Nutrition

Embrace Vacation Cuisine With These Intuitive Eating Tips!

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Do you spend more time worrying about food and your body image on vacation than enjoying yourself and the experiences? 

Would you believe me if I told you that vacations can be a great place to start healing your relationship with food and body?!

🤔

Pack one OR all of these intuitive eating vacay tips with you to make vacation a time of joy, self-care, and empowerment! 

1.Listen to your body’s cues:

Honor your hunger and fullness signals while savoring the delicious local cuisine. Allow yourself to enjoy the slower pace of vacation-mode and eat mindfully, sensing the flavors and savoring the pleasurable experience.  

2. Shift the focus from numbers (calories, macros, etc) to experiences:

Instead of obsessing over every bite, focus on the incredible experiences and memories you’re creating. Whether it’s exploring a new culture or basking in the sun, immerse yourself fully and let food be just one part of the adventure.

3. Challenge food rules:

Break free from rigid food rules and embrace the freedom to choose what truly nourishes and delights you. Give yourself permission to enjoy that gelato or daily croissant. Variety and pleasure are essential components of intuitive eating!

4. Practice body appreciation:

Your body is your incredible companion on this vacation journey. Celebrate its strength, resilience, and ability to carry you through incredible experiences. Wear that swimsuit proudly and bask in the joy of being present in the moment.

5. Cultivate self-compassion:

If you find yourself struggling with negative thoughts or guilt, remember to be kind to yourself. Show yourself compassion and remind yourself that enjoying delicious food and embracing body positivity are part of a healthy and fulfilling vacation.

Whether you’re squeezing in one last vacation this summer or not these tips can be practiced at any meal, any day, anywhere! If you embrace intuitive eating and practice body kindness, you will begin to live a life that nourishes your soul🌞💖

I’m Christie, a registered dietician and nutrition therapist, and I want to share the TRUTH about eating for a healthy mind & body! I host in-person and virtual workshops so you can learn how to nourish yourself for health and happiness – no diet pills needed!

If you are finally over yo-yo dieting and nutrition confusion, I’m here to support you! 

My programs are mindfulness-based, non-diet approaches that allow you to identify, understand and move beyond your eating struggles, and reconnect with your internal signals of hunger and satiety. 

Intuitive Nourishment – virtual group program – learn more!

Nutrition Workshops – check to see what’s coming up here!

As a Nutrition Therapist, Christie Caggiani speaks regularly to groups of children and adults, and counsels individuals in such areas as eating disorders, preventive nutrition, women’s health, and wellness. She works as part of a multi-disciplinary team, at the Therapeutic Oasis

Her mission has been to work with individuals and families on their journey toward a balanced and fulfilling life with food, and to challenge the intense cultural and societal pressures around eating and bodies. Her mindfulness-based, non-diet approach allows clients in all body shapes and sizes to identify, understand and move beyond their eating struggles, as they reconnect with their internal signals of hunger and satiety. 

Christie is a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor, providing one on one coaching to those who are determined to free themselves from diet culture.  Additionally, she offers online workshops and courses to move the message of Intuitive Eating to groups of people in a safe, supportive setting.

What the Diet Industry Isn’t Telling You About Diet Pills

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Let’s be real, marketing sells. Unfortunately, a big part of how it sells is by telling you (1) you’re not okay (2) you need the whatever-we-are-selling-you in order to fix it.

Diet culture thrives off this mentality, and the dangers of the diet industry are rarely highlighted.  The same goes for the way they promote diet pills. They promise to magically create weight loss by suppressing appetite, increasing metabolism or blocking the absorption of fat. So even if part of that is true (and most of it isn’t), the risks and side effects deserve to be talked about.

So what is the diet industry NOT telling you about diet pills?

