You know those videos where someone reenacts the absolutely unhinged texts from a mom group chat?

Well, one of them involved Oreos in a school lunchbox, and as a Registered Dietitian, Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor, and mom to two littles, I obviously have thoughts.

The situation went something like this:

One mom asked the group if they could agree on some “basic rules” around what everyone packs in their kids’ lunches. Her daughter had come home really upset because another child had Oreos, and Oreos aren’t allowed in their house.

So she asked the other mom if she could...stop packing Oreos.

And listen. I understand wanting to protect your kid from something that’s upsetting them. I understand wanting your kids to eat a variety of foods and get the nutrients their growing bodies need. I even understand how, when your kid seems completely obsessed with sweets, chips, cookies, or whatever food you’ve mentally put into the “less of this, please” category, restricting it can feel like the logical solution.

But I don’t think the other kid’s Oreos are the problem here.

Because when a food is consistently off-limits, seeing someone else casually eating that food can become a REALLY big freaking deal.

One of my favorite ways to explain what can happen with food restriction is with a bow and arrow. 🏹

Imagine pulling that arrow farther and farther back while saying, no Oreos, no Oreos, no Oreos.

The more you pull, the more tension you’re creating. Eventually, when you let go, that arrow can fly pretty freaking far in the opposite direction.

Most of us who have dieted know some version of this feeling. You decide you’re not eating cookies anymore. Or you’re cutting out carbs. Or you’re going to be “good” all week. You keep saying no, no, no until eventually it’s screw it, and suddenly you can’t stop thinking about the exact food you’ve been trying so hard not to eat.

Our kids can experience that urgency around food, too.

If Oreos are never available at home, seeing another kid pull them out at lunch can feel like a REALLY big deal. Your kid might fixate on them. They might get upset. And when they finally do have access to them at a birthday party, a friend’s house, or somewhere else you aren’t controlling the food environment, they may feel an urgency to eat as many as possible.

Because who knows when they’ll get them again?

And this is the part I think gets misunderstood when we talk about raising intuitive eaters: giving kids permission to eat sweets does not mean abandoning all structure around food.

You do not have to put an open family-size package of Oreos on the counter and tell your four-year-old, “Good luck, babe.”

We’re still the parents.

We decide what foods we’re offering. We create regular opportunities for meals and snacks. We offer variety. We make sure there is enough food available. And yes, we can absolutely include cookies, candy, chips, and dessert within that structure.

Sometimes that might mean Oreos are packed alongside the sandwich, fruit, and whatever else is in the lunchbox. Sometimes they’re part of an afternoon snack. Sometimes they’re offered with dinner.

The point isn’t to get your kid to eat the “right” amount of Oreos.

It’s to give them enough experiences with Oreos that eventually an Oreo can just be...an Oreo.

Not the forbidden food they need to sneak or eat as much of as possible because they don’t know when they’ll be allowed to have it again.

Just a freaking cookie.

And yes, when you start giving a child more access to something that has historically been restricted, they might initially want a LOT of it. That can be uncomfortable as a parent, especially when every diet-culture alarm in your brain is screaming that you need to intervene.

But they’re learning that the food will be available again. They’re learning how it tastes and how it feels in their body. They’re learning what it feels like to eat enough, and sometimes what it feels like to eat past comfortable fullness. They’re figuring out their preferences without needing us to dictate every bite.

I don’t need my kids to perfectly self-regulate every food at every meal. I want them to have enough experiences with food that they can build trust in themselves.

So when your kid has a HUGE reaction to someone else’s Oreo, I don’t think the answer is asking everyone else to remove Oreos from their lunchboxes.

I think it’s worth getting curious about why that Oreo has so much power in the first place.

And maybe while we’re getting curious about our kids, we can get curious about ourselves, too.

If you feel like you can’t keep Oreos in your house because you’ll finish the entire package, only to feel immense guilt or shame afterward, that same restrict → urgency → guilt cycle might be worth exploring.

You deserve to be able to have a package of Oreos in your pantry without feeling like you’re in a freaking battle with it. And that’s exactly the kind of relationship with food our weight-inclusive dietitians can help you work toward. We invite you to submit a quick insurance benefits check so we can begin supporting you ASAP. 🩵

• Click here to get your Insurance benefits checked if you have never worked with the Find Food Freedom® team before!

  • If our team is credentialed in your state and we accept your insurance plan, then you will be able to book an appointment with a provider right away (YAY)! *We may need to collect more info to do a more thorough benefit check depending on your coverage. If that is the case, we will collect the info and be in touch via email ASAP with your coverage details!

• Click here to get your insurance benefits checked if you have worked with the Find Food Freedom® team in any capacity and already have an account set up with us!

  • This includes: past and present Membership participants, Online Course participants, Group Coaching clients, Mastermind Coaching clients, 1:1 Coaching clients, or anyone who previously had an Initial Consultation but did not move forward with support.

• No insurance benefits? Out-of-network? Not licensed in your state? We’ve got you covered, too. We offer affordable self-pay options so you can still receive personalized support from the Find Food Freedom® team.
  

In good health,

Sam
Founder of Find Food Freedom®

Have you listened to the Find Food Freedom® Podcast yet?!

New episodes go LIVE every Wednesday morning on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and anywhere you listen to podcasts! Click below and check out our latest episode.

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This week’s episode is a different kind of conversation. I sat down with Geneen Roth, author of five books including Breaking Free from Emotional Eating and her new memoir Love, Finally: Untangling the Knot Between Mothers, Daughters, and Food

Before we dive into the bite sized version, a heads up: this episode includes discussion of calorie counts, weight, and disordered eating behaviors. If that feels like more than you want to take in right now, it is okay to skip this one and come back another time.

The Bite-Sized Version

This week on the podcast...

• Geneen spent 17 years cycling through anorexia, bulimia, and diets she invented herself, all while trying to fix a body she says was never the actual problem.

• After 40 years of therapy and spiritual work, she still saw herself as the victim of an abusive mother, until a new teacher taught her “the six steps.”

• The core idea: it is not about what your mother (or anyone) did to you. It is about what you concluded about yourself because of it.

• Geneen shares how changing her own self-belief, not confronting her mother, eventually changed the relationship itself.

• We also talk about why “eat what you want” only works if there is an adult present inside you to answer that question.

Where to listen

The episode is out now! Here’s everywhere you can find it:

Spotify

Apple

YouTube

A clip you need to see…

I’d love to hear from you…

• Have you ever realized that something you believed about yourself came from a conclusion you made as a kid, not from what’s actually true today?

This week’s episode is definitely heavy and can bring up a lot of emotion. Sending you a big ol’ hug from me to you💙

Leave a comment

The more we hear from you, the more we can create episodes that you actually need!

Check your benefits…

• Click here to get your Insurance benefits checked if you have never worked with the Find Food Freedom® team before!

  • If our team is credentialed in your state and we accept your insurance plan, then you will be able to book an appointment with a provider right away (YAY)! *We may need to collect more info to do a more thorough benefit check depending on your coverage. If that is the case, we will collect the info and be in touch via email ASAP with your coverage details!

• Click here to get your insurance benefits checked if you have worked with the Find Food Freedom® team in any capacity and already have an account set up with us!

  • This includes: past and present Membership participants, Online Course participants, Group Coaching clients, Mastermind Coaching clients, 1:1 Coaching clients, or anyone who previously had an Initial Consultation but did not move forward with support.

Thank you so much for listening and can’t wait to chat with you again next week!

As a dietitian, I know a lot about food. As a mom, I am regularly reminded that knowing a lot about food does not mean I have cracked the code on getting tiny humans to eat it.

So I was VERY excited to have one of my favorite people in the feeding-kids space, Dani Lebovitz, on the Find Food Freedom® pod. Dani is a registered dietitian, children’s book author, and the human behind Kid Food Explorers, and we could have talked about the chaos of feeding kids for HOURS.

One thing that came up almost immediately was the label “picky eater.”

Dani actually prefers to call kids “learning eaters,” and I freaking love that.

Because think about everything our kiddos are learning when it comes to food. They’re figuring out what flavors they like, which textures feel good in their mouths, what hunger and fullness feel like, how to communicate preferences, and, especially during toddlerhood, how much power exists in one tiny little word: NO.

Sometimes “I don’t like it” means they don’t like it. But sometimes it means I don’t want this right now. Sometimes they’re tired. Sometimes the texture feels weird. Sometimes they ate it yesterday and apparently yesterday was a different lifetime.

And sometimes you peeled the banana after they asked you to peel the banana, and now everything is ruined.🙃

Calling them learning eaters leaves so much more room for all of that. It reminds me that my girls aren’t supposed to have food figured out yet. They’re learning, experimenting, changing their minds, and gathering information every single time they interact with food.

