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MY
ROUSES
EVERYDAY
JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2017
the
Eat Right
issue
I
ate oodles of instant ramen noodles
during my college days at Southeastern
Louisiana University in Hammond.
Chicken, beef, pork, it didn’t matter; I wasn’t
loyal to one flavor. On special occasions, I’d
even skip the flavor packet and use jarred
spaghetti sauce instead. How’s that for
living? I may have even believed ramen to
be one of the four basic food groups.
It wasn’t until after college graduation that
I became interested in eating a healthier
diet. Researching online, I quickly observed
that anyone with the power to blog was
a nutrition expert. The information was
confusing and often inconsistent, and I
wanted a more informed perspective. My
hunger for the facts led me to Nicholls
State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana,
where I earned a second bachelor’s degree
in dietetics.
The move toThibodaux was not easy. I didn’t
know a soul and had to work three different
jobs to pay for school. (You may have seen
me at Starbuck’s or Chili’s.) But I ending up
meeting some of the most wonderful and
thoughtful people in Thibodaux, and I was
incredibly sad when I left for an internship
in Houston after graduation.
I completed a year-long internship at the
Veterans Affairs Medical Center and my
Master of Nutrition at Texas Women’s
University. I was then eligible to sit for
and earned the Registered Dietician title,
passing the exam. I was on my way, a far cry
from ramen noodles.
It was my work at the hospital that was my
ah-ha moment. There I realized I did not
want to work in a hospital setting, but rather
help people before they reached that point.
In Houston I met a dietitian who worked
for a big Texas grocery chain. A light bulb
Meet Your
Rouses
Dietitian