After an hour and a half of trying to log in to the system, I was finally able to click that scary button entitled “Match Results”.

Northern Illinois University!

In a few months, I will be moving 300 miles away from the town that I not only was born and raised in, but went to college in as well. It’s even in a different time zone!

It was quite an emotional evening in so many ways and for so many reasons.

But, I cannot express how fortunate I feel that I got matched in the first round. I know a lot of very talented and qualified people in my program that didn’t get a match (which the way the system is set up could really just be a matter of applying to too many of the wrong schools and ranking them a certain way). Luckily there is still the second round for those peeps!

I’m going to not only be completing my internship at NIU, but I will also be earning my Master’s Degree in Nutrition and Dietetics there as well.

For my first two semesters I will just be taking graduate courses. Then, in the proceeding semesters I will be starting my rotations and completing more coursework. All together this will take me 6 semesters to complete (3 falls, 2 springs, 1 summer) before I can eventually call myself Ellen Ratliff, MS, RD (once I pass the RD exam… and maybe even CSSD one day).

There are quite a few possibilities for my Community and Lifecycle placements that I look forward to maybe doing, like working at the campus REC center and a sports nutrition practice located in Chicago. There will be a LOT of driving involved once I start my rotations, but I know that the experiences will be worth it and will help me further decide what I want to do with my credentials and maybe even lead to a future career. I mean, the Chicago area’s not that bad of a place to be for a young professional, right?

My mother and I are planning on visiting the campus this summer (May I think?) to visit the town and see the campus. Yes, I applied to programs without visiting them first. So sue me. But, from the pictures that I’ve seen it looks like a decent campus.

I’ll be receiving more information in the next week once all of the interns confirm their positions, and I can’t wait to share with all of you. I really do want to document this entire process (yes, all 2.5 years of it) for you all and especially for the future RDs out there so that they can see my experience and hopefully it will help them make their own decisions about internships, graduate work, and a future career as a Registered Dietitian.

]]> https://ucrunnereats.wordpress.com/2013/04/08/rd2be-match-day/feed/ 5 ucrunnereats Acceptance-small 220px-NIU_Huskies.svg NIU_mark-only https://ucrunnereats.wordpress.com/2013/03/11/sorrysorrysorry/ https://ucrunnereats.wordpress.com/2013/03/11/sorrysorrysorry/#comments Tue, 12 Mar 2013 01:54:29 +0000 Ellen @ UnderCover Runner Eats http://ucrunnereats.wordpress.com/?p=3966 Continue reading →]]>  

Wow, I guess it’s been longer than I thought since I last posted! My school just got back from Spring Break, which means that the semester is halfway done and I’m less than 8 weeks away from getting my Bachelor’s degree! So crazy to believe that this 4-year adventure is almost over.

Well, I guess I owe you guys a recap, right?

Repping Plagued Fitness Apparel in the gym with my “Lift That Shit” t-shirt. Oh, hey booty! Glad to see that you finally decided to make an appearance.

Worked my through the Superhero Fat Loss program by Roman Fitness.

Taking progress pics up the whazoo now.

Formal dress that I got to wear to the Military Ball with my boyfriend.

Sweat baby sweat. Posting fitness inspiration almost daily! Moved on to training for Tough Mudder Michigan this summer by using another Roman Fitness program.

Delicious cupcakes over Spring Break on Hilton Head Island!

These pictures only show you a fraction of the things that I have been up to the past 8(ish) weeks. For a more detailed overview, go and find me on Instagram and look through my posts! I try to post at least once a day. It’s mostly been workout pictures so far, but I’m starting to post more outside of just working out and will be adding in a lot more nutrition and other healthy living tips in the near future as well! Instagram has become my new form of blogging.

And, yes, that’s right. I am registered with a team to do Tough Mudder Michigan this summer. Also, scary exciting, but Match Day is in only 27 days! Fingers crossed that I get my first choice placement for dietetic internships! Can’t wait to share that with you all next month.

Don’t forget that you can follow me on Instagram for daily workout and healthy living inspiration! Plus a little bit of fun

It’s so crazy to look back at where I was 3.5 years ago. I was a tiny 18-year-old majoring in Biochemistry/Biotechnology with dreams of working in a lab and conducting research.

Oh, how that changed.

Fast forward to today and I’m happier, stronger, getting a degree in Dietetics with a specialization in Health Promotion and have accomplished more than I ever though possible of myself.

And the most exciting part?

I still have so far to go.

In addition to continuing to work at the Independent Living home and sitting as the Academy Liaison for my university’s Food and Nutrition Association, I am only taking two classes this semester: Medical Nutrition Therapy II and Health Psychology. I’m going to be working on an honors option for one or both of these courses.

I’m not sure what else is in store for me, but I can’t wait to find out.

In case you didn’t know, I’m on Instagram now. Follow me @ratliffe09 for some fitsporation!

Not because I am particularly busy or anything, just every day on break feels much the same as the last one. It’s half way over and I’m ready for it to be 2013 already! COME ON!

My normal schedule nowadays is wake up, gym, eat, work, sleep. Exciting, right? Oh, sure, there’s some computer and reading time thrown in there as well, but that’s the gist of it.

I’ve really gotten in to sharing pictures of my workouts on Instagram. Partly for accountability (just over 2 months until Spring Break!) and partly to try and encourage others in their workouts. I want to transform my body and my mind in this coming year, and accountability will be such an important part of that for me.

I’ve had some VERY good workouts lately

And, of course, yesterday was Christmas!

I really felt like Christmas sneaked up on me this year. I didn’t even make a list!

All set for family Christmas!

Finals are over! I have successfully survived another semester after a week of full-on late-night studying. I think that I’ve spent more time in the library in the past week than I have in the past 3 years of college combined. My study habits have changed so much over the years. I can no longer seriously study in my room, nor can I be alone. I need to be pretty much anywhere but my apartment and I need at least one other person around.

Anyway, my GPA is safe, as I am already 100% certain on two of my classes and 90% sure on another. My last class will be a bit of a wild card since the professor has not released our final exam scores yet and has not set the curve for the course yet, but I think that I have a fairly good idea on what it will be.

Just 7 credits and 5 months stand between me and graduating! Crazy to think that I’m here now, it seems like it’s been fast and slow all at the same time. But, I’m excited and ready to start applying to dietetic internships/graduate programs and get my career started!

Fitness-wise, I’ve been continuing to follow the Super Hero Fat Loss program by John Romaniello (Roman Fitness). I love it. It’s hard, I’m seeing progress (slowly, but surely; beginner gains appear to be a thing of the past now) and I still get in and out of the gym in under an hour.

I have also been experimenting with Intermittent Fasting.

I could do an entire series of posts on Intermittent Fasting, and I may just do that in the future if the interest from you guys is there, but for now I’ll just leave it up to you to look in to it if you really want to.

I really like it so far, though, and am mostly just playing with my length of fasting and my feeding windows right now to see what works best for me.

I started a new job working at an independent living center in the kitchens helping serve dinner to the residents. It’s not the easiest of jobs, because it’s so fast-paced and people are impatient, but I need the experience and having a little extra money would be nice since being a TA for a college course does NOT pay the bills, let me tell ya.

I only work a couple of evenings a week, but it still allows me to go out at night if I so choose and I think that it will be flexible enough that I can take some time off here and there for things like Spring Break and possibly interviews for internships in March.

That’s pretty much everything for now! I get 3 weeks off of classes until the spring semester starts back up again. I’ll be working, sleeping, and relaxing… maybe throw some Christmas and New Years hijinks in there as well and fun with friends and family. Maybe…