#selfcompassion

5 Powerful Re-Frames to Help You Create a Positive Relationship with Food

Paige Smathers

May 22, 2020

5 Powerful Re-Frames to Help You Create a Positive Relationship with Food

The messages most of us have received about nutrition nutrition and health can lead to a lot of chaos. And ironically, the things we've been taught to do to improve our health and nutrition often backfire and can even lead to poorer health outcomes. These teachings, messages and notions come from diet culture, not from the true meaning of health. It's important to identify the difference between diet culture and true health and wellbeing so we can slowly start to separate the

157: Demystifying Gentle Nutrition & Its Role in Intuitive Eating

Paige Smathers

Sep 9, 2019

157: Demystifying Gentle Nutrition & Its Role in Intuitive Eating

The last principle of the Intuitive Eating book is "Honor your Health with Gentle Nutrition" and this podcast episode dives into this topic, exploring what it means, how to know you're ready, and what it looks like on a practical level. Rachael Hartley, RD, LD, is a Columbia, SC-based nutrition therapist, certified intuitive eating counselor and nationally-recognized food and nutrition expert. She holds a Bachelors of Science in Human Nutrition and a Bachelors of Art in Psych

Paige Smathers

Aug 26, 2019

156: Fatness in Indian Culture

In this episode, Kimmie Singh shares her experience of the intersection of fatness in Indian culture. She shares her experience of eating disorder recovery and going to school to become a registered dietitian while being a higher weight person. She shares particular critiques of eating disorder treatment that can be more culturally sensitive as well as sharing ways Indian culture might move toward compassion for folks in various sizes. Kimmie Singh is a fat Registered Dietiti

Paige Smathers

Aug 19, 2019

Does this Ever Get Easier?

"Whoa, this sounds like a lot of work! You're really saying you watch your thoughts and practice mindfulness, self-compassion with your food choices? That seems like it would take a lot of time! Will it ever get easier?" If I had a nickel for every time I was asked that question... Look, I get it. Diets have made us believe that we should have instant 'results'. Diets have brainwashed us into thinking that if it isn't easy, we need to move on to the next quick fix empty promi

155: "Is it My Fault?"—Tips and Resources for People who Love Someone Struggling with Food

Paige Smathers

Aug 12, 2019

155: "Is it My Fault?"—Tips and Resources for People who Love Someone Struggling with Food

Nutrition Matters Podcast provides many resources and conversations exploring how people can heal from disordered eating and struggles with food. This episode goes in a different direction than the norm: Kathleen and Paige dive into providing tips and resources for those who love someone who is struggling with food. While there are many resources for those struggling, there aren't as many for those who support and love someone who struggle with food. This podcast episode does

Cupcakes Might Be Easier Than Carrots when it come to Food Freedom

Paige Smathers

Aug 5, 2019

Cupcakes Might Be Easier Than Carrots when it come to Food Freedom

When working on food freedom, it's easy to initially understand the need to eat the previously forbidden foods. It makes sense to eat the foods that were off limits during your dieting days. It feels good to make peace with things like muffins, cupcakes, croissants, ice cream, and/or whatever else you deemed wrong or bad. There is SO much value in making peace with those foods. They are a part of life and bring us joy, tastiness, and connection—all things I'm in full support

154: Navigating a Vegan Lifestyle while Embracing Intuitive Eating

Paige Smathers

Jul 29, 2019

154: Navigating a Vegan Lifestyle while Embracing Intuitive Eating

Are Intuitive Eating and Veganism mutually exclusive philosophies? Taylor Wolfram, RDN and Paige wrestle with this question in this podcast episode. As a dietitian passionate about body autonomy and promoting a peaceful relationship with food who also happens to eat in a way that aligns with her values with animals, Taylor occupies this niche within the intuitive eating community. She has found the balance between these ideas and shares her insight into navigating the nuance

The Ingredient Most People are Missing in Their Approach to Food

Paige Smathers

Jul 22, 2019

The Ingredient Most People are Missing in Their Approach to Food

Self-compassion is the foundation of the work I do with nutrition. It might sound strange coming from a registered dietitian, but it's absolutely critical to develop self-compassion as you begin (or continue) to work on your nutrition. Otherwise, you run the risk of your nutrition changes playing out like every other diet has in the past: leaving you feeling guilty, defeated, and frustrated. Whether it's subconscious or not, most of us are operating on this basic premise with

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

Paige Smathers

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

How to Measure Progress with Nutrition Beyond Inches and Pounds

Paige Smathers

Jun 17, 2019

How to Measure Progress with Nutrition Beyond Inches and Pounds

Relying on numbers as a barometer for success with your nutrition and eating is tricky business. It's asking for trouble when you step on the scale to decide what type of day you're going to have. It can look like this: Am I up a pound? Okay, it's going to be a bad day. Am I down today? Okay, that means I can have a good day. Honestly, I wouldn't wish that life on anyone! Your body is a complicated, beautiful, sophisticated entity—and, leaning on the measurement of the earth'

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

150: A Simple, Straightforward Way to Decide What To Eat

Paige Smathers

May 27, 2019

150: A Simple, Straightforward Way to Decide What To Eat

"Okay this is all great, but what should I eat?!" If I had a nickel for every time I've been asked this question, I'd a rich woman! While it's totally understandable to want answers to this question, it's actually much more difficult to answer than most people think. What a person eats is highly dependent on many factors: accessibility of food, socioeconomic status, hunger levels, social gatherings, cultural factors, and more. You can see how difficult it is as a registered d

149: How Connecting to our Instinct to Eat can Help us Make Peace with Food

Paige Smathers

May 13, 2019

149: How Connecting to our Instinct to Eat can Help us Make Peace with Food

As a journalist, Virginia Sole-Smith tells stories of women. With her new book, The Eating Instinct: Food Culture, Body Image and Guilt in America, Virginia explores how we can find the power to reconnect to our bodies and our own innate understanding of how to eat in a culture that’s constantly giving women so many mixed messages about both those things. In this episode, Virginia shares about how she began her career giving diet advice in teen and women’s magazines and exper

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

Paige Smathers

Apr 23, 2019

Anti-Inflammation Hack: Love Yourself

With all the health gurus and influencers promoting hacks for anti-inflammation, this part of the story is really important because nuance matters. The next time you come across an influencer du jour promoting the latest food trend touting it's anti-inflammatory capabilities, put your critical thinking cap on. One 2018 study found that body dissatisfaction may play a role in the development of chronic disease and may lead to increased levels of circulating inflammatory biomar

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