wellness without obsession: finding peace in food, body & self with Michelle Pillepich

in this episode of all our parts, i’m joined by the amazing Michelle Pillepich—a registered dietitian who’s celebrating six years in the field and four years running her own private practice. Michelle works 1:1 with clients (virtually!) to support healing from eating disorders, disordered eating, and years of toxic diet culture bs.

we talk about what intuitive eating actually looks like, how to reconnect with your body through self-compassion, and why movement should feel good—not punishing. michelle also shares her unexpected journey from wanting to work in politics to finding her purpose in helping people rebuild their relationship with food.

if you’ve ever struggled with your body, your plate, or just want to step away from all-or-nothing thinking, this one’s for you. tune in for real talk, grounded advice, and a reminder that food isn’t the enemy—it’s part of your freedom.

Transcript

 Hello, everybody. Welcome back to All Our Parts. I am so excited to have my guest here. She is a registered dietitian and recently celebrating six years as an RD, four years in private practice, Michelle Pilipich. So excited to have you. Thank you so much for joining me today. 

Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

I'm so proud you knew how to pronounce my last name.  

Amazing start. I was locked in. I was like, I'm gonna get this and then you nailed it. So I'm excited. So tell us first, what do you do as an RD in private practice?  

Yes, it's a great question because I feel like a lot of people don't know, a lot of people have never seen an RD, a lot of my clients, you know, on discovery calls, they're like, what is this going to look like?

So happy to share. In my practice, mostly work with clients working on recovery from eating disorders or some level of disordered eating or chronic dieting. So it's not exclusively eating disorders. I don't think that diagnosis is important at all. If anything is frustrating you about your relationship with food, then great, I would love to work with you.

It is very  similar. It's kind of like therapy for food, in a way, in terms of the logistics and the structure. I meet with clients virtually one on one for sessions, usually once a week or every other week. Some clients less frequently as time goes on. We talk about whatever is important and relevant to them that week.

I'm very laid back, I don't really set an agenda, but we kind of see what's been coming up, what's been most challenging. Sometimes we are making grocery lists together and planning out what they're going to eat throughout the week. Sometimes we're talking about a Particularly challenging food experience they had that maybe was really triggering.

Sometimes we're talking about ED behaviors and how to move past those. A lot of the times, we're doing a lot of diet myth busting or coming in with information they've maybe seen on social media about nutrition and we're talking about what's true, what's not. And also, like, what is necessary for them and what's not because there's so much noise out there.

So it's really an opportunity to tailor nutrition information to you as an individual and determine with somebody who knows you personally, not just someone online who like doesn't even know your name. Um, so that they can get the most support and feel better, have energy, be happy, not stress about food. 

Yeah, I was so excited when you asked to come on because I haven't had anybody yet talk about food, our relationship to food, and that when we think about what it means to take care of ourselves in a holistic way, food and movement are one of the critical ones and being able to have a healthy relationship with food or repair our relationship with food and movement is really important.

And I think it's a lot of it's an experience. A lot of us have gone through, and I love that you approach it from a non pathologizing place because I think there are some aspects sometimes where we struggle with our food intake, whether it's too much, too little, restricting, and then how we use movement, whether as a reward or as a punishment or a contingency plan.

Like, there's so many ways that we can morph our relationship and so when we approach it from a non pathologizing place, it allows some  shame to kind of be taken away from it.  

Absolutely. I mean, diet culture and pathologizing just go hand in hand. And so, so many people have beliefs about themselves based on how they're eating, what they're eating, what they weigh, what they look like, and  It really, I mean, I don't think toxic is too strong of a word, like, it is super toxic to have those thoughts about themselves based on  the food you're putting in your body, like, that is not  who you are, that doesn't define your morality, that doesn't define  anything about you as a person.

And like, you know, so much of it is based on what you have access to, what you're used to. Like,  there's just so much that goes into  our food choices that is highly individual that like the judgment  is out of control for no good reason.  

