This is the day of Evita Vianen, dietician and lifestyle coach. After her training, she worked as a dietitian in primary care and almost 2 years ago she started her own business. Her practice, Evita Dietitian-Lifestyle, focuses on the psychology of eating behavior, including intuitive eating. She works weight-neutral and teaches clients to experience more peace and happiness in their eating behavior.
My workplace is…
A nice and cozy place! I have my own consultation room in a collective building in Woerden where all kinds of small companies are located. Almost everyone works independently in the building, so you still have the feeling that you have colleagues around you. Nice conversations and even collaborations arise. It’s very nice that I live nearby so I don’t have a long commute.
My working day started…
Quietly with a cup of tea around 9am. I always schedule half an hour first to get started and process my emails. I also check in advance which clients I will see on that day. I schedule the appointments myself and always make sure that there is at least fifteen minutes between the appointments so that I can get tea or prepare something. This gives me a lot of peace, job satisfaction and new energy.
My agenda for this day consists of…
Two follow-up appointments with clients I have been seeing for a while. It still varies a lot how many appointments I have in a day, because I am still building up my own practice. All my clients are working to restore their relationship with food and themselves, each in his or her own way. I see both male and female clients from young to old. I focus entirely on the psychology of eating behavior and restoring the relationship with food. This is already so broad and so varied; every guidance is different. I also regularly have conversations with other professionals to increase awareness of my vision and own practice and to enter into great collaborations. Consider, for example, practice assistants, gyms, physiotherapists and psychologists. Today, for example, I am in contact with a psychologist to make an appointment for an introduction, perhaps resulting in a new collaboration. In between, I’m still working on my website: I’m working hard to set up a new website to increase my findability. Very fun to be involved with. It doesn’t always run smoothly, but usually it does. I also give presentations on intuitive eating in the region. At the end of the day another presentation is planned. I have a collaboration with a dietician from the region, who guides groups in improving their lifestyle. I can teach the participants something about the psychology of eating behavior, where our eating behavior comes from, what maintains it and how intuitive eating can help restore the relationship with food. I have already given the presentation to various groups and it is slightly different every time. I am always a bit nervous beforehand, but during the presentation I have a lot of fun and get energy from the work and what the group gives back. I head home around 5 p.m. It was a varied and useful day!
The fun/challenging thing about my work is…
That it is super varied, every day is different! I think it is very important that my working days do not only consist of 1-on-1 conversations, but that there is variety in my work. The challenge is to increase awareness of my practice and intuitive eating. The nice thing is that there is so much possible. Create a new website, create and distribute flyers, social media, contact professionals in the region, meet dieticians in the region. The great thing is that if you put energy into it and are open to it, fun and new challenges will come your way. In addition to the 1-on-1 guidance, I also give presentations in various places. My goal is to expand this further and to also start group guidance in the future. I am also part of the psychology of eating behavior working group, which gives me great satisfaction. We have training days, intervisions and other fun activities together. We all have the same weight-neutral vision, share experiences and learn from each other. I combine my practice with an employed job where I have an administrative/customer contact position in healthcare. This variety and certainty are very nice for now. I’m already very happy with how things are now and we’ll see what else the future will bring.
Today I was surprised by…
A client who has taken great steps in learning to listen to her body. She discovered that her body gave more hunger signals than she thought. By gradually giving herself permission to eat chocolate whenever she felt like it, she experienced that the need for chocolate actually decreased instead of increasing. It is very nice to be able to give clients insight into the capabilities of their own body and to learn to act accordingly to regain control over their eating behavior.
Looking back on this day…
It was a varied day with pleasant conversations with clients and fun interactions in the group during the presentation about intuitive eating. I hope that, together with my colleagues who share this vision, I can guide more and more people to a healthy relationship with food and themselves.
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