Sometimes it seems crazy the lengths we go to in order to be able to put some letters after our name. In my case, after I had worked through a Master’s program in German to acquire the letters “M.A.,” I thought if I ever went back to school again, it would be to add three more letters: PhD. I never could have guessed that in fact the three letters would be totally different…a combination of letters I had never even heard of: DTR.

This all started a little over four years ago, when I was deep in the trenches of stay-at-home motherhood with children ages 1, 3, and 5. While in theory I believed (and still do) that me staying home with my kids was the very best thing for them, my days were often long, frustrating, and devoid of that “thing with feathers that perches in the soul”: hope. The road of raising my children seemed so long, and quite honestly, being on it in the first place had taken me by surprise. As an ambitious young thing going through high school, college, and my early adulthood, I had truly never thought about what I would do work-wise if and when I had children. So when they came along and my husband and I decided it was best for me not to work, I had a pretty big chip on my shoulder about shirking my big-deal education. Even if I chosen to work, however, the trouble with my education was that it was so specific as to be obscure. There really weren’t a lot of options for meaningful work in my field, at least not where we live.

All this led to the feeling of being back at square one when I thought about that all-important question of WHAT I WANT TO DO WITH MY LIFE, both in the moment and down the road when my kids got older.

Around this time, our family had started gardening and I was doing a lot of reading of books about food. My husband Anthony had brought home a copy of Michael Pollan’s Food Rules, from his then-employer, a book publishing company. I devoured it (pun intended), then moved on to other, similar reads like Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, What to Eat by Marion Nestle, and Gulp by Mary Roach. Since, as a mom of young kids, I was already motivated to feed them well, these books both met me where I was at and gave me interesting, challenging information on an adult level. That felt  good.

The more I read, the more focused became my priorities for my family’s nutritional well-being, and the greater grew my concern for public health issues like obesity and type two diabetes. A plan began to form in my head. Nutrition, it seemed to me, was a much broader job market than German could ever be anywhere outside of Europe. After all, everyone eats, right? Could there be a career for me in this wide-open field?

Casually, I looked up my local community college’s nutrition program. Maybe I could take a class, just to check it out. That’s what I said out loud, anyway. My school-loving, accomplishment-driven inner self was already hatching plans for exactly which classes to take every semester, and calculating exactly how long a whole degree would take.

So, in January 2013, I registered for FON 142: Applied Food Principles. With my oldest son in kindergarten, my middle son in preschool, and my daughter at the home of a helpful friend, making it to the Friday morning class wasn’t a problem. I must say, being a 30-something mom walking into a community college class full of hipster 19-year-olds, I felt utterly self-conscious, but that insecurity soon fell away as I embraced the treasure of having something for myself again in the midst of giving and giving to my little ones–something that could possibly turn into a fulfilling career.

Little by little, semester by semester, I added more classes, often taking them online so as not to have to leave my kids. Every class brought me closer to my goal: to become a Registered Dietitian. Eventually, though, the realities of the R.D. loomed large before me: a LOT of coursework, a commute to downtown Phoenix to finish the degree, and the extreme competitiveness for R.D. internships (for which many people have to leave the state). It didn’t take long to realize that it all added up to a major mountain to climb for my relatively small goal of finding likable part-time work in the field of nutrition.

So I switched gears and decided on the associate’s level credential of DTR: Dietetic Technician, Registered. A DTR is able to hold many of the same responsibilities as an R.D., and the credential comes with its own 9-month internship–the difference being that the DTR intern is placed by her college, rather than having to apply for rare and highly sought-after R.D. internships. I like to tell people a DTR is like a junior R.D.

Having finished all my coursework by the end of 2015, in 2016 I launched into the requisite internship rotations of clinical, community, and food service. Let’s just say there were good times and bad times, and in the end, my heart was drawn more than ever to finding work in some type of community nutrition or public health.

And then it was finally done! My last day of internship was at the end of October 2016 and I graduated sometime in mid-December. (I think? I didn’t walk at the ceremony.) It all felt like a huge relief, and an accomplishment I’m very proud of. Pretty much immediately–and definitely by the hand of God–I landed a part-time job with an awesome schedule at a museum run by the American Heart Association, where I wear a lot of different hats, including teaching kids and adults about heart-healthy eating.

But…

There was one last step. To be an actual, licensed DTR, one must take a Big, Hairy, Snaggletoothed Monster of an exam. An exam for which people tell you things like, “Just study everything you ever learned in your whole program” and “There’s really no way to prepare.” Yeah, thanks a bunch. To give myself some time between finishing school, adjusting to a new job, and taking the actual test, I scheduled it for April 1st. (Not a joke.) I studied everything I could think of to study and took numerous practice exams using a software program my wonderful former classmate lent me. By the day of the test, I was just ready for it to be over! I felt very confident that I had studied enough and that everything would be fine.

Well, all those good vibes went swirling down the drain as I sat taking the exam. My friends, I tell you, this was the hardest test I have ever taken in my life. And I am including my “comps” written for my Master’s. Aside from maybe that one geometry test I failed in high school, I have never had the feeling during a test that I wanted to simply get up and walk out, give up. This exam had me wracking my brain with critical thinking questions, doing some pretty convoluted math, and (frankly) wishing I had attended a better community college that would have educated me about many of the questions I simply knew nothing about. When I finished question 110 and a little hourglass icon appeared frozen on the screen, waiting to give me my result, I was wracked with anxiety.

