Over the past 2 decades, Amanda Bullat has navigated her own food and body liberation journey. She found diet rock bottom and a lifeline to recovery while traveling in Nepal. After a successful competitive running career, she went on to recover from a disordered relationship with food and exercise. Her recovery allowed her to earn a master’s degree in nutrition and dietetics from Bastyr University.

She is honored to serve as a guide and mentor to her clients - partnering with them to heal their relationship with food and their body through simple, specific strategies based on the principles of Intuitive Eating, Health At Every Size®, and her unique SAVOR Strategies of Healing.

Amanda works in collaboration with her clients to create practical, actionable steps so they can stop feeling chaotic around food, find compassion for their ever-changing bodies, and feel empowered to live a fulfilling life Savoring Food & Body.

Here are the takeaways...

If you limit your satisfaction with an eating experience and are not satisfied with what you eat, you'll probably end up overeating or binging later. Satisfaction is an incredibly important part of intuitive eating.
You are not alone. You haven't learned behaviors with food and dieting in a vacuum.
Undiet in midlife is unraveling all of the BS a woman has learned. When a woman in midlife can focus on this work to unravel her relationships with the toxic messages around food and body image, there is a trickle-down effect. Women in midlife can model a new healthy way of thinking that could end disordered eating for women of all ages.
There can be mixed messages about our health because of the biases that are present for women in mid-life, weight biases, the slant toward white women
Peri-menopause can begin around age 35. Menopause happens on average around age 50-51. Increased anxiety or depression, brain fog, inconsistent cycles, hot flashes, and muscle aches are all caused by changes in hormones during this time of life. These changes aren't just physical but they can impact mental health.
Menopause is one day. Peri-menopause is the process that happens before that can last decades. Post-menopause means you've gone beyond the one-year mark of not having a period.
There are things to do from a gentle compassionate nutrition perspective that can ease the effects of perimenopause or support us as we move into menopause/post-menopause with more grace and ease.
1. Eat adequate fiber
2. Eat enough protein to build and maintain muscle and support our moods. Think of the main characters of protein and supporting characters of protein. The main characters include meat, fish, chicken, eggs, and soy. Supporting characters are beans, legumes, nuts and seeds, hard cheese dairy, and Greek yogurt. Try to get a main character and a supporting character at each meal and at least a supporting character at each snack.
3. Iron-rich foods. If you are plant-based be sure to include a vitamin C food to help with absorption of the iron. Spinach combined with citrus is a way to do this.
4. Magnesium-rich foods. Magnesium can help with multiple processes but most important for this phase of life is bringing in a sense of calm and also easing constipation. Pumpkin seeds, legumes, and whole grains are examples of magnesium-rich foods.
5. Calcium is important at this age. Think outside of the dairy box to include dark leafy greens, almonds, or dried figs. Nettle tea has lots of calcium. Dairy has calcium, too but the other foods include fiber as well which is beneficial.
Intuitive eating includes untangling from messaging around food and challenging the diet message. Work to make peace with all foods - not all foods have the same nutritional value but reducing the morality assigned to food is really supportive of our own intuitive eating.
The research of habituation means giving yourself full permission to allow all foods to be there. When you run out of chips, Oreos, m&ms... go buy more. Eventually, you'll be able to have the food around because you shift the scarcity around the food. That's shifting the diet mindset.
Pleasure matters. When we restrict pleasure in any area, it can cause an imbalance in other areas. What can you allow yourself to fully experience that brings you pleasure in this moment?