Tell us a bit about yourself and Healthfully Ever After?
Healthfully Ever after started as a blog while I was a student studying to be a dietitian, transitioned to a wedding focused business and is now the company my husband and I do full time. We do recipe development, food styling, food photography and videography work mostly with brands/commodity boards and online publications. And to answer the inevitable question-yeah! We’ve known each other since 4th grade as terribly awkward looking children. Yet despite awkward 90’s apparel and living and working together, we are not divorced!
What’s your favorite part about being a dietitian?
That these credentials have opened so many cool doors I never expected. You’re typically ‘told’ you ‘have’ to be one of three jobs, and what I do now is solidly none of those things. You can take your training and turn it into something amazing. And even though I do something so non-traditional with my credentials, I still am very involved in our professional organization and am the president of the Virginia affiliate of The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Describe what your typical week looks like?
So at this second, it’s 9 PM on a Tuesday and we’re prepping fried chicken for a photoshoot after visiting a restaurant friend to photograph (and drink, obviously) Negronis for Negroni Week. We’re also ordering obscure food and fashion magazines off the internet for vacation, based on how bad ass the covers look. And yet, this is a weirdly typical situation.
A more in-depth week looks something like this:
*6/7 days of the week: gym first thing in the morning while listening to Cherry Bombe Radio podcast*
- Monday: Conference calls, admin (emails, responding to clients, reading contracts), ordering product for photo shoots, writing grocery lists for photo shoots and recipe development. Usually a few quick photo set ups mid day.
- Tuesday: Procurement runs (grocery, Target, specialty stores), prop pulling, recipe run-throughs/production for photo shoots
- W-Sunday: (Yeah. Through Sunday. Right now we are insanely busy but we’re trying to figure out a system to win back the weekend or take a random mid-day weekend) Video/photoshoots, edits, writing
How do you find balance between work & personal?
I’m going to keep it super real: it doesn’t exist. There’s no perfect balance, especially when you work with your personal (husband and wife team. Feline associates or ’employ-fees’ as we call them). But I’m completely okay with that! I cannot believe I get to do what I do. And I think when you do something you love (even when it comes with parts you hate, like self employment tax and being the dishwasher and the hand model), you understand and can appreciate your life is not normal. I don’t want normal! I love that we get to do this. But that being said, we have to schedule our vacations really far in advance and warn clients and go places preferably with no internet access.
What are 3 foods you can’t live without?
Cheese (every kind except really funky blue cheese and lindberger), ripe summer tomatoes, fresh bread using fermented starter. Basically a tomato sandwich.
For more from Carlene Thomas and Healthfully Ever After, check out her website here and make sure you follow her on instagram here!