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🤔 You’ve heard this before, right? ⁠
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This has certainly been true for me…⁠
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It was my own struggles with health and wellness that created a desire in me to help people look deeper at life’s challenges, to find the why and then the how, and then to overcome. ⁠
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While I understand we can’t change the things that happen TO us, I’m living proof we can most certainly change how we choose to see those events and how we will move forward as a result.⁠
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If I can support you on your own journey to overcome, I would be delighted. Send me a DM to find out more.

🤐 Diet culture attempts to silence the voices of those struggling with food, as it tends to oversimplify and moralize the complex nature of our relationship with food. ⁠
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It erroneously frames food issues as a matter of personal willpower and self-control, minimizing the multi-faceted nature of these struggles. This perspective can deter people from seeking help or talking openly about their experiences, fearing they'll be viewed as weak or lacking discipline. The fear of judgment and misunderstanding further deepens their sense of isolation, making it all the more critical to challenge diet culture and cultivate spaces where diverse food experiences and body types are accepted and respected.⁠
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If you are looking for a community-based approach to healing your relationship with food, you’re invited to join me (and more people just like you!) on May 30 for a free workshop. I’ll be talking about Breaking Free From Diet Culture and I’d love to see you there.⁠
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➡️ Link in bio for more details and to register.

🤍 There is no loneliness quite like the loneliness that comes from struggling with an unhealthy relationship with food.⁠
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Our society equates thinness with health, success, and worthiness, thereby creating a culture that fosters shame and guilt around eating habits and body size. When we struggle with our relationship with food, we can feel judged or misunderstood and like a failure, causing us to internalize our struggles and isolate ourselves to avoid potential criticism or rejection.⁠
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Discussing struggles with food can feel incredibly vulnerable. ⁠
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It requires opening up about deeply personal experiences and emotions that are often tied to self-esteem and self-worth. In a culture that promotes dieting and weight loss as a measure of self-discipline and virtue, those who struggle with food may fear that they will be perceived as personal failures or people who ”just lack willpower.”⁠
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This fear can make it difficult to reach out for support, further exacerbating feelings of isolation and loneliness. ⁠
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All of this is why it is crucial to foster safe, supportive environments where individuals can openly discuss their relationship with food without fear of judgment or stigma.⁠
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How has your environment and community support (or lack thereof) impacted you on your journey to heal your relationship with food?

✉️ Write that diet a breakup letter once and for all…⁠
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Happy Weekend-ing!⁠

1️⃣2️⃣3️⃣ Here are 3 simple ways to begin the important work of overcoming emotional eating:⁠
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🤬 Become more aware of your triggers. These can be specific situations, feelings, or thoughts that lead us to seek comfort in food. By identifying these triggers, we can start to understand what emotional needs we're trying to meet and begin to address them in healthier ways. ⁠
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🧘 Learn to sit with your emotions. This might sound uncomfortable, and it often is at first. However, it's an important part of understanding and managing our emotional needs. Instead of immediately turning to food when a strong emotion arises, try to sit with the feeling. ⁠
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🧰 Develop a toolbox of self-care strategies that aren't related to food. This might include activities like taking a walk, reading a book or listening to a podcast, practicing yoga, calling a friend, or just going for a drive for a change of scenery. ⁠
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For more on this, head on over to my blog to read the latest! ⁠
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🔗 LINK IN BIO.⁠
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(Oh! and I share the best content with those on my email list… so be sure to sign up when you’re finished with this week’s blog).⁠

