Unless you are a frequent visitor to this site, it is likely you won’t notice that we at Integrating Nutrition have made a few modest but significant changes to this web page. Ordinarily, changes to web sites are basically cosmetic updates, but in this case, the changes point to a more fundamental shift, not only here at Integrating Nutrition but in much of the nutrition industry at large.
As a nutritional healthcare advisor and therapist, it is my primary objective to guide the people I work with in creating health and balance in aspects of their lives that encompass emotional and physical well-being.
Too many people these day are obsessed with their weight; this unfortunate obsession has been influenced by artificial ideals of what bodies should look like. These ideals are dangerously inspired by images of too-skinny fashion models and airbrushed photographs of celebrities. Too many people end up distilling their sense of self-worth into how “perfect” (or not) their bodies look. The problem with this is, of course, there is no such thing as perfect.
As I have evolved in my practice, (first as a conventional RD and then as an RD/therapist working with clients and their eating issues,) my focus has shifted from wanting to help people lose weight to a more “whole-person” goal: helping them develop proper eating and physical exercise strategies. I encourage my clients to develop the skills of intuitive eating for their optimum health, and to develop relationships with food that are nurturing in every sense of the word. And finally, I guide them to feel love and gratitude for their healthy body, whether or not it fits the narrow definition of aesthetic beauty some parts of our culture glorifies.
The takeaway:
At Integrating Nutrition, we believe that what is important is Health at Every Size. Because a truly healthy body brimming with self-acceptance and gratitude is beautiful, no matter what shape it takes.
