How I Got Here. Get to Know Dietitian Kristen Yarker More Intimately

Today’s blog post is a little different. Usually, I dive into a nutrition topic – such as Nutrition For Insulin Resistance or The Cortisol - Belly Fat Connection. Instead, today I’m taking the opportunity to share a bit about myself. About my journey as a dietitian. About how I’ve come to my unique take on eating and health by combining the science of nutrition, the science of behaviour change, and the psychology of food. How I use this wide range of knowledge to help clients, from kids with picky eating behaviour, to adults looking to take control of cravings and create healthy eating habits that stick.

What’s brought me to this idea of sharing more intimately about myself? It’s a coalescence of factors. We’ve had a lot of new people join the community. Welcome! And, many of you have been a part of our community for a while - enjoying our recipes and my unique take on nutrition and healthy eating. But you may be wondering what makes us so different. March is nutrition month. This year’s theme is “celebrating dietitians” which made me realize that I’m often celebrating the dietitians on our team. Because I’m so grateful for them. Honestly, I pinch myself regularly, wondering how I got so lucky to have them join us to provide such excellent service for our clients. However, the nutrition month theme also made me realize that I don’t share much about myself (we all have blind spots). Being 47, I’m rounding the corner heading towards 50 which has me thinking about how I got here and what my legacy will be. And, I’ve had some turmoil in my personal life over the last few years. Things didn’t go how I expected. Which has me doing a lot of reflection.

Creating a Healthy Relationship with Food - My Life’s Purpose

I’ve known from the age of 16 that my life’s purpose is to help people create a healthy relationship with food. But my career, and life has taken twists and turns. “Both/and” is more descriptive of me rather than “either/or”.

The result is that I’m not easy to pigeon-hole. I’m called “the picky eater whisperer” for my work with children who have picky eating behaviour. I help clients in their recovery from eating disorders but I’m not simply an “eating disorder dietitian”. Yes, I love helping women through the menopause transition, but I’m not a “women’s hormone dietitian”. I could go on but I think you get the idea. I’m not any one of these, I’m all of the above. The thread that runs through all these seemingly separate clients is how I work on the multiple layers of meaning that food has in our lives. I bring together nutrition, food psychology, and behaviour change (and a lot more).

My genius is bringing together a breadth of knowledge to help clients. Applying it to clients’ lives with really practical steps. So you understand how changing your eating habits is a deep process that brings up lots of layers of “stuff”. But also you can create significant change with small, simple actions.

I absolutely love when clients have huge ah-ha moments! They break of the diet-guilt cycle (i.e. drop the diet culture BS) and embrace eating that’s healthy for their physical health and their emotional, mental, & spiritual health.

Childhood Nutrition Influences

My unique understanding of nutrition starts with early influences. I have beautiful memories of feeling completely enveloped in love and acceptance while spending time with my grandmother over food. My fondest memories include sitting on the back porch in the Summer shucking corn and snapping the ends off of green beans. And, sitting in her kitchen in the Fall as she made me applesauce.

Another poignant childhood memory is of my father being diagnosed with heart disease. The family switched from butter to margarine (it was the ‘80’s) and stopped using salt.

Combine this with my childhood participation in sports that have a high rate of eating disorders – dance, gymnastics, and running. I’d see my competitors swiftly transform from looking “normal” to being skin and bones in a matter of months. It left me wondering what was happening to them.

Becoming a Dietitian: Curiosity’s Driving Force

I’ve always been a curious person. I want to understand the reasons why people do the things we do. As a child, reading my way through summer breaks. Loving National Geographic magazines and the encyclopedia Britannica (again, it was the ’80’s). In my undergraduate degree I took extra courses in counselling skills. To understand psychology – how we think. And, how I can help people change their thinking patterns to get out of their own way with changing eating habits.

I kept asking why. That’s why I did my Masters’ degree before I did the professional training year to become a dietitian. Because I needed more time to investigate why people make our food choices. Why we feel the way we do about our bodies. My Masters degree involved conducting research into how physically active women, women who aren’t physically active, and female athletes think about their bodies and food. It was at that time that I was introduced to feminism. Which answered a lot of my questions. And, gave me a way of understanding why we think of ourselves this way.

Winding Path as a Dietitian

My first job as a dietitian was in Indigenous health. I saw firsthand how the intergenerational effects of residential schools, the reserve system, and other aspects of contact have impacted people’s eating habits. Working alongside an Elder, I deepened my understanding of how food connects us to culture and how these are essential for health. Combined with my previous education in feminist theory, I now understood how hidden factors impact our day-to-day food choices.

This is what drove me into the world of family dynamics, behavior change, and motivation. In the meantime, I took a job where I was responsible for the women’s, maternal, and early childhood nutrition portfolios at the British Columbia Ministry of Health. Where I worked for two years.

Now feeling knowledgeable & brave enough, I launched my private practice.  At first, I applied my wide range of knowledge to kids with picky eating. As a pioneer in this area, I was working with kids who had behaviours beyond general picky eating. What subsequently was added as an eating disorder called ARFID.

After years of parents asking for help with their own behaviour. I added services for adults too. But to be honest, it wasn’t just these parents’ requests that inspired me to serve adults. It was that for the first time in my life, I became an emotional eater. Yes, while I was teaching kids how to eat healthfully, I had started emotional eating. What drove me to this behaviour was my divorce. The irony was not lost on me. But I used the very skills that I was teaching to others on myself. And, I totally turned my eating around.

My Nutrition Legacy

Which brings me to today. I’ve been knee-deep in all of this for longer than I haven’t. In September, I’ll have been doing nutrition for 29 years. Lately, I’ve been reflecting on what my legacy will be. I’ve decided it’s time to have a wider impact. To help more people. For the last few years, my practice has been full. I’ve reached the maximum number of people whom I can help working one-to-one. I know that there are so many more people who need to heal your relationship with food. Let’s face it, diet culture’s been bad for decades, but social media is taking it to new heights.  

I’m continuing to see clients for our in-depth, Change the Way You Look & Feel 6-month one-to-one nutrition counselling service package. And, helping women understand how to eat to nourish our changing bodies during the menopause transition with our Nutritional Insight Session.

Now I’m offering online courses too. To serve more people than I can ever reach working individually. Starting with the #1 complaint that people reach out for help with – How to Stop Eating Sugar (i.e. sugar cravings). In addition, I’m now sharing my insights and techniques with other dietitians through a facilitated book club. So that they can have significant impacts with their clients.

Check out more about how we’re Redefining Healthy Eating.

Thank you to Regina with Portrait Couture for your amazing photo (red suit).