#186: GLP-1s, Intuitive Eating & Finding Food Freedom: A conversation with Sam Previte RD

Food freedom is permission to say yes to cake, but it's also permission to say no to dessert because you're full, satisfied, and know you can have it anytime you want. That's the level of trust and attunement I'm talking about in this conversation with Sam Previte, registered dietitian and founder of Find Food Freedom.

Sam is one of those dietitians whose passion for intuitive eating comes through in everything she does. From her popular social media accounts to her private practice, Sam has built her career on helping people make peace with food and their bodies. But she wasn't always an intuitive eating dietitian. Like so many of us, she came out of school steeped in weight-centric nutrition and personally struggling with disordered eating. 

In this episode, Sam shares her journey from diet culture dietitian to becoming one of the loudest advocates for food freedom. We talk about what it really takes to unlearn decades of diet rules, how to build interoceptive awareness when your signals feel unreliable (hello, perimenopause), and the question on everyone's mind right now: where do GLP-1 medications fit into intuitive eating work?

In this episode, you'll learn:

• What food freedom actually means (and why it's not just eating whatever you want)
• How Sam went from teaching intentional weight loss to becoming a passionate intuitive eating advocate
• Where GLP-1 medications and intuitive eating can coexist (and where they can't)
• How to build attunement when your body's signals feel disrupted by perimenopause or menopause
• Why hobbies might be the missing ingredient in your midlife journey

About Sam: Sam Previte is a registered dietitian, certified intuitive eating counselor, certified personal trainer, and the founder of Find Food Freedom, a virtual private practice with 11 registered dietitians serving clients across 29 states. Find Food Freedom accepts over 100 insurance plans, making intuitive eating and Health at Every Size care more accessible.  Sam is also the host of the Find Food Freedom Podcast.

Connect with Sam:

• Instagram: @find.food.freedom
• Podcast: Find Food Freedom Podcast
• Website: findfoodfreedom.com

Related Episodes You'll Love:

• #180: Breaking Free from Diet Culture Lies: How to Trust Your Body Again with Colleen Christensen
• #138: 5 Things I Wish I Had Known About Intuitive Eating 10 Years Ago
• #136: Health vs. Weight: Debunking the Biggest Wellness Myth with Val Schonberg, RD

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Looking for more about midlife,  menopause nutrition, and intuitive eating? Click here to grab one of my free guides and learn what I've got "on the menu" including my 1:1 and group programs. https://www.easy.link/menopause.nutritionist

Transcript

What Food Freedom Means

Sam Previte 0:00

Food freedom is just being able to make decisions around food that feel pleasant in your body. And sometimes that's going to be saying yes to dessert, and sometimes that's gonna be saying no to dessert because you're full and you're satisfied and you know that you can have the dessert whenever you want it.

Jenn Salib Huber 0:19

Welcome to the Midlife Feast, the podcast that helps you make sense of your body, your health, and menopause in the messy middle of midlife. I'm Dr. Jen Sali Puber, intuitive eating dietitian and naturopathic doctor, and author of Eat to Thrive During Menopause. Around here, we don't see midlife and menopause as problems to solve, but as invitations to live with more freedom, trust, and joy. Each week you'll hear real conversations and practical strategies to help you feel like yourself again. Eat without guilt and turn midlife from a season of survival into a season of thriving. I'm so glad you're here. Let's dig in. Hi everyone. It probably doesn't surprise you that I love stories. I love sharing stories, I love hearing stories, I love telling and sharing other people's stories. And it's not just individual stories. I love hearing about dietitians and their story of maybe going from a very conventional nutrition, dietetic, education practice to being one of the biggest advocates and defenders of intuitive eating. And that's exactly what I'm talking to with my guest today, Sam Previtt, who's a dietitian and finder of Find Food Freedom. You may recognize her from her very popular social media accounts and podcasts of the same name. But what I've always loved about Sam, and we talk about this, is that her passion and the strength of her conviction about this being so important really shines through. So we talk about that. So that's a fun conversation. But then we also dig into one that it's a question that I have a lot, I get a lot. I talk about kind of in my one-to-one conversations and in the feaster community we've talked about. And that is where does intuitive eating fit in this GLP one world? So definitely listen to that because I think that both of us bring some really good points to the table, but there's still a lot of questions. So I really hope you enjoyed this episode. As always, I love hearing your feedback. I love when you message me or leave a message wherever you listen to podcasts about how much you liked it or what you learned. That really helps because the funny thing about podcasting is that you put it out into the world and you're kind of talking to yourself or maybe one other person. So thank you to everyone who takes the time to send me a message or subscribe and leave a review because that is what really helps other people find our little corner of the podcast world. Okay, on with the podcast.

