Kristen Bunger Blog - Body and Soul Nutrition Counseling

Body Image: Listening to the Voice of Truth

March 31, 2021

Body image. What does that even mean? We hear about it, but sometimes it feels more like an ethereal concept than an actual, real thing. Most people would describe body image as the way we see ourselves. It is how we think and feel about our bodies, not what they actually look like. I was recently having a dance party with my two little guys, enjoying some of our favorite music and a song called “Man of Your Word” by Maverick City Music came on. I was thinking about writing about body image this month anyway so I think I was extra sensitive to hearing the lyrics, “If you said it, we believe it. If you said it, we believe it.” As a Believer in Christ,...

Let’s get moving!

February 18, 2021

Exercise, Nutrition

January hysteria of diet culture! Have you ever tuned in just a little bit more to the advertising and marketing you hear every day in the month of January? If you pay attention to radio, internet and Google ads, social media, and every other way you may consume information, there is a drastic spike in weight loss, clean eating, gym-going propaganda starting on January 1st each year. If you haven’t noticed you might be sad that I pointed it out because when you do notice it, you will see how annoying it is. Diet culture wants to create such a problem for us (all year every year but especially in January) that we can’t possibly even think about not contributing to the 72 billion dollar...

How to Feed Kids Part 1: Changing the Culture of Food in Your Home

August 16, 2017

Uncategorized

Of all the responsibilities at hand as parents, teaching kids how to eat can be one of the most daunting. As a dietitian, examples of questions I hear all the time are “How do I get them to eat more fruits and vegetables?” or “How can I add variety to their diet without having World War III at the dinner table every night?” and “Why won’t they eat ‘good food.’” In a later blog post, I will address how to present food to your children in a very constructive way. First, I have to address you as parents. In the paragraph above I wrote “good” food in quotations because most people think of food as “good” or “bad” and we often communicate that to our children. But,...

Intuitive Eating Principles Part 5

January 17, 2017

Uncategorized

With the holidays having just passed, everyone is making New Year’s resolutions! Many of these resolutions pertain to weight, food, and body. What if your year could be different, your goals and perspective different? What if instead of focusing on weight loss and changing your body, your goal this year was to eat in a less judgmental way towards food and your body? What if this year was the year you made peace with food and body the goal? A great way to start on this journey is by adopting the principles of intuitive eating! If you have read my previous blogs about Intuitive Eating and you are back, welcome back! If you are just tuning in, Intuitive Eating is a book written by two dietitians,...

Intuitive eating principles: Part 4

January 7, 2017

Uncategorized

Have you ever taken inventory of your thoughts and asked yourself, “How much time do I spend thinking about food, what my body looks like and wanting to change my body in some way?” If you have never really thought about the time you dedicate to these topics, I would like to invite you to think about it. I would then ask you to consider the quality of those thoughts and if they are positive about food and your body, neutral, or negative. As a dietitian and a woman living in the 21st century in America, I have a pretty good idea of what most of you would say if you were with me right now to answer that question live. Unfortunately, most people, male and...

Intuitive Eating Principles Part 3

December 20, 2016

Health, Lifestyle, Motivation, Nutrition

I don’t know about you, but the constant inundation of marketing about food, dieting and weight loss is overwhelming for me. Actually, most of the time it makes me mad and frustrated that so much time, energy and money is invested in trying to allure the general public into thinking we have a problem with food if we eat certain foods and that dieting and avoiding these foods would “fix us.” What if we don’t have a problem with food and our bodies are healthy and beautiful even though they are imperfect? What if there is a different way to view food and our bodies? If you read my first two blogs about Intuitive Eating and you are back, welcome back! If you are just tuning...

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Intuitive Eating Principles Part 2

December 12, 2016

Health, Lifestyle, Motivation, Nutrition

Weight, dieting, body image, and the myriad of other topics associated with these three words are constantly subjects of thought, discussion, and observance due to incessant marketing in America. If you read my first blog about Intuitive Eating and you are back, welcome back! If you are just tuning in, Intuitive Eating is a book written by two fabulous dietitians, Evelyn Tribole, MS, RD and Elyse Resch MS, RD. It can also be considered a guiding light out of inappropriate guilt and shame with food and our bodies and an introduction to freedom with food and peace with the body. There are 10 principles of intuitive eating. The first two, “Reject the Diet Mentality” and “Honor your Hunger”, were our topics of discussion last time. Today...

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Introduction to Intuitive Eating

December 6, 2016

Health, Lifestyle, Motivation, Nutrition

With so much focus on weight, and dieting, wouldn't it be nice to find a healthy, balanced, and enjoyable way to relate to food? One book that has changed the nutrition practice of many dietitians and the life of so many of our clients is Intuitive Eating written by Evelyn Tribole, MS, RD and Elyse Resch MS, RD. With so much truth packed into these pages, it continues to revolutionize people and their perspectives all over the world. Intuitive Eating says that we can actually trust the intuition of our bodies to tell us when we are hungry, what sounds good to eat, what we need to eat to sustain ourselves, and how much we need to feel full without continually overeating. In essence, Intuitive Eating...

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