Say goodbye to the food police and hello to peace. Welcome to the Love Food podcast, hosted by

dietitian and food behavior expert Julie Duffy Dillon. This authentically engineered series is in

the form of a love letter welcoming you to reconnect with food. Now pour a cup of coffee or a

margarita and let's begin.

Hi and welcome to episode 172 of a love food podcast. I'm Julie Duffy Dillon, registered dietitian, and partner on your

food peace journey. I am so glad you're here. Thank you for connecting today. How do you react

to the question, mom, I'm hungry or dad, what's for dinner? What does that like for you? I know for me,

I'm a mom of an 11 year old and a 6 year old. And you know what, by the end of the day,

especially at dinner time, I am tired. My patience is out. And it's like nails on the chalkboard

thinking about making anything. Here's a little secret about me. I don't like cooking at all.

I know I'm the weirdest dietitian. That's already well established, but I really, really don't

enjoy cooking. So, you know, I just have to do what I got to do. And there's

been struggles for sure over the years. And I've had to really practice compassion and call

up my perfectionism when it's rearing its ugly head. But you know what? It is what it is.

And I have a letter for you today from someone who has a

complicated relationship with food because they were brought up by someone who was in the throes of

chaotic eating, dieting, eating disorder kind of behavior. And while they recognize that they really

weren't taught the tools toward food piece,

they know that they need to do it differently for their family. And it's really loud and hard

at the same time because we need to feed our family, especially for the primary caregivers,

we need to feed our family many times throughout

the day every single day. And when we don't have the foundation that includes a neutral or positive

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