Lindsey Mathes Nutrition

03/23/2023

For *anyone* who struggles.... eating disorders/disordered eating and food struggle in general doesn't discriminate.

For women who struggle with disordered eating and eating disorders, food, and the behaviors around food, act as a red herring.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Disordered eating thoughts and behaviors are, by design, created to distract us from emotions that seem too painful, too overwhelming, too complicated, or too frightening to deal with directly. As awful as it may be to “feel fat”, it can sometimes be easier to keep those feelings at bay by focusing on body weight, by stuffing them down with food, by distracting ourselves with calorie counting, or by exercising excessively — if we don’t know how to allow the full force of uncomfortable emotions to flow through us.

When we grasp at food and behaviors in an effort to gain control, what we don’t realize is it’s an effort to gain control over our emotions, over our life at large. Controlling our food intake and our bodies might make it seem like we are ‘in control’ but not over the things we actually want to control or understand, and this incongruence only allows those deeper emotions and unresolved issues to fester and grow as the eating disorder does the same. And it doesn’t work, and it never will.

When you first enter recovery, giving up behaviors, habits, and rituals around food that were part of your disordered eating feels like you are giving up control, when in reality, the disorder was in fact more in control of you.

You are not giving up control, you are giving up the illusion of control. And by doing so, allowing the time and space to address those deeper emotional rifts the have been hiding beneath the surface in order to TRULY AND FULLY HEAL.

03/03/2023

Despite what we're taught throughout much of our lives, there is no moral quality of food. All foods can fit in our diets, and "Good" or "Bad" labels for food are harmful. These labels often lead to disordered eating behaviors as well as feelings of guilt surrounding eating.

06/23/2022

06/23/2022

04/11/2020

12/30/2019

12/15/2019

"The number one reason people report feeling out of control around food is simply because they often aren’t eating enough, let alone foods that satisfies them."

Many feel a loss of control as they try to navigate the parties and nonstop food at their offices, left feeling guilty or restricted as a result.

10/01/2019

Sad and disappointed to walk by this yesterday. Everyday I work with people who struggle with their body and food. Many of whom tell me that it started as a kid, when they felt pressured to lose weight by restricting their food intake in some manner. Diets are not the answer and will very likely cause more harm than good.

What do you think, parents?

09/16/2019

Just goes to show how body image-obsessed we've become. But by no fault of our own.

JK Rowling // "Fat’ is usually the first insult a girl throws at another girl when she wants to hurt her.⁣
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I mean, is ‘fat’ really the worst thing a human being can be? Is ‘fat’ worse than ‘vindictive’, ‘jealous’, ‘shallow’, ‘vain’, ‘boring’ or ‘cruel’? Not to me; but then, you might retort, what do I know about the pressure to be skinny? I’m not in the business of being judged on my looks, what with being a writer and earning my living by using my brain…⁣
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I went to the British Book Awards that evening. After the award ceremony I bumped into a woman I hadn’t seen for nearly three years. The first thing she said to me? ‘You’ve lost a lot of weight since the last time I saw you!’⁣
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‘Well,’ I said, slightly nonplussed, ‘the last time you saw me I’d just had a baby.’⁣
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What I felt like saying was, ‘I’ve produced my third child and my sixth novel since I last saw you. Aren’t either of those things more important, more interesting, than my size?’ But no – my waist looked smaller! Forget the kid and the book: finally, something to celebrate!⁣
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I’ve got two daughters who will have to make their way in this skinny-obsessed world, and it worries me, because I don’t want them to be empty-headed, self-obsessed, emaciated clones; I’d rather they were independent, interesting, idealistic, kind, opinionated, original, funny – a thousand things, before ‘thin’. And frankly, I’d rather they didn’t give a gust of stinking chihuahua flatulence whether the woman standing next to them has fleshier knees than they do. Let my girls be Hermiones, rather than Pansy Parkinsons."⁣
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09/14/2019

Anyone hear about WW (formerly Weight Watchers) new app for kids? What are your thoughts?

09/07/2019

💪

Yes- this s**t is EVERYWHERE- but ALL the water in the world can’t sink a ship unless it gets inside.

We gotta help girls SEE these lies, POINT to these lies, and REJECT them. We gotta fill them with truth so there’s no room left inside them for diet culture’s lies. We gotta turn them into critics of our culture or they’ll become blind consumers of it.

One thing we say over and over to our kiddos: “Hey, babe. Look at that image, commercial, advertisement. What are those people selling? What are they trying to say about what it means to be a woman? How are they trying to get you to feel?

Spoiler Alert: They are always always always trying to make us feel LESS THAN. Because women who feel less than BUY MORE.

Let’s teach our girls to laugh at these fools.
YOU LAUGH AT THEM, TOO.

I love you. We are enough. We are freaking golden.
G
Xoxxoxox

08/27/2019

No rules = peace of mind, confidence, empowerment, trust in yourself

For someone who's been restricting in any way, not having rules or a diet to follow may feel scary- and it was for me at first, too.

BUT, as long as a food is restricted or feared, it has power over you.

Normalizing and neutralizing certain foods by allowing them into your life eventually strips them of their emotional charge so that they no longer control you 💪🏻

08/24/2019

Now that's what I'm talking about
Thanks for the great visual,

08/20/2019

👎🏻 disappointed WW (formerly Weight Watchers)

A registered dietitian explains why you should never put your child on a diet.

08/17/2019

There are a lot of common themes in the work that I do, one of which is a fear of hunger. We’ve been taught that hunger is a not to be trusted or that it should be ignored. It’s viewed as almost a weakness or character defect and some would even say that hunger feels as though their body is betraying them. While you’d never question your lung’s need for oxygen, feeling hungry, for many, has become something to doubt and resist.

Denying hunger will never get you where you want to be; at least long term. Doing so will only lead to the body and mind becoming more demanding and louder in their requests; likely taking you in a direction opposite of where you’re wanting to go. Such as, feeling out of control around food, eating compulsively, or even bingeing, in an effort for the body to meet its needs.

Instead, learning to listen to hunger and trust what it’s asking for, will eventually allow you to understand it and feel safer and more confident when it arises. Hunger is a sign from your body that it needs more fuel. It doesn’t care about how many calories My Fitness Pal says you should eat or how many points Weight Watchers assigns you. When hunger is present, it’s depending on you to honor it in the ways it needs.

07/16/2019

Emma is not happy with the fact that she only gets three meals a day. She slams her bowls in-between breakfast, lunch, dinner, AND bedtime to let you know that she's not in agreement with the current situation.

07/13/2019

Way too much emphasis on what we don't like about ourselves, what we need to change and fix and it's just straight up bad for the mind and soul. Enough of enough. Let's take a quick pause to focus on what's good, what's working, what we love, what we're grateful for and proud of. Give your brain and nervous system just a few minutes to swoon and bask in sweetness. Let's hear it.

07/12/2019

Too beautiful not to share. Profound peace can be found when we meet ourselves where we are with compassion and acceptance.