When I first learned the word “dietitian” I was 7 and my best friend had just been diagnosed with diabetes. The dietitian came into her room with these gross, rubbery food models that had lint stuck to them because she carried them around in her lab coat pocket and the rubber they were made of was kind of…sticky? There’s nothing in real life that’s like these food models, so whatever you’re picturing is probably pretty accurate. And until my senior year of high school I never gave that profession another thought. I knew I really liked and was good at science, and I NEEDED social interaction, so every personality test that paired me up with a profession always pointed me back to this word—dietitian. Even after shadowing a dietitian for a couple days my senior year, I still didn’t fully understand what she did. But if Seventeen Magazine taught me anything, it’s to trust a personality test. 

So if I dove into college and a career, having researched it, and still didn’t quite grasp what my day-to-day would actually be like, I think I need to explain to you what it’s like to be one of our clients. 

First, you’ll call or message me and we’ll set up a time to talk about what you need and what your goals are—this could be a huge range of things, improving athletic performance (even if you’re a casual exerciser), bringing your cholesterol down, wanting to get off of your blood pressure medication, needing to understand how to approach a new diabetes or Celiac diagnosis, your cardiologist told you to follow a “heart healthy diet” and left it at that, wanting help with weight management, the list could really go on for awhile. So we chat, I verify your insurance information, and get your first “real” appointment scheduled. At that appointment we’ll gather your medical history, weight history, medications that you’re on, foods you hate, things you’ve tried in the past, take some measurements, and then, with alllllll that information we’ll create a plan for you. We will show you how to structure your meals and we’ll think of examples together of realistic things you can eat. 

We try to keep it simple in this first meeting so that you can get a hang of what it feels like to eat in a balanced way and can practice tuning into your hunger/fullness cues. If you opt into having the ability to call/text/email us then we can help you in your real-life food scenarios (I’m actually multi-tasking as I write this, I’m helping a client plan out her meals and snacks for tomorrow now that her kids are in bed and she has time to plan). We really love being able to build these relationship with our clients. It’s something I couldn’t do when I worked in the hospital and makes me so happy to have my own practice where I can empower my dietitians to help my people in real, meaningful, moment-by-moment ways. And in your next sessions we address and plan for potential challenges, look at micronutrients, and just generally tweak things to help your goals be met and sustained. 

It’s all very chill and makes us super happy. Our goal is that you feel comfortable and supported. Send us a message, let’s talk. 

-Jen Lyman, RDN, LD, CLT