Mind on Nutrition Podcast Episode 1: Nutrition is a Science and My Road to RD

00:03 Hi Everybody this is Monica Salafia, Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and creator of MindonNutrition.com. I am starting my podcast. This is episode number 1 and I will be one hundred percent honest with you, I actually took like three takes before this. So hopefully, fourth time is a charm right? So, (haha) I'll get into a little bit about me, I guess as my first episode just because thats kind of what everyone does when they podcast. Like if you're clicking on this you're like "what am i going to listen to" so just want to give you information on that.

00:45 but I also wanted to talk about why I made this podcast. And really the whole main reason i started the podcast Mind on Nutrition and other dietitian things is because I really feel strongly about nutrition. And i don't mean just in a healthy eating type of way I mean about the professional field. I think that the Registered Dietitian Nutritionist needs to be better represented in the healthcare arena and so I've noticed that in a lot of conversations about nutrition, the dietitian isn't even present. And so many people still think that dietitians only work in hospitals, others don't even know that dietitians work in hospitals so this podcast is really meant for, um, that discussion, you know from dietitian to dietitian, or rd2be and anyone else who likes to chit chat about nutrition.

01:49 I often say nutrition is a science that meets art in the most delicious way and that's because it's a reminder that nutrition really is a science discipline but food and culture and culinary arts is really where we get to express our preferences and our dislikes and so we always, you know, talk about food in this philosophical way, how it makes us feel, we talk about traditions, but really the science of human nutrition is a science. So, I will definitely, um, be talking a lot about that.

02:33 I guess I'll just kind of start. I did make an outline because I also read that that was a good tip. Like I said I'm a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist the credentials for that are RDN, some RDNs or dietitians go with 'RD' and that stands for Registered Dietitian. There's a whole back story as to why there is RD or RDN. I can get into that in a different episode.

03:09 For a full time job I am a health coach or goal specialist for a behavior change app called Noom and we implement 2 programs. We have a Healthy Weight Program and we also have the CDC's Diabetes Prevention Program. So that's what I do from 7 to 4, which is 9 to 6 Eastern time. I work remotely so that's pretty cool. And In my spare time I like to workout, um, that's how i got into nutrition. And then I work on my blog, Mind on Nutrition. So if you haven't checked that out, go ahead check that out. A little self-promotion there. I guess I will just get started.

04:00 So my road to RD started when I was about 15 years old. I was working out with my brothers and my dad at this gym. This gym was really , it was a powerlifting oriented gym. There's a lot of great, solid equipment. Iron everyone and a few cardio machines. So what we would do is on Mondays and Wednesday nights we would get ready, hit the gym, I would start on the bike for 20 minutes while the boys did some bench press warm ups. We bench pressed a lot. that was kind of mostly what I remember us doing. I know that my brothers did other things too. So 20 minutes, I'm on the cardio machine getting my heart rate up and then I would go over to the bench press and you know, here I am a 15 year old girl getting on a bench press just ready to lift some heavy weights. This is the first time I've ever done anything like this. All of my previous exercise has been either teams sports or my mom's Denise Austin videos just doing somethings, or running. Then so, that's how I got into weight lifting. But also at the same time I would start going to the Y with my mom and she did Pilates and another group fitness class. Um, I would run first and then I would do the Pilates class with her after. So that was on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Mondays and Wednesdays I lifted. So, 15 years old...I just started my sophomore year of high school and I was starting to workout. That's just what I did.

05:55 I was on the soccer team at the time too, so that was interesting because that year I was really starting to learnt hat I cared way more about the practices where we had to go into the weight room than I did like on the field. Um hah, I had a great time but I wasn't exactly ...let's just say I was never really athletic. Im still not, um , I just like working out and being active. I'm by no means a stellar athlete, that's for sure. Um, you know you just gotta, you gotta try and workout because it's healthy and it's fun. So anyways, 10th grade playing soccer, working out, that's me. But another thing I did I was enrolled in this class called food and nutrition.

06:44 I would say its like a home economic-ish class. We would spend the first part of the lecture learning about food and nutrition. Then the second part we would cook! That part was awesome. We were in groups of 3 and actually one of those people who was in my group she actually owns a restaurant now so that's super awesome. Good for her and it's doing super fantastic. She has great healthy menu options and more comfort food options so its really funny in retrospect how that class was a significant point in our lives.

