My Nutrition Journey 2010-->Now 14 years in the making.
As I mentioned in my welcome blog, I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease at the age of 22. This led me to adopt a gluten-free lifestyle, marking the beginning of something beautiful. I never anticipated that I would fall in love with nutrition, exploring how it impacts our bodies on a cellular level and influences our day-to-day choices.
In May 2015, I graduated from the University of Southern Indiana with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Food and Nutrition, concentrating in Dietetics. It took me about eight years to complete my degree due to various health battles, which I will discuss in later posts. To become a Registered Dietitian (RD), one must follow a specific pathway: after graduating from an accredited dietetics program, you need to apply for an internship where you complete 1,200 supervised practice hours. These internships are highly competitive, and it may take several application rounds before gaining acceptance. I applied for about a year to secure an internship, but after facing numerous rejections, I decided to take a break.
In November 2015, I began working as an Office Manager and Nutrition Counselor at B Renewed Wellness Solutions for Bonnie Schnautz, Naturopathic Doctor. I stayed in this fulfilling role for three years until she closed her brick-and-mortar practice to continue as an online platform. In September 2017, I relocated to Florida to work for WIC (Women, Infants, and Children), serving as a Nutrition Educator and Breastfeeding Counselor for five years. Through this program, I had the opportunity to conduct various community education programs, from diabetes education to one-on-one consultations with mothers about their health and that of their children, which I found incredibly fulfilling. In 2020, following a divorce, I decided to reapply for an internship, seeking a new beginning for myself and aiming to obtain my Registered Dietitian License. I retook the Medical Nutrition Therapy course because the internship program recommended refreshing this knowledge if it had been over five years since I last studied it. I completed an online course through Kansas State and, I’m proud to say, aced it!
I was then honored to be accepted into an internship funded by the state of Florida, which would have been paid for, requiring me to relocate to Jacksonville, FL. However, within months of my acceptance, I found my now-husband, who has young children. This unexpected development required us to rethink our plans. We got engaged on January 26, 2021, and married on February 14, 2021. We decided to pursue another internship that would allow me to stay in Pensacola. By the grace of God, I was accepted into another internship program through Be Well Solutions, based out of Cleveland, Ohio, starting in August 2021. This program was a distance internship, meaning I could live in Pensacola while completing the required 1,200 hours with preceptors I arranged. As any dietitian or aspiring RD knows, securing even one internship can be challenging, let alone two! Fast forward to June 2022—I graduated and have been studying for the RD exam for over two years. Despite three failed attempts, I remain determined to achieve my goal!
Thank you for reading! I’d love to hear about your personal history with nutrition, so please comment below. Also, stay tuned for next week’s post where I’ll share my full autoimmune story involving IBD and Celiac Disease!
<3 Ashley
