My entire life I have always leaned towards eating healthier foods. Now… It hasn’t always been exactly my choice to eat like this. When I was younger, my parents chose what I ate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Just like any other 5 year old, I was unable to make the decision about every meal I ate. I mean it was probably the right decision, considering at that time I would eat ice cream for every meal each day of the week.
Now, I am 17 years old, and my parents definitely do NOT have control over every meal I eat. If they did, I would have gone crazy by now – thankfully I haven’t.
Over the past two years, my mom took online courses to get a new degree that certified her to be a nutritionist. She earned her degree last June, and is now a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (NTP). I am not completely positive on what she is certified to do, but I do know that she works with clients each day to help them reach their goals. 
To be clear, my mom does not just try to help people to lose weight, she helps to diagnose them with possible autoimmune diseases such as leaky gut, lymes disease, celiacs, I could go on and on. Her main job is to help identify what issues, if there are any, are going on with her clients. Then she will help to plan a “diet” for them to try to maintain to help them feel better and reach their goals.
While it can be very helpful to know so much about food because my mom is a nutritionist. My family tends to be her guinea pigs when trying to learn more about different “diets” she wants to try. Meaning I have had many many many different food restrictions throughout my entire life.
I’m pretty sure that her interest with food affecting health started around when I was 10, and she cut out gluten from our house. 
Next she got rid of dairy, then any unnatural sugar – meaning only honey and maple syrup allowed – and then the microwave. At first, it was very difficult to adjust to eating a bunch of food that does not taste very good all the time. Especially since the popularity of being gluten free was not as wide spread when she first started having no gluten in the house. Over the years, I have grown use to the way my mom wants me to eat. It has been difficult to adjust to how to eat so health every single day, especially when I just want a really big cheeseburger and milkshake.
Luckily, I have been able to learn a lot about balancing “cheat” meals with my normal meals. Since I am a teenager, I like to go out to get food with my friends – I mean what else are we going to do, the school offers us off campus lunch as Seniors, we got to take advantage of it. I do not always stick to the way my mom wants me to eat, and she knows that. For the majority of the time, I eat gluten free, dairy free, and only natural sugars. Since I have eaten this way for so long, I have learned that if I eat too much candy or ice cream I tend to feel pretty bad after.
Proving to myself and my mom that she’s right, especially when it comes to what I eat. Since I will be heading off to college soon, I know my mom is worried about how I am going to continue to eat healthy there. I think that my body will teach me a lesson if I stray too far away from my current diet. While it can be very tedious to eat like this 24/7, I have noticed that it helps me in a lot of different aspects of my life. Typically, I feel pretty well energized, I can stay focused, and I never feel bad after eating. I guess eating this way for the majority of my has been pretty helpful.
I think what I am trying to say is that I am very thankful that my mom has raised me to be aware of how I feel after eating fast food compared to a homemade meal. While I still have disagreements with her about food, I think that everything she has done for me has been very helpful. I am very glad my mom loves to share her wisdom about food with me – even when I feel that it is unnecessary, she still loves to share. So I guess what I am trying to say is that living with a nutritionist is a lot better than it seems.
Hi Grace! Your mom came in to talk to the Advanced Health classes last week, and her presentation was super interesting. I definitely agree with you that at least trying to eat healthy is important; feeling bad after eating is never good. Do you think figuring out how to eat well in college will be a challenge for you? It’s definitely something I worry about.