Aidan:
Hello and welcome to the Ideal Nutrition podcast. My name is Aidan Muir and this is episode 100 where we thought we’d try something a little bit different. As usual I’m joined by my co-host Leah Higl but we will also be joined by some of the members of the Ideal Nutrition team as well, partly because we just wanted to celebrate the milestone of 100.
Leah:
Yeah, something fun.
Aidan:
Yeah, I think it’s a cool milestone so we just wanted to do something a little bit different and we’re going to go through some questions that we’ll ask each of us individually, just starting with myself and then Leah and then bring the rest of team in and hopefully there is some value in those questions as well to be gotten from.
Leah:
So we had a little think about what we were gonna like ask each other and we really wanted to focus on I guess our journeys as dietitians and I guess our approach to practice and things like that and hopefully everyone can take a little bit away from those. So I’m going to start with asking you a few questions Aidan. So what’s something you wish you knew about nutrition before being a dietitian?
Aidan:
So I looked at our show notes in advance and I had the same one as you, which I figured was going to be same. So I won’t start there.
Leah:
Oh yeah, we talk about that all the time.
Aidan:
Yeah. So one thing I wanted to do that might be a little bit different is I wish I understood a bit more about how to look at research. I wish I understood the value of systematic reviews and meta-analyses just at the base level, right? Because there’s obviously so many flaws that you can misinterpret research just by looking at that, right? But just at the base level, understand that. An example I’m going to use is, it’s a funny example, but when I was living at home, 17 years old, I started getting into the gym and I bought protein powder and my dad hated it. He thought it was the worst thing in the world. And his evidence was that there was a study that he had been around during a time at Wollongong University that linked protein powder with kidney decline, functional declines of kidney.
And I just knew because I’d read on bodybuilding.com, that was fine. I’m like, I wish I could just go and get a systematic review up and be like the summary of the research shows that this is fine. Like you’ve got one study that is like negative for it. The summary of the research of all of the studies when you combine it all together shows that this is fine. I wish I knew that earlier.
Leah:
Yeah, I think that’s actually a really good point. It’s something that I think as health professionals now, we kind of like don’t think about not having that knowledge. So second question is, what’s a nutrition thing you were embarrassed you did before being a dietitian and before learning about nutrition?
Aidan:
Yeah, I’m sure I’ve told this one before, but like the one that I find funny is I first learned about it if it fits your macros. I thought the actual numbers really mattered and I thought that it mattered to the point that if you were aiming for say 100 grams of protein, 150 grams of carbs and 60 grams of fat, if you were at 50 grams of fat for the day you should do something to get to 60. And like if you had no room in your carbs or protein left, you should only have a fat source kind of thing. I thought it mattered. That wasn’t from a place of disordered eating. I just thought it’d make me jacked if I did that.
Leah:
Yeah, you have a goal that you want to reach.
Aidan:
And the example I’m sure I’ve said is like I drank like 10 mLs of olive oil to get 10 grams of fat. Whereas like I know now that the research shows that like I would have gotten exactly the same results if I’d eaten pretty much anything to fill out the rest of my calories after I’d consumed enough protein.
Leah:
Yeah, that’s a good one too. And final question is what is one of the most impactful experiences you’ve had working with clients or since being a dietitian?
Aidan:
This is a hard one for me to answer because I don’t really think about that too much. If people get results, I’ve kind of expected that to happen. I don’t know how else to say that. It’s like, I don’t know. Like it’s like, but the one that kind of got to me a little bit is a bit from left field because it’s like, say I’ve had somebody who’s lost like 50 kilos or something like that. As I said, like it’s kind of like, that was, that was simple from the calories in calories out. So then point, was more like the, do we actually make this happen kind of thing. But like, that’s not really too impactful to me, although I really, really enjoy that process. It’s not like I’ve gotten to the end of the 50 kilo journey and being like, oh, that was incredible kind of thing.
The stuff that really impacted me more was one example was about, I think it was last year, maybe a year before, two years ago. I had a client who had really, really, really bad headaches and I’d been working with her for about a year at this time and she’d had really bad headaches the entire time and we did the RPAH elimination diet, so a food chemical elimination diet, and her headaches just disappeared. Her entire life, pretty much, since like the age of, I don’t know, 14 onwards through the like mid-20s. She had really bad headaches every single day. She’d been on medications, doctors couldn’t find an answer, and this just solved it. And that’s impactful to me in two ways. One way, the very superficial level is that I helped a person. It’s like if she didn’t see me, that problem never would have been solved, I don’t think.
And then the second way is, I think that first part I said about how I’d worked with her for a year already. It’s like, I’ve been doing this for a very, very long time. It’s cool to like, not give up on something and continue having a cut, continue trying to learn more and everything like that, and then have it pay off. Like it’s a good friendly reminder.
Leah:
Yeah. Okay. I love that one. So, anything else you kind of want to add for the special 100th episode?
No, I don’t know. I’m not really huge on milestones like this.
Leah:
Yeah, I’ve noticed that.
Aidan:
I assume I’ll be doing this for long time. There’s a cool stat that I reflect on a bit and that’s something along the lines of like only 5 % of podcasts ever get beyond episode 20. So I think the fact that we’re at 100 is huge.
