Positive Nutrition Blog

Jul 8, 2019

The Single Most Helpful Thing I've Learned as an Entrepreneur, Nutrition Therapist and Mother

One of the things I love most about my work is that I learn things through my professional endeavors that end up profoundly benefiting me as a human. One of the first examples of this was becoming a mom. From the moment my first daughter latched and breastfed, I was so grateful to have had classes and training on feeding babies in my schooling to become a dietitian. As my daughter progressed toward solids and started showing signs of picky eating, I was so glad I'd learned ab

152: What Does it Look Like When Things are Going Well with Nutrition and Body Image?

Paige Smathers

Jun 24, 2019

152: What Does it Look Like When Things are Going Well with Nutrition and Body Image?

This podcast outlines ways to identify when things are going well with your relationship with food. It's understandable that we spend significant amounts of time talking about where things go wrong and what to do about it, but I think it's also useful to look at food, nutrition, and body image from the perspective of what's going right. In other words, how can we see progress? What are the skills, habits, and behaviors of those who are in a positive, happy place with food? I

151: The Distinction Between Mindfulness and Intuitive Eating

Paige Smathers

Jun 10, 2019

151: The Distinction Between Mindfulness and Intuitive Eating

This week on the podcast, I'm sharing an episode where I was a guest discussing mindfulness, intuitive eating, self-compassion and more: some of my all-time favorite concepts! We discuss how mindfulness fits into intuitive eating and vice versa. If you've ever wondered what "mindful eating" actually means, this one is for you! Links mentioned: Rachel Goodman's new podcast: The Kosher Intuitive Eater June's webinar: The Positive Nutrition® Approach to Meal Planning Subscribe t

On International No Diet Day: Get to Know your Resources

Paige Smathers

May 6, 2019

On International No Diet Day: Get to Know your Resources

Although the word diet is in my official title as a registered dietitian nutritionist, I don’t promote dieting. For more on why, read this blog post outlining the 10 reasons diets don't work. On May 6 each year, I get really excited about the opportunity to celebrate International No Diet Day. This day is dedicated to raising awareness about the pitfalls of dieting and helping lead people toward a healthier relationship with food and their bodies. Many people I work with on a

If You're Stressed, Your Gut Likely is, Too

Paige Smathers

May 1, 2019

If You're Stressed, Your Gut Likely is, Too

If you’re stressed, your gut is too. Our gut and our brain are connected. In fact, I think we sometimes do ourselves a disservice when we separate our bodies into separate systems like mind and body (although I understand why we do—without separating our bodily systems, it’s very difficult to conceptualize how we work as human beings). As you can likely imagine, many of the clients I work with suffer from significant GI distress. While I never want to knock evidence-based die

Your Body isn't for Manipulating: It's for Living your Full and Beautiful Life

Paige Smathers

Apr 8, 2019

Your Body isn't for Manipulating: It's for Living your Full and Beautiful Life

We get bombarded with messages that our bodies need changing. That if we only tweaked this or that about our body (through food and/or exercise) we'd be happy, healthy, people would like us, we would be worthy of love and connection and more. The way we feel about our bodies is integral to how we feed them, rest them, move them, and care for them. This is why body image and media literacy is such a huge part of the work I do with clients as they heal their relationship with f

142: What Marie Kondo Can Teach Us About Food

Paige Smathers

Feb 4, 2019

142: What Marie Kondo Can Teach Us About Food

Marie Kondo's approach to tidying up is taking the world by storm. Her new Netflix special has shot her into the spotlight and has gotten people discussing joy and tidiness on all sides of the spectrum. But what can her approach to tidying up and sparking joy teach us about food and our bodies? I'll tell you what I think in this podcast episode. And, I'll share about why I think tidiness is great, but why messiness is where the magic happens. Links mentioned: Marie Kondo's Ne

The Problem with Nutrition & Health Goals

Paige Smathers

Aug 23, 2018

The Problem with Nutrition & Health Goals

I’ve always had trouble with the concept of goals. Don’t misunderstand, I’m a very driven and motivated person, and I like routine and structure. But, something about the idea of goals has always rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe it’s the continual cycle of setting goals, being motivated, forgetting or losing focus about the goal, recommitting, and starting over. To me, this cycle feels exhausting, discouraging and not very productive. There was one point in my career as a regis

