Episode 126: Why We Became Dietitians

Season 7

Jan 17

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Episode Description

In this episode of The Up-Beet Dietitians podcast, Emily and Hannah discuss why they decided to become dietitians. They discuss how their influence of playing sports and eventual development of disordered eating impact their decisions. The girls dive into specific moments in their childhood and college lives that left a lasting impression on their decision. They reflect on their current thoughts on being dietitians and if they regret it or not. Tune in for another story time with your faves!

Tune in on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube to listen.

0:08
Hello everyone, Welcome back to another episode of the Up-Beet Dietitians podcast and Season 7 finale.

Oh my gosh, I can't believe it.

I feel like Season 7 flew by.

We had a lot of fun this season, like trying new things, and so I really love that.

0:26
It wasn't quite as, as we say, principal's officee.

It was very just two besties hanging around, so, so fun.

It was a good one, I think probably my favorite season so far, but we also might be getting better at what we're doing.

I think we're a lot more comfortable.

0:43
We've gotten better with our quality.

Yeah, I think you're right.

It's a mix of the two, I think.

So yeah, we're going to take a short break for about four weeks with some throwback content like we do between all seasons.

0:59
So stay tuned for some fun throwback things, and we'll be back in four weeks with brand new episodes for season eight.

Season eight, You.

Know.

So crazy.

But let's get to today's topic at hand.

1:14
Today we're doing a story time.

We're talking all about why we became dieticians.

I I know we have very similar stories.

So I feel like, I don't know.

I feel like we can kind of like go back and forth and sort of like go step by step through our stories and just share how they're a little bit different because they are so similar.

1:34
I feel like if I told my whole story and then you told your your whole story, it'd be like a repeat, Yeah?

We'll go part by part.

I like that.

Piece by piece.

OK, well, I can go first.

Where do I start?

Actually, now that I say this, I mean when talking about disordered eating, which ultimately is what led to me becoming a dietitian, how far back do you go, right?

2:00
Like, if it's generational dieting, we're going back decades.

I don't have a lot of memories of, like elementary school, middle school, like disordered eating, thoughts and behaviors.

It definitely started more so in high school when I got more serious about sports.

2:16
I played soccer my entire life.

I did play volleyball and basketball a little bit, but nowhere near as seriously as soccer.

I consider playing in college, but as I'll get to, I decided not to.

So very serious about it.

I was playing it year round.

I played travel.

2:32
We were always on weekends, like going to Columbus or other big cities in the tri-state area for tournaments and stuff.

And so because I was so serious about it, like, of course diet plays a huge role in this.

And a lot of diet talk coming from like coaches and teammates, social media, of course.

2:56
I know we've discussed Pinterest before, but Pinterest was a really big one for me.

Like doing the Pinterest workouts to like get faster with our mile times and all that kind of stuff.

I guess I'll kind of hand it off to you, Emily.

3:12
That was sort of my, I guess, starting point was high school sports and thinking about how food and exercise kind of tie together.

Yes.

So mine is very similar, but I think the initial start of it looked a little bit differently.

3:32
So I also grew up playing sports.

I I would also say that my disordered eating began in high school and what kind of triggered it is like growing up.

My parents put me in every single sport possible to try to figure out what I liked.

3:52
I stuck with primarily soccer.

But then I did not continue soccer in high school because soccer goals were kind of mean at my school.

True.

That's universal, by the way.

Yeah, I was bullied actually by quite a few of them.

4:09
So I was like, I'm going to do my other things that I like.

So I also grew up playing tennis and running tracks.

So I ended up going those different avenues instead.

But what triggered mine the most was like, always growing up.

4:26
And like when you say these comment, when I would hear these comments, that didn't really mean anything until things started changing.

And that'll make more sense when I explain a little bit better.

But I was always like the athletic friend and like the very skinny, quite like Bony now that I look back on it, friend.

4:46
But like all my friends would always tell me like, how fit I was.

And I was like an elementary, middle school where I'm like, that was the least of my concern.

I'm like, OK, I'm going to go hope I play well in my soccer game or I'm going to hope I go perform well in whatever it is.

5:05
But then junior year of high school, I had taken on too much academically.

Well, also, that was when I start.

I got my driver's license on.

So like that whole can of worms.