I have never, maybe I have, but not put it together in that way that our relationship with food can also determine our beliefs about ourselves.

Like I've often thought about it with work, I've thought about it with, I mean, achievement, performance. I don't work a lot with eating disorders and, um, the clinical aspect. And so,  I love learning more about how to approach it when I do have clients who have it more as like a secondary issue, but yeah, to think about it as like, what does it say about us when we don't move, when we do move, when we're not moving enough, when we're not eating like that.

I 

mean, it's, it's the classic conversation that you hear if you're out to dinner with friends and everybody's ordering and someone gets a salad and it's like, Oh, you're being so good. Somebody gets a burger. Oh, we're being bad today. And it might sound harmless, but you're literally saying I'm good.

I'm bad. I'm being good. I'm being bad. And when you say that and hear that enough times, how can it not get ingrained in your thinking? And so, yeah, like clients come to me with a lot of shame. Based on their food choices because of that rhetoric.  

Yeah, how did you get into this work?  

So I, when I was in grad school for nutrition, um, because I did not study nutrition in undergrad.

I had kind of a career change, but I never really had a career before.  I only interned, I studied, I double majored in government and hispanic studies in undergrad and I thought I was gonna like, start a non profit or work for the UN or do something like that. Um, maybe work in the White House or something, which is hilarious now because that's just so not me.

I'm like, get me away. Um, but,  After I graduated, I had an internship, uh, in the political field, and I was miserable. I hated it, and I was like, I don't actually want to do this. So, um, I was actually in D. C. at the time for a minute right after graduating. I moved back home to New Jersey. I was like, well, okay, if I don't want to do what I studied, what do I like?

And I was just always reading food blogs  and magazines, and I was very interested in nutrition. And at that time, it was personally related because I was having a lot of GI issues and I think a lot of people get into the eating disorder field because they have their own experience with an eating disorder.

And I never had an eating disorder that got me into nutrition. It was more like stomach issues I was having. I had SIBO and went through that, um, that initially got me interested in nutrition. And then once I was in grad school, I learned about intuitive eating. Not really through the school curriculum.

It's not really taught in school But I mean my program was great and talked about health at every size a little bit so I feel like that was the most that any program has and I did love the program I went to but I was following a lot of like the OG dietician bloggers and Some of them talked about intuitive eating.

So once I read the book when I was in school I read health at every size and once I read those books and learned that philosophy I just knew I couldn't practice any other way. It was like, this makes sense. This is.  It like this so aligns for me and this is how I want to practice and the eating disorder field is just a natural fit for really being able to embrace intuitive eating. 

So that was the biggest reason why, um, you know, I also wanted to be in a field. I knew I wanted to work for myself eventually, and I knew I also wanted to be in a space that was collaborative. And so that is the eating disorder field. I am always working with. Therapists, doctors, psychiatrists, other care providers, which is really great, um,  and you know, like, while I haven't had an eating disorder. 

Find me one woman especially who has never struggled with their body image, you know like  I definitely had my fair share of that just wanting to change my body wanting to look different feeling self conscious and  You know the mental health aspect struggling myself with anxiety and depression is relatable as well so I might not have the thoughts about food that my clients are struggling with but I can relate to the feelings of anxiety in a different context.

So all of that together is what drew me to this field and I really love it.  

I love that. So it was pretty much like a pursuit of passion.  Absolutely. Yeah, it was. Was it scary?  

Um,  the eating disorders part or the private practice part? 

I mean, shifting from government to ultimately deciding like, I want to work for myself in a, based on like, I mean, this sounds like a very intuitive process to learn, to study and figure out how you want to approach this.

These are, this is like  one opposite ends of the spectrum. Like, was it scary to say, you know what, I'm going to leave the thing that I've been studying, going to school for to pursue something that feels more aligned with who I am?  

You know, I am so glad you asked that question, because I never really thought about it.

