Today we’re continuing our series looking into what food and nutrition experts typically eat. If you haven’t read part 1 or my What I Eat in a Day as a Registered Dietitian post, be sure to check those out too! Altogether, you’ll see 10 days worth of dietitian food. Hopefully it helps you to see how varied and delicious a healthy life can be – everyone’s healthy life looks different! Enjoy!

Kayci Sterzer, MSN, RDN, LDN, CEDRD

Allison Davies, MS, RD

Allison lives in Vancouver, WA. She worked as a primary practice RD for about four years but has stayed home with her 14-month old son for the last year. She loves going for walks and reading historical fiction books. Her favorite foods are tacos and Thai red curry and her favorite candy is Skittles.

Best nutrition advice: Make a meal plan for the week before grocery shopping. It’s a good way to make sure you’re eating a variety of different foods and also cut down on food waste.

What she ate in a day:

My typical day usually revolves around my son’s nap schedule and some sort of outing in the afternoon. On this day, I packed a lunch to eat at my parents’ house. There are a few things I do every week that keeps the stress off of meal prep while trying to tend to my son. On Sundays I sit down and meal plan every meal. There are definitely meals that repeat, especially breakfast, but it takes the guesswork out of what to make and ensures that I buy enough ingredients at our weekly grocery store stop. I will also prep veggies and cut up meats in the evening after my son goes to bed to be ready for the next day. My son and I eat at the same times and primarily the same foods, except for choking hazards like nuts (and I do cut his foods differently). One part of this day that is not so typical is actually the cup of coffee! I only have coffee drinks once or twice a week and it’s usually a vanilla latte. 🙂

For breakfast at 7 am I ate scrambled eggs with 1 slice turkey bacon (the bacon was cooked the night before), an apricot, 1/2 bagel with cream cheese, and a cup of coffee with splash of whole milk. My lunch was around 11:30 am and included a turkey and Swiss sandwich on Dave’s Killer thin sliced wheat bread with 1/2 avocado and some sour cream and onion Pop Chips. Around 2:30 I ate a snack of homemade trail mix made of walnuts, almonds, peanuts, sunflower seeds (all unsalted), and dark chocolate chips. I prepped the trail mix earlier in the week.

We ate dinner around 5-5:30 pm. The dinner included chicken sausage and zucchini I had prepped the night before, as well as red beans and rice. Around 7:30 I snacked on one or two clusters of these dark chocolate nuggets from Costco.

Diana Reid, MPH, RDN

Diana currently lives in Europe with her husband and three children, in the tiny country of Luxembourg. She provides nutritional counseling and coaching both in-person and online or via telephone to clients throughout the world through her practice The Global Dietitian. She also spends part of the summer (and often the December holidays) in the Seattle, WA area. Diana holds a Masters of Public Health degree in nutritional sciences from the University of Washington. Additionally, she has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Western Washington University in the field of marketing and business administration.

Best nutrition advice: Focus on what you can add to your diet rather than always worrying about what to take out. Can you add more fruit and veg? Can you drink more water? These are underestimated, powerful tools.

What she ate in a day:

My day started with fruit, Greek yogurt, granola, and a bit of cottage cheese for breakfast. I was on the run during lunch and ended up eating lentil salad with some sriracha sauce for extra flavor. Later for an afternoon snack, I had cherries and a protein bar to get me through until dinner. Dinner was shrimp, rice and quinoa salad with tomatoes and avocado. Finally, to top it all off, ya gotta have dessert! Tonight’s was a fruit plate topped with some chocolate sauce for good measure. 🙂

Jessica Forsman, RD, CD

Jessica Forsman has her bachelor’s degree in Food Science & Human Nutrition and has been a Registered Dietitian for 11 years. She initially practiced as a clinical dietitian before transitioning into hospital dietary management and later into healthcare administration. She is currently an Executive Director over Physician Services at a hospital in western Washington. Outside of work, she loves having downtime at home with her husband and spending time with family.

