Beyond Caricatures: A Patient’s Inner Dialogue With Dietitians...

This blog isn’t a food diary in the usual sense, and it’s not a weight-loss chronicle either. It’s something else—something I need for myself, but also something I want to share, especially with dietitians and anyone working in nutrition.

Here’s what I’m doing here:

1. An internal motivational tool.
I need a place to keep long-term habit changes front and center. Writing keeps me accountable. The purpose is unapologetically self-centered—it helps me stay focused when the system around me makes it so easy to forget.

2. Talking to the “imaginary dietitian.”
Think of this as my inner monologue, made public. Dietitians often ask, “What do you eat?” and I never have an answer, because I don’t eat in patterns. I eat when I’m hungry, and what I make is always a surprise—even before I cared about fiber. That’s why staples like beans, lentils, cabbage, avocados, and flax are a better fit for me than recipes or strict meal plans.

The “Weird Sh*t I Ate” posts are my way of recording it—not just for me, but as something tangible I could actually hand to a dietitian and say, “Here, this is how I operate.”

3. Learning and sharing.
I use this blog to learn, and then to share what I’ve learned. Sometimes I’ll need to relearn it. That’s fine. I’m old enough that things fall out an ear here and there—but the act of writing helps me keep track.

4. Wishing dietitians celebrated more.
When I jog circles around my kitchen, I want a dietitian to say, “That’s awesome, you moved your body today,” not “You should probably join a gym.” Pulling a hungry person back doesn’t work. Celebrating the small wins does. That’s what pushes me forward.

5. Not a food blog—but food still matters.
This isn’t a “recipe blog,” but by tracking what I eat, I can remind myself of good ideas and be inspired to try something new. Sometimes it’s less about the food and more about the system—the cues, the habits, the biology behind it all.

My belief about obesity

I don’t believe obesity is about ignorance or gluttony. I believe it’s progressive: once weight gain starts, biology shifts, appetite signals change, and the body defends the higher weight. The system—our biology interacting with our food environment—changes, not our intelligence.

That’s why this blog isn’t about “fixing myself.” It’s about rebuking a food system that my body doesn’t do well with. And it’s about learning how to work with my biology instead of being told to simply resist it.

I wrote more about that belief here:
👉 Why I Believe Obesity Starts Before We Notice It

Who this is for

If you’re a dietitian, I hope you’ll read this as more than a blog—it’s a message about how you can help. Patients like me don’t need more lectures about snack cakes or gym memberships. We need allies who see the system we’re up against and celebrate the things we do right.

And if you’re just curious, welcome to the ride. This isn’t a journey toward weight loss. It’s a journey toward reclaiming what foods I choose to buy and eat.  It's about reclaiming my health and about acknowledging a system that too often blames the individual instead of the biology.