My Experience as a Dietitian​

 

I studied clinical nutrition in Guatemala and graduated in November, 2015.

Worked in Guatemala during 2016.

Moved to Houston on January 2017 to begin my Nutrition Fellowship focused on Pediatric Critical Care. 

During my fellowship, I worked on several research projects and had abstracts published. Given that these abstracts are published, some were accepted for presentations in large conferences. 

Besides creating and cooking I enjoy the clinical area in the nutrition world! 

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My Story

 

My name is Andrea Marroquin, I was born and raised in Guatemala City.

When I had to decide what I wanted to study in college I was battling between medical school and nutrition school. The main reason why I decided to be a dietitian was because during my early years in high school I was misdiagnosed with Celiac Disease. At that time, I felt lost because I didn’t know exactly how to replace all the foods I had to eliminate from my diet. I had the support from my family but I needed a professional support that would lead me to a proper diet. Ever since I felt very passionate about nutrition, I wanted to be that guidance and support for patients who needed to modify their diets due to an underlying condition.

Throughout college and my dietetic internship, I changed my mind about what I wanted to extract from my professional career. At first, I felt inclined to having my own private practice but after rotating in different hospitals in the city I fell in love with the inpatient setting which leads to the next steps in my career.

During my last year of college, I did a short-term internship in Houston and fell in love with the hospital I rotated in. Found the opportunity to come for a fellowship in that same hospital and I didn’t hesitate for a second to take this opportunity, which has taught me so many useful life long lessons.

When I moved to Houston in 2017, I was having a hard time trying to juggle work and keeping a stable household. I wasn’t used to cooking, cleaning and also taking care of me.

At the beginning I struggled with recipes, figuring out what to eat for lunch at work and to keep things simple I just decided that I was going to eat sandwiches or wraps and I would have a more elaborated dinner at home.

Eating this every day just got old and definitely I was too tired to cook at night after a long day at work. Sometimes I would just forget to place the chicken in the fridge to defrost while I was at work so it wouldn’t be ready for me to cook it for dinner.

Many things were just happening and I wasn’t feeling myself or nourishing my body properly. This is when I actually thought I should follow my own advice about meal prepping. I remember back in Guatemala I used to tell my clients that they needed to meal prep so they could have nourishing meals during the week.

I know it sounds like a lot of work and planning but honestly it was the tool that helped me organize myself and feel more energized.

We often times don’t give food the credit it deserves, food gives us calories and these calories are the energy or fuel we need to fulfill our needs and activities. We usually end up relying on coffee and other sources of caffeine to stay alert and awake. Me back then, needed 3-4 cups of coffee to keep my day going and with this my whole sleeping cycle was affected.

With this experience I have to say that meal prepping is an amazing tool and not for the diet and restriction purpose but to make sure you’re eating a meal that you enjoy and of your preference.

Thank you for showing up to my blog!