Best nutrition advice: Keep it simple. Focus on fruits and vegetables. Don’t go to extremes or overly restrict. Enjoy what you eat!

What she ate in a day:

I chose a fairly typical Monday to highlight. I woke up late, but had prepped lunches the night before and had blueberries and almonds on hand for an easy breakfast. I’m not always motivated to prep our lunches a day ahead, but I’ve found that it makes all the difference when it comes to getting out the door on time and eating well throughout the day. Plus, it just feels good to be organized.

Breakfast included blueberries & roasted almonds and coffee with half & half. Later for lunch I ate ½ sandwich with 2 slices of smoked turkey, 1 slice cheddar & a thin layer of mayo on Dave’s Killer Bread. On the side were fresh veggies, kettle cooked chips, cherries and sparkling water. Nutrition tip: when buying deli meats, I usually look for natural brands without added nitrates/nitrites and where I can recognize all of the ingredients on the label. I especially like Applegate Naturals.

Later in the afternoon I ordered a double tall iced white chocolate mocha without the whipped cream. It’s important to choose foods that are satisfying – and for me, that usually means opting for the real thing. I rarely eat light or diet foods simply because I don’t enjoy them. By not restricting the foods that I enjoy, I find that I’m usually content with less. For an afternoon snack I ate string cheese & the rest of the cherries that I didn’t finish at lunch.

After work I snacked on seasoned tortilla chips. I do my best never to get too hungry and will frequently opt for snacks. In this case, dinner was only about 20 minutes away, but I still felt like I would be too hungry by the time dinner was ready if I didn’t eat something. Snacks are a tool that I use to avoid overeating.

We had company over the day prior and had two crab cakes, asparagus and roasted potatoes left over. Not enough on its own to feed two of us, so I added salad with Annie’s Papaya Poppy Seed Dressing, ½ piece of toast on Dave’s Killer Bread with a 50/50 butter/canola oil blend, and blueberries. I usually only have time to cook 2-3 nights in a given week, but I try to leverage (and even plan for) leftovers whenever I can. I also try to keep easy dinners on hand for those days when things don’t go as planned. Finally, I topped the night off with an evening snack of chocolate peanut butter granola with milk!

More to come?

I would like to sincerely thank each of these dietitians who were willing to take the time to help me with this project and allow us a peek into their day-to-day. This is a series I would love to continue to show the variety of options out there in regard to healthy eating. Within the community of Registered Dietitians, there are men, women, vegan/vegetarians, dietitians with food intolerances, dietitians from all different cultures, and more. If you or someone you know is a Registered Dietitian who would be willing to share their “what I eat in a day,” I would love to feature it! Let me know with this contact form.

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I recently wrote a post called What I Eat in a Day as a Registered Dietitian. Some of you may be wondering what exactly a Registered Dietitian is, and probably even more of you are wondering if or how it is different from a nutritionist. I can help! Here are some of the basics about Registered Dietitians and what we do.

What is a Registered Dietitian?

Registered Dietitian is the designation given by the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics (at least in the US) to people who have completed certain requirements to be considered nutrition experts. Here are the requirements from the Academy to become an RD:

• Complete a bachelor’s degree – The classes you take must meet nutrition-related requirements set forth by the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics, a brand of the Academy. Some course requirements include anatomy, physiology, chemistry, biochemistry, basic nutrition, macronutrients, micronutrients, clinical nutrition, food science, weight management, and medical nutrition therapy.
• Complete nutrition internship hours in a variety of settings – Since dietitians work in so many different types of roles, internships need to include several of those experiences. My internships included clinical inpatient nutrition, outpatient nutrition counseling, food service management, dialysis nutrition, childhood nutrition at a WIC clinic, and senior nutrition with Meals on Wheels.
• Pass the RD exam – This test covers all of the required competencies put forth by the Academy

Registered Dietitians must also complete 75 hours of continuing education every 5 years to maintain their registration.

How are dietitians different from nutritionists?