5:24
AP test, AP not AP, AP test was at the end ACTSAT like all that was happening junior year and I started to develop some disorder easing eating as like a coping mechanism for the stress.

5:42
So that's when my binge eating kind of started developing and a lot of changes started happening to my body because of it.

And that's when I started to be like, oh, I'm no longer hearing the comments from my friends about how athletic and fit I am.

6:01
My like, track times are going down.

I'm not feeling as good doing whatever exercise.

And then I also was kind of in the Pinterest game with.

You But what was it with like 2010 Pinterest?

Pinterest had a.

6:16
Grasp on.

It really did.

But yeah, it was mine were more I would say, where yours you were talking about like getting faster and workouts like that.

Mine was very much like manipulation of trying to manipulate my body as quickly as possible because I experienced such a quick change in my body with the binge eating.

6:43
Yeah, yeah.

Mine was definitely much more like performance based and that definitely carried on into college as I'll get to.

But a lot of body image stuff too.

Like I was also like the athletic friend and my best friend.

I played soccer with my whole life and we're still really good friends.

7:00
She's just a very different body than I do.

And so that I think was a really big struggle for me growing up actually.

I know it was.

I think back on that all the time now I'm like why I played such a huge role on my brain.

Like the fact that we just look so different.

Like I would like compare how our thighs look in our soccer shorts and how our calves looked and we just have completely different bodies.

7:22
And she has the kind of, you know, body type where she eats whatever she wants and her she stays very, very thin no matter what.

And I just don't have that exact same body or metabolism because that's not how bodies work.

And I also remember how do I want to word this, my legs are a lot more like bigger and muscular than my upper body is.

7:42
And I just have, like, I just have big legs relative to the rest of my body.

And I remember this other girl like this New Girl that, like, transferred people were like talking about her calves being, like really big and ugly and like, making fun of them while we were like in the lunch line.

7:59
And she was like in front of us in lunch line.

And I was like, oh, well, I have calves a lot like hers.

Like, yes, they don't like my calves either, like what it's saying about my calves when I'm like, behind them in the lunch line.

And so just like stuff like that.

I feel like in like high school, especially in middle school too.

But high school and my experience, we're just like all talking about that all the time, Like everyone else's bodies.

8:20
And especially if you play sports, it's like, oh, I bet you would be a lot better of a soccer player if you, you know, lost 15 lbs.

Or if your legs look differently or if you had better ABS, which is a big part of my coach.

And like his point of view was a lot of like body talk like that too.

8:37
And it's just it's craziness that we talk about that, that much.

And I'm like, wondering, I look back and I'm like, why are we talking about our bodies so much 'cause like that is such a vulnerable time from a changing, like your body changes so much, especially during high school.

8:55
And we're all so obsessed with it.

And I think it what a lot of it was like what we heard like in our homes or like what we see on social media, like social.

We grew up in the age of social media, so we had the pleasure of experiencing advertising in a completely different way that's a lot more accessible to us.

9:19
But now we're getting exposed to it even more.

And also, like, we know now as adults how harmful those comments can be and why not just make comments like that.

But also it's different, I feel like coming from like your peers, yeah, at that age.

9:38
And it's crazy because I look back and the way I see my body, like in pictures at that time, looks totally different than how I was perceiving it back then.

It's absolutely insane.

That's why I always say, like your body image has very little to do with what your body actually looks like.

9:54
It's about how you're perceiving it based on all of these other preconceived notions and external things that are impacting the way you view it.

And there's so many more interesting things about ourselves, like.

We're playing sports and like considering what colleges we want to go to.

10:13
And like we've got all these classes and we're learning so much and there's like boyfriends.

Everyone's like getting and dumping and whatever.

Like there's so many more things to talk about besides our Cavs and I guess to kind of like going to my next point, I played soccer like I said, and that was the same season as volleyball season and I remember.

10:37
So it was mostly like us as a team, like the girls soccer team would all like joke about this.

But then we would also like get validation that it's true from like all the guys that went to the volleyball games.

And that was that because soccer players wear like longest shorts and we've got our high knee high socks and shirts that are you know baggy jerseys.

11:00
We didn't get quite the turn out that the girls volleyball team did because they've got their spandex shorts and their tight tops which is what they need to wear for their sport.

Like it is much more functional for them.

But I remember like all of us just like always joking but also being serious about how because we didn't show as much, we didn't have quite as much turn out and it's.

