Meg Carber, RDN

The Dietitians of Nourished & Strong offer trauma informed, anti-diet nutrition counseling specializing eating disorders & athletes.

Services include individual counseling (insurance accepted), somatic experiencing, & self paced courses to support you.

02/28/2024

We’ve all been there— hunger strikes, you search the fridge and pantry high and low, yet nothing sounds satisfying.

What’s a girl to do? Especially if we’re on a recovery or embodiment journey, we don’t want to say “oh well, I’ll just skip”.

I find it helpful to ask myself a few questions to help decide:
⏰ How long do I need to be satisfied for? How hungry am I? Am I looking for a meal or will a snack do?
🥡 Do I have time and capacity to cook? Does it have to be a “heat and eat” option? Can I order in/out?

Once I’ve answered those questions, I think through my sensory preferences:
🧊 Do I want something hot or cold?
🌮 Do I want something crunchy or softer?
🌶️ Do I want something sweet, savory or spicy?
🥜 Do I want something salty, sour or nutty?
🍴 Do I care if it’s handheld or needs utensils?

Remember that every meal won’t always be perfectly balanced or perfectly satisfying. Sometimes we need to go with the best sounding option to ensure we stay fueled.

Bonus tip: it might also help to check in with your state of (nervous system) regulation. When I’m stuck in “buffering” mode or have analysis paralysis, it’s almost always when I’m dysregulated.

#704

07/25/2023

I’ve probably said some version of “we are not born hating our bodies” hundreds, if not thousands of times in my career.

While I still believe this is true, my privilege has prevented me from previously seeing a layer of nuance: we are not all born feeling safe in our bodies.

So often, we see food-body-exercise behaviors as wise attempts to regain control and feel safe in our bodies and nervous systems.

What shifts for you if we view “disordered behaviors” as being less about “body hatred” and more about trying to feel safe?

What changes if you see recovery as challenging because it threatens to take away your survival mechanism?

I hope you see the wisdom in your story, because I always do. ❤️‍🩹

05/09/2023

As a dietitian that takes a somatic and nervous system informed approach, I think willpower is bu****it.

Humans are remarkably complex and simple at the same time. When we view habits and behavior change through a nervous system lens, we can begin to see the wisdom in our behaviors, especially the ones we say we want to get rid of and can’t seem to shake.

Want to learn more? Module 3 of the Inner Child Course is all about nervous system & behaviors. And stay tuned, a nervous system masterclass is in the works and hitting subscribers inbox in June!

02/06/2023

Affirmations two ways: I encourage you to sit with both and see which resonates with you more deeply– “you” or “I” statements?

When we’re talking about core negative-beliefs that started in childhood, they can often result from what someone said to or about us using a “you” statement. For example, hearing, “you are too needy”. In this instance, I think it can be deeply healing to hear the positive affirmation in a “you” statement.

In the Inner Child course we talk about “adopting” our inner child– pretending they are our shadow and that every time we stop to notice, name and meet their needs, we are building the neural pathways that let our present day self know it is safe to acknowledge and meet our needs.

Speaking more kindly to little you is essential in this process. Especially if affirmations have felt untrue and unhelpful in the past, I encourage you to sit with both the “you” and “I” statements and notice how you feel (physically/mentally) reading each out loud.

Reminder: you can still enroll in the “improving your relationship with food through inner child healing” course for $99 before the price goes up TOMORROW! Link in bio. ❤️‍🩹

#704

01/31/2023

I’m so proud of this course and would be honored to guide you on this journey — Improving Your Relationship with Food through Inner Child Healing. ❤️‍🩹

Launch price of $99 will increase to $333 on 2/7! A day retreat for enrollees and CEU version for providers is in the works.

Link here: https://p.bttr.to/3guVYAX

09/22/2022

Notice the need and respond compassionately.

We often hear that to be consistent with movement, we must push through our “excuses”. This can only worsen the mind-body disconnect and cause us to lose out on a beautiful opportunity to attune our needs.

Next time you say “I’m too tired?”, notice what is the need underneath and how can we honor that?

The 7 types of Rest comes from the book Sacred Rest by Dr Saundra Dalton-Smith. A flowchart makes a pretty graphic but you can experience more than one (or all 7 types of fatigue) at once.