Simply put, “nutritionist” is not a protected term, while “dietitian” is. Nutritionist is a term for anyone who teaches about nutrition, while dietitian is reserved for those who have met the criteria described above. So all dietitians are inherently nutritionists, because they teach nutrition, but not all nutritionists have completed the requirements to become dietitians.

This obviously creates a bit of confusion for consumers – I get these types of questions all the time! A few years ago, the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics also coined the term “Registered Dietitian Nutritionist,” and allows their RDs (or RDNs) to use that term if desired to help clarify their roles as nutritionists.

Where do dietitians work?

Dietitians are working all around you, and you may not even realize it! Dietitians may do all of the following:

• Calculate recommendations for tube and IV feedings and nutrition supplementation for critically ill patients in hospitals
• Plan nutritionally balanced menus for large food service operations at long-term care facilities and schools
• Teach nutrition for general health, managing and preventing chronic medical conditions, and navigating food allergies/intolerances in private practices, hospitals, medical clinics, and chiropractic offices
• Provide nutritional guidance to low-income populations in WIC clinics and community health centers
• Teach specialized diets for clients in dialysis centers
• Monitor the nutritional health of residents in long-term care facilities
• Provide nutrition information to the public via social media, blogs, websites, newspapers, etc.
• Support athletic performance with proper nutrition in health clubs, gyms, on military bases, and with sports teams

These are just some examples of roles that dietitians fill. Stay tuned, because I plan to make a post soon featuring “a day in the life” of several different dietitians who all work in different settings, to give you an idea of what all kinds of different dietitians eat!

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Being married to a dietitian, my husband is often asked, “What does she eat? I bet she eats perfectly all the time!” He usually chuckles and tells them about my love for ice cream and all things salty, including tortilla chips with “plastic cheese” (you know, the liquid “cheese-like food product” you get from a high school football game concession stand? Mmmm…) Eating to feed both your body and your soul is important! If you what you eat most of the time is good for your body, then you can enjoy soul food sometimes without guilt or health consequences.

I thought I would take the opportunity to show you what one Registered Dietitian eats in a day…or rather, three days. I chose to include three days to give you a better average and to avoid the bias of a “perfect day” since I knew I would be recording it. As you read through this post, try not to compare my diet with yours. Everyone’s healthy looks different, and there is no one right way to eat! What matters is that what you eat works for your body, your life, your schedule, and your happiness. These days represent what works for me.

Day 1

7:00 am – The day started with a tropical smoothie that contained leftover banana and pineapple with some spinach, nonfat vanilla Greek yogurt, orange juice, and chia seeds. As always and of course, I had a cup of tea!

10:30 am – Mid-morning after a few hours of work, hunger set in and I had a piece of whole wheat toast with some spreadable butter.

12:35 pm – After my workout I was very ready for lunch! Lunch was a leftover mish-mash. A large salad with a salmon burger patty, sunflower seeds, croutons, and bleu cheese dressing. Clementine kombucha to drink!

1:30 pm – Not too long after lunch I realized that it hadn’t been quite enough and that I was needing a bit more in the way of carbohydrates for energy to get me through the afternoon. I had one of these marshmallow pies left over from our Memorial Day camping trip. It went peacefully.

6:30 pm – I gardened for a few hours and then I was ravenous! For dinner I made beef ravioli with marinara and sauteed mushrooms, onions, and spinach.

8:30 pm – While watching Captain America: Winter Soldier with my kids in the evening, I had one of these raspberry fruit juice popsicles. So delicious!

Day 2

7:15 am – We still had leftover  pineapple, so I made another tropical smoothie with pineapple, leftover fruit salad, and spinach. I also made toast and a poached curried egg, so I didn’t add the Greek yogurt to the smoothie this time.

9:45 am – Snack time! In between appointments I nibbled on some roasted ranch flavored chickpeas for some carbohydrate and protein.

11:30 am – After seeing another client and doing a quick pilates workout, I ate the last of the leftover salad and the leftover ravioli from last night for lunch. I chased it with a square of Dove chocolate. Yum!