11:20
I don't know.

I think that just has a lot too, about what people are looking for at that age.

And I mean even as adults too, that's.

I can't say they're much better.

Exactly.

But yeah, it starts at young and that you recognize it like you're aware.

11:39
That's what I'm trying to say.

Yes, it starts that young.

It's crazy.

Did you have any coaches that you think played a role in anything?

So I'm thinking back to my coaches and my problems with them.

I think don't even revolve around that.

11:55
Surprisingly, which is good.

Yeah, there were a lot of other problems with them, but I'm thinking like my one of my worst coaches was my track coach, freshman, sophomore year.

12:10
He actually, like, had some like, essay allegations and like horrible person and like harassment.

Horrible person.

I hated him.

Everyone hated him, but he was just kind of like an A hole.

12:27
He just he made creepy comments but it was much more like predatory and not body shaming if that makes sense.

Like he was like creep.

Yeah.

But did not body shame.

12:47
Can't say that's much.

Better, but no, it's still really awful.

A terrible person that sounds like.

He's actually that.

Even if you don't body shame that you can still be, you can.

Still be terrible, but not really, no.

13:05
Honestly.

Like, it was the comments from my friends that was like kind of hit me the most.

And I've talked to a couple of them about it like now and they had no idea like the impact that those comments had.

Yeah.

But.

13:20
And that's The funny thing too.

Exactly.

And it's funny because like not everyone's even, like impacted the same by it.

Like people could have gotten the exact same comments as us.

And because they don't have either the genetic predisposition or other things kind of coming into their brains, they might not have any negative impact from those types of conversations.

13:42
But you never know how someone is going to, you know, react, or what their mental health is going to progress to.

If you do make those comments, See, you might as well stay on the safe side and just just not.

Yeah, safer to say nothing.

14:00
Yeah.

I want to hear the comments to your coach, Chen.

I feel like we've talked a little bit about this, but I don't think we've ever really gone super in depth about.

It I I feel similar in that my coach definitely wasn't like the main driving force and me having disordered eating and body image issues but definitely didn't help.

14:21
He just wasn't well educated in that area.

I mean I don't know about you but or your coaches also teachers at almost every sport same.

So I feel like that can be a disadvantage and that their education is in history or math.

14:38
But they're teaching these growing girls how to play a sport and how to fuel their bodies, like not great.

So I I it's hard to blame them when that is what they know, you know?

But there there can be some malicious content or malicious intent.

14:56
But also at the same time, in some cases, they often just don't know better too.

Which I mean sucks.

I wish I know like AI went to public school.

And like, I know like a public school can't afford to have sports dietitians or like have girls soccer coaches that are experts in women's soccer.

15:14
Like, it's just not a realistic thing in high school or middle school, of course.

At least in Fort Wayne, IN Auburn, IN.

Yeah, definitely not, no.

Definitely not.

So again, same idea that like he wasn't the main driving force but definitely didn't help.

15:30
The the biggest thing I remember it doesn't really I guess relate too much to like the disordered eating progression, but more so just like his lack of knowledge and like his lack of knowledge yet still having the position he had to like talk about fitness and food with little growing girls.

He would not let us lift weights.

15:48
Like we would all advocate for having like at least like a weekly weightlifting session during season because we wanted to improve our performance.

It's a great way to do so is to get stronger, build muscle, but he would not let us because he said that lifting weights is going to make you injured.

16:07
And I I don't want to say this if it's not true, but I have a feeling, if I can recall correctly, it had something to do with us being girls because like all the boys sports lifted weights every season.

Like the men, the boys soccer got to lift weights, but women's soccer, girl soccer, we were not allowed to because we would get injured and then we couldn't play our sport.

16:29
Interesting how lifting weights can actually help injury prevention.

Injury and make you a better athlete?

Yeah, yeah.

So again, that didn't really directly relate to disordered eating, but it just kind of proves that these coaches don't really have the knowledge most of the time.

16:46
I don't know.

We would have like, what do we call it?

I don't remember like we have like Pre.

Pasta dinners?

Oh.

Pasta dinners.

OK.

Did you have those?

Yeah, but our coaches never came because they were hosted by like one of the parents of teammates.

17:11
People are running with stuff like that.

Which was nice.

It was like intentionally.

The coaches were not there, so we could like, relax.