Leah:
That’s pretty cool, yeah.
Aidan:
Yeah, once again, I’m a pretty consistent person of a lot of things and I assume they’ll continue.
Leah:
You always assumed we’d be here.
Aidan:
Yeah. Like as long as you’re still here, I’m still gonna be here.
Leah:
Okay, sweet.
Aidan:
Yeah. Let’s do the questions back on your end. Sounds like a plan. What was the first question again?
Leah:
What’s something you wish you knew about nutrition before being a dietitian?
Yeah. So like, I know you said we had the same one when we were kind of thinking about this and it is something we always talk about like how we wish all of our clients knew this as well. But it’s just knowing about like the theory of energy balance. So just kind of having that really, like even a simple understanding of like calories in versus calories out for body composition changes. Like it would have stopped me from making so many stupid mistakes.
Yeah, it’s like especially like when I was younger and I’m like, I want to be leaner like it got like I was really into like I guess the bodybuilding world at least and I was like, I’d love to be leaner and I would do things like clean eating and wonder why that wasn’t working for me or I just take these like really weird dietary approaches and I’m like, why isn’t this helping me get leaner when I like if I just knew about calorie deficits and calories in versus calories out there would have been a lot of things I would have either known why they didn’t work or I just wouldn’t have approached it in that way. So I think if I could know anything back then, it would have been a basic, at least a basic understanding of that. It would have been so helpful.
Aidan:
Yeah, 100%. That’s why I thought the same. Like I didn’t do many stupid things, but it’s kind of like… it would have just clarified things so much and made it so much easier.
Leah:
Yeah. Yeah, it makes the whole process of body composition change like you just know how to approach it better. And I think having that clarity would have been so helpful.
Aidan:
Yeah. And I guess that leads into the next thing about the what’s something you did before you knew all this that was embarrassing. What is one of those things?
Leah:
I’d say I did quite a lot in like my teenage years, like soup diets and other fad stuff that I’d never even think about now. But the one I look back on, I actually did like maybe a year or almost two years into my nutrition degree. And it was as I was becoming vegan and I went raw till four. Not like hardcore, but I was like eating an entire watermelon for lunch and like eating like five banana smoothies. like, think, cause raw to four was a huge thing in that specific point in time, particularly amongst like the vegan community.
And we had like anyone who is was vegan back then, we’ll have known of like Freely the Banana Girl and like Durian Ryder and that whole world was really huge. And for a hot minute, I did get sucked into that. Even knowing something, some things about nutrition, like there was still part of that that I don’t know, it like spoke to me at the time. I don’t know why, but I’m like really embarrassed to admit that I actually did do that. And I was so fatigued. My IBS was awful. Like my training sucked. And so that’s why didn’t stick. Like I didn’t continue it, but I was like, I can’t believe I even tried that. So I’m always a little bit embarrassed to admit that, although I feel like it does help me relate more so to my vegan clients especially who were becoming vegan around the same time because we all have like the same experience.
Aidan:
Yeah, yeah, I kind of relate with a different experience in that like three years into my dietetics degree I had been avoiding cheese due to lactose intolerance and every time I get a client with lactose intolerance now I always relate to the fact that I’m like I was three years into studying this and I didn’t know that something like cheddar cheese has pretty much no lactose and I wouldn’t have got symptoms. Yeah, like there’s no way. And like I had identified lactose intolerance in like two years previously. So like two years into that, three years into the degree. Didn’t know that.
Leah:
Yeah, yeah, you were still giving up this thing you did not have to.
Aidan:
Yeah, exactly. And it’s like it makes it a lot more relatable when I try and like go through that with clients. yeah, cool. So then the final question, what’s an impactful experience that you’ve had working with clients?
Leah:
Yeah, I feel like I’m probably a little bit more sentimental than you. I’m not the most sentimental person in the world. But when people have good experiences with me and they’re like even following up like after us working together, I always feel like that’s a bit impactful on me. It makes me like, it makes me happy to come to work and do what I do. But there’s probably one client or client story that really stands out in my several years of being a dietitian.
And it was actually a client that had more like disordered eating patterns, a lot of body image issues. And they came to me because they had lost their period. They were an athlete, they did kind of ultra endurance stuff. They’re like look I’ve lost my period. I’m losing my hair. I feel awful, but I’m really scared of gaining weight Because they had like I said all these body image issues and all this pressure coming from family to be like really thin just from a cultural perspective and in our process of working together like we work together for Probably around a year and it was a slow start as we kind of built that rapport but it got to a point where she kind of allowed, she trusted me enough to allow like weight gain to occur.
We really worked on a lot of body image things, like in terms of like body checking and different behaviours that weren’t helpful. Over our time, we managed to put a little bit weight on her. She was comfortable with that, which is even a bigger thing than allowing the weight gain in the first place. She was happy. We restored her period. She really wanted to get pregnant, which is another reason that she came to me, wanting to restore her period. And in that time, she did end up falling pregnant after feeling like she wasn’t going to be able to. She’d been trying for so long.