And eating isn’t the only way they can explore.

A child can touch something, smell it, play with it, help prepare it, listen to the sound it makes when someone else crunches it, or simply tolerate it sitting on their plate. They’re still gathering information about that food.

We can make some of that learning genuinely fun without turning ourselves into Pinterest moms making elaborate animal faces out of produce at 6:30 a.m.

In Dani’s house, sliced peppers become “mustachios” that you hold under your nose. In our house, my girls wear pepper rings as bracelets and crunch them off their wrists. I recently called the bottom of a bell pepper a “pepper butt,” and they lost their freaking minds.

Sometimes potty humor is the nutrition intervention.

But something Dani said that I really appreciated is that even “making food fun” can become pressure if we aren’t paying attention to the kid in front of us.

One kiddo might LOVE helping you cook dinner. Another wants you to call them when the food is ready. One might be excited about a taste test. Another might want absolutely nothing to do with it.

We don’t need our kids to perform food exploration correctly. We can give them opportunities to learn while still respecting their preferences, personalities, sensory needs, and autonomy.

This conversation has become especially personal for me since my daughter was diagnosed with celiac disease.

For years, there were things we could have easily labeled as “picky eating” before she had the language to tell us that her belly hurt and food didn’t always feel safe in her body.

Now, we talk a lot in our house about foods that are safe or unsafe for her belly, rather than healthy/unhealthy or good/bad. It gives her language she already understands without assigning morality to food. She’s four and will straight-up ask a server, “Is this gluten-free?” which makes me incredibly proud every single time.

It’s also a reminder of how little we know about what another person needs from food. The candy or juice someone is judging could be lifesaving for a kid with diabetes preventing a low. A packaged food another parent thinks isn’t “healthy enough” might be one of the few predictable, safe foods a neurodivergent child can reliably eat.

There is so much more nuance to feeding kids than what’s on the plate.

And that includes giving ourselves permission to use convenience foods too. Pouches, bars, drinkable yogurts, frozen foods, packaged snacks, and whatever else helps you feed your family in the middle of school mornings, practices, work, daycare pickup, and general life all count.

We can care about nourishment without expecting every meal to be homemade. We can expose our kiddos to different foods while keeping familiar foods available. We can make food fun without needing them to take a bite.

Mostly, we can remember that they’re still learning.

There was SO much more to my conversation with Dani that I couldn’t possibly fit here, including what’s developmentally normal when it comes to eating, making food fun without adding pressure, medical food restrictions, convenience foods, and some of our favorite on-the-go snacks. You can listen to our full conversation here.

And if reading this has you thinking, okay, but I could actually use some support with feeding my child, we’ve got you there, too. Our Find Food Freedom® team includes dietitians who specialize in working with children and families and can provide individualized nutrition support through a weight-inclusive, non-diet lens. Whether you’re navigating feeding concerns, food restrictions, nutrition needs, or simply want support figuring out what works best for your child and your family, we’d be honored to support you.

And because we accept insurance, that support may be more accessible than you realize. We invite you to submit a quick insurance benefits check so we can begin supporting you ASAP. 🩵

• Click here to get your Insurance benefits checked if you have never worked with the Find Food Freedom® team before!

  • If our team is credentialed in your state and we accept your insurance plan, then you will be able to book an appointment with a provider right away (YAY)! *We may need to collect more info to do a more thorough benefit check depending on your coverage. If that is the case, we will collect the info and be in touch via email ASAP with your coverage details!

• Click here to get your insurance benefits checked if you have worked with the Find Food Freedom® team in any capacity and already have an account set up with us!

  • This includes: past and present Membership participants, Online Course participants, Group Coaching clients, Mastermind Coaching clients, 1:1 Coaching clients, or anyone who previously had an Initial Consultation but did not move forward with support.

• No insurance benefits? Out-of-network? Not licensed in your state? We’ve got you covered, too. We offer affordable self-pay options so you can still receive personalized support from the Find Food Freedom® team.
  

In good health,

Sam
Founder of Find Food Freedom®

Have you listened to the Find Food Freedom® Podcast yet?!

New episodes go LIVE every Wednesday morning on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and anywhere you listen to podcasts! Click below and check out our latest episode.

Spotify

Apple

YouTube

If you’ve ever thought “my kid is such a picky eater,” I want you to take a pause and tune into this week’s episode of the Find Food Freedom® podcast. As a mom to two littles myself, I totally understand the challenges that come along with feeding littles and that is why I had my colleague and friend join me this week!

I had the honor of attending a private seminar hosted by Dani Lebovitz, Registered Dietitian and Founder of Kid Food Explorers, at a RD conference months ago and I could not stop thinking about what I had learned and then implemented with my littles. So naturally, I had to have her on the pod to rehash what I learned and share it with you!

The Bite-Sized Version

This week on the podcast...

• Why “picky eater” isn’t a real clinical term, and what’s usually happening developmentally when kids refuse food

• The difference between normal food refusal and a sign something deeper (medical, sensory, or trauma related) is going on

• Dani’s “invisible curriculum” of modeling, messaging, and moments, and how it shapes a kid’s relationship with food

• Real, low-effort ways to make food fun by age and stage, without turning into a Pinterest parent

• Why convenience foods can be both nourishing and easy, and how to stop feeling guilty about that

Where to listen

The episode is out now! Here’s everywhere you can find it:

Spotify

Apple

YouTube

A clip you need to see…

I’d love to hear from you…

• Have you ever caught yourself calling your kid “picky”? What would it look like to reframe it?

• What’s one food battle at your table right now that this episode might help with?

• What did your own childhood teach you about food that you’re actively trying to unlearn with your kids?

What’s coming up for you?

Leave a comment

The more we hear from you, the more we can create episodes that you actually need!

Check your benefits…

• Click here to get your Insurance benefits checked if you have never worked with the Find Food Freedom® team before!

  • If our team is credentialed in your state and we accept your insurance plan, then you will be able to book an appointment with a provider right away (YAY)! *We may need to collect more info to do a more thorough benefit check depending on your coverage. If that is the case, we will collect the info and be in touch via email ASAP with your coverage details!

• Click here to get your insurance benefits checked if you have worked with the Find Food Freedom® team in any capacity and already have an account set up with us!

  • This includes: past and present Membership participants, Online Course participants, Group Coaching clients, Mastermind Coaching clients, 1:1 Coaching clients, or anyone who previously had an Initial Consultation but did not move forward with support.

Thank you so much for listening and can’t wait to chat with you again next week!

Lose weight. Eat less. Burn more calories. Get smaller.

Now? The messaging has gotten a little more sophisticated.

Strong, not skinny.
Stronger, not smaller.
Focus on health, not weight.

And listen, as a registered dietitian and a certified personal trainer, I am absolutely here for women getting stronger. I love strength training. I love feeling strong. I love movement that makes us feel good in our bodies.

But during my recent conversation with Abbey Roberts, registered dietitian and founder of Fork Diet Culture, we started talking about what happens when “strong” quietly becomes another body standard we’re supposed to achieve.

Because when I look at a lot of the “stronger, not smaller” messaging out there, I keep noticing the same thing: the bodies representing strong still tend to look a very specific way.

Thin. Conventionally attractive. Visible muscle definition. Toned, but not too muscular. Strong, but still kinda skinny.

And suddenly I’m thinking...wait a damn minute.

Have we actually given ourselves permission to stop obsessing over what our bodies look like? Or did we just get handed a slightly different body to aspire to?

Abbey shared something during our conversation that I think illustrates this so well. After leaving bodybuilding, she moved into powerlifting and embraced the whole idea of becoming stronger instead of smaller.

She genuinely loved powerlifting. She was also in her largest body to date and at her strongest. But even then, there were still pieces of diet culture hanging around in the background. Part of becoming stronger was still connected to the hope that her body would become more toned and look a certain way.

I think that gray area is so important.

You can genuinely want to become stronger. You can love lifting weights. You can want more endurance, mobility, or bone density. You can feel empowered by a phrase like “stronger, not smaller.”

AND we can still get curious about what we believe “strong” is supposed to look like.

Because strength has never had a body type.

This is also why conversations about body positivity and weight-inclusive care get so frustratingly flattened on the internet.

Supporting body diversity doesn’t mean believing everyone needs to love every inch of their body every second of every day. It doesn’t mean saying “fuck health.” And it certainly doesn’t mean you can’t have health goals.

It means your body doesn’t have to earn respect by becoming smaller, stronger, more toned, or more conventionally acceptable.

