Rachael McBride, Registered Dietitian

01/25/2022

We’re moving! This weekend, and I will be packing up our offices and heading to White Rock Lake. Our new address will be 1350 North Buckner Boulevard, Suite 222, Dallas, TX 75218.

08/12/2021

Time for a bummer announcement.

Hello there. Here we are again, back at COVID-19 risk level red.

I’m sure you saw yesterday’s news that Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins has again issued a mask mandate for all businesses, schools, and public spaces. Unfortunately, that also includes my office. While I strongly agree that this is the right thing to do, I find that trying to conduct sessions while we both wear masks to be very disruptive and interferes with our ability to connect. For this reason, I am making the difficult decision to return to Telehealth for the time being.

As the Delta variant has wreaked havoc on public health and stretched our hospitals & healthcare workers too thin again, I had already been struggling to decide whether or not to return to virtual sessions before Judge Jenkins’ order. While I truly prefer being in the room with you, it also feels important to do everything we can to limit contact in order to protect our own safety and that of others. That said, I am unable to predict when it will be time to come back again- especially remembering how hard 2020 laughed at me when I suggested it might only be a couple of weeks! If the order ends or is overturned (which it may well be), I will re-evaluate then while also taking public health and safety into consideration.

I’m sorry, I know this sucks. It’s hard to know the right thing to do in this new reality, so this is the best I can come up with for now.

Please stay safe.

07/11/2021

Low carbohydrate diets are associated with a significantly higher risk of all-cause mortality.

Stop it.

07/08/2021

For the love of all that is good, please don't restrict carbs from children.*

*unless they have medication-resistant seizure disorder and their medical team has prescribed this and coached you in how to make sure their nutritional needs are still met

03/17/2021

It's been a year.

366 days, to be exact. On March 15, 2020, I sent out an email letting my Pati know I was going virtual for a while. At the time, I thought it would only be a couple weeks of social distancing and staying in. It's hard not to laugh at myself for that- how cute and optimistic I was!

Thank goodness for telehealth. Virtual sessions are not ideal but at least they allowed us to stay connected. I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the courage and vulnerability my patients have trusted me with, as well as the grace and compassion they’ve shown me when I struggled both technologically and emotionally. It's been a very human year for all of us.

And now, FINALLY, some good news. On Sunday a sweet little fingerstick at Kroger confirmed that I have coronavirus antibodies. The CDC says vaccinated people can hang out now without masks or social distancing, so now I have the great joy of starting to welcome people back into my office. Yesterday , a year after sending that email, I sat in the same room with one of my sweet patients (hello, you! 😉). And I get to do it again tomorrow. And the next day. And next week. And the week after that.

This is a nice feeling. I think I’ll savor it for a while.

03/17/2021

I have news.

366 days, to be exact. On March 15, 2020, I sent you all an email letting you know I was going virtual for a while. At the time, the goal was to and I hoped it would only be a couple weeks of social distancing and staying in. It's hard not to laugh at myself for that- how cute and o...

02/07/2021

In December, I received this wonderful set of suggestions in a newsletter from the great Marci Evans, RD. I asked her permission to share it and she kindly agreed, but (oops!) it's been sitting in my inbox ever since. My procrastination in this case turned out to be a good thing, because I *definitely* needed to read this today. I thought maybe you might need it too.

*. *. *. *. *. *. *. *. *. *. *. *. *. *. *

If you are reading this, it is likely because you struggle with and care deeply about your mental, emotional, and physical well-being. Or because you are a clinician who cares about the mental, emotional, and physical well-being of your clients. Or both.

And if you are reading this, you may be stretched so far beyond your capacities you are left feeling broken. If this is not you, I am overjoyed. I want for each of you to feel as if you are thriving...or perhaps just above the threshold of surviving.

But if you have been pushed beyond your limits, been asked to sustain the unsustainable, been thrust over the edge of what is tenable, I see you. While you may feel very alone, you are not alone. And while none of us can change our current circumstances, I’d like to offer the following suggestions.

Here are 5 Suggestions to Help you Get Through Today:

1. The degree of stress, depth of your age, and sheer exhaustion make perfect sense. All of these emotions and symptoms point to the wisdom of your body. It is a cue that your innate sense of knowing is primed and functioning. It is not a reflection of your failing or ineptitude. Your experience has never been more appropriate or spot on.

2. Please consider half-assing as much as you possibly can. Never before have we needed C-level work. A-level work will be the end of us. Dinners of Mac N’ Cheese. Sort of clean clothes. Unmade beds. Sentences with imperfect grammar. Of course if scrubbing your toilet gives you a sense of accomplishment, something to manage that is in your control, go make that porcelain shine! But the folks I work with give over the top, near perfect effort in every area of their lives. And it is TOO MUCH. Please do less and make space for imperfection.

3. Counterbalance the intensity of life (particularly if you are in the mental health, education, or medical fields) with as much silliness, frivolity, and what I call “brain candy.” Watch the stupid shows! Did you know that Supermarket Sweep is BACK with host Leslie Jones?! Perhaps make art with naughty coloring books. It doesn’t matter what it is, but your nervous system needs a counterbalance to the intensity you are carrying.

4. Eat with regularity, even if you aren’t hungry. Yes, our appetite and digestion gets thrown waaaaay off with high levels of chronic stress. So eat what is easy to digest, eat what is appetizing, and set alarms on your phone to help you remember. Food is the literal building blocks for your neurotransmitters - those chemical messengers that communicate so much essential information in your body. Without those building blocks, emotion regulation and stress management becomes next to impossible.

5. Take a deep breath. As I was typing that sentence I noticed I was holding my breath way up in my upper chest. That is a completely normal, albeit unhelpful response when our systems are full of stress. By consciously breathing in and out, utilizing self-awareness to slow your exhale you are literally telling your system to settle down. And I don’t know about you, but I regularly need to have a chat with my nervous system and gently ask it to settle the (expletive) down.

While these 5 suggestions will not bring a vaccine to the market any quicker, I do hope it will help you feel a smidge more capable of getting through the next hour of your day.

I’m sending you strength. I’m sending you love. And trust that you are sending it right back to me too.