About Me
Claire Chewning
If you’re interested in learning more about me, there are two very important facts I should start with. Two of the things I love most in life are:
- Peanut Butter & Jelly.
- Intuitive Eating.
Number one is self-explanatory–though if you continue to follow along, you’ll likely hear a lot more about it. This brings me to number two. Let’s talk a bit more about it!
What is Intuitive Eating?
Really, if we didn’t live in diet culture, intuitive eating would just be called eating. It’s a weight-inclusive, self-care eating framework that will help you heal from the negative physical, mental and emotional effects of chronic dieting and disordered eating. It will help you regain confidence in your ability to acknowledge, listen to, and trust your body’s cues around hunger, fullness, satiety, cravings, and so much more. It will help you understand that food is fuel for the physical body, but it’s also so much more than that.
To get a bit more specific, Intuitive Eating (IE) is a framework of ten research-informed, Health At Every Size® aligned principles outlined by Evelyn Tribole, MS, RD, and Elyse Resch, MS, RD, FADA, CEDRD in their book, Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Anti-Diet Approach.
But here’s one of the most exciting things about IE: you were born an intuitive eater. We all were! As a baby, you knew how, when, and how much to eat and didn’t think twice about it. It’s okay if you feel like you’ve lost touch with these innate abilities, though. After all, years of exposure to diet culture, fatphobia, nutrition misinformation (and more) can really erode your sense of self-trust around food. But just because you’ve lost touch with these abilities doesn’t mean you’ve lost them altogether. You can heal and restore trust in your relationships with food + your body.
That’s what non-diet Registered Dietitians (myself included!) are here to help you do. We’re here to listen, offer support, and provide space for you to unlearn those beliefs about food that are no longer serving you.
Want more information about how I work with individuals 1:1?
Becoming Yours Chewly
Now, since you’ve clicked on the “About Me” page, more about Yours Chewly! I’m Claire Chewning (yes, that’s my real last name). I’m a Registered Dietitian, Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor, yoga teacher, business owner, podcaster, and pun enthusiast.
I grew up as an only child (unless you count my cat) in the mountains of southern Virginia and took an interest in food at a very young age. I owe this interest largely to the influence of my dad, who always had the time and patience to let me to cook alongside him. Because of him, I not only learned a lot about cooking, but I was lucky enough to discover the thing I feel like I was meant to do at such a young age. Thanks, dad! I learned just as many important life skills from my equally incredible mom, but she has always been more of a baker than a cook. And if I’m being honest, baking has too many rules for me to find it enjoyable…
I entered college knowing exactly what I wanted to do. “Hi, my name’s Claire and I’m studying to become an RD!” -me, probably 5,000+ times over the course of those four years. I jumped into the dietetics coursework (side note: please never make me look at a chemistry textbook again) and started learning all that I could about food and nutrition. It was awesome…until I started to realize my own relationship with food was taking a turn.
I’m a firm believer that sometimes knowledge is too much power–and I think that was the case for me in those early years of school. As I learned more about nutrition and a dietitian’s role, I started thinking to myself, “Well if people are going to be coming to me for nutrition advice, then I need to have a perfect diet.”
So, I began to “eat perfectly” (whatever the heck that even means). “Good food” was allowed (but only in certain amounts, of course), and “bad food” was forbidden. And when the “bad food” did make its way into my life? Talk about a guilt trip.
Luckily, I moved off campus my junior year with a great group of friends and we were all responsible for cooking our own meals. Remember earlier in the story when I told you I loved to cook? Well, I started cooking again (you’re welcome, roommates!), and began to catch glimpses of that fun and creative relationship with food that I had as a kid. And the more glimpses I caught, the more I started to remember why I even wanted to become a dietitian in the first place…
I wanted to help people love and enjoy food, not fear it. Little girl Claire knew that, but older Claire with all of her “super fancy nutrition knowledge” seemed to have lost sight of it. So over those last years of college and into my dietetic internship, I started to allow all foods that I enjoyed back into my life and make peace with the ones I had once labeled as “bad.” (Note: That sentence made that process sound easy, but don’t be fooled. It took time!) Now? Food and I are good friends–no numbers, crazy restrictions, tracking devices, or food rules.
I graduated from James Madison University with a B.S. in Dietetics and completed my dietetic internship at The Ohio State University. Throughout my 1,250 hours of supervised practice, I tested the waters of public health nutrition, inpatient and outpatient medical nutrition therapy, sports nutrition, and food service management. In 2020, I also completed Evelyn Tribole’s training and supervision to become a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor. I am constantly working to hone my practice and receive mentorship and professional supervision from colleagues, including: Fiona Sutherland, Brianna Campos, and Tony Stephan.
I’ve now owned and operated Yours Chewly Nutrition, LLC. for going on five years now and find so much joy in helping individuals like yourself recover from years of dieting and disordered eating to reclaim an easeful, confident , and chewly healthy relationship with food, movement, and their bodies.
Where else do I hang out?
Honestly, the local Trader Joe’s. But if you’re looking to hang with Yours Chewly from the comfort of your own home, you can always find me on…
The Yours Chewly Goal Slayers
(Our Private Facebook Community.)
The Yours Chewly Podcast
Yours chewly,
