Make Food Easy Again-Michele Fumagalli, RD

How can the concept of being "gentle" with our decisions and food choices lead to a happier, healthier life?

Michele is a registered dietician and owner of Fit Plate Nutrition. Michele grew up being very competitive and that led her to Notre Dame where she was on the soccer team and made multiple Final Fours. She also competed in CrossFit at the regional level 4x and the CrossFit Games 1x.

We open up our conversation with how she is handling the current state of affairs due to Coronavirus and what she is telling her clients. It’s ok to miss a workout or eat something out of the ordinary during these times. It’s all new and challenging right now and she brings up a very intriguing concept. Being gentle with our nutrition and our body. It is a great way to move forward during our extra time home as we are, temporarily, thrown out of our daily routines. 

Her primary focus is on families, female athletes; especially young high school athletes and the nutritional deficiencies that are so prevalent in that environment. I think it’s great these athletes have her as a source for what they’re putting in their body. As an athlete growing up I know I ate whatever was in front of me without realizing the nutritional benefit or lack thereof in most cases. 

Michele addresses the “diet culture” and how that is shaping the way women think they should look. It is an unhealthy relationship with our self-image and what we’re saying to ourselves as we eat different foods. She believes it stems from experiences earlier on in our adolescence and not having self worth in our own body.

Michele does a great job with her clients in figuring out the real reason why they want to hit their nutritional and body image goals. It is not always about losing weight or diet, diet, diet with no results. She always asks “why” and truly gets to the bottom of her clients frustrations.

I learned a lot from Michele and it was great hearing her have certain criteria with clients so they can be successful in her practice. This is exactly what we do with our new patients as well. At the end of the day everyone wants to be successful. Being able to select from an initial consultation who will be successful and who won’t is the key happy, healthy clients and patients.

"The key is to build a healthy relationship with food, honor your hunger, your fullness, and give yourself the freedom to eat the foods you love." --Michelle Fumagalli, RD