Dietitian Spotlight: Christy Wilson

1. Tell us a bit about yourself? I’m a mom. I’m a cook. I’m a picture taker. I’m a bike rider. I love listening to music, spending time outside and laughing with family and friends. I’m also a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist who loves to teach people how to eat for better health—it’s one of my passions in life. Everyone eats, therefore everyone can benefit from learning how to take care of themselves through diet. I love showing people how simple it can be and how beautiful and delicious nourishing foods are. My philosophy is that life is complicated enough… eating for wellness doesn’t have to be!

2. What’s your favorite part about being a dietitian? Teaching people how to eat for wellness while working with the foods in the kitchen is one of my favorite parts about being an RD. I love doing food demos and teaching cooking classes where the organic conversation about food just flows like water! Whether I’m answering questions about organic vs. conventional foods, discussing information about nutrition facts food labels, talking about the health benefits of certain ingredients or about a particular cooking method, I love being able to address all of these questions while having the foods right in front of us.

3. Describe what your typical week looks like? Simple question. Complicated answer! I am a part time nutrition counselor at University of Arizona’s Campus Health Service. I not only do nutrition counseling with students, I also write articles that are published in the university newspaper, speak in nutrition classes, and I am the staff advisor for Cooking on Campus, which is a hands-on cooking class taught by students for students. I am also a nutrition counselor at a local HIV clinic and I teach a monthly cooking class there. On all the other days (!), I do freelance work with food commodities and brands doing blogging, recipe development, food photography and social media promotion work. I’m also working on my first cookbook!

4. How do you find balance between work & personal? Admittedly, I’m a terrible example of this! In the past, I’ve worked in employee wellness and was even a blogger for a company that promoted life and work balance. The whole time I was thinking, “Do as I write, not as I do!” Because I love what I do so much, and my work as a dietitian is tightly intertwined with my life, it is difficult for me to separate the two. But, I do make sure and carve out time to ride my bike regularly, to take road trips with my family and to enjoy great food, drinks and belly laughs with friends who live both near and far!

5. What are 3 foods you can’t live without? Hmm…I don’t think there are any foods I couldn’t exactly live without, but there are foods I’d rather NOT live without! I love so many different ones. I’ll say my top three favorite foods are Mexican rice, sushi and my mom’s albondigas (Mexican meatball soup). Technically, I *could* live without them, but would rather not!

[line]

Christy, thank you so much girl! Your smile, personality, and the color in these photos have lit up my life! To learn more about Christy, check out her website and follow her on the gram! xo.