Meeting with Your Registered Dietitian

The first session is an opportunity for you and your RD to get to know each other. Your RD will introduce themselves and share their plan for the session, which may include a review of general Culina Health protocols, to give you a sense of how we operate and work together. You’ll also have a chance to share why you decided to book your first nutrition counseling session.

Your RD will review your intake form with you, using it as a jumping off point for you to tell your story and for your RD to ask more in-depth questions. They may also ask you to provide an example of what a typical day of eating might look like for you, to understand your current intake and dietary preferences.

Your RD will provide education aligned with your reason(s) for your visit, or other topics that arise throughout the session. If you are very knowledgeable about a certain topic, the education may be more in-depth and science-focused. If you are newer to nutrition education, we’ll start with basic concepts and gradually progress from there.

You and your RD will work together to create a care plan and set short- and long-term goals, refine them, and develop strategies to attain them. Your RD will be there every step of the way to support you and offer pragmatic, evidence-based advice as you turn your goals into sustainable, manageable action.

Most people benefit from weekly or biweekly sessions when they first start working with a Registered Dietitian. Based on how many sessions are covered under your insurance or allocated in your membership plan, you and your RD will mutually decide on a meeting frequency. Setting up recurring appointments will help you stay on track and secure your spot.

Together, you and your RD will develop your personalized care plan based on your unique needs. To set you up for success, we typically focus on incremental, short-term wins that are easy to fit into your current life, which becomes a week-to-week action plan that leads you toward your big-picture goals.

Your RD may send you educational materials related to the topics covered during your session so you can reference them between sessions and continue learning. Depending on the goals you identify, your dietitian may include recipes, meal ideas, grocery lists, and other recommendations that may be helpful.

Your care plan in the Culina Health app will outline the goals you establish during the initial session with your RD. You have the option to check in on your goals, edit them, and mark them as completed in the app to help you stay on track and share successes with your RD between sessions.

You can use the messaging feature on your Culina Health app to message your RD between sessions—for example, asking a question or sharing a success/challenge. Your RD will establish communication expectations, but you can generally expect a timely response.