Many fitness and wellness professionals struggle to coach their clients on nutrition. Indeed, nutrition is a very complex area of health behavior change and requires a significant amount of time investment on the part of the practitioner. Often this is time fitness and wellness professionals don’t have. Beyond that, coaching nutritional behavior change requires an operational knowledge of not just the physiology of nutrition, but also psychology, as many clients’ relationship with food is complicated (and in some cases boarders on pathological). To that end, this may not be an area of coaching fitness and wellness professionals can “go it alone.”
Clients who require significant nutrition behavior change, beyond just healthy eating, may benefit from working with a registered dietician, in collaboration with their fitness/wellness professional. Episode 32 of the Wellness Paradox Podcast explores this collaborative relationship between fitness/wellness professional and registered dietitian (RD) as we’re joined by RD Allison Mankowski.
Allison has significant experience in several different settings coaching clients on nutrition-related behavior changes. In this conversation she’ll provide insight into where a fitness/wellness professionals’ scope of practice starts, and stops, with regard to nutrition. Moreover, she’ll also provide an actionable framework for fitness/wellness professionals to collaborate with local registered dietitians to help their clients get better results, make their job easier, and build a more sustainable business all at the same time.
Our Guest: Allison Mankowski, MPH, RDN, CSSD
Allison is the sports dietitian for Eastern Michigan University and the owner of a nutrition counseling practice located in Ann Arbor, MI. Over the past 10 years, she has built the sports nutrition program at EMU to improve the health and performance of all 400+ varsity athletes, while also building her private practice focusing on sports nutrition and eating disorder recovery. Allison is well-known locally for specializing in treatment of athletes with eating disorders. She has served as a consultant dietitian for the Detroit Lions, partnered with many local gyms, high schools, universities and sports clubs, presented at national conferences, given guest lectures, been featured in various forms of media and is also the author of the book, Eating Disorders in Athletes: How to Recognize, Intervene and Prevent.
Prior to becoming a registered dietitian, Allison received her BS in Movement Science from the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology, with an additional concentration in psychology and her MPH in Human Nutrition/Dietetics from the University of Michigan School of Public Health, where she also completed her Dietetic Internship.
In her free time, Allison enjoys spending time outdoors and attending sporting events with her husband and two kids. As a lifelong athlete, she continues to stay active in weightlifting, biking, running, yoga and hiking. She has completed five half marathons, numerous 5K and 10K’s, a triathlon and multiple adventure races.