Dietitian Life

When it comes to looking up to someone as a dietitian, what matters most to me, what I find the MOST valuable, is someone who has experience, knowledge, and evidently ethics that align with my own. Aside from that, it's just being factual around the science, and having the ability to say things how they are without letting your emotions or opinions on the “matter of fact” get in the way. ⁠ ⁠ Sneaky shout out to one of my other most respected dietitians at the end, but you'll have to listen to hear who it is.

Business can be brutal. You get hit hard, hard in your gut, in your heart, in your wallet. Running a business is all about dealing with disappointment, putting out an endless array of fires, keeping up with so many moving parts and ever-changing details. The fun and happy stuff anyone can do, it's the hard times which separate the pack.

We're in the booth talking about misunderstandings.⁠ We've experienced a lot of misunderstanding and stereotyping in our careers, but there is one thing that people often think, that really isn't true (and has never been).⁠ At the end of the day, we don't really care what people think for the most part - but we still don't want our staff to think that we do this.⁠  

Tyson recorded this on his last day in Australia before flying to the USA for work, and believe it or not, remote working from across the world was expected to be the least of his concerns.

When you take on the additional responsibility of other people - whether it be one, ten or 70 people, you need to be able to take on that stress, while also working your arse off to ensure that you're delivering on what you promised each individual. It's a massive responsibility and something that is really hard if you're not wired that way. You don't really ever get told that you're doing a good job, because people just expect you to do... But that's just some of it.

If you're a new grad or you're about to graduate, this is going to be one of the most important podcasts you will ever listen to. The entry requirements for dietetics is getting higher and higher every year, which means you've got to have the highest academic scores (ATAR/OP) to get into the courses. The problem with that is that these people are used to getting that high distinction - and then when there are no books, there are no assignments and there are just people in front of them, they don't know how to fail.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, they take too much money, too soon. Too often, the young entrepreneurs or young business owners (whatever you want to classify yourself as) focus so hard on the dollar value, immediately. I didn't think about that sh*t at all, like ever, to this day. It's a side effect.

My priority will always be staff. Staff, staff, staff, staff. No matter where I am or where the company is, if my staff need me, I will be there. This question comes at a pretty pivotal time for us here at Dietitian Life, with some of the things that we've now got the opportunity to do.

How do you choose between getting your foot in the door with a job in the industry and spending that time honing in on a specific skill or discipline? It is likely that you've been told at university to niche out, make an Instagram page and/or focus on something that you are passionate about, but our perspective on the matter is a little different.

This week on Dietitian Life, we answer a very important question from the audience and discuss the importance of self-preservation in dietetics. Talking through all things from personal experiences starting out in the field to my #1 game plan for avoiding burn out, self-preservation and helping yourself is the absolute key to being able to help your clients effectively.    

Peta's in the booth this week! What is the best way to approach incorrect recommendations from a GP? Top tips for managing stress while on placement? What separates a "good" dietitian from a "great" one?!⁠ This week is all about answering your questions!

Would you believe that in ONE podcast, we can talk about dietitians in administrative roles, and about how artificial intelligence is going to take over most of our jobs?!⁠ 'Questions from the audience' is a great opportunity for us to answer some of your biggest questions in long-form, so listen, follow and be sure to DM us your own questions.

After over 10 years in private practice each, we've got a lot of experience in staying power - but that's not to say that we've never "flamed out" either. In this industry, especially in private practice, it takes a lot of power to ride the waves and stay in the career. From lack of support within dietetics to lack of communication, lack of clients... The list goes on. A lot of people think, "Well, I don't want to work in a hospital, so I guess that means I want to work in private practice," and this is where the problem starts. You can't possibly know what you want until you've tried it, and "wanting to work with food" or "wanting to help people" just isn't enough for a long-term love of your career choice.

