We were lucky to catch up with Amanda Sauceda recently and have shared our conversation below.

Amanda, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s go back in time to when you were an intern or apprentice – what’s an interesting story you can share from that stage of your career?

My best piece of advice when completing your internship is to participate in as many different types of activities as you can. The internship is your time to get to learn the variety of aspects that your field has and see what you love and what you don’t care. Even during those times where you’re not in love with that aspect of your field you can still take something away from the experience.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I love to eat and knew I would never get tired of talking about food which is why I chose nutrition as my major. I wasn’t prepared for how much science was going to be involved but haven’t looked back since.

My first job as a Registered Dietitian was working at a school district where I created nutrition education programs for some of the elementary and high schools. One of my favorite programs was working with 4th graders where we were able to have them cook. They loved it and loved learning about the foods they were making.

Currently I teach and have my own business where I focus on gut health. Gut health is my passion because it is something that impacts all areas of the body.

If there is one thing I wish more people knew about gut health is that there is no one universal list of good or bad foods for the gut. As part of my practice I help people find their version of gut-friendly using principles of mindfulness. My approach is called The Mindful Gut®.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Listening to your gut can help you personally and professionally. I feel like I have always tried to listen to my gut but I haven’t always. In the past, I would listen but then decide to go a different route because it was something I felt like I should do. I’ve used those experiences as learning moments and now I really try to listen and follow through on what I instinctually feel will be right for me.

Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?

I totally would do this all over again. The thing I would change is to be a lot more outgoing. I would think less about I feel I “should” do as a dietitian and explore more unconventional routes to working in dietetics. I think this applies for a lot of fields! Explore as much as you can when you are a student.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.amandsauceda.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/guthealth.nutritionist/