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

Address

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

Website

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

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