A little back story on the heart behind this business and the reason behind the name //

I am the last person I would think would start a business. The concept of it simply was not in my skillset, not part of my DNA, and certainly not a desire I had for most of my life. What I did have was strong passion for nutrition and wellness. It wasn’t until I really began to seek what it was I loved so much about food and nutrition that I started to feel called to create a business around it. I thought long and hard, and I realized the reason I feel such a passion for food was because of one thing: CONNECTION.

Food connects us in a way nothing else does. It connects us not only with others, but also with ourselves.

It’s obvious to see the connection that food draws between people throughout history and culture. Since the beginning of recorded time, people have gathered around tables and shared meals in times of celebration and in times of sorrow. We often design our homes with the thought of hosting guests for meals at our dining room table. There is rarely a gathering that does not include a form of breaking bread together whether the metaphorical bread is a full-course meal or a bag of chips and some salsa. We can all agree, right?

The connection that is less obviously observed is the connection that food brings to ourselves as individuals. Your body is equipped with amazing things like hunger cues, satiety signals, taste buds, olfactory senses, all there to serve you so you can nourish your body well. When we begin to ignore these sensations and override their messages with our own ideas, we lose touch with our bodies and we forget how it once felt to be aligned with our desires and sensations.

As I went down a rabbit hole on the topic of food and connectivity, I stumbled across the most beautiful, magical word — Sobremesa — an untranslatable Spanish expression that refers to the time spent after a meal sitting around the table talking to the people you shared the meal with. A time to savor both food and friendship. A time when no one is in a rush, no one is distracted, and everyone is content staying right where they are.

I fell in love with this idea. Having struggled with restrictive eating and calorie counting in my past that drove me into a serious out-of-touch situation with both my body and my surrounding community, Sobremesa sounded like exactly what my soul longed for.

Sobremesa taught me that health is so much more than just what you eat and that food is so much more than fuel.

The more I fell in love with this concept, the more I realized I needed to share my new found perspective on food with the world. Our society runs on “diet culture”. Christy Harrison, a renowned dietitian in the anti-diet culture sphere, describes diet culture this way: (diet culture) demonizes certain ways of eating while elevating others, which means you’re forced to be hyper-vigilant about your eating, ashamed of making certain food choices, and distracted from your pleasure, your purpose, and your power.

How often have you been “on a diet” that made you feel ashamed of making certain food choices? Or better yet, how often do you feel ashamed of certain food choices without even being “on a diet”?

Have you ever been so engrossed in thought about what your next meal is going to be and how many calories it might contain that you aren’t mentally present? Distracting from your pleasure and your power?

I have.

And I swear, I SWEAR, there is a better way to live.

Maybe you’re thinking, *but Kaitlyn — why would you tell me to eat ice cream everyday and order pizza every night and eat whatever I want whenever I want? There’s nothing healthy about that?*

…I swear I am not telling you to do that. And if you are thinking this, that’s totally normal! But I’ve got something better in store for you.

I am here to help you dismantle this idea that you aren’t “allowed” to eat certain foods and in due time, I promise you won’t feel the urge to eat those "off-limits” foods all the time because they will not longer be off-limits!

To help you get started, grab my free beginners guide to intuitive eating below.

I am so excited to help you find food freedom and rediscover the connection you can have to your body and to your people.

Be sure to let me know if anything in this post resonated with you in the comments or via email or any of my social links. I’d love to get to know you and your story!

Until next time,

Thank you for being here!

— Kaitlyn, Sobremesa Nutrition