  1. No pill really raises your metabolism. Our metabolism is optimized when we eat enough, not when we restrict.  Diet pills say they raise metabolism, but in reality they are stimulating the central nervous system – raising your heart rate and blood pressure is NOT the same as raising your metabolism.  
  2. They’re ineffective: Even if they suppress appetite and some weight loss results, the loss is typically temporary, and weight regain results – typically to a weight that’s higher than pre-diet. Hunger and appetite normally returns more strongly after the diet pills, as your body’s attempt at protecting you and ensuring your survival. 
  3. Side effects: From mild to severe, they range from nausea, diarrhea, constipation, headaches, dizziness, insomnia, jitteriness and dehydration.
  4. Dependency and addiction:  Some diet pills contain stimulants like caffeine or amphetamines, which can lead to dependency or addiction. This can result in tolerance, where higher doses are needed to achieve the same effects, leading to potential abuse and health risks.
  5. Health risks: Certain diet pills have been associated with serious health problems, including heart palpitations, high blood pressure, liver damage, kidney problems, and even stroke or heart attack.
  6. Interactions with medications: Diet pills can interact with other medications you may be taking, potentially reducing their effectiveness or causing serious and dangerous side effects.
  7. Nutrient deficiencies: Some diet pills may interfere with the absorption of essential nutrients, leading to deficiencies and other health complications.
  8. Lack of regulation: The supplement industry is not as strictly regulated as prescription drugs, so the safety and efficacy of diet pills may not be adequately evaluated before they reach the market.
  9. Unrealistic expectations: Diet pills may lead people to believe that they can achieve significant weight loss, which research has proven time and again is not sustainable, particularly if it involves restriction and deprivation.

The bottom line: anything that attempts to override your body’s signals and leads to restriction, deprivation and undernourishment, is destined to fail. Diet pills are simply another method to keep you stuck in diet culture and at the very least will be ineffective – and at the worst, dangerous. 

I’m Christie, a registered dietician and nutrition therapist, and I want to share the TRUTH about eating for a healthy mind & body! I host in-person and virtual workshops so you can learn how to nourish yourself for health and happiness – no diet pills needed!

If you are finally over yo-yo dieting and nutrition confusion, I’m here to support you! 

My programs are mindfulness-based, non-diet approaches that allow you to identify, understand and move beyond your eating struggles, and reconnect with your internal signals of hunger and satiety. 

Intuitive Nourishment – virtual group program – learn more!

Nutrition Workshops – check to see what’s coming up here!

As a Nutrition Therapist, Christie Caggiani speaks regularly to groups of children and adults, and counsels individuals in such areas as eating disorders, preventive nutrition, women’s health, and wellness. She works as part of a multi-disciplinary team, at the Therapeutic Oasis

Her mission has been to work with individuals and families on their journey toward a balanced and fulfilling life with food, and to challenge the intense cultural and societal pressures around eating and bodies. Her mindfulness-based, non-diet approach allows clients in all body shapes and sizes to identify, understand and move beyond their eating struggles, as they reconnect with their internal signals of hunger and satiety. 

Christie is a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor, providing one on one coaching to those who are determined to free themselves from diet culture.  Additionally, she offers online workshops and courses to move the message of Intuitive Eating to groups of people in a safe, supportive setting.

Week 17/Using Mindful Eating to Reconnect With Your Inner Wisdom

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As a nutritionist, so often clients come to me anticipating I will tell them “what to eat” – sometimes they hope for it, sometimes they dread the idea.  However, I see my role very differently, one where I help them reconnect and build trust with their own internal wisdom.  

You see, we’re all born with the innate desire to nourish ourselves.  When given the opportunity to explore foods and provided food in a regular and timely manner, we tend to notice that certain foods give us quick, readily available energy, while others are more satisfying.  In other words, we are able to distinguish what our body needs when we give ourselves a chance to tune in and listen.  Each of us has our own hunger patterns, food preferences and dislikes, health needs and genetic predispositions.

By creating space to be truly mindful around the eating process, we find that our internal nutritionist guides us. Sometimes that nutritionist says “I need some veggies” and sometimes it clearly says, “I need some ice cream!”.  After mindfully acknowledging when we’re hungry, it can be helpful to close our eyes and tune into what we are hungry for.  Once we identify what we’re hungry for and give ourselves permission to eat it, we can sit, taste, chew, savor and enjoy each bite – allowing our internal nutritionist to let us know if the food is meeting our needs, and when we actually feel content.  

You see, our internal nutritionist isn’t simply about nutrition – it’s about allowing food to fuel our body, brain and soul.  So stay curious, connected and nonjudgmental as you explore what your internal nutritionist whispers to you!

Christie Caggiani is a Registered Dietitian and Nutrition Therapist at Therapeutic Oasis of the Palm Beaches.  Her mindfulness-based, non-diet approach allows clients to identify, understand and move beyond their eating struggles, as they reconnect with their internal signals of hunger and satiety. She is passionate about teaching clients to eat intuitively and move joyfully.  For Sacred Treehouse, Christie has designed a series of fun and educational nutrition and cooking workshops for both children and teens. She also offers cooking and nutrition workshops for adults.