I Heart Nutrition: My Profession, My Passion

You ever get that feeling of clarity, where multiple questions in your mind all of a sudden get figured out simultaneously? I had that this afternoon.

I realized that the reason that I don’t want to work in most full-time dietitian positions is the same reason I don’t want to become a health coach for an organization with a prescribed program. Both of these options drain the soul out of me. And here’s why:

I’ve been passionate about nutrition ever since I can remember. I’ve been reading the nutrition newsletters my father received in the mail ever since I could read! There isn’t one time in my childhood and teen years when I gave my friend a baby carrot or a slice of pepper, or advice about how to eat more veggies, that did not afford me with a feeling of purpose and self-actualization.

In the depths of my heart and soul, I feel like I was born to help people eat healthfully! (My dad taught me that “healthful” not “healthy” is the grammatically preferred word in many cases, albeit colloquially we do not follow this.)

That is why I can’t suppress my passion for nutrition. Not to work in some full-time dietitian job which dictates how I will be a dietitian, and not for some health coach program, which trains me on what to teach my clients. In my vision of being a dietitian nutritionist, I am creating ideas organically. I am feeling the creative spark flow in my veins. I am listening to the unique needs and interests of others and tailoring my advice to them based on THEIR needs, not the other way around—by using a fixed system and applying it to their lives.

And if I can’t be that kind of dietitian nutritionist, then I rather not be one at all.

I will go work in another field which interests me. I will attain financial sustenance from a different job.

The world of nutrition and health is sacred to me. It was my first beloved area of interest. It was what bonded me so closely to my father.  It is my passion, it is my dream. I simply can’t do it any other way.