Kristen Yarker, Dietitian
My mission is to help people develop a healthy relationship with food. I’m a registered dietitian with my own practice. Dietitians are the regulated health professional who are experts in food and nutrition. A lot of aspects of my childhood and teenage years influenced me to become a dietitian. My happiest memories are spent with my Grandmother around food. My father has a heart condition and Type 2 Diabetes. I was an athlete: in dance, gymnastics, and running. I saw a lot of my competitors develop, what I assumed to be, eating disorders. When I was 16, I looked into nutrition jobs and I found out that there was something called a “dietitian”, so I decided to become that.
My career as a dietitian has been a winding path. I’ve worked in Indigenous health in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and on reserve in northern BC. I’ve worked for the BC provincial government. I’ve been the BC Regional Executive Director for my professional association – Dietitians of Canada. In 2008, I started my own business. First, part-time, then in 2013, full-time.
I’m not a natural entrepreneur. I’m someone who chooses my own path. I ask questions instead of following what everyone else does. I’m also uncompromising in my desire to help people. I’ve come to have my own business because I want to serve people the way that I see best helps them. The only way to provide that service is to do it in my own business. I bring together the science of nutrition, psychology, behavior change, and a dash of feminist analysis of our society. I provide professional and practical nutrition for busy people. I help people with a number of experiences: those who want to get off the diet-guilt roller coaster to create healthy eating habits that stick, people in recovery from eating disorders, sports nutrition, and kids with picky eating behavior. In fact, behind my back, people call me “the picky eating whisperer”. In 2019 my first cookbook was published.
When not working, you’ll find me doing other food-related activities, such as shopping at farmers’ markets, growing veggies on my deck, or cooking. I also love to spend time being active outside, such as walking, hiking, running, and surfing. I love vegetables and tiramisu. I live in Victoria with my Sweetheart and (part-time) his three school-age children.
“It takes a lot of courage to believe in yourself and say, “just because everyone else does it this way, that’s not a good fit for me.”
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