Read the Transcript:
STACY MITCHELL
Welcome to the Daily Dietitian Podcast. I am your host, Stacey Mitchell. I am so happy to have you here.
My goal for this podcast is to break down the latest health topics and help clear the clutter in the messy world of nutrition and fitness. We hope to inspire, educate and entertain all things wellness. Join us as we talk with experts in their fields on how to feel our best in our own body and mind.
Hey there, thank you so much for joining us this week. We have an incredible guest that I am so excited to share with you. I sat down with licensed therapist and director of clinical services at Alsana, Margot Rittenhouse.
She is a provider of comprehensive eating disorder treatment both online and in person. And as students head back to college, they are faced with a variety of challenges that can trigger poor eating habits and that can even lead to a setback in an existing eating disorder or even disordered eating habits. Our guest today offers such great insight into these triggers and shares strategies for maintaining healthy eating habits, ensuring students have the tools they need to really thrive mentally and physically during college.
This brings back so many memories for me in my years of college. And looking back of the poor eating habits I had, the disordered eating habits I had, maybe the exercise compensation for some of those nights of poor choices. And it was wonderful to have Margot on this episode to really dive into more. And she gives such good information. You’re gonna love it.
Well, Margot, it is so great to have you here with us on the show. Will you introduce yourself and tell everyone who you are and what you do?
MARGOT RITTENHOUSE
Absolutely. My name is Margot Rittenhouse. I am a licensed professional clinical counselor.
My passion population is eating disorder treatment and supporting those struggling with eating disorders. And I have worked in this realm for about 10 years. I’ve done advocacy, mentorship. I’ve written over a thousand articles for a really wonderful website called Eating disorder Hope. And I’ve had a wonderful opportunity to work with a lot of amazing practitioners in the treatment world, which is where I’m existing right now. I work with Alsana, which is an eating recovery community that provides treatment all over the country for individuals struggling with eating disorders.
And I am lucky enough to be a clinical director in their PHP/IOP program, which is kind of a pseudo outpatient program as individuals continue to try to maintain their eating disorder recovery and work back into their everyday lives.
MITCHELL
Love hearing that. And I also love hearing the resources that are available to those within this clientele that are needing more help, because it is hard. You know, you don’t know where to go, you don’t know where to navigate, and to have online help is so beneficial.
RITTENHOUSE
Absolutely. And definitely, I’m sure throughout our conversation, we’ll be kind of spitting out little resources that we use in our own job, but also that can really benefit these humans that we think everyone knows about. But actually, you know, it’s really just in our world. And so letting everybody else know the larger picture where they can go is so important.
MITCHELL
And with the topic today that we’re going to talk about is more based on like healthy eating for college students, or as we get back into the school, those tips to navigating healthy meals, also kind of deleting any of the disordered eating habits. So when you have clients come to you, what are some of the first steps when they are getting in a routine and starting fresh and transitioning from that lifestyle in that season of life?
RITTENHOUSE
Yeah, when we see clients, the very first thing I think is to establish an understanding of their daily life. And sometimes that means the picture of their daily life actually revolves around an eating disorder or disordered eating habits, disordered exercise habits and things like that. So sometimes they’re coming to us and they have in their hands the things that matter most to them, that they want to hold on to.
And sometimes they’re coming to us with nothing. And they’re saying with all this time and all of this energy that I used to put towards these disordered habits, I have no idea where to put that. And so in starting that structure, the first thing that we support them in is kind of creating a picture of, what do you want your life to look like now?
What pieces of your past life do you want to keep? And in getting rid of your eating disorder, what pieces would you like to practice letting go of? Because it’s not as easy as just casting them aside.
And so we start with that before kind of putting that pressure of daily structure, right? That eventually becomes a structured routine. And first we have to realize what is going to make you feel like you’re fulfilling or living a fulfilling life if it’s part of your every day, because that’s the goal.
So we first have to figure out that idea. And then we create that structured routine of adding those things and that they feel capable of doing.
MITCHELL
That’s such good information. Really starting with the basics to get there. And as you involve food, because food can be very complicated, it can, you know, we’re doing it multiple times per day.
It’s not something that we can just like forget about. You have to eat. And if someone is, you know, getting back into college, how does that routine then come into play with their food?
RITTENHOUSE
Such a good question. For college students, there’s so much concern. And that concern, I think is rightly placed.