Assumptions are going to ruin your consult. They might lead the client to stop seeing you, or even worse, lead you down the wrong path when it comes to treating them.⁠ For example, if you're talking about bowel frequency and they say their bowels are loose, you might assume that that is the most important problem. Without asking, you don't know that that particular client actually wants to lose weight and doesn't care about their bowels. ⁠

If you love KALE - you're going to LOVE this week's guest. He's a published author and blogging mastermind, he's no stranger to some good food humour, and of course, the creator of Kaleigraphy, where he teaches others the tricks of the trade. We had a really great time chatting to Andy, covering everything from what defines success in dietetics to the burning question that we know you all wanted to hear... "Why Kale?"

You might know her from Education In Nutrition, she's got 10 years experience as an Accredited Practising Dietitian and over 30 years in healthcare (including her time as a Registered Nurse), and we were SO honoured to be able to put her in the hot seat after being in hers many times... It's Sophie Blackmore!⁠

Let's talk about starting a business, and why you SHOULDN'T start one right after graduating your degree.⁠ Too many people now are doing it thinking it’s what they should do, or simply out of desperation because they can’t find a job. Many are spending money on people who have had short term success as an “online dietitian” through social media, to teach them how to also do it.

This week, we talk about WHY DIETITIANS SUCK. Dietitians don't just suck, they suck at sucking and something needs to change if our industry is going to move forward.

We're cracking off the new year with a big old rant! First of all, dieting is NOT the devil. Plain and simple. We've seen so many dietitians demonising dieting, abolishing the need to have a goal and suggesting that people are fine the way they are, negating any health or weight issues.

This week, we've interviewed Dr Hannah Mayr, Nutrition and Dietetics Lecturer, and Research Fellow. Hannah is highly regarded for her clinical studies in chronic disease prevention and treatment, implementation of the Mediterranean diet and contributions to Project GRIT. We are very excited to share this chat with you and hope that you enjoy it as much as we did.

This week, we give our perspective on the #1 thing that all dietitians need to stop doing right now. This thing is the manner of all evil, it'll ruin your consult every time. It might be in your line of questioning, it might be in your beliefs and perceptions... But this ONE thing is the antithesis of "answers" and is going to shoot you in the foot if you're not careful.

This week, we've got a very special guest; Advanced Sports Dietitian, PhD Sports Scientist, Performance Nutrition Manager at UFC Performance Institute in Shanghai (and not to mention, a 1st degree Black Belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu), Dr Reid Reale! Dr Reale is an absolute legend in the sports dietetics field, and is coming to us live from isolation in China! We talk all things from his journey to the highlights of his experiences working at such a high level in the sporting space.

Back by popular demand, we're dig diving 'Inside Peta's Clinical Mind!' and answering Q&A'S from the audience! We talk about clinical considerations for breastfeeding, dietary strategies for post-infectious IBS-D and Telehealth sessions and much more!⁠

This week, we're talking to Alicia Edge, Advanced Sports Dietitian and Co-Founder/CEO of Compeat Nutrition! Alicia has around 11 years of experience as a dietitian and has a magnitude of stories to share from her years in the field. We talk everything from tips she would have given her younger self, through to managing a business and being a dietitian, whilst also being a mum AND a human being in a massive hour-long special!

Peta sat down with Nazy Zarshenas for one of our best clinical rants to date!⁠⁠ Nazy Zarshenas is a pioneer in the bariatric space, playing an active role in the supervision of undergraduate and postgraduate research at the University of Wollongong. She believes that optimal nutrition is a pillar for a healthy lifestyle, with over 10 years of experience in her field.

This one is all about the scope of practice as have as dietitians. It's about decision-making, it's about letting go of that "I don't want to do anything that will cause harm," feels and just knowing what you can do as a dietitian. Plus, as promised, we touch on Eczema and go through the case study we talked about this week.

This week on Dietitian Life, Peta is answering some of the most asked for questions in our feed this week including her tips for getting work experience.

This week on Dietitian Life, Peta is in the booth answering a round of your questions! Talking everything from the nutrition advice your clients receive from their GP's to the skills that separate a great dietitian from a good one.

We're throwing back to our 2018 #DearDietitian interview with the one and only, Joe Leech. Following on from our last guest archive, this one is a little bit more of a dig into Joe's thoughts (at the time) on the industry. We talk travelling, using social media the right way AND give our opinions on a few standards that are greatly impacting our industry.

