As I now enter my second year of graduate school, I am delighted to have completed all the icky pre-requisite science courses (I’m lookin’ at you, orgo). For the rest of my time in graduate school, it’s all nutrition courses, meaning I can devote my time to learning about topics I actually care about—it’s all gravy from here on out.

There seemed to be a lot of interest in my post about How to Become an RD, so I thought I would devote tonight’s post to briefly describing my classes for this semester, in case there are any aspiring dietitians out there…

Here’s what I’ve got going on for the next few months:

Medical Nutrition Therapy This two-semester course is an intensive education in clinical dietetics. The main components of the class include assessment, development of nutrition-based interventions, and counseling. Basically, if you want to work as a dietitian in a hospital setting, this course is your bread and butter. It’s rumored to be challenging…so let’s hope I survive to make it to the next half of the course in the spring!

Food Service Management This course definitely represents a departure from the rest of my coursework in that it shifts from focusing on the science of food to the management side. We’ll be devoting our time to learning how to manage people, organize a kitchen, and develop cost-effective menus for large groups of people. Yesterday’s lab included making deviled eggs and egg salad for fifty people Have you ever boiled, peeled, and decorated 50 eggs?! It’s tedious to say the least.

Nutrition Education and Counseling The title of this course pretty much sums it up—we’ll be learning the basic tenets of education and counseling within the context of nutrition. Considering my educational background in psychology, I’m pretty psyched about the counseling aspect of this course. However, I am not so psyched about the fact that we will be video-taped in mock counseling session. As you know from my vlogs, I’m not always as articulate as I would like to be!

Colloquium in Nutrition This is a one-credit course that prepares students for various application processes, whether it be to a dietetic internship (as I will be doing), a graduate nutrition program, or a potential job. It may seem silly to have an entire course devoted to such topics, but I can tell you right now that I am so glad to be taking it. I always appreciate resume feedback and general career advice.

Food & Society This course is meant as a culminating experience, in that most graduate students take it in one of their last two semesters prior to graduation. We’ll be covering a wide range of topics including Paleolithic nutrition, the modern food system, and food democracy. It’s mostly reading and discussion based, which suits me just fine. At long last, I get to do some reading and writing!

So there you have it. Another portion of my journey to becoming an RD.

Lucky for me, I get to practice what I preach on a daily basis, at every meal. Here’s how I supplied myself some nutrients today…

Before heading to work, I made another batch of super-duper dark chocolate oat bran. Special dark cocoa inevitably turns my oats a shocking shade of midnight…but it tastes delicious, particularly with berries and coconut.

Late last night, I threw together a Curried Tofu Salad  for today’s lunch. I promise it was way more delicious than these pictures portray.

Seth and I decided that we wanted to have a weeknight dinner date this evening, so I whipped up a dinner after returning from class. If I’ve learned anything in the almost two years that we’ve been dating, I’ve learned that 1) Seth will always eat eggs and 2) Seth will always eat Mexican food.

Accordingly, I put together some huevos rancheros for dinner tonight. I didn’t follow a recipe or anything, just improvised with whatever I had in the house. They are conspicuously cheese-less—methinks a certain 26-year-old male ate all my cheese yesterday! Nonetheless, they were quite delish, albeit difficult to eat.

Alright, I am off to finish some work. I’ll leave you with the latest Margot photo.

Filed under: Meals