Sam Previte 3:09

Hello, Sam, and welcome to the Midlife Feast. Thank you. Thank you for having me. This has been on my list of podcasts I've wanted to be on. So I'm very excited.

Jenn Salib Huber 3:19

Oh, I'm honored. I was on your podcast years ago, like way back when I was first starting. And it was such an honor then. And it we've been, we've been Instagram friends for sure since then. We've had lots of kind of back and forth conversations, but it's always really nice when we can sit down and have an actual conversation, even if it is across the ocean. Yes.

Sam Previte 3:39

Yes. But I feel like I'm always sending your account to people and your podcast to people because, you know, going through menopause, as you know, is something that is so difficult. And there's not a lot of research on it, and there's not a lot of people talking about it, specifically related to relationship with food and body. Um, so I'm always like, you gotta go check her out. She's incredible. Um, and it's something I haven't lived through personally yet. So I think that like you pairing your professional and personal experiences is just incredible.

Jenn Salib Huber 4:15

Well, before we dig into all the good stuff that we're gonna talk about, I would love for you to just introduce yourself to my audience. I'm sure many listeners know who you are, but uh tell us a little bit about you and how you got into intuitive eating. I always love hearing that story.

Sam Previte 4:30

Yes. So I am a registered dietitian, I'm a certified intuitive counselor, a certified personal trainer, and the founder of Fine Food Freedom. So Fine Food Freedom is our Instagram handle, it's our TikTok handle, but it's also a private practice. So I think a lot of times with social media, people think it's like, oh, it's just a page. Um, but there are a lot of incredible professionals that are a part of uh our organization. And so we're a virtual private practice made up of a team of we have 11 registered dietitians now that live all over the US. We have someone in Alaska, Wisconsin, North Carolina, just truly all over. Um, and our mission is to help people make peace with food in their body. And we accept health insurance. So we're licensed in over 29 states in counting, and accept over 100 insurance plans. And I didn't always take insurance. I used to be a private pay, private practice, and it was just myself and one other dietitian. Um, but I found myself just over and over and over saying, like, I want to help as many people as possible. And the biggest barrier to entry for people was that cost. And so I kind of just always fought with this idea of like, but insurance feels so difficult and so hard. And like, how am I gonna do this? And so in 2024, we took the leap and uh taking insurance. And it's been incredible to not only create jobs for dietitians looking for like intuitive eating specific jobs because it's very hard to find if you're not in private practice. Um, and then just to help so many people get access to this care that wouldn't be able to afford it if it was private pay or or honestly don't even know that it exists. Like it, it's you know, I think traditionally dietitians that are covered by insurance are more clinical. Like that's kind of how it always was, or just some more traditional or like weight-centric dietetics. Um, so to be able to kind of break that barrier down too and be like, no, you can you can meet with an intuitive eating and health at every size dietitian as well, and still have it covered by insurance and talk about medical conditions and you know, things of that nature. So uh, but I no longer see clients in the practice. I do the social media, the PR, the brand partnerships, just kind of the media facing. Um, because I've had two little kids along the way and it's just been a crazy like growing the practice, growing the family all at the same time. Um, but it's been really rewarding. And so, as you said, I have a podcast as well, the Fine Food Freedom Podcast. And gosh, do you want me to go straight into how I got into intuitive eating?

Leaving Weight Loss Dietetics Behind

Jenn Salib Huber 7:16

You're so passionate about intuitive eating. Anybody who follows you on any of the platforms or your podcast, you come across as, you know, a true believer. You are you are a lifer as am I, as am I, right? So, and I think that that level of certainty and passion and really experience comes through. And so I always like to know like, where did that come from? Yeah. How did you begin to feel so passionately about this?