It’s such a period of transition for those individuals. So oftentimes they are moving away from everything that they know. They’re in a new environment.
Not only that, you have the food components of guardians are no longer cooking for them. They have to cook for themselves. So they might not even know what to cook, how to use their kitchen.
And their kitchen is often a public space. They’re sharing it with other students. Their refrigerator is very small.
Their cabinetry is very small. And then you have the dining hall component, where individuals who struggle may find themselves feeling very overwhelmed with the sheer amounts of options. And so that’s just the food transition that a college-age student experiences.
And then we look at the emotional transitions, the physical transitions that can all cause stress that alters how they know how to take care of themselves. So really when we’re looking at these college-age students and their nourishment, there’s a lot of questions to ask as we figure out a way to support them. I think the first questions to ask are to get that good foundation and that base of where are you now with providing for your nourishment?
Where are you right now if Guardian support system is not providing you with groceries and meals? How would you feed yourself? Because that’s really going to let us know, okay, in which areas do we need to build skills, right?
Do we have an individual who knows how to use a skillet? Or are we just in a place where we’re teaching them the difference between a pot and a pan and a skillet, and how to use the broiler versus the stovetop? So all of these things that I think as adults, we take advantage of.
For college students, it’s greatly so overwhelming because there was a time when we didn’t know what those things were.
MITCHELL
Right. I had the favorites of extra large $5 pizzas, you know, that we ordered at midnight or beyond or past that. And then like, I also remember just having like a bag of iceberg lettuce.
And I thought like I could just have a salad and that would be easy, but then almost save my calories. So then I could go out and party and have some fun within there. So, what kind of tips do you have for that? Because that that lifestyle, I mean, it’s there. And so, navigating those times of eating and the times of fueling properly, maybe you’ve had some interest in within that.
RITTENHOUSE
Absolutely. Yeah, the involvement of the college lifestyle in disordered eating behavior, you’re very right. It becomes so complicated because you have a lot of misunderstandings, right?
For example, what you’re talking about, sometimes people refer to that as drunkorexia, which is either not engaging in nourishment in order to quote unquote, save the calories for later in the day or evening. And then the other option is individuals saying, okay, well, I drank a lot and now I need to not engage in nourishment to make up for maybe a binge drinking evening the night before. That is so common for individuals in college and unfortunately a big reason is that social pressure that happens.
Not going to the party, not engaging in the same drinking behaviors and often excessive drinking behaviors that college students engage in, doesn’t feel like an option to them because they are in this new environment. And to survive is to socialize in college. That’s what a lot of people are looking for in their dream college experience.
So not engaging in those behaviors doesn’t feel like an option for them, and therefore they are compensating with their nourishment in other ways. We see that with college students a lot also with their exercise. We’ll see a lot of compensatory exercise for college students where they will not eat in order to make up for the fact that they didn’t exercise, or they might exercise to make up for the food that they did eat.
And all in all, what we’re creating are generations of individuals who do not know how to engage intuitively with their bodies. So when we’re referring to nourishment, they’ve completely lost the connection that they have had with their bodies. The ability to listen to the stomach and the brain and the energy level to understand what is my body telling me it needs right now is completely disconnected.
And so instead, they make their nourishment choices based off of external factors, socialization, timing, schedule, budget. And that’s when it gets really scary because all of those are very real concerns and pressures that they have and they need to find a way to move through them and still nourish their bodies so that they can be effective in that phase of life.
MITCHELL
Looking back on it, like it’s this transition from high school to college, and then being on yourself, then dealing with your own disordered eating habits. And then on top of that, navigating how to find the nourishment on your own without having mom or dad being there or watching over. That’s a very tough time.
And how do you get out of that cycle? What would be some of those first steps of like intentionally seeing that, okay, I need to care for myself in the right way?
RITTENHOUSE
I think something very important that not everyone has access to, and a lot of colleges have now provided access is medical support. So student health centers having at least access to a primary care provider, and sometimes being able to then get a referral to a dietitian. Because I say that education is really the first step.
And also in this technological generation, the amount of information that can be consumed, and the amount of possibly false or harmful information that can be consumed, if someone just Googles, you know, if a college student just Googles, how do I nourish myself and have a balanced diet while in college, they may be consuming disordered content and disordered recommendations. And so I do always find myself thinking that if a college student is uncertain of where to begin, education can be key. When I was in college, I was able to take a nutrition course.
