MY NAME IS ALICIA HENSON, A REGISTERED DIETITIAN, AND FOUNDER OF CLEVER NUTRITION. The story of why I became a registered dietitian ties into the core of who I am, what I believe, and why Clever Nutrition was started. In my early 20s I lived in San Francisco and worked in retail (Martin + Osa - a very beautiful store which no longer exists). While working in retail I had the opportunity to work closely with individuals, and one the most common concern that was voiced to me was was that people were not happy with their body image. During the same time frame, I had also been enrolled in a nutrition class at San Francisco Community College. This class was taught by an incredibly intelligent, evidence-based, passionate-professor who was also a registered dietitian. She has an amazing story herself, which hopefully one day I can write about. The timing of such was incredible. I was being introduced to nutrition in ways I hadn't thought of before, and at the same time, was assisting individuals in the retail environment. It felt as if the universe had connected the dots for me, and it became clear what I wanted to accomplish in life - to work and fight for “healthy." There are many reasons why body image issues have evolved and continue to become an issue in terms of health. Unfortunately, tackling the root cause of body image issues is not something I can resolve. I believe that one of the ways we can battle poor body image issues is to shift the mentality that one must “look” a certain way versus asking oneself “am I healthy?" Nutrition is our long-term investment to our health. We all have heard it many times, but the saying “you are what you eat” is true. There aren’t a lot of things that are guaranteed in ones life, however we are guaranteed that we are living this one life. I believe that we should make the best of this life, which includes being good to ourselves. With good nutrition we can foster better quality of life and achieve “healthy." My desire is to help individuals understand nutrition, while helping them achieve long-term health.