Save to refer back to.
Share with your bestie who is burnout on exercise.
Sign up for our next starting 10/4!

#704

06/26/2022

Hi friends, I know the world is so heavy right now. Stress (especially this constant and chronic) takes a toll on our nervous systems, making it harder to eat, digest, sleep, focus and socially engage. Let's discuss...

Under stress, your [wise] body perceives a threat and activates your sympathetic nervous system in an attempt to get you back to safety and regulation. Your entire physiology changes as you prepare to fight-flight-freeze-or-fawn your way out of danger.

I need energy to fight though, why does my appetite disappear and my digestion suffer? The opposite of sympathetic is your parasympathetic nervous system, also known as "rest and digest". Say hello to missing appetite, bloating or indigestion, diarrhea or constipation, trouble falling or staying asleep, etc...

We can't protest on an empty stomach. We need to learn to work WITH our body, not against it (there is enough systemic oppression doing that for us):
1) Stick to a schedule of regular meals and snacks.
2) Keep it simple (on your digestive track and mind).
3) Breathe! Breathing is one of the best tools in the nervous system regulation toolkit. Regulating your nervous system can bring you back within your window of tolerance so digestive functions can resume.

Swipe to the second slide for some specific strategies. Let's crowdsource below– what are ways you nourish and regulate when stress is high?
#704

06/06/2022

Wired but tired? This is a cycle we see play out all too often with clients, but how do we break free from it?

[1] Bring an awareness to your mind-body (dis)connect. Be a compassionate witness with yourself: how is your body communicating to you? How does your mind interepret + respond?
[2] Resist the habitual urge to pour a cup of coffee first thing in the morning. Instead, start with a balanced meal (PFCC) + water before coffee to give your body nourishing energy, not just caffeinated energy.
[3] Stick to a schedule. If anxiety (+/- caffeine) zap your appetite, schedule breaks for balanced meals + snacks (remember that under eating can drive anxiety + worsen sleep).
[4] Cut off caffeine at least 6 hours before bed. It may also help to lower overall caffeine intake or switch to decaf.
[5] Regulate and seek support/treatment for your anxiety. Nervous system dysregulation will drive anxiety + impact your circadian rhythm, contributing to the ‘wired but tired’ feeling.
[6] Prioritize a bedtime routine, including a balanced bedtime snack to help stabilize blood sugar.
[7] Wake up + repeat.

All this and more will be covered in our upcoming Nervous System master class— designed to help you become aware of your habits + health from the “bottom up”.

05/24/2022

Sometimes, eliminating foods to improve digestion can cause more harm than good, especially if you haven’t mastered the basics yet or are in ED recovery.

Swipe to read more about my top 5 tips to improve digestion without eliminating any foods. What would you add to the list?
#704

04/05/2022

I never panic when someone says “I want to improve my diet”.

But there’s something about being in conversation with an anti-diet Dietitian that makes them feel like they need to add a disclaimer about what they meant.

Diet culture has turned DIET into a dirty four letter word. It feels like a cuss word to most anti-dieters (although you know those are safe here, too).

Diet is an accurate word to describe what you eat in a day. It doesn’t have to be good, bad, or the verb (actively dieting).

The ironic thing is that diet culture keeps us so black-or-white and used to right-or-wrong thinking, that we inadvertently feel like our hands are tied when we are done with dieting. It now feels like there is a right and wrong way to be “anti-diet”, all the way down to the words we use.

So we’re taking it back — all of it, but starting with the word diet. Tell me below: what’s something that feels taboo to talk about now that you’re done with diet culture? I’ll drop some hints about future topics in this series below.👇🏼

03/04/2022

Just some gentle reminders…

Anti-diet is not anti-health and certainly not anti-leveraging nutrition and lifestyle to enhance your performance and recovery. But dang if there’s not a lot of misinformation out there. I promise it doesn’t have to be so complex and confusing.

Have the carbs, eat all the foods, sleep well, work hard and rest just as much — it can but simple AND fun to perform at your best.

Comment your simplest performance & recovery tip below 👇🏼

02/23/2022

It's time to ZOOM OUT 🔍

Diet culture (& parallel systems of oppression) love to distract us. They often keep us SO focused on the little details that we can easily miss the big picture. (This is intentional, by the way: it creates a never ending stream of $$ for them and keeps us stuck in the individualistic mindset, ignoring the systemic issues...but I digress).