1:15 pm –  Throughout the afternoon, I focused on blogging and admin work. I snacked on raw veggies w/light ranch dip and clementine oranges.

4:25 pm – Hunger set in and I still had one more client until dinner. I had exhausted the food I brought for the day, so I walked around the corner to Arby’s for some of their snack-sized curly fries. I. Love. Curly Fries.

7:15 pm – This particular night at our house is a “use up” night, so I get the night off from cooking and everyone eats their own thing. Tonight, I finished off some leftover homemade baked beans and butternut squash.

Day 3

7:35 am – Today I ate a bit of an unconventional breakfast. Today’s tropical smoothie included pineapple, 1/2 canned peach, spinach, orange juice, and milk. Alongside that was the rest of a half-eaten sandwich prepared by one of our boys and then abandoned. Poor sandwich. So I played garbage disposal today. 🙂  #momlife

12:30 am – I was running late to work and was busy seeing clients once I arrived, so I didn’t get a chance for my mid-morning snack. I was HUNGRY by lunch time. So hungry that I skipped my workout and went straight for food. Today, I ate some pasta salad that I doctored up with chicken, corn, and sauteed peppers and spinach. Once I started eating it, I realized that it didn’t have very much chicken in it, so I tossed in a handful of my roasted ranch chickpeas for some added protein.

5:30 pm – I ate a lot of pasta salad for lunch, so I never got hungry for my afternoon snack. Plus, we were eating an early dinner so we could get to my son’s band concert on time. For dinner, I made pupusas (a Salvadoran savory corn “pancake” with chicken, cheese, and refried beans). I topped mine with salsa and ate a couple of leftover spiced pears. More kombucha to drink!

9:30 pm – After the concert, they had cookie trays and I love me a good white chocolate macadamia nut cookie! So delicious.

So there you have it! Three pretty typical, if not unvarying, examples of days in my food life. In hindsight, I perhaps shouldn’t have chosen 3 days in a row simply because I eat a lot of leftovers so several things showed up repeatedly. For example, I don’t usually have a smoothie every morning, but I did for these three days since we had leftover pineapple we needed to use up.

Other than that, these days show the typical pattern that works for me: balanced healthful meals with a treat or two just about every day. I love the food that I eat. Having plenty of tasty healthful foods I love and not denying myself “unhealthful” delicious treats in moderation makes for a great and delicious balance. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions or ideas for other posts you would like to see!

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Sometimes life gets in the way of meeting the goals we want to meet…some things don’t seem realistic in the moment, but that doesn’t mean you should let the time pass you by! Learn something new, take a baby step, or build on your basics. Just keep moving forward!

To round out this series on fitness for backpacking, I thought I would offer you a little bonus post on nutrition for the trail.

Good choices for trail foods are:

• lightweight
• do not require refrigeration
• are nutrient dense
• may or may not require cooking – while either can work if you bring a stove, this is a factor to consider!

Some of the parameters you might look for in your day-to-day food might be a bit different when hiking or backpacking. Your needs for calories, carbohydrates, and sodium are higher when you are active (especially if you’re carrying a pack). Don’t worry if some of the foods you eat are higher in these nutrients than what you normally eat. Here is a list of ideas for meals and snacks while hiking or backpacking:

Breakfast

• Oatmeal – Portion oatmeal, dried fruits, protein powder, cinnamon, and brown sugar into individual packets or zipper plastic bags.
• Breakfast bars – Homemade or store-bought bars that contain whole-grain carbohydrates and protein can be great options. Oats, nuts, seeds, honey, and dried fruits are all good potential ingredients. Here is a recipe for homemade breakfast bars that I’ve made before and enjoyed!
• Instant Breakfast Packets – While these are probably not sufficient by themselves to prep you for a day of hiking, you can mix these packets into your oatmeal, coffee, or water for some added carbohydrate and protein.

