Who am i?

My name is Grietje. I am 26 years old and a qualified dietitian. Throughout my childhood and teenage years, I had a healthy relationship with food and never experienced any eating-related issues. When I started studying Nutrition and Dietetics, I occasionally received comments from people such as, “You call yourself a dietitian? You eat an insane amount of food!” These remarks made me afraid of gaining weight. I worried that people would say, “See? You eat too much, and yet you want to tell others how to eat healthily when you can’t even manage it yourself.” As a result of this fear, I started eating less, which negatively affected my athletic performance and made it harder to maintain my workout routine. Once I became aware of what was happening, I consciously changed this behaviour. Of course, I eat more than some people. I am quite tall (183 cm / 6 ft) and I enjoy being active and exercising regularly. It makes perfect sense that I need more energy than someone who is shorter and less physically active. Because of the knowledge I gained through my education, I understood why my body required more food, and I was able to let go of the idea that I was eating “too much” fairly quickly. Even so, the experience shocked me. If comments like these can affect someone with a professional understanding of nutrition, they are likely to have an even greater impact on someone without that knowledge. Negative remarks about food and body size can have a significant effect on mental well-being, and that is something I care deeply about. That is why positivity is at the heart of my approach. I want to help people learn, in a practical and sustainable way, how to enjoy a healthy lifestyle while building a positive relationship with food.