My Discipline

Dietitian

This blog post will discuss the aspects of my passion and discipline. My discipline is being a dietitian. Studying dietetics is not an easy task for everyone. However, I have been inspired by nutrition related spokesmen and my past.

1. What do students in your program learn how to do?

   Students in my program learn how to be able to console people with a large variety of specific individual needs.
   
   
   Students need to understand the fundamentals and chemical compositions of foods. For example, an access amount of carbohydrates can convert to sugar and then fat. It is important to know this so that dietitians can prescribe the healthier options for their patients.
   
   

2. What do people who get degrees in this field usually go on to do for work?

   There are many work fields that this degree can cover.
   
   
   Typically, dietitians begin working in hospitals.
   
   
   After gaining a client base, many go off to do their own practice.
   
   
   However, some work as dietitians for schools, restaurants, universities, and sports teams.
   
   
   Dietitians tend to focus on a specific dietary need. For example, childhood obesity, allergies, eating disorders, athlete's diet, heart healthy diets, and the list continues.
   
   

3. What drew you to this field?

   When I was ten years old, I discovered that I was overweight. I used to think that the higher number on the scale was better, but it really is not.
   
   
   One day, my cousin who was significantly thinner than me offered me to finish her last piece of pizza. We were each given two slices, and I had already finished both of mine; she had one left.
   
   
   I took this to offense, I decided to no longer be known as the chunky girl.
   
   
   I changed my food choices. I started eating less and eating more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins.
   
   
   Eventually, people starting noticing my weightless success and began to ask me to help them lose weight. I told them exactly what I did, and they lost weight after following my advice.
   
   
   This feeling was so rewarding to me, and I continued to always focus on nutrition and to help people overcome their struggles like I once had to do on my own.
   
   

4. Who are the leaders/most exciting people involved in your field right now? Why? These could be individual people or specific companies, organizations, businesses or non-profits.

   
   

   

   Ythjall, Pavel. "Pauline Nordin of Fighter Diet - 2013.jpg." 2/25/12 via Wikimedia Commons.  Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
   
   
   
   

   Pauline Nordin is one of the most exciting people involved in my field right now. Above, is a picture of her flexing. I chose to incorporate this picture into my blog because she appears very determined and disciplined in the picture. It connects to me and how I am disciplined and determined to do well in my field of study. Even though she is not a dietician, she introduces new  nutritional concepts to people. I admire her because she is self-made. One day, she decided that she wanted to become muscular. Therefore, she went to a library and checked out books about nutrition and muscle. After a lot of hard work and research, she began to compete in physique competitions, and she is now well-known among the fitness community. She is an inspiration to me because she taught herself the methods to achieve her goals through nutrition. Now, she has her own e-books and instructional videos that assist beginner nutrition enthusiasts in choosing the right foods to achieve their desired figure through her "Fighter Diet". Personally, I have used her methods in my everyday life because they are different and efficient. Her high ambition has shown me that an amateur with no name is able to climb the ladder of success to eventually be well-known.
   
   Julie H. Burns is a very influential person in nutrition because she has been the nutritional adviser for many sports teams. These sports teams include the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team, the Chicago White Sox base ball team, the Chicago Bears football team, the Chicago Bulls, the NBA Development League, Northwester University's varsity teams, Next Level Performance, and individual and elite athletes around the world. Not only does she consult with athletes, but also with large corporations. She is an inspiration to me because she appears to be your run-of-the-mill person. However, she has climbed the ladder in nutrition to be able to attain the ability to work for professional sports team. I see it as a huge accomplishment because I thrive to work for professional teams as well. 
   
   
   
   
   
5. What are the leading academic/scholarly journals in your field? Where are they published? Give us the names and locations of at least 3. (HINT: If you have no idea what the answer to this question is, try Googling “What are the top journals in [insert field of study]?” and peruse the results).
   
   
   Annual Review of Nutrition 

   Palo Alto, CA

   
   The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 
   
   

   Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD

   
   Nutrition Reviews
   
   

   Hoboken, NJ

   
   
   International Journal of Obesity 
   
   

   NY, New York

   
   Pediatric Obesity
   
   

   Hoboken, NJ

   
   Overweight & Obesity
   
   

   Atlanta, Georgia 

   Reflection 

   Jovanka Potkonjak's blog post about her engineering career made me feel even more motivated to succeed in my field. She also faced a struggle with her field prior to pursuing it which is similar to myself. Jovanka had struggled in Chemistry just as I had struggled with my weight. We both took our struggles and rose up to them. However, I realize that both of us will continue to struggle in different areas, such as, heavy science courses. Fortunately, I know that we will continue to succeed because already rose up from one struggle. Now with many more obstacles coming our way, we will be able to tackle them. After reading her post, I see myself as successful. Her post made me think of empowered women in the workforce because not many women decide to become engineers. It inspired me to push myself harder in my field because I want to stand out in my own field of study as well.
   
   
   Alison Perger's blog post about her psychology career was refreshing for me to read because she found her field of study after overcoming a struggle similar to myself. Our careers are similar because we both will focus on counseling and helping people overcome their struggles like we once did. Even though I did not seek counseling, I also was able to overcome my struggle. I think struggles in life can open new doors like it did for myself and Alison in how we both discover. After reading her blog post, I feel as if being in a field that is very relatable to my past will allow me to keep my interest and be successful because I want to help people overcome their struggles as well.