That distinction becomes especially important when someone says, “Okay, but what if I need to lose weight for my health?”

My answer is always going to involve curiosity.

What does “health” mean for you? What are you hoping will change? What has your healthcare provider told you? What behaviors could support the outcome you’re looking for? How has your body size influenced the care you’ve received?

There are so many things that impact our health, and weight itself isn’t a behavior.

We can talk about eating consistently, adding variety, supporting digestion, managing a medical condition, finding movement you enjoy, improving your relationship with food, or taking a medication while still respecting your body autonomy.

That includes GLP-1 medications, too.

Weight-inclusive care doesn’t require us to tell people what they should or shouldn’t do with their bodies. Abbey and I talked about how much more helpful it can be to give people information, explore what’s driving a decision, discuss risks and side effects, and ultimately respect that people deserve to make informed decisions about their own bodies.

If you want to hear our entire conversation about anti-fat bias, body positivity, “stronger not smaller,” GLP-1s, and our own journeys from diet-culture dietitians to the work we’re doing today, you can listen to my full conversation with Abbey on the Find Food Freedom® Podcast.

And if reading this has you realizing that you want to care for your health without turning your body into another project to fix, that’s exactly the kind of gray area our dietitians are here to help you navigate. You can have health goals, complicated feelings about your body, questions about food, and absolutely no desire to be handed another diet. We invite you to submit a quick insurance benefits check so we can begin supporting you ASAP. 🩵

• Click here to get your Insurance benefits checked if you have never worked with the Find Food Freedom® team before!

  • If our team is credentialed in your state and we accept your insurance plan, then you will be able to book an appointment with a provider right away (YAY)! *We may need to collect more info to do a more thorough benefit check depending on your coverage. If that is the case, we will collect the info and be in touch via email ASAP with your coverage details!

• Click here to get your insurance benefits checked if you have worked with the Find Food Freedom® team in any capacity and already have an account set up with us!

  • This includes: past and present Membership participants, Online Course participants, Group Coaching clients, Mastermind Coaching clients, 1:1 Coaching clients, or anyone who previously had an Initial Consultation but did not move forward with support.

• No insurance benefits? Out-of-network? Not licensed in your state? We’ve got you covered, too. We offer affordable self-pay options so you can still receive personalized support from the Find Food Freedom® team.
  

In good health,

Sam
Founder of Find Food Freedom®

Have you listened to the Find Food Freedom® Podcast yet?!

New episodes go LIVE every Wednesday morning on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and anywhere you listen to podcasts! Click below and check out our latest episode.

Spotify

Apple

YouTube

Abbey Roberts and I have been voice-memoing each other for months, we text, send each other the same infuriating videos with “girllllllll, look at this” attached…and we finally sat down, hit record, and let you into the conversation!

If you don’t know Abbey yet, she’s the founder of Fork Diet Culture, a telehealth RD practice helping people give food anxiety, fad diets, and comparison culture the middle finger. She’s also one of the funniest, most honest people I know in this field, and this episode proves it.

We got into so many things, body positivity (what it actually means versus what the internet has turned it into), the “stronger not smaller” campaigns that are very much still diet culture, and why, when you trace anti-fat bias back far enough, you end up somewhere a lot of people don’t want to go.

Let’s get into it!

The Bite-Sized Version

This week on the podcast...

• Abbey’s RD origin story: from body building to anti-diet dietitian

• Why “body positivity is a scam” is trending, and what people are actually misunderstanding

• The “stronger not smaller” campaign: empowering, or just diet culture with better PR?

• The uncomfortable truth about who gets to be the face of anti-diet work (and why that matters)

• What Abbey actually says when a client wants to lose weight “for their health”

• GLP-1s, body autonomy, and holding space for nuance without judgment

Where to listen

The episode is out now! Here’s everywhere you can find it:

Spotify

Apple

YouTube

A clip you need to see…

I’d love to hear from you…

• Where have you seen “strong not skinny” messaging show up in your own feed? Did it feel different reading this?

• What’s one thing about body positivity you used to misunderstand?

What’s coming up for you?

Leave a comment

The more we hear from you, the more we can create episodes that you actually need!

Check your benefits…

• Click here to get your Insurance benefits checked if you have never worked with the Find Food Freedom® team before!

  • If our team is credentialed in your state and we accept your insurance plan, then you will be able to book an appointment with a provider right away (YAY)! *We may need to collect more info to do a more thorough benefit check depending on your coverage. If that is the case, we will collect the info and be in touch via email ASAP with your coverage details!

• Click here to get your insurance benefits checked if you have worked with the Find Food Freedom® team in any capacity and already have an account set up with us!

  • This includes: past and present Membership participants, Online Course participants, Group Coaching clients, Mastermind Coaching clients, 1:1 Coaching clients, or anyone who previously had an Initial Consultation but did not move forward with support.

Thank you so much for listening and can’t wait to chat with you again next week!

You have the baby. You recover. You go to your six-week appointment. They “clear” you for exercise and sex. And then apparently we’re supposed to just...carry on?

I remember sitting at that appointment after my first daughter while I was still physically healing, dealing with postpartum anxiety, depression, and rage, and eventually discovering I had an anal fissure that hadn’t even been properly diagnosed yet.

When they told me I was cleared, I basically wanted to say, Are you fcking kidding me?*

Because nothing about me felt “cleared.”

I didn’t feel like myself physically. I didn’t feel like myself emotionally. I was staring at this baby I had wanted for YEARS after going through infertility and simultaneously thinking, We did it. She’s here. And also, What the fck just happened to my entire life?*

That experience taught me something I wish we talked about more: in a lot of ways, once you’ve had a baby, you’re always postpartum.

I don’t mean that in a scary way. I mean your body has been through pregnancy and childbirth. Your identity has expanded. Your life has changed. There isn’t a six-week appointment where someone waves a wand and suddenly everything feels familiar again.

And body image can get wrapped up in ALL of it.

My postpartum body image experience was different after each of my daughters. My first was born vaginally after three and a half hours of pushing. My second was born via C-section because of placenta previa, followed by a NICU stay. After my second, I had a four-finger diastasis recti gap and did pelvic floor PT to help with my abdominal separation and C-section scar tissue.

My body looked different, but more importantly, it felt different.

Even as a Registered Dietitian and Intuitive Eating Counselor who had already done years of body image work, there were plenty of moments when I looked at myself and thought, Who is this?

And one of the things that helped me most was learning to make room for the and.

My body feels completely unfamiliar to me right now, and my body just did something enormous.

I don’t feel comfortable in my body today, and I can still treat it with respect.

I am incredibly grateful for my children, and parts of postpartum have been really fcking hard.*

We have this tendency to think appreciating what our bodies have done should erase any complicated feelings we have about them.

It doesn’t.

You don’t have to look at your postpartum body every morning and think, I LOVE EVERY INCH OF THIS BODY!!! Sometimes body image work is much quieter than that. Sometimes it’s buying the pants that actually fit instead of repeatedly trying on your pre-pregnancy jeans. Sometimes it’s choosing clothes that make your body feel physically supported rather than squeezed. Sometimes it’s noticing a cruel thought about your body and asking yourself if you would ever speak that way to your best friend.

And sometimes it’s simply remembering: this is not permanent.

That became my mantra the second time around.

And I want to be very clear because I do NOT mean, Don’t worry, eventually you’ll get your pre-baby body back.

I mean this exact moment isn’t permanent.

Your hormones will change. Your baby will change. Sleep will change. Feeding will change. Your routines will change. Your relationship with motherhood will change. Your body will continue to change because bodies are supposed to change throughout our lives.

With my first baby, I didn’t have that perspective yet. I had barely been around newborns before bringing one home. Everything felt enormous and completely out of my control.

And when everything feels out of control, our bodies can become an easy place to redirect that discomfort.

Especially if dieting has historically given you the illusion of control.

That’s one of the reasons the body image work I did before having children mattered so much. It didn’t prevent me from struggling postpartum. It gave me tools to reach for when I did.

I talked much more about my personal and professional experience with postpartum body image in this episode of the Find Food Freedom® Podcast, including what was different between my two postpartum experiences and the practices that genuinely helped me through them.

If you’re in this season right now, I hope you can give yourself some room to be a human inside of it. You have enough to navigate without turning your body into another postpartum project.

And if food rules, body image thoughts, or the urge to control your body are taking up more mental space than you want them to, our team of Registered Dietitians would be honored to support you with compassionate, weight-inclusive care during this season and beyond. We invite you to submit a quick insurance benefits check so we can begin supporting you ASAP. ⬇️

• Click here to get your Insurance benefits checked if you have never worked with the Find Food Freedom® team before!

