Why I Loved the Culinary Nutrition Expert Program

I happened upon the Culinary Nutrition Expert (CNE) program by chance. I am not a nutritionist but I was deeply interested and passionate about nutrition and health, and was contemplating going to nutrition school. So by serendipity or destiny, I found the Academy of Culinary Nutrition.

Something about Meghan Telpner’s style of teaching and personality resonated with me. (Check out the free Culinary Nutrition mini-training to see what I'm talking about.)

After attending the 2016 Culinary Nutrition Conference, I decided to take the leap and enrol in the Certified Professional level, with certification and business training.

Mind you, it was really a leap for me. I have been in IT for many years, and did not have any nutrition or culinary background at all.

But enroll I did and it was one of the best decisions I’ve made, the CNE program truly changed my life. This is my Culinary Nutrition Expert Program review.

take the leap in spite of fear

I haven’t been in school in quite a while, but I was comfortable enough with technology that going to an online school was not intimidating. While only 14 weeks long, the program is a challenging one.

Honestly, I was not prepared for the amount of work involved. I was a stay-at-home mom with a 2nd grader and a 3-year-old at home to keep me busy.

Time management is key. I had to manage time wisely. There are videos to watch and livestreams to attend. And there are written and cooking assignments every week. I learned to work the recipe assignments into our family meals.

The awesome support from Meghan, my program coach, Ashleigh, and the entire ACN team was very helpful throughout the program. There is a private Facebook group that truly enriched the online learning experience. This CNE community is amazing.

What did I learn in the Culinary Nutrition Expert program?

• To articulate my food philosophy. Prior to this, I never really gave it much thought.
• Make a meal plan - for my family and for someone else. This is one of the key skills that I took away from the program. Otherwise, I would resort to the convenience foods I was so used to before. Here are my tips for meal planning success.

Eating and preparing real food takes time and meal planning is key to being successful at it.

• Create a client information package. I decided to focus on eczema as my condition of choice as my son would get flare-ups every so often. I researched the condition, the conventional treatments, the healing foods and what foods to avoid.
• How to create my own recipe. What? I’ve never created a recipe before. I tell you, this course really took me out of my comfort zone. Using my research about my condition of choice, I then took the list of healing foods and tried to create a delicious recipe with them.
• Review my CNE buddy’s meal plan and recipe.
• Create a workshop or class, properly plan for it and execute it. I love fermentation and created a fermented foods class for my friends.
• Thought about how I can apply what I learned to create a business, assess the market and create content for a blog or website.
• Read a ton of books and watched documentaries. Learning comes from many places, right?

What did I learn in the kitchen?

• I made my own BBQ sauce and curry powder.
• I learned to make nut milk. This alone is a game-changer. I can’t live without my Vitamix now. Check out my recipes for hazelnut milk and hemp milk.
• Who knew that rice paper is so versatile? I used it for veggie wraps, burritos, spring rolls.
• I made plant-powered recipes that had many healing foods and suited different therapeutic diets.
• Raw food is delicious. I did not even know that sweet potato can be eaten raw!
• Sprouting beans is so easy!
• I learned all about liquid nutrition, and how to make smoothies a complete meal. Adding protein and healthy fat is key! Here's my pear banana smoothie recipe.
• I discovered healing elixirs and tonics. I usually have an elixir for breakfast now.
• It's easy to make my own kimchi and sauerkraut. I loved fermentation so much I also took the Fundamentals of Fermentation course with the Academy.
• I learned about the healing powers of bone broth, gelatin, mushrooms and many more.
• Made my own chocolate and baked gluten-free goodies. Mind you, while I avoided conventional dairy, I was not gluten-free prior to the CNE program. This was a big change for me and my family. Check out my sweet creations here.
• I even made my own body salve. Here's my Calendula Salve recipe.
• And so much more!

Discovering Food Photography

Since this was an online course and there were cooking assignments, I had to take pictures of the ingredients, the process and the final product. This exercise every week re-ignited my love for photography. I never knew food photography was so fun!

Truly Worthwhile

The CNE program was truly a worthwhile investment of time and money for me. I learned so much in such a short period of time.

It empowered me to make better choices not just about food but about overall health as well. It gave me the knowledge and skills to take what I learned and share it with others.

If you’re thinking about taking your health and business to the next level, check out the Culinary Nutrition Expert program. I hope you’ll love it as much as I did. 🙂 If you have any questions, let me know!

xo

Melissa

P.S. My favourite health and wellness books inspired by the CNE program required reading are here.