Nutrition Training for Non-Health Professionals
Ensure that your Wellness Team Leaders have the training they need to deliver on your organization’s wellness goals, support staff morale, and contribute to DEI.
Your Wellness Team
Many organizations engage teams of employees to create and implement your workplace wellness initiatives. The name for this employee team varies amongst organizations. Perhaps you call them your “Wellness Team”, “Wellness Leaders”, “Wellness Champions”, or another name.
These employees are wonderful! They have an enthusiasm, passion, and interest in nutrition, health, and caring for their colleagues. They take on this role in addition to their usual job in your organization. This enthusiasm and passion is strong despite not being formally trained as health professionals
Nutrition is Complex
Nutrition is far from simple. Giving food and eating advice requires in-depth knowledge of the science of nutrition - how food supports health. There’s so much conflicting nutrition information on the internet, in social media, and in books, that even intelligent people will be confused. In addition, when it comes to nutrition, one size doesn’t fit all. Especially in workplaces where your people range in age and may have a variety of medical diagnoses.
Food also has cultural significance – think of gathering with family to celebrate holidays.
Layer on top of that the fact that changing our habits isn’t easy.
It’s a big ask to expect your wellness team members to bring expertise in all of these areas when it’s not their primary job.
Position Your Wellness Team to Succeed
Foster your wellness champions’ enthusiasm to help their colleagues to embrace healthy eating. Without inadvertently alienating your staff because your team’s offended their culture or lowered their self-esteem by directing them into another weight loss failure.
In other words:
Helping without hurting.
Give your wellness champions the training they need to deliver on:
Your organization’s wellness goals
Supporting staff morale
Contributing to DEI efforts
Wellness Team Training Program
Kristen has a decade of experience in providing nutrition training for leaders who aren’t health professionals. She’s used this experience to create this unique training program.
Our 5-step program trains your wellness team in:
Nutrition Evidence: What the scientific evidence supports as the best ways to eat to support health, including disease prevention (e.g. heart health), mental health, and weight.
Aligning Nutrition with DEI: How to talk about food and nutrition in a way that supports diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Changing Eating Habits: How best to support people to make changes in their eating habits.
When You Can Help: Identifying what nutrition advice is within, and outside of, the scope as a wellness champion.
Additional Resources: Trusted nutrition resources to direct people to when they want to learn more. And, when staff’s needs are outside of the scope of a wellness champion.
Training Program
Your Organization’s Training Program Includes:
Pre-call with Kristen
Customize the training experience to your organization. Ensure that the training matches your wellness team’s level of knowledge. And, your broader staff’s nutrition needs.
Training Delivery
3-hours of group training. Provide your team with the necessary layers of nutrition know-how.
Ample time for questions and answers.
Your choice: provide this group training to your champion team as a single 3-hour session. Or, over a series of 3 one-hour sessions.
Kristen can deliver your training virtually or in-person.
Post-training Impact Survey
ROI measured. You find out if your team leaders learned from the training. And, what impact it’s had on their wellness leadership actions.
Optional: Nutrition Expertise Retainer
Choose this option to give your wellness leaders ongoing opportunity to access Kristen’s nearly 30 years of nutrition experience.
Here’s what others say about working with us:
What’s the difference between a Dietitian and a Nutritionist?
Dietitians are university-trained, licensed, and provincially-regulated health professionals specializing in food and nutrition. In contrast, in BC, “nutritionist” isn’t a protected title. Anyone can wake up tomorrow and call themselves a nutritionist.
About Kristen
“Nutrition knowledge alone isn’t enough to create healthy eating habits that stick.”
I know this because, despite being a registered dietitian and Executive Director of an organization, in my mid-30’s, I found myself post-divorce, barely sleeping, emotionally drained, deeply lonely, and completely heartbroken. I was existing on Starbucks cookies (I earned a gold rewards card I ate so many), cupcakes from the bakery around the corner, bread, and cheese. And, my weight was climbing. I decided I needed to apply my expertise to my own life. By changing my eating, reigning in cravings and emotional eating, and adopting habits to make me happier, I turned the scale around. I even achieved a life-long dream: really learning to surf.
I have over 25 years of nutrition experience: a Bachelors of Applied Science in Applied Human Nutrition (from U of Guelph); a Masters of Science in Human Nutrition (from UBC); and, in 2023 I’m celebrating 20 years as a registered dietitian.
Our team of dietitians offer credible, evidence-based information. I’ve hand-picked these dietitians to have expertise in a wide range of needs such as managing blood sugar (diabetes), heart health (cholesterol), digestive concerns, sports nutrition, and disordered eating. What we have in common is our practical approach - we set clients up to succeed in creating long-term healthy eating - creating habits that stick.
All of our team are members of the College of Dietitians of BC and members of Dietitians of Canada.