  • If our team is credentialed in your state and we accept your insurance plan, then you will be able to book an appointment with a provider right away (YAY)! *We may need to collect more info to do a more thorough benefit check depending on your coverage. If that is the case, we will collect the info and be in touch via email ASAP with your coverage details!

• Click here to get your insurance benefits checked if you have worked with the Find Food Freedom® team in any capacity and already have an account set up with us!

  • This includes: past and present Membership participants, Online Course participants, Group Coaching clients, Mastermind Coaching clients, 1:1 Coaching clients, or anyone who previously had an Initial Consultation but did not move forward with support.

• No insurance benefits? Out-of-network? Not licensed in your state? We’ve got you covered, too. We offer affordable self-pay options so you can still receive personalized support from the Find Food Freedom® team.
  

In good health,

Sam
Founder of Find Food Freedom®

Have you listened to the Find Food Freedom® Podcast yet?!

New episodes go LIVE every Wednesday morning on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and anywhere you listen to podcasts! Click below and check out our latest episode.

Spotify

Apple

YouTube

This week’s podcast episode was recorded in my parents’ basement in Pittsburgh, surrounded by Steelers signs, WVU gear, and Pittsburgh Penguins everything. I used to have my first boy-girl party in this exact room in seventh grade. Now I’m sitting here holding a microphone talking about postpartum bodies. Life comes at you weird.

The topic found me this week. One of our providers is coming back from maternity leave. A client testimonial that was supposed to go live today got pushed back months ago because she went into labor early. Postpartum has just been floating all around me lately, so I figured it was time to talk about it directly.

The Bite-Sized Version

This week on the podcast...

• A heavy trigger warning for anyone who has experienced infertility or loss, and why this episode still might be for you

• Why you’re never not postpartum, even twenty years out

• The identity crisis nobody prepares you for

• Dressing your body comfortably instead of squeezing into what used to fit

• Finding the “and” statement: I feel uncomfortable and I just birthed a human

• The mantra that carried me through my second postpartum period more than my first

Where to listen

The episode is out now! Here’s everywhere you can find it:

Spotify

Apple

YouTube

A clip you need to see…

I’d love to hear from you…

• What’s your “and” statement been lately? I feel ___ and I’m also ___.

• Has “this is not permanent” ever gotten you through a hard season, postpartum or otherwise?

• What do you wish someone had told you about your body before it changed?

What’s coming up for you?

Leave a comment

The more we hear from you, the more we can create episodes that you actually need!

Check your benefits…

• Click here to get your Insurance benefits checked if you have never worked with the Find Food Freedom® team before!

  • If our team is credentialed in your state and we accept your insurance plan, then you will be able to book an appointment with a provider right away (YAY)! *We may need to collect more info to do a more thorough benefit check depending on your coverage. If that is the case, we will collect the info and be in touch via email ASAP with your coverage details!

• Click here to get your insurance benefits checked if you have worked with the Find Food Freedom® team in any capacity and already have an account set up with us!

  • This includes: past and present Membership participants, Online Course participants, Group Coaching clients, Mastermind Coaching clients, 1:1 Coaching clients, or anyone who previously had an Initial Consultation but did not move forward with support.

Thank you so much for listening and can’t wait to chat with you again next week!

There’s something about walking through your college town years later that brings old versions of yourself back to life. Add in staying in your childhood home, and suddenly you’re remembering things you haven’t thought about in years.

As I was getting ready that afternoon, I noticed something that would have been impossible for an earlier version of me.

I wasn’t thinking about my body.

That realization almost stopped me in my tracks.

Because there was a time when weddings felt like a final exam in dieting.

I’d spend weeks trying to lose weight beforehand. I’d promise myself I’d eat “better,” cut back on carbs, skip meals, and do whatever I could to feel smaller before putting on a dress. I genuinely believed that if I could just change my body enough, I’d finally be able to relax and enjoy myself.

Instead, I’d show up hungry, exhausted, and already mentally drained. I’d spend the reception negotiating with myself over food, wondering if I should have dessert, promising myself I’d “be good” the next day, and thinking far more about my body than the people whose wedding I was there to celebrate.

Looking back, it’s easy to understand why that cycle kept repeating itself. Restriction made food feel urgent. It wasn’t that I lacked willpower or discipline. My body was doing exactly what bodies are designed to do when they aren’t getting enough nourishment.

This time felt completely different.

I wasn’t trying to earn dinner by skipping meals earlier in the day, and I wasn’t wondering whether my dress made me look smaller. I was thinking about practical things, like whether I’d be comfortable enough to dance for hours and remembering to drink plenty of water because I knew I’d probably enjoy a few cocktails with my college girlfriends. I ate breakfast, lunch, and snacks because I wanted to feel energized, not because I was trying to control what would happen later.

Those choices might sound ordinary, but they completely changed the experience.

Instead of spending the reception stuck in my own head, I got to be fully present. I spent hours on the dance floor screaming Taylor Swift lyrics, laughing until my cheeks hurt, catching up with friends I don’t get to see nearly enough, and celebrating people I genuinely love. When I got home, I wasn’t replaying everything I had eaten or criticizing how I looked in the photos. I was replaying the conversations, the dancing, the hugs, and all of the little moments that made the weekend so special.

That’s the part of healing your relationship with food I wish more people talked about.

People often assume the biggest win is finally loving your body every single day. While body image can absolutely improve, that hasn’t been the most meaningful change for me.

The biggest gift has been getting my attention back.

I still have moments where I notice my body. I still have days when body image feels harder than others. But those thoughts don’t get to monopolize every meaningful experience anymore.

Life starts to feel bigger than your body.

I don’t say that because every day is perfect. I say it because that’s what this work has given me. Healing my relationship with food didn’t give me a perfect body. It gave me more room for connection, more room for joy, and more room to simply be where my feet are.

If you’d like to hear more about this experience, I shared the full story on the Find Food Freedom® podcast. Listen here!

And if this resonated with you, I’d love to invite you to take the next step. Whether you’re just beginning to question diet culture or you’ve been working on your relationship with food for years, you don’t have to do this work by yourself. Our team would be honored to support you. Here’s how you can get started:

• Click here to get your Insurance benefits checked if you have never worked with the Find Food Freedom® team before!

  • If our team is credentialed in your state and we accept your insurance plan, then you will be able to book an appointment with a provider right away (YAY)! *We may need to collect more info to do a more thorough benefit check depending on your coverage. If that is the case, we will collect the info and be in touch via email ASAP with your coverage details!

• Click here to get your insurance benefits checked if you have worked with the Find Food Freedom® team in any capacity and already have an account set up with us!

  • This includes: past and present Membership participants, Online Course participants, Group Coaching clients, Mastermind Coaching clients, 1:1 Coaching clients, or anyone who previously had an Initial Consultation but did not move forward with support.

• No insurance benefits? Out-of-network? Not licensed in your state? We’ve got you covered, too. We offer affordable self-pay options so you can still receive personalized support from the Find Food Freedom® team.
  

In good health,

Sam
Founder of Find Food Freedom®

Have you listened to the Find Food Freedom® Podcast yet?!

New episodes go LIVE every Wednesday morning on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and anywhere you listen to podcasts! Click below and check out our latest episode.

Spotify

Apple

YouTube

This week’s podcast episode was recorded in my parents’ basement in Pittsburgh, surrounded by Steelers paraphernalia, in a freshly bought Penn State crewneck, with a voice that is still recovering from screaming over the DJ at a Penn State wedding.

I was back in the beautiful state of PA for a friend’s wedding this past weekend. Going back to your alma mater is a bit of a time machine. This whole previous version of yourself comes out.

Which got me thinking about all the weddings I went to when I was deep in diet culture. Same event, but completely different experience. Summer travel is honestly one of the best times to look back and see how far you’ve come as an intuitive eater…so that’s exactly what this episode is.

The Bite-Sized Version

• This week on the podcast...

  • Recounting weddings I attended in the past, the pre-wedding “how do I be good” spiral, and why the restriction was always the thing creating the out-of-control feeling

  • The bow and arrow effect: pull back hard enough and the arrow flies just as far in the other direction

  • What I actually focused on this time: a dress I loved, water, breakfast, lunch, snacks, and the dance floor

  • Why comfort comes before style every single time

  • How healing my relationship with food changed my friendships in a way I did not see coming

Where to listen

The episode is out now! Here’s everywhere you can find it:

Spotify

Apple

YouTube

A clip you need to see…

I’d love to hear from you…

What has healing your relationship with food changed for you outside of food? Friendships, travel, being present, staying on the dance floor?