Is every headline or latest trend harmful? Not necessarily, but when the rules conflict or don't make sense for our unique physiology, we are no healthier as a result.

Zooming out gives us a moment to:
☝🏽Master the BASICS. I promise that CBD gummy before bed doesn't do much for sleep quality if your sleep hygiene is s**t and you're only getting 6 hours.
✌🏼Anchor in a strong sense of SELF. Reconnecting with your body and needs helps you better filter through the headlines and decide what gets to stay and what needs to go.

Health looks different on everyone. You are far more complex and colorful than a black-or-white diet rule, and your body is far more wise. Let's look at the big picture to make informed decisions that improve your whole health, not just parts of you.🌈
#704

02/17/2022

If the self-love post from earlier this week was hard to digest, let’s approach it instead from the seat of self-compassion.

Cultivating self-compassion is a practice. You don’t spend years hating your body to wake up one day in love. That’s not necessarily the goal, either.

Self-compassion involves meeting yourself with care and warmth when you are having a difficult time or notice something you don’t like about yourself.

Self-compassion can feel impossible when our bodies feel like the very “problem” that we are critical of or trying to “fix”.

Often, we can heal in [SAFE] relation to what hurt us.
❤️‍🩹We can heal from an eating disorder through nourishment of mind-body-soul.
❤️‍🩹We can heal from life after sport or compulsive exercise with joyful movement.
❤️‍🩹We can heal from a s**tty relationship through one that is worthy of us.
❤️‍🩹And YES, we can heal our body and relationship to it *through* the body.

Swipe the post to learn more about how to build self-compassion through experiencing the body.❤️
#704

02/14/2022

On this “day of love”, I wanted to talk a little bit about loving yourself. (Bonus: peep the comments for some of our fav healers & tag your own!)

So often, loving yourself comes with conditions. “I will love myself when…” or “I could love myself if…” Except the conditions always seem to shapeshift and rarely do we arrive at unapologetic self love.💔

There are a lot of contributing factors and external forces at work here– messaging from family, peers, society and systems of oppression that inform us about what it means to love yourself and to be loved.

So what if we quiet the outside noise for a moment and look from within to cultivate self love and reconnect with our highest and best self?

Start with one simple question: “What do I need?”

Listen to the answer (without judgment).
👉🏼Act accordingly.
👉🏼Notice how that feels to identify and then meet your needs.
👉🏼Repeat.

By simply asking this question you are cultivating trust and good will towards yourself and showing that your needs matter.

Each time you respond to a need, you’ll deepen the neural pathways of self love: proving that you are worthy now. You’ll move closer to realizing that the external conditions around loving yourself will always change, but remaining true to yourself is the steady constant that has been missing from the equation.

If you’re feeling stuck, that’s okay– it can be hard to rediscover what you need after years of tuning it out. This may be especially difficult if you disconnected from your needs as a means to survive when it didn’t feel safe to have needs or they went unmet.

We’re here to help, and in the meantime: swipe through the 5 categories of self love for some inspiration of small steps you can begin to take to rekindle your own flame.💞

👇🏼SEE COMMENTS & to tag your favorite movement, bodyworkers, therapist, healers & support people.👇🏼

02/10/2022

Be real with me for one second... Is the story you are telling yourself right now regarding food and exercise really how you feel, or are there deeper feelings rooted in fear, scarcity, lack of trust and external rules?🤭

So often clients come to us struggling to really SEE and FEEL their own wants and needs after living beneath the shield of external rules for so long. I get it, it feels safe there.

But you can come out from behind the shield — it’s safe to feel seen and heard here. ♥️

Let’s be clear: I am not saying everyone who prefers almond milk arrives at that choice via a disordered thought.

I am saying that sometimes what we SAY and how we FEEL aren’t congruent. Sometimes the story we are telling ourselves is keeping us more stuck. A lot of times, growth comes from unlearning before relearning.

If you see yourself in the tip of the iceberg but feel conflicted: I want things to be different but I don’t know how to get there— you don’t have to do this alone. We are accepting a limited number of 1:1 clients now. The doors to 1:1 will close when we get closer to launching our group coaching in the spring.

