5 Ways to Optimize Time Spent with Your Dietitian

You might not be familiar with what goes into working with a Dietitian, but something inside you made you take the leap to contact us.  At this point in time, you completed your discovery call which is our first verbal interaction.  You have shared with us your goals, which might be that you are looking to control your blood sugars because you have a history of diabetes, you want to lose weight in a safe way or be a good example of healthy eating habits for your kids.  From our conversation, you recognize that we at Simple Start Nutrition got you covered!  Now your scheduled appointment is approaching, and you find yourself getting nervous and excited.  What is next?  You wonder, how do we work as a team to make these goals a reality?  Here are some tips to focus on so you get the most our of your sessions with your Dietitian.    

Secrets Secrets are no fun, unless you Share with your Dietitian 

You won’t succeed if you hold back bits and pieces of the story.  Your Dietitian needs to hear it ALL.  If you are eating 10 cookies every night before bed, tell us!  I promise you we are not scary and will not judge you in any way.  The reason we want you to share this information with us is because we want to help you!  Together as a team we want to come up with a game plan to decrease the number of cookies.  We got this! 

You in the back, Listening Up! 

 Yes, you!  During one on one sessions or sessions you are completing with your significant other, all information is important.  The time you spend with your Dietitian is your time to absorb as much information as possible so you can take it away and make positive changes towards your goals.  That being said, put the phone on silent, take our telehealth appointment in a quiet place and try not to multitask during it.  It is totally okay to jot some notes down during sessions, but try to listen to the recommendations and goals the best that you can so we can see you succeed!  

Consistent is Key 

If you work with me, you probably hear me say this over and over again during our sessions. It’s the truth. Just like when you learn to play an instrument, you need to keep practicing to get better. In the nutrition world, you need to practice your goals regularly until your body begins to process it more efficiently and regularly.  

After a while, or about 8 weeks, we find these new practices become a part of our daily regimen.  For example, if your goal is to go to cycling class every Monday, you might find weeks 1-3 are easy to get to and fun, but by week 4-6 you are struggling to get to class and want to give up.  Here is where you should hear me say “consistency is key!” Keep pushing!  In a few short weeks you might find a friend ask you to go to dinner on a Monday and you respond, “sorry… I have my fitness class to go to.”  Yes! Yes! Yes!  That means we made that cycle class a part of your daily routine.  Don’t give up. It’s possible to make the change! 

Questions? Comments? Concerns?  

If you are questioning what the goals are, or don’t understand the recommendations made by your Dietitian, please let us know!  We are here to help YOU and make it as clear as we can so you move towards your goals.  If you are not eating enough calories and I say “eat more” without an explanation, ask why!  We want to share our knowledge of proper nutrition and how our body uses food as fuel.  Again, these counseling sessions are all about you, so take advantage of them!   

Be Humble and Kind 

A new client of mine just told me she danced at her son’s wedding to “Be humble and Kind” by Tim McGraw.  Be kind to yourself stood out to me.  Not every goal that we create is going to be an easy one (most are not easy at all actually!), but as long as we are trying to work towards it we are moving in the right direction.  Change does not happen overnight and we need to understand that. So be kind to yourself and keep trucking along because with time, we can see change! 

Overall our time together is precious and all about YOU!  Take advantage of it because we at Simple Start Nutrition want to see you succeed and reach your goals.  That is our goal!  Let’s practice together as a team and make it happen!  

We are here to help!