Maggie Assaff - RD

Hi friends 🙋‍♀️

Sorry I've been a little absent on here lately but I am wondering if you could help me out!

I'm looking for some feedback from parents (or expecting parents) of infants and toddlers.

If this sounds like you, click the link below to complete a quick 2 minute survey.

In exchange for your time you will be entered in a draw to win a $20 Indigo gift card!

Thanks in advance for your feedback and sharing 😊.

Link to survey: https://mailchi.mp/e1d42dbde5c9/market-research

Your body is your home, treat it with respect and kindness. 🏠❤️

You may not always love the way your body looks and that’s ok - but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t deserve respect and kindness for all the amazing things it can and will continue to do for you. 

👉 Slide through to learn a few ways you can start showing your body respect.

Intuitive eating can sometimes be misinterpreted to mean eating only when we are physically hungry and always stopping when we are full.

When this happens, we end up taking the concept of listening to our hunger and fullness cues and turning it into another diet rule.

In reality, we will always eat for reasons beyond just physical hunger and we are, without a doubt, going to eat beyond fullness every now and then.

👉 Slide through above to learn about the different types of hunger.
👉 Save this post and come back to it the next time you need a reminder.

✨ Could you use some support in your relationship with food? Let’s chat! Send me a DM or click the link in my bio to book a free 15-minute discovery call. ✨

Today we’re talking about emotional eating and hopefully bringing you a new way of approaching this often unpleasant experience. 

First, it’s important to know that without adequate self-care it's really hard to be attuned to your body and accurately hear signals of hunger and fullness. This can lead to eating experiences that feel out of control and not in line with your body’s needs.

Also, know that a dieting mentality and food restriction (physically or mentally) can lead to a loss of control around food which can feel like emotional eating. In reality, it’s just your body doing what it needs to survive. 

Of course, emotional eating can also be based on difficulties managing your emotions.

This 👏 is 👏 ok 👏

Using food to distract or cope with emotions isn’t always a bad thing. However, when this is the only way of dealing with emotions, it ends up adding more stress and doesn’t resolve the original issue. 

No matter what the reason for overeating or feeling out of control around food is, the response should always include self-compassion and kindness ❤️.

✨ If you struggle with emotional eating and could use some help feeling in control around food, let’s chat ✨.

👉 Send me a DM or click the link in my bio to book a free 15-minute discovery call.

All the intuitive eating principles work together to enable you to find satisfaction in your meals.

When we arrive at a meal with moderate rather than ravenous hunger, we increase the chance of finding satisfaction in our meal.

When we eat without judgement or diet rules aka making peace with food and challenging the food police, we have the freedom to discover satisfaction.

When it’s time to eat, ask yourself: What do I really want right now?

Slide through above and consider the different sensual aspects of a meal and questions to ask yourself at meal time.

You won’t always be able to satisfy all of them and that’s ok. The more you are able to tap into what you’re actually feeling, the more satisfying a meal will be.

Save this post and ask yourself these questions the next time you’re pulling together a meal.

How often do you find yourself saying "why am I hungry again, I just ate an hour ago?!"

There are many reasons why you might be hungry not long after eating, none of which warrant ignoring this hunger, but if you do find you’re constantly feeling hungry shortly after a meal, you might want to take a second look at what’s on your plate.

There are 4 main nutrients that help us get and stay full.

➡️ Protein and fat - both take a little more work and time for our body to digest

➡️ Carbs - keep a normal blood sugar and provide the body with energy

➡️ Fibre - adds bulk and slows digestion of carbs, contributing to longer lasting energy

The simplest way to make sure you’re getting a balance of these at meal time is:
🔸1/2 plate veggies (adds bulk and fibre)
🔸1/4 plate protein (can also add fat, and fibre if plant based)
🔸1/4 grains and starches (adds carbs and fibre)

At snacks aim for:
carbs/fibre 🍎🍞🍌🥐
+
protein/fat 🥚🥑🧀🥜

An unbalanced plate isn’t the only reason for feeling hungry shortly after a meal, but next time you notice this happening, reflect back on what you ate last.
Was something missing?