This week on Dietitian Life, we took a moment to review the last few weeks of major changes within our organisation. There has been ups, downs and a whole lot of chaos but we know that everything is going to pan out in the end.⁠

We're throwing back to one more archived interview from 2018 with #GirlBoss and one half of Health & Performance Collective, Chloe McLeod! When deciding on dietetics, Chloe was simply looking to find a career that complemented her love of food, talking and helping people (which made dietetics pretty perfect for her). Chloe shares some interesting perspectives on travelling for work, deciding to take a break after studying and working in the industry at the time of this interview. ⁠

There was no better time to dust off our interview from 2018 with Dr Lisa Vincze. At the time of this interview, Lisa had just come off the back off these accomplishments when we spoke to her. We talk through her greatest challenges, whether she felt the achievement was worth the time spent and Tyson gives her the opportunity to rant out something we said, that she disagreed with.

We're throwing back to 2018 and sharing an archived interview with Joel Feren! Like a lot of dietitians, Joel expressed that he didn't really know what he wanted to do after high school, outside of having an interest in science. Flash forward to the time of this interview, Joel was about 5 years out of his master's degree and really paving his way in the industry.

Joe's a bit of a social media and SEO extraordinaire and one of the first to kill it at these things in our industry. Starting his journey in private practice after travelling to regional Australia, Joe was able to grow quickly in the clinical space and adapt his practice online by leveraging what was (at the time) a new way of approaching social media. Now, Joe travels the world while operating his website, DIET vs DISEASE, that attracts about 1 MILLION readers every month.

David is a real factotum in sports dietetics. As a dietitian, David has completed a post-graduate nutrition traineeship at The Western Australian Institute of Sport (WAIS), where he worked with world-class athletes to further the application of his dietetic skills. But that's not all! As an athlete himself, David is a part of the ParaTriathlon Australian and WAIS team.

How does one actually remain in the same career, particularly in dietetics, for longer than a year?! What does it actually take to stay in and not burn the hell out?! Find out by listening in.

For the last episode of Inside Peta's Clinical Mind, we delved into one of her specialising areas... Paediatrics! We know a LOT of dietitians, new grads and students want to go into paediatrics. As a mother herself, Peta has great insight into working with children in both a clinical and personal capacity. 

Digging deep 'Inside Peta's Clinical Mind', let's talk about what we like to call "The Third Type of Diabetes". It's commonly misdiagnosed as Type 2 Diabetes and it only occurs after the age of 35... What is it?

As promised, here it is. Full rant on negligence carrying on from our IGTV the other day. This is not okay. We will not stand for it. We care too much about this industry and all of the practitioners within it.⁠ We will do our best to inform you and protect you all we can.

This week on the Dietitian Life podcast, we're taking a look into Peta's clinical mind. Starting with medications, we go through the clinical implications that dietitians need to be aware of. We name-drop the most common medications that go through the PBS, the effects of long-term and short-term PPI use and a number of supplements that used across a number of chronic illness and treatment plans.⁠

How do you choose between getting your foot in the door with a job in the industry and spending that time honing in on a specific skill or discipline? It is likely that you've been told at university to niche out, make an Instagram page and/or focus on something that you are passionate about, but our perspective on the matter is a little different.

This week, we give our perspective on the #1 thing that all dietitians need to stop doing right now. This thing is the manner of all evil, it'll ruin your consult every time. It might be in your line of questioning, it might be in your beliefs and perceptions... But this ONE thing is the antithesis of "answers" and is going to shoot you in the foot if you're not careful.

We go on a little rant and tell all the ins and outs of our experiences engaging with GP's. We offer our insight, strategies and advice to help you on your journey there, but the overarching thing that YOU need to do is to get out there and implement it!

This week on Dietitian Life, we sit down with Melanie McGrice, Australia's #1 dietitian for fertility, pregnancy and women's health and the mastermind behind Nutrition Plus!

How do you approach talking about IBS and alternating poop as a dietitian? Something I find is that a lot of dietitians glaze over the poop chat and take their clients word as gospel, but as dietitians, we are health detectives and poop can be one of the vital clues you need in your analysis.