And  I think it was Stressful, just in the sense that applying to grad school is stressful. Um, but scary? Not really. I was so driven. I just have always been a person who really values doing work that I love. And I knew,  you know, I am very career driven and I just always knew I wanted to do something I was passionate about.

And so  if that wasn't happening, I just thought  I'm going to pivot. I'm not going to do this. Like work is such a large part of our lives. Why would I do something that doesn't feel fulfilling. So, and I, I am like the biggest advocate for everyone else. Anytime my friends are like, I don't like my job. I wish I could work for myself.

I'm like, you can make it happen. Like, tell me what you want to do. Let's make a plan. Let's do it. I, I think I've always been  kind of a go getter in that respect. And so,  I actually wouldn't say it was scary. I can certainly understand how it would be for many people.  And I guess I'm just grateful I didn't have that.

I,  I was all for it. So if anyone wants to do this and is scared, like reach out, I'll, I'll help you up.  

Well, I am admiring the self trust that you are like you embodied and choosing that and pursuing that and being able to say,  I am going to leave something that isn't like fulfilling The hope is that if I am going to pursue something that I love, that I am interested in, the results will come because I'm going to be putting in the work, putting in the effort.

I don't want to stop learning about it. I don't want to stop learning how I can be better at my craft. That ultimately comes when we are passionate about the thing that we are doing. 

Yes. And I mean, I also love that you said it. Sounds like an intuitive process like what a parallel and  it totally is, Even just as I personally got more into running.

I got my personal trainer certification I wanted to learn more about exercise so I could really talk more about exercise with my clients I still specialize in eating disorders and that is still my niche since the beginning but I'm shifting and growing in the way that I am personally.

And I think that does reflect, and I also am, now pursuing more training in the GI and gut health world, which at first, even though that was my experience, it was like, that was too close to home. I was like, I don't want to think about that stuff. I didn't like dealing with it. I don't want to do that with clients, but now I feel like, okay, I have enough distance from my own experience that  I am really motivated to help clients with it.

 Just being able to  learn new things within the field of nutrition. The world of nutrition is endless. So  It is really nice to have opportunity to continue that growth while still  doing what I started out, wanting to do.  

How do you  implement or encourage your clients to implement movement in ways that are beneficial and for wellness versus outcome result oriented reasons? 

That's a great question.  Really depends on the person and especially if they have  any disordered eating. It depends on where they're at in that process. So,  you know, for somebody who has a history of restriction, is actively restricting, like,  movement is not the focus until you're eating enough. 

Because, you know, we need to be eating enough at baseline for our normal body functions before we add on the stress of exercise. Because people forget, exercise is a stressor on your body.  It's typically a positive stressor that leads to growth and strength and endurance. But if you're not eating enough.

If you're not sleeping enough, if you're sick, if you're overly stressed in other areas of your life, then it becomes a negative stressor and depletes you. And everybody loves the buzzword inflammation that's going to cause inflammation. Like people don't think about exercise causing inflammation, but it absolutely can if you're not caring for yourself holistically.

So that's the first step it, you know, I give my clients kind of a five point check in for exercise.  Am I eating enough? Am I hydrated? Have I slept? Am I sick or injured? And how is my overall stress?  And you want to look at those things before deciding to go do a workout any day. Like we want to make sure all that is in check. 

So caring for yourself physically  with those baseline needs is number one. And then  looking at  both intentions and enjoyment. So when you are engaging in exercise, movement, any kind of activity. Are you doing something you hate because you feel like you have to  in order to look a certain way? Or are you doing something you love to help you feel the way you want to feel?

So it's shifting from, and this is how I describe intuitive eating in general, shifting away from external rules towards internal guidance. Like, not listening to what everybody's telling you to do, listening to your body's guidance. Because you can be an active, healthy, fit, strong person without ever setting foot in a gym.

So if you hate the gym,  like, don't go to the gym.  

And like you said, those external rules, it's like, in our minds are like, well, everyone goes to the gym. I'm supposed to wake up at 5 AM and be at the gym. 

Right. 

