Emily Stewart, MPH, RDN LDN

For when the Sunday Scaries set in 💜

Posted • What are some of your favorite ways to cultivate self-compassion 🙏🏽🌱🪴

Homemade Smoked Sausage and Veggie soup paired with w/ a toasty 🥐 (not pictured due to lack of 3 hands) on this snowy, wintry day ❄️

What comes to mind when you hear “comfort food”? For me, it’s a sense of nostalgia; a sort of bittersweet feeling that takes you back to a different place in time. That 💜 warming, Taylor Swift, re-release of “Love Story” feeling. Foods have the capability to fire up almost all of our senses; this is why nostalgia from the eating experience can be felt so intensely.

Oftentimes, the concept of eating for comfort gets misconstrued as impulsive and reactive. As a Registered Dietitian, I beg to differ. Eating for comfort absolutely has a place in Intuitive Eating. As long as we bring a sense of intentionality to the comfort food experience, there actually IS a chance that it will make us feel better. Remember, food should never be our ONLY coping mechanism; this is when it can present a problem. This is why having a “Toolbox” of coping and self-care skills is so important.

🥰Comfort is a basic human need, comfort food included

Posted • Thanksgiving can be a time where disordered eating runs rampant, and it can be largely triggering for anyone who suffers from an eating disorder.

This Thanksgiving, let’s eradicate disordered eating.
🌿Keep your eyes on your own plate
🌿Don’t make body-centric comments (ie. weight gain or loss comments)
🌿Focus on non-appearance related compliments (ie. you are radiant, you light up the room, you always make me laugh)
🌿Enjoy all of the foods you want to, guilt free!
🌿Avoid Diet & Exercise talk -> this can be quite triggering to those around you & has no place at the dinner table
🌿Always be mindful of those around you and how your words may impact others

Remember: You can’t tell if someone is struggling with an eating disorder just by looking at them. You never know what it going on in someone else’s mind!

So, tomorrow I’ll be delivering the Keynote Speech for Body Positivity Week at the university. Of all the podcasts, peer-reviewed journals, blog posts, news articles and books I’ve perused to put this presentation together, Body Kindness by remains one of my favorites. It’s welcoming, informative approach and beautiful presentation make it so accessible to those working towards a more gentle and appreciative relationship with their bodies.

I’m nervous but really looking forward to sharing and educating about a topic that has truly allowed me to love the work that I do. So, I’ll leave you with a quote from that I feel really sets the tone for much of this healing:

✨“You don’t have to love your body to be kind to it.

Just in time for the Women's March tomorrow, I am thrilled to share that Roots Integrative Nutrition will be participating in the next Still We Rise auction from October 4th-11th of 2021. 100% of the proceeds will be going towards organizations working to protect reproductive rights.

Still We Rise is both an auction and a social justice effort created by entrepreneur Lindsay Meyer-Harley and launched its first auction in spring 2017. Since then, Still We Rise has raised $692k for the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, Natural Resources Defense Council, Texas Civil Liberties Project, Everytown, Emily’s List, Innovation Law Lab, Raices, Moms Demand Action, World Central Kitchen, No Kid Hungry, Local Food Banks, Circle of Health, National Abortion Network and Southern Poverty Law Center.

We can all make a difference in our own small way.

✨Stay tuned for updates in my stories starting Monday, October 4th!!

Emily Stewart, MPH, RDN LDN now takes appointments on their Page.

I want to tell you a story. Read on for that time I was called a “Nutrition Fraud” and some real life tea I wish I’d been more confident to address so many years ago 👇

It was a Monday morning during my senior year of undergrad and I was at a “Nutrition Coffee Hour” with a small group of my peers and one of our professors. This “coffee hour” happened once a week and was generally just a nice opportunity to get my hours in for the Student Dietetic Association and learn some things 👩🏻‍🏫

SO, we’re sharing our weekend adventures and this particular Monday just happened to fall on the day after the Phillies actually won a game.

I had gone out with my roommates and some friends. We shared all around - nachos, guac, mozz sticks, a beer tower. The works. And then we walked back to our house in the sunshine. Winners. It was a flawless, fabulous Sunday ☀️

Smiles from the peer group. Silence from my professor. Until she said this:

“You’re a nutrition fraud aren’t you.” *rhetorical question, obviously*

Rarely am I speechless. Her comment COMPLETELY took me off guard. I was an A student. I was of legal drinking age. I never missed class. I was at a VOLUNTARY coffee hour on a Monday morning for learning. How could normalized eating be so shameful and demonized?

Needless to say, I never showed up to another coffee hour again. I felt so embarrassed and confused. I even questioned whether I was in the right major.

Fast forward to a bunch of years and LOTS of experience later, I will tell you this:

NEVER allow anyone to make you feel ashamed for not living a life governed by food rules. Assigning moral value to food is toxic and damaging as hell. To this day, I still wish that girl I was so many years ago had felt the courage to speak up for herself. But here we are; You live and you learn. So, I can only hope that my story might serve as a reminder to always be yourself, feed your body whatever feels good in the moment, and never stop growing. This is your journey 🌱

“Be bold enough to live life on your own terms and never, ever, apologize for it.” ~ Mandy Hale

A snowy reminder to work towards building in your life; courtesy of The Body Positivity card deck and your friendly, neighborhood RD 🫖

What is Body Positivity?

❄️ Body positivity means relating to your body with acceptance, appreciation, and respect, rather than self-criticism, shame and body hatred.

❄️ It doesn’t mean loving your body 24/7. Instead, body positivity helps you unhook your body image from your value as a human being and supports you in cultivating practices that strengthen your physical, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing.

❄️ Body positivity is for everybody; people of all sizes, shapes, colors, abilities, sexual orientations, gender identities, and ages.

❄️ Body positivity includes rejecting cultural messages related to body shame and weight stigma and replacing them with messages that reflect acceptance and inclusiveness.

Virtual Nutrition Therapy is JUST as good as the real thing, I promise. Cuddle up on your couch and let’s get you inspired!

✨ Review your Goals

✨ Make a Plan

✨ Process your Struggles

✨ Challenge your Fears

✨ Celebrate your Wins

✨ Start seeing Progress

Together 💪

Gentle Reminder: Gratitude is a daily lifestyle practice, not just a one day tradition ✨

Take a couple moments this weekend to slow down and appreciate the little things - cooking with family, a cheese platter you’re proud of, or an apron that makes you laugh. All the magic you need is INSIDE of you. You ARE the secret ingredient 🤩 Happy Thanksgiving from my family to yours

Stumbled upon this fun art installation "Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads" by Chinese artist and activist, Ai WeiWei, on a long walk with some people I love the other day. Couldn't help but take a picture with my year of the Dragon 🐲 You owe it to yourself to get outside EVERY. DAMN. DAY. This is especially important now, when so many aspects of our lives feel out of control. Fresh air, a little movement, and some Vit. D can be so genuinely restorative - I promise ☀️ Sometimes, exploring places you've taken for granted is a perfect kind of therapy.

Welcome to my new private practice page (finally)! Come explore my website at www.emilystewart.com

Eat Well. Be Well. A full and satisfying life begins with learning to treat your body with kindness and compassion. Start your journey today.

Emily Stewart, MPH, RDN LDN updated their website address.