07:25 Anyways, so while I was working out, I was learning about nutrition and then I met my current fiance. We are high school sweet hearts and he was playing sports and into weight lifting and eventually we started dating and then I started going to the gym with him. So I'm thinking about you know at this time when Im 15-16 years old, whatever, I'm thinking about how nutrition really p[lays an effect on our bodies and how, you know, we can lose weight and stuff like that. And of course being a 15 or 16 year old girl I wanted to lose weight because unfortunately thats what so many women and girls think they need to do like we need to lose weight...

08:18 So i started cleaning up my diet which i really hate that term "clean diet" ...we're not eating bars of soap here.. but it gets the point across. So basically, basically that for me was I stopped eating nachos and cheese for lunch and I started eating greek yogurt and carrots and bell peppers. I also stopped drinking on the weekend because I wasn't really into that. Actually I had a lot of pushback from my friends at the time because I was like "No i don't feel like going out this weekend" and I just stayed home and hung out with Zack, my then boyfriend and current fiance. Um, so...I think it worked out. I'm glad I didn't go. It just made high school a little bit rougher during those patches. But anyways I moved on.

09:11 So in the mean time while I'm doing this whole fitness and nutrition thing, my brother Matt was noticing that it's about that time I'm gonna look at colleges soon. And I told him like you know I really wanted to be a health teacher. Um, actually before I wanted to be a health teacher I wanted to be a yoga instructor and do prenatal yoga classes so that way when I got preggo I could just still work and then when I had the kid I could take that kid to work. So first I wanted to be a yoga instructor, then I wanted to be a health teacher and my brother was like "Hey Moni, why don't you look into dietetics because you're so into nutrition and exercise and stuff" so that's what I did. Again, google search What is dietetics? And I looked at what schools offered that degree, nutrition and dietetics. There was state school in New York and another private school and so I was considering those 2 options but then since I wasn't sure I just decided that I would um ...hey....since I wasn't sure I knew that I would just go to the community college that was in my town and save some money and figure out what I needed to do, get the gen eds taken care of and I applied to that college, got in and then I started looking into like ok Where do I go next? Because in two years Ill have my associates in liberal arts math and science then I have to do this nutrition degree, right?

10:52 Well, so this is really great because my second semester english class, we had to do this research project and it was an I-Search, and I-Search paper, and we had to research any topic we wanted. We had to ask a question, find answers, gather sources, do interviews even and I said to my professor, I said "Hey, Do you mind if I research what school I should go to , to pursue a degree in Nutrition? Um, because I genuinely had that question and i genuinely wanted to find out that answer, right? What school is going to be best for what I want to do. And he was like "yea, totally, that's a great Idea". So that's how I started researching What is Dietetics? What do you do with a degree in Nutrition Science or Nutrition or Dietetics...and what school do you go to to do that? Like whats a better college for me?

11:53 I also had to interview two people in that were related to my search so I chose to interview 2 registered dietitians who I just blindly e-mailed at um , one was the Nutrition Director of the Food Service Department and the other was an outpatient dietitian who saw a lot of clients for diabetes. So, that was my first introduction to what is dietetics. And I also learned what the dietetic internship was.

12:29 And, this is really important because if you were going to school for dietetics, it wasn't really uncommon to not know what what the 'f' an internship was until like your sophomore or junior year. Um, I don't think that's the case as much now but certainly when I was a senior in college I had girls in a lower class level ask me "What is the internship" and I was like "Oh, girl let me tell you!" because the internship is no effing joke and RD2BE out there listening, or dietitian ...I'm conjuring up these memories and I'm really sorry (ha). I found out what the dietetic internship was because of the research project in my english class.

13:23 Oh also fun fact! My english class...I was sitting next to this girl, her name was Kayla, and she asked me one day what do you want to go to school for? I said I wanted to be a registered dietitian, Iw ant to go to school for nutrition. I was super passionate about it. And the next thing I know , down the road I am at this new college and I'm looking at who my roommate will be. and guess who it was?! It was Kayla form English class and I reached out to her Facebook and was like "Whats up buddy!? We had english together and now we're gonna be roomies" So Kayla, what up if you are listening to this. Anyways I just thought that was really cool because we're still i touch today event hough she is in NY and Im in Denver but we definitely still chat. It's funny how things work right. So anyways..