Sam Previte 7:46

Great question. And I think something that's important to note before I get into it too is, and I'm sure we'll talk about this today, but you know, I think intuitive eating in 2020 really became trendy, I would beg to say. Like it was very, it was a very Googled term. That's when body positivity took off. I mean, but as you and I know, body positivity has been around since like, what is it, the 60s, and it was for black, queer, you know, activists, and it had nothing to do with white women on the internet talking about loving their their roles. But in 2020, it definitely had this comeback, if you will, on social. And I've noticed a lot of people waffling with intuitive eating, or like they once said they were intuitive eating or body positive, and then now it's like, oh, well, now that GLP1 culture is here, it's like, well, I still don't believe in dieting, but and there's this like, but. Um, and so for me, when I found intuitive eating, it was something that I never learned in school as a nutrition student. Um, yeah. And it just, it was not integrated into our curriculum at Penn State or my dietetic internship. I got maybe like teeny tiny exposure to eating disorder care, but it was very like old school traditional, like it's only skinny people that suffer, and anorexia is like this emaciated look, and it, which again, that can be true, but you know, we know that any size body can have an eating disorder. And so I came out into the profession as a diet culture dietitian, I like to call it, or just a weight-centric dietitian, because that's how I was classically trained. Um, I had classes called weight management, where we were learning how to track calories and I rem like, oh, just all of the stuff. So I remember graduating college and being accepted into my dietetic internship to get the RD credential and personally hating my body, like feeling this imposter syndrome of like, I want to help people lose weight and be healthy, but I don't know how to lose weight and I don't feel healthy. And how am I gonna do this? And I had a lot of disordered eating through my late teens and pretty much all of my 20s, um, college being one of my disordered most disordered times. And so it's so interesting, like how I like as I professionally was continuing on my journey, like it helped me so much personally because of how disordered I was, and many dietitians are. Um, what is it? 2% of dietitians, I believe, are black, and we have a very whitewashed culture of dietitians who have the same kind of story as like, oh, I was disordered, or oh, I had an eating disorder. And it's just um there's very limited diversity um in our field, not only with race, but with size too.

Jenn Salib Huber 10:59

Absolutely.

Sam Previte 12:01

Yeah. So I, as I kind of entered this field, I remember also just being in my classes and looking around the room, and everybody was so petite and so tiny, and I just felt out of place because at the time, um, due to some of my disordered eating patterns, at the time I I resided in a larger body than I do now as well, and had a lot of internalized fat phobia, and there's just a lot there. So as I went into my career and became a dietitian, my first job was at ShopRate Supermarkets, like in the grocery stores out here. And I love the position because I got to be immersed in my community. I got to do one-on-one counseling, I got to do grocery store tours, I got to do cooking classes and work with the chefs. So I got to do like all these different parts of nutrition and really work with humans. And I think what I noticed throughout that job is that something felt really off. Like the more and more time I got to sit with people, I was like, this feels icky. They I feel like I felt like I was shaming them, even though I was doing what they came to me, right? Like they wanted to lose weight. So I was trying to help them lose weight, but they didn't have the verbiage and I didn't have the verbiage of really what was going on there. And so at the time I was exposed to uh my colleague who is also my internship, Hailey Goodrich, and she's an eating disorder dietitian. And she was like one of the first, I feel like, on Instagram. Now everyone's posting on Instagram, you know, their virtual practice, but this was probably back in 2015. She was posting, yeah. I wasn't even on social then. And so she was posting about intuitive eating, and I was I called her and I was like, What's this intuitive eating thing you're like posting about? And she told me about the book, so I read the book. And then it was like, once I read that and I learned it, I was like, oh my God, this is like that magic answer. I've been searching for the magic answer to weight loss, and I was like, the magic answer is that intentional weight loss is not the answer. Like so so ironic how that worked out. Um, but I felt like even at that time, I hadn't started private practice yet, though. And so still like had a lot of unlearning to do. And by 2019, I had gone to an in-person seminar with Haley and her mentor, Fiona Sutherland, who is an incredible dietitian as well. And so I I remember like saying goodbye to them, and I was hysterically crying because I was like, it just like all became so real that I'm like, I can't teach intentional weight loss anymore. But like, how am I gonna have a job? Because this is what I've been told to do. And I'll never forget Christy Harrison out of the corner of my eye was like walking up. And at the time, like she was like, and she still is like my end all be all role model in dietetics. I was listening to her food psych at the time, it was really helping me kind of sift through some of this unlearning. And I was like, oh my God. I was like, she's like, Are you okay? Like it was just a very funny moment that I was like so embarrassed, but I was just like, it was such a pivotal moment. So I came back from that seminar and I was like, I cannot, I was fence straddling at that point in 2019, where I was like, okay, I'm gonna help people intuitively eat, but I'm also gonna help people lose weight in a very morally, ethically sound way, which doesn't work, um, and leaves you feeling very burnt out and a phony and all of these things. So I came back from that seminar that was like fall of 2019, and I was like, it's it's all gotta change. And by August of 2020, I rebranded my practice at the time to find food freedom. Uh March of 2020 during COVID is when I got on TikTok and just started exploring, like sharing what I was learning through this process of unlearning and learning, and it really took off. Um, and then we just never looked back.

