If you’ve recently received a medical diagnosis or are navigating through a health concern, it’s common to feel like the best way to treat it is to stick with dieting. 

This is such a common reaction for those who have recently received bloodwork or test results back, or are experiencing a health worry. But the truth is you can honor your health with intuitive eating – without cutting out butter or eggs, or logging everything into your calorie-counting app. 

Today, I want to use myself as a case study and pull back the curtain on my own story: how I discovered I had high cholesterol at 22, what I did to manage it, how I think completely differently now, and how you can use these strategies on your own journey. 

My High Cholesterol Diagnosis at 22

I was walking in the middle of campus at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, when my phone rang. A nurse from the student health center where I had my labs drawn a few days prior was calling to let me know that my cholesterol was high. 

My stomach sank and my heart started racing. 

I felt scared and confused. As I was studying dietetics, I understood that high cholesterol is not a great thing. 

But I was forcing myself to go to the gym almost every day, I was dedicated to “healthy” eating (which was mostly low fat because we were still in that era). How on earth could my cholesterol be high? 

The nurse recommended that I follow a low fat diet. I practically hung up on her after I informed her that my diet was about as low fat as humanly possible. (This should have raised red flags that my relationship with food wasn’t the best.) 

I hardly drank alcohol compared to most of my friends, and I ate a lot of fiber from fruits and vegetables. I was already doing what I was being taught to recommend to people with high cholesterol. 

Fast forward to March of 2025, when I’m eating more fat (with an emphasis on unsaturated fat and omega-3s), and I’m still exercising but in a less obsessive way, and my cholesterol is basically the exact same as it was almost 20 years ago.

It doesn’t seem to budge no matter what my lifestyle is looking like. (Not totally surprising given that we know cholesterol is largely driven by genetics, but still annoying.) 

Why I Didn’t Let Cholesterol Turn Into Dieting (and What I Did Instead) 

If you’ve been told your blood sugar, weight, or blood pressure is creeping up, your first instinct is probably to panic, restrict, and overhaul everything. 

You’re not alone. For me, as soon as I saw those numbers, the old diet-culture thoughts came flooding in. 

• “Maybe I should stop eating the cheese.” 
• “Maybe it’s time to give up eggs.” 
• “Maybe I should track my food again just to see what I’m ‘really’ eating.” 

I even started mentally sorting foods into “safe” and “dangerous, even though I know that’s not how bodies work. 

There was a part of me that wanted to go into full-blown nutrition bootcamp mode where I would only live by the “perfect” cholesterol-lowering protocol. 

Here’s the deal: these types of diagnoses make us feel out of control and restricting foods brings back a sense of – you guessed it – control. 

But that doesn’t work as a sustainable strategy for your health. 

How I Manage High Cholesterol Without Dieting

Instead of focusing on what to restrict, control, or cut out, lean into what you can add. 

Here’s what – as a registered dietitian and intuitive eater – am doing to navigate my high cholesterol as I get older? I’m adding in the below to help address my high cholesterol: 

• Soluble fiber that binds LDL and helps excrete it (like Metamucil) 
• Fiber and plant stanols and sterols from fruits and veggies, as well as whole grains, nuts, and beans 
• Unsaturated fats and omega-3s, and using oil rather than butter when possible. 
• Building a sustainable exercise routine (without focusing on weight loss) 
• Sleep

Focusing on what you can add instead of restriction makes these changes feel a little easier to stick to and less of that all-or-none thinking. 

Remember, this isn’t about perfection. It’s about working with your body, not against it.

How do you figure out what’s best for you to add for your diagnosis? Talk to your doctor. Now, going to the doctor when you’re struggling with weight or body image can be difficult. Before you go, do your research, both on your diagnosis and possible additions you can make, as well as finding a doctor that truly supports you. 

How to Challenge All-or-Nothing Thinking About Health

First, let’s talk about mindset. It’s easy to slip into this all-or-none thinking when you’re managing health issues or medical diagnoses. If you’re experiencing it, know it’s a normal response…and it’s also not helpful.

Keep the big picture in mind. What are these additions and adjustments helping you work towards? How can you redefine what “healthy” means for you now versus last month or last year? 

That could look like… 

• Choosing to enjoy Saturday afternoon ice cream after your kids’ baseball games without guilt 
• Intentionally including a fruit or vegetable with most of your meals in ways that are satisfying to you rather than choking down things for “health”
• Recognizing that you’re already doing so many things to support your health and if your numbers still aren’t in a safe range, you may need medication support (and that’s okay!)

Staying grounded in self-compassion will help you navigate these necessary steps for your health and allow you to make peace with food after a medical diagnosis.

Non-Diet Tips for Navigating a Medical Diagnosis

Caring for your health during a medical worry can feel overwhelming. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you move through the journey: 

1. It’s okay to have feelings about it.

Typically, people have two different types of feelings: scared or anxious about their health, or shame and anger. If the first, let this guide you to address what’s going on. If the second, I see you and I say with all the love in the world that this isn’t helpful. Focus on gentle, positive changes instead of listing everything you possibly did wrong. 

2. Approach your health from a place of curiosity, not fear. 

There are so many non-diet things available with the intuitive eating process that will meaningfully improve your health while allowing you to find peace with food. 

3. Know you can care for your health without abandoning your relationship with food or your body. 

If you want to learn more about this, go take my free two-minute Discover Your Unique Path to Food Freedom quiz to get custom-based results on your answers. This outlines what you need to focus on right now and what intuitive eating elements are most beneficial for you right now. 

Final Thoughts: You Can Honor Health Without Restriction

So many people have been made to feel like they can’t eat carbs if they have diabetes, can’t have salt if they have high blood pressure, or can’t have fat if they have high cholesterol.

But the truth is you don’t need to follow a restrictive diet to honor your health or any medical concerns. Lean into the mindset work to move past the instinctive all-or-none thinking, focus on what you can add into your diet, and know you can care for yourself while intuitively eating.

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Search for Ep.193 (Transcript): How I’m Navigating My Own High Cholesterol as a Dietitian and Intuitive Eater

Looking for more support on your journey to food freedom and body acceptance?

• Join my Facebook group & community “Intuitive Eating Made Easy”
• Take my FREE quiz “What’s Your Unique Path to Food Freedom?”
• Check out my course, Non-Diet Academy