Community Highlights: Meet Maggie Perkins of Tomata

Today we’d like to introduce you to Maggie Perkins.

Hi Maggie, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I was twelve when I decided to be a dietitian; My Girl Scout troop invited a dietitian to speak to us and it was right then and there that I knew a nutrition profession was for me.

In my undergraduate education and internships, I focused on weight science. I learned a weight-centric approach to health and I thought my dream job would be in weight management to do my part in ending the “obesity epidemic.” After three years of work experience, I had extensive knowledge of program development and nutrition but I wasn’t satisfied with my impact in behavior change in weight management. To learn more effective interventions, I decided to go back to school to get my graduate degree.

For my final graduate project, I wrote a literature review on successful weight loss interventions for families. This project was a life changer. While examining the literature, I found that there were no interventions that showed a significant difference in weight loss after 5 years. I actually found the opposite; an overwhelming majority of people who participate in weight-loss interventions regained the weight back within five years and usually continued to gain weight. I also found out that weight loss interventions often lead to harmful behaviors like disordered eating and body shame.

This information opened my eyes and led me to find weight-inclusive frameworks for nutrition including Health at Every Size and Intuitive Eating. I’ve been in this work for about four years and now, I educate my clients and community on the research that shows the harm in weight-based interventions. Our culture’s focus on weight and dieting (diet culture) fuels disordered eating, weight stigma, and oppression. Diet culture’s BS must be called out and dismantled so that future generations can embrace body respect and food peace for all bodies.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
It takes many years and a lot of determination to become a dietitian. While it wasn’t easy, I had a support system and privileges to help me get to where I am today.

The biggest struggle I’ve encountered was coming into new information that showed a more effective way to practice dietetics and completely changing how I practiced. When I first learned about weight-inclusive care a lot of things came up including anger for not learning this earlier and regret continuing to spread diet culture. But I also felt hope and happiness.

I saw my clients making real progress- feeling confident about how they feed themselves, enjoying food, ending negative food behaviors, and appreciating their bodies. I am still confronted with challenges because health and wellness industries have not caught up with the science or confronted their weight bias and are still spreading harmful, diet culture recommendations. It’s been a long road that still has its challenges but making this change has been so worth it!

As you know, we’re big fans of Tomata LLC. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
I am a Registered Dietitian and Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor and Tomata LLC is my private practice. I assist individuals and families to be confident about nutrition while emphasizing food enjoyment and body respect.

I work with clients who are interested in reducing the stress around food, ending weight cycling, starting baby-led weaning, and managing picky eating. What sets me apart is that I have a small private practice where I am able to be patient-focused in all aspects of care including billing and insurance. I believe that all people should have access to high-quality, weight-inclusive nutrition care so I offer pay-what-you-can, sliding-scale fees, and insurance reimbursement.

I pride myself on working with people around their specific concerns and finding solutions that can be challenging or impossible in larger health care facilities.

Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
There is a lot of nutrition noise out there with many different approaches and rules. It can be confusing and stressful. I meet my clients where they are and help them find an approach to nutrition that is enjoyable and low-stress.

One of the most common things I hear from my clients is “I feel free.” If feeding yourself or your family is stressing you out, I am here to assist you.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: https://www.tomata.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tomata_rd/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TomataNutrition