It was hugely impactful as somebody who myself was in eating disorder recovery when I was going through my college years. So I began college ill and then recovered about my sophomore junior year, and were working to maintain that. In my last two years, in order to have that knowledge and that skill set of how the body works and what different nutrients and vitamins are, changes a lot, I think, for an individual.
Knowledge is power. And we want to make sure that the knowledge being received is helpful. So maybe taking an actual course on nutrition, and if that isn’t accessible, asking a primary care provider for a referral to a dietitian, not meaning you have to see that dietitian on a weekly basis for years, but that you can just request to that dietitian, hey, I want to learn how to listen to my body, how to effectively nourish, and I don’t think I have the knowledge or the insight right now to do this by myself.
So they can get you jump started, give you a little bit of support in the beginning, and then you can go off of a really beautiful and safe, accurate foundation.
MITCHELL
Right, finding that help because it’s a tough thing to transition to do it all by yourself, for sure.
RITTENHOUSE
And I think knowing how overwhelming it is for these, you know, I say, I feel old, I say kiddos, for these young adults, right? Knowing how overwhelming it is for these young adults and giving grace to the challenge of that transition, I think so often people think of college as such a magical time and it is. It is a very special time.
There’s so much development and self-growth and independence being built. And also it’s terrifying. And I think sometimes we forget, we’re so excited for those individuals that we forget to say, are you okay?
Are you nourishing yourself? How is your grocery shopping going? You know, I also encourage parents to, and I know this is tough because often parents try.
And the individual, you know, the student might push away and say, oh, mom, stop. I don’t need help. I don’t need grocery shopping support.
And so, you know, just offering the support consistently, even when they push away, still next time you see them, hey, do you want to go grocery shopping? Hey, how’s this going? Because eventually they’re going to come in that place where they’re going to use that support.
And just knowing, hey, my guardian, my support system has always offered to help me learn to cook, learn to use the kitchen in my dorm, learn how to meal prep, learn how to go grocery shopping on a budget, all of those pieces, then they’re going to go to you. They’re going to say, okay, you’ve always offered this. Can I finally take you up on that?
MITCHELL
That’s a great tip. Do you have any resources that you refer to clients that are, you know, with that onset of how to cook and budget-friendly meals and things like that?
RITTENHOUSE
For things like that, really the biggest thing that I recommend, there’s a few things, especially I’m thinking more gearing towards college-age students. I would, again, encourage some sort of class or knowledge. I would encourage, if it is a struggle with somebody who is either experiencing past disordered eating, is in recovery, or maybe they’re starting to become concerned about their behaviors, there’s a few organizations.
One I really like to speak to is Project Heal. Project Heal has a lot of resources online. It will give you access to those resources while also allowing some financial support.
I think that’s where the biggest challenge lies. We have individuals that, socioeconomically, they don’t have access possibly to not only the education, but the food resources that other individuals have access to. For some of them, it’s not as simple as going to college.
They’re going to college and they’re working a job just to make ends meet. So I also encourage reaching out to local community resources for support with grocery shopping. It can be very helpful if somebody can engage in any kind of statewide programs to receive food on a budget.
That’s very helpful. And also, I encourage individuals in college to use the built-in support system. So every dorm has an RA on every floor, and their job is to support these individuals in their newly found independent living, and also to get them connected to resources the school has.
A lot of schools have meal opportunity programs. They have scholarships. They also have opportunities for workshops where individuals can learn how to meal prep, where they can learn how to use the dorm kitchen.
And those can be kind of fun little ways to meet people when you’re first moving in to college as well. A lot of those happen during welcome weeks. And so I always encourage, tap into the RA, tap into your community center on your college campus.
They’re going to have a lot of resources that most people don’t know about. And so they don’t use them.
MITCHELL
Very, very helpful. And yeah, if you don’t ask, you don’t know. So reach out to those resources and find out.
That’s where the mom comes in, and be like, just go ask. And then you’re like, no, mom, stop.
RITTENHOUSE
So, yeah, exactly. And I’m sure, yeah, you have those parents, you know, pulling their hair out of their head. There are resources.
There are things you can do. And sometimes it is just helpful. I call it planting seeds, right?
For parents, for leaders, for RAs, for anyone in the position to be supporting these youth in their transition. I think giving the information and just saying, hey, I’m going to send you this link. It’s going to be in our message thread.