I’m not the biggest like baby person, like pro like kids I’m like not interested in pregnancy for myself but I found myself like really celebrating this moment yeah cuz I’m like far out like this is a huge milestone in her life that we’ve been able to kind of help her get to and being through like all this stuff together. And I don’t know, I think that just impacted me a lot. And like she, we don’t work together anymore because she really got out of the experience what she wanted, but she still like updates me every now and then.
And she updated me like a few months ago being like, baby number two is on the way. I’m married. Like, I feel great. I’m like maintaining this extra body weight and I feel really good. And I like, I’m even kind of getting goosebumps thinking about it because I’m like, I impacted that person so much. And it might be like, I guess it’s kind of selfish, but like it makes me feel good. I don’t know, that just impacted me and I was like, hell yeah, this is awesome.
Aidan:
Yeah, I love that. I think it’s one of the coolest things of our job that we can have such an impact in some ways. It’s not always going to be like that, but when we get a moment like that, it’s just really cool.
Leah:
Like I love all like the usual day to day stuff of being a dietitian. Like I love the sports nutrition stuff and all that kind of nitty gritty thing that maybe isn’t the most impactful on someone’s life as a whole. But it’s just like cool and I enjoy it. But when I get a moment like that, I was like, hell yes, this is great.
Aidan:
So good. Let’s get the first member of the team in here.
Aidan:
Alright, so we have team member number one with us, Hannah Mills. So we’re going to start with who are you and what do you do at Ideal?
Hanah:
Yeah, thank you. Yeah, so I’m an accredited practicing dietitian. I’m about to start my sports dietetic qualification. So that’s very exciting. Yeah. Yeah. So I’ve been with Ideal for about a year and a half now. And yeah, I’ve seen a lot of different types of clients. yeah, endurance athletes and combat athletes are definitely some of my favourite. I love the science and the math that goes into that. Yeah. Yeah. Big math freak.
But yeah, so I’ve done a lot of with that and then yeah, obviously a lot of powerlifters working at a powerlifting gym.
Leah:
Yeah, I mean we are based out of a powerlifting gym, so that makes sense.
Hanah:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we do see a lot of them. But yeah, they’re probably some of my favourite clients to see.
Leah:
Sweet. That’s a great intro. So I’m going to get into asking you a few questions now that both Aidan and I have completed already. But the first one is what something you wish you knew about nutrition before becoming a dietitian and before you did your degree?
Hanah:
Yeah, yeah. I did think about this question a lot because I look to social media for a lot of nutrition knowledge as you do I think these days. But I think the one thing that if there was one thing that I could change I actually wish I looked to more at the Australian Dietary Guidelines and I know that’s such a standard dietitian answer to say. But when you think about the Australian Dietary Guidelines like they were made to make people healthy right? Like they’re a standard diet like guideline for the average person to ensure that they can be healthy and prevent any chronic disease.
So I think it’s a really good starting point where it shows you the food groups, so know your whole grains, your protein, your dairy, your fruit and vegetable serves and roughly how much you should be having. And I think that’s a really good starting point and as well as you know limiting the discretionary items, opting for water and yet limiting you know saturated fats as well. And so I think it’s a really good starting point and something that I wish I kind of looked to more rather than social media where I think it was more about limiting and restriction and go keto or go vegan or intermittent fast like it’s more around the fad diets I think on social media or even you know if it fits your macros.
I don’t think it displays a good picture of what nutrition should look like as a whole and so I think that can lead a lot of people down disorder eating. Yeah, kind of build an unhealthy relationship with food because often you don’t enjoy those bad diets. So Yeah to summarise it. I think I wish I knew more about the Australian dietary guidelines and the evidence behind them and why they’re probably the best source to look to for nutrition advice if you know nothing.
Leah:
Yeah, I guess in terms of like knowing like your basic nutrition knowledge before like delving into like diet diets and like things that I guess have more sex appeal like almost like obviously like on keto or vegan seems like it seems cool.
Hanah:
It’s cool.
Leah:
Or the Australian dietary guidelines.
Hanah:
Yeah, I don’t need sugar. I’m so cool. Like it kind of gives you an identity almost but no, when taking a step back it’s like, no, if you just want to be healthy and feel good have an understanding of what a balanced diet looks like and then build from there and make it more individualised from there.
Leah:
Yeah, I love that. So leading on from that, what’s something that you did from a nutrition perspective in the past that maybe you’re like slightly embarrassed to admit? I feel like we’ve all got at least one story.
Hanah:
I’ve got multiple. I was literally talking to the guys downstairs before about which story I should use and I think you of all people are going to hate this answer the most or yeah kind of be ashamed of this answer the most. But basically so I used to be a cross-country runner and like a couple of things I had some disordered eating behaviours back then where I would yeah really restrict my food throughout the week because basically all the boys were really lean and so I was like if I’m lean then I’ll be faster.
Like I had no understanding of, no, they have more testosterone. Of course they’re going to be faster. Like straight comparing. Like looking at their body compared to mine, I’m like, that’s how they’re faster. I need to have less food. And so I really under fuelled. Unfortunately, yeah, I didn’t have my period and things like that throughout high school. Which yeah, I’m also kind of like disappointed to look back on. But then the main part that you’re going to hate is, yeah, basically the week before each cross country race, I would go quote on quote ‘veganish’.
