Meet Lauren Cornell, MS, RD, who gets excited to help her clients with GI disorders and with sports nutrition needs. She has a thriving private practice where she has found success and fulfillment doing exactly what she loves. Lauren is an amazingly warm and inviting dietitian who I have had the luxury of working with via social media and spokesperson work. She knows how to make people feel welcome and cared for which has helped her career success as a dietetic entrepreneur. - Sarah

What attracted you to the field of nutrition and dietetics?

I’ve always been passionate about health & fitness and was always reading nutrition books and tweaking my own diet to experiment with things I’d read about as sort of a hobby, but what made me decide to pursue nutritional science as a career was a combo of two things: a family member’s battle with cancer and seeing how changes in her diet allowed her to prolong her life for several years against medical odds, and a trip to Guatemala where I learned that in developing countries without government regulations on food safety and access to healthy food options, there were a lot of health issues that could likely be avoided with nutrition education and access to dietetic care. In short, I saw the need for nutrition intervention on an individual and global level and wanted to be able to help in both ways. So, I went back to school and had a full career change to become a registered dietitian so that I could do just that.

Your Job Title?

Founder/CEO of Lauren Cornell Nutrition, Inc.

Clinical Dietitian

Company you are with now?

Lauren Cornell Nutrition, Inc. (full-time)

Cedars-Sinai Medical Group GI Department (per diem. I see patients there 1 day/week)

Website: https://www.laurencornellnutrition.com/

Instagram: @LaurenCornellNutrition

Twitter: @LaurenCornellRD

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LaurenCornellNutrition/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-cornell-ms-rd-6302611/

Describe a typical (or not so typical) day-in-the-work-life for you?

Every day is different from the next, which is exactly how I like it. Diversifying my work keeps me on my toes and allows me to look forward to each new day. I’ll give you a few examples of work days I might have, though, to get an idea:

Most days start with a pretty regimented morning routine that I find to be a recipe for managing my sanity and my time with a busy schedule. I’m currently training for a half marathon, so I’m also fitting in a run workout before work a few mornings a week. I then see a handful of patients at my office before lunchtime. I typically see anywhere from 5-9 patients in a day, depending on the week. I like to break up patient care time with a few hours midday, ideally, either for a lunch meeting or to devote some time to research, reading up on conditions I treat, working on a consulting gig or side project I have in the works, or simply catching up on emails/calls. I always take a lunch break no matter what, whether it be to just relax for a minute with a healthy meal at my office or to visit a new spot in town for a lunch meeting. Then, I’ll see a few more patients in the afternoon before I close up shop. My evenings usually consist either of a workout, dinner with friends, or catching up on emails or work. While I really try and limit my work to just office hours (8a-6p), part of being an entrepreneur with diversified work is feeling as though the work is never done.

Depending on the nature of my patient roster at any given time, I sometimes visit hospitals for tube feed consults or training facilities for athletes or sports teams that I’m working with.

On Wednesdays, I see patients all day in the GI clinic at Cedars-Sinai, with the occasional break in patient care to observe a procedure or chat with the medical team about coordinating patient care.

Fridays are my admin days, so they look completely different than the other days of the week. I typically meet with my intern on Fridays for a few hours, either just go update each other on projects we’re working on or to visit a nutrition-related site or organization in town - what we call “field trips.” Otherwise, Fridays are reserved for catching up on patient phone calls, emails, paperwork, and working on fun community outreach projects or whatever I have in the works at the moment.

What skills were you born with and what skills have you learned along the way?

I naturally excel in people. I’m an extrovert, so I get my charge from being around people and love being around them (most of the time). I also pride myself on the ability to identify a person’s innate strengths and help them use those strengths to reach their full potential, which comes in handy when I’m aiming to help motivate a patient or an athlete make a diet or lifestyle change. My mom always taught me that class is making everyone in the room feel comfortable, and I really try and live by that. I believe this has helped me to relate to my patients, make them feel welcome and heard, and to allow them to trust me with their care.

The skills I’ve had to learn along the way are time management (still working on that) and setting boundaries. Learning to apply the practices of essentialism to opportunities that come my way as well as the ability to say ‘no’ to those that aren’t going to serve me has helped me immensely to reserve my time and energy for only what’s truly important to me. Time is so valuable and should really only be reserved for people and efforts that are essential to you.

What advice do you have for others wanting to be just as successful and fulfilled as you?

I think getting clear on what success means to you and what fulfills you is the first step because if you start by chasing someone else’s idea of success and fulfillment, chances are you’re going to feel as though you’re swimming upstream or will just be unhappy. The best way to do this is to be mindful of how you feel - physically and energetically - when you are doing different things, around different types of people, and in different places. If you’re springing out of bed in the morning and cannot wait to get to your office because your patient roster for that day has 5 new patients with Crohn’s disease on it and then you get to visit a training facility to watch a new athlete you’re working with run drills with his coach (me raising my hand), then maybe GI disorders and sports nutrition should be your specializations. If you let out a deep sigh and feel your body tense up when you see a phone message from someone inquiring about whether you see individuals for weight loss (also raising my hand), then maybe you should refer those patients to another dietitian who loves to work with weight management. All of the directional signs we need are right within us… we just have to be open to seeing and feeling them. And these can change and morph with time. I truly believe that success and fulfillment come with doing what you truly love to do.

If you could be paid for your job with something other than a paycheck, what
would it be?

Airline miles to be able to travel wherever, whenever. I want to see it all! And maybe dive gear and water toys so that I can see everything both above and below sea level (I grew up on an island and nerd out on all things ocean).