What’s coming up for you?

Leave a comment

The more we hear from you, the more we can create episodes that you actually need!

Check your benefits…

• Click here to get your Insurance benefits checked if you have never worked with the Find Food Freedom® team before!

  • If our team is credentialed in your state and we accept your insurance plan, then you will be able to book an appointment with a provider right away (YAY)! *We may need to collect more info to do a more thorough benefit check depending on your coverage. If that is the case, we will collect the info and be in touch via email ASAP with your coverage details!

• Click here to get your insurance benefits checked if you have worked with the Find Food Freedom® team in any capacity and already have an account set up with us!

  • This includes: past and present Membership participants, Online Course participants, Group Coaching clients, Mastermind Coaching clients, 1:1 Coaching clients, or anyone who previously had an Initial Consultation but did not move forward with support.

Thank you so much for listening and can’t wait to chat with you again next week!

What I didn’t expect was the emotional side of it.

Not just for her, but for all of us.

Recently, I sat down with Kelsey Chadwick, The Celiac Disease Dietitian, to talk about navigating celiac disease while protecting your relationship with food. As we talked, I realized how many of the things we’ve been navigating over the past several weeks had very little to do with gluten itself.

As a dietitian, I understood celiac disease long before my daughter was diagnosed.

As a mom, it felt completely different.

There was relief in finally having answers after years of constipation and nutrient deficiencies. There was gratitude that we caught it early. But there was also grief.

Not because gluten itself is magical or because life without it can’t be joyful. It absolutely can. But because any lifelong diagnosis changes the way you move through the world.

You suddenly have to think about birthday parties differently.

School celebrations.

Restaurants.

Vacations.

Playdates.

Family holidays.

Even accepting a snack from someone else becomes a conversation.

Kelsey described living with celiac disease as always having to be "on."Always reading.

Always asking.

Always advocating.

That resonated deeply with me because, as parents, that’s exactly how it has felt. And I imagine many adults living with celiac disease feel that same mental load every single day.

As intuitive eating dietitians, we spend much of our work helping people let go of food rules created by diet culture. Celiac disease is different. This isn’t about shrinking your body or earning your food. It’s about protecting your health.

That doesn’t mean your relationship with food suddenly stops mattering.

In fact, I think it matters even more.

One thing that’s been especially helpful in our house has been the language we use with our daughter. Rather than talking about foods as “good” or “bad,” we’ve been talking about keeping her belly safe.

Now she’ll hand me something and ask, “Is this safe for my belly?”

It’s simple. It’s age-appropriate. And it reminds me that we can teach children to care for their bodies without teaching them to fear food.

Honestly, I think adults deserve that same kindness too.

Something else I’ve learned is that grief and gratitude can exist at the same time.

I’m incredibly thankful we have an answer.

I’m grateful there are more gluten-free options than ever before.

I’m thankful for the unbelievably supportive celiac community that welcomed us with open arms the moment I shared our story.

And I can still acknowledge that some days this feels hard.

Both can be true.

If you or someone you love is navigating a new celiac disease diagnosis, I hope you’ll give yourself permission to learn as you go. You’ll find the restaurants you trust. You’ll discover the gluten-free products you genuinely love. You’ll build new traditions around food. The things that feel overwhelming today won’t always feel this heavy.

If you’d like more practical tips about restaurants, cross-contact, navigating food with kids, and protecting your relationship with food while managing celiac disease, I’d love for you to listen to my conversation with Kelsey on the Find Food Freedom® podcast.

And if reading this made you realize you’d like support navigating your own relationship with food—whether because of celiac disease, another medical diagnosis, or years of diet culture—our team would be honored to help. If you use insurance, you may even have coverage for sessions with us, so we invite you to start by submitting a quick insurance benefits check. More info on this below! ⬇️

• Click here to get your Insurance benefits checked if you have never worked with the Find Food Freedom® team before!

  • If our team is credentialed in your state and we accept your insurance plan, then you will be able to book an appointment with a provider right away (YAY)! *We may need to collect more info to do a more thorough benefit check depending on your coverage. If that is the case, we will collect the info and be in touch via email ASAP with your coverage details!

• Click here to get your insurance benefits checked if you have worked with the Find Food Freedom® team in any capacity and already have an account set up with us!

  • This includes: past and present Membership participants, Online Course participants, Group Coaching clients, Mastermind Coaching clients, 1:1 Coaching clients, or anyone who previously had an Initial Consultation but did not move forward with support.

• No insurance benefits? Out-of-network? Not licensed in your state? We’ve got you covered, too. We offer affordable self-pay options so you can still receive personalized support from the Find Food Freedom® team.

In good health,

Sam
Founder of Find Food Freedom®

Have you listened to the Find Food Freedom® Podcast yet?!

New episodes go LIVE every Wednesday morning on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and anywhere you listen to podcasts! Click below and check out our latest episode.

Spotify

Apple

YouTube

This week, I sat down with Kelsey Chadwick, a fellow Registered Dietitian and Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor who not only specializes in celiac disease, but lives with it herself.

If you’ve been following along, you know our family got a big diagnosis recently. My oldest, who just turned four, was diagnosed with celiac disease a little over a month ago. It has rocked our world and changed how we eat as a family.

So I went looking for someone who could speak to this from both a professional and a personal place. And Kelsey was exactly that!

If you or someone you love is navigating a medical diagnosis that comes with a medically necessary food restriction, and you’re wondering how that fits with healing your relationship with food, this one’s for you!

The Bite-Sized Version

• This week on the podcast...

  • The difference between “gluten-free” and “celiac safe” (and why that gap matters at every restaurant)

  • The one word that reframes a medically induced food restriction from scary to self-care

  • The grieving process no one warns you about after a diagnosis

  • How I talk to my four-year-old about food without creating fear around it

  • Kelsey’s can’t-live-without gluten-free brands

Where to listen

The episode is out now! Here’s everywhere you can find it:

Spotify

Apple

YouTube

A clip you need to see…

I’d love to hear from you…

Have you or a loved one navigated a diagnosis that changed how you eat? What helped you most?

What does “food is safe for my belly” language look like in your house?

Have you ever felt like a medical restriction and your food freedom were at odds? I want to hear how you’re holding both.

Leave a comment

Hit reply and let me know. I read every email, and I’d genuinely love to hear your story.

The more we hear from you, the more we can create episodes that you actually need!

Check your benefits…

• Click here to get your Insurance benefits checked if you have never worked with the Find Food Freedom® team before!

  • If our team is credentialed in your state and we accept your insurance plan, then you will be able to book an appointment with a provider right away (YAY)! *We may need to collect more info to do a more thorough benefit check depending on your coverage. If that is the case, we will collect the info and be in touch via email ASAP with your coverage details!

• Click here to get your insurance benefits checked if you have worked with the Find Food Freedom® team in any capacity and already have an account set up with us!

  • This includes: past and present Membership participants, Online Course participants, Group Coaching clients, Mastermind Coaching clients, 1:1 Coaching clients, or anyone who previously had an Initial Consultation but did not move forward with support.

Thank you so much for listening and can’t wait to chat with you again next week!

What to eat.
How to build balanced meals.
How to navigate restaurants.
How to add more fiber or protein.

And don’t get me wrong, we absolutely talk about those things. But after years of working as an intuitive eating dietitian, I’ve learned that some of the most meaningful conversations have very little to do with what’s on someone’s plate.

They happen after a routine doctor’s appointment.

While someone is packing for a vacation.

During a fertility journey.

Or when they realize they’ve been carrying around a food rule for so long that it never even occurred to them to question it.

That idea came up during a recent podcast conversation in a way that perfectly captured what this work actually looks like.

The Find Food Freedom® client I was speaking with admitted she expected every session with her dietitian to revolve around food. Instead, she found herself spending just as much time talking about body image.

That probably surprises a lot of people, but it’s something we see all the time.

People often come to us thinking they need help figuring out what to eat. Sometimes they do. But just as often, what they’re really looking for is someone to help untangle everything food has become connected to over the years.

Maybe it’s the fear that one number on a scale suddenly means something about your worth.

Maybe it’s believing every meal has to look a certain way to be “healthy.”

Maybe it’s wondering why packing for a vacation feels more stressful than exciting.

Maybe it’s navigating fertility, pregnancy, or another life season that suddenly changes the way you think about your body.

Food is part of the conversation.
But it’s rarely the whole conversation.

There was one part of her story that especially stood out to me.

She had spent years doing this work on her own. She had read the books, listened to podcasts, challenged diet culture, and genuinely felt like she had a healthier relationship with food.

