Eat Type Live, Christchurch (2026)

Lucy the Dietitian | Coaching Methodology for Nutrition Professionals
Bringing together health pros who are sick of hearing "but when will I lose weight?" when you can see the disordered eating underneath.

16/12/2025

🪴 You can't coach someone who’s basically a houseplant without sunlight...

Many years ago I was sitting across from client who kept telling me: “I know what to … I just can’t make myself do it."

So I did what any well-trained, evidence-informed, definitely-overthinking practitioner would do:

I gave her MORE tools.

Meal plans? Oh, I could produce a 7-day masterpiece before my morning cup of tea cooled.

“Healthy swaps”? Want a spreadsheet? Colour-coded? You got it.

Portion guides? Don’t even get me started- I basically spoke in palm sizes and cupped-hand metaphors.

Motivational check-ins? Please. I had 17 ready to go.

And every time she’d come back like: “Yeah, I loved those… but I didn’t actually do them.”

I’m sure you’ve been there. The feeling of why won’t this intelligent adult do the thing that will help them? And then you spiral into “Is it me? Am I the problem?”

Then she mentioned a little detail that made my whole brain short-circuit.

A detail that made every single tool I’d given her suddenly make ZERO sense.
A detail that explained:
— the “resistance”
— the self-criticism
— the emotional dysregulation
— the binge urges
— the “I know what to do but I just can’t” spiral…

And here’s the kicker:
It wasn’t about trauma.
It wasn’t about mindset.
It wasn’t about motivation.
It wasn’t even about nutrition knowledge.

It was...

If you want the answer - the wildly obvious, forehead-smacking answer - check out this week's blog post. As one reader email me this morning...

"... an awesome article, so good, it's like a punch to the nose... thank you"

And other things we forget as health professionals...

08/12/2025

You spend all year helping clients break free from dieting...

… only to sit down to Christmas lunch and immediately be met with:

“I’ve been saving up all morning for this”

“That’s it, I’m starting keto again in January”

“We better walk this off later”

“Can I get your professional opinion on *insert Tiktok diet trend here*?”

So this year, instead of silently absorbing the diet talk (or internally drafting a DSM-5 addendum), I put together something a little more fun:

10 unhinged ways to shut down diet talk these holidays (health professional edition)

We all need a little laugh at this time of year, so I hope this light, festive blog post scratches that itch for you. Think: boundary-setting with humour, therapeutic sass, and evidence-based chaos hehe

I even used Chat GPT to help me name them. Some of my fave are: The Motivational Interviewing Uppercut, The Seasonal De-escalation, and The Grandma Energy…

I hope this post gives you a much-needed laugh this holiday season!

This year we're taking no prisoners

18/11/2025

When a client stops restricting their food, we expect relief... But what often shows up first is grief 👇

Restriction isn't just a behaviour. For many clients, it becomes a relationship 👫

A source of safety.
A sense of identity.
A coping strategy.
A "friend" that's always been there.

So when we ask clients to eat more regularly, to introduce feared foods, etc., we're not just changing their nutrition...

We're asking them to walk away from a toxic friendship they still feel loyal to.

This explains so much of what health professionals see in the consult:
- the hesitation
- the "I know what to do but I can't do it" feeling
- the fear of losing control
- the swinging between progress and stalling
- the grief that looks like resistance

I wrote a full blog post breaking down this emotional process, and how to support clients through it.

https://eattypelive.com/2025/11/18/letting-go-of-food-restriction-is-like-leaving-a-toxic-friendship/

(And... This might sting a little... Most nutrition professionals and health coaches are unknowingly doing things that keep clients stuck. Check out the link in my bio for the cheat sheet that breaks down the 5 Mistakes That Make Disordered Eating Worse, and learn what to do instead to help your clients unlock food freedom)

A must-read for health professionals supporting restrictive eaters

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