✋ Raise your hand if you've ever described a food as "good" or "bad"... or even described yourself as good or bad in relation to eating. ⁠
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“I was good this week” or “I was so bad this weekend.” ⁠
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For many of us, talking about food and eating in this judgmental way has become second nature, in large part because of our experience with diet culture.⁠
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Diet culture promotes a dichotomous perspective on food, dividing it into categories of virtue and vice, good and bad, right and wrong. This kind of black-and-white thinking can lead to feelings of guilt and shame when we eat foods that are deemed "bad," and it can distort our relationship with food, making it a moral issue rather than a matter of nourishment and enjoyment. ⁠
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😇👿 I’ve also seen “being good” have repercussions - when we just want to throw caution to the wind and “be bad” with food!⁠
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Freeing ourselves from this way of thinking can be challenging because these beliefs are reinforced by societal messages about health and beauty, and, for many of us, they have been internalized and adopted at a very young age. ⁠
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However, FREEING OURSELVES is exactly what we need to move away from diet culture and towards a more balanced and compassionate approach to eating. By challenging the notion of "good" and "bad" foods, we can start to see all foods as having a place in a varied and balanced diet, and we can make food choices based on our individual needs, preferences, and enjoyment rather than guilt or fear.⁠
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If this sounds like something you would be interested in learning more about, please join me at my next free workshop: Breaking Free From Diet Culture. ⁠
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I’ll be exposing the harmful rules that have shaped so many of our decisions when it comes to the way we think about food… so that we can claim a different way of caring for ourselves and our BE-ing.⁠
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➡️ The workshop is May 30 @ 7pm EST. To find out more, head on over to my link in bio.⁠
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I’ll see you there!

😇👿 A quick word about ‘good’ versus ‘bad’ fats.⁠
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In this case, YES, there are “better” fats than others. And some fats are downright “good” for you.⁠
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This isn’t to say they are morally right or wrong! ⁠
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Just like all fields, nutrition can be a fickle bitch. One day, you’re being told margarine is better, bread is the devil, and bacon should be the main staple of your diet. ⁠
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Take ALL of this type of information with a little pinch of Himalayan pink salt… listen to your body, to your intuition, and nourish yourself in the way your body ASKS to be nourished.

🥬 As humans, we are wired to seek pleasure. ⁠
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If your meals consistently lack flavor or satisfaction, that plan will be short lived. Sure, you could probably WILLPOWER your way through a few days or weeks of nothing but raw kale and flavorless chicken, but the truth is that if you're not enjoying it, you just won't be able to sustain it long-term.⁠
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🤢 And after you've decided ENOUGH! and tossed that rabbit food to the side, you're more likely to run to the pantry or the drive-thru for the satisfaction you've been denying yourself.⁠
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🤔 You might be scratching your head right now, thinking, "But Margaret, haven't we seen you eating bowls with kale and chicken?!"⁠
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And the answer is yes. I create nourishing meals for myself that include a combination of ingredients that I thoroughly enjoy and savor. They are delicious. They are nourishing, and they are health promoting. There is a BALANCE. ⁠
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And you get to make that same decision about what you want food to do for YOU too. ⁠
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💚 Pleasure can exist alongside health.⁠
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Anything you try to prescribe to yourself that only meets the SHOULD's and OUGHT's and MUST NOT's is designed to fail.⁠
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You know what won't fail? A nourishment-first approach that is uniquely designed by YOU for YOU -- one that includes delicious food you desire without deprivation.⁠
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Want to know more about how to do this? I'll see you in my DM's.

p.s. You can have both.⁠
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Happy Friday!⁠

Does “breaking free” sound overly dramatic when it comes to something like diet culture?⁠
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“Just stop dieting”⁠
“Just eat what you want when you want to”⁠
“Just do something else”⁠
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If you’ve been yo-yo dieting your whole life, like a lot of my clients and many women I know (and I used to be able to count myself in that group), it’s not that easy.⁠
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Diet culture is a MINDSET. It’s a way of thinking about ourselves and our bodies that, like most habits, becomes deeply ingrained in our psyche.⁠
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It impacts, influences, and instills itself into almost every act of consumption we face: do we eat the donut now and regret it later? Do we skip the donut even though we want it and congratulate ourselves later? Do we restrict now to feel skinny later? Do we binge now to feel guilty later?⁠
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All of these questions are false choices.⁠
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They are based on a single, simple lie: that in order for us to be happy, we have to be skinny. And to be skinny, we have to suffer.⁠
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So… yeah, we do need to break free.⁠
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Because it’s freedom from those obsessive questions and thoughts (about a damn donut, for goodness sake!!) that we so desperately desire (and need) – even if we don’t realize it.