I remember like, I would go back and forth. I had a love hate relationship with the gym. I'm like, yeah, I'm supposed to be waking up, gone to the gym, lifting weights.

And I would just feel miserable. And actually I would get sick. Every time I was going to the gym, like I would make it a couple of months and then all of a sudden I'm like sick. I'm like,  so now I have to cancel my membership because I don't feel well. And then  I was like, but I don't even like going to the gym.

So now I'm just wasting time and wasting money. It wasn't until like I started walking and I was like, Oh my God, I love walking. I like seeing the parks. I like seeing the scenery. And I was like, I love to walk and I am feeling. Encouraged to move. I'm feeling encouraged to walk longer. I also play pickleball.

 

Love, 

I don't have to go to the gym. I'm still accomplishing the things that I would accomplish at the gym  and other ways. And they still feel good to me. 

Yes. And those things are  Like, so many people tell me, well, I went for a walk, but like, that's not enough. That's not a workout. I didn't do enough today.

No, you did. Like the, you know, the goals for activity from the American Heart Association  to have good heart health is to get, oh my gosh, now I'm going to forget it. I think it's 150 minutes per week. Yeah. 150 minutes a week of moderate  cardiovascular activity, brisk walking.  Falls into that category.

So that is 30 minutes five days a week  of walking to achieve your heart health goals  So, you know, it doesn't have to be I am killing myself in the gym for an hour, sweating as much as possible. You can do a brisk walk and maybe not even sweat, depending on the weather,  and still be really putting in  great effort into your health.

And that can be like, walking to the store, walking with your friend. It can be social, like,  there's also I think this idea of fitness as like, a solitary punishment activity. And if it's not hard, and if it's not miserable, then I'm not really getting what I need to get out of it. But  if it is hard and miserable,  that is a recipe for burnout and not having longevity.

And the most important thing for our actual Wellness. is to be consistently, sustainably active.  

And it goes back, as I'm listening to you, I'm thinking about, it goes back to those beliefs about ourselves. Like, what does it say about me that I'm just walking? Just doing pickleball, you know, twice a week.

I'm just taking a stroll around the park, walking my dog. What does that say about me? And so  part of, I guess, shifting our relationship to movement is also shifting our beliefs about ourselves with movement. We don't need to be doing hit cardio. I love seeing the Batman training videos on TikTok. Like we do not. 

We don't need to do that to sustain, like, healthy, like, practices.  

Yeah. I mean, think about, like,  are, you know, if you are pursuing some intense level of fitness, what are you looking for?  Do you need to improve your blood sugar? Do you have actual markers are you working on bone density?

Like, what is the goal for your actual health? And for most people, that's probably not what they're thinking about. They're just thinking about the six pack. And like, that's why, I have to be miserable to get there. Because honestly, yeah, if you want a six pack, you're gonna be miserable getting there.

That is just not realistic. Nobody has a six pack who is not in some way being paid to maintain it. Because they're a professional athlete, because they're a model, because, like, something. It's not normal. It is not normal. I don't have a six pack. I've never had one. I don't know a single person in my real life who has one or ever has. 

And I know many fit, strong people. Like, you know, like, that is just  Not 

normal  as you're talking. I'm thinking about so long story short. I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis like in 2020 like during COVID. I was so sick. I had to get all this blood work done.  And when I would feel better because I felt so much guilt about having to like really rest, I would jump right into hit workout. 

Where'd that leave me? In pain, miserable. So when you say like inflammation, I'm like, yeah, felt it. I like couldn't get up for a week, but then I'd go right back to doing the HIIT workout because I'm like, I need to compensate for the rest that my body very well needed that it was requiring.  And then I was like, well, I need to stop doing HIIT workouts. 

And, goes back to the  point, like, working out, like, can be a stressor if we're not doing it out of enjoyment, if it is putting more strain on our body, if it's putting strain on our mind as well, like, it's not helpful.  

And there's this idea that.  I have to do it to earn my food. And if I am going to rest for a significant amount of time, I need to make sure I'm eating less.