Lunch

• Wraps – Whole-grain tortillas with peanut butter and a banana or a pouch of chicken with spinach are easy to whip out for a quick lunch break.
• Hummus “plate” – Depending on how long you’re hiking, you can sometimes get away with some crunchier veggies (carrots, broccoli, cauliflower) in your bag for a day or two. Toss in some pita bread and a container of hummus and you’ve got a nutritious and delicious no-cook meal.

Dinner

• Pasta- Particularly if you’ve hiked all day, do not fear the carbohydrates! Pouches of pasta sides are convenient and easily cooked with a camp stove. Add a packet of chicken or tuna or some slices of summer sausage for protein, and toss in some dehydrated veggies.
• Beans and rice – Find a mix of rice and beans to which you can add some dry ranch dressing or onion soup mix and some dehydrated veggies. Boil it up!
• Freeze-dried backpacking meals – These guys can be super-light and very convenient, but sometimes expensive. Watch to make sure they have the right amount of calories, carbohydrates, and protein for you after a long day on the trail. Unless you’ve been sweating a lot throughout the day, aim to keep the sodium under 40% DV.

Snacks

• Dried fruits – These make excellent snacks, loaded with carbohydrates for energy and are quite light with all of the water dehydrated from them. Try dried peaches, strawberries, kiwis, or bananas.
• Trail mix – Sorry to state the obvious, but this high-calorie, high nutrient density snack is really in its element in the out-of-doors.
• Harvest Snaps – These crunchy puffed snacks made from peas, lentils, and other legumes have carbohydrate (important when hiking), protein, and a decent amount of fiber. Plus they are very light!
• Whole grain crackers – Light and nutritious, these help provide necessary fiber and energy.
• Jerky – Buy it or marinate and dehydrate some yourself.
• Treats – Pack a little something to treat yourself after a long day of hoofing it! Choose individual packages of a favorite cookie or candy to enjoy around the campfire.

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Regardless of your body’s size, maintaining positive habits makes a significant difference in your overall health. Sometimes, though, your health goal itself may include losing some extra fat that is causing you discomfort or health problems. Weight loss is a commonly sought after and frequently frustrating goal – mostly because there is so much confusion about how to effectively go about it! After working as a dietitian for 6 years, I’ve compiled a list of my top 15 weight loss tips to help you meet your goals. Enjoy!

1. Ease into it

I know this might be a weird thing to hear from a dietitian, but don’t come out of the gate doing every healthy thing you can think of. Plan a couple of healthy changes, add them into your life, get used to them for a few weeks, then add in a couple more.

There are a couple of reasons I recommend this – first of all, it’s much more likely that you’ll be able to stick with your new habits if you have a little time to get used to them and work out the kinks. Second, nearly everyone will run into a plateau at some point on their journey. For plateaus lasting more than 2-3 weeks, it’s nice to have a couple of healthy changes in mind to get things moving again. If you start out by maxing out your exercise and strictly limiting your food intakes, you don’t have anywhere to go when things inevitably get stuck.

2. Be part of your own plan

As tempting as it is – trust me, I know – avoid going for pre-made meal or diet plans. These plans are convenient and seem simple, but they were not made to match your lifestyle. They may get you moving along for a week or two (or even a month or two), without teaching you to make your lifestyle more healthful. Often, they contain foods you don’t care for and leave out some of your favorites – that’s no way to live! This is one reason I don’t make meal plans for my clients. Participating in the creation of your own healthy plan will help you practice making a healthy lifestyle that you actually enjoy and can follow long term. If you’re lost on how to do this, find a Registered Dietitian to help you!

3. Don’t expect (or aspire to) perfection

Do not expect to never eat your favorite foods. Do not aspire to never eat your favorite foods. It makes me sad just to think of it! You can and should include all kinds of foods that you enjoy while meeting your health goals. Do it intentionally and without guilt. Including favorite foods will help your plan be sustainable and enjoyable, and prevent out-of-control bingeing.