That's good.

That's good.

I'm trying to remember if, if, like our coaches were always at our eating sessions, whether it was like on the bus ride home from an away game, the parents would all like bring stuff for us to eat.

17:32
We'd have like, film days.

We'd like watch our games on tape and like, eat pizza or whatever.

And they were always there.

Now that you mention it, which I feel like wasn't always the best because that's kind of my next point.

They would sometimes comment on that kind of stuff and I think more so, though it was like during practices we did so much cardio for soccer, which is generally needed, but we did way more than we needed to, in my opinion.

17:58
And not enough, like skills work and weightlifting for example.

But anyway, I recall a lot of talk about like, oh, run faster, so you burn more calories.

Let's do an extra mile to burn more calories.

You guys just ate, you know, pizza this week.

We got to make sure we burn that off.

18:14
Like that kind of talk I remember being very prevalent all the time.

Not good to a very susceptible to disorder eating.

Yeah, yeah.

Group.

Yeah, so like I said, Coach wasn't the biggest impact.

18:32
Definitely played a role though.

But my most distinct memory, which I've talked about before on here, I'm pretty sure, is when I did the Paleo diet during high school soccer season.

And I remember just feeling like absolute garbage when I did that.

Because you get like, no carbs, basically, or enough calories overall.

18:50
Terrible, terrible time.

Don't do that.

No, I don't even know how you were functioning.

It was so bad.

I told the story of how I ate like canned tuna and spinach for lunch most days of the week.

I will note, Speaking of lack of knowledge with teachers being coaches, that was actually a positive driving my decision to become a dietitian because I wanted.

19:15
I was noticing the changes in my body, not happy about them noticing how they affected my athletic performance, and then noticed how I started changing how I was eating.

Maybe not for the best, but it would also impact my performance.

19:32
And that actually was like probably one of the biggest driving factors to why I wanted to be a sports dietitian.

Yeah.

So it was.

I even, like, asked my coaches if they could bring in a dietitian.

They're like, yeah, and here we are.

They did not.

Here we are.

Yeah, I think that's funny, too.

19:48
I think we should end with that, like what we wanted to do as dietitians and where we are now, we'll get to that.

Where are they now?

Where are they now?

But yeah, let's progress to like, end of high school into college.

I'd love to hear.

20:04
I know you have a list here of like, what schools you looked at, which I actually didn't know about, so I'd love to hear.

New story there.

So at this point, end of high school, beginning of college, I was still very heavily.

I don't think I really completely recovered from disordered eating till post college.

20:25
And like even now sometimes things come up where I'm like, oh, we're not doing well.

But I was really, really gunning for sports dietitian, being a sports dietitian.

So I was like looking at the best sports nutrition programs.

20:43
Purdue has a dual major, which we both ended up doing.

Spoiler alert and it has that fitness component along with the dietetics, which was my top choice.

I was also looking at Michigan State.

Obviously we know they have good athletics and they have like the feeling station opportunities and everything.

21:02
Ohio State obviously we know they also are good at athletics.

Their program though like very confusing.

Whoever I talked to the advisor was not great so I did not end up going there.

But their campus and gym is stunning.

I will note that when I went there I was, I literally was like I might go you're just for the gym because it was so pretty.

21:24
And then I also looked at Flu Saint Louis University because they had kind of a like athletic focus.

It wasn't really there, though.

Also like, this is no hate anyone who's going to Slough.

I have a lot of really great friends that went there when I toured there.

21:43
The vibe of the other people there just did not match my vibe.

And I was like, my parents even, like, made fun of me.

They're like, Emily, you would not fit in here.

And I'm like, I know.

I mean, I'm well aware I would not fit in here.

22:00
And I'm of course, I went to the one school that gave me no money because I can't ever make it easy for myself.

So I went to Purdue.

I think as soon as I heard about that dual major and also like all the work we could do with the athletics, I was like, yes, it was also my one reach school out of the four.

22:23
And I was like, it was like kind of a pride thing where I was like, I can say I went to Purdue and here we are.

Here we are.

It was very similar for me.

I definitely had that interest in like sports in some way.

I didn't quite know what it meant to be a sports dietitian until we went through all of that and like learned more there.

22:43
But definitely the biggest reason for me too, why I chose Purdue is that they had the dual program where we could do the exercise classes and stuff as well, which ended up leading to me becoming a personal trainer.