Jenn Salib Huber 16:05

So it's I love that story.

Sam Previte 16:08

But feel free. I I know I went so many places, so feel free to ask anything.

Permission To Eat Includes No

Jenn Salib Huber 16:12

Like, I I think that, especially if there are other dietitians listening to this, and I'm sure that there will be. Yeah, I think understanding that all of us who have become intuitive eating, you know, I don't want to call us zealots, but like we are passionate about this, yeah, came from a weight-centric model. Yes, you know, um, as an as a dietitian and as a naturopathic doctor, like prescribing food and plans was what I did.

Sam Previte 16:43

Yeah.

Jenn Salib Huber 16:43

And even though it didn't work for me and it really didn't work for my patients either, it was what I did. And but when you are confronted, and Evelyn and Elise, the founders of Intuitive Eating, do such an amazing job of presenting the science. Yes. And it just all makes sense because all of a sudden, then you have this science presented to you, which is actually reflecting your lived experience and practice of everything that you have seen. And then all of a sudden, it feels like it is unethical to continue to prescribe food as a way to control your body. Like once you see diet culture for what it is, you cannot unsee it and you can't go back. Yes. So you you became food freedom, find food freedom. How do you define that? How do you, because everybody has a slightly different definition. How do you define food freedom? And how is it different from eating whatever you want?

Sam Previte 17:36

Oh, I love that question. I think so many people think that food freedom is just always saying yes to food. Like anyone in my life that knows me but doesn't really know what intuitive eating is, but obviously I'm on the internet. So, like, you know, random uncles or aunts, like if we're at an event or like a family thing, they're like, Sammy, you don't want dessert? Like, that's not food freedom. Like, I'll get like, you know, and I'm like, actually, it is. Like, I just don't want dessert right now. Crazy that I can say no to food and be okay with that, right? So, food freedom is just being able to make decisions around food that feel pleasant in your body. And sometimes that's going to be saying yes to dessert, and sometimes that's gonna be saying no to dessert because you're full and you're satisfied and you know that you can have the dessert whenever you want it. Um, so that's just like one little example there. Uh but I wanted to add too, going back to what you said about, you know, intuitive eating and the science and all of that. I think it also just provided for me so much verbiage to like for so long, I was saying that I wanted to lose weight. And I, and I'm sure you see this with people as well. Like, so many people still desire weight loss, right? When they come to this work. I think the majority do. I think it's actually very rare to find someone, especially in this day and age, right? And so I just feel like it intuitive eating allows us as the providers to have those tools to dig deeper when it's like, okay, I want to lose weight, and to say, tell me more, like what what else is there? Um, because before, in the weight-centric model, it's like, I want to lose weight, okay, let me help you do that. It's not like the weight. Yeah, it's just so that has been super helpful. And I've never actually thought about it until you asked me at the beginning of like, no one's ever asked me, like you or like kind of called out how I'm very like a stan for intuitive eating. And and I think it's part of it too, is because right now with social media, everyone has a page, right? Anyone can call themselves a nutrition expert, etc. But I just love the research behind intuitive eating and how there's over 170 studies. And I think so many people make up join my food freedom program or join my and again, I understand, but I do love like being rooted in this model that is evidence-based. And we have these evidence-based assessments and tools to use that we know can move people forward with making peace with food.

Jenn Salib Huber 20:27

So and and what you brought up about permission, you know, and the cake, and that is such an important misconception. And I say all the time true unconditional permission to eat is permission to say yes or permission to say no. Yes. And if you feel like you're stuck in saying yes, which a lot of people have to go through if they're learning to, you know, make move towards food neutrality. But a lot of people have that misconception that intuitive eating is just like eat whatever you want. And if you say no, then you're dieting. You know, it's like not believing that it's no, it's the attunement. It is that, you know, that introspective awareness. What do I want? What do I need? And what feels like the most aligned choice in my body today? Yes. Like that is the level of trust intuitive eaters can get to. And I think a lot of people find that hard to believe.

