Oh hello anybody who still follows this blog!
Sorry for being so absent these last...er...well, let's just say it's been a really long time. So many things have changed since I last posted, but the most exciting update is that by mid-June 2013, I will be a certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (NTP). I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to go back to school and study a subject so near and dear to my heart; I'm especially excited that I have finally figured out my great passion in life and am taking steps to make it my career.
When considering the best route to official nutritional enlightenment, I researched many options - there's a lot of programs out there to choose from! Going back to college seemed like the best path, until I realized how incredibly long and painful a journey it would be. Long in that it would take four years of study plus an internship - essentially, I would have to start from scratch, as if my BA didn't even exist. I didn't go to college for four and a half years to have it end up seemingly meaningless, and I want to get into the nutrition field NOW, not almost half a decade later. Painful in that it would cost at least $30,000 - most likely about $80,000 total if I went to Bastyr, which has been my dream college for the last three years. I'm still paying off that first BA, however, so I have no plans to go into that much debt again for a long while.
All that aside, most colleges prescribe conventional nutrition, which I think is a travesty - low fat diets? Processed foods? Corn fed meats? No way; I'm not spending four plus years of my educational career learning that drivel only to have to unlearn it when I graduate!
So I began looking into holistic nutrition programs. I also started checking out the Paleo blogs I follow a bit more carefully to see where those nutritionists had studied. That's what lead me to the Nutritional Therapy Association. They believe in the teachings of nutritional pioneers like Weston A. Price and Francis M. Pottenger who championed a traditional, whole food diet. After researching them further, I knew I had found the perfect program. Nine months, distance learning, and all for a very reasonable tuition. Sure, I'm not licensed by the state like an RD, and I couldn't work in quite a few states who refuse to recognize any nutritional practitioners other than RDs, but I'm not in it for government validation. Look what they encourage people to eat, and you'll see why. I'm in it to help create a sustainable, whole food revolution! My goal is to spread good nutritional knowledge to the entire world.
But I've gotta start somewhere, right? Why not in little old Bothell?
All that said, this blog will be seeing some changes. I've got a lot of planning to do before I launch my own practice - and let's face it, who knows how long that will take! Unfortunately, I have zero business knowledge outside of my common sense, so after graduating from this certification course, I'll probably hit up several small business classes so I can really figure out how to get the ball rolling! But I digress - back to the point. I'm not sure if this blog will remain, or if I will ditch it and launch a brand new website and new blog; I'm leaning toward the latter.
Stay tuned right here for now though - I'm buried in school work and regular 40-hr-a-week work, but I'll do my best to post updates here.
Until next time!
