WEIGHT INCLUSIVITY POSITION STATEMENT (inspo: TCME community).
It is the position of Nutrition Atlanta Inc. and Jennifer Hnat, RDN, that all bodies deserve proper care, nourishment, and respect. Regardless of body size, shape, composition, all bodies are good bodies and all people deserve access to body-neutral, non-stigmatizing healthcare services.
Mindful eating views body weight as an inaccurate representation of health or wellbeing and instead focuses on helping people recognize the foods that feel nourishing and energizing in their respective body. Food impacts our mental, physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual well beingness. Diet culture and a focus on weight loss can lead to disordered eating behaviors, beliefs, habits, patterns and thoughts.
As mindful eating practitioners we encourage individuals to:
* tap into their Intelligent Belly Wisdom™ {IBW} to guide them with food decisions of what, when, how and how much to eat;
* relearn how to tap into and honor their Unique Food Code™, true hunger and fullness cues;
* replace food judgment, shame, or guilt with curiosity and awareness;
* delete the belief that food is either “good” or “bad” and adopt an “all foods can fit” philosophy!
As mindful, intuitive & intentional eating practitioners we do not believe in making assumptions about someone’s eating behaviors, physical health or emotional wellbeing based on their body shape or size.
Mindful eating is a “weight normative” practice and does not support weight loss interventions, challenges the use of weight-stigmatizing language, and promotes the practice of mindful eating as a way to unite us all in our birthright and quest to feel good in our skin.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
1. Can you help me lose weight?
If you worked with me almost 10 years ago I would have taught you unsustainable, restrictive diet behaviors that might have temporarily worked (created weight loss) until they didn't and the restrictiveness backfired. Mindfulness paired with intuitive and intentional eating is the key to learning how to trust your hunger and fullness cues, food cravings, and body wisdom so that you become your own health expert. No one knows what foods or portion sizes will feel good in your body except for you. Some clients and participants of my signature program, the 30-Day Mindful Eating Challenge, do lose weight but that is NOT and never has been the intention for creating the program. If they ate more than their body needed and started to tune into their Intelligent Belly Wisdom™ {IBW} and tapped into their Unique Food Code™ they might lose weight. However, this doesn't happen for everyone because every journey is different. The key is to realize that if you focus your energy on weight loss, it immediately disconnects you from your Intelligent Belly Wisdom™ {IBW} and causes confusing signals to the body, especially if you stop feeding it when it sends out hunger cues because you're afraid of gaining weight. Additionally, calorie-restrictive diets can create overeating and binging behaviors that override the body's natural fullness cues. Once I read the research on the biology of binging and diets, I could no longer ethically teach clients restrictive eating patterns (aka: diets). Instead, as a team, we will focus on creating a more sustainable future with food for you by divorcing diet culture beliefs and habits while reconnecting you to the internal wisdom {IBW} we are all born with so you rely on listening to YOUR body for true hunger and fullness cues. This is the secret sauce of sustainable eating!
2. Where can I find the calories and nutrition information for your recipes?
Sorry love, as a mindful + intentional practitioners our goal is to help you reconnect with your amazing Intelligent Belly Wisdom™ {IBW} and Unique Food Code™ to help you become aware of what foods feel nourishing and satisfying to YOUR body, belly, tongue, and digestive system. Our clients have learned that when they start to nourish their body with more nutrient-dense, whole foods, they FEEL better from head to toe. Our goal is to create a neutral ground for food and help you adopt an "all food can fit" philosophy. We know from experience that calories, carbs, sugar, fat, sodium, and other nutrition information can lead to people labeling food as "good" or "bad".
Our position is; FOOD IS FOOD. In order to heal your relationship with food, it's important to delete any moral beliefs that kale is better for you than a cupcake. If kale feels good in your body, that's great, but sometimes nothing hits the spot like a really good cupcake and champagne without a side dish of guilt!
Our philosophy is GUILT TASTES SUPER NASTY!
However if you need nutrition information you can always cut and paste our recipes into myfitnesspal.com or nutritiondata.com - but our hope is that you will let go of the Calorie Fairy and start trusting your {IBW}...
3. I'm a dietetic intern student and would love to intern with you. Do you let students shadow you in your practice?
You are in luck! I've had several students from Georgia State University (GSU) where I have a preceptor partnership agreement with and as long as you are in their Coordinated Program, you can request to have a rotation with me with your advisor based on my availability and schedule. University of Georgia students will have to request a rotation with a private practice dietitian based on my availability.
4. You've inspired me to make more mindful choices and I want to share your blog post or recipe with my family and friends. Is that okay with you?
Wow thanks so much I receive a lot of social media feedback and am flattered that you are open to a more mindful relationship with food and your body. Since I have a unique blend of science, spirituality with unbiased support, I kindly ask that you credit Nutrition Atlanta with a direct link to the blog or recipe you're vibing hard on.
Please respect that it's considered plagiarism to copy/paste any content or information that I've either trademarked or shared with the Nutrition Atlanta community.
PRO TIP: It's also really bad karma darling, please don't bring that upon yourself!
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