Today we’d like to introduce you to Luci Long.
Hi Luci, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
In October of 2018, I decided to create my food Instagram featuring mostly pictures of meals I had eaten in or around the area of Jacksonville. I had always enjoyed taking pictures growing up and I later found a particular passion for highlighting some of my favorite eats and treats. I started this page in high school and continued to share my photos throughout college in my new city of Tallahassee. After less than a year in my new city, I moved back home to Jacksonville to complete my online courses during COVID. During this unexpected turn of events, I decided to start trying to make my own creations in the kitchen to share on my page. Not long after I began to share meals and treats made from my own kitchen, my content started to reach and resonate with a larger audience beyond my hometown. Through this change in my content, I quickly discovered my passion for food, cooking, and nutrition.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Towards the beginning of my time with this page, I had also decided to take steps towards living a healthier lifestyle beyond just cooking my own meals at home. What started as a self-improvement journey, quickly became an obsession with eating healthy and exercising, to the point where it was all that I could focus on. I thought these changes to my health were making me happy, but deep down they were causing me extreme stress, fatigue, and mental exhaustion. After a few years, I had discovered that I had developed an eating disorder. Once I was finally able to understand my personal struggles and their detrimental impact on my overall wellbeing, I became committed to share my story and help others to heal their relationship with food. After starting my college career in the field of Dietetics, I was able to learn more about the complexities of food and nutrition and the importance of fueling your body, rather than restricting it from what it needs to thrive.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Throughout my time sharing my creations in the kitchen on my food Instagram, I obtained both my Bachelor’s of Science in Dietetics and Master’s of Science in Nutrition Science. Along this journey, I gained a new found love for sharing my passion for food and nutrition through my content and recipe curation. After graduating college, I continued my journey towards becoming a Registered Dietitian by working as a Nutrition Educator for infants, children, and post-partum women. I am truly proud of the work I got to accomplish working in this population as I was able to see first-hand, how my knowledge and understanding of the complexities of nutrition impacted and improved the lives of individuals in vulnerable communities. Furthermore, I have recently started my Dietetic Internship in which I will be completing 1,000 supervised hours in the field of nutrition and dietetics, the last step required before I obtain my credentials as a Registered Dietitian. I believe my personal growth throughout my journey as a food content creator and a nutrition graduate sets me apart from others. I have already been able to connect with a diverse audience who share similar values towards cooking and fueling their body for the benefit of their overall health and happiness. I hope to reach an even larger and more diverse audience as I grow into my field of Nutrition & Dietetics as a Registered Dietitian.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
I strongly believe that the field of nutrition and dietetics will shift drastically to navigate the challenges and misconceptions associated with the ever changing landscape of social media. I hope to help my audience and future patients/clients understand the importance of science-based nutrition and being able to trust and navigate nutritional based advice presented throughout the media. I will always advocate to my audience the significance of practicing social media literacy when coming across the influx of information portrayed throughout social media and beyond.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lmleats.mailchimpsites.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lmleats
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lmleats/
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lmleats