So I knew that like protein was important and so I knew that protein came from chicken and eggs that was kind of my understanding and you know other meat sources and so I would basically eat fruit and veggies whole grains throughout the week and then I would have a little bit of chicken and egg to top up my protein source. Probably like half of a chicken breast, like nothing, not meeting my requirements whatsoever. And yeah, so I would do that so that I was lean as possible so that could race better on the day. Looking back, I’m like, I was so fatigued even stepping onto that race line because I was so under fuelled.
Leah:
But at least I guess it gives you some insight into clients now who maybe feel like the same way, especially working with endurance athletes think that the concept of always being leaner at any cost. It’s a big thing.
Hanah:
There’s a strong stigma associated and I can really relate to it. But it’s something that I’m like…
Leah:
You’re like, oh no. I can’t believe I did that.
Hanah:
The week before your race, you want to be eating more than what you usually would.
Leah:
Yeah, do a bit of a carb load of something.
Hanah:
Exactly. And I would eat nothing.
Leah:
And the final question any experiences you’ve had either working with clients or as being a dietitian?
Hanah:
Yeah, yeah. So probably one of the most impactful experiences for me was when I saw a food chemical intolerance client and she had a lot of symptoms. So she was experiencing bloating, pain, smelly gas, diarrhoea. She had constipation on and off as well as histamine reactions. So like sneezing and she had hives on her skin and things like that.
She’d seen multiple healthcare practitioners. So she’d seen dietitians, nutritionists, naturopaths, doctors. She’d had colonoscopies over the course of seven years.
Leah:
Wow. Okay. Yeah.
Hanah:
She was 23. So she was quite young. So she’d been experiencing this since high school and she had no idea what was going on. And she came to me you know how like a naturopaths do the blood tests and they’re basically like, you’re intolerant to all these foods, which were all the foods that she would usually because she had that exposure to the antibodies, right? But yeah, so she came to me with that and she was just so lost and so confused. So basically, yeah, it was really impacting her quality of life. She was embarrassed to go to the gym. She would go out because she was scared of what was going to happen. She would leave work early sometimes because she was in so much pain.
So it was quite a terrible experience for her.
Leah:
It impacts every aspect of your life with those kinds of symptoms.
Hanah:
100%. Both the way you look, the way you feel, and you’re just in so much pain all the time. We put her through the RPAH elimination diet and we established that she was intolerant to salicylates. Obviously, it’s a process going through the food chemicals.
Leah:
It’s quite the process.
Hanah:
Yeah, yeah, I know like the only fruit you can have is a pear like yeah, yeah, and when they’re not in season, you know, it’s quite a limiting process But yeah, so once we excluded the salicylates from her diet Basically all of her symptoms went away.
Leah:
That’s pretty cool.
Hanah:
It was really cool because like, one nutrition intervention as much as you know, it’s it’s a process and a half. Was able to restore her quality of life.
Leah:
Yeah, when you can have that kind of, guess, impact on a client, that feels pretty special.
Hanah:
It was really cool. It was really cool to be like, you know what, you can live your normal life, you cannot experience this pain, bloating and everything. Yeah, as long as we just avoid salicylates. And it was really eye-opening for her. So I guess, yeah, for me as a dietitian, you hear that like a lot of people refer to dietitians as the people who quote on quote, totally eat healthy food. Right? And I think it was impactful for me to see how nutrition can make such a big difference to someone’s life.
Leah:
Yeah, I love that. That’s so nice. Because we’re talking, when I was talking to Aidan, we saying that he’s not very sentimental, but I’m probably a bit more and I feel like you’re probably pretty similar to me when you have an experience like that, it can just feel, yeah, it’s special and it’s nice.
Hanah:
Like we’re like crying together, the client and I were like, woohoo!
Leah:
Yes I have solves this massive thing in your life. Thanks for talking with me, Hannah. Is there anything that you, I guess you want to plug? Do you want to kind of say like your Instagram handle or anything else?
Hanah:
Yeah, yeah, of course. So if you guys have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me at Hannah Mills on Instagram. So it’s just Hannah with one N. My parents made that difficult for me.
Leah:
I always spell your name with two N’s.
Hanah:
It’s okay, I get used to it. But yeah, so just Hanah Mills and yeah, love to take on any endurance or combat athlete clients or answer any questions.
Leah:
All right, awesome. All right, we’re going to bring in Tyler now. Okay, Tyler, you’re up. Do you want to give us a brief intro on who you are and what you do at Ideal?
Tyler:
Sure. Yeah, so my name is Tyler. I’m a dietitian for Ideal Nutrition. I was just joking with Aidan downstairs trying to figure out how long I’ve been with Ideal Nutrition for. It’s coming up on four years.
Leah:
Is it really?
Tyler:
Aiden’s like, I’m to have to figure out what long service leave is and how that works.
Leah:
Ten years is going to come up quick.
Tyler:
Yeah, so I’ve been with Ideal Nutrition nearly four years. Obviously, I’m pretty confident and happy working with a pretty broad range clients and have over the years but I specifically have a passion for performance-based nutrition so working with athletes whether that be powerlifters, crossfitters, like team sports athletes, football players, cricketers, anything across that sort of sports spectrum I love but obviously very comfortable in other sort of more clinical based spaces as well. I’ve got quite a number of clients who are type 1 diabetics for example or that I do FODMAPs, elimination style diets with and treat IBS and all those sorts of things so pretty comfortable with the broad spectrum but is definitely my sort of wheelhouse.