What is your cue to stop eating?

➡️ A clean plate?

➡️ A set calorie amount?

➡️ When the food stops tasting good?

➡️ Hitting the bottom of the food package?

➡️ When your show ends?

➡️ A distended tummy?

➡️ When everyone else stops eating?

There are a number of factors that influence when we stop eating besides just the feeling of emerging fullness and sometimes these factors can make it hard for us to even feel fullness until we REALLY feel full. 

Eating with distractions like the T.V or working at your desk, the habitual pattern of cleaning your plate, or eating really quickly without savouring food all make it difficult to identify fullness. 

If eating past comfortable fullness is your usual, slide through for an exercise to practice awareness at eating times.

✨ Could you use some help with distracted eating? 

👉Let’s chat! Send me a DM or hit the link in my bio to book a 15-minute discovery call.

The food police is that little voice in your head telling you you’re “good” for eating 🥦🥗🫑 and “bad” for eating 🧁🍩🍕. It monitors your choices and judges everything you do or don’t eat.

We aren’t born with these judgmental thoughts about food, they develop and are influenced throughout our lives by dieting or exposure to diet messaging, the media, health and wellness coaches, friends, family, etc.

These thoughts or rules about food might feel helpful when we first learn them, but can end up causing more harm than good because they teach us to use external factors to dictate our food choices rather than listening to our body.

Silencing the food police is a key step in the intuitive eating process.
👉 Slide through to learn how to start challenging the food police and negative thoughts about food.

Just as restricting or limiting overall food intake eventually leads to overeating. Restricting or limiting intake of a specific type of food also leads to feeling out of control and over eating that particular food.

It’s human nature to want what we can’t have. When we swing too far in one direction by trying to eat perfectly and avoid all the foods we think are bad for us… we eventually end up swinging just as far in the opposite direction and eating way more of those foods than we would have in the first place. The key is to find our place somewhere in the middle.

Research tells us that even just thinking about food in this way (good vs bad) can lead to feeling out of control around foods we classify as bad. In order to truly make all foods fit and feel at peace in our relationship with food, we need to start seeing all foods as morally and emotionally equal.

Eating 🥗🥦🍓🍳 doesn’t make you good.
Just like eating 🍕🍩🍦🥞 doesn’t make you bad.

Interoceptive awareness is the ability to identify, understand, and respond appropriately to physical sensations within your body. 

Different physical sensations can be:
A full bladder 🚽
A rapid heartbeat 🫀
Feeling flushed 😳
Changes in breathing rate 🫁
Cues of hunger and fullness  🍽️

Being attuned to these sensations provides you with information about your body’s present state, which helps you figure out what you need to do to meet your body’s needs.  

Some sensations are easier to pick up on - most people are able to feel when their bladder is full and respond appropriately. However, it can be more complicated when we think about hunger. Not everyone experiences it the same way and for some, the connection to hunger cues might be diminished from years of dieting. 

Hunger can present itself in a number of different ways within the body and it can vary depending on the intensity of hunger experienced. 

When we wait too long and experience extreme hunger we often end up with an unpleasant eating experience. This type of hunger tends to feel like a gnawing emptiness in the stomach, we might have a headache, feel moody, fatigued, nauseous or shaky. 

When we respond to hunger in its early stages we’re usually better able to gauge the size and type of meal we want. This type of hunger tends to feel like slight emptiness in the stomach, maybe some stomach growls, thinking about food, and dropping energy levels. 

➡️ To get back in touch with your hunger levels, start by paying attention to what hunger feels like for you.
Is it typically a pleasant or unpleasant experience? How does this change before, during, and after a meal? 

✨ If you’d like to chat more about hunger cues send me a DM or click the link in my bio to book a free 15-minute discovery call.

Honouring your hunger is an important step in the intuitive eating process. Hunger is not an enemy or something we need to overcome or trick. It’s actually a natural biological cue from the body expressing its needs. 

