Supporting Self Care at Downtown Mt. Pleasant’s YogaPalooza Event

Kati Mora at YogaPalooza

Mt. Pleasant launched its first Thrilling Thursday event of the summer, bringing together a variety of individuals and organizations interested in supporting self-care.

For the past three years, our community has hosted Thrilling Thursdays, an event series in downtown Mt. Pleasant, that brings together a variety of businesses and resources to offer free opportunities and experiences to residents throughout the summer.

The first Thrilling Thursday event of the year took place last week and I was honored to participate, proudly representing Around the Plate and all the work our team is doing to support positive, non-diet living.

Kati Mora at YogaPalooza

Participants enjoyed a free yoga session hosted by Redbloom Yoga and were able to hydrate afterwards with smoothies and juices thanks to GreenTree Cooperative Grocery and Pure Vitality, two local downtown businesses.

I was happy providing detail on what we do at Around the Plate, coloring with kids and providing information on hydration.

Hydration may seem like a relatively boring topic (water – amiright?), but despite how we sometimes view self-care, it doesn’t always have to be an exciting or extravagant.  (PS – I LOVE this blog post on boring self-care by Nourished with Hannah )

Now of course, making sure your body has the water it needs to work properly can indeed be fun. Whether its adding a splash of your favorite juice to a glass of water, grabbing a smoothie, or enjoying a refreshing slush, there are lots of options to stay well-hydrated in away that you enjoy.

Related: Fun Ways to Add Flavor to Your Water

PS – I’ve yet to find a beverage that doesn’t hydrate in some way. Sure, beverages (like foods) may vary in what they offer overall, but bottom line, if its a liquid, its going to contribute to your overall hydration in some capacity. And being liquid isn’t even necessarily a requirement – in fact, the foods we eat can also contribute, yet also vary in just how much water each might provide. Peanut butter for example? Low water content. Yogurt? Surpringly high water content.

Isn’t food fascinating? I’m looking forward to a few additional community-related events this year that my team and I will get to participate in. Hopefully, through these events will continue to inspire all people to make the most of each eating – or drinking! – experience they have.

Weekend Reads: Cooking Through Recovery and More!

Weekend Reads

Looking for some non-diet, recovery-supportive posts and articles to read this weekend? I love finding positive resources from experts in the field to share with you. Happy reading!

Weekend Reads

If It Looks Like a Diet, It’s a Diet
The Real Life RD (and Nurse Practitioner), Robyn, does a lovely job defining what a diet can be – even when its not so obvious to tell – and providing sound advice on how to approach food instead. Read more… 

Cooking in Recovery: Building New Relationships with Food 
Angie Viets shares practical steps individuals in recovery can take to enhance their confidence in the kitchen. The secret? Taking it one step at a time. Read more…

Sugar Addiction: A Summary of the Science
Think you’re addicted to sugar? It may be time to review what the science really says about this topic. Marci Evans, RD helps summarize and address this hot topic issue. Read more…

Four Body Positive Podcasts to Add to Your Summer Playlist

Are you a fan of podcasts? I love listening to them when I travel or even while I sit at my desk. They often provide a great way to hear new ideas or reinforce ideas that already matter to you.

body positive podcasts

This summer, I’d love to encourage you to check out a few of my favorite body positive podcasts. Not only can these help reinforce many of the principles I discuss here and in session, but hopefully they will give you a sense of community support as you embark on discovering a more positive relationship with your self and your food.

Four Body Positive Podcasts to Check out this Summer 

Food Psych – Intuitive Eating, Positive Body Image and Eating Disorder Recovery

Dietitians Unplugged – Exploring Health and Wellness from a New Perspective

Body Kindness with Rebecca Scritchfield, RD

Please note: some of Rebecca’s most recent podcast episodes are for adult ears only, covering sex-related topics, and do not necessarily match up with my own personal views on sexual relationships. 

Every Body by Daria Matza

Do you have a favorite body positive podcast you like to listen to? Share it on Facebook! 

How a Food Journal Can Help You Build a Positive Relationship With Food

Food Journal

Does keeping a food journal sound dreadful? If so, your reasons for keeping one may not be the right ones. When used to help nurture your relationship with food, a food journal can actually be one of your most beloved tools.

