We originally posted a spotlight with Melissa Halas, MA, RDN, CDE, back in 2011! The past nine years have been full of incredible growth and positive change within her successful, dynamic career. Superkids Nutrition is still running strong and continues to be a mega-site and resource for families and kids. Since our original post, Melissa started Melissa’s Healthy Living.

Melissa is a powerhouse dietitian who has had amazing accomplishments. Not only has she optimized our industry, she is constantly elevating other dietitians and RDs-to-be. She’s definitely making this world a better place. Read on to learn more. - Sarah

What attracted you to the field of nutrition and dietetics?
I've always enjoyed supporting people on their journey to healthier habits and living their best life. In high school, one of my favorite courses was anatomy and physiology. In my sophomore year, my lunch table presented me with a t-shirt that read, "All Natural, No Artificial Ingredients or Preservatives." I knew back then I wanted to be a dietitian. I also loved hosting "dinner parties" for my friends during our junior and senior years with healthy – and sometimes odd –food combos. Through childhood and adolescence, my food allergies negatively impacted how I felt. I realized food played an important role in energy, mood, and well-being.

Your Job Title?
Registered Dietitian and Founder of SuperKids Nutrition and Melissa's Healthy Living

Company you are with now?
SuperKids Nutrition: a website and business that provides nutrition content, outreach, and health messages to parents, schools, kids, and health care professionals. We work with both nonprofit and for-profit organizations and companies that align with our mission to grow healthy kids, families, and communities. SuperKids Nutrition Inc. was founded in August 2006 as the first kids' nutrition mega-site. We have thousands of content items from activities for kids, to tasty recipes, to parenting advice on how to feed kids, and so much more. Most of our activities feature the Super Crew, a group of kids who get their powers from colorful plant-based foods. They appear on our site in activities, coloring pages, and in partnerships with programs and schools, like the Healthy Kids Today Program with the American Institute for Cancer Research.

Melissa's Healthy Living: about eight years after creating SuperKids Nutrition, I found parents and clients without kids asking questions that pertained more to adult health and wellness. So, I started Melissa's Healthy Living as a way to reach adults. I already counseled clients throughout the lifecycle and was teaching eight courses that covered a wide range of ages and conditions. I had plenty to write about! Through the site, I provide nutrition counseling, write, and develop recipes regularly for websites and brands.

Websites:

https://www.superkidsnutrition.com/

https://www.melissashealthyliving.com/

Social Media:

Instagram: @Superkidsnutrition

Instagram: @Melissashealthyliving

Pinterest: @MelissaHalasCA

Pinterest: @Superkidsnutr

Facebook: SuperKids Nutrition

Facebook: Melissa’s Healthy Living

Describe a typical (or not so typical) day-in-the-work-life for you?
I would say that my days are not so typical. In general, my days and weeks vary greatly. I love creating content, recipes, and programs for brands, but it comes in waves. For example, this week, I'm:

• working on a logic model for grant funding on a family and kids community nutrition intervention with the Super Crew,
• writing on kids and adult health for my sites,
• working on a presentation for Kiwi's Beyond the Lunchbox Digital conference on plant-based eating for kids, sustainability and parenting food,
• and submitting several recipes and articles on IBS and Diabetes
• responding to a couple private practice questions on protein powders

I see private practice clients 1-2 days a week. I work with kids (picky eaters – is a favorite), families, and athletes of all ages, as well as pregnancy and IBS/SIBO clients. I'm also a certified diabetes educator, which is helpful when I have clients with diabetes. I do have help, though! A couple of years ago, I hired a fantastic dietitian when I realized stress management, exercise, and healthy eating wasn't enough. I needed to delegate and outsource tasks like SEO, website growth, and final edits on projects. A not-so-typical day may include the following and more:

• Article writing
• Working with brands
• Recipe development
• Grant writing
• Website content development
• Presentations
• Book writing
• Private practice
• Social media content development

I love going from counseling a high school swimmer to working with an expectant mother or helping someone get a diagnosis of SIBO. After over 20 years of nutrition, I greatly need diversity to stay challenged and happy. Even when I worked in clinical, there were times I covered the NICU and adult ICU.

