Gail Kardish

Being a dietitian is hard work! Don't get me wrong...I love what I do but there are days where I feel like it's me against the world and that gets exhausting! This is going to be a long blog post but let me explain....

My clients are great and they are not the exhausting ones! They come wanting to develop a healthy relationship with food and truly understand why they don't currently have one. This to me is the best part of the work...helping others realize what they are capable of and who they are without their disordered eating habits.

The hard part is everyone else! It feels like a boxing match....in this corner we have the registered dietitian and in the other corner we have everyone else!!

 As you know, we live in a society that praises diets, weight loss and unrealistic body standards. It is hard to be a minority against this type of pressure! Everyone claims to be a nutrition expert nowadays.......trainers, doctors, therapists, pharmacists, magazine readers, book readers, tv watcher...

With this month being Pride month, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to talk about Drag Queens and what we can learn from them. Some of you may be wondering if I'm actually serious about this and the answer is of course I am! Let me explain......

I watch RuPaul's Drag Race and have for all eleven seasons. I enjoy the show for many reasons but one of the main ones is to see these men transform themselves and own who they are! They are all very talented and artistic entertainers who embrace the fact that they stand out and are different from main stream society. They are basically telling the world to stop being followers and to instead be who you are! 

It sounds so easy but we all know that it's not. The queens know it's not easy either as the show gives us glimpses into what they've gone through to get to the present time. Many have gone through major trauma, eating disorders, substance use disorders and some still struggle with these issues. It's not sugar coated and it's no...

As we head into the holiday season, I have been thinking about body image more than usual lately. Social media is full of comments, memes, etc around indulging, dieting, fitting into certain clothes and all of the other crap that make people feel bad about themselves.  It angers me that even in a time that is supposed to be full of happiness, the focus is still on eating habits and body image. When can we just enjoy ourselves and be who we are??!!

In addition to this, the movie Dumplin’ started playing on Netflix. This has been on my radar for a while because it also deals with body image. Without giving away the movie (which was based on a book), I was very happy with the message it told. It’s a story about an overweight girl who enters a beauty pageant in her town  (one that her mom is in charge of), to prove to everyone and indirectly herself that beauty is NOT defined by a person’s size.  I think what I loved most about it is that none of the characters had to change their appearanc...

I was busy with my usual hectic work schedule the other day when I started getting phone calls and messages from friends telling me that Kate Spade passed away. Most people who know me are well aware that I am a huge fan of her designs and own everything of her's from purses, shoes, clothes, jewelry and even dishes! The news made me sad but also got me thinking.....

One of the reasons I love her designs is because it instantly makes me happy! I see all of the bright colours and cute novelty items and I can't help but smile! On the surface, this can make people think that she was a happy person who liked to spread that happiness to others. However, the surface of a person does not show the true story of what they are going through. It was later reported that she suffered from bipolar disorder, a very serious mental illness.

I then realized that the compartments of my life were merging together, my passion for helping people with mental illness and my passion for Kate Spade designs. It was...

It has been a while since I've written my last blog and I thought what better way to come back then to write about the very subject that kept me away....balance. You have already read my blog on the importance of balancing your food groups and portions in order to get all your physical and emotional needs met but balance goes beyond your plate! In life we are always trying to find the right balance for everything and no one is perfect at it! Let me explain.......

We all have heard about the work/life balance but what else is involved? We have to work in order to live because we need to make money to pay our bills. We would also like to be happy! One way to try to combine these, is to work at a job/career that you enjoy! I love being a dietitian and helping people develop a healthier relationship with food but along the way there have been obstacles that have kept me from being as happy with it as I could be. When I worked in the hospitals, I was limited by time and budget constraints. N...

These past few weeks I have made some changes and stepped outside of my comfort zone. I have to say that some of the strength and determination to do this has come from all of you. I am always telling you to give things a try before making judgements and I'm practicing what I preach! Let me tell you a bit about it.

When I was 8 years old, I started tap dancing. I kept at it for 10 years and quit when I was 18 and heading to university. I'd like to say that the main reason for stopping was to focus on my school work and applying to universities but the truth is that I let my body image and competition get in the way!

I always say to people that when I hit puberty, I grew every way but up meaning that I'm short and curvy. This is not what is considered the "ideal dancer's body" and I struggled. I would sweat in places that others didn't and it would be visible and the other girls would laugh. I was made to feel worst about my curves by the costumes that my teacher designed. 

Even back then,...

I just came back from a vacation in Seattle, Washington. It is a beautiful city with so much to do! The people are so friendly that I almost hate to write this blog but I just can't help myself!!! The entire week that I was there, every conversation involved hearing about the paleo diet or different forms of elimination diets and of course the importance of eating only organic! (Can you hear me sighing as you read this?) Let me give you examples....

Example 1: My friend and I went to a spa to get massages. As I was lying on the table, the massage therapist, who knew I'm a dietitian, starting telling me that she could read my body and it was full of inflammation! She then told me that I need to be following the paleo diet in order to rid myself of this inflammation! She told me that her dietitian colleague agrees with her when recommending this diet to her clients- even though she is not herself a registered dietitian. She told me all about her own experience following the diet and what...

I need to vent!!! Yesterday I saw a celebrity on a talk show preparing food and promoting her new cook book. As she was making her trail mix and smoothies (of course- isn't that the latest fad that everyone's doing??!!), I felt myself rolling my eyes at the advice she was giving. She was making untrue claims about food...what she said has not been backed up by any science and has not been proven! What gives her the right to tell people untrue nutrition advice? The worst part, because she's a celebrity and she was so confident in what she was saying, people will believe her and follow this advice.

Fast forward to 2 hours later when I was in the grocery store. There I was buying beautiful peaches and berries and right beside the berries were these cute containers. I'm human and love packaging and other marketing gimmicks so of course I picked it up to take a look. It was "organic cotton candy". I started laughing! People are going to think that because it's organic and available at this p...

I don't usually review movies on my blog but I've had many people ask me my opinion on the new Netflix movie "To the Bone". In the eating disorder world, this movie is causing a lot of controversy. Many are saying that it glorifies Anorexia Nervosa. Some are saying that it just perpetuates the stereotype that all people with eating disorders are emaciated. On the other end of things, some people are happy that it's at least creating more awareness of eating disorders. I thought I'd watch it and form my own opinion......(*Warning: Contains spoilers)

To be honest, even after watching this movie, I'm not sure if I liked it or not. There were some parts that were ok and others that bothered me. I guess my feelings for it can be described by the word "meh". 

First of all, for anyone struggling with an eating disorder, it can be very triggering in many ways. Not only does it show the lead as emaciated, it also shows her measuring her arm, having symptoms, it has people talking about their symp...

 Those of you who know me, probably knew that I was going to "weigh in" on the current fat shaming story that has been all over the media (pun intended)! Let me fill you in on what happened. An overweight woman was sitting in her seat on a plane and noticed that the guy beside her was texting his friend awful things about her weight. She decided to call him out on it and posted the video showing this. This guy (notice I refuse to use the word "man" to describe him) apologized to her but then made another rude comment to her. The video of this then went viral.

Now that you are caught up, let's talk about fat shaming. I'm happy that this is becoming something that people are starting to fight against but sad to know that it is still very much out there. This guy was so convinced that the woman was not able to do much due to her weight and it's scary to think that ignorant people like that are still around. It means we, as a society, are probably not doing enough to educate people that wei...