Meet Liz Cazares, MS, RD, an incredible dietitian whom I met through a Mastermind group. Liz is an amazing teacher and mentor, too. She shares her ups and downs in her career path in order to help others find their own way as a dietitian. Liz provides a clear understanding of the trials and tribulations dietitians can experience when wanting to branch out from an existing clinical dietetic job into another niche, such as private practice or consulting. Check out her journey. It’s a great guide to paving your own future career path. - Sarah

What attracted you to the field of nutrition and dietetics?
I won’t lie, I feel like my disordered relationship with food and my body was the subconscious draw to nutrition and I’m so glad I made that choice. I used to think we could heal our issues with food which is not completely true. At the end of the day, nutrition and dietetics actually saved me. It opened me up to the support I needed and I learned about Health At Every Size and Intuitive Eating. If I hadn’t gone through my program, I may still be at war with food and my body and probably spiraled to a bad place. I now work with eating disorders, disordered eating, and Intuitive Eating, and it feels so right. At the end of the day, I want to help.

Besides my personal reasons, I think the human body is amazing and once I started my biochemistry classes, I knew I was headed in the right direction. I looked forward to learning about metabolism and was left in awe that our bodies know how to do so much!

Your Job Title?
Registered Dietitian, owner of Liz Caz Nutrition

Company you are with now?
I recently quit my part-time job to go full-time into growing my private practice. My most recent job was working at Discovery Mood and Anxiety Program with adolescents struggling with mental health issues, substance abuse, and eating disorders/disordered eating.

Website:
lizcazaresrd.com

Describe a typical (or not so typical) day-in-the-work-life for you?
I guess I’m figuring out what a typical day looks like for me. On my agenda today is calling insurance companies to find out where my payments are and why some of my claims have been denied. I also plan on applying to a new insurance company. Next, I have to chart on my clients (the charting never ends), and the most important thing in growing my practice, marketing.

For marketing, I have put together a list of treatment centers (eating disorder, mental health, and substance abuse), therapists and primary care doctors that I need to reach out to for referrals.

Right now, I see clients 2 days out of the week and plan on growing that to 4 days.

I will also continue to work on a group program that I am creating with a personal trainer promoting health through a Health at Every Size and Intuitive Eating/exercise paradigm.

I hope to have some time to work on my Intuitive Eating certification at some point today.

How did you get your current job in dietetics?
My goal has always been to go into private from day one but I still needed to pay the bills. I knew I wanted to do something with lifestyle/behavior changes because a part of me knew there was more to health than just the focus on food and weight. However, I was still deep in diet culture.

Right before I passed my RD exam, I was hired as a consultant dietitian for long-term care. It paid well for a new grad and worked with my school schedule as I was continuing on to my masters. I moved after I graduated but continue to consult for LTC to this day.

Before my move, I applied anywhere and everywhere! I was losing my health benefits from school and that was top of mind. I eventually got a job at DaVita working in dialysis. It wasn’t my dream but dialysis pays well and it’s a great learning opportunity. It also helped me in working with an IDT as you have to communicate with doctors, social workers, and nurses daily on top of weekly and monthly meetings. The schedule is also flexible which is great for someone with private practice and/or kids. There’s no work on the weekends. After almost 3 years I was getting bored and knew dialysis wasn’t my passion. I have always been interested in preventative. I applied for some nutrition communication jobs as I thought I might find those more exciting but ultimately decided to stay in dialysis for the flexibility so I could put my effort into building a private practice.

An opportunity came my way to work in kidney transplant at Keck USC as a consultant and I went for it. I was unhappy at DaVita and needed a change. While I figured out my niche, I marketed to nephrologists for post-transplant and CKD patients. I was at Keck for around a year until I moved from Los Angeles to Orange County. I applied for a few jobs and then the pandemic hit. Luckily, I was offered a part-time job at Discovery Mood and Anxiety program. It was quite a pay cut but I felt like it was bringing me closer to my ideal client. It was also less stressful than my previous jobs. At DMAP, I worked in 3 residential facilities counseling adolescents with substance abuse and mental health issues. Although we weren’t an eating disorder facility, a lot of kids came through with eating disorders and disordered eating. At DMAP, I finally found a population that felt right and I looked forward to going to work and counseling. Only being able to find a part-time job during the pandemic was also the push I needed to take my private practice seriously. It’s scary going all in due to the lack of a guaranteed paycheck and guaranteed clients. I decided to contract with insurance companies and that really helped grow my practice.

Today, I am still working at DMAP one day a week (it’s been a little over a year) and working on growing my private practice from part-time to full-time. I currently specialize in eating disorders, disordered eating, Intuitive Eating, CKD, and general nutrition.

What skills were you born with and what skills have you learned along the way?
I was definitely born with a type-A personality that contributes to my organization, reliability, and determination. I’d like to think I’m a quick learner and am a pretty go-with-the-flow-type person. Change is inevitable and being able to roll with it is helpful. I genuinely want to help, am a caring person, and like to think I’m a good listener. Along the way, I’ve improved my counseling skills from telling to listening and identifying where the patient is at, and starting from there. Asking a lot of questions and more details helps a lot in patient success over telling them what to do. I’ve also built a thicker skin. Working in mental health is tough and there were a couple of times I let the kids make me cry. Working in mental health teaches you a lot about yourself. I’ve learned to not take things personally and I’ve learned better conflict resolution skills. I’ve learned more about the importance of self-care. When I start to take things personally, it means I am burnt out and need to let things go. I’ve also learned not to work harder than my clients because that burns me out fast.

What advice do you have for others wanting to be just as successful and fulfilled as you?
I would recommend people get involved. There are too many dietitians who bad mouth AND and CDR, but aren’t willing to get involved and be a part of the change.

Don’t doubt yourself or fish for advice in RD groups, everyone has their own path and only you know what that is. It’s great to have support but I see so many RDs in the Facebook groups looking for validation. Everyone will give you their opinion but it doesn’t mean it’s right and can cloud your decisions.

Think outside of the box. Working for yourself is not for everyone but there are so many opportunities out there for dietitians that we don’t know exist yet. If you want the security of a 9-5 job with benefits, you don’t just have to work in the hospital or some kind of clinical setting.

I didn’t even know nutrition communications was a thing until years after I graduated. Get creative and see what else is out there. One-to-one counseling is not for everyone and can be draining. There are writing opportunities, recipe development opportunities, you can work for food companies or supplement companies, there’s research, and there are plenty of need for group programs.

Although it sounds like a pain, accepting insurance is a great way to build your practice and help the people who need your services but couldn’t afford them otherwise.

Negotiate your salary and ask for raises! If those are absolutely out of the question, ask for other perks like continuing education funds, gym memberships, etc.

Pay it forward. I am grateful to the RDs who graciously encouraged me and helped me along the way. I try to pay it forward as much as I can.

Don’t worry about a niche! Just start.

If you could be paid for your job with something other than a paycheck, what
would it be?
I would have to say it’s a toss-up between clothes and groceries. I’m a sucker for clothes, shoes, and accessories but I would love to go to the grocery store and get whatever I want without thinking about a budget.