You may have made your way to this page because you feel confused about what “normal” eating even means. You have probably endured years, or decades, of messages like “you should eat this, not that”, “that is a bad food”, and “you can have as much of this guilt-free (read: diet) food as you want”. If you have been trying desperately to lose weight by following various diets, sticking to food rules, or eating according to any kind of external plan, your hunger and fullness cues might be totally out of whack. And on top of all of this, trying to wade through the ocean of nutrition and “health” information available on the internet and social media is completely overwhelming to sort through. Whew! No wonder you’re feeling confused!

Well, you landed in the right place! We have created a normal eating quiz (guide, checklist, assessment - or whatever you want to call it) to provide you with a jumping off point...

Did you just see your tenth (or ten millionth) content piece about “new year, new me”? Let’s all say it together - ugh! It’s time for a new year celebration again, and with that comes all the diet industry ads and allll the pressure to make new year’s resolutions around health and body size (and just like every year, they come with that golden promise that “this time, you will make it work”!). Before you start your goal list (or don’t), can we invite you in for a little chat on why you should not make a new year’s resolution to lose weight? 

Weight is not a behavior

Read that line again. Weight is not a behavior, and it’s not something you can directly control over the long term. Which means it’s not realistic to make a goal about controlling or changing weight. Research shows that there is little support for the notion that diets lead to lasting weight loss or health benefits. In fact, about 75% of...

Whether you're a newcomer to intuitive eating or a seasoned vet, pleasure in food can sometimes still feel like a dirty word. Allowing and enjoying pleasure in your eating experience goes against everything diet culture stands for, like self-control, denial of pleasure, and avoidance of "bad" foods.

The intuitive eating principles describe pleasure in food as one of the most basic and important factors in feeling satisfied or content with food. So eating for pleasure is important, and in this blog, we'll answer 4 questions about food/eating and PLEASURE. 

What are some of the psychological health benefits associated with food enjoyment?

• Pleasure of any kind (including pleasure from food) leads to a release of dopamine (a neurotransmitter) in the brain. Dopamine is often referred to as the “feel good chemical” because it activates the reward pathways in the brain, which helps to promote happiness, calmness, motivation, and focus.
• ...

Self-esteem can be a major area of confusion and heartache for many (ok, probably most). In order for our clients at Wise Heart Nutrition to truly experience progress in healing their relationship with food, we typically have to spend some time addressing self-esteem. First of all let’s clarify what self-esteem really is and why it’s important to our everyday lives. Then we’ll get to the good stuff - 5 steps to improve your self-esteem. 

What exactly is self-esteem?

Self-esteem is your subjective sense of overall personal worth or value. The key word here is subjective - self-esteem may not be based on reality, but rather our perception. Similar to self-respect, it describes your level of confidence in your abilities and personal attributes. 

Some sources that contribute to low self-esteem include:

• Living through negative or traumatic experiences
• Lacking access to positive support systems
• Engaging in or taking actions that...

Daylight Saving Time has just ended (ugh), and the days are getting much shorter, much darker, and much colder. In the words of some famous show - winter is coming.

Have you ever noticed changes in your food cravings or shifts in your body weight with the seasons? Like, how a bowl of hot tomato soup and grilled cheese sounds way more appealing than watermelon and salad in the winter. Or how clothing might fit differently from summer to winter? Let’s explore why and how cravings and weight can fluctuate in the winter - and the big question, is that normal? 

The general answer to that question is - yes, this is normal! We crave different foods, and our bodies may go through subtle (and even not so subtle) changes during the winter months. There are a few reasons for all of this, including (but not limited to) traditional seasonality, thermic response, and psychological shifts during this time of year.

Below, we break down these 3...

Spooky season is already upon us, which means the holidays are here! But, what we are told is the “most wonderful time of the year” can often feel like the most stressful time of the year. We are bombarded with events centered on food, more social commitments, being around family, and surrounded by expectations to be in a “festive mood”, spend money, and listen to non-stop holiday music. And with all of these variables (and more) contributing to stress, comes anxiety, which can manifest in our relationship with food. 

I wish I could tell you that the spirit of the holiday season would magically make it easy to maintain the healthy relationship with food that you have been working towards. Wouldn’t that be nice? 

Despite all this doom and gloom (it is halloween, after all), you CAN navigate the holidays, eat intuitively, AND maintain a healthy relationship with food. Here are 5 tips to thrive during the holidays and...

You may have heard (or even felt) criticism that intuitive eating is not possible for neurodivergent (i.e. ADHD, Austistic) people. At Wise Heart Nutrition, we reject that all-or-nothing thinking and invite you to explore our approach, and see how intuitive eating may need to be modified to be realistic for you. Here, we reframe each of the 10 principles of Intuitive Eating to be inclusive of neurodivergent folx. It might not feel ~magically intuitive~, but setting up systems that work for you in order to honor your body’s needs with compassion is 100% intuitive eating. 

Reject the Diet Mentality... even if you don't diet. 

While this is obviously easier said than done, everyone can embrace this first principle. It helps to learn more about how diets don’t work. Like how in 90-97% of cases, those who lost weight will gain it back within 2-5 years; and about of people will gain back even more weight than they originally lost. The diet and weight...

So, you've just experienced a binge eating episode... What do you do now?

Many individuals, (especially ADHDers and folx with a history of dieting) struggle with binge or compulsive eating, and more often than not, the binge eating is automatically seen as the "problem" to be fixed. This often results in deprivation and restriction to "make up for overeating", which then leads to more binge eating. In addition, beliefs about not having "enough willpower" or "discipline", as well as guilt and shame, often show up after or during a binge due to our society creating the myth that you should, or even can, have control over food. Binge eating, negative emotions, and restriction often spirals into a vicious cycle, which can feel impossible to break. 

The cycle (see graphic below) has several stages: the binge, the sense of emotional relief or numbness, the thoughts and feelings that follow, the planning, the disruption to the plan, and then back to the binge. Diet culture has...

What If Body Positivity Isn't The Answer?

When you are first exploring what it would look like to not dislike your body, as media at large directs you to do, the body positivity movement can be met with rolled eyes and thoughts of “are you kidding me” and “that’s wayyy too hard”. And yeah, when starting from a place of hatred, disgust or dismissal of your body, it can seem an impossible task to ever reach a place of love, appreciation, and acceptance. Enter body neutrality. 

While self love regarding our bodies is important, it’s not always attainable in our society where we are constantly flooded with messages about an “ideal body” that are rooted in white, colonial, and fatphobic systems. Here are some important reasons why body-positivity and body-love aren’t going to work for everyone: 

1. The mainstream body positivity movement isn’t actually inclusive of ALL bodies (The original creators of...

Are nutritional guidelines helpful for everyone?

Dietary variety (eating lots of different foods from all the different food groups) has long been considered a pillar of “good nutrition”. Blanket dietary recommendations like this are intended to support the greater population, but when these guidelines are solely focused on nutrients and physiological health, many groups of people get overlooked, left out, and placed in a disadvantaged position where health and wellness (when measured by whether or not a person is meeting a given recommendation) are essentially out of reach. And when these folx continue to chase after an impossible standard, other aspects of health (mental, emotional, relational, financial, etc.) suffer… and that isn’t really supportive of health at all. 

When we talk about health, instead of trying to fit everyone into one box, we need to consider and understand what is REALISTIC, CONTEXTUAL, ACCESSIBLE, POSSIBLE,...