Tyler:
Preferred niche, yeah.
Leah:
So, gonna run you through a few questions that we’re asking the whole team. And the first one is, what’s something you wish you knew about nutrition before you did your degree and before being a dietitian?
Tyler:
Okay, that’s a good question. So, I think I was thinking about this a little bit before and one of the things that I kind of knew and that I think most people know coming in or at least a lot of people know coming into considering their own nutrition is that what kind of nutrition can boil down to is calories in versus calories out? Whether that be for maintaining weight gaining weight losing weight It just comes into comes right down to head like simplest like statement of calories verse in versus calories out is gonna give you those results. But what I wish I knew sort of before was that there is so much more to it than that.
Leah:
Sure, that it’s more complex than that.
Tyler:
Yeah, like it’s it’s as simple as that, but it’s also infinitely more complex.
Leah:
Yeah, like it’s at the same time.
Tyler:
Like personally I’m a very sort of maths and science like logical mindset, whereas like cool if I do A plus B it’ll equal C and that’s how calories in calories out works but most people don’t seem to work like that. You can give them all the information or the education, you can give them meal plan, you can give them calories and macros and sometimes they still won’t see results even if they think they’re following those calories and macros. So there’s so much more to it you have to figure out what else is going on, what other factors are contributing to you know is this sustainable for you? Are you actually managing to do this? You have a good understanding of what’s involved like, know, there’s so much more to it than just calories in calories out.
So that’s probably something that you know, my experience has changed with from before I studied and became qualified to after even before I knew calories in calories out and most people know that but there’s so much more to it and we obviously Become up skilled and learn about those other factors more throughout our education and throughout practice experience as well.
Leah:
So Aidan and I were saying like that we just wish we had the understanding of like energy balance and calories in calories out. But I guess like after you have that knowledge then expanding on that and being like there’s all these other things that impacted as well It’s also helpful.
Tyler:
Yeah, what makes it possible to actually do that?
Leah:
Love that.
Leading on from that what’s a nutrition thing? I guess that you’ve done in the past that you maybe at this point are a little bit embarrassed to admit.
Tyler:
Yeah, I think, I don’t know. I don’t mean to come off as like dismissive or like that I’ve always been perfect or anything like that, but I’m not particularly embarrassed about anything that I’ve done nutritionally. Given that, you know, I was lucky enough to have a pretty good balanced upbringing in terms of like dietary habits and like eating food and homemade food and balance of takeout and when it’s appropriate and all that sort of stuff. So I’ve never really had any sort of issues with any weird or wild food consumption type habits. So I’m pretty lucky from that regard.
But I’d say something that I have done that a lot of people are, you know, I guess sometimes surprised to find out given that I’m a dietitian, was that I the keto diet for a couple of years.
Leah:
For a couple of years?
Tyler:
Yeah, yeah, I did keto diet for quite a long time. I personally, like for me, found that it worked really well. I quite enjoyed that style of eating. The main reason why I’ve changed from it is because I wanted to focus on like a more performance based approach to nutrition to improve my power lifting. Otherwise I probably would have stayed on it potentially. And I know it’s notorious for like people can’t stay on it, but I enjoyed staying on it. It suited me quite nicely. And I know I’m a pretty small subset of the population that that potentially applies to, but obviously have the experience and education to recognise that it’s not great for performance, or at least in superior to performance in terms of a carbohydrate intake for the types of performance that I want to do.
So I sort of cycled off for that reason primarily, but I quite like it as a dietary approach,
Leah:
but so you’re like not you’re not like necessarily embarrassed.
Tyler:
Yeah, but I’m not embarrassed about I think any any of those sort of nutritional like things that I have done in the past I think have got me to the point now where I am in terms of having an understanding or a bit more of a I guess a lived experience of what people are often trying like, I’ve tried intermittent fasting. I’ve tried 24-hour fast once a week. A water fast. I’ve tried keto and all that sort of I’m not necessarily embarrassed by it because it’s been a good learning experience and it gives me a different level of insight rather than people just looking from the outside in and going, yeah, keto diets.
Leah:
That’s a good way to look at it.
Tyler:
I was like, cool, I’ve tried it. I know it’s practically for me and for other people who are trying to perform not optimal, but I also can see how it would be applicable. And if it’s your preference and you do enjoy it, I also then have the lived experience of how to implement that effectively as opposed to just that sort of outside in thing where it’s like, yeah, it’s something to be embarrassed about because it’s like a fad diet or whatever else. And, know, I don’t think it necessarily is, but that’s kind of a, guess, what would be kind of verging on something that I might not be embarrassed about, but something that would kind of cross into that realm.
Leah:
Sure. I like that. Positive learning experiences. That sounds good. And the final question is, what is one of the most impactful experiences you’ve had either working with clients or again just as a dietitian in general?
