- I don't care what you eat, at least not in the way that you assume I do. What I do care about is that you eat in a way that is satisfying to both your body and soul. The specifics of what you eat, though, aren't of major concern to me. I absolutely will help you balance out your eating by showing you what amounts of nutrients your body needs and the types of foods that contain those nutrients. But specifically what you choose to eat is your prerogative and I'm not judging you for it. I trust that once you've returned to intuitive eating (the way we were all born) your body will tell you what it wants to eat. In fact, I probably trust your body more than you do, at least for now, and that's ok. I will hold that trust lightly in my hands and pass it on to you when you're ready.
- Weighing you is my least favorite part of my job. For most of my clients, weight is an emotionally-charged subject and a source of much fear and shame. I'd have to be a sociopath to enjoy subjecting people to that just for the heck of it. The truth is, being the keeper of that ever-so-important (or unimportant, depending on how you want to look at it) number is the role of the RD on your treatment team. I don't use it to judge you as a success or failure. Rather, I use it as a piece of data, in conjunction with many other things, to make clinical recommendations. And for some people I keep track of it so they don't have to do it themselves, until they are ready to let go of the number all together.
- Sometimes I over- or undereat too. It happens to all of us, and for many different reasons. I'm not a "perfect" eater, nor is any human being on the planet. If I eat with you in session I do my best to model normal intuitive eating, but don't put me on a pedestal when it comes to food.
- I don't always have a positive body image either. I live in the same world that you do, and I'm not immune to cultural influences. There are times that I bash my body and I have to remind myself to "walk the talk." I turn around when I get on the scale at my doctor's office too. In fact, I don't even know my weight, and I'm ok with that.
- You are often on my mind. It's not uncommon for clients to cry in my office. Makes sense given what an intimate subject food and body image are for us. I care deeply about you, and it is not lost on me that you share some of the most private details of your life in our sessions. I am both honored and humbled by this fact. I do think about you outside of our sessions and even after our work together comes to a close. I pray that all of you find healing.
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