Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashley Smith.
Ashley, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Before staying home with our now three kids, I spent my career working as a registered dietitian nutritionist. I always knew I wanted to work in pediatric nutrition, so I transitioned into a clinical nutrition role at Texas Children’s Hospital immediately after grad school and my dietetic internship. Despite the wonderful professional experiences working with other families afforded me, nothing could quite prepare me for feeding my own children!
With a very apprehensive eater in my oldest (born in 2014) and a second born who has followed suit (born in 2016), I can empathize with many of the mealtime dilemmas us moms face on a day to day basis. From the struggles of breastfeeding to the mess of starting solids to the woes of feeding a particular preschooler, there are so many aspects to “feeding” that I didn’t quite understand professionally until I walked through them personally.
Now, I combine my professional expertise and personal experiences to help parents achieve less mealtime stress and more feeding success. By offering evidenced-based approaches and straight-forward advice, I utilize Veggies & Virtue to share my transparent take and yet evidenced-based input on feeding our families. My goal now as a part-time work-from-home mom is to help other moms deal with the overwhelming aspect of what to feed their families and how to make meal times a sustainable process with successful progress.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Being a dietitian mom has not been a smooth road from several standpoints. I always assumed my own kids would be poster children for pediatric nutrition and adventurous eaters from the start. What I have learned though is that in having apprehensive eaters of my own, I am better able to empathize as a parent and as a practitioner on how challenging feeding kids can be at times.
Sharing both the successes and struggles of raising healthy kids has been much of what my platform is based on with Veggies & Virtue. Rather than being so idealistic, it is unrelatable to most moms, I try to share what I know as best practice, what I experience as real life, and how to relate the two in the early years of helping our families adopt healthy habits. I want to encourage fellow moms that there is so much more to raising a “healthy kid” than just in what food is offered and how to patiently pursue progress over perfection.
We’d love to hear more about Veggies & Virtue.
I am a registered dietitian nutritionist who specializes in pediatrics. While I have spent time working in the clinical setting at Texas Children’s Hospital, my Master’s Degree and main passion are in Public Health.
Since starting my private practice in 2017, I have become most well-known for my work with picky eating. I consistently share evidenced-based best practices while also incorporating actionable ideas for how to apply these approaches in everyday life. One of the frameworks I am best known for and most proud of is “Love it, Like it, Learning it.” This framework helps families approach their child’s “picky eating” in a way that simplifies the science of “how to raise a healthy eater,” while also helping to streamline how parents can present new foods without a big fuss or food fight. By fostering a feeding environment that exposes children to new and unfamiliar foods alongside their favorites, families continue to be see successful in using this framework.
This framework has set me apart from others in the industry by creating a clear way for parents to make consistent progress in feeding their families. Rather than all the advice out there with random tips for parents of picky eaters or from firsthand experiences that aren’t evidence-based, this framework is one that many fellows registered dietitians, pediatricians, feeding therapists, and health professionals continue to support and share within their own practices.
What’s the most important piece of advice you could give to a young woman just starting her career?
1% to infinity. I learned this from a popular food blog the idea that if you can just keep investing 1% to infinity in what you want to create, you will always continue to grow closer to what it is you want to create.
As a stay at home mom, it was a struggle to know exactly how to sideline a career as a dietitian I was so passionate about. Being willing to embrace this 1% to infinity idea has helped me to continue to pursue my professional passions and pursuits bit by bit, alongside the other aims and intentions I have as a mom.
Contact Info:
- Address: 4810 Oxbow Circle E
Fulshear, TX 77441 - Website: www.veggiesandvirtue.com
- Phone: 1-206-919-0493
- Email: ashley@veggiesandvirtue.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/veggiesandvirtue/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vegetablesandvirtue/
Getting in touch: VoyageHouston is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