4. Consider your personality

A sustainable healthy lifestyle is about so much more than calorie calculations and exercise. Consider aspects of your personality that you may never have thought of in relation to nutrition and fitness before. Are you detail-oriented? Tech savvy? Flexible? Need structure? Tend to obsess? All of those things should play into your choices about which paths to take. If you’re not sure how to do that, check out this handy graphic to guide you.

5. “Begin as you mean to go on”

Originally said by Charles Spurgeon, the sentiment of the quote is to only begin a life change that you expect to be able to continue long-term. Do not begin any nutrition plan that you only intend to follow temporarily. Your plan should be sustainable. Now, sometimes, life will happen and you’ll have to change up your plan accordingly, or you’ll change it up to match your workouts, for example. The point is that you shouldn’t embark on a plan that you know beforehand will be too hard to stick with after a few months.

6. Embrace the trial and error

Approach your healthy plan as a series of trials and errors, designed to find the healthy plan that perfectly fits your life. If you try something that doesn’t work, it’s not failure, it’s information. That wasn’t the right approach for you. Try another! Keep going, and you’ll have ironed all of the wrinkles out of your plan and it will fit your lifestyle like a glove.

7. Make sure you’re eating enough

There is so much bad info out there. Weight loss is so much more than eating less and moving more. In fact, about half of the clients I see who are trying to lose weight are undereating, not overeating.  Their undereating is what keeps them from being able to lose weight! Without going into the nitty-gritty hormonal details, chronic over-restriction leads your metabolism to slow down and puts your body in fat-saving/fat-storage mode. Strict calorie restrictive diets actually teach your body to store fat. The next time someone says that you should be eating 1200 calories per day to lose weight, just let that comment roll off your back. The goal is to eat exactly what your body needs, minus just a tad. Then your body won’t mind filling in the gaps with extra fat.

8. Don’t fear the carbohydrate!

While we’re on the subject of slowed metabolism, let me address one of the most common weight loss mistakes I see – undereating carbohydrates! Poor carbohydrates, they get such a bad rap as being one of the leading causes of weight gain. Not true! Carbs are the primary fuel our bodies use. When our bodies don’t get enough carbs for a while, they slow our metabolisms down to “survive the winter.”

This is why nearly every low-carb diet works spectacularly for a while, then weight tends to plateau. Typically as soon as you start adding carbohydrates back in (no matter how gradually), most of the lost weight comes back. This is because your body believes it is now summer again – time to start stocking up fat for the next period of starvation!

This is not to say that a mild decrease in carbohydrates can’t help speed weight loss, but drastic reductions are not the answer for sustainable weight loss. Lose the weight in a way that includes carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, but choose well in each category. Go for complex and nutrient-dense carbohydrates like whole fruits, nuts, seeds, whole grains, and low-fat dairy or dairy alternatives. Choose lean proteins like skinless poultry, lean beef or pork, fish, eggs, and nuts. Aim for liquid, plant-based fats like avocado oil and olive oil. Add plenty of antioxidant-laden veggies. 🙂

9. Hold steady (and expect plateaus)

Plateaus happen for all but the very lucky in weight-loss journeys. Sometimes they happen for a discernable reason, sometimes your body just isn’t feeling like losing weight that week. Don’t stress, and continue doing what you are doing. If your weight sticks for more than 2-3 weeks, only then is it time to consider tweaking your plan. Try adding a little time or intensity to your workouts, or add in some cross-training.

10. Build in non-scale victories

Keep goals besides weight-loss goals, because sometimes the scale just doesn’t want to reflect the hard work you’re putting in. It happens. To everyone.

My faves are achievement goals. They are the most fun! Explore new territory – maybe something you’ve always dreamed of doing but never believed you could do. Want to learn to box? Hike part (or all!) of the Pacific Crest Trail? Ride a horse? Become a personal trainer? Play tag with your grandkids? Skydive?

Pick one that fires you up. Consider your workouts training for that dream. Be consistent. Achieve it. Pick a new goal. Rinse and repeat.