Tyler:
Yeah I think this one has come up quite a lot with a lot of different clients across my career working with people is that something I often get to a point with eventually is clients will reach out to me and go you know what I saw someone say this and I used to think that’s along those sorts of lines, like on social media or some sort of influencer post or something along those lines, whether it be regards to dietary choices or weight loss or, you know, a weight fluctuation or something like that. And then that message would be like, I now have the insight to like not freak out when something like that happens to me. Like when the scale weight does go up 700 grams the next day compared to the day before and I’m trying to lose weight. I know not to freak out and that I haven’t put on 700 grams of body fat overnight.
And just developing like that sort of education that gives people, I like to refer to it as like the power to like logic your way out of an initial emotional response that could otherwise be quite negative or could derail the process. You know, in that example, it might be like you jump on the scales, you see a 700 grams heavier and you’re like, oh my god, I’ve screwed something up. I need to diet a bit harder or restrict this the next day. And then that starts that whole negative, like restrict overeat cycle or being restrict or whatever it might be as opposed to just logically going, I don’t know, I had an extra hundred grams of carbohydrate that’s going to store an extra 300 grams of water.
My scale weight is going to be up 400 grams, like because of that, you know, there might’ve been some extra food volume or some fibre in those foods I ate that’s contributing to that sky weight increase. And just having the ability to like step your way through what you might’ve done, logic your way out of it and balance that initial emotional response. Cause we all have that emotional response. Even as much as like people say, I don’t really care about scales. When you jump on and it’s not what you’re expecting to see, everyone I think has some degree of like..
Leah:
Oh, that’s higher than yesterday.
Tyler:
Yeah. Well, that’s not what I wanted or that’s not what I’ve been working towards. What have I done wrong? And yeah, having the ability and education behind you to sort of, yeah, counteract those, what can be a negative reaction to that is I think valuable. So I have a lot of clients that message me, even one this week saying, you know what? I saw this girl posting on Instagram about her needing to get back on track after Easter, after a weight going up 800 grams and she’s that would have used to have been me. Whereas now I know that it’s just a bit of extra, you know, scale weight fluctuation, get back to my normal routine and it’ll be back down to normal in the next day or two.
Leah:
Yeah. It’s like empowering people to not catastrophise after kind of seeing something online.
Tyler:
100%. And I think that’s so valuable. And that’s like a valuable skill to develop that will set you up for lack and more sustainable relationship with food or better eating behaviours long-term rather than just being like having an effective diet phase, having an education that will last the rest of your life to, you know, be able to develop a better relationship with food or a better understanding of what you’re doing, I think is super powerful.
Leah:
Hell yeah. So to finish up, is there anything you want to plug, maybe your Instagram handle or anything like this? Sure. If you don’t already, you can follow me at lift underscore dietetics. So that one there you can jump on. I post a fair bit of informational content on there. It’s where I do like to get a lot of resources up, even just a bit of a balance sometimes between nutrition and exercise as well, given that of my previous experience in the industry comes from an exercise standpoint and my undergraduate degree was exercise science as well as nutrition.
I do sometimes have that crossover with like lifting or exercise related, you know, posts and content as well as the nutritional education side of things. So it’s a bit of both and obviously it’s a bit of extra insight into my own special personality as we all like to make our own social media things as well. So yeah, add me at lift dietetics and yeah, anything on there you’re welcome to browse through, shoot me a message or a DM, otherwise you can obviously book online for myself or any of the other Ideal Nutrition team there too.
Leah:
Perfect plug. It’s almost like you’ve done this before. Okay, sweet. Thanks for chatting with us, Tyler, and we’re going to get in the next person. All right, Monica. Hello, welcome to the Ideal Nutrition podcast. So obviously your first time on here. So give us a little bit of an intro into who you are.
Monica:
Yeah, for sure. Thanks for having me on. Yes, I’m Monica. I am accredited practicing dietitian. I’m just about to do the sports dietetics course as well to become a sports dietitian. Oh you and Hanah will be doing at the same time. Yes at the same time, very excited about that. Yeah I guess I have been with Ideal for just a couple months now so I’m the newest member to the team. I have a lot of I guess like active clients from everyday athletes to more competitive athletes, work with disordered eating clients, weight loss, iron deficiency, gastrointestinal issues, things like. But yeah, those probably my main sort of clients that I work with.
Leah:
Yeah, and you do CrossFit as well?
Monica:
That’s right. I also do strength and conditioning, that kind of training that I really love. And the team is trying to push you into powerlifting?
Leah:
Trying, we’re not there yet. Not successfully. We’ll see what happens in a couple months. So we’re gonna run through a few questions that we’re running the whole team through. So the first thing is, what’s something you wish you knew about nutrition before you did your degree or became a dietitian?
Monica:
Yeah, for sure. One nutrition related thing that I wish I knew prior to being a dietitian is simply the fact that nutrition as a whole is a science and recommendations for healthy dietary patterns and even to more unique and specific recommendations are based on systematic reviews and meta-analysis, not just the opinion of a health professional or an influencer, as well as the fact that it’s also incredibly complex, multifaceted and individual. And the reason I wish I knew this is because it would have allowed me to be a lot more curious and skeptical of fad diets, well marketed supplements that aren’t necessarily evidence based on top of just the random advice of other people, which I believe would have really helped me a lot along my own health journey.
