July 4, 2025
It’s easy to assume that those who study holistic nutrition or pursue a career in wellness always have it all together. Smoothie bowls, daily journaling, seemingly perfect morning routines, and a stunningly curated, aesthetic Instagram feed. But talk to any student or practitioner long enough, and you’ll hear the truth: the wellness journey can be messy. And for many of us, the hardest part isn’t what to eat or how to study, it’s knowing how to handle the days when we fall short of our own expectations.
Let today’s blog be your biggest reminder: Setbacks happen, and it’s not due to a flaw in your character. In fact, it’s a part of your training.
Whether you’re currently enrolled in a holistic nutrition program or you’re considering the path toward becoming a practitioner, we want you to know that the journey requires more than just academic knowledge. It invites personal growth, lifestyle alignment, and an ongoing relationship with your own health. And that growth doesn’t always look tidy!
So what do you do when life throws a wrench into your goals, and you suddenly find your inner critic getting louder than your inner coach?
Here’s how to come back to yourself, with tools you can use right now (which also happen to be tools you can offer one day to the clients and communities you’ll serve!).
Tip 1. Normalize the Setback
It’s easy to feel like you’ve failed when things don’t go as planned, but setbacks are rarely the end of the story! In fact, they’re often the most important part of the entire learning process. Rather than viewing them as mistakes, try seeing them as information. Each moment that doesn’t go the way you’d hoped is teaching you something about your needs, your rhythms, your capacity, or your boundaries.
This mindset shift won’t just serve you today as a student, it’ll also be foundational for the work you’ll one day do with clients! It might seem counter-intuitive, but they won’t want you to model perfection, they’ll want you to model what it looks like to show up honestly, to learn from your experiences, and to be willing to begin again with clarity and self-compassion.
When inventing the light bulb, Thomas Edison is said to have tried 10,000 different ways before he was finally successful. Imagine the perspective he would have needed to have failed that much, and still persevered! He famously said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” That mentality can serve you here, too. What if your setback isn’t a failure, but a moment of clarity about what no longer serves you in this season?
Tip 2. Zoom Out and Reframe
When a setback occurs, resist the urge to see it as an isolated failure. Maybe you’ve missed your morning ritual for several days, strayed from your meal plan, or you find yourself feeling stalled in your studies. Take a step back and ask: “What is this really teaching me?” Often, the surface misstep points to something deeper. Perhaps it’s accumulated stress, creeping burnout, or even an unmet need for rest or connection. Sometimes, we find that journaling in these stuck moments can help. Write at the top of the page: “What is this moment of stuckness or lack teaching me?” and write until you feel a sense of completion. You may be surprised at just how much you learn about yourself in this process!
Our best advice: Use these insights as your guide! Instead of pressing on with more grit and discipline, take some time to consider what a more compassionate, sustainable approach might look like for you right now. Do you need to simplify your routine? Schedule a restorative pause? Adjust your study load?
Allow your own experience to inform your path forward. By treating each setback as a diagnostic clue rather than a verdict on your capabilities, you tap further into self-awareness and adaptability that will serve both you and your future clients in a powerful way.
Tip 3. Use the Tools You’re Learning
As a holistic nutrition student, you’re gaining access to a huge array of powerful tools. From breathwork and grounding rituals, to herbal support, aromatherapy, and whole-foods nutrition, you’re exploring practices that are valuable not only for your future clients, but for your own well-being right now!
Integration is the process of bringing knowledge into your daily life, and it’s where true wisdom takes root! For example: A simple five-minute grounding tea ritual on a stressful day can go a long way in supporting your nervous system before you revisit a tough part in your textbook! Ask yourself: “How often am I intentionally applying what I’m learning to support my own health?” When you consciously use the tools you’re learning to support yourself, you not only improve your own resilience and clarity, you cultivate authentic experiences you can share with your future clients and community. After all, the most effective practitioners are those who have walked the path themselves!
Tip 4. Create a Flexible Daily Rhythm
A rigid routine can often feel like a promise we make to ourselves that becomes impossible to keep when the unexpected challenges of life inevitably arise. Rather than striving for perfection, we suggest creating a daily rhythm designed to support your nervous system while honoring the unpredictability of life – Because no matter how carefully we plan, life will always unfold with its own unexpected twists and turns!
Begin by identifying one daily non-negotiable practice that supports your body and mind. This might be a moment of mindful breathing, a walk before you check your phone in the mornings, or a short home workout that will get your body moving. The key is to choose something that genuinely nurtures your well-being (especially on your busiest or most overwhelming days).