Paige Smathers

Jul 25, 2018

125: Resilience Through Loss

Laura Iu is a registered dietitian, intuitive eating coach and yoga teacher who is passionate about helping people heal their relationships with food and body. She lives and works in New York City and helps people heal themselves through food and joyful movement. Laura founded Nourish New York, where she offers private yoga and intuitive eating coaching. In this episode, Laura shares her experience of losing both of her parents early in her childhood. She talks about how the

124: Performative Health vs. Embodied Wellbeing

Paige Smathers

Jul 18, 2018

124: Performative Health vs. Embodied Wellbeing

This podcast episode dives deep into some of the most critical and core concepts within the realm of health and healing. I spoke with Dr. Lilia Graue, who is both a physician as well as a psychotherapist, to dive into the distinctions between performative health versus embodied wellbeing. Lilia Graue, MD, LMFT, is an eating disorders specialist and clinical supervisor; mindfulness, compassion and mindful eating instructor; and Certified Body Trust® Provider. With 18 years of

Paige Smathers

May 3, 2018

Of Course You've Changed

Hi everyone. Long time no talk. I’ve been incredibly busy over the last few months. It’s been an exciting time for me professionally and for my business. Over the last few months, I’ve rebranded my business, hired a registered dietitian to work with me, spoke at the Utah Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Annual Meeting about intuitive eating and Health at Every Size, hosted my first ever in-person workshop on mindful eating, put on a webinar about a dietitian’s role in addic

Paige Smathers

Apr 26, 2018

Intuitive Eating Isn't the Goal

My clients and podcast listeners will often reach out to me and report that they’re sad they haven’t been better at eating intuitively. They lament that they occasionally fall back into the dieting mentality, fail to perfectly honor hunger and fullness, or fall short in finding satisfaction at meals. I totally understand where this sentiment is coming from and I empathize with feeling like you’re falling short, especially when you’re trying to figure out how to walk away from

112: Challenging All-or-Nothing Thinking

Paige Smathers

Apr 25, 2018

112: Challenging All-or-Nothing Thinking

In this episode, Kara Lydon of the Foodie Dietitian Blog talk about her evolution of healing her relationship with food. We also then discuss how all-or-nothing thinking can get in the way of so much joy and connection with food and our bodies and explore this common cognitive distortion we see in our practice as dietitians with clients. Kara shares how her work and her blog is a resource for folks seeking a balanced and nuanced approach to health-promoting eating. She's work

Paige Smathers

Apr 11, 2018

110: How to Feel Your Feelings

Tiffany Roe is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor, teacher, speaker, social media influencer, podcaster, & the owner of Mindful Counseling LLC in Orem, Utah. She passionately helps her clients remember they are enough. Tiffany has focused her career on treatment for women navigating eating disorder recovery, disordered eating, poor body image, poor relationships with themselves and food, substance abuse, anxiety, and low self-worth. She feels called to work with wo

Paige Smathers

Apr 10, 2018

Mindful Eating Workshop Recap

Well, we did it! We pulled off our first even in-person workshop and it was a huge success. Noah Rasheta, host of Secular Buddhism Podcast as well as author of a brand new book, and I hosted an all-day Mindful Eating Workshop in Salt Lake City for 34 attendees on April 7, 2018. We started the day off with Kodiak Cakes who sponsored our pancake and fruit breakfast. Each attendee got a cute reusable Positive Nutrition™ grocery bag, a workbook to write and reflect in during the

Paige Smathers

Mar 21, 2018

107: The Intersection of Art & Healing

Lauren Brereton, RDN writes poetry to heal, to learn and to grow. She has been publishing her poems on social media and she came on the podcast to talk about her poetry and how creating art has been a critical part of her healing. We talk about her story with food and body and in this episode of Nutrition Matters Podcast, she reads some of her favorite poems related to those topics. They are beautiful and powerful ways to express complex emotions and experiences. Links mentio