Leah:
Yeah, I love that. And leading in from that, what is something that you maybe were or are embarrassed to admit that you’ve done in past from a maybe food or nutrition perspective and before being a dietitian.
Monica:
Yeah, so I’ve been through a journey and during high school I sought help from a naturopath when I had bad acne and she advised me to do a food intolerance test which involved her cutting off a sample of my hair which I was really worried about because I’m like not my hair…
Leah:
You’ve got gorgeous hair!
Monica:
And she sent it away to be tested so I did that. And little did I know at the time that these tests don’t actually tell you what foods you’re intolerant to. And so I sadly cut out a lot of my favourite foods for over six months for no reason. Didn’t help me whatsoever. So yeah, a little embarrassed about that.
Leah:
But you you live and you learn. I mean, you were taking the advice of another health professional that you thought was more educated than you. So…
Monica:
Thats right. And I think I was just like so worried about my acne at the time that I was going to do whatever it takes.
Leah:
Yeah. And last one is what is the most experience that you’ve had either working with clients or once again just being a dietitian?
Monica:
Yeah, so I’m constantly learning so much from my clients but I want to talk about one in particular who was a young female that came to me after losing 30 kilos. She was very low in energy, not feeling like herself and had all these symptoms of low energy availability after being on such a low calorie intake for so long. She was a bit lost on where to go and scared to eat more in case she regained some of the weight that she’d lost but knew that what she was doing at the time wasn’t sustainable. So we ended up coming up with a plan where she started to fuel her body adequately, ended up maintaining her weight and had energy to train again and felt like a completely new person despite being scared to implement the plan to begin with.
And this situation had a big impact on me in really solidifying the importance of trust and communication, really listening in and the importance of making sure that they know you are on their team to help them achieve their goals in a way that they are willing to do so alongside your professional guidance and support. Yeah, so it really solidified that yes, you can know the science behind the nutrition, but you also have to consider the person, the emotion, their worries and apprehension, as well as the vulnerability in asking for help too. And then trusting you is an honour and a big responsibility. But one that I’m very grateful to have.
Leah:
I love that because yeah, that trust. Trust and rapport is super important, especially if you’re working with someone who is maybe there’s like body image issues or just sort of eating like, I mean, it’s helpful in any case to have trust and rapport, but especially in those circumstances, that trust is so important. It’s like a big responsibility.
Monica:
Absolutely. And I think because a lot of the time these people will come to you and they’ve heard so many different conflicting sources of information and they’re just so confused on like, where do I actually go? And they’ve come to you as often a last resort and they’re like you know what actually I just really need help from someone who knows what they’re doing and yeah put that trust in you to actually just listen to them and help them.
Leah:
Yeah, and just to wrap up for you, I know you’re very active on social media, like your Instagram content is amazing and you’ve just hit 10k. Such a big milestone. Did you want to quickly maybe plug your socials?
Monica:
For sure. So, Fueling Performance, F-U-E-L-L-I-N-G, Performance, that’s my page. Yeah, just post a lot of, I guess, nutrition related resources, tips, practical tips to implement in your everyday life all about performance related nutrition rather than just diet related stuff that all the influences put out. So, Yeah.
Leah:
You’ve got a great page. So thank you for sitting down and chatting with me. And we’re going to bring in our final team member now and that’s Sammy. All right, final team member for the day, that is Sammy. So give me a little intro into who you are, Sammy.
Sammy:
So, yeah, I’m an accredited practicing dietitian, just like everyone else here. But I have done my Master of Dietetics at UQ and the Bachelor of Exercise and Nutrition Science. Yeah, and I started with Ideal back in August in 2022, and it’s been pretty awesome working there so far. been working with a lot more performance-based athletes. That’s team sports.Powerlifting as well which I’ve just done a comp which is pretty fun and as well endurance athletes and I really do have a passion for that too. I do work with everyone else in terms of general population and then as well like our managing relationship with food and eating disorder related clients as well they’re kind of more my other interests, I suppose.
Leah:
Yeah, so yeah, so we’re gonna jump straight into the few questions that we have the team today. So we’ll start with what’s something you wish you knew about nutrition before your degree or like studying dietetics becoming a dietitian?
Sammy:
Yeah, so there’s one thing that I feel like if I could do maybe part of my uni degree again, I would where I would actually go in and pick more psychology courses because coming into like the profession is in private practice dietetics. Like I’ve got the science, yep, got all the science nutrition side of things under my belt, but I feel like there was a lot more psychological kind of aspects that maybe I didn’t quite have at the start. Obviously now I’ve gone in and made sure I’m pretty well covered in that area, but yeah, I feel like for any dietetic students, if you’re to do private practice, I feel like that’s something that would be really beneficial because it seems like it’s becoming more more common that there is mental health conditions associated with eating habits as well.
So yeah, feeling really confident in that space and knowing how to you know, talk to these people, obviously in a way that’s going to be helpful for managing their mental health condition and the nutrition in one. It’s not you can’t really do one without the other, I suppose. So I feel like it’s yeah.
Leah:
Yeah, 100%. I think it’s one thing I didn’t expect being a dietitian, like when I was doing my degree as like the behaviour change stuff, the psychological stuff of what we do. So yeah, that’s a good one. A good answer. I like that.