14:22 This dietetic internship . How did I learn what the dietetic internship was? Well I also had to get books to do me research so I got this one called Launching your Dietetics Career from the Academy's website and I got another book called All Access Internships. All Access Internships if you don't know if a resource for nutrition students to basically get on their A game so that they can get matched to an internship. And um, the reason why that source exists is because a lot of students struggle with getting into an internship match. And i have to say that I really hate that it's called an internship because , well, yes, it's true we work for free-actually we pay for internships most of the time, that's another tangent I can go on but um...I lost my train of thought...annnnnnd oh its back, so I hate that its called an internship because its really more like uh, its really more like a residency like a doctor would have to go through. You have to go through this process where you're submitting all your applications , your resumes, your transcripts, your statements of why you're the best candidate and thenyou subject yourself to this system called DICAs and DICAs matches you to internships. So waht you do as an applicant is you say okay I want this school firs tofr an internship this one second this one third this one fourth. On the other end of things, schools get all of their applications and then they rank the candidates..okay I want this student first, I want this student second, this student third. So only if you get matched, so only if the school ranks you third and you ranked that school third will you get that internship. I'm gonna let that settle because I think that its so ridiculous. Im sure theres a reason, but for the life of me I cannot figure out how ridiculous that is because we work so hard to get into an internship. it is tough, it is competitive, um , and there's only half the people who apply to an internship get picked. Um so basically you really need to have your favorites, oh and by the way people apply to like 5-6 internships and it costs at least $50-$200 to apply to the one school so you could be looking at spending $800-%100 just in application feeds to get matched and your chances are 50%...so...that is why All Access Internship exists, to help make sure that you have the best resume, the best personal statement. You get coached by a mentor, um, so I was really lucky to find that resource. I did not use them for coaching but I did use their book, um, its not a huge book or anything so I recommend that to any RD2BE who wants to look at that Allaccessinternships.com . So I had those 2 resources to figure out what is the dietetic internship, use them for my research project and then at the end of the research project we had to do a demonstration. you could do a presentation or something and I made a smoothie. Yup. I made a green smoothie and this was before green smoothies were like the thing to do. Um, so I just blended ice , strawberries, and tons of spinach and I think i probably put whey protein int here. I don't remember trying it honestly I think 1 person did, um I bet you these days it would probably be different. Actually probably fewer people would try it because probably everyone would be on some sort of diet where they couldn't have like whey protein or they ....i will not get into that. Iw ill just keep moving forward. So anyways I did my smoothie, I did my presentation I learned where I wanted to go to school, what was in store for me and I ended up choosing a school that had this option for pre-select

19:00 pre-select meant that i could apply earlier than anybody else could apply to that internship. Um, so I went to a really great school, I went to Russell Sage College to finish my Nutrition Science degree and I applied early to their Dietetic Internship at the Sage Graduate Schools. And there was a couple reason I chose that.

19:25 Number 1 because of the pre-select option. I was like well my chances are probably pretty good at getting int, because it's kind of like hiring within, right? You get to know the professors they know your skills set your work ethic and so yeah, it just made the pressure a little lower than if I had gone to a school that didn't have an internship , and then when I was also thinking about internships the topic of a Master's Degree never, ever enticed me. It still does not even though I'm almost done, but I figured that because Sage does like some Master's Courses involved in their internship that at the very least I'm getting some graduate credits to know what grad school is like and if i want to continue I can, if i don't i don't have to and I just have the credits for whatever. That did make my program expensive and I definitely will talk about how expensive the internship is at some point. And so anyways, that is how I got ..you know..thats kind of like form A to B where I started, how I got to the internship, and then um, at the end of the internship I had my community rotation. And it was about that time I was thinking what do i want to do for my community rotation and i decided i really wanted private practice experience and also some sports nutrition experience because at this whole entire time Im still really thinking about exercise and um, lifting weight and things like that and i wanted to know what types of jobs were out there for me as a registered dietitian in the sports nutrition arena.

21:21 so i found online, a registered dietitian nutritionist with a MS in Exercise Science and a PhD in bioenergetics and he was looking for an intern. So i emailed him and I said Hey Im looking for a preceptor. Are you still taking interns and he emailed me back, the plot twist though was that he lived in Denver. And I lived in NY. So there was some logistics to work out and basically at that moment I said to Zack, my fiance and he was my boyfriend at the time, Is aid hey Zack how would you like to move to Denver? I'll just finish my internship there and get a job and we'll just figure out this thing called life in Denver. He was on board. Um, actually he was on board with the idea of moving to Colorado way before I was and I was so set against moving...so silly, I'm such a silly person sometimes, but um I'm glad that we ended up moving here because I love Denver and I think that this is just a really good place for me to be so I guess I'm sorry for all the arguments that we had about me not moving to Denver and Im glad we ended up moving here anyways. So. Thats how I got to Denver and then I finished up my internship

22:50 we moved her to Denver May 20th, 2016. Um we got her May 23 um, May 24th I started my rotation with him, my preceptor and I was done with my internship June 16th i think was my last day so we only spent a few weeks together my preceptor and I and then it was off to study for the exam!

