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You’ve probably heard it time and time again that health is wealth—and it’s true. But have you heard it from a black nutritionist? Dr. Rovenia Brock, widely known as “America’s Nutrition Coach” and author of Lose Your Final 15, wants you to live a more nutritionally balanced lifestyle so that you can eat your way to wellness.
With more than three decades of experience in helping people transform their lives and looks, Dr. Ro has helped over a half-million Americans lose more than 5 million pounds and served on the medical advisory board for the Dr. Oz Show for seven seasons. Moreover, she is passionate about helping the black community get in shape.
Like with any lifestyle change, it’s important to start with the facts. And for Dr. Ro, it begins with the harsh health realities that plague the black community. “The fact is that we as a community across the board disproportionately suffer from lifestyle diseases like heart disease, Type 2 Diabetes, hypertension and some forms of cancer. Lifestyle plays a crucial role in why this is.”
When you think about your everyday lifestyle, the time you spend on the go, and the time you don’t have—a good question to ask yourself is what does that mean for your eating habits? If you are someone who can’t find the time to meal prep or make the best food decisions you could benefit from partnering with a nutritionist. Dr. Ro recommends starting with a Google search for black nutritionists because a wellness app can only get you so far.
Partner with a nutritionist
“This person should be credentialed. They need to have at least a bachelor’s of science because nutrition is a science and not an art. At the very least they should have a B.S. in nutrition, community nutrition, or dietetics,” says Dr. Ro.
Once you find a nutritionist who is a good fit for you there is work that you need to do.
“Your nutritionist can create a plan for you based on your personal needs. A lot of people try to do this on an app when tracking their daily nutritional needs. But that’s as pretty far as the app can go. The human expert will know how your needs fit into your lifestyle. And they can adjust that plan according to your real life desired goal. From there it’s really about support, accountability, and honoring commitment within the process,” Dr. Ro advises.
As a coach, she works with clients to help them set and meet their health and wellness goals even when people have a hard time committing to the process.
“As someone who has been doing this for over 30 years, I understand that these are real people with real challenges and problems that spill over into what they eat; where they eat; and when and how they eat it. And when that happens those things can dominate the person’s plan and often breaks the person’s plan. My job as your coach is to help you connect to those challenges and to give you alternatives that will work for you and not against you.”
Sounds like a lot of us, right?
Adopt a healthy lifestyle
If you want to commit to the decision to live differently and lose weight Dr. Ro encourages you to know your “why” and do it for yourself.
“You have to figure out what your why is. That gives me information on some of the things that they struggle with and insight on whether or not what they have done in the past has worked for them—and why it maybe didn’t work for them.” She adds, “If you’re doing it for someone other than yourself it’s never going to work. It has to be your reason for doing it. You’re never going to achieve permanent results if you’re doing it for someone else.”
Lastly, Dr. Ro says that you have to set realistic goals.
“The reason why my book is called Lose Your Final 15 is because you’ll be losing your weight 15 pounds at a time no matter your number. When you have a specific goal you can map out a specific strategy to achieve that goal. You need to have a specific plan. That’s how you measure your progress and stay on track.”
If you are looking to jump-start your nutrition journey today, Dr. Ro has these four simple tips.
Get started today
- Eat one more colorful vegetable and fruit than you did yesterday
- Drink one more glass of water than you did yesterday
- Leave food on the plate – Busy people eat out a lot. If you eat out three times a day you can save up to 500 calories when you do that. If you eat out an average of three times a week you stand a good chance of gaining an extra 45 to 60 pounds a year depending on how often, what, and how much you eat.
- Cut your portions in half. Eat half of what you ate yesterday and you’ll notice a big difference.
Want to hear more from Dr. Ro? Meet her in Atlanta at the SOAR Empowerment Series on April 6. Get your ticket today!
Lydia Blanco
Lydia T. Blanco is a proud Afro-Latinx digital-first multimedia journalist with a strong passion for truthful storytelling, photography and creative content strategy.
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