Northern Michigan Woman - Jan/Feb 2024 Fitness Issue
Learning How to Eat Instead of How to Diet
Elizabeth Reilly, MS, RD, LD 2023-12-22 13:37:40
THE TRUE MEANING OF WELLNESS
Many people first get interested in health and fitness to lose weight and change how they look. That is what first got me interested in becoming a registered dietitian. I was just about to start high school and I was worrying about the extra 10 pounds I was carrying. I spent high school researching and was excited to finally know the perfect foods to help me stay thin and beautiful. It wasn’t until that first year as a dietitian that I finally realized what health and fitness really meant.
I had started to learn concepts like: what’s healthy for one is not healthy for all, there is no magical number on the scale and fitness does not have to be exhausting. I had been eating massive plates of fruits and vegetables, focusing on whole grains, choosing lean proteins and continually lifting more weight at the gym, and yet I had somehow gained weight in the process. So, what was I doing wrong?
As I listened to my patients recount stories of how they were so frustrated and angry with themselves, I realized I had been feeling the same way. I felt like I had to lose the weight and then I would finally be pretty or popular or good enough. To better serve my patients, I first had to change my mindset on my own journey. The first and hardest thing to learn is that true, lasting change can only come from a place of loving yourself instead of wanting to change everything.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to lose those 10 extra pounds but that does not mean you have to lose who you are as a person — a woman who maybe loves Oreos, or who loves to relax and curl up with a book, but most important of all, a woman who is beautiful. After learning all this, the next hurdle was how to teach these lessons to my patients.
It wasn’t easy. Many had been told for years that they must lose weight to be healthy and they must reach their “ideal body weight” and here I was telling them the exact opposite.
I focus first on having patients picture their “why.” Often, there is a deeper reason than wanting to be thinner, such as being able to play with their children without getting short of breath.
Next, it is about educating — teaching patients to love their vegetables, how to air fry chicken instead of ordering fried chicken, how to build their own meal plans that work for them and how to gradually increase their physical activity to prevent injury. And those Oreos? Sometimes we eat food to fuel our soul rather than our body, and that is how it should be.
Almost four years into being a dietitian, I still learn things about myself and find better ways to teach my patients. It is not always easy, but it is so rewarding to watch someone before your eyes learn that it’s okay to say yes to the cake while still filling up their plate with vegetables. When you are no longer depriving yourself of your favorite foods, it becomes easy to be intrigued to try spinach pancakes or zucchini roll-ups. True health and fitness is enjoying your soul-fueling foods in moderation, adding nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables often and finding fun forms of physical activity.
Elizabeth grew up in Traverse City and now lives in Savannah, Georgia where she works as a Registered Dietitian for the Veterans Health Administration teaching Veterans how to improve their health with food. She graduated with her Bachelor of Science in Dietetics from Central Michigan University and her Master of Science in Clinical Dietetics from Grand Valley State University. In her free time, she enjoys running with her husband through Historic Downtown, reading, and spoiling her two dogs, Max and Rock.
Questions to Find Your “Why”
• What things do you miss out on that you would like to do again?
• What things do you not allow yourself to try because you’re scared of how you’ll be judged for your weight?
• How would your improvement in mental health change your day-to-day life?
• Are you living your life to the fullest?
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