If you’ve been following our work here at Catalyst Nutrition and Training, you know we’re not like anyone else. We offer personalized, educational nutrition counseling and coaching right alongside a fitness coaching program you can add to your lifestyle to master your health holistically.
We also bring meaningful health experiences to everything we do. Our own struggles and successes with food inform how we can best care for you, our patients.
So, to help you get to know us better, our dietitians are answering some questions we think you'll find interesting. In this post, you’ll hear from our founder and CEO, Brooke Evans MS, RDN, LDN!
1. Why did you become a dietitian?
Strap in!
Growing up, I suffered from chronic migraines, which only got worse as I got older. I went to college pre-med with the plan of becoming a doctor, and the migraines only got worse. At the time, my family-care doctor put me on a myriad of medications to help, but nothing did.
What DID happen was about 30 pounds of weight gain. Eventually, he sent me to a neurologist, who said, “Your migraines are from the stress of your schooling. Women are not meant to become doctors, they are meant to stay home and take care of their children” (yes, this was in 2015!).
That was IT for me. He did not send me for further testing. He did not fight for me to have an MRI. He simply took me as “a woman who couldn’t handle the stress,” and trust me, that I am not.
My sense of helplessness was unbelievable. I would get a migraine 4 to 5 times a week and ultimately would drive directly to my family doctor’s office on many occasions, basically to say (in tears), “DO YOU SEE THIS? THIS is the pain we are up against!”
With no help, and being 30 pounds overweight, I hired a coach to help me lose weight. The very first thing we talked about was the migraines and decided to experiment with eliminating one food at a time until we saw if this was related to an allergy.
WELL, the day we took dairy out was IT. I have not had a migraine since. That was 2015.
It was at this point that I was STILL pre-med and applying to medical schools when I said, “WHY AM I DOING THIS?” No doctor was ever able to help me. No doctor asked me about food or exercise. No one took the most fundamental approach. Needless to say, I never submitted my med school applications. I simply hit pause.
I knew I wanted to go further than a bachelor’s degree, but I was so lost. So, with my newfound love for the gym and training, I decided to pursue a master’s in nutrition while I figured out the rest.
Four years of undergrad studies, two and a half years of a master’s degree, a one-year internship, and a national board exam later, I ended up here.
2. Why did you start Catalyst Nutrition and Training?
After school, I moved away. I always KNEW I wanted to get out of this town. I did my internship in Texas, and the week I passed my boards, I left for my job as a travel dietitian, which had me working in hospitals in upstate New York, Virginia, and Georgia. And I LOVED it.
That being said, I worked for 8 months in an ICU in Georgia during the pandemic. I lived in a hotel. The only people I knew were my coworkers.
After 8 months, I had a choice to make: stay on with the network there as a permanent registered dietitian or move on to my next contract.
Well, there were no “next contracts.” There was a pandemic, and everyone was being laid off.
So I came back home to NEPA. I worked virtually for another company for a while and loved the personal touch I was able to have with my clients. It was no longer a five-minute conversation about if they ate their lunch, or a quick overview of a heart-healthy diet before they could be discharged from the hospital.
It was EDUCATION. It was CONNECTION.
And it was exactly what I needed. My main issue with this was that it was EXPENSIVE for our clients. The company did not accept insurance, and suddenly, my knowledge was only available to individuals who could afford $500 a month.
So I changed that.
I opened a business where anyone can be seen and use their health insurance to foot the bill. In my opinion, nutrition education should be available to everyone. Everyone should have access to the kind of help I NEEDED in 2015.
3. What makes Catalyst different?
What makes Catalyst different is the rapport we build with patients and our TIME SPENT.
You aren’t coming in for a quick “check in” and receiving a handout and going back out the door. We aren’t going to show you a plastic food model of mashed potatoes and say, “Only eat this much.”
I built this business to get away from the emotionless counseling that happens in bigger operations, where providers might blow through 10 to 20 patients in a day, with no real time to get to know you or your struggles.
We set aside TWO HOURS for initial consultations and then hour-long sessions after that. We use that time not just to treat you but to talk to you, get to know you, and understand you. We feel that’s the only real way to make personalized dietary recommendations to you.
And those personal connections can carry over into our own lives, to be honest! Catalyst dietitians often find themselves thinking about patients on the weekends. How often can you say you get a message from your doctor’s office to see how things are going? Probably not often! Ask our patients, occasionally WE message them FIRST to check in!
Our other big differentiator is the time we take to research the latest developments in our industry. We work to stay up to date on current trends by reading new studies and learning about alternative methods of treating disease states. This is made possible by our flexibility with time and scheduling, as opposed to larger networks.
The Catalyst brand promotes education in all ways, from us educating you to our dietitians staying up to date on recent research as it emerges.
It all makes for a more helpful and satisfying experience for you, the patient.
4. What does the Catalyst brand mean to you?
Remember that biology/pre-med background I have? Well, the word “catalyst” comes from that.
In biology, a catalyst refers to a substance, usually an enzyme, that speeds up a chemical reaction within an organism without being consumed in the process.
A catalyst facilitates the reaction to occur faster.
I created Catalyst Nutrition and training to help individuals improve their health and reach their goals, but expedited. I don’t want to see people spend years following trends online, or seeing doctors that dismiss their issues.
Catalyst is the expedited method to success. With proper nutrition in your corner, you WILL have quicker results.
Let us be your CATALYST FOR CHANGE.
5. What would you tell people who are nervous about seeing a dietitian for the first time?
Be open, be honest, and be ready to learn.
We get it. You want to feel comfortable before opening up about things you may find shameful. But trust us: we have heard it ALL.
We know food is complicated and tied to so many things in your life. The more open and honest you are with us, the more we can help. Let us ease your mind so you know that what you’re experiencing is normal, and you are not alone. If you struggle, let us know!
In our office, we think of ourselves more as “problem solvers” than dietitians. Yes, we have the knowledge of nutrition that is required of an RD, but with nutrition, it is the application that matters most.
If you don’t have TIME to cook, we can problem-solve. If you don’t enjoy certain foods, we can problem-solve. Together, we will find a solution that works for YOU.
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