23:14 And studying for the exam is um, another crazy part of becoming a Registered Dietitian because everyone and their mother, sister, brother will tell you that Jean Inman is the best study guide and so everybody gets Jean Inman. Um, and, you just study this binder with 4 domains, and that bothers me I think there should be like 10 domains really, um that's just how my brain works, and you just study everything from the book. Um, for as many weeks as you give yourself before the exam. So thats what I did. I studied, I wrote so many flow charts, so many index cards. I downloaded Jean Inman' CDs and put them on my ipod . They're actually still on my ipod so sometimes I'll be working out and I'll suddenly here the music (doo-doo-doo...) and she'll be talking about diabetes and Im like Skip Track! Sometimes I listen to them just to freshen up, but anyways so yeah you study and you study your butt off and then you schedule your exam.

24:30 I wanted to schedule my exam for July like 28th because Bassnectar was coming to Denver I think July 29 and 30th or maybe ,,,it was the end of July and I just wanted to be done with my internship, done with studying, hopefully pass and then celebrate, just go hard a this concert and dance and have fun. But that didn't work for me because the timing of the test like there just wasn't a good time to take the test. So i had to wait. I had to wait till august and I schedule it for August 8th, 808, 2016 which is interesting and ironic because 808 is a Bassnectar reference and not many people get that but thats okay I know what it means I know why its important. So I passed my exam on August 8th and I pretty much had the entire summer to figure out what I wanted to do. I was applying to jobs like before I became a Registered Dietitian. I was applying to jobs of course letting people know that Im not a dietitian yet, but I want to be and I want to work here. Um, well, applying to i think i applied to like 80 jobs. Im not even kidding I could go on indeed.com and look at my number of applications.

25:59 finally i did get a job for a cereal company called Back to the Roots and i was doing demos at Whole foods, not exactly an RD job but I made some..they paid very well. They are a B corporation and I really thought there mission was super cool it was to 'undo food' and they sell things like Basil in a Jar and so you can grow your own herbs and stuff and then they also have a cereal. I really loved their gardening stuff so I actually have a basil plant that I take very good care of, Im very proud of it. Anyways So thats what i was doing before I got my first full time job and eventually, so at one point i was juggling the Back to the Roots job, I was working for as an assistant for some dietitian in Georgia who runs a corporate wellness group and then I was also working for FitLoDenver and also schools started so I had a lot going on. Something had to change...wasn't sure what. And then all of the sudden one day, I get a message from my cousin and she said hey i don't know what you're doing um but my company is hiring remote health coaches and i think you'd be great and i was like HELL YES this is definitely something Im interested in doing, working form home, being a health coach, actually getting to talk to people on a daily basis about nutrition and exercise and getting paid to do it? Hell yes! Sign me up. So i applied and I got the job and I started working in November and I'm lovin' it , it's awesome. I talk to so many people their motivations and we talk about nutrition and I really love my coworkers. So, you wouldn't really think that oh you work remotely it probably gets lonely, its actually not that lonely when you have really awesome company that supports the happiness of their remote employees. They (Noom) actually have a happiness team, so that's really cool. So that's what I have been doing that's what I do my Monday through Friday and then int he meantime, I write on my blog and I'm also seeing some people on the side for nutrition coaching. And yea! So that's a little bit about me. How I got into being a Registered Dietitian and I feel like I will probably, um, I want to do this podcast weekly and I think that I keep this first episode to about 30 minutes just to keep it short n sweet. Hope i didn't bore people with my little autobiography there. Um, I promise the podcast will get better this is my first one. so if you listened to the whole thing You are an awesome person! Maybe I got you through your 30 minutes workout. Maybe I got you through your commute I don't know.... Let me know when I publish this. I think I'm gonna publish this on itunes. Leave a review tell me I'm boring or tell me I rocked. I prefer positivity. So yea! Alright! I will close this puppy up and go to the gym cause my work out class is about to start soon so adios! and thank you for listening.