2024, Where Did You Go? A Busy Year In Review!

The highlights: Dietetic internship completed. Graduate degree graduation. Registered dietitian credentialing exam passed. Married to the love of my life!

Since my previous update was in the beginning of April, I will catch you up on what has been happening since then - it has been quite a year!

I finished up my dietetic internship spending a couple of weeks in outpatient clinical rotations, at my elective location, and working on my capstone project. One week, I worked with dietitians and registered nurses at the Novo Nordisk Diabetes Center at CentraState Healthcare System in Freehold, NJ. Even before this rotation, I knew I was interested in learning as much as possible about diabetes and helping people manage their diseases. Although short, spending this time at the diabetes center made me certain that I want to work toward my Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist credential (CDCES). I spent another week working with dietitians at the Atlantic Health Children's Specialty Center at Morristown (NJ). While there, I saw young patients with severe asthma, cystic fibrosis, type I diabetes, GI issues/failure to thrive, or enrolled in a weight loss program. These two weeks working in the outpatient setting reinforced that I have passion for working one-on-one with people to help them achieve better health outcomes.

My last on-site rotation was at HealthBarn USA, my chosen elective site. I spent two weeks working with the HealthBarn nutrition educators in the classroom, the kitchen, and the garden. We provided interactive lesson plans that included smoothie making, seed planting in student-made newspaper pots, cooking demonstrations, and time in the garden learning about vegetable and herb plants. While working with HealthBarn USA, I was able to go off-site for two of their events. One was at a school were young children were attending a series of nutrition education presentations which included a food component were they could see the lesson put into practice. The other was a health fair at a middle school where I represented HealthBarn at a table and helped students make biodegradable pots and plant green pea seeds. This was an amazing experience, largely because myself and my husband Anderson dream of having a place where we can bring together nutrition education, cooking demonstrations + family style meals, fitness, and fresh produce from the garden and greenhouse. During my capstone project, I worked on a business plan for the holistic health & wellness center we want to build.

In April 2024, I attended the annual NJAND meeting at Rutgers University. While there, I volunteered at the Vegetarian Nutrition (VN) DPG's table, presented a poster with a classmate, and accepted their Outstanding Dietetic Student Award for 2024. This was an action packed day! I was also able to sit in on a couple of interesting talks given by experts in the field. The highlight of the day for me was winning the award - it was such an honor!

My MSDI (master of science + dietetic internship) wrapped with my graduation from Saint Elizabeth University on Friday, May 17, 2024. That Saturday, my family gathered to celebrate my brother-in-law's 40th birthday. The following day we met at Grounds for Sculpture to celebrate my birthday. It was a very busy weekend full of family, celebration, and making beautiful memories. I truly cherish times like these when I can hold my loved ones near and snap lots of photos to smile at for years to come.

I took a little time to decompress after completing the MSDI program, then in June, I started to study for the RD (registered dietitian) credentialing exam. Though we had not planned to, Anderson and I also began to plan our wedding in June of 2024. I am not sure planning a wedding while studying for the RD exam was the best idea, but it all worked out in the end. I spent the summer studying and passed my exam in September 2024. I also took some time off from studying and planning to attend a bunch of concerts with Anderson and friends at PNC in Holmdel - always so much fun!

Thank goodness I passed my exam, because my bridal shower was scheduled for several days later upstairs in a converted church that is now Old Glory Kitchen + Spirits in Keyport, New Jersey. I went with a Bride-to-Bee theme and we gave bee-friendly wildflower seed packets and bee-scotti (biscotti) in the thank you bags. The biscotti was from The Baklava Lady, a 100% vegan Turkish cafe, in Englishtown, NJ, and even all the non-vegans raved about how great it was. The shower was beautiful and we had a wonderful time with friends and family! A few weeks later we had more fun and took silly photos with friends in Asbury Park, NJ, at our coed bach drinks.

Between the bridal shower and bach drinks, I also managed to get out of town and attend my first FNCE, Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo, in Minneapolis, MN. I ended up with a bit of a cold from traveling and felt puffy the whole weekend, but it was still a great experience. I attended some great talks, joined my fellow VN DPG members for several events, including a delicious dinner with the VRG (The Vegetarian Resource Group), and walked the expo floor. My strawberry dress and vegetable blouse were both big hits :) Between October and November, I also hosted two cooking demonstrations and nutrition education presentations at the Keyport Senior Center. One was on type 2 diabetes and the recipe, based on the diabetes plate, was a sheet pan meal with chickpeas, tempeh, non-starchy veggies, and a Thai-inspired peanut sauce.. The other was on cholesterol and the recipe, based on the Portfolio Diet, was a lentil and barley stew.

Our wedding was at The Farmhouse in Wilmington, Delaware in November 2024, and the weather cooperated for our outdoor ceremony. We selected our venue because they were happy to create an entirely plant-based menu for us, including charcuterie boards for the bride & groom suites, butlered and stationary Hors d'oeuvres, delicious entrees, and a post-cake snack of soft pretzels with a warm apple, maple whole grain mustard dipping sauce. Everything was delicious! Katie and the whole team at The Farmhouse were amazing - we could not have asked for a better evening!

Even our amazing wedding cake, made by Cakes by Kim in Wilmington, DE, was vegan. We keep it elegant with vegan vanilla buttercream and blueberry jam layered inside, lightly sugar dusted fruit (strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries) around the tiers, and a pair of owls with our initials and wedding date to top it. We saved a big piece to freeze for our first anniversary, but it was so tasty, we ate it a couple days after the wedding!

To make sure that I did not run out of things to do (ha-ha), I decided to make the bouquets and boutonnieres for the wedding myself with dried lavender from a local lavender farm, Pleasant Valley Lavender. Luckily, Anderson's sister helped me sort one of the big bunches (I bought four), because this was a time consuming task - but totally worth it. They were simple and rustic, and we got compliments all night about how amazing they smelled! Sidenote - I cannot wait to visit the lavender farm in season this year!

Some other projects I took on were creating a wedding gazette and a guest photo competition. These were a lot of fun for me and many of the guests got involved too! We used guestpix for out digital photo album, and it helped us receive over 300 photos and videos taken by guests that we may have never seen otherwise. Check out the competition winning photo below!

We are so thankful to all of our loved ones for supporting us from engagement to I do's. We could not have done it all with out you all!

This autumn and winter, so far, have been very busy, but with so many truly awesome moments. Anderson and I started a tradition of purchasing a new Christmas ornament each year, a few years ago. This year, we returned to the Asbury Park Holiday Bazaar (a favorite holiday outing of ours) and bought this beautiful, locally handmade, and one of a kind snowman. I am still in love with his happy smiley face!

We spent the holiday season with family and friends, and I started my job search. I am currently interviewing for several roles in various clinical nutrition settings. 2025 has just begun, and I am so excited to see where it takes us!

I hope that you had a merry and bright holiday season also, no matter what you celebrate, and I wish you a healthy & happy 2025, and beyond!

If you have any requests for content this year, please leave a comment below, or if you just want to leave feedback or any type of message, I would love that too!

With Love, Kathleen