If you are a woman on planet earth you likely have gotten the message that your size or weight determines your worth… Which for many of us leads to a lifetime of trying to fit into the mold of what we’re told we should be and do.⁠
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What if our life choices and our food choices were more than a tool for restriction and conformity and instead could truly be an act of self-love?⁠
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I’d like to invite you to join me on a journey to liberate yourself from diet culture, rediscover the joy of intuitive eating, and cultivate a loving relationship with your body and your choices.⁠
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Register now for my free workshop: Breaking Free from Diet Culture: Your Path to Food Freedom and Self-Love. It’s Tuesday, May 30, at 7pm EST. ⁠
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I’ll see you there.⁠
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🔗 LINK IN BIO.

We try so hard to mold ourselves into what’s deemed acceptable by society… to the point where food becomes a tool for self harm.
I’d like to create a movement for food as self love, where we make choices out of an act of deep respect and reverence for the body we’ve been given. Sound like something you’d be into?
#authenticnourishment #selflove #foodisselfcare #antidiet #bodywisdom #healyourrelationshipwithfood

🐺🐑 Just because the word “diet” has fallen out of fashion and favor doesn’t mean we’re not still being inundated with diet culture and its insidious messaging.⁠
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Instead, now we get treated with diets that masquerade as “self-care” – marketing gurus have capitalized on the “self-care” trend, using buzzwords like "wellness" and "clean eating" to sell restrictive regimens that promise health and happiness. ⁠
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📣 Here’s the deal: if anyone is offering a one-size-fits-all “plan” that creates feelings of deprivation, obsession, and even disordered eating patterns, it’s not self-care. ⁠
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💖 True self-care involves nurturing our bodies and minds through first learning ourselves well enough to know what we need and second, providing ourselves with nourishing foods, pleasurable movement, and real, intuitive choices based on joy and ease, not through restrictive diets and punishing exercise routines.

🤔 What IS diet culture, anyway?⁠
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It certainly has a negative connotation (now)... and for good reason. So, let’s talk about what diet culture is NOT.⁠
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❌ Diet culture is not about promoting genuine health, well-being, or self-care. It is not a sustainable or compassionate approach to nourishing our bodies or finding balance in our lives. ⁠
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❌ Diet culture does not celebrate body diversity or honor the unique needs and experiences of individuals. Rather than fostering a positive and nurturing relationship with food and movement, it perpetuates guilt, shame, and self-punishment. ⁠
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Rejecting diet culture means recognizing that true health and happiness extend far beyond physical appearance and that our self-worth is not determined by the number on a scale or the size of our clothing.⁠
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🙌 But, more than that, rejecting diet culture means FREEDOM.⁠
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If you’ve been hoodwinked, held captive, deceived, and duped by diet culture, you’re in good company. Most women, myself included, at some point have fallen prey to this multi-billion dollar fraud.⁠
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If you are ready to break free from the trap and the lie of diet culture FOR GOOD, I would like to invite you to join me for a free workshop where we’ll expose the harmful rules that have shaped so many of our decisions… so that we can claim a different way of caring for ourselves and our BE-ing.⁠
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Register now! LINK IN BIO for more information and to sign up.

🥑 And now we’ve officially hit guac bottom.⁠
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Happy Friday!

💫 Looking Back to Move Forward: How Healing Your Food History Can Impact Your Wellness Journey: 4 Steps to help you get started with this important work:⁠
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1️⃣ Reflect on your family's food traditions and patterns⁠
Begin by exploring your family's food traditions and patterns, as these are often the foundation of your personal food history. ⁠
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2️⃣ Analyze your childhood experiences with food⁠
Next, examine your childhood experiences with food, focusing on both positive and negative memories. Reflect on how your parents or caregivers talked about food and their own bodies, as well as how they interacted with food in your presence. ⁠
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3️⃣ Investigate your personal relationship with food⁠
Now, delve deeper into your personal relationship with food throughout your life. Reflect on how you've used food… maybe for stress management, emotional support, or as a means of control. Consider any significant events or experiences that have shaped your eating habits, such as times of major change, trauma, or celebration. ⁠
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4️⃣ Seek support and guidance⁠
Uncovering and healing your food history can be a complex and emotional journey, and it's important to seek support and guidance along the way. ⁠
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For more on this, check out the latest from this week’s blog! ⁠
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🔗 LINK IN BIO FOR THE BLOG.

