For the love of food

Definition of a Dietician (Wikipedia)- A dietitian (or dietician) is an expert in dietetics; that is, human nutrition and the regulation of diet. A dietitian alters their patient's nutrition based upon their medical condition and individual needs. Dietitians are the only healthcare professionals licensed to assess, diagnose, and treat nutritional problems.

Definition of a Nutritionist - a person who studies or is an expert in nutrition.

I am not a dietician, or an expert, nor will I ever claim to be and nor will I try to work outside of my scope of practice. The courses I have taken call me a nutrition specialist. 

Even though I’m not an expert, I have a passion for food and, more importantly, healthy food. I love to cook, I love to eat and I love to create new recipes. I love finding healthier versions of the comfort foods we have all grown up on. Our lives circle around food; we need it to survive, it truly plays a huge impact on whether we live or die. 

Over the last four years I have dedicated the majority of my training to nutrition and how we can utilize food to help with performance. I’ve learned the Canada Food Guide inside and out, and can most likely recite it in full, by memory. I’ve dabbled in learning about physique training and sport performance and learned how to calculate macronutrient targets. But what I have found the most intriguing is the importance of clean eating. How eating good, clean food makes you feel and look! Learning that food is the most under utilized drug in the world, that we have most of the cures we are looking for in our local grocery stores. We have become a society of convenience; it’s easier to have our food pre-made and packaged in an easy to open box (loaded with preservatives) rather then preparing it for ourselves. And what becomes even easier is the excuses I get from people about how much time clean eating takes. Let’s dial it back to what I am really trying to say, I am not an expert on nutrition, I am always trying to take new courses to teach me new things, to make sure I understand the full scope of food and the benefits we can take from it. 

This is also what I feel sets me aside from other trainers. There are tons of excellent trainers out there and I will never discredit any of their abilities. Many of the trainers close to me have been my inspiration. For me it’s about the complete package. I not only want to teach you about movement and strength, I want to show you balance, confidence, overall wellness and what links it all together is nutrition. I don’t want to give you a strict program that, once it’s done, you just go back to how you used to be. I want to teach you how to continue eating healthy.  I want to give you tools to use for a life time and to know that if you ever stumble, I am always here to help you find your place again. One thing I am learning is there should never be an end date on your goals. You can achieve a goal, but after the success comes the next one, even if it’s as simple as maintaining your results. We need to get the “end date” idea out of our head. This process is never ending!