So that was always that was good.

I ended up really enjoying that part of college.

I was this close to going to IU because Ross is a year ahead of me in college.

23:02
Or he was.

We're no longer in college, like thank God.

But he was a year ahead of me and he went to IU.

And while I wish we would have had that time together at the same college, I'm so glad I didn't go because you mentioned like salute being like not the right personality type.

23:18
I felt that exact same about IU.

It's they're much more like, I don't know social and want to have fun.

And I'm like, no, I'm a nerd who just wants to, like, learn about science.

Very much give off Purdue energy and I say that as a compliment.

23:34
So but we're kind of trained not to like IU.

So I'm a very biased source, but I feel like you just make a lot more sense going to Purdue.

I think so too.

I I don't regret it at all.

I'm very glad I did not choose IU even though Ross was there, 'cause it could have been a very easy choice for me to just follow him and go where he went, 'cause I have a dietetics program, not a dual program, which is also part of the reason why I didn't choose it.

23:58
But yeah, I feel like I just wouldn't have fit in very well and I would have had a miserable time.

Plus their gym is absolute poo poo compared to the Co rec so.

We have a nice gym.

I love the Co Rex so much.

I think about it all the time.

I miss working out there so much, even though it was partially to blame for my disordered eating and exercise habits.

24:18
But it is beautiful and I love it.

I saw someone post a video recently about it.

I forget who it was.

Someone that I followed that used to go there was like visiting, and they've like changed up the entire like, deadlift area.

Oh, so amazing.

24:36
Because for those of you listening who we are a Purdue student right now, I know we have some Purdues that are Ted buds.

Also, we love you.

Thank you for being here.

But for those of you who are current Purdue students, I need you to to know that when we first started there was let's see like 4 squat racks and I think like 2 or 4 deadlift platforms on like that bottom level there.

25:00
Weren't barely any.

Barely.

Any I remember it was like my sophomore junior year.

They ended up like double doubling the squat racks like back-to-back.

And so they had at least twice as many and then they like made the whole platform room.

But now they've even more than that, which is awesome for the students now.

25:16
But.

Yeah.

Consider yourself lucky if you are currently enjoying the Co wreck.

Yes, absolutely.

Yeah.

Well, I'm glad you didn't go to IU.

Me too, This would not.

We wouldn't have to.

Podcast if we if I went to add you, I know.

25:33
Quick question, this is not related to our story at all was way you know, OK but you were dating Ross.

I was going to ask if he was looking at a different like other schools and then I was like would you guys have even ended up together but you guys know at pre college?

Yeah, it all worked out.

25:50
Now we live together and we're no longer long distance.

But those were crazy times.

That's true.

Moral of the story being, do not follow your boyfriend to college if it's not the right.

College for you?

Do not do that.

Absolutely.

So glad I made that choice.

OK, let's talk about how our disordered eating sort of.

26:07
I know we discussed it a little bit, but what was happening in college I guess more so and maybe how that progressed.

Yeah, yeah, 'cause I don't think we have to talk about it too too much, 'cause we have a whole episode.

26:24
Go listen to our episode where we talk fully in depth about all of our disordered eating.

But we can definitely, I think, talk about how it's changed as to where we are now, or even not.

Even if that did affect it, 'cause I will know.

Like working with the sports dietitians.

26:42
I still thought I wanted to be a sports dietitian all throughout college and then I get into grad school and then COVID hit and I was like LOL Job security is something I want and I was like not sports.

27:00
I also did not want to live in the middle of nowhere.

No offense to you, but throughout I would say disorder eating wise, it was probably like exasperated a little bit because of what we were talking about with BMI.

27:21
You know how much I love to calculate my BMI?

Like Oh my gosh.

You just like brought back a memory area.

Like, kind of Visualize us sitting in a lecture hall and you just, like, go into town on your BMI that day.

Any times math and it's involved, I was all over it, especially when I could critique my body.

27:44
I was all game for that.

Oh my gosh.

But I think a lot of it was just because of that like weight centric education that it was tough to get out of that mindset and not think so much about our bodies.

28:03
Yeah, yeah, I agree.

To hear more about this, go tune into that episode.

We talk about what we struggled with during College in terms of our relationship with food.

But to kind of tie it back into our main episode like point today, like why we became dietitians, I think I like led with us at the beginning.

