Intuitive Eating and Meal Planning: Are Both Possible? - With Tanya Stricek

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Tanya Stricek is a Holistic Nutritionist and Mindful Eating Coach, who helps 50+ women feel satisfied with food and their body, without guilt shame or trade offs. She works with the HOW of eating, before the WHAT of eating.

Listen in to hear her thoughts on why she believes using a meal planning tool like Meal Garden is complimentary to (not against) a mindful eating approach.

Show Notes:

1:20 - Why Tanya focuses on Mindful Eating

“Food and body image have always been a struggle for me. And it manifested itself as I went through perimenopause and menopause, because those are changes you really have no control over to some degree.

I decided as some health issues were bogging down my career, that I was going to pursue holistic nutrition. I thought it would give me all the answers. I went to behavioral health coaching at a university course, and I was like, where's the detox? Right?

I didn't sign up for this. I didn't sign up for behavior, when really we all know that's a huge portion to change. And so, at the same time, because I thought holistic nutrition is going to help fix my issues with food.

At the same time, I enrolled in mindful eating. I was introduced to mindfulness by a colleague of mine. It was mind blowing and it also just brought holistic nutrition back to the forefront. So what we think as holistic nutritionists, we're talking always about almond milk and herbs, and of course gluten-free toxic free lifestyle, all of those things. But it really is about mind, body and soul.”

3:31 - How Tanya teaches mindful eating to her nutritionist clients

“When I started talking to people more and more, it really was more apparent that, the what we eat, we can figure out by Googling. But how we eat is so important.”

“Especially as women we're bombarded with so many messages about body, but even about food, and nothing fits the same day, the same season, the same year or phase of life, we really do change. And having those tools of, the how we eat, before we go on to what we eat, is a huge foundation in wellness of the whole body and soul.”

7:25 - How Tanya figures out how much structure a new client needs

When I'm talking to someone one to one, it is guided by where they are at. And just thinking about what may trigger them into a more restrictive or disordered eating phase. Because certain names, certain foods, people come into programs or people meet me in places where they have so many labels around the foods that they eat. So, really just gauging by the person and making it more open and exploratory. So, I may give a recipe collection in Meal Garden. I may open up like a whole cookbook for them to create for themselves and let them see what guides them, what they feel like eating. It's really the whole basis of learning that intuitive or mindful approach.”

8:24 - Are there certain foods you allow your clients to eat? Is there a particular “guilty food” you’re known for?

“For a long time I struggled with that because I thought, how can I be a holistic nutritionist and I could be seen out with my daughter at the movies and she's buying like a pack of Twizzlers. Oh my God. Right? But it really is a broader perspective and bringing some of that mindfulness in what we really should be ditching that judgment of self and of others. Because one Twizzler will not make you unhealthy right then in that moment.

And so when I think about the allowable foods, really? No. Unless as a broader sense, unless we're talking about something that someone has an allergy to, or sensitive to. When you remove that allowability of food it actually opens people up to pursuing higher health, other health, and even other food, and food that is more nourishing because now they just don't have that label on it.

We think if we allow ourselves to have that cake in front of us, we think that forever and a day for the next year we're going to eat cake. And your body naturally doesn't want that. You will shift out of that once you allow that.

12:54 - How Meal Garden can help nutritionist clients develop an abundance mindset and make healthy eating easier

“For the people who feel that we really shouldn't be including any of that nutrient count or even encouraging meal planning, it just goes back to what I was saying. If you want to feed yourself well, it requires some thought and some planning or else you are just popping toast in the toaster or grabbing whatever and you can feel like crap later.

If you’re feeding a family, especially now, if you're out at the grocery store once a week during this COVID-19 lockdown, you got to have a plan. And so a tool like that takes all that guesswork out, it creates a shopping list. It creates everything for you, a tool like Meal Garden. It's indispensable, really.”

If you liked this interview, hop on over to the Meal Garden Instagram to stay up-to-date on all our newest episodes from the Making It Real Podcast, and to get daily inspiration to run a successful, impactful wellness business.

Further Reading:

4 Tips on How to Create Meal Plans Your Clients Will Actually Follow

How This Nutritionist Teaches Clients How to Make Daily Decisions for Long Term Success

Why Feeling Calm Matters for Both You and Your Health Coaching Clients

Understanding Body Dysmorphia (& How to Navigate It With Your Health Coaching Clients)