And, you know, this is a conversation I have literally daily with clients and I get it, right? Like that's the message that's out there. You know, we grew up with those magazine graphics of like one cupcake equals a zillion hours on the treadmill. Like that is so messed up.  The truth is, we do not need to restrict when we're resting.

We need to meet our basic needs, which is three meals a day, one snack at minimum. Like, eating every three to four hours throughout the entire day. Maintaining your blood sugar, all of those things.  And then we only need to add more to support the exercise when we're exercising. We do not need to intentionally restrict when we're not exercising.

Because we also have to remember,  Our body uses a lot of energy, energy being synonymous with calories. We use a lot for all of the intricate processes and functions that are happening in our body every single day. And,  you know, our basal metabolic rate, the number of calories we burn at baseline just to stay alive,  that is the majority of our calories per day.

That we're burning and that we need to intake. And that baseline doesn't include any movement. So, the walk with your dog. Okay, that adds to calorie burn. The however much time you spend folding laundry. That adds to calorie burn. Standing at the kitchen cooking. That adds to calorie burn. Like, we only think about sweat as movement and  all physical activity.

I think the best thing you can do for your mindset with exercise is to shift away from like workouts and exercise and really think inclusive of physical activity.  

As you're, when you were talking about media, the show that popped into my head is the biggest loser. And so growing up, we are watching media portray like, Yes, you do need to earn your food and like we're watching these people weigh themselves and they're devastated when they have a cupcake and they lose their weight goals And so we're watching that we're saying, okay this is like healthy exercise and like you said the magazines how I lost 60 pounds in like 60 days and sadly it's reemerging, like we're reentering a culture where it really celebrates this intense diet  food reward culture versus what is going to be the best, most sustainable thing for my wellness. 

Right, sustainable because yes, we see the headlines, how I lost 60 pounds in 60 days. We never see the headline, I gained it all back and more  in the same amount of time. And then I increased my set point weight and now I'm going to be in a bigger body or I'm going to continue weight cycling, which is worse for your health than consistently being at a higher weight.

So there's so much nuance that is missed.  

Yeah, we think about, yay, I can lose this weight quickly, but sometimes we lose sight of the fact, like it's going to come back two times and we haven't fixed our relationship to anything. We haven't fixed the relationship to ourselves. We haven't healed our relationship to food.

We haven't healed our relationship to movement. We simply slapped a bandaid on it and hope for the best.  

And that's key. And that's why, you know, it is a careful process working on this with clients because,  you know, I always tell people, like, my goal is for you to be healthy as an intuitive eating dietitian.

People will see that on social media and think, Oh, she's going to make me eat ice cream every single day. And I'm just going to become unhealthy. And that's not the goal. That would not be intuitive eating. I want you to find balance. I want you to be healthy. And I don't want you to have rules and restrictions.

And, you know, we absolutely do get to the point of talking about the princi there are ten principles of intuitive eating. Gentle Nutrition is the last one, and it is last for a reason because we can't talk about your portions of vegetables and protein  until we have complete permission for the carbs or else it's gonna feel like a rule.

It's going to feel like a diet  and the restrict binge cycle is going to continue of feeling like, okay, well, I have to go all in on the protein and vegetables and never eat carbs and then I eat a pound of French fries and then I feel guilty and it all continues. So.  You know, people can feel frustrated in the early stages of intuitive eating feeling like, well,  I'm only going to gain weight, or this isn't working, or I don't feel healthy, or like, I still want to eat a lot of this food.

I don't understand. And we're just not used to playing the long game. We're used to those quick fix diets.  And so I always tell people, it's normal. Like when I have someone who's telling me, Oh my God, I'm having all this success in  A month, it makes me nervous because I'm like, wait, wait, wait, we're not touching on everything here.

Um, you need to work on the mindset and the permission and the freedom before we get into the nuance of  balanced nutrition, you know, really focusing on what's nutrient dense because it has to be  approached 

in the right way.  Yeah. And I think so many of us don't know areas that we can improve in because we don't fall into  typical, uh, eating disorder categories.

