Claire (she/her)
I’m a non-diet dietitian and the owner of Diet-Free Me. I’m a proud gay woman and I identify as a small-fat person (what does this mean?). I also have ADHD, and I have a special interest in supporting neurodivergent clients. I live with my two young children and our dog Lucy.
Qualifications:
– Accredited Practising Dietitian
– Credentialed Eating Disorder Clinician
My non-diet journey:
For most of my teens and early 20s, I was unhappy with my weight. While I never followed any of the popular diets, I definitely had a diet mindset and this lead to some unhealthy eating and exercise behaviours.
As a newly graduated dietitian, my mantra was “It’s not dieting, it’s just healthy eating” but (spoiler alert) it actually was dieting! What I observed with myself and my clients was that losing weight seems so easy in theory (“Eat less, move more”), but much harder in real life, and keeping the weight off was even harder.
I now understand the reason for this, and it’s not to do with lack of willpower. The truth is that dieting is like fighting a losing battle. But you don’t have to keep fighting. There’s another option, one that can lead you down a path to feeling better about your body and your eating regardless of what the number on the scales says. I chose that path almost 10 years ago and I’ve never looked back.
Olwyn (she/her)
I’m a non-diet dietitian with a background in working with people with Type 2 Diabetes and heart health concerns. I live with my husband, two kids, and our cat Lola.
Qualifications:
– Accredited Practising Dietitian
– Credentialed Eating Disorder Clinician
My non-diet journey:
While I have always lived in a smaller body, part of the reason I became a dietitian was to learn how to control my weight (hello diet culture!), so I understand how strong the fear of weight gain can be.
I discovered pretty early in my career that counselling clients for weight loss wasn’t healthy for anyone. My clients were feeling demoralised when their attempts to lose weight weren’t working, and I was feeling like a failure at my job. Then, I was handed a book by a colleague and that led me down the path of the Non-Diet Approach. It made so much sense! I learned more and more about this approach and I saw the calm it brought to my clients when I began to apply what I was learning.
It’s been liberating for me, both as a dietitian and in terms of my own relationship with food. I’m now able to support my clients to eat in a way which leaves them feeling physically and mentally well.