28:19
But it really was all about like making ourselves quote UN quote healthier, AKA smaller.

And then of course like our desire to help others want to eat quote UN quote healthier, AKA lose weight and defeat obesity, which we've discussed before on here too.

28:37
Yeah.

So I feel like in college we continued to have that mindset.

And like we felt like we would be able to do that, like help ourselves eat healthier and help others eat healthier because we were learning about just that, like BMI and calculating that and like doing the like body fat assessments and like all of our HK classes and doing like the skin fold test and everything.

29:03
Like we always had a reason to be thinking about our body.

And so that just like continued to motivate us to be dietitians because what we wanted to do in the 1st place was to do exactly what we were learning about.

So it's not like we wanted to learn how to lose weight in college and then like got slapped in the face and said it's not what it's like to be a dietitian.

29:27
We were told like, this is what it's like to be a dietitian as you help everyone else lose weight.

And so we thought we made a good choice and maybe we still feel that way in certain ways, but I don't know.

I just feel like it, the fire cut being fueled until the very end.

29:45
Yes, I think that's a very good way to put it.

Like, luckily we had a really great professor who exposed us.

Or like what's the word I'm looking for?

Introduced us, exposed us, introduced us into the world of like intuitive eating and we were kind of like those seeds were planted there.

30:08
That definitely helped us this in the future.

But like besides that class, everywhere we went it was like BMI, obesity, fat, body fat percentage, malnutrition, overweight, related.

30:25
Like we are just constantly in it and constantly thinking about it.

I don't think it really changed till we were out of school, and I would include that in my grad school too.

And like our internships.

Like you're still talking about that?

Especially if you, well, I guess we all do, we have clinicals where you're exposed to other members of the healthcare team which we both currently still work in a healthcare facility and everyone who works in healthcare knows that it is very weight centric which we also discussed in the podcast as well before.

30:57
And so yeah, like even in the internship you're talking to others who are promoting weight loss and I did a rotation like with weight management and so I was seeing that like specifically.

So like you said, it wasn't until, like I put in my notes like about a year ago, if even that that I like, feel like I fully formed my frontal lobe.

31:20
And like and like in the same mindset that I'm at now, where I feel the most understanding about like intuitive eating help with every size.

And I can like, look back and see, like how all the stuff we learned in the past maybe wasn't as well-rounded as it could have been.

31:37
I think I'm in a similar boat where it's like once you hit 25 and that frontal lobe develops so much more.

Makes sense.

Like after that a lot did change.

I don't think this is understanding of intuitive eating.

I think I'm still in recovery.

31:52
I don't know if you're ever, like, completely recovered from disordered eating, but like, it's still not great, but it's much better.

I think that's a good point to bring up too.

Like our own personal relationship is always changing, Like with food and exercise.

I mean, and it always will.

32:08
Like like you said, there is no way to fully overcome that kind of thing when we live in a world that's always talking about it and you've got friends and family talking about their bodies and food and everything.

But I think the way that we counsel other people and work with others and the content we create, I think that's been the most drastic change in the last couple of years after college.

32:31
Like we would look back on an old episode recently and like that was just like completely mind blowing to see how differently we talked about like diet, culture and clients and that sort of thing.

Which we hope to do more of those look back episodes in season 8.

32:46
So stay tuned for some more cringe factor.

Yeah, it'll be good.

Let's talk about where we are now.

Like currently.

Yeah, career wise.

Kind of a like question, do you do you regret becoming a dietitian?

33:06
So this I feel like you know my answer.

Yes.

And I am going to say yes.

Yeah.

And like, if I could do it again, I would not become a dietician.

And it's not because I don't enjoy what I do now.

33:24
Like.

I have wonderful patients.

I love our podcast.

I really enjoy educating on like the nutrition we talk about, like food freedom, intuitive eating, weight inclusivity.

But there's a lot that comes with being a dietitian that I think only dietitians understand that sometimes it's just annoying and tiresome.

33:51
And I'm like, why didn't I just go into business and done some silly little Excel sheet job with math that would?

Be good for you.

That would be really.

I think I'd be thriving, Yeah.

34:09
So, yeah, I would.

I do regret it.

But at this point, I'm like so stubborn.

I'm like, I'm this fine and Yep.

I'm.

