We're in that awkward gap between Christmas and New Year's where nobody knows what's going on and everybody is full of weird food.

The way we approach health and nutrition in today’s world is referred to as the “Expert Model”. You are not the expert on you, someone else is. The doctor, the heath guru, the Instagram wellness influencer, the diet book author, the local Isagenix rep all wield more power over your body than you do.

The expert model takes away your responsibility and puts you in the role of a child waiting to be told what to do.

Pilates focuses on building strength in many of the areas that are weak in my body: specifically core and glutes. I went to pilates to rebuild strength, but what I got was so much more.

I work with women who are struggling with exhaustion, burnout, adrenal fatigue/HPA axis dysregulation, hypothyroidism…from years of dieting. They come to me because they want to get better, but some of them are *still* eating 1200-1400 calories a day. Because we - as women - are indoctrinated with the diet mentality. And there is so. much. fear. around letting that go. Even if it’s what we know we must do in order to heal.

Today, I’m gonna share with you what my almost-four year old eats in a day. Now I’m no mommy-blogger, but I’ll throw in some kiddo food notes for any of the mamas out there reading and wondering. The real point of this is to showcase how CRAZY it is to think we can thrive on 1200-1400 calories a day.

I recently released What the Gut: Eating and Living for a Healthy Gut (and Why it Matters), my 2.5 hour gut workshop as an online self study video. I taught this same lecture about a dozen times over the fall and winter, and saw an interesting thing in some of my live audiences.

In talking about the gut, you have to talk about some of the stuff the gut does. What I noticed is that when I started talking about certain topics like poop or constipation or vaginas, people get noticeably uncomfortable - they tense up, break eye contact, fidget, or even pick up their phone. Talking about this stuff makes us comfortable.

..or are you just conditioned to be that way? A few weeks back, I stumbled across a quote on Instagram that struck a nerve with me, so I took to Instagram stories with my thoughts. Here's what I said.

My diet has gone through lots of twists and turns and shifts and shimmies over the years.

Today I’m going to share with you the four ways I’ve been able to gain enough confidence to develop my own Erin Plan - and how YOU can find your ideal diet.

People are looking to get healthy, and deep down we know that this requires us to alter our lives. The savvy diet industry is on to this, and so they market their unhealthy quick fixes as “lifestyle changes” to sell to more people.

I have sat down to draft this blog more times than I can count. I’ve started and stopped, thinking this is too much, too vulnerable, too exposed. People might think I’m a failure for gaining weight, others might think I’m a fraud for having these feelings, while others might think I’m ridiculous for worrying about a measly 10 pounds.

A couple years back, my hair dresser and I commiserated over our sleepless babies; I had one, she had two. I’ll always remember her saying to me, “motherhood is the ultimate sacrifice”. It’s true. All us moms know that. We sacrifice our sleep, our bodies, our free time, sometimes our careers.

Last month a client of mine forwarded me an email from a fitness coach. The email outlined a weight loss program, with food recommendations for adult and adolescent girls looking to lose weight.

Some of the suggestions she made were sound (eat less processed food, cut out refined sugar and flour), but unfortunately I found much of her advice to be erroneous, unsubstantiated and downright irresponsible. I won’t pick the whole email apart here, but I will focus on one specific piece that bothered me most.

The holidays are a doozy, no? I'm still getting emails from people telling me they are having a tough time “recovering.” They are still in holiday eating mode, and they’re feeling they need to cleanse themselves. There’s a lot of emotion involved, and the knee-jerk reaction is to do something extreme to “get back on track.” What’s going on here?

We are closing out the second week of my current group of Eat to Achieve, and my peeps are diving in DEEP. They are doing the hard and messy work. They are putting themselves out there on our private Facebook group. They are sharing successes and asking for support. They are seeking out progress, not perfection. They are GETTING IT.

Seeing as I’m a functional nutritionist, I’m sure it comes as no surprise that I often get asked about diets. Under the “diet umbrella” comes inquiries about calorie counting, food portioning and food tracking.

Based on what I’ve seen with group nutrition participants, individual clients, and my own food transformation, I’ve formed a pretty strong opinion of the above topics. Today I will share them with you.

What I ate Wednesday: A real f*$%ing lot. Because I’m breastfeeding. And I’m famished. Always. (Another day you’ll see what I did with my CSA veggies. Today, I rant.)

My 6 month old baby is exclusively breastfed. That means she hasn’t had so much as a drippity drop of anything outside of breastmilk since June 3rd when she was born.