That way you always have it. Or I just started making a list of resources. If you ever need it, here’s where it is.
Or printing it out for them. That way, for RAs and things like that, putting it up on the bulletin board. You’re planting seeds.
We don’t know when they’re going to grow, when they’re going to bloom, how they’re going to bloom. And planting the seed is a huge step toward access for these individuals that might be a little bit stubborn and maybe are just trying to figure it out on their own.
MITCHELL
I like that. That’s a good terminology. It has a good visual effect.
What are some other roadblocks in finding or building healthy habits as kids are getting back into the school routine?
RITTENHOUSE
I think a really big one for those college-age students is the way their days are structured. When you are from elementary to high school, you are in school all day for most individuals. You’re waking up early in the morning, you’re going to school, you’re in the building, then you’re leaving around 3 o’clock.
For college students, it’s different. They might have an 8 a.m. class, and then they may have a class that will end until 10 p.m. And so they don’t have those natural markers for meals. Those natural markers of when you wake up eating breakfast, are you having a snack before lunch?
Then when are you eating lunch? And sometimes they may be in the middle of class during a lunch hour. And again, when we’re talking about economic advantage or disadvantage, sometimes they can’t stop somewhere on campus, buy themselves a sandwich and take it to class to eat in the middle of class.
So that’s where things like meal prepping, planning in advance can be very helpful. What I recommend is looking at your class schedule, identifying when are my breaks for meals, that I can go to the dining hall, not spend extra money and be able to get my nourishment. After you identify those moments, then identify the moments that are trickier, moments when you’re in class during lunchtime, moments where you’re in class during dinner and that class doesn’t get out until 10 p.m. Checking in with those moments and then thinking, what are my more creative solutions?
Is it going to be meal prepping? Am I going to save up in budget so that that can be the one night that I buy food on campus and bring it to class? Really figuring out those pieces.
And then I do recommend always carrying around a nourishing snack that’s gonna provide you with the energy you need and that your brain needs to be able to function and move through your day. We know way too many college students who are living off coffee and energy drinks all day and while those things, you know, I don’t believe that any foods are bad. While those things are can be yummy in moderation, our bodies need nourishment, our brains need nourishment to be functioning at their optimal rate.
And so carrying around fruit, some trail mix, carrying around a granola bar, a protein bar, something that can give you that nourishment when you’re in a tight squeeze and that’s really all that you have around you. Instead of thinking, well, I can’t afford anything and I’m starving and I have to go to class before you, until you can go get the food that you need.
MITCHELL
Yes, because that’s when trouble hits. That’s when the out-of-control cravings come out. It’s hard to contain and then anything is up for grabs.
RITTENHOUSE
And then that’s when we lose touch with our bodies. When we start to develop a pattern of receiving hunger cues and not listening to them and the body can get really frustrated and send us those cues even more and say, I’m hungry, I need you to feed me. And then when we add in the social event, right?
Then they might be going, eating no food, going straight from class to a night of going out with their friends and then there’s even more danger, you know, on a malnourished body or a non-nourished brain, engaging in binge drinking as kids do in college. And so nourishment is key for them to be able to live the college experience that they want. And I think it’s often under emphasized the importance of food in that experience.
MITCHELL
Yes, 100%. Last night, my daughter and I went to this awards event for like plays and stuff like that. And it was like a three hour show and we were going and we were going all day.
And thank goodness I had those chomps beef sticks. It was like a top of stick, 12 grams of protein. And then I also had some almonds, but like stuff that’s non-perishable like that, to always just keep in the car, keep in your backpack.
It just comes in so many crucial times like that. And those are so helpful.
RITTENHOUSE
Yeah, it really does. And that’s the thing in college, they’re going to be running from one thing to another thing. Having that in their back pocket as a last resort, it might not be what you’re craving in that moment.
And nourishment is important, whether it’s always going to be the thing that hits the spot, or whether it’s going to be the thing that allows you to participate in that discussion or that presentation that you need to participate in your next lecture. It all needs to be based on this nourishment.
MITCHELL
Yes, kind of that planned hunger of like thinking ahead of, well, if you’re not hungry, but you know, you will be hungry. So that those actually do help. Another interesting point that I think probably a lot of females might have during these college years is eating around your peers.
