Nancy King
When Nancy King, founder of Your Life Nutrition (YLN), started her career as a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN), eating disorders were not commonly treated in her profession. Interested in growing the body of knowledge and breadth of techniques to help treat clients with eating disorders, Nancy became and still remains a pioneer and expert in eating disorder care and recovery.
Throughout her 25+ years as a practicing RDN, Nancy has accumulated the Award for Excellence in Practice in Disordered Eating from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ Sports, Cardiovascular and Wellness Nutritionists and affiliations with various eating disorder and nutrition professional associations. Additionally, Nancy co-authored Moving Away from Diets: Healing Eating Problems and Exercise Resistance and has appeared on Podcasts such as The Art of Human and HEAL by Sarah Marshall, where she discusses the complexities of eating disorders and the many reasons why recovery is rarely linear. Personal experience has informed Nancy's understanding approach with her clients.
For a decade in her youth, Nancy experienced episodes of feeling shaky and fatigued and could tell it had to do with what she ate, but no one could pinpoint the exact cause. Frustrated and confused, at the age of 18, Nancy was finally diagnosed with hypoglycemia, a condition in which blood sugar levels are lower than normal and can cause adverse physical symptoms if not treated properly. After this “Aha moment” of a diagnosis, Nancy was relieved and thankful to finally have an organized way of eating that made her feel better, and hungry to learn more.
In her last quarter of undergraduate studies, Nancy took a nutrition course that changed her life. Enamored by the subject, Nancy asked her teaching assistant if there was a career in nutrition where she could support others in discovering a way of eating that makes them feel better, just as she had experienced. When her teaching assistant told her that she was describing a RDN, she was ecstatic; she had found her purpose.
Decades later, Nancy still has the paper she wrote in undergrad outlining her goal of becoming a RDN and is, “still loving it.”
Nancy, her husband, son, and grand-dog enjoying a sunny day outdoors.
Nancy enjoys private practice because she values building relationships with clients and seeing them through from goal setting to achieving a future, shaped by their own discoveries. After practicing independently for decades, Nancy recognized that she was not an expert in every condition impacting a client's relationship with food (as no one is), nor was every client solely affected with one condition. She thought, “how cool would it be if somebody could get all their nutrition needs met under one roof?”
Nancy did just that when she founded YLN. At the heart of what makes YLN uniquely attuned to the needs of clients and RDNs is the extensive collaboration. With YLN RDNs’ wide range of specialties, Nutritionists not only can advise one another, but can physically (or virtually) go with their client to a session with another RDN to get their expert advice on an issue. Nancy loves learning from her YLN team, but even more so, she enjoys learning from her clients.
Click here to learn about Nancy’s nutrition counseling philosophy.