust in myself that I had left, would erode even further.

Why couldn't I just stop?

I'd wake up from the in a haze, surrounded by wrappers.

It didn't matter if I decided to just not buy them, or just buy candy that I didn't like. Restriction never worked.

Now I use a these three tools to get me through Halloween.

1. Halt the Hangry
Making sure that I'm nourished with enough food throughout the day makes the biggest difference. It's much easier to make thoughtful and sound food decisions from a fed state.

2. Purposefully Pleasurable
Since I'm no longer scrounging for food due to hunger, I get to choose what I'd like. I talk about Pleasure foods instead of 'junk' foods or 'bad' foods. When I want the pleasure of some candy, I choose what I'd like and I eat with intention and purpose. No more scarfing it back trying to 'get it over with'. Savour the flavour. And if it's not worth savouring, it's not worth eating.

3. Complete Consent
No foods are not allowed. I'm a grown woman who can eat whatever she wants. So I give myself complete consent to do just that. To choose what and how much I'd like to eat. Without this complete consent it was far too easy to convince myself that it was the last time so I'd better make it worth my while. Knowing that I can have it again at my next meal, makes it easier to stop when the pleasure is done.

Halloween season is upon us and candy is everywhere.

Candy's been given a bad name. It's called 'junk'. We've added a lot of other foods into that category but I'm going to stick to candy for now.

Why junk? We picked the term 'junk' because it signifies a lack of value - it doesn't provide a whole lot of nutrition. Some would say no nutrition at all.

So why eat it?

We eat these foods because they're pleasurable. That's the term we use at our house - pleasure foods vs junk foods.

Choosing food for pleasure is a normal part of a healthy diet.

Here are the guidelines that we use surrounding pleasure foods:

1. Make sure that you're not trying to fill biological hunger requirements with pleasure foods. A bag of cookies for dinner, while not wrong, is not likely to satisfy your body's needs. This goes for liquid pleasure as well - a thirsty body is in need of water.

2. Make sure that it's actually pleasurable. This one I learned with donuts. They were a food for me. When I started to actually pay attention I learned that I don't like very many of them. Now I'm far more discerning about which donut I will eat.

3. Make space to savour the flavour. Pleasure food is chosen for the pure pleasure of it so create the space for this to happen. Eat without distraction so that you can really hone in on the flavour and texture (this also helps guideline #2). When the pleasure is gone, stop eating. If you're still hungry, then please eat. At this point you may choose some food for it's nutritional content.

Food is woven into the fabric of every culture. Candy is part of our culture. If you genuinely don't enjoy it, then by all means, don't eat it. Choose the pleasure foods that light you up. But if you do like candy, it can be incorporated into your life in a safe and satisfying way.

Ah, Halloween 👻

From as far back as I can remember it was my most favourite of the holidays (Although Easter and Christmas were certainly strong competitors).

Getting dressed up and coming home with a bag full of candy - pure bliss 🎃

Having my candy rationed? Not so much. 😢

Look, I know that my parents were trying to teach me moderation.

Sadly the lesson that I learned was that I could not be trusted with food.

That sweets and treats had some sort of mystical power and I was powerless.

Sneaking sweets, closet eating, and eventually became my norm.

As a parent, I've had to find my own way to balance letting my child develop his own sense of food trust while keeping his nutritional needs in mind.

Here's what we've come up with:

1. Halt the hangry. We ensure that our child is adequately fed before the candy is front of them - on Halloween itself and after. Being hungry will not lead to conscious consumption. It'll lead to overconsumption.

2. We speak about pleasure foods instead of junk foods. That distinction is key. Some foods are chosen purely for pleasure - nutrition is not part of the equation. We encourage them to make sure that what they're eating is truly pleasurable.

3. Make time and space for pleasure foods to be enjoyed. This means pay attention - savour the pleasure food. Avoid consuming foods in front of the TV or other screens.

I know that today's food culture makes it very difficult to just sit by and let them eat candy.

I also know that each year, we end up with forgotten candy. Once the really good stuff is gone, then the excitement wanes.

How do you handle the Halloween candy at your house?

This is a powerful infographic that I saw on .

I've been helping a few patients navigate needing some time off work for their mental health (anxiety, depression, trauma).

They're enduring the same thing from their employers.

Injured? Surgery? Of course, take all the time that you need to recover.

Mental illness? Stop being such a pansy and get your butt to work. 🤬😤

Anxiety, depression, adhd, bipolar disorder aren't 'just in your head'. They're very real conditions that need to be treated as such.

"Where do I start?"

This is the number one question that I get asked by women who are trying to recover from and .

I always answer the same way: Halt the hangry.

There are many reasons for overeating. Being over hungry is the biggest.

Our bodies are meant to survive. They won't let us starve. And they don't know how abundantly available food is for most of us.

So the moment that we fall out of biological hunger and into over hungry, we lose all sense of thoughtful moderate eating. It's called rebound eating.

It's like being on a trampoline. The more pressure you create sinking into the trampoline, the higher up you're going to go when you rebound off.

Your hunger is that downward force.

If you're neutral, not hungry, not full, you're not going anywhere.

If you're a little hungry, you're likely going to eat a little.

If you're ravenous, you're likely to have a big rebound eating effect.

If you want to stop jumping so high on a trampoline, you bend your knees to minimize your downward pressure.

Same goes for eating.

Our tendency after a is to 'eat moderately' and 'reduce portions' or go on a full blown restrictive diet. But that only sinks our bodies deeper into hunger and sets us up for another binge.

Try this instead:

1. Stop skimping
Make sure that your meals are adequate enough to fuel your body. Yogurt and berries may not cut it. You may need some toast or an egg to go with.

2. Stop skipping
I know that life is busy and it's easy to get distracted from eating. Most people need to eat about every 3-5 hours. Set an alarm to remind you to nourish your body regularly.

3. Start satisfying
Think like a chef. Yes, nutrition matters. But no self-respecting chef will compromise flavour. Eat what satisfies both your palate and your body.

Once you've halted the hangry you can start to work through the other reasons for your overeating. But until the biology is in check, it's a lot harder.

Cold season has begun 😷 That may mean that some sleepless nights due to cough are coming.

Instead of reaching for the OTC medicines, we reach for the honey 🐝

2 tsp of honey at bedtime can help improve sleep. Have you tried it yet?

During the day I like to use coffee ☕️(yes, it has cough suppressing properties) and teas with licorice to sooth my throat and cough.

What are your go-to remedies?

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4264806/