Then she went to a routine doctor’s appointment and decided to look at the number on the scale.

Later, she told me she doesn’t even think the number itself mattered. It could have been higher. It could have been lower. What mattered was how quickly she found herself assigning meaning to it.

For a couple of weeks, old thoughts started creeping back in. Hunger and fullness felt harder to trust. She found herself analyzing everything she ate. Food became the first thing she thought about when she woke up.

I think a lot of people would hear that story and assume all of her progress had disappeared.

I didn’t.

What I heard was someone who had become incredibly self-aware.

Instead of slipping back into years of dieting, she recognized what was happening, reached out for support, and kept moving forward.

That’s a very different response.

Healing doesn’t mean difficult thoughts never come back. We’re still living in a world that constantly tells us our bodies need fixing, so it makes sense that certain situations can stir things up again.

What changes is how we respond—and having someone to help you navigate those moments can make all the difference.

She also shared something I think so many people will recognize.

She realized she was still carrying around a quiet little food rule: every meal needed a designated protein source.

No one had told her that in years. She wasn’t consciously trying to follow a rule. It had simply become part of the background noise.

That’s one of the things I love about this work. Sometimes you don’t realize you’re carrying a food rule until someone gently asks, “Tell me more about that.”

Not because protein is bad. Protein is wonderful.
But so are carbohydrates. So is fiber.

The goal isn’t to replace one food rule with another. It’s to get curious about where those rules came from and whether they’re actually serving you anymore.

By the end of our conversation, she was telling me about a recent vacation.

Years ago, preparing for a trip meant trying to lose weight before she got on the plane. She’d spend weeks worrying about swimsuits, what she’d eat, and whether she’d feel comfortable enough to enjoy herself.

This time, the preparation looked completely different.

She and her dietitian talked about what she valued. What she wanted to remember about the trip. They made a plan for what she could do if difficult body image thoughts showed up while she was away.

When she came home, the story she told wasn’t about what she ate. And it wasn’t about her body.

It was about learning to surf, spending time with her family, and being present.

To me, that’s what this work is really about.

Yes, we talk about food.

We also talk about body image. Doctor’s appointments. Vacations. Fertility. Old beliefs. The quiet food rules that stick around long after dieting ends.

Because healing your relationship with food has never been just about food.

If you’d like to hear the full conversation, you can listen to the episode here. I hope it gives you a little glimpse into what working with an intuitive eating dietitian actually looks like…and maybe helps you realize that nutrition counseling can be about so much more than what’s on your plate.

And if you’re ready to take the next step, our team would love to support you! You may even have sessions covered by insurance, so we invite you to submit a quick insurance benefits check. ⬇️

• Click here to get your Insurance benefits checked if you have never worked with the Find Food Freedom® team before!

  • If our team is credentialed in your state and we accept your insurance plan, then you will be able to book an appointment with a provider right away (YAY)! *We may need to collect more info to do a more thorough benefit check depending on your coverage. If that is the case, we will collect the info and be in touch via email ASAP with your coverage details!

• Click here to get your insurance benefits checked if you have worked with the Find Food Freedom® team in any capacity and already have an account set up with us!

  • This includes: past and present Membership participants, Online Course participants, Group Coaching clients, Mastermind Coaching clients, 1:1 Coaching clients, or anyone who previously had an Initial Consultation but did not move forward with support.
    

In good health,

Sam
Founder of Find Food Freedom®

Have you listened to the Find Food Freedom® Podcast yet?!

New episodes go LIVE every Wednesday morning on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and anywhere you listen to podcasts! Click below and check out our latest episode.

Spotify

Apple

YouTube

This week, I had the honor of sitting down with Abriana, one of our incredible clients who has been working with our dietitian Tory since November.

She had spent two years working toward healing her relationship with food on her own, without professional support. Then one routine doctor’s appointment, where she saw her weight, sent her into two weeks of analyzing everything she ate.

If you’ve ever felt like you were doing “so well” only to have one moment make you question everything, I think you’re going to see yourself in this conversation.

The Bite-Sized Version

• This week on the podcast...

  • The exact moment Abriana realized she needed support and how to measure tangible progress on her intuitive eating journey

  • Why so much of her nutrition counseling ended up being about body image (and why that surprised her)

  • The food rule she was still carrying without even realizing it

  • What her first vacation after getting support actually looked like and the thing she did on that trip she never would have done before

  • The insurance surprise that made getting help possible

Where to listen

The episode is out now! Here’s everywhere you can find it:

Spotify

Apple

YouTube

A clip you need to see…

I’d love to hear from you…

Does vacation feel like a break for you, or does it stress you out?

Have you ever thought you were “past” something, only to realize there was still a little more healing to do?

Leave a comment

Hit reply and let me know. I read every email, and I’d genuinely love to hear your story.

The more we hear from you, the more we can create episodes that you actually need!

Check your benefits…

• Click here to get your Insurance benefits checked if you have never worked with the Find Food Freedom® team before!

  • If our team is credentialed in your state and we accept your insurance plan, then you will be able to book an appointment with a provider right away (YAY)! *We may need to collect more info to do a more thorough benefit check depending on your coverage. If that is the case, we will collect the info and be in touch via email ASAP with your coverage details!

• Click here to get your insurance benefits checked if you have worked with the Find Food Freedom® team in any capacity and already have an account set up with us!

  • This includes: past and present Membership participants, Online Course participants, Group Coaching clients, Mastermind Coaching clients, 1:1 Coaching clients, or anyone who previously had an Initial Consultation but did not move forward with support.

Thank you so much for listening and can’t wait to chat with you again next week!

It wasn’t about the incredible food, although Charleston absolutely delivered.

It wasn’t about finally getting five child-free days with my husband, even though those moments together felt really special.

It was realizing just how different this vacation felt compared to the ones I took in my twenties.

Back then, I could be somewhere beautiful and still spend most of the day inside my own head.

I’d think about what I’d already eaten, mentally plan what I should eat later, wonder if I needed to work out the next morning, or notice how my shorts fit every single time I sat down.

Looking back, I wasn’t fully there.

I was technically on vacation, but mentally I was somewhere else.

I don’t share that with any shame. Honestly, I share it because I know how common it is.

Vacation has a funny way of highlighting our relationship with food and our bodies because so much of our normal routine disappears. We’re eating foods we didn’t prepare, trying restaurants we’ve looked forward to for months, walking more (or less) than usual, and often spending more time in shorts, tank tops, or swimsuits.

If you’re healing your relationship with food, those moments can feel vulnerable.

They can also become a really beautiful reminder of how far you’ve come.

One thing I noticed on this trip was that I wasn’t thinking about how to make vacation “healthier.”

I was thinking about how to enjoy it.

As I’m writing this, I’m actually getting ready for another vacation. This one looks a little different.

Instead of a quiet getaway with my husband, we’ll be packing up two little kiddos, swimsuits, snacks, stuffed animals, sunscreen, and approximately 7,000 things that somehow feel absolutely essential.

The pace will be different, the rest will be different, and the level of chaos will definitely be different, but the things that help me feel good don’t really change.

I still come back to the same few anchors every time I travel: staying hydrated, eating consistently throughout the day, and packing clothes that actually fit my body comfortably.

And maybe that’s what struck me most.

None of those things have anything to do with shrinking myself. They have everything to do with helping me stay present.

Because these days, that’s what I want most.

I want to laugh over dinner instead of replaying everything I ordered.

I want to wander through a city I’ve never explored before without worrying whether my shorts look okay.

I want to stop for the ice cream shop everyone recommends because it sounds fun, not because I’ve mentally negotiated whether I’ve “earned” it.

I want to chase my kids around the pool, hold my husband’s hand while we walk somewhere new, and come home remembering the conversations we had instead of the calories I counted.

The older I get, the more I realize you don’t get these trips back.

Whether it’s a weekend away with your partner, a family vacation with your kids, or a quick visit to see people you love, those moments only happen once.

I spent enough years waiting for a different body to enjoy them.

These days, I’d much rather pack for the body that’s coming with me.

If this resonates with you, I recorded an entire podcast episode on this topic where I dive much deeper into what vacation can teach us about our relationship with food and body image, along with the three anchors I come back to every time I travel. You can listen to it here.

I can’t give you those vacations back, but I do hope you have many more ahead where food and body image take up less space and the people and experiences you love take up more.

If you’d like support getting there, our team would be honored to walk alongside you. We invite you to submit a quick insurance benefits check so we can begin supporting you ASAP. ⬇️

• Click here to get your Insurance benefits checked if you have never worked with the Find Food Freedom® team before!

