Emily Dongvillo, RD

Happy Mother’s Day!!

Addition > subtraction.

You didn’t fail the diet. The diet wasn’t sustainable for a person who has a life outside of being on a diet.

Time for you to live.

Story time!

A friend once reached out to me because she felt like she couldn’t control herself around sweets in the break room at work in the afternoon.

Instead of giving her bu****it advice for improving her willpower, I asked about her breakfast and lunch habits.

Turns out, she was eating a teeny-tiny breakfast and a minuscule lunch in an attempt to stay under her calorie goal.

The calorie goal was the nutritional needs of a toddler, but I’ll come back to that at another time…

She didn’t lack willpower.
She was hungry.

Her eyes saw sweet treats in the break room and her body wanted to be fed, so the second she bit into one cookie, her body wanted more. And more. And more.

I suggested she try eating a bigger breakfast and lunch.

By eating enough food earlier in the day, she could enjoy a cookie without feeling that intense urge to eat the entire plate of cookies.

The next time you get home from work and notice that you want to eat everything in your cupboards, think about what you ate earlier in the day…maybe you’re just hungry.

Is this me saying that an orange and an ice cream cone are exactly the same from a nutrition standpoint?

Absolutely not.

But they both provide some sort of nutrition.

Make sense?

If you can read this, chances are you are an adult that needs an adult amount of food to get you through the day of doing adult things.

Like taking care of that toddler who only needs 1200 calories.

The fact that diet culture has managed to convince people that fruit is bad for them because it has sugar in it absolutely boggles my fu***ng mind.

Do you desire weight loss or do you desire how you think your life will be different if you lose _____ pounds?

A lot of people put their lives on hold as they pursue weight loss; waiting to buy the swimsuit, go on the trip, _______________ until they reach their goal weight.

The thing is, it’s not your weight that’s holding you back. It’s how diet culture has led you to believe you can’t have those things unless you follow its rules.

So instead of going after the things you actually want, you sit on the sidelines and watch your life happen around you. Or maybe you settle for things you don’t really like because you don’t think you can have what you really want.

I remember being in that place. Wanting so desperately for my body to be different. Wanting to make things happen, but thinking it would be easier if I was thinner.

The kicker? I was thinner then than I am now. I thought I wanted and needed to be thinner.

I counted calories like a maniac. My mind was always figuring out how much I needed to work out to burn off what I ate. I’d skip meals to save up for dessert. And I was miserable.

Why?

Because being smaller wasn’t what I really wanted. What I really wanted was the life I’d been led to believe was only possible in a smaller body.

It wasn’t until I rebuilt my relationship with food and my body that I was able to create that life.

I’m happy, my life is really good. I never thought that I would say (or type) those words.

You are capable of creating the life that you want.

DM me to chat about what it could look like for you.

Go to your favorite fitspo’s account and check out their perfectly curated meals.

Everything from the smoothie they make for breakfast to high protein “ice cream” they have for dessert.

All the things that make you feel like you should be eating the same way.

Then have a think about those meals and how they’d fit into your life.

Would they require trips to 6 different stores?
Or buying kitchen equipment you don’t own?
Are they actually enough food to keep you fueled throughout your day?
Would your kids actually eat them?

They’ve made eating the way they do their literal job.

They aren’t curating these meals in addition to working 40 hours a week, having a commute, and fitting in all the other things you have to try to cram into 24 hours.

It’s not realistic for the vast majority of people. And it’s okay if it doesn’t work for you.

Now tell me, did you actually like Halo Top or did you just enjoy eating an entire pint of it even if it wasn’t as good as the real deal?

Are you knee deep in your new “lifestyle” and daydreaming about pizza and nachos?

This post is directed at me at 11:00am today wondering why I was so much hungrier than normal.

You know how cars have City MPG and Highway MPG?

And you probably know that’s because different conditions cause your car to use different amounts of gas.

Well, guess what?

Your body is the same way; different conditions cause you to need different amounts of food.

Everything we do and all of our body’s processes cause us to need different amounts of food.

Went for a long run? You need more food.

Have a fever? Need more food.

Different conditions; different amounts of fuel.

Can you roll with it?

Oh, hi!

It’s the final FriYAY off 2023.

I’m here to help you have a better relationship with food in 2024.

I want to help you get out of the cages inside your mind that keeps you constantly counting calories and carbs, checking food labels, and figuring out how much exercise you need to do to “earn” your food.

To help you escape the constant cycle of restriction and binging and feeling like you always have to be watching what you eat.

To help you leave the stress of looking at menus and comparing calories between items instead of choosing the one you really want to eat.

To stop the hours of exercise you hate attempting to make yourself smaller and shift into moving in ways you actually enjoy.

To feel comfortable accepting a dinner date with your bumble match or bestie without having anxiety about what’s on the menu.

To feel able to trust that your body will give you directions to nourish it.

To feel at home in your body.

You were born an Intuitive Eater, I can help bring you back there.

New year, new you!!

But instead of being a hangry monster because you haven’t had enough carbs (or food in general) and so sore from your workouts that you have to free-fall onto the toilet, you have energy to power your workouts and aren’t stressing about joining your friends for nachos on Friday night.

We’re almost there!

Lock yourself in a bathroom if you have to.

PS: Enjoy the bop.

Is it a little intimidating to think about at first?

It’s totally okay if it is.

