Intuitive Health & Wellness 2022: Prioritizing Self-Care and Plant-Based Nutrition
Tria Aronow is a certified Integrative Nutrition Health Coach and Certified Intuitive Eating Counsellor, passionate about helping people feel good in their bodies. In this feature, Tria shares insights on achieving a healthier lifestyle.
What inspired you to choose a career path in wellness?
Health and wellness has always been a part of my life. My parents were health-conscious and chose to raise me plant-based (mostly vegetarian with very little dairy and fish).
My dad has been in the natural foods industry since I was little and even named his brokerage company after me. Healthy food was always around when I was growing up and I was force-fed kale (not one of my fonder memories, and not something I would recommend! But I do like it now.)
I didn’t become passionate about health and wellness until after college when I discovered my love of cooking with whole, plant-based foods and natural living.
What is Intuitive Eating?
Intuitive Eating is an evidence-based, mind-body health approach that focuses on building a nourishing relationship to food and our own, unique bodies. It is weight-neutral approach (no focus on weight whatsoever) and instead places the focus on 10 guiding principles, including ditching the diet mentality, making peace with food, and enjoying gentle movement to promote overall wellness.
What are some of the most common nutritional mistakes that you observe people making?
Intuitive Eating is all about bio-individuality, so a mistake for one person may be something that works for another. That said, the biggest “mistakes” I see when I’m health coaching are people who adopt a “one size fits all” diet even though they’re experiencing negative impacts, when people focus solely on weight loss instead of lifestyle changes to promote feeling their best, and when people cut out an entire food group because they’ve heard it’s bad for you, instead of learning to tune into what truly works for them (ex: cutting out all carbs or all fruit).
If you could persuade people to change three things about their lifestyle, what would they be?
Walk more.
Focus on making small changes, consistently and over time.
Adopt a mindfulness perspective – pause to notice how different foods and activities affect your unique self.
Are there any non-negotiable self-care practices that you regularly follow or would recommend?
Self-care is different for everyone, but for me two things are non-negotiable: 1. Getting outside daily (preferably somewhere I can enjoy a natural landscape and feel the sun on my face) 2. Moving my body in some form. I enjoy walking, stretching, yoga, and dancing. I’m a big fan of gentle movement for self-care!