Notes From My Dietician (v. 1)

Because many of you expressed interest in learning more about working with a dietician, I have decided to start a new series called, Notes From My Dietician. Here, I’ll be talking about what I’ve been working on and learning from my dietician. I’m not going to talk about weight loss here because that’s not the reason I’m seeing a dietician. Instead, I’m going to talk about how I’m slowly changing my diet to make sure that the next time I get blood work done, I have sparkling numbers and my risk of heart disease, high cholesterol, and pre-diabetes is going down.

I started seeing a dietician in early August (the reason behind this decision can be found here). I was very careful in choosing a dietician, as I wanted someone who wouldn’t put me on a very restrictive diet and who believed in the concept of Health At Every Size. Thankfully, when perusing dieticians who accepted my insurance, I found a nutrition practice that had great bios of all of their practitioners, and through that, I was able to find someone whose bio really spoke to me. Here are some of the gems:

• recognizes that you are the expert of your body and experiences
• approach combines science with personal sustainability, satisfaction, and cultural preferences
• enjoys helping folks improve their relationship with food

I was extremely lucky to have found an excellent dietician from the outset. This journey is intensely personal and can bring up a lot of vulnerabilities and triggers, which is why many of us stay away from dietician services in the first place. I can already be my own worst enemy; I don’t need someone else to beat me up, too.

My dietician is supportive and passionate and caring. In our first meeting, we talked extensively about how to make sure this journey is a positive, sustainable one for me. It doesn’t have to be scary or hard or overwhelming. I can make small changes, expect to have days when I don’t eat the way I wanted to, and trust myself throughout the process. She stresses the importance of listening to my body and getting a better understanding of how I’m feeling after eating certain foods, as well as how my hunger levels shift throughout the day. She doesn’t talk about “good foods” and “bad foods.” It’s all about my own food journey and eating things that are satisfying but also make my body feel well-nourished and happy. And that journey looks vastly different from person to person.

She’s also a big fan of making small changes. For example, during our appointment last week, we talked about my soda habit. I mentioned that I could stop buying soda at the grocery store so that I wouldn’t have it at home to “tempt” me. Honestly, I didn’t want to do that (I drink soda because I love the taste of it! It brings me happiness!) but wanted to impress my dietician with my dedication to my healthy living journey. Her response surprised me, however. “Don’t you think that’s a drastic change to make? Can we think about a smaller step you could take here?” Making big, sweeping changes to my diet isn’t helpful. Taking a habit I have (drinking soda) and unlearning the behaviors I have around them happens one small step at a time.

So that’s all about my dietician and the way we’re working together. What have I learned about healthy eating habits? Let’s discuss:

My eating plan

One of the first things my dietician and I worked on was an eating plan that makes sense for my life and my hunger cues. I usually wake up hungry and need to eat frequently throughout the morning, otherwise, I deal with low blood sugar. In the afternoons, my blood sugar stabilizes for the most part but I still get hungry and could use a good, protein-heavy snack to carry me through to dinnertime. Here’s what we decided on:

• 6ish: Piece of fruit if I’m working out first thing in the morning, which is currently a little bowl of grapes
• 7:30am: Breakfast. I have eggs and toast with coffee (three eggs if I’m scrambling them, two eggs if I’m frying them). If I don’t work out in the morning, I’ll also have fruit with breakfast.
• 10:00-10:30am: Morning snack. Currently, this is string cheese and a pack of nuts.
• 12:00pm: Lunch. I’ve been having a bowl of tuna fish with mayo and potato chips. I’m getting very sick of this lunch, though, so this is changing. (More on that below.)
• 2:30-3:00pm: Afternoon snack. I’ve been really bad at remembering to have this snack, although I definitely need it. When I do have an afternoon snack, it’s Greek yogurt and fruit.
• 7:00ish: Dinner. This is very flexible right now. It could be frozen pizza or homemade nachos or chicken with veggies.
• 8:30ish: Dessert, if needed. (I don’t always want dessert after dinner, but I keep a carton of ice cream in the freezer for my after-dinner dessert.)

Snack plate lunches

I have always struggled when it comes to lunch. I need a big, filling lunch but I never know what that should be. I don’t like salad (at least, salad I make myself; salad from a restaurant is another story). I don’t really want to make a sandwich every day. And I can easily grow tired of what I’m eating, so I need to be able to switch up my lunch options frequently.

At our last meeting, my dietician and I brainstormed about lunches and we decided that snack plate lunches are the way to go for me. This way, I can mix and match my lunch options for what I’m craving each week. Each snack plate should have protein, starch, fruit, and veggies. For example, I can have rolled-up turkey slices, hard-boiled eggs, pita chips with hummus, roasted broccoli, and a fruit cup. Or I can have rotisserie chicken, cheese and crackers, brown rice, olives, and strawberries.

The point is that I can make my lunch whatever I want it to be, and it doesn’t have to all feel like it goes together perfectly. I often fall into the trap of thinking that my food must be packaged in such a way that it will look like the perfect Instagram picture, but the reality is that it can look like a mess, and as long as it is satisfying and filling to me, and is providing me with the right nutrients, that’s all that matters.

Increasing my water intake

I constantly struggle with drinking water, which is well-documented on this blog. It’s something I want to be better about, but it’s a weakness. Plus, I only like to drink water that is ice cold. Room temperature water is so blech to me.

So, I was fairly shocked when my dietician suggested seltzer water like LaCroix. Wait, what? Isn’t that cheating? It’s not truly hydrating, is it? But nope, it’s just water with bubbles and a bit of flavor! It counts as water and hydration.

Mind-blowing to me. You mean I can drink a can of LaCroix and count it towards my water intake for the day?! I truly had no idea!

I still want to keep up with my water drinking, but knowing I can crack open a LaCroix when I need the hydration but I’m not in the mood for plain water has opened up my world. A Shot of Joy is also a good for of hydration and it comes with multiple health benefits. You can also look into immunity intravenous therapy like this IV therapy – Chi-Ma Med Spa via experts that do functional medicine in Kansas City, MO and other areas.

I have made a slew of other changes to my diet, but again, we’re taking things SLOW. Even getting one serving of fruit per day is a win, as I used to go many, many days in a row without anything. Cooking myself one meal a week that fulfills my nutritional needs is a win. Frozen pizza, soda, and chocolate are still part of my diet, and they likely will remain that way because I like all of those things and I’m not into deprivation diets anymore. But one night of pizza per week instead of multiple nights of pizza? That’s a win.

It’s about the small steps that push me in the right direction.