11. Embrace health improvements, not just pounds lost

Along those lines, make changes for their benefit to your health, disease prevention, or an increase in energy. Believe in the good you are doing for your body by moving it more, eating more vegetables, or drinking more water. Read handouts or books about it if you need to! Sometimes it seems the only reason someone is willing to do anything healthy is to watch the number on the scale go down. While that can be a satisfying and healthy goal, the scale does not always cooperate (as mentioned above). If you’re putting all your eggs in that basket, you’re setting yourself up for frustration. Instead, notice the way your body feels – your energy levels, your digestion, your skin, the way your clothes fit. All of those are signs that you’re headed in the right direction, and none of them require weight loss.

12. Ditch an “all-or-nothing” mindset

Some people are inclined to have an “all-or-nothing” mindset, particularly about nutrition or fitness. Either they’re doing all the things – eating “clean,” working out out 5 times a week, drinking enough water, and taking their vitamins – or they’ve given up on being healthy. One day of a missed workout or a serving of french fries leads them to throw in the towel on all of their healthy habits. Health does not work this way, and neither should you think this way about your health. Every step is a step in a healthier direction. Don’t let one “imperfect” moment tell you how everything has to be. Just pick it back up and move on.

13. Steer clear of “diet lingo”

While we’re at it, avoid phrases like “eat clean,” “cheat days,” “cutting carbs” and “guilty pleasure.”

There’s nothing dirty about dessert, eating cheese is not cheating, carbs don’t need cutting (except with a bread knife), and no tasty food should make you feel guilty.

Using these phrases reinforces the mindset behind them, and that is not a helpful mindset. All food can fit in a balanced weight-loss lifestyle.

14. Rewrite your cassette tapes

This is an idea one of my clients had and I loved it. She said she had all of these old self-deprecating diet “cassette tapes” playing in her head, telling her she was too fat, shaming her for what she would choose to eat, or telling her that fruit was bad because it was too high in sugar. As she was working with me, she learned that the voices on these tapes were misinformed or just plain wrong. She had to make a conscious effort to “record over” the unhelpful voices with something she knew to be true. She actively thought about how nutritious fruit is and how the fiber helps her digestion, or how she is making many efforts to improve her health and she should not be ashamed for the choice she is making now. Rewriting her tapes enabled her to take charge from all of those old, useless philosophies that had held her back for years.

15. Believe in yourself – no matter how long it takes, you can do it.

If you follow the other tips, losing weight and making healthy changes shouldn’t be excruciating. If it is, it’s time to change your plan! I certainly won’t say it will be a walk in the park (though it may involve some of those!), but it’s doable. It takes consistency, patience, and dedication to the process over anything else. Slow and steady, and if you need some help, go and get it. There’s no shame in that. You can lose weight. You can improve your health.  Believe it.

I’ve been on a liver-friendly diet for over a month now. If you’re not sure why, you can read about it here. A few days ago, my doctor redrew my blood to check my liver enzymes and they were…*drumroll please*…normal! Thank goodness that whatever was the reason for my elevated liver enzymes has resolved at this point and is no longer an issue!

As far as following the liver-friendly diet itself, here are my observations:

The Good

Eating 5 servings of fruits and vegetables every day makes me feel so good! I have great energy, great digestion, and my skin is super clear compared to when I eat fewer servings of the good stuff. Whenever I make sure to get my plant foods in it always reinforces to me how important it is for my body.

The Bad

No raw sushi. 🙁

The Ugly

Not a whole lot…probably the toughest part of the whole month was navigating social situations where others were drinking alcohol or eating high-fat or high-salt foods and I was trying to limit those. I wrote about a few of those situations in my post about eating out on a liver-friendly diet. It wasn’t miserable, but it was a bit tough. I think the difficulty would depend on how often you normally drink alcohol, take NSAID medications, or eat high-fat foods. Since none of these are a huge part of my normal, I didn’t feel like I was missing out too much.

Thanks for following along with my liver-friendly journey! Stay tuned to find out what I’ll be up to next!

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