nlearning Diet Rules And Fear

Sam Previte 21:21

Yeah. And yeah, and I don't blame them, right? Because if you think about it, when and I used to be that way too. So I totally get it because it's like if you're not on a diet, so when you're a chronic dieter and you come off of a diet, you have those binges because we were, I always use like the bow and arrow analogy, right? So when we're on the diet, it's like no carbs, no carbs, no carbs, or whatever the food is, and you pull it back as far as you can until you can't do it anymore and you let go. And that arrow flies so much further in the opposite direction, and you feel this urgency to consume more. And then that provides that false evidence of like, see, this is why I need to be on a diet, because when I'm not on a diet, I'm out of control. And so then we find the new restriction to come into play and the new set of rules. And next thing we know, we go 10 plus years of our life doing this until we recognize like this is not working.

Jenn Salib Huber 22:24

And I mean, that level of attunement to be able to listen, one, like to hear it. You know, am I hungry? Am I full? Am I satisfied? What do I want? That requires, let's just say, like some regulation to be in place. And because we talk about a lot of midlife and menopause on this in this podcast, yeah, menopause introduces a lot of attunement disruptors. And some of those signals become less reliable. That's not exclusive to menopause. There are lots of other situations where we might have unreliable signals or cues or attunement disruptors. How do you help people work? Through those situations when somebody says, I can't listen to what my body's saying because I have no idea how to do that. There's too many other things that are happening. Yeah.

Sam Previte 23:10

I think it's figuring out what those disruptors are, right? And I think just if we really simplify it, thinking about okay, it when we're building our introspective awareness, we're listening internally, right? But it's so hard to do when for five, 10, 15, 20 plus years we've been listening to all of the external, right? So external meaning, meal plans, whether it's health professionals, weight watchers points, you know, portion sizes, uh diet, calorie counters, my fitness palette, like all of this external stuff. Um, so to really turn inward, I think part of it is recognizing and building awareness of how much external has been present. Like I'll often have clients in the beginning kind of just like take an old school like notebook and pen and put their name in the middle and just jot off of that, like every single diet or food rule they've ever followed, been on, believed, currently believe, currently practice, used to practice, and all of those conflicting messages too, like seeing that visually, I think is really impactful because it's like, wait, I used to be low fat, but now I'm high fat and like right. I used to be vegan, but now I've been told to eat a lot of meat. And it's like seeing all of that and all of that noise, I think can be really helpful to start to say, okay, where did I learn this? Where did this come from? Um, but then also, so that that's more of like the voices, though, I guess.

Jenn Salib Huber 24:55

Um, versus the unlearning, right? Yeah. Like the unlearning that needs to happen. I mean, as a card-carrying Gen X member, lots of audience members are too. There's a lot we need to unlearn. There was a lot of diet culture. Um, I'm gonna assume that you're at least 10 years younger than I am. So maybe you weren't quite as exposed to the diet culture era of like Oprah and all the like weight loss y type ads and programs. Obviously, they still exist and we're definitely there in the 90s too. But you know, they're definitely it feels like the unlearning process is the really challenging one because you get to this point in midlife and you're like, well, I figured out how to do all these other things. I figured out how to do my taxes, I figured out how to do all this stuff. Why haven't I figured out how to eat yet? And so when realizing that you really have to like deprogram all of those different diet rules that are floating around in your head, um, it takes time. I know everyone wants a switch, but like it takes time, right?

Intuitive Eating With GLP-1 Meds

Sam Previte 25:57

Well, and I think when a lot of people start this process too, they think it's only gonna be about food and the diet rules. And it's like, yes, that's absolutely part of it. But then we have to look even deeper and be like, okay, well, what are the belief systems that are driving these behaviors? And a lot of time it's that that fat phobia, right? That that fear of fatness and the fear of gaining weight. And if like we look, okay, yeah, why were we following those rules? Right. And so it's just so much more than just the food, right? As we know. And it's it's a lifelong journey. And so I don't blame people sometimes. Like sometimes people are like, oh, it'd be so much easier just to diet. And I'm like, I get it, because dieting, you you're pro at it, right? You've calculated the numbers, you know the calories, you know the macros. It gives you that false sense of control when you're doing it, versus having to really unpack all of the layers and the it's so challenging, but it is so rewarding all in the same time.

Jenn Salib Huber 27:05

It really is. And it's not easy, it's not always linear, it's rarely linear.