Send me a message or visit the link in my bio to get started🌟
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02/07/2022

HEY MENSTRUATING PERSON, this one is for you ⬇️

If your period becomes irregular or disappears as your training volume increases— let’s chat.

All too often I sit across from an athlete who lost their period and was told by (well meaning) coaches, doctors or teammates “that is normal”.

Knowing something is normal or common can be helpful— we can breathe a sigh of relief knowing it’s not a “me problem”. But normal ≠ optimal or healthy. Irregular or absent periods can be a 🚩 for a deeper issue, RED-S.

RED-S may develop if the body experiences a gap between the amount of energy being used and the amount of energy you are taking in. During this time estrogen levels can drop and your period can cease.🩸

It’s important to not just brush this off as there can be serious health concerns if this persists long term, especially if you are in a stage of life where your bones have not yet reached peak density (under 30).

Peep the last slide for tips to maintain optimal hormone health and menstrual cycles. And please, don’t just accept a solution of starting birth control— an energy availability issue will only resolve with a change in energy.

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04/22/2021

5 ways to be kinder to Mother Earth today and every day.

🌍Investing in a reusable water bottle not only helps to reduce plastic use, but can also keep you better hydrated– which you know makes my Dietitian heart happy!

🌏According to the USDA and UN Food & Agriculture Organization, about one-third of food produced globally is lost or wasted each year– this contributes to a significant amount of greenhouse gases. Reduce your families food waste by taking inventory, creating a grocery list and weekly menu, avoiding over buying, and freezing extras.

🌍Plant-based meals can not only reduce greenhouse gases, but also preserve water and land. Try to incorporate more meatless meals and snacks.

🌏Use a website like localharvest.org to find your local Farmer's Market, CSA and farms. Shopping locally can help reduce your food-footprint and oftentimes, save you money.

🌍Go outside! Take a walk or hike, ride your bike, move your meditation or journal practice out into the sunshine. Dig in the dirt! Plant perennials that come back year after year or start a small garden with your kiddos.

Tell me your fav reusable water bottle below! You already know I’m team 😍

03/10/2021

Hi, friends!

While I’ve been mostly *radio silent* here on IG, your girl has been busy growing.

Growing a human– yes. But also growing my first baby– Nourished & Strong. As we celebrate THREE years in business (what?!), let’s take it back to the beginning for those who are new here.

I founded Nourished & Strong in 2018 with a simple mission: to help clients reconnect with their bodies and renew their confidence. Using our unique five pillar approach, our clients can expect to feel empowered – both in their relationship with food and mindset in general. We take a weight-inclusive non-diet approach and provide specialized care for eating disorders, disordered eating and athletes.

Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined the success and growth N&S has seen over the last 3 years. Out of a growing need for non-diet nutrition counseling in the Lake Norman area, that growth included building a team. Last year, I added and more recently, we welcomed .

Today also happens to be ! In honor of all we have to celebrate, let’s play a little game – 2 truths and a lie.

:
• I grew up drag racing cars and tried my hand at riding dirt bikes
• I was a cheerleader for over 10 years
• I have 2 cats, Mira + Calvin

:
• I never learned to rollerblade
• I’ve been to 10 Buffalo Bills games
• I’m the only person in the whole country with my name

:
• I’ve never seen any of the Star Wars movies
• I have 24 first cousins
• I speak three languages

Tell us in the comments - which ones are the lies?!

Address

14509 S Old Statesville Road, Suite 104
Huntersville, NC
28078

Website

http://www.nourished-strong.com/

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About Us

Nourished + Strong offers inclusive, compassionate nutrition counseling in Lake Norman and beyond. Along with fellow Registered Dietitian, Taryn Cullen, it is our privilege to support clients as they improve their relationship with food and unlock their self-confidence through counseling sessions, group education programs, metabolism testing and more.

As a Registered Dietitian with a clinical background, I founded Nourished + Strong in 2018 to serve clients with evidence-based, non-diet nutrition counseling. What does that mean?

We recognize that while we bring over a decade of experience to the table and may be the experts in nutrition, only you are the expert in you.

We don’t believe in restrictive diets, adding food rules or being seen as the food police.