Hi, I’m Tatum Vedder, Registered Dietitian.
You’re freaking out that you’re losing muscle faster than you can blink.
You’re losing motivation even faster than that because you’re feeling defeated, and plateauing with this very slow and patience-eroding healing process
All of this is driving you to lean on food in this extra time, emotion, and stress about your future.
But you are limited and exercising way less than you’re used to, nervous that the scale will continue to creep up.
Those ads for fad diets, weight loss drugs, and fat burning supplements are starting to look really tempting…
I know how frustrating it is to watch your strength and muscle tone dwindle (in much less time than it took to gain it!).
I know, I’ve been there. A lot.
And you can get it back!
My story
Over the course of four years, I’ve had three orthopedic surgeons, six surgeries, 12 physical therapists, two athletic trainers, and an accumulative six months crutching my way through life.
I felt defeated with the muscle loss, weight instability, and immobility from my normal active lifestyle. I didn’t receive any dietary guidance throughout the whole process and I often received crickets to my diet and nutrition related questions. This was a clear gap in this healing process.
What’s more? My upbringing, my social life, my primary sources of joy, and my whole world was embedded in my active lifestyle. I was quickly losing my sense of identity and I was left in the dark. So I began to frantically start searching for a way to get out and back to myself.
While recovering from my third surgery to navigate the weight fluctuations, muscle loss, and appetite changes, I tried intermittent fasting, high protein, low fat, and a low carb diets. This resulted in an accelerated rate of widespread muscle loss, iron deficiency, and a disordered eating pattern. Digging me into a deeper hole.
Newsflash about calorie restriction: It actually expedites muscle loss, not to mention hormone imbalance, decrease in bone mineral density, and added stress to the already distressed adrenal glands.
With news of yet another surgery on the horizon, I decided that, this time, I was going to use my nutrition and training knowledge to help myself heal, optimize my diet for recovery, improve the outcome of the surgery, regain maximum muscle, cope with the lack of activity, manage my weight, and the crappy symptoms that tagged along. I course corrected.
How to overcome it all
I ate enough for starters, managed my macros, increased the protein, adequate carbs and fat, targeted supplements, sufficient hydration, stabilized my blood sugar, and adopted an anti-inflammatory whole foods diet free of the dieting mentality. I gave my body what it needed to heal. I eliminated the scarcity mindset while staying persistent with my therapy exercises. I learned to ask for help and leaned on family, friends, and coworkers in ways I hadn’t before, strengthening those relationships.
Allowing myself to be vulnerable and not perfect was a critical lesson that I’ve carried with me back into the world of fitness and nutrition (where perfectionism is a real problem). This was a time where I worked on my mind. Learning to trust the process, accepting that time and patience is essential for such a traumatic experience. And I learned to develop a sense of identity beyond my strength, athleticism, and health conscious persona.
This time, the surgery was a success, and the healing process went smoothly. So here I am, playing volleyball again, surfing, personal training, and helping others get back on their feet…literally.
Here’s what I’ve learned— both in theory and in (personal) practice.
The truth is, your surgery recovery will teach you life lessons. Life will always throw you more hardships.
How will you cope?
How will this impact your relationship with food, your diet, your weight, your activity, and your mind?
Tracking food and cutting calories isn’t the way to recover! But that doesn’t mean sliding into emotional eating either. What I will guide you through is a sustainable approach to nutritionally support every stage of the healing process AND your mind to achieve a state of equilibrium.
Learning this sustainable approach during one of the hardest times of your life will actually benefit you beyond surgery or injury recovery. You will continue to utilize the tools I’ll teach you no matter what obstacles you must hurdle. This is a state of balance and homeostasis, when your body and mind are working in alliance and in alignment to produce improvements and achieve your health and fitness goals.
I call this … finding your equilibrium state
So guess, what? I’ll be there for you, to give you direction on how to navigate this extremely difficult chapter and get back to your life as you knew it, pre-injury, or maybe even better!
Book a call
Book a FREE intro call and let’s get you the guidance you’ve needed all along.
Tatum fast facts
I am a Registered Dietitian and Certified Personal Trainer with years of experience in surgery recovery, weight management, eating disorders, and gastrointestinal issues, not to mention having gone through injury recovery six times on my own.
I’m a believer in silver linings. I promise there is a silver lining for you. Recovery can lead to building stronger relationships with your loved ones, finding new sources of strength and resilience within yourself, developing self-care strategies that aren’t dependent on mobility, and learning coping tools you can use for your entire lifetime.
What motivates me: Surfing and the motion of the ocean. The desire to get back on my board and surf the world was my motivation to keep going through the recovery process. So while I was stuck in bed with my sidekick pet bunny, June, and strapped into a thigh high knee brace for the sixth time, I kept that vision in mind. Life has high tides and low tides, but it always returns to equilibrium.
When I’m not helping others find their equilibrium state, cheffin’ it up, walking a doggo, playing beach volleyball, or surfing…well… you’ll probably still find me on the beach somewhere.