Sam Previte 27:09

Yeah.

Jenn Salib Huber 27:10

Um, there's, you know, often two steps forward, one step back, sideways, upside down, all that kind of stuff. But it is definitely worth it. So I'm wondering if we can pivot to what might be a really big question conversation. But of all the people to ask and have this conversation with, I feel like you are um, you're definitely one of the people that I would like to have it with. Because I'm I'm hearing a lot of questions from people about GLP ones, as we all are. And the biggest question is where does intuitive eating fit in with GLP1 conversations? Because those medications are here to stay. And this is not a debate about their worth, their use, anything like that. This is simply a question of if they're here to stay, and we know that they do mute a lot of those hunger cues, they getting back to like, you know, you have to be able to listen, right? To have your body's feeling. So, where do you see the intuitive eating in GLP ones living happily ever after, or do you?

Sam Previte 28:17

It's a great question. Well, I think, like you said, as the disclaimer, like this is not anti-a human being who's on a GLP one or thinking about it, or if you were on one, it's just plain and simple talking about it. So I did a whole podcast episode that I can send to to link in the show notes, like really starting with like if I'm gonna be oh god, so if I'm gonna be on a GLP one and pursue intuitive eating, how do I do this? And I think it's exactly like you said of being aware of those attunement disruptors. And obviously it's gonna affect every human being so differently because we know people are having different symptoms, different things are happening. But from a provider standpoint, this has been it, it is wild to see the evolution of like my dietitian team in 2024, what we were talking about in supervision and like discussing with clients as like roadblocks and like what we're discussing today. And so much of that discussion is around GLP ones. And I've, you know, when they first really came out on the market for intentional weight loss, I saw a lot of dietitians who are like in our space who were like, I'm not seeing clients on GLP ones because those are for intentional weight loss and I don't support intentional weight loss. And I can understand where maybe those providers are coming from. And like you said, I don't think that these drugs are going anywhere. And I also believe that it's important to support people wherever they're at in their journey. So, of course, being upfront with clients of like we like intentional weight loss is not a part of our practice. Like, we are not ever marking that as progress. It's not something we're tracking. We don't even take our clients' weights. But I don't believe it's ethical to turn someone away if they want to pursue intuitive eating and GLP ones. So it has been such a learning process for myself and our entire team of how to navigate these conversations. And it's so nuanced because every person is so different, right? Of like why they're on them, how long they've been on them, like just all of this. So, do I think they can coexist? Yes. Um, I also think it's important to have those discussions, of course, with clients of uh negative side effects or things that it ways it can alter attunement. And then if you are to come off of these medications, whether you don't have access, can't afford them, negative side effects, whatever it may be, to expect your intuitive eating journey to look vastly different than when you were on these medications and really trying to maintain support, professional support during that time if you're going to transition off of them as well.

Jenn Salib Huber 31:17

Yeah, I echo everything you've said. And I certainly have seen a huge rise in the number of people who are on them because they're now being kind of co-marketed for menopause, body changes, weight gain. Two areas that I have found intuitive eating to be really helpful, one is on the practical eating side. So, you know, we know that eating enough, eating enough protein in particular to preserve muscle mass, which becomes a little bit more kind of top of mind in midlife, requires some intention. And if you're not hungry, then that practical eating skill, which is part of the intuitive eating framework, like eating, you know, because you know your body needs it, even if you're not having all of the perfect signals coming in and out at the same time, that has been really helpful. And the other has been leading with satisfaction. And so because people may not have the level of appetite or interest in eating that they would have had before, being able to really use that satisfaction factor as like a beacon to like, hey, what sounds good? Like what tastes do you like? How can we make this still intuitive by leading with satisfaction? So I think there is a way to coexist. I think we're very much in the messy middle figuring that out. Um, because like you said, we know they're not going anywhere. And um, everything is changing, evolving. It feels like by the day, um, every time I put something on my continuing ed calendar, there's like something else that is like ready to be learned. Like it's a never-ending, um, never-ending wheel of learning, I guess is the best way to put it.