Food Journal

For many of us, our relationship with food is complicated and it can be difficult to know why things just aren’t working. A food journal gives you the opportunity to connect with your food and to begin exploring ways to eat so that you feel good not only in the moment of eating, but the moments that come afterward.

A food journal can also help you be more mindful during your eating experiences and help you recognize different types of hunger and food satisfaction.

Food journaling isn’t about “getting it right” or adhering to rigid rules. If you are use to dieting, you may find yourself resistant to using a food journal because using one to adhere to a certain way of eating isn’t sustainable, fulfilling or fun.

Instead, a food journal should be used to inspire learning. Learning more about yourself and the foods you eat.  This will give you insight into your food relationship and allow you to discover confidence at the table.

When you start a food journal, you want to make sure you are tracking details that will allow you to identify how food fits into your life and how you interact with it. Knowing the what, where, when, and why of your food decisions can be incredibly helpful tools not only in helping you foster a more positive relationship with food, but in normalizing your eating behavior too.

This information may also help you better identify whether or not you are meeting some of the personal goals you set. For example, maybe your goal is to try one new food each week. Thanks to your handy food journal, you’ll easily be able to see whether or not this happened.

A food journal can be shared with others; in fact, I often ask my clients to share their journal with me. Not so that I can be the food police, but so that I can also see how food fits into their daily life. Together, we can identify trends that support positive eating and those that do not. This allows me to help my clients come up with unique and individual goals that they can experiment with.

Related: Check Out My Nutrition Services

As my clients figure out how to use a food journal to support their food goals, I can also help make sure they aren’t inadvertently using it to achieve unrealistic goals or ones that could be harmful to their health. Consider me a safety-net of sorts. Someone to help gently guide people down their own path.

Although a food journal CAN be shared with others, keep in mind that the food journal is for YOU. It’s your tool to help support your food relationship. This means that you can individualize it in ways that best help you become a more confident eater.

For some, this might mean writing out a positive affirmation each day at the top of the page. Or, it may mean including an end of day review where you highlight one or two things you have learned about yourself or about your food that day. The key here is that you discover a way to make this a helpful tool that guides you towards that positive relationship with food you desire. It’s only as helpful as you allow it to be.

18 Quick & Easy Snack Duos

18 Quick & Easy Snack Duos

Snacking may not seem like a very controversial topic, but in the world of nutrition it can be a rather divisive topic. That’s because “snacking” doesn’t necessarily always look the same for each individual. Some people may find that they graze on snacks throughout the day while others may classify a snack as an opportunity to respond to hunger.

18 Quick & Easy Snack Duos

How do I feel about snacks? I believe that snacking can support your health; however, a snack should be something that supports your meal structure, not serve as a replacement for meals or as an opportunity to indulge on foods you wouldn’t necessarily include into a regular meal. In fact, snacks are kind of like mini-meals, continuing to be rooted in your basic food groups with the desire to satisfy hunger.

Meals provide opportunity for you to nourish yourself. To make the most of these opportunities, you want to make sure you are ready to eat at meals, but aren’t overly hungry. This is where snacking can play an important role. If hunger strikes in between meals, you should respond to it. Just like with meals, you want to utilize this opportunity to provide your body with what it needs. To do so, you may find it helpful to pair up two foods from different food groups to create a satisfying and sustaining snack.

If you aren’t quite sure what foods pair well together for snack time, here are eighteen of my favorites you might enjoy as well. Keep in mind that this isn’t an end-all-be-all kind of list. It’s just a starting point for you and your family.

18 Food Pairings Perfect for Snack Time

  1. Apples and peanut butter
  2. Clementines and string cheese
  3. Banana and yogurt
  4. Almonds and dried cranberries
  5. Cottage cheese and pepper strips
  6. Carrots and guacamole
  7. Whole wheat crackers and tuna
  8. Rice cake with strawberry slices and peanut butter
  9. English muffin topped with tomato and mashed avocado
  10. Tomato topped with mozzarella
  11. Applesauce and vanilla wafers
  12. A slice of whole wheat bread and peanut butter
  13. Homemade trail mix – raisins, peanuts and whole grain cereal
  14. Figs and cashews
  15. Whole grain waffle with cream cheese and blueberries
  16. Cheese cubes with pear slices
  17. Whole wheat tortilla with beans and salsa
  18. Whole wheat pita chips with hummus