When you’re able to listen to your body’s cues of hunger (which are different for every body) and respond with nourishment, you begin to build trust in your relationship with food.

Ignoring or trying to overcome hunger in other ways can lead to more intense feelings of hunger that will eventually result in an unpleasant eating experience that some may describe as “out of control” or “overeating”. 

How can you honour your hunger❓
Start by paying attention to your body’s signals. What does hunger feel like for you? Do you feel it in your stomach? Head? Energy level? Mood change? 

When hunger arises, and the situation is appropriate, then eat!

It’s ideal to be able to listen to and respond to hunger, but it isn’t always realistic that we'll eat this way.

Below are a few tips to help honour your hunger on days when the volume on hunger cues is turned down due to life (ie. busy work day, stress, intense exercise, schedule changes, unexpected plans arise, etc.) 
▪️ Aim to have 3 meals and 2-3 snacks each day. 
▪️ Try not to go more than 3-4 hours without eating. 
▪️ Set a few “time to eat” reminders throughout the day.
▪️ Don’t put too much pressure on the types of food, choose foods you know you like and are easy to prepare (or purchase). 

✨ If you have questions about listening and responding to hunger cues, send me a DM to chat! 

*It should be noted that consistently honouring hunger is a privilege that can only be achieved with food security (availability of food and ability to access it).

The dialogue around dieting is changing. Nowadays instead of “dieting”, “lifestyle change” is where it’s at.
But is what’s being promoted as a lifestyle change any different than straight up dieting?

You might not be following any official diet, but your thoughts can still be using the language of dieting.

What do I mean by this❓

If your lifestyle change has you following rules based on external factors, such as
🔸cutting out certain types of foods
🔸only eating ‘whole foods’
🔸setting portion sizes for you
🔸eating during a set timeframe only
🔸setting daily calorie limits
🔸purchasing meal replacements, shakes or supplements
🔸looking at food as good vs bad or healthy vs unhealthy
🔸makes you feel guilty for choosing certain types of foods

…it’s a diet.

For most people, diets simply do not work and can end up causing more harm than good. To become an intuitive eater, you first need to reject the diet mentality. This means acknowledging and letting go of thoughts related to dieting. 

It’s a change in perspective and an overhaul in the way you think about dieting, food, and your body. This is easier said than done, but taking the time and putting in the work to challenge old ways of thinking can open up a whole new way of living.

Swipe through to reflect on your past experiences with dieting and start shifting the way you think about food and movement 🙌.

What is Intuitive Eating?
Intuitive eating or IE is an evidenced-based approach to healthy eating and living developed by 2 dietitians and . 

It’s a self-care framework guided by 10 core principles (swipe to see). When applied together, these principles help you satisfy both your physiological and psychological needs as well as remove negative thoughts or rules when it comes to food and your body. 

Simply put, intuitive eating is normal human eating. No rules about good or bad foods, no guilt or shaming, viewing all foods as morally equal, and eating in a way that makes your body and mind feel well. 

In my practice, I use intuitive eating to help people develop healthy relationships with food by learning to listen to and respond to their body and its needs. 

This approach may not resonate with everyone, but if you feel like you’re constantly on and off the dieting bandwagon or always trying to control your eating behaviour, IE can help you find peace in your relationship with food. 

I’ll continue to share more on each intuitive eating principle over the next few weeks. 

What do you think of this approach? Have you heard of the concept of intuitive eating before? Let me know in the comments below!

How can a dietitian be "non-diet"? 🤷‍♀️

I refer to myself as a non-diet dietitian but have never actually explained what that means. Here's what you can expect when working with a non-diet dietitian, like me 😊️.

✨ Click the link below to read the full blog post and learn more.

https://maggieassaffrd.com/working-with-a-non-diet-dietitian/

Hi friends, I have a favour to ask! I'm looking for your input as I continue to adapt my services to better support your needs.

By completing the short survey (linked below) you will be entered in a draw to win a $25 Indigo gift card.

Click here to enter survey: https://mailchi.mp/09d4786d82ee/survey

Thank you and goodluck 🤗.