Defining A Good Enough Relationship

Sam Previte 32:52

Yes. Yes. So I think it's important for us as dietitians, especially intuitive eating dietitians and health at every size providers, to still work with clients in that way. Because if we all said no, then these, you know, these clients are going to go to providers that are very weight-centric and aren't going to be able to give them the intuitive eating tools or teach them attunement or structure or satisfaction from this non-diet lens. And I think we'll end up doing more harm than good. So I think it is really important to be able to hold space for that. But it is a very, it's very tricky conversations to have. Um, and then then I think that's also where like the body image piece comes in that like as dietitians, we are not trained in body image at all. So if you are getting support from a dietitian related to body image, making sure that they've done the, you know, gone the extra mile and done training in body image and worked with um consultants that reside in larger bodies and that can really help because I think so much of the GLP1 conversation does come with body image conversations. And so navigating those is another big thing that we see in our practice.

Jenn Salib Huber 34:12

Thank you for having that conversation with me. One last question for you, which is you know, people often, I think when when we're in the diet mentality, whether that's our clients or our old selves or whatever, we have this idea of like what it is gonna look like when we arrive, right? And how do you describe a good enough relationship with food? Like whether you call that adequacy or I call it like lowering the bar, like when you're trying to help people maybe like reenvision what life as an intuitive eater looks like and it being good enough, how do you communicate that to them?

The Missing Ingredient Is Hobbies

Sam Previte 34:46

Oh, that's a really great question. I think for me, I will never forget one of my first like true intuitive eating clients uh that I met with in person. And she said to me, She's like, I'm so fucking sick of food taking up all of my mental bandwidth. Like that has always stuck with me. And it's something I relate to when I was really in the trenches of disordered eating, where every thought felt like it was about calories or my body or my weight or what I'm eating or what I shouldn't be eating, or I was never physically present be or excuse me, I was never mentally and emotionally present. Maybe I was physically somewhere, but I barely remember it because I was so caught up in my head of the obsession of food and body thoughts. So I think explaining true intuitive eating and peace with food is being able to be present. And yes, you still are gonna have thoughts about food, right? Oh, I'm hungry. Oh, food sounds nice. Like we're still going to, or like enjoy food, of course, but it's not gonna be like the 99% of your thoughts taken up by food and body. So you can go live your life and think about things you enjoy or are passionate about, or you know, go live your life in addition to food, not only thinking about food all of the time. Um, and I think that's what so many of my clients have used. Another I always am like quoting my clients. I feel like we learned so much from them, but she said it was like going from intuitive or excuse me, diet culture to intuitive eating was like The Wizard of Oz, where she saw the world in black and white, and then she saw the world in color, where she was like, I just have such a different lens now that I'm looking through life and can enjoy because I'm not like enslaved by this diet culture. And so um those are kind of things I use when I when I talk about it is just being able to be present and enjoy your life because you're not obsessed with food or your body.

Jenn Salib Huber 36:53

Oh my gosh. That is the perfect, perfect um place to end our conversation. Thank you so much for joining me. I always ask my guests though, what do you think is the missing ingredient in midlife?

Where To Find Support

Sam Previte 37:06

Ooh. I'm gonna, okay, so I'm gonna say hobbies. I I and I think this comes along with like the diet culture, kind of as people make peace with food and they make peace with their body, and then they start to look into their relationship with movement. And I think this is maybe very relevant for me in the stage of life I'm in, but I see it with clients in midlife as well of like, what do I enjoy? Or like, and you ask them, what do you enjoy? And it's like, uh, I don't know. Like, what do you do for fun? I don't know. Especially some uh some of my clients in motherhood, you know, it's so easy to put our children first. And so I think the missing piece sometimes is hobbies and fun and play and figuring out like what that means for us.

Jenn Salib Huber 37:55

I love it. I love it. So if people want to learn more about you, where's the best place for them to find you?

Sam Previte 38:02

I would say the easiest place is probably Instagram. It's at find.food.freedom, just periods in between food find food freedom. And there lives all of our links that you can get your insurance benefits checked and see if you have coverage to work with our team and just all the resources and anything you you need, it's probably there.

Jenn Salib Huber 38:23

Amazing. Thank you so much for joining me and sharing your story. It's just been lovely to chat with you. Thank you. Thanks for joining me for this episode of the Midlife Feast. If you're ready to take the next step towards thriving in midlife, head to menopause nutritionist.ca to learn more about my one-to-one and group coaching programs, free resources, and where to get your copy of Eat to Thrive during menopause. And if you've loved today's conversation and found it helpful, please share it with a friend who needs to hear this and leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts. It helps so many more people just like you find their way to food freedom and midlife confidence. Until next time, remember midlife is not the end of the story, it's the feast. Let's savor it together.