Like, we're going to make this work and that's what we're doing.

I yeah, At least I think that's what we're doing.

Yeah, we can like that's.

34:25
That is the one good thing about being a dietitian is you can manipulate it into a lot of different things and make it what you want.

It's much easier said than done to do that.

You can't just like snap your fingers and have your dream dietitian job, unfortunately.

But it is possible to do something that maybe you didn't think you wanted to do when you first became an Rd. because we both wanted to do Sports R DS and obviously we are not doing that now.

34:53
So we had to kind of like figure out what we wanted to do and then like figure out how to make that actually happen too, which is a whole other battle.

Do you regret being a dietitian?

Exact same answer, yes, exact same answer.

And all the same reasonings too.

35:08
It's like I I love what I'm doing currently.

Went through a real rough time in the beginning, the first like three years of being a dietitian, but I finally feel like I'm in a place now where it's like what I was hoping for.

35:24
Aside from being a Sports Rd., which I don't think I regret not being a sports RDI think it would have been so cool.

But like, there's so much that you have to, like do to get there that it's just like silly.

But we could do a whole episode on that with another Sports Rd. probably.

35:39
That'd be kind of fun actually.

But anyway, I'm at a place now where I feel like satisfied in general with the type of work that I'm doing, and so that helps.

But if I had to do it again, I would not to become an edition either, because of all that you have to go through and how unworth that it can easily be unless you do create something that you really feel passionate about.

36:06
I feel like that's the key and why we're semi, OK, because we've created like passion projects that we actually care about that we can utilize our qualifications for that we feel good in, but a lot of like the traditional dietitian jobs.

36:27
Like all the work you have to do to get to that and then what you get compensated for once you're there, it's just not worth it.

Especially more so starting this year.

Oh my gosh, 2024 with the master's requirement coming into play.

What a time to be alive.

36:43
What a time be a Dietetic student.

I feel for all of them, yeah.

Like we just didn't get told in the upfront like what all it was going to entail and what the outcome would likely look like.

I don't know.

We talked about it before a million times on here, I know, but it's a frustrating experience when there's other professions that are much more regulated than ours but are very similar in terms of what they do.

37:10
It's like the same workload, same education, like amount of education, much different quality of life after graduation.

Much different, yes.

It's a good way to put it, yeah.

37:26
But All in all, I would say honestly, for anyone who's like contemplating becoming a dietitian or like you're a Dietetic student, I would like say.

Because looking back at all of it now, the two driving things that led me to be a dietitian were my obsession.

37:45
We're going to say obsession because I have.

Way back then, I would just say like, oh, I like food.

No, it was an obsession with nutrition and I wanted to help people, and I do not believe that those two things are strong enough reasons to become a dietitian now.

38:00
Like, Yep, just 'cause you like food and you want to help people.

That's.

So true.

That's like, my exact reason too.

Like, I am a helpful person, which I think goes back to childhood.

I don't know if I can call it trauma, but childhood trauma will say, like, how you're raised, of course, could play a really big role in that oldest daughter problems.

38:20
And then, yeah, like wanting to eat healthy, learn about nutrition, Like those aren't good enough reasons to be a dietitian because you can do that in so many other positions that might be a better fit for your lifestyle and, like, what you're hoping for.

38:38
But we're here.

We're making the most of it.

We love.

Yeah, we love you guys.

We love our Ted.

We love getting to talk about the things we're talking about now.

It's just kind of a bummer that we had to, like, fight so hard to get to this place.

Our story times are always such bummers.

38:54
We need to do a we.

Never do Happy Story Times season eight.

Look out for a happy.

Story Yeah, we'll do a happy story.

We could also do a happy look back, like look back on an episode where we're like, yes, yes, they are so smart.

39:09
I love them.

Yeah, I will know we were, I'm, I'm going to say we're, we are still very smart.

But I look back at the things that we like since we've collaborated on so many projects together, most of the work is both of ours together.

39:26
You're so smart.

We were so smart like Purdue.

Where do you have to come from?

You have to literally survive and get a degree.

You have to be smart.

And I look back at like things we wrote and I'm like, hello, like our lab, our lab reports.

39:46
I'm like like case.

Studies.

OK, little Sam majors.

So insane.

I could not.

I could.

I do not want to do a case study, a lab report, calculator, tube feed.

I'm good.