After 18 years of teaching, I resigned to be able to write and publish a few books. After creating and teaching these courses for so long, and keeping up to date on many topics, I wanted more time to write. Fortunately, these years provided me with a wide variety of reviewing research, guidelines, and applying it, which allowed me to develop several specialties. I taught courses on functional foods (phytonutrients, supplements, and brain health), sports nutrition, weight management (kids and adults), public nutrition (wellness + vitamins/minerals), organic/environmental nutrition (which included a lot on plant-based easting), and family/kids nutrition (behavioral change/parenting food). Now, most of my daily work still revolves around these specialties, complemented with private practice.

Many of my days the past few years included hours devoted to writing four books:

• The Plant-Based Boost, Nutrition Solutions for Athletes and Exercise Enthusiasts
• The Plant-Based Boost Cookbook, 100+ Recipes for Athletes and Exercise Enthusiasts (the companion book to The Plant-Based Boost)
• The Super Crew's Breakfast Cookbook for Kids, 50 Tasty Recipes + 100 Fun Nutrition Activities
• Healthy Eating for Families, the Ultimate Guide for Kids, Parents, and Educators, Starring the Super Crew – will be released in English and Spanish July 2020 (I started this one ten years ago and kept updating and revising it.)

How did you get your current job in dietetics?
I was a clinical nutrition manager at a teaching hospital when my daughter was born. There weren't any nutrition websites online. I couldn't find anything on how to introduce babies' first foods, and that's how SuperKids Nutrition started. Within a couple of years, we had partnered with a dozen schools and were listed on many government websites as a credible source. Today, we partner with 5,000 schools and are listed on hundreds of .gov and .edu websites. The platform has allowed me to work with many other businesses and organizations.

The grants I'm working on involve another dietitian friend/colleague I've stayed in touch with over the years (networking is so essential in our field!). This has led me to work with Pace University to get grant funding to test the Super Crew curriculum based on the latest Super Crew book mentioned above. We've already had the Super Crew focus-group tested in ages 3-11 through a CDC funded research grant. I'm really looking forward to implementing a Super Crew program in the community to boost plant-based foods and help create sustainable behavioral changes.

I also serve on Neuriva's Brain Health Network, which has been incredibly rewarding as I love anything that lets me delve into the benefits of phytonutrients! They contacted me directly over a year ago, which is how many of my consulting opportunities have come to fruition. This position is also a favorite because we do get to talk a bit about clinical research, and that was my first love in nutrition, having worked in both clinical and clinical trials.

What skills were you born with, and what skills have you learned along the way?
I think I was born a list maker. I love organized projects – like cataloging, categorizing, and re-categorizing into more lists and subcategories (ha!). I always enjoyed connecting concepts and creating. Writing was a skill I had to learn along the way. Also, prioritizing. Years ago, I served as the Co-President of the Los Angeles Dietetic Association. Back then, there weren't webinars, and we'd organize food and a speaker for monthly events. I learned how to budget and get things in the green, which also helped me as a clinical manager.

What advice do you have for others wanting to be just as successful and fulfilled as you?
Create goals, both big and small, and don't give up on them! I have big goals for community service that I set out years ago. I'm still not as close as I want, but hard work and surrounding yourself with the right people and the right help can be a game-changer. Ultimately, I will create a nutrition and literacy project for the community that combines early reading and nutrition intervention with the Super Crew. These are two critical issues that affect our kids' health and success. I also want to offer a paid internship for minorities and immigrants, in place of my current mentorship with immigrants, and offer cooking classes to foster kids. These are on my dream board but often feel out of reach. I think as with most entrepreneurs, you have good days and bad days. But when you want to give up, you remember why you started this. Practice gratitude with the small things to give you that push you need until your next paycheck. Some of the best advice I could give is to stay organized, focus on top priorities, and don't get discouraged even when you have to take a different path to achieve the final goal! Only work with people and companies of strong character.

If you could be paid for your job with something other than a paycheck, what would it be?
That's an interesting question. I wouldn't say no to a weekend get-away with my daughter with no responsibilities. But what I'd really want, and I know my daughter would love too, would be for someone to cover the costs for a big food demo along with a new nutrition-themed book for each kid at a program called Family's Forward. I think this would be the kind of memory we'd never forget.