  • If our team is credentialed in your state and we accept your insurance plan, then you will be able to book an appointment with a provider right away (YAY)! *We may need to collect more info to do a more thorough benefit check depending on your coverage. If that is the case, we will collect the info and be in touch via email ASAP with your coverage details!

• Click here to get your insurance benefits checked if you have worked with the Find Food Freedom® team in any capacity and already have an account set up with us!

  • This includes: past and present Membership participants, Online Course participants, Group Coaching clients, Mastermind Coaching clients, 1:1 Coaching clients, or anyone who previously had an Initial Consultation but did not move forward with support.
    

In good health,

Sam
Founder of Find Food Freedom®

Have you listened to the Find Food Freedom® Podcast yet?!

New episodes go LIVE every Wednesday morning on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and anywhere you listen to podcasts! Click below and check out our latest episode.

Spotify

Apple

YouTube

I just got back from a five day, child free vacation in Charleston with my husband. And somewhere between the biking, the pastries, and a mid-afternoon ice cream on King Street, I kept having the same thought: my twenty-something self could never have been this present.

Back then, vacation meant obsessing. About food, about my body, about “being good.” So this week on the podcast, I’m sharing the three anchors I come back to every single time I travel now. They are simple, but they changed everything about how I experience a trip. And yes, there is a very different version of this advice for anyone traveling with tiny humans.

The Bite-Sized Version

• This week on the podcast...

  • The three travel anchors I never skip, whether I’m flying solo for work or wrangling a two and four year old

  • Why vacation is one of the best check-ins for how far you’ve come on your intuitive eating journey

  • The packing mistake I made for years that guaranteed I’d feel terrible in my body the whole trip (and what I do instead now)

  • A sweet airport moment that reminded me exactly why this work matters

Where to listen

The episode is out now! Here’s everywhere you can find it:

Spotify

Apple

YouTube

A clip you need to see…

I’d love to hear from you…

Does vacation feel like a break for you, or does it stress you out?

Whatever comes up, I want to hear it.

Leave a comment

The more we hear from you, the more we can create episodes that you actually need!

Check your benefits…

• Click here to get your Insurance benefits checked if you have never worked with the Find Food Freedom® team before!

  • If our team is credentialed in your state and we accept your insurance plan, then you will be able to book an appointment with a provider right away (YAY)! *We may need to collect more info to do a more thorough benefit check depending on your coverage. If that is the case, we will collect the info and be in touch via email ASAP with your coverage details!

• Click here to get your insurance benefits checked if you have worked with the Find Food Freedom® team in any capacity and already have an account set up with us!

  • This includes: past and present Membership participants, Online Course participants, Group Coaching clients, Mastermind Coaching clients, 1:1 Coaching clients, or anyone who previously had an Initial Consultation but did not move forward with support.

Thank you so much for listening and can’t wait to chat with you again next week!

Sometimes, it changes the people around you.

Or maybe more accurately, it changes the way you experience them.

It’s figuring out what to do when the people you love are still speaking the language you’re trying to unlearn.

I think we often expect healing to change what we eat or how we feel in our bodies.

What we don’t always expect is how it changes conversations, family dynamics, and the way we move through relationships.

Conversations that once felt completely normal can suddenly feel exhausting. Family dynamics become more noticeable. Comments you used to brush past start to land differently.

And when those conversations are coming from someone you love deeply, it can bring up a lot of complicated emotions.

This can show up with moms, dads, partners, siblings, grandparents, friends, coworkers... really anyone whose relationship with food has been shaped by diet culture.

I think people sometimes assume that once you begin healing your relationship with food, you’ll immediately know what boundaries to set, what to say, or how to navigate those conversations.

But for most people, it’s much messier than that.

There can be grief there, too.

Grief for the relationship you wish you had around food and body image.

Grief for the version of your mom, your family member, or your loved one who may have supported you differently if they had been given different tools themselves.

Grief for how much diet culture has taken from so many relationships.

At the same time, I think it’s important to remember that someone being deeply entrenched in diet culture does not automatically make them a bad person.

So many people are simply operating from the same fears, beliefs, and conditioning that were passed down to them.

That doesn’t mean you have to absorb it, though.

One phrase I come back to often is this:

“You do not have to make dieting a family heirloom.”

Whether you’re parenting now, hoping to become a parent someday, healing your inner child, or simply trying to exist more peacefully in your body, you have the opportunity to rewrite what gets passed along.

And that’s incredibly meaningful.

Healing your relationship with food doesn’t just change your relationship with food. It changes your relationship with yourself, and often, with the people around you, too.

When your identity is no longer wrapped up in dieting, body control, or trying to be the “healthy one,” you start reconnecting with parts of yourself that may have been buried for a long time.

Your hobbies. Your personality. Your sense of humor. Your joy. Your values outside of trying to change your body.

And naturally, that can shift relationship dynamics. Sometimes gently. Sometimes painfully. Sometimes beautifully.

If navigating these relationships feels emotionally heavy, I hope you’ll remember that you’re not doing anything wrong.

This work reaches far beyond food.

It’s about learning how to care for yourself in a culture that has taught so many of us to measure our worth by our bodies. That kind of healing takes time, support, and a whole lot of compassion.

If you’re ready to unpack some of this more deeply, our team would truly be honored to walk alongside you. We invite you to submit a quick insurance benefits check so we can begin supporting you as soon as possible.⬇️

• Click here to get your Insurance benefits checked if you have never worked with the Find Food Freedom® team before!

  • If our team is credentialed in your state and we accept your insurance plan, then you will be able to book an appointment with a provider right away (YAY)! *We may need to collect more info to do a more thorough benefit check depending on your coverage. If that is the case, we will collect the info and be in touch via email ASAP with your coverage details!

• Click here to get your insurance benefits checked if you have worked with the Find Food Freedom® team in any capacity and already have an account set up with us!

  • This includes: past and present Membership participants, Online Course participants, Group Coaching clients, Mastermind Coaching clients, 1:1 Coaching clients, or anyone who previously had an Initial Consultation but did not move forward with support.
    

In good health,

Sam
Founder of Find Food Freedom®

Have you listened to the Find Food Freedom® Podcast yet?!

New episodes go LIVE every Wednesday morning on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and anywhere you listen to podcasts! Click below and check out our latest episode.

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Apple

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“I feel like everyone around me is losing weight, and it’s making this work really hard.”

And honestly, I understand.

I don’t think we’re imagining it.

It feels like we’re living through a moment where body shrinking has become the backdrop of almost every conversation. You can’t scroll social media, watch TV, or even casually catch up with friends without some mention of a health journey, a weight loss medication, or somebody talking about how much weight someone else has lost.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how exhausting that can be, especially for people who are actively trying to heal their relationship with food and body.

Because body image work doesn’t happen in a vacuum.

It’s hard to make peace with your body when the world around you keeps suggesting that a smaller body is the answer.

I think that’s part of why so many people feel stuck. They genuinely want freedom from food obsession and body shame, but they’re also living in a culture that continuously rewards shrinking. Of course there is tension there.

One thing I come back to often, both personally and professionally, is the difference between desiring weight loss and intentionally pursuing weight loss.

Most people I have ever worked with have wanted a smaller body at some point. Honestly, many still do. In a culture that tells us over and over again that smaller bodies are healthier, more attractive, more disciplined, and more worthy, that desire makes a lot of sense.

Having that desire does not mean you’re failing or that you’re somehow “bad” at intuitive eating. It means you’re a human being living in diet culture.

What I’ve found to be more helpful is getting curious.

Why do I want a smaller body?

Sometimes the answer is health. Sometimes it’s acceptance. Sometimes it’s wanting to feel more comfortable in the world. Sometimes it’s because we’re tired… Tired of navigating weight stigma. Tired of feeling judged. Tired of wondering if life would be easier in a different body.

Those are real experiences.

But I also think it’s worth remembering that weight itself is not a behavior.

Our food choices, sleep habits, stress levels, movement patterns, relationships, and access to care all influence health. There are so many ways to care for ourselves that have absolutely nothing to do with intentionally shrinking our bodies.

And maybe the biggest thing I’ve learned after years of doing this work is that we cannot hate our way to happiness.

So many people can point to a time in their life when they lived in a smaller body and still felt deeply unhappy, critical of themselves, or convinced they needed to lose just a little more weight.

The goalpost moved.

It almost always does.

I don’t say that to be discouraging. I actually find it incredibly freeing.

Because it means your life doesn’t have to stay on hold while you wait for your body to change.

Your relationships. Your joy. Your vacations. Your memories. Your presence in photographs. Your ability to fully participate in your own life.

All of that belongs to you right now.