Here’s where the time blocking comes in: After completing your non-negotiable self-care practice, set a clear, manageable goal to transition into your study, reading, or coursework. For example: Once you’ve completed your grounding ritual or nourishing pause, allow that to become the natural initiation to open your books. In this way, self-care becomes the cue (not the interruption) for forward momentum in your studies.
This approach ensures that your education never comes at the cost of your well-being, and that your academic progress is reinforced by your self-care. You never have to not choose one over the other, because taking care of yourself first becomes the thing that helps to keep you on track.
Give yourself permission to come up with a system that works for you, and allow your non-negotiables to serve as gentle markers throughout your day, guiding your focus while allowing space for the unexpected. You can even create a different daily rhythm for your morning, afternoon, and evening routines! With some simple structure and the freedom to adjust, you lower resistance and increase the likelihood of returning to your practices with consistency, clarity, and ease.
Tip 5. Prioritize Community (Yes – Even With Online Study!)
We’re huge fans of the freedom and flexibility that comes with choosing online education, but there’s also a reason we preach the value in staying connected to our vibrant community in the process. Isolation can quietly magnify stress, self-doubt, and discouragement – Especially in the moments where you’re navigating a setback or feeling off track. For this reason, we suggest checking in with a fellow student, sharing a quick post in our private online student & alumni community, or hopping on a zoom call with a colleague or mentor. It’s so important to find and stay plugged into the people and the spaces that remind you: You’re not in this alone!
Sometimes, just hearing someone say “I’ve been there too” is enough to shift your entire perspective. You might receive advice, encouragement, or just the sense that someone else understands, and it can make a world of difference. Don’t wait until you feel completely stuck to open up. Staying connected to a community of people who get it along the way can make it SO much easier to regain momentum when things feel heavy.
As future wellness practitioners, it’s so important to remember that holding space for others begins with learning how to ask for and receive support ourselves. Practicing this now will only deepen your capacity to serve your own client with empathy in the future!
Tip 6. Celebrate Micro-Wins
Did you prep one healthy meal this week? Show up to an exam even though you were tired? Choose rest instead of burnout? All of these things count toward the bigger end result of the leader you’re becoming through this process. Building a wellness practice isn’t just about what’s on your plate or what’s written in a textbook, it’s about how you show up for yourself – Especially on your more difficult days!
The small, quiet choices you make when no one is watching are what shape long-term consistency. Acknowledging these micro-wins (and perhaps even celebrating them in our private community!) reinforces self-trust and reminds you that progress is built through steady, sustainable effort, not perfection.
So ask yourself: “Where am I not giving myself enough credit?” Chances are, you’re doing better than you think. (And recognizing this is part of your growth process, too.)
Tip 7. Remember Why You Started
When the path feels foggy, come back to your “why.” What called you into this work? What part of you still reaches for this, even when motivation is low? Why does this work matter so much to you? Reconnecting to your purpose can rekindle the spark and remind you that every single step, whether it’s forward or sideways, is a necessary part of the path.
Your “why” is the thread that weaves through every challenge, setback, and breakthrough. It doesn’t have to feel loud or certain every day, but it has to be there. Even a quiet sense of purpose can offer direction when everything else feels unclear, so allow your “why” to be your anchor through the in-between.
Tip 8. Be a Student of Your Own Healing
If there’s one thing we’ve learned specifically about holistic nutrition, it’s this: You’re not just studying any old curriculum, you’re studying yourself. Your rhythms, your beliefs, and your edges. It doesn’t take long for our students to realize that your own healing journey is part of your education. Treat it with reverence, curiosity, and patience.
Every challenge, shift, and insight you experience in your own process becomes part of the wisdom you’ll one day offer others. As you learn to support and care for yourself, you’re actively building the tools and perspective needed to support others with empathy and depth.
This is a huge piece of what shapes a truly impactful practitioner. An understanding that it’s not just what you know, but how fully you’ve embodied it.
Tip 9. Be Willing to Start Again
You don’t have to wait for the perfect Monday, the start of a new month, or a surge of energy to dive back in after a setback. You can begin again right now, in a small but meaningful way. This might be through the simple choice to pick up your textbook and read one paragraph, through one kind thought, or through one step toward whatever greater alignment looks like for you. Progress doesn’t need to be loud or dramatic to be real in your life. It only requires a willingness to start again.
Remember: Every new beginning, no matter how big or small, is an opportunity to reset and refocus your energy. It’s the willingness to return, again and again, that builds lasting momentum and fosters true transformation over time.
Final Thoughts
If you’re navigating a setback in your wellness or your studies right now, take heart. This moment is not the opposite of success, it’s a key part of it.
Allow this season to teach you. Allow it to soften you.
Let it remind you that you are, above all else, human.
And that your human-ness is the most powerful thing you’ll bring to your future work in this field.