Want to transform your eating habits? Start by looking in the rear view mirror.⁠
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When we are able to understand the WHY’s behind our unhealthy eating habits, we can begin to unravel them, identify and replace them, and do it all with compassion – for ourselves and for those in our families and past who may have contributed (unconsciously) to forming them.⁠
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🤗 I’d love to help you on this journey. ⁠
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For more, get instant access to my free 3-video series on Healing Your Food History where I will teach you:⁠
🍽️ How your food history is showing up on your plate today; ⁠
🤔 How understanding your food history is critical to healing your relationship with food once and for all;⁠
🫶 Exactly how to do this important work (and do it with ease).⁠
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➡️ LINK IN BIO for Healing Your Food History.

🥞 “You’re not going to eat ALL OF THAT, are you?!”⁠
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🎂 “Well done today! Here: have an extra piece of cake. Mommy is so proud of you!”⁠
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🥕 “Maybe choose the carrot sticks instead…? You know how you want to fit into that new bathing suit…”⁠
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🍽️ “I don’t care if you’re not hungry. You will clean your plate.”⁠
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Ever heard anything like this from a parent, grandparent, caregiver, or adult?⁠
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You may remember being praised for eating something as a child or being criticized, warned, or even shamed for eating other things – or eating “too much.”⁠
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And if food was used as a reward or leverage in childhood, you may still have the same attitude as an adult, ‘rewarding’ yourself with certain foods after a difficult day, (takeout and a glass of wine on a Friday night anyone?) or only feeling you deserve certain foods if you have worked hard enough and ‘earned’ them. ⁠
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To truly understand how our history with food can affect us in the here-and-now, I’ve created a free resource that helps you do just that. Interested? Sign up for my free, 3-part video series for immediate access.⁠
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🔗 LINK IN BIO for Healing Your Food History.

🔸💛🔸💛🔸💛 If I asked you to assess your relationship with your partner (or your ex for that matter)... you would have to look back at your history in order to evaluate that, right? You would, of course, look back and recall all the events and patterns that made up the entirety of the relationship. ⁠
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History is context and it is crucial for identifying patterns. And patterns can be used for prediction.⁠
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No one bats an eyelash when you’ve heard your friends say, “Leave the bum! He’ll never get a job” or “Once a cheater, always a cheater!” but when you start bringing up history in the conversation about relationships with FOOD… it can get weird.⁠
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The reason your history with food matters is the exact same reason it matters in any and all relationships: it’s recognizing patterns for the sake of prediction.⁠
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Show me your history with food and I’ll show you your habits – which usually predict your future with food (but they don't have to!)⁠
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Just like your choice in partners, your choices with food can be amazing, nourishing, deeply satisfying, and exciting. Or… they can be deeply unhealthy, harmful, miserable, and confusing.⁠
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If you know you need to change your relationship with food, I have a free resource just for you which will help you get started in the right direction, empowering you to unlock the secrets of your food history so that you can change your future.⁠
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I may not be able to help you find that perfect someone, but I can help you heal your relationship with food once.and.for.all.⁠
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To get your hands on this free resource (it’s a free 3-video training), head on over to Healing Your Food History ➡️ LINK IN BIO.

💚 I'm delighted to have been invited to speak this week at The Works ATL's FREE Wellness Workshop!⁠
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I'll be diving into my Food Choice Model to prompt some discussion designed to help you understand EXACTLY what creates your lifestyle decisions; fun stuff like:⁠
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🍲 How did your family do food and health?⁠
😢 How do your emotions impact your choices?⁠
🍏 What is the real quality of your food?⁠
🧘‍♀️ How does your environment affect your best health decisions?⁠
🚶‍♀️How do your hormones affect your food choices?⁠
🏫 What did you learn about food and nutrition?⁠
💬 What is your inner dialogue about food and your body?⁠
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Learn the secrets to creating sustainable habits for food, movement, and lifestyle choices. Plus, indulge in delicious health smoothies and specialty toast courtesy of @selvasanausa at @ChattahoocheeFoodWorks. Don't miss out on this engaging, educational, and FREE workshop!⁠
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📅: 4/12⁠
⏰: 6:00 PM⁠
📍: The Workshop by Chattahoochee Food Works⁠
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This workshop is a free event, with no registration required!⁠
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@theworksatl

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Margaret Schwenke, CEPC, CHHC
Atlanta Nutrition & Eating Psychology Counseling

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