And then it said, “Congratulations!”

And I was like…

To pass the exam, you need a score of 25. (The scoring is mysterious and makes no sense, by the way. I have no idea what 25 means.) I got a 31. I passed, and that’s all I care about!

So I am now, officially, a DTR. If you’re reading this as someone interested in beginning a career in nutrition, I’d love to chat. It’s been a long road, and I am so thankful to be an actual, bona fide nutritionist!

All winter long I’ve been giving thanks for how healthy our family has been. Truly, we’ve been incredibly blessed in that no one has missed a single day of school or work due to illness in a very, very long time. In fact, it may have bordered on obsessive or even prideful how focused I’ve been on our sickness-free state. I’ve been practically Bible-thumping Psalm 91, which says, “You will not fear…the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at mid-day. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.” Hear that, sickness? You’re not coming for ME!

And then, over the weekend, I came down with a raging case of the flu. Meh.

As a nutritionist, I’m often challenged to practice what I preach when it comes to my own diet and its effect on my health. My everyday struggles include sugar intake, getting enough fruits and vegetables, and cutting back on processed foods. But when I’m sick, I feel I really have to step it up a notch with my diet. The last couple of days, when I’ve managed to drag myself out of bed to eat something, I’ve given a lot of thought to what that something should be. And since I’m laying around, not doing much except scrolling through Facebook and streaming The Man in the High Castle from sources of dubious legality, I thought I’d share some knowledge about which foods can help fight cold and flu and get you back on your feet–and which foods are best to avoid.

Here are seven evidence-based food choices to boost your immunity and help your body heal from whatever is going around this time of year. Food as medicine is real!

1. Fruits and Vegetables

Is anyone surprised? Fruits and veggies, which we all know we’re supposed to eat plenty of anyway, contain vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that keep our bodies functioning well. Peas, green beans, Brussels sprouts, avocados, and pomegranates, for example, contain high amounts of zinc, which boosts the immune system. Spinach, strawberries, and citrus fruits pack a hefty punch of Vitamin C, another friend to the immune system. (Though, while we’re on the subject, taking excessive amounts of Vitamin C won’t do anything for your cold or flu. Getting the right amount–75 mg/day for women and 90 mg/day for men–is key. If you go beyond 200-250mg/day, your kidneys will simply flush it out in your urine.)

2. Ginger

Since the body’s response to infection with cold bacteria or a flu virus is to mount a defense by creating inflammation, reducing that inflammation can bring relief of symptoms. Numerous studies have shown ginger to have anti-inflammatory properties, so including it in your diet can help you feel a little more human. Steeping a piece of peeled ginger in hot water for a few minutes to make a ginger “tea” is an easy, direct route to ingest this healing spice, or you could knock out two categories of cold-busting foods by trying a ginger-spiced chicken soup or ginger-veggie stir-fry.

3. Garlic

For centuries, garlic has been used as an antibacterial, anti-fungal agent. While its exact mechanism for immunity isn’t perfectly understood, one theory is that it helps the body produce hydrogen sulfide, which allows for better blood flow, thus circulating more of those helpful white blood cells that fight disease. Regardless of the reason, at least one study showed that taking garlic supplements reduced the duration of the common cold. Experts recommend that garlic be eaten raw, rather than cooked, for maximum benefit. Allow me to suggest this True Food Kitchen Kale Salad for a delicious way to get raw garlic in your diet.

4. Echinacea Tea

There is some controversy over the effectiveness of echinacea, since research is not 100% conclusive about its benefits for colds and flu, but for my money, enough evidence exists to support its use. One review of 14 clinical trials showed that taking echinacea in some form reduced the duration of the common cold by 1-4 days. As always, consult your healthcare provider to find out your appropriate dosage.

5. Turmeric

You can check out this post for some in-depth info on turmeric, but essentially, like garlic and ginger, turmeric has been shown to contain anti-inflammatory compounds. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can find tons of turmeric smoothie recipes online, or, if you have a really awesome spouse/roommate/adult child who’s willing to cook for you while you’re sick, have them make you some of these Spiced Red Lentils for a wholesome, healing, turmeric-infused meal.

6. Broth-based soups

There’s really something to the tradition of chicken soup for fighting illness. A study was conducted at the University of Nebraska in which neutrophils, the white blood cells that fight infection by producing inflammation, were exposed to chicken broth. This exposure slowed their activity, suggesting that the broth may slow the inflammatory process. (Wait, what? Blood cells exposed to chicken broth? Who funds these studies??) Weirdness of this study aside, its results are pretty intriguing.

7. Yogurt and other fermented foods

Once again, probiotics save the day! Yogurt and other fermented foods (like kefir, kimchee, sauerkraut, and pickles) contain the kinds of good bacteria we want in our digestive system. Because of the interaction between gut flora and the immune system, filling your belly with probiotic-rich foods is a great way to strengthen immunity.

And finally, while we’re on the subject, lemme sneak in some words to the wise on the flip side of this coin: what NOT to eat when you’re battling colds and flu. Added sugars, processed foods, and alcohol are all on the Naughty List when it comes to your immune system. (In your regular diet, alcohol in moderation is not a problem, but because of its dehydrating effect, it’s best to steer clear when you have a cold or flu.) Stay away from these no-nos for best results in your immune-boosting regimen.

Stay healthy, my friends!