40:04
We put our talents elsewhere now.

Yes, but we also did learn how to do all the things we do now.

Like if you would have told me I would like be editing YouTube videos and like hosting a podcast and.

That's true.

Having a website that I ran myself like it's crazy how like our our smarts have just completely like shifted.

40:25
They're just looking.

They're expressing themselves a little bit more differently.

Exactly.

It's pretty crazy.

It's kind of a bummer that we didn't get to like, just continue to build our smarts in the same way.

Imagine how smart we'd be now we'd be.

So smart.

With those things, that's OK. 10 years from now we're going to have the best.

40:44
Podcast entire world.

We're so we're so smart.

Yeah.

We just hype each other up.

We need This is why we have Bobby and Ross.

They keep us humble.

They.

Keep us humble.

Legit.

Like literally.

They really do, I tell.

41:01
Bobby keeps me in line.

He checks my ego multiple times.

Me too, if Ross heard us say.

Because right now, he'd roll his eyes so hard if you knew that we were calling each other so smart.

They'd be very fed up with us.

They'd probably bring up how we fail the class.

41:16
I'd be like, you know what?

Yeah, I learned recently that Ross took chess in college, so that's what he was doing while we were bawling our eyes is.

That what they're doing at IU like.

An econ and business major was playing chess.

Like damn you.

41:33
Wow, is he good at?

Can he still do it?

He's so good.

He taught me how to play recently over like Christmas time.

I get very frustrated.

We all know that.

I hate being bad at things.

I like to win.

I'm very competitive.

Yeah, so is Ross, and he's also very good at chess.

41:51
Taking a whole semester of it.

Does that to you.

So I've got to win a game and he's very good, which is unfortunate for me.

Well, now you can just practice and then if we're ever out in the wild and.

Someone challenged how to play.

42:07
Like I've always wanted to learn how, so now I'm glad.

I like know all the rules and stuff.

That's all I really needed.

I don't need to be good.

That's mostly a I'm saying that to myself.

You don't just get everything.

You're.

Convincing yourself, do I believe that to be true?

42:22
No.

But I'm going to say it.

But you're going to say it?

Until you Yeah.

It's good practice speaking into existence.

Well, this was a good reflection.

I feel like it was.

I think it's fun to look at kind of how our career interest changed and how that got us to where we are now, 'cause I think if we told either like high school, even college selves, us what we're doing right now, they would probably be like what the actual far you go.

42:54
They'd be like, we learned so much about sports nutrition for this.

Like, do you know how much time you put into your Do you know how much you volunteer?

How much free labor you put out there?

For this, I feel like it's OK.

43:11
I don't regret it.

I I loved the sports stuff we learned in college.

That was super fun.

Actually, that was not.

That was not time that I regret spending unpaid.

No, it was very cool.

Yeah, and like a crazy experience.

Yeah, that was very.

43:27
That was good.

Shout out to Sports R DS at Purdue Gosh Season 7 finale.

Make sure you guys hang out for Season 8, but we've got some throwback stuff coming the next few weeks, so hopefully you enjoy those.

And be sure to tune into our bonus question Today we're going to be talking about, as you know, we both regret becoming auditions, so we're going to be talking about what our alternative career path would have been.

43:53
So yeah, it wasn't a bad idea to say that out loud, probably, but it's fine.

You know what, I think a lot of people, especially dietitians, are thinking it.

And based on what we've seen online in the like dietitian groups, I think I don't want to see the majority.

44:11
But there's a decent amount of people that don't love it and I think that's OK to look back on.

Also, we made these career decisions when we were 17 years old.

So stupid.

So you can you can barely trust, trust our judgment to that what we knew what we wanted to do.

44:31
Like you said, our frontal lobes didn't develop until seven years later, so excuse us for maybe not choosing our our life path correctly at 17.

Yeah, we're doing the best we could.

Anyway, go hang out on YouTube, but watch all the videos there and we'll see you guys in Season 8.

44:54
All right.

Bye guys.

The Beet Deets Bonus Segment

Listen to our ad-free premium content for a low monthly cost!

Today's bonus topic is our alternative career paths! If you listened to this week's full episode, you'll know how we feel about dietitians. We dove into our strengths and in a perfect world where ~capitalism~ didn't exist, what our career would be. From Hannah's love for writing to Emily's love of math, you may be surprised what they say.