And sometimes, you know, if your friend doesn’t finish their sandwich, then maybe you feel like you don’t need to finish your sandwich, or maybe your friend’s like, oh, that’s all you’re going to eat. And navigating that situation, because that’s a big one.
RITTENHOUSE
Absolutely. I remember, as I’m sure you can remember, the experience of being a young, college-aged woman, and the degree to which everybody just felt that it was okay to talk about everybody else’s bodies and food, and what that means for mixed messages. Because you’re right.
You may be sitting around one friend who’s saying, oh, that’s all you’re going to eat, while the other friend is eating much less than that, or while another friend is saying, wow, you know, something that can be hurtful and confusing, like, oh, you’re really putting it away, you know. It can be so overwhelming. And we get these societal messages too, that put women in a box when they go to college.
And we have the dread, quote unquote, freshman 15, that women receive pressure to not gain weight when they go away to college. And all of those messages coming in can be so harmful. And that’s why onset of eating disorders are so high in, in the college years.
And so part of what I suggest for those individuals is sort of a know thyself routine. And that is of course me being a woman in her 30s, saying that I wish I had known myself at that time. I wish that I hadn’t had a rupture in my relationship with my body.
And I wish that I hadn’t listened to so many other people about what my body needed to look like and what my nourishment needed to look like. Because I believe that if I hadn’t internal messages, I would have been more able to listen to my own cues and to receive those messages that people said and just say, you do you, this is what my body needs. This is what my body looks like.
This is what happens naturally when I nourish myself in the way that I need to be the best Margot that I can be. And that’s what’s most important to me. And that was a perspective, to be honest, I didn’t have in college.
And so for any of the young women out there, I encourage you to seek out women your age or older that can support you in developing that knowing and developing that perspective because you will get it eventually. And the younger you receive it, the more you’ll be able to benefit from the wisdom of knowing yourself so that you’re not getting into unrealistic societal and peer pressures that come up especially in college.
MITCHELL
That’s such a great message. And the idea of who you surround yourself with really matters in building this better you.
RITTENHOUSE
It really does. In college, your community can mean everything to you. When I was struggling with my eating disorder, I was in a socioeconomic position that I would not have been able to receive treatment.
And so my community meant everything in my recovery. They gave me such great support. They made a little schedule.
Who was going to come to eat with me at the dining hall at what time? And I was able to make it through. And that’s not what everyone is capable of doing.
And I think in my current role with Alsana, something that I find really beautiful that I wish had been around at that time are these virtual treatment programs. Because I probably could have access treatment if those had been around during that time. You know, it really allows these college students to still engage in the college life that they want to while also receiving support from a dietitian, from a therapist, from individuals who know how to guide them and lead them through this process of body and identity and nourishment while they’re in that transition phase.
And so I would also encourage anybody who’s struggling, look into those virtual resources, those virtual options. Alsana, as I said, we do have a virtual treatment program that we use a lot to support individuals who are college age, but also individuals who are working. And so maybe they can’t access, maybe they have children.
And so their daily life just doesn’t allow for in-person support. And these virtual resources can really be flexible to those pieces. And so I do encourage reaching out for those.
I know Alsana isn’t the only eating disorder program that has a virtual option so that people can still live their lives and get the help they need.
MITCHELL
Right. That is so helpful. Any other last takeaways that we might have missed?
RITTENHOUSE
I’d say something that I think is really important for college-aged individuals. And I think something that you brought in that was really got me thinking. You had mentioned returning back to the school structure.
And that makes me think of the new school structure of college students. And it also makes me think of middle school age, high school age students returning to a more controlled, structured environment where they are told when they can eat and when they cannot eat. And it also makes me think of mom and parents, not just moms, moms, dads, grandparents, guardians, support systems that are doing the drop-off and the pick-up.
And life just gets a lot more hectic around this time of year for everyone. It is a transition for everyone, even if it’s a transition back to what they were doing the year before. And in this transition, I think it’s always important to cope ahead.
So first, to expect the challenges that are going to arise, try your best to prepare in advance. Carving out time for yourself. If you’re a guardian that is now on it 24-7, carving out time for your kid to talk to them about their nourishment at school, and advocating for your child.
Maybe your kid says, hey, I get hungry every day in between breakfast and lunch, but we don’t have a snack. Talk to the school. Say, hey, can they go down to the nursing office during that time and have a granola bar?