The world runs on diet culture and it’s such a big part of our lives that we don’t even notice a lot of it.

Or maybe it’s not intimidating for you to think about.

Maybe you can picture a life with stress-free social events or not worrying when you’re in a time crunch and fast food is the best option to feed yourself in the moment.

What could it look like for you?

Ever see someone and their grocery cart and have judgey thoughts?

Or see someone eating something and make assumptions about them?

Other people’s food choices are 0% your business.

They impact you in zero ways.

And oftentimes when you make judgments about what people are eating or buying, you’re neglecting to think about all of the nuances that come with WHY people choose the foods that they do.

Just some food for thought.

Intention matters.

Big time.

Carefully measuring out a week’s worth of plain boiled chicken, brown rice, and broccoli to make sure it fits your macros is diet culture meal prep.

Making sure you have things prepped for easier cooking or having a having a few meals cooked and loaded into Tupperware containers to make feeding yourself easier during the workweek isn’t.

And honestly, making sure you’ll be well nourished for the week is top tier self care.

Thanksgiving week tip #5.

Your body DOES NOT GIVE A F**K about how much you ate yesterday.

It still needs a normal amount of food today.

And your body is pretty smart. It’ll balance things out a bit if it feels like it got a bit too much yesterday by making you less hungry than normal over the next few days.

And even if it doesn’t, remember that Thanksgiving dinner was less than 1% of the meals that you’ll eat this year; which is basically nothing.

So check in with your hunger and fullness cues and nourish your body as if yesterday never happened.

That applies to everydamnday.

Weekends are for waffles!

Let’s be clear, this is not a “cheat meal” appreciation post. Cause I don’t do that.

It’s an appreciation for mornings with enough time for syrup post.

Do your breakfasts look different on the weekends?

Fun. Food. FriYAY!!!!!!

It’s not a thing, but I’m going to make it a thing.

A common misconception about intuitive eating is that you eat pizza and donuts all-day-everyday for eternity.

But….

Part of learning to listen to your internal cues is trusting that your body will tell you when you’ve had enough fun and need some more nutrient dense goodies.

With that, you’ll enjoy your favorite fun foods and you’ll also remember to eat a damn vegetable.

The best part?? The veggies on nachos still count as veggies!

Because it doesn’t have to be all or nothing.

In my early twenties, I donated blood.

And I was the person who got super woozy and needed tons of juice and cookies while laying on the cot to feel like I wasn’t going to pass out.

I didn’t donate blood for years because I was afraid I was going to feel like that again.

About 15 years later, I wanted to donate blood and reevaluated the time before.

In my early twenties, I was rarely eating enough and almost always doing too much cardio. That day, I had only eaten a small amount of food several hours before I donated.

I realized that there probably wasn’t anything wrong with me, I probably just hadn’t eaten enough.

With the wisdom of my late thirties and without the food rules I desperately clung to when I was younger, blood donation went absolutely fine.

I wasn’t woozy. I wasn’t cramming everything I could eat in my mouth.

I ate my little cookie, drank my juice, and went home.

I’m not telling you to go and donate blood if you are medically unable. (But if you are a healthy well-fed individual, blood is always needed.)

I am telling you that a lot of the times that you feel like s**t, you probably need to eat something.

Tired? Headache? Feeling low energy? Difficulty focusing? Crabby?

Try eating some food.

You might be amazed with how much better you feel.

Leave women alone.

This message is frustratingly inappropriate.

Women should be able to use networking platforms without men hitting on them.

I highly recommend starting with number 3.

1. Delete meal tracking apps from your phone. An app on your phone does not know how much food you need everydamnday, but your body does. Apps that give you calorie or macro limits can disconnect you with your body's internal hunger and fullness cues and keeps you deeply connected to diet culture.
2. Take a break from your fitness tracker. Feel like you've gotta get 10,000 steps in or close your rings every day? Sounds like it's time to give your wrist and anxiety a break from the buzz warning that you could close your rings if you got in a 30 minute walk at 11pm.
3. “Detox" your social media. This is the only time you'll hear me use the word detox. Clear your feed from accounts that make you feel like s**t, mute loved ones who engage in diet talk, and find new people to follow with a variety of body sizes and better relationships with food.

Which one are you going to try first?

So, here are some ways you can compliment the person and not their appearance.

- You’re a great friend.
- You are so funny!
- I always have fun when we hang out!
- The world needs more people like you!

What are some non-appearance based compliments you can give to the people in your life?

You didn’t “go off track” this past weekend. You lived this past weekend.

You celebrated having an extra day (or two) off of work.

How did you celebrate?

With food? Drinks? Friends? Fireworks? Parades? In the lake or pool? On a boat?

Those are the things that you’ll remember about the holiday (or any) weekend.

The mean girl inside you might be trying to make you feel bad for what you ate or drank or for skipping your weekend workout, I’m not doing that here.

Instead of skipping meals, amping up you workouts, and feeling bad about resting, I want you to nourish yourself, move in ways you enjoy, and scroll though the pics on your phone and absorb those memories.

What is your favorite memory from the weekend?

Instead of stressing about food and my body, I’m going to enjoy my free Starbucks and eat Indian food.

It’s a lot better than skimping on meals and over exercising in the days leading up to my birthday trying to look a certain way.

And a lot better than secretly being stressed while eating my birthday foods.

I hope you get that as a present for your next birthday.