Decades as a clinical nutritionist have made me acutely aware that for many, every snack and every meal of every day of every week of every year can be an emotional journey.

My clients, and millions of others just like them, struggle to find peaceful relationships with food – some very obviously, but many others almost silently. Though smart, savvy, motivated, and “informed,” they hop from diet to diet – paleo, keto, veganism, intermittent fasting, etc. – in search of the perpetually elusive “hope.”

When those inevitably fall short, they cling to an anti-diet culture that values health at any size or focus on body positivity, while dabbling with the sure-to-disappoint Intuitive Eating. In the process, their level of restriction, fear, and/or hyper-vigilance associated with food escalates dramatically, oftentimes to the point that food becomes a – perhaps the – central topic in their lives and wraps itself around their every emotion, thought, and word.

The common thread tying these unproductive and, at times, counterproductive, experiences together is that they face outwardly, when the journey to truly healing is an inward one. To this end:

• How can an elimination diet – whether meat or gluten or even hours in a day – eliminate the foundational views we have of ourselves?

• How can one suddenly be comfortable at any size, when they haven’t been comfortable at every size through decades

• How can someone eat intuitively if they can’t recognize, or don’t trust, the signals their body sends?