Kelsey Chmil, RD

It was well into my sophomore year as an undergrad when I found myself, yet again, putting off chemistry homework while trying to perfect a weeknight dinner recipe on an undergrad grocery budget. That summer I finally perfected my cheesy quinoa-cauliflower au gratin (I hadn’t been using enough cheese) and officially declared myself a nutrition major. 

​

​

However, I can say now, more than 10 years later, that the moment I began studying nutrition academically was truly the farthest I personally had ever and would ever be from a healthy relationship with actual food. The scientific understanding of how food grows and what it does once it enters and becomes our bodies - while totally fascinating to me - is so removed from the elaborate route by which we summoned that meal to us and the unique ways that it impacts us once it's been devoured. 

​

I hold a Bachelor’s Degree in Nutrition (Dietetics option) from the University of New Hampshire where I excelled in nutritional biochemistry and won local accolades for my culinary prowess. During undergrad I was also awarded the title of Scholar Athlete as the coxswain of the men’s rowing team, a time when I felt like a veritable slab of muscle. I built my own dietetic internship wherein I was trained under the workplace dietitian on the Facebook campus, then the dietary director of San Quentin prison, and finally provided acute care to a 400 bed hospital in rural southern Oregon. The stress from that time created both a diet and an inflamed, distended body which I barely recognized. Two years in rural Cambodia as a Community Health Educator for the Peace Corps then had me biking all over the countryside, fortified and emotionally fulfilled in a way I never could have expected from a life served over an endless bed of fresh white rice. Currently, what I lack in comparative muscle mass I possess as clinical fortitude built from 6 years serving my community as a Certified Diabetes Care & Education Specialist. And finally, it is through food and self-care that I have managed my first two years on the most demanding job there is: growing, delivering, and sustaining the whole new little body and mind of my kiddo.

​

With me I will always carry an echo of that ten-year-old girl who stopped eating and wanted to starve away the pain of her childhood losses. But since then, a lifetime of compassion, discovery, forgiveness, scientific pursuit and medical practice have shaped me into the seasoned food “therapist” you may be seeking now. 

​

I have clinical experience for patients of all ages in prevention and management of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, kidney disease and dialysis, diverticulitis, tube feeding and intravenous nutrition (acute and chronic), injury/trauma recovery, wound healing, PCOS, prenatal nutrition and postpartum recovery, and dietary breastfeeding support. I can also coach you through your sports and fitness goals, both recreational and competitive, with the highest quality personalized diet plan you can find. Whether you’ve been counting macros for ages or you’re finally interested in learning just what “carbs, fat, and protein” really mean, let’s swap notes. And recipes.