Sammy:
I remember I think it was maybe the first month or something. I was practicing and I was like, you know doing I thought fantastic meal plans and giving really good advice really practical stuff the science but then there would be you know, I think it was maybe my first couple of clients who had some you know, now I would see them as big red flags for like disordered eating and sure like that But then I didn’t know that and I would just be like, you know, maybe this is this is fine. But obviously big eye-opener quickly realised thank goodness, quickly realised I needed more skills in that and yeah have done.
Leah:
You’ve been able to work in that area. I think it also just experience too goes a long way. just being able to work with people. It’s like, it’s a skill you build over time. And leading on from that, what’s a nutrition thing that you are embarrassed to admit that you’ve maybe done in the past?
Sammy:
I feel like this one’s interesting.
Leah:
I feel like all the girls like have something a bit more crazy than the guys.
Sammy:
Yeah mine was like, I had an interest in nutrition pretty, when I was in highschool. I thought I knew what was good so I read a bunch of books. And there was that I quit, or I quit quitting sugar book, I suppose.
Leah:
You did that one?
Sammy:
Yeah, so I just decided, hey, that sounds really legit. Like it sounds like I can improve so many aspects of my health by quitting sugar. And so I like made a little Instagram and set a date for myself of when I was quitting sugar for the rest of my life. you know, the thing that’s embarrassing about that though is that, yeah, I didn’t know that that, like now I can see any clients do something similar where they create this really big restriction on something it just makes you want it so much more so I ended up having really, a really weird relationship with food. Where I was yeah making foods that I didn’t really enjoy but just because that was sugar-free and just had this impression that was so much better for me when really you know at the end of the day it all comes down to calories and things like that if you’re wondering about you know body composition and maybe… Look, health is different to that obviously, but I was just doing weird things.
Leah:
Yeah, just taking weird extremes that made no sense.
Sammy:
A thousand percent. Yeah, and just thought that sugar was poison and all this stuff. It didn’t last that long. It probably lasted like three to six months.
Leah:
That’s a while.
Sammy:
Yeah, I guess it was a while. I tried to do it and I was like, what’s wrong with me? Why can’t I do this? It should be fine to do it, but absolutely not. Sugar is not the reason for so many people like it’s just a small part of it and you know they sugar sugar so eating rice malt syrup versus you know something else maybe a little bit micro nutritionally different and fibre stuff is a bit different. But at the end of the day, it’s sugar, sugar, what you enjoy in moderation and all that side of things, right? So just not.
Leah:
Even being dietitians, we’ve all tried, I think, Aidan hasn’t, but we’ve all kind of, everyone else is like, yeah, we tried this bad diet. And we’re kind of embarrassed to admit that. I did raw till four, and I did some kind of vegan-ish, but from a maybe disordered eating perspective. So yeah, I think we all have that similar experience, even as health professionals. Leading into our last question. What is one of the most impactful experiences you’ve had working with clients?
Sammy:
This one I feel like it’s a little bit like I don’t know I find it really both personally and for the client I feel like it’s pretty awesome some of the things that we’ve achieved so there’s like quite a group of clients that I’ve seen now that have gone from having to of relationship with food and or eating disorders and have overcome that and actually moved on to their next goal where it’s like fuelling for performance and actually competing in things now or playing sports they never thought they could play in. And I just think that’s so cool that you can like they come in to see me for a specific thing. And it was huge deal getting through that.
But now they’re like in a space where they have all this energy and this capacity to even take on another goal. And it’s just like going from just living and trying to you know, keep alive and do things like this, but then going to thriving and actually, yeah, competing at a really high level, some of them. So it’s pretty cool.
Leah:
I think anytime where we’re working on like someone’s relationship with food, mean, for me, that seems really impactful. Like, cause I think it’s one of the most undervalued things is just having a good relationship with food and your body. And if you can help someone get from like point A to point B, I find that so impactful.
Sammy:
Yeah, definitely. But yeah can’t wait to keep working more in that space because I think it’s so enjoyable for me and that’s probably the most impactful for everyone.
Leah:
And I’m just getting everyone to plug their socials so if you want to kind of tell us a little bit about what you do online. Yeah so I have my Instagram page is probably where I’m the most active and that is like at nourished.by.sammy. Yeah so I’d like to post on there things like obviously evidence-based nutrition information, some fun stuff like reels with different things and tips and stuff, recipes occasionally. I do have a TikTok but I think it needs some work. You know, yeah, like obviously always happy to answer questions on there and you know, just get in contact with people and stuff and help them if they have any little questions and things or just create that community more.
Leah:
Yeah, awesome. Thank you. Thank you, Sammy. Thanks for having a chat with us. you’re welcome.
Aidan:
That has been the ideal nutrition team. Hopefully that was a good way to showcase a little bit of them as individuals and the kind of work that we do and everything like that. And hopefully there was some value to be gotten out of that. Even if it’s just seeing like the little details like how dietitians aren’t necessarily perfect and everything like that with their own nutrition, even quite a bit of time into learning a lot about nutrition. But apart from that, this has been episode 100 and hopefully there’s many more to come.