If this conversation resonates with you, I shared even more thoughts in the latest Find Food Freedom® Podcast episode, which you can listen to here.

And if you’ve been feeling especially overwhelmed by all of the body and weight conversations happening around you lately, this might be a really supportive time to have someone in your corner. Our team of intuitive eating counselors and registered dietitians invites you to submit a quick insurance benefits check so we can begin supporting you ASAP. ⬇️

• Click here to get your Insurance benefits checked if you have never worked with the Find Food Freedom® team before!

  • If our team is credentialed in your state and we accept your insurance plan, then you will be able to book an appointment with a provider right away (YAY)! *We may need to collect more info to do a more thorough benefit check depending on your coverage. If that is the case, we will collect the info and be in touch via email ASAP with your coverage details!

• Click here to get your insurance benefits checked if you have worked with the Find Food Freedom® team in any capacity and already have an account set up with us!

  • This includes: past and present Membership participants, Online Course participants, Group Coaching clients, Mastermind Coaching clients, 1:1 Coaching clients, or anyone who previously had an Initial Consultation but did not move forward with support.
    

In good health,

Sam
Founder of Find Food Freedom®

Have you listened to the Find Food Freedom® Podcast yet?!

New episodes go LIVE every Wednesday morning on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and anywhere you listen to podcasts! Click below and check out our latest episode.

Spotify

Apple

YouTube

I posted something on social media recently and the comment section absolutely blew up. My DMs were flooded. And honestly? That told me everything I needed to know.

We needed to have this conversation in long form.

So this week on the podcast, I’m talking about what so many of you are feeling right now but maybe can’t quite articulate: it is not normal to look around and see everyone shrinking. Celebrities, athletes, people at the holiday party. It’s everywhere. And if you’re doing this work of healing your relationship with food and body, it is so freaking hard to stay the course when the whole world seems to be going in the opposite direction.

This is not a moral failing. This is diet culture on steroids. And you deserve to have someone just say that out loud.

The Bite-Sized Version

• This week on the podcast...

  • Why the cultural moment we’re living in right now genuinely is not normal, and why your struggle to hold onto this work makes complete sense

  • Two things that can be true at the same time: it’s not okay to comment on people’s bodies AND it’s not normal to see what we’re seeing in celebrity culture right now

  • The difference between desiring weight loss and intentionally pursuing it (this one is big)

  • Why wanting a smaller body to be healthier or to love yourself more is so understandable, and what we actually know about health and weight from the research

  • Tips for navigating body talk with kids and other humans in your life, especially right now

Where to listen

The episode is out now! Here’s everywhere you can find it:

Spotify

Apple

YouTube

A clip you need to see…

I’d love to hear from you…

What's coming up for you as you listen to everyone around you talk about shrinking?

I want to hear it.

Leave a comment

The more we hear from you, the more we can create episodes that you actually need!

Check your benefits…

• Click here to get your Insurance benefits checked if you have never worked with the Find Food Freedom® team before!

  • If our team is credentialed in your state and we accept your insurance plan, then you will be able to book an appointment with a provider right away (YAY)! *We may need to collect more info to do a more thorough benefit check depending on your coverage. If that is the case, we will collect the info and be in touch via email ASAP with your coverage details!

• Click here to get your insurance benefits checked if you have worked with the Find Food Freedom® team in any capacity and already have an account set up with us!

  • This includes: past and present Membership participants, Online Course participants, Group Coaching clients, Mastermind Coaching clients, 1:1 Coaching clients, or anyone who previously had an Initial Consultation but did not move forward with support.

Thank you so much for listening and can’t wait to chat with you again next week!

Not because we’re intentionally trying to put our lives on hold. Most of the time, they sound completely reasonable.

I’ll wear the bathing suit when I feel more confident.
I’ll get in the picture when I’ve lost a little weight.
I’ll book the beach trip when I feel better about my body.
I’ll stop worrying about what everyone thinks once I finally get to where I want to be.

The problem is that the goalpost tends to move. The version of ourselves we’re waiting for always seems to be just a little farther away, and while we’re waiting, life keeps happening.

The vacation still comes. The pool party still happens. The kids still want you to get in the water. The photo still gets taken. Summer arrives whether we feel ready for it or not.

I think that’s part of what makes body image so tricky. It rarely shows up announcing itself as body image. More often, it convinces us that life will feel better once we change something about ourselves first.

When I think back on summers from years ago, I don’t remember what I weighed. I don’t remember what size shorts I wore or whether I felt perfectly confident in a bathing suit that day.

What I remember are the people. The beach trips, the late-night walks, the vacations, the conversations, the laughter, and all the moments that felt ordinary at the time but somehow became memories anyway.

It’s funny how much energy we spend worrying about things that don’t end up making the highlight reel.

And yet every year, there is an entire industry ready to remind us that our bodies are projects that need to be completed before we’re allowed to enjoy ourselves.

You know the messaging...

“Get beach-body ready!”
“Summer starts now!”
“Last chance!”

As if the beach is checking IDs at the entrance and only admitting people who successfully completed the assignment. 🙄

The absurdity would be funny if it didn’t impact so many people.

Because underneath all of that messaging is a much bigger cost than buying another program, starting another challenge, or promising yourself this time will be different.

The cost is participation.

It’s sitting on the sidelines when you wanted to get in the water. It’s declining the photo and wishing years later that you had it. It’s spending an entire beach day thinking about your body instead of experiencing the beach day itself.

It’s being physically present while mentally somewhere else.

One of the reminders I keep coming back to is that the people who love us are usually paying far less attention to our bodies than we think they are.

Your kids aren’t analyzing your cellulite. Your best friend isn’t keeping score of your stomach rolls. Your partner isn’t conducting a performance review of your bathing suit.

They’re busy enjoying the day, making memories, and spending time with someone they care about.

When I think about my own kiddos, I know they don’t care what I look like in a bathing suit. They care whether I get in the pool. They care whether I help build the sandcastle. They care whether I chase them through the waves and play whatever made-up game they’ve invented that day.

They care whether I’m there.

And honestly, I think adults are more similar than we realize.

The people who love you want your presence far more than they want your perfection.

That’s why one of the most practical forms of self-care during the summer has absolutely nothing to do with changing your body.

Buy the bathing suit that fits. Pack the snacks. Bring the giant water bottle. Wear the cover-up you love. Grab the portable fan. Use the anti-chafing stick.

Take care of yourself in ways that make being in your body more comfortable.

Not because your body is a problem that needs solving, but because comfort matters. Being hot, hungry, dehydrated, and uncomfortable doesn’t make anyone enjoy themselves more, and you deserve to be cared for right now, not five pounds from now.

The older I get, the less interested I am in spending my life waiting for some future version of myself to arrive.

The question I find myself coming back to is simple:

What do I want to feel and experience while I’m here?

Not after I change. Not after I finally become the person diet culture promised I could be.

Right now, with the body I have and the life that’s already happening around me.

Because at the end of the day, the goal isn’t to have the perfect beach body. The goal is to participate in life, make the memories, and have a summer you actually enjoy.

Last week’s Find Food Freedom® Podcast episode is all about this topic if you’d like to dive a little deeper.🩱

Body image work isn’t about loving every inch of yourself every minute of every day. It’s about having more freedom, more flexibility, and more capacity to participate in your life as it exists right now.

If any part of this felt a little too familiar, and you’re tired of body image taking up more mental space than it deserves, it might be time for some additional support. The Find Food Freedom® team helps people build a more peaceful relationship with food, movement, and their bodies through weight-inclusive nutrition counseling rooted in compassion, evidence, and real life. We invite you to submit a quick insurance benefits check so we can begin supporting you ASAP. ⬇️

• Click here to get your Insurance benefits checked if you have never worked with the Find Food Freedom® team before!

  • If our team is credentialed in your state and we accept your insurance plan, then you will be able to book an appointment with a provider right away (YAY)! *We may need to collect more info to do a more thorough benefit check depending on your coverage. If that is the case, we will collect the info and be in touch via email ASAP with your coverage details!

• Click here to get your insurance benefits checked if you have worked with the Find Food Freedom® team in any capacity and already have an account set up with us!

  • This includes: past and present Membership participants, Online Course participants, Group Coaching clients, Mastermind Coaching clients, 1:1 Coaching clients, or anyone who previously had an Initial Consultation but did not move forward with support.
    

In good health,

Sam
Founder of Find Food Freedom®

Have you listened to the Find Food Freedom® Podcast yet?!

New episodes go LIVE every Wednesday morning on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and anywhere you listen to podcasts! Click below and check out our latest episode.

Spotify

Apple

YouTube