Being able to be their advocate, asking those questions, it teaches them that it’s okay to ask those questions of themselves. And I think for all of those individuals I just mentioned, which is basically probably everybody in the world around this time of year, I would encourage a lot of grace and self-prioritization. It is so important to know what you need and advocate for what you need, so that you can receive what you need.
And I think too often we are taught to hop on the ride, ride along and do only what people are letting us do to the detriment of ourselves and our bodies. And so making it a goal. This school year, I want to stay connected to me.
I want to stay invested in me. And that’s going to be one of my priorities. And then checking in with that priority as the weeks and months move on.
How am I doing with me? How am I doing with this goal? I think that can be really, really helpful.
MITCHELL
I’m going to have my kids listen to this. That was so good. That was such a good takeaway.
Like, hey, this gal was on my podcast. You got to listen guys.
RITTENHOUSE
Yeah, it’s just, you know, it’s so true. And I think this is the time of year people start being harder on themselves instead of kinder to themselves.
MITCHELL
Yeah, right.
RITTENHOUSE
And it’s not productive.
MITCHELL
No, it’s not. And I even told my middle school, new middle middle schooler, she’s my youngest and she, you know, eats early and then has to go all the way across the school to from one class to the other and her backpack’s heavy. And I’m like, hey, we have some fruit leathers and a fruit snack in here.
So while you’re walking, just, just eat that. It’s fine, you know? Like you’re going to need that energy.
She’s just a little thing too. And so it’s like, honey, you need that little burst of energy in there in that middle of the day.
RITTENHOUSE
And they can feel so worried about the rules. You know, we’re not supposed to. And it’s reminding your child, hey, if your school says something, you have them call mama.
MITCHELL
Right.Right.
RITTENHOUSE
Then, then, because there’s, you know, I think the thing is, we have to get creative. We can’t have schools, whether it’s college, elementary, middle, high school.
We can’t have it a one size fits all. Every individual in that building, in that school, has a unique body with unique needs. And if you keep that child not to listen to their cues, to follow the rules, then that’s where we see these college students not knowing how to listen to their body and follow their cues when they’re left to their own devices.
And so parents certainly encouraging your children, your body might need something outside of the realm of the rules and that’s not bad. Talk to me about it. We will talk to your school about it because the most important thing is that you’re fueling your body to help your brain work in the way it needs to work.
And you don’t have to apologize for those needs.
MITCHELL
Right. And what we have at our household too, we get anxious a lot. So sometimes we’re not hungry at a certain time.
And then that time passes over. So it’s like, okay, we have those little cashews in that container, grab those out and eat those.
Yeah. I’m already prepping them for certain things like that. Cause I’m like, you have, it’s always too late when you feel awful, you know, like don’t let it get there. So yes, great tips.
RITTENHOUSE
Absolutely.
MITCHELL
Yes. Yes. Food is my love language. So you’re speaking right out of caring for people.
RITTENHOUSE
And I love, yes. For me, it’s the food and it’s the advocacy. And it’s the way we can raise a generation that knows how to listen to their bodies and views their bodies as being their machines that are going to be with them through life, as opposed to being these merely decorative ornaments that need to look a certain way.
You know, I think teach your kids to rebel, teach them to rebel against diet culture, teach them to rebel against the TikTok messages that they’re receiving about the way they should eat and the way a body should look. Eventually, they’re going to start questioning those anyways. Why not get them started?
Allow them to be critical consumers. Why do we think that this message is this? What do you think that that says?
You know, what about if someone’s body is different than that? Teach them how to be critical consumers and self-advocates. It’s going to be amazing for them when they do that college transition, and they already know how to do that.
MITCHELL
Don’t you wish you had that growing up? I sure do.
RITTENHOUSE
Oh my gosh. If anybody had been able to guide me, you know, when I’m doing that like inner child work, and I’m thinking about how proud a younger Margot would be for where, for how far I’ve come. And I think, you know, just holding her and telling her, we learned a lot of things and how can we be stewards for the next generation of passing that on to make sure that we’re teaching them what we had to learn the hard way.
And sometimes they’re not going to take it. You know, kids can be stubborn, teenagers can be stubborn. And like I mentioned earlier, we are planting seeds.
And that’s a beautiful thing, is they can decide when they’re going to nurture those seeds, so that they grow into something that is beneficial to those kiddos. And we provided that start. And that’s the best we can do for sure.
