I’ve never spoken with an RD about my own personal nutrition. It’s something I’ve thought about over the years, especially as I got more and more into fitness and working out. Thank to Almond I was set up with a 30-minute video consultation with an RD to discuss my own eating habits and nutrition. What I found out about my eating habits was actually a bit surprising.
What is Almond?
Almond is a new company created to get you real, accurate nutrition information by giving you a community of nutrition experts at your fingertips. I was especially impressed to learn that all nutrition experts are RD’s- registered dietician. There’s a lot of opinions on whether or not people that call themselves nutritionist and have online qualifications are truly qualified to give nutrition advice. At the end of the day, RD’s are held to a very specific standard and went through rigorous training to earn their credentials. These people know their stuff to say the least.
How does it work?
On the Almond website you can browse through all the nutrition coaches and choose the right person for you based on your goals. I decided on Vanessa based on her availability, nutrition philosophy and because she is a fellow NYU alum 🙂
From there you schedule a 1-on-1 video chat with your coach. Scheduling and navigating the site was super easy, similar to when I’ve booked an appointment on Zocdoc. I did have a few issues with coordinating schedules– after I requested the appointment I got an email that the coach couldn’t meet at that time and I had to reschedule. Just a heads up that this might happen.
I loved that I was able to schedule an appointment late in the evening and literally did my video consultation in pajamas in my apartment after work. Talk about convenient.
Pricing starts at $65 for a 30 minute video consolation.
What I learned about myself
I spoke with Vanessa about a few key things. We discussed a typical food day in the life of Kayla and she immediately called out the lack of variety in my diet. Busted, I eat really boring food when I cook for myself. I get stuck in food ruts which means my meals are pretty meh. I’ve been trying to spice things up by cooking more meals rather than eating lazy staples like canned tuna for lunch.
I’m also guilty of not getting enough veggies throughout the day and she recommended I try to get at least 1 serving for both lunch and dinner. I’m still struggling with this– it’s hard! Since I’ve been home this week during lunch it’s been a lot easier to sneak more veggies in than when I have to pack lunch for work.
I was really surprised to find out I might not be eating enough for my workout regiment and she actually encouraged me to add more snacks throughout my day. Obviously not saying go grab a bag of potato chips, but something with a fat and protein as a midday snack– think veggies and hummus, chips and guacamole, almonds.
I never count calories and was almost shocked to realize this is probably true– my body needs a lot more fuel than I’m giving it. With this in mind I’m consciously snacking a lot more. I’ve been loving 1-2 handfuls of nuts + a few wedges of Kitehill “Cheese” as a midday snack this week.
One last thing we talked about was what to order from restaurants and takeout, unavoidable aspects of life in New York. Vanessa recommended focusing on getting my veggies in still– like you can have the pad thai but also order a salad so you still get some veggies in there. I’ll have to see what my veggie Indian food options are to go with chicken korma 🙂
Overall
I really loved the overall experience and would definitely recommend their services to just about anyone– whatever your health goals may be. Leading up to my marathon I think it would be beneficial for me to do another consultation focused solely on proper fueling while training for such a beast.
Disclosure: Almond reached out to me and provided me with a free 30-minute consolation. All opinions as always are my own.
Leave a Reply