We were lucky to catch up with Tatum Vedder recently and have shared our conversation below.

Tatum, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

I was placed in ballet and tap dance at age 4 with soccer to soon follow. I got exposure to other sports including softball, dance, gymnastics, and what then took priority and the main stage, volleyball. I believe this had a strong influence on my athleticism, ability to be a team player, and value for fitness as a lifestyle. My dad taught me how to lift weights at age 15 which has served me as a passion and stress reliever. My father is a retired chiropractor, former power builder and personal trainer, while my mother was a former aerobics teacher. They both illuminated and exemplified the importance of living an active lifestyle and how to properly fuel my body.

Nutrition was also at the forefront at a young age, relatively more than the average kiddo on the block. My parents encouraged protein, fruit, and vegetables, while limiting added sugars from my diet. This was normal for our family, I fortunately wasn’t hooked on Lucky Charms.

Observing, learning, and living a healthy lifestyle set me up for success to do what I do today. I pay it forward and help others improve their diet and lifestyle. I practice what I preach which is invaluable to my clients. I am so thankful for the parenting I received and the influence they had on my health and now my career. I wouldn’t be where I was without them. Their acts of good health in their younger years are serving them well now as they are in good health which I am so thankful for.

Tatum, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I help people improve their diet and lifestyle. My specialty is nutrition counseling for injured or post-operated folks in recovery looking to get back to their active lifestyles. An injury or recovery from surgery commonly causes unwanted weight gain, appetite changes, muscle loss, and emotional eating.

Injuries and orthopedic surgeries are so common and so detrimental to one’s mind and body. Recovery from injury is a process that most individuals do not receive guidance and sufficient support in. Furthermore, nutrition for the healing and recovery process is undervalued and under addressed.

What often happens when someone is recovering from an injury or surgery is that they will not receive guidance on how to manage their diet, appetite, and inactivity. This leads to a cascade of uninformed nutrition decisions that impact their weight, muscle growth, appetite, and healing potential. This is where I step in. I guide and teach these folks how to fuel themselves appropriately in the condition that they are in. This requires accurate calorie and macronutrient targets, blood sugar and hormone stability, adequate hydration, targeted nutrients, and let’s not forget, coping mechanisms to manage the lack of mobility, stress, and emotion of it all.

Most of the time, I often work with people who had an injury and it sets them back years after. Still struggling to lose the weight, gain the muscle lost, and reduce the pain they have from their not-so-fresh injury. I help these people get back to their fittest and strongest version of themselves.

What brought me to this population was a lengthy recovery from my own college volleyball injury. In 2019 I tore my ACL, medial and lateral menisci, and managed to carve out a pretty large defect (pothole) on my femur. Over the course of four years, it required six knee surgeries, three surgeons, 12 physical therapists, countless tears, and a whole lot of pain.

But it made the resilience in me shine brighter. It encouraged the desire to seek out answers on how to maximize healing and recovery. It led me to overcome and help others navigate this rocky road.

My first hand experience with injury and surgery recovery combined with my thorough nutrition training, training in eating disorders, and athletic history is what sets me apart from other dietitians. To be able to truly empathize with clients on all the minuscule ailments of this process and experience is something not found in a classroom or online course.

I am most proud of the wins that my clients gain along the way. I often have clients come to me in hopes to lose weight, fearing the answer will be a restrictive diet that won’t last. They soon realize my approach is not what they expected. They often feel liberated with their food choices, free of stress, obsession, and confusion. They feel better, more energized, and have fewer symptoms. They feel confident that the habits they develop are long lasting, not a temporary fad. These are all wins of the work we do. It reduces the value of the number on the scale and places comprehensive health and wellbeing at the pedestal. I call this finding our equilibrium state.

Have you ever had to pivot?

During the recovery of my 5th surgery, I was working for a group private practice and with the UCSD athletics department. Both were wonderful, full of learning and the opportunity to guide so many individuals in their health journey. But I was burning out. There will always be peaks and valleys of stress in life and at this time, I was at my max due to many personal matters while feeling a little lost career wise. I completed the school year with UCSD and resigned from the group practice to figure out where I wanted to go from here and how I can make it sustainable and filled with more passion.

I pivoted. I used my personal training certification to start teaching group fitness classes and took on a server role at a restaurant. Both positions allowed me to stay relatively within the nutrition space of exercise and food service, allowing me to feel as though I didn’t make a complete exit. What it provided was time to reflect and consider what my next career steps were. I did this for 6 months. I had a small procedure for my sixth and final knee surgery and I got nervous around the lack of security and safety of my physically demanding jobs. I realized I needed to put my studies and credentials to work. While recovering from this surgery, I realized how much I had truly learned about this process, injuries, and the relationship to nutrition. Cue light bulb. Here I realized that I found the space in which I wanted to practice nutrition, who to help, and how to do it.

If I hadn’t taken the time to step back and assess what I wanted and needed, I wouldn’t have had the clarity, drive, and motivation to make a plan and execute it. This was an incredible lesson that I will keep continuing to reflect on and encourage to others who approach a similar situation. Although we are embedded in a hustle culture, some of the most monumental moments of life come from silence and observation. It is never a waste of time to take a break and turn inward.

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

A college professor of mine once told me that a person will have three or more careers in their lifetime. When we apply for colleges, we are expected to declare a major. Upon beginning college, in order to finish “on time,” it is encouraged to stick with that major. If we switch majors, transfer schools, take a gap year, it can instill a fear of being late or behind. Late to what? Behind in what? What is the goal we are all striving for? When we finish college “on time,” we don’t win. We didn’t get first place. How are we supposed to know what we want at age 16 or 17 when we have been on this Earth for 70 years or more. Why are we supposed to fit the criteria to finish school and still know what to do, what to be, and where to live within four years? Beyond that, there are societal norms that impose a timeline and a deadline, making it feel like we need to keep up. It all seems rushed and imposed.

To answer the question, would I choose the same profession if I could go back, yes. There is so much value in trial and error and so much time wasted regretting. Refining preferences creates adventure for life. If we start off knowing exactly what to do, where to be, and who to be, life would be dull and humdrum. I do not know what the future holds for me if I will transition into a meal prep company, create a food product, or travel the world to help third world countries. The opportunities are endless. I do know however, I am right where I need to be. Fully immersed in nutrition and its emerging science, to learn and apply to the community that I serve. And if I do change directions, I will never regret or feel that what I built, who I helped, and the experiences I gained from it all were a waste. Life is for living and living requires experiences that aren’t linear or always inherently connected.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.equilibriumnutrition.net/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tatum_equilibriumnutrition/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tatumvedder/

Image Credits

Headshot & green board shot: Smalls Photography https://www.instagram.com/smalls_photography_/

Surfing photos: Casey Figlewicz
https://www.instagram.com/figlewiczphotography/