And so we don't know we could use support. And I say  because I'm still learning how to form a healthy relationship with food and movement and because I didn't fall into a specific eating disorder category, I did not know. That there could be, uh, more improvements made in how I approach food and how I thought about food and times I was restricting or times I was binging.

But as we learn the language and we continue to inform ourselves on what is intuitive eating, what intuitive movement is, we can all like build more sustainable relationships around like these.  areas, which will also help us build a more sustainable relationship to ourselves.  

Totally. And like, support the future generations too, you know?

Like, we don't want to be the Almond Moms of the future.  

No Almond Moms. We want moderate, balanced, wellness girlies. 

Yes, what did I, I saw on TikTok or something, like, my mom's not an almond mom. She's a butter mom. I was like, Oh, nice. 

But yeah, people don't learn these things. And it is unfortunate that, you know, nobody thinks They're sick enough to get help. Nobody thinks they have a real problem or whatever. Lots of, lots of error quotes around this because  like I said in the very beginning, the diagnosis doesn't matter. I don't care if someone has a diagnosed ED or not. 

If there is anything that is frustrating about your relationship with food, even if there's not, like, Check in, we'll have a chat. Even people who, you know, just want general nutrition guidance who I've seen have said, oh my god, this is like so helpful, I never learned this. It's so nice to just have a balanced realistic framework of how to eat.

It sounds so basic and I think people feel a bit of embarrassment of like, oh my gosh, I don't know how to eat. But literally, who teaches us? Nobody. Like, I went and got a master's degree at this. Like, it's, it's not embarrassing. Um.  And I think everyone can benefit from checking in with their relationship to food. 

We learn the little triangle. And essentially,  where fruits and veggies are at the bottom and then sugars are at the top. It's like  five to seven and then one to three. And then the grand scheme of things, I like think about that pyramid. I'm like, what the fuck does that mean? Like, what does one fruit a day? 

mean? Is that truly sustainable? Is that healthy? Like, what is the adult version of the food pyramid? 

Right. And like, then, you know, we outgrow the food pyramid and we enter Instagram and TikTok and it's like, Oh shit, what's happening? And then it goes to the other extreme where Oh, now the vegetables are bad.

Now a banana has too much sugar. Now, you know, potatoes are the worst thing I can eat. Like. Oh my goodness, I've heard the craziest I've heard that somebody's out there saying carrots are too high in sugar. And  always tell people, when we get to the point  of demonizing fruits and vegetables, like, run as far away as you possibly can.

Mute, block, delete, like, that is the biggest red flag. Fruits and vegetables are fruits and vegetables. Eat them, enjoy them,  like, do not stress about a banana.  

I love bananas.  

Yeah. I mean, they're so good.  

Michelle, this was. The vet. I learned so much this evening. 

I'm so thrilled. I had so much fun.  

How can people find you if they want to work with you, connect with you? 

Yes, so my website is michellepilopich. com And you can find information there about my private practice. It is myself and I have another dietician, Kelly, who is amazing and works with me.  We do have openings for new clients and we're in network with insurance so we can check your insurance benefits for you.

On Instagram, I'm michellepillopitchnutrition, michellepillopitch on TikTok  and that's, those are the ways to find me. 

And everything will be linked in the description. And as a closer, I am asking all of my guests this season, what is your commitment to yourself for 2025? 

My  Commitment to myself is more self compassion. 

I know I need a good dose of that.  

I love it, Michelle. Thank you so much for joining me today. 

Thank you. 

 Thank you all so much for tuning into this episode. Make sure you tap the bell to stay in the loop with new episodes dropping every Friday. If this episode spoke to you, I'd be so grateful if you left a review. It helps others find the show and reminds me why I keep showing up. And if you wanna keep the conversation going, come hang with me on socials at Uni Wellness LC. 

We're healing out loud together.