And that’s what we do in treatment, you know. Sometimes people come into eating disorder treatment and they’re not ready to let go of their disordered eating or exercising habits. And so they absorb what they can and they take what they can.
And we say, okay, we’re just planting some seeds right now. And when you need them, they’ll be there. They’re in your mind, they’re in your heart, they’re in your notebook.
You’ve got these things for when you need them. And so planting seeds so that when the individual finds themselves in a position to need the knowledge or need the skills, they have it, is a really beautiful thing.
MITCHELL
Such wonderful information. Margot, where can people find and connect with you?
RITTENHOUSE
They can definitely go online. The Alsana website has all of my information. So as I mentioned earlier, what I do is I work with our PHP/IOP program in Westlake Village, California.
So it’s right outside of Los Angeles. And that program is sort of a day program. So we have a day program. It’s for about eight hours a day or six hours a day. So instead of going to work or going to school, sometimes people come to our in-person program to receive treatment. And then we slowly move those hours and those days down as they readjust back to life.
And so I offer that support if anybody ever wants to reach out, needs an outpatient program. Something I do want to talk about that’s really special about our program and fits with the population that we’ve been discussing today. We call it a two week intensive.
And so it is two weeks, 14 days where an individual can come and receive eating disorder, care, education, therapeutic support, dietary support. And for those that need it, psychiatric support and 14 days of care. And it’s really beneficial for those college students that maybe are on summer break or they’re on winter break.
They can be individuals that have struggled with an eating disorder before and need to do a little check in. Maybe they just need a little pick me up. They haven’t relapsed, but they’re struggling a little bit and they just need some reminders and some support.
It can also be really wonderful if you have an individual who is college aged and doesn’t want to take off a semester, but as a provider or a parent, maybe you’re thinking that they might need more intense support for disordered eating. They can try it out for those 14 days. And if after those 14 days, the individual says, okay, thank you for that support.
That’s what I agreed to. I’d like to go. They can go.
But if they realize that maybe they need more help than they thought they did, then it gets some buy-in from that individual. Then maybe they say, okay, I think I do need to take a semester off to focus on myself to get myself back in a good place. So your question was, how can people access me?
I suppose my answer is all of the Alsana programs that they can find on the website that I get very, very excited and passionate in talking about.
MITCHELL
I love hearing all the different options. That’s very helpful. Because yeah, it’s a season of life and where you’re at, and what your needs are, so extremely helpful.
RITTENHOUSE
Yeah, the biggest goal is flexibility and accessibility. And so I encourage anybody, even if what I’m talking about today has intrigued you, but maybe you’re not concerned that you’re struggling with an eating disorder or disordered eating, but it’s been inspiring to you or it’s brought up some questions for you. I would encourage going to the Alsana website.
They have support there. And then you can also reach me at my email address, which is margot.rittenhouse@alsana.com. And maybe in the show notes, we can put those so people can see how to spell all of that.
But that would be beneficial because I’d love to just provide any resources that I have for any of your listeners specific needs.
MITCHELL
Awesome. Thank you so much for your expertise here and sharing wonderful information and really getting us the jumpstart to getting back to school wherever we may be, whether it’s college or school levels and making it the best year possible to really reflect and care for ourselves.
RITTENHOUSE
Absolutely. Yeah. I would encourage everyone, ask yourself the question.
If my goal is to stay connected into myself and pour into myself this year, what will that look like in a reasonable way? And then start building on that. And I think it’s going to be a great year for everybody.
MITCHELL
Awesome. Thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it.
RITTENHOUSE
Yeah. Thank you.
MITCHELL
I loved hearing all of Margot’s wonderful tips and things that I didn’t even like think about or that she would tie in. She has such a grasp for giving great tips for adding structure in the life and having intentional eating habits and fueling your body while still enjoying those social activities. Be sure to look at the show notes if you want to work with Margot and her team or any resources they may have.
I know myself, I have had people come to me having a child on their own, first time going to college. And it’s really hard to let go and letting them make their own choices with food and all the other stuff that college goes with. So if you are in this stage of life, I hope this episode has helped you or share with a friend.
It’s times like these where you can really make a difference in these early years and not let it keep on going. So thanks to Margot and her team at Alsana for sharing their expertise for this episode. And I wanna thank you so much for spending your time here with us on the Daily Dietitian Podcast.
