Idaho Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics State Meeting

I just returned tonight from our state's dietetic meeting in beautiful Sun Valley, Idaho - couldn't have been a better place to have it.  Just beautiful.

The town was very quiet because ski season is over and summer hasn't started yet.  It was very different when we were there in February for a little ski trip with Lauren and her boyfriend, Kevin, who came to Idaho for the first time.

Since Kevin hadn't been to Sun Valley, we had to take him skiing.  For our state meeting,  all the dietitians stayed at the Sun Valley Lodge, a historical place with all kinds of photos posted of the famous people who have visited.  It was built in 1936 and is just gorgeous inside and out.  The rooms are rather lovely, too, I must say.  (white robes, slippers, walk-in closets! Nice!)

It looked very different than when we were there in February.  The snow sculpture isn't there anymore...

It was a little warmer this visit. It did rain a little and this morning we woke up to snow falling!  It was so beautiful.  The snow did not stick so driving home for the 3 hour drive was not a problem.


The meeting this year had some excellent speakers who are experts in their fields such as Nancy Clark, MS, RD who has been the sport nutrition expert for decades and has written many books on the subject.  I remember going to one of her workshops in the 90's.  I realized after hearing her speak again, that I still use what I learned back then…describing to clients about fueling their body with food.  And I picked up another tip from her this time, to approach clients who are resistant to change their eating habits by saying, "Let's just experiment a little and try this and see what happens."  I like that non-threatening, non-authoritarian way of wording it.


Another speaker, Pam Charney, PhD, RD, from the University of Washington, talked about the assessment part of the Nutrition Care Process which our facility implemented a couple of years ago.  We are still learning  aspects of this and she is definitely an expert on it.  When talking to her on the side, she knew dietitians I knew in Seattle from so many years ago.  It was like going back in time since I've lived in Idaho for 13 years now.  I mentioned to her how I remembered going to workshops in the early 90's to learn about the Nutrition Care Process and she immediately knew the RD who taught it, Karen Lacey.  I didn't remember that at all.  She was a very fun person to talk with and a wealth of information.


Another favorite was listening to Evelyn Tribole, MS, RD,  talk about Intuitive Eating.  Her book, by the same title, is now out, it's third edition.  Evelyn loves to tell stories about her patients, sort of like case studies, that are rather fascinating.   She is really a eating pschologist, to sum up what she does.  I can't wait to read her third edition of Intuitive Eating.


I also loved Amy Walters, a psychologist, who talked about behavior change with patients with chronic disease.  I picked up a lot of tips from her talk, too.  She brought up the use of Motivational Interviewing a lot in her talk which is how I communicate to my patients so I am always looking for new methods and approaches to this.


The President-Elect of our national professional organization, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Ethan Bergman PhD, RD, was there and updated us all on the latest activities going on in our association;  

Ethan Bergman, Pam Charney, and me

and a couple of MDs were there who spoke about allergies and another on appropriate use of nutrition support, parenteral nutrition vs. enteral nutrition.


Those were just a few of the topics covered and all were excellent and it was a very worthwhile conference.  I really got a lot out of it this year.


It was sad when it was time to drive home, as beautiful as the drive may be.