Hi and welcome to the Real Life RD, a blog dedicated to ending diet culture and helping you make peace with your natural body size. I’m so glad you’re here!
I’m Robyn, a 28-year-old Registered Dietitian and Family Nurse Practitioner overly passionate about helping women find freedom with food, exercise, their body and health. I eat cupcakes and kale and both are equally healthy.
I started this blog in 2012 as a way to show that dietitians don’t always eat salads, drink seltzer water and go to bed at 10pm. Since then, it’s transitioned to a space focused on stopping diet culture, disordered eating and false assumptions about what healthy actually means. The blog has become a community where women feel more hopeful and less alone in their body image, food, and health struggles. I post on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays about topics ranging from intuitive eating, body image, eating disorder recovery, hormonal & reproductive health, self care, life updates, daily eats, meal inspiration and more.
Outside of writing the blog, I have a private practice, Nutshell Nutrition, that I started in 2012 to help women recover from varying degrees of disordered eating in addition to reproductive and hormonal issues. I also work as a nurse practitioner here in Manhattan with a focus on eating disorders and women’s health. When did I become a nurse practitioner and how did I get to New York?
In May 2014 I moved from Charlottesville, VA to New York City to begin a graduate nursing program at Columbia University. You can read more about my journey back to school here and my decision to attend Columbia here. I graduated in December 2016, and have since bridged my dietetics knowledge with my nursing education to provide comprehensive healthcare through an Intuitive Eating and Health At Every Size lens.
Everyone has a different definition of health. I firmly believe health goes far beyond our grocery carts and exercise routines. As a culture we’ve neglected the emotional, social, and psychological aspects of health, and focused so much of our attention on eating and exercise, that we’ve now normalized disordered eating and exercise. For me, I focus on living intuitively and listening to my body to tell me what it needs. Because at the end of the day, stress is going to kill us before eating cheese whiz or vegging out on the couch will.
If you’d like to learn more about my approach to nutrition and health, here are a few of my favorite podcasts I’ve been interviewed on that you might enjoy.
A few things you should know…
I wasn’t always where I am today. I’ve walked through disordered eating, hypothalamic amenorrhea, lots of crying and vulnerable moments, and many “ooof, I think I ate too much.” moments. And I still experience really tough days, streams of tears and overshoot my hunger. It’s okay, I’m not perfect. And it’s okay to not be either.
I never thought I’d end up working in the field of eating disorders and hormonal health. But now I’m certain and thankful this career path is my calling. I love helping women rediscover themselves apart from food and weight and embrace their natural female body.
I’m really into doughy bread & frosting. And when I gave myself full permission to eat them whenever I wanted, I stopped feeling so crazy around these foods.
I’m also really into Jesus. But I wasn’t until age 24.
I’m not a superhuman and I don’t have it all together. Much of what I write about on this blog is rooted in my own personal experiences. I’m actually more of a hot mess, just learning as I go and writing about it along the way.
I love early mornings, exaggerations, eating out, asking questions and anything that gives me an endorphin high – which could be going on a run or eating a burger and fries.
If you hang around me long enough I’ll probably ask you if you’ve seen my ____? I’m functionally disorganized.
I’m so glad you’ve stumbled upon this little corner of the internet. You can also find me on instagram, twitter, facebook, pinterest, youtube and bloglovin. If you have questions, want to become a client, or just say hi…send me an email at [email protected]
