Hi, I’m Tatum Vedder, Registered Dietitian & Certified Personal Trainer.
I help athletes, the active, & injured fuel their performance, heal their gut & relationship with food.
You’ve probably tried…
Tracking your macros: upping your protein, and cutting carbs.
Diets like intermittent fasting, keto, paleo, leaky gut, low FODMAP, or the typical eat less and workout out more approach.
Programs like weight watchers, Noom, or a plan that a gym bro drafted up for you.
Supplements with bold claims for recovery, fat burning, muscle building, energy boosting… a miracle pill?
Maybe even the current hottest tactic in weight loss, GLP-1 peptide injections?
Meal prep services and big aspirations to make all of those saved protein-dense recipes from TikTok and Instagram.
But you’re missing the big picture…
a comprehensive approach to nutrition, health, & performance.
My story
Over the course of four years, I’ve had six orthopedic surgeries, three surgeons, 12 physical therapists, two athletic trainers, and an accumulative six months crutching my way through life.
In September 2019, I showed up to a casual co-ed indoor volleyball tournament, days before starting my senior season, and a week after hiking 17 miles of Yosemite’s half dome (I was overtraining in hindsight).
As an outside hitter, I approached a perfect set, made contact, and then heard a loud pop, louder than it felt, as my upper and lower leg pulled in opposite directions. I collapsed to the floor.
Certain I only tweaked my knee, I sat out thinking I’ll just rest this game and get back to it next game. Jokes on me!
I ended up tearing my ACL, medial and lateral menisci, and broke a large chunk of cartilage off of my femur, severely damaging the bone beneath.
I was carried to the car and in less than a month, was on the operating table for what was one of several surgeries, years of rehab, and endless tears to come.
I was losing muscle faster than you can blink.
Faster than my muscle atrophy, I was losing motivation from years of feeling defeated and betrayed by my own body and the sport I devoted more than a decade to. I hit plateau after plateau with each surgery and recovery, eroding my patience while igniting a constant state of panic. Being bed ridden threatened my active lifestyle, identity, weight, body composition, and hormones.
Furthermore, it flared up my gut health issues that I fought 10 years to heal, and triggered a relapse in a disordered relationship with food. (The journey’s that initiated my initial interest in nutrition).
Forced to be sedentary, my body felt static
Activity stimulates motility.
Motility supports detox.
Detox supports happy hormones & vitality.
The mental and physical stress of all of this poured gasoline on the raging fire (my gut), setting me back nearly to square one.
Bloating, discomfort, pain, Inflammation you name it, I felt it.
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.
I didn’t receive any dietary guidance throughout my surgery recovery.
I heard crickets in response to my dietary and nutrition related questions.
Starting to see parallels in my gut healing journey and surgery recovery, it shed light on how poorly Western conventional medicine is practiced…
Medications & surgery > diet & lifestyle ?
(Shouldn’t we be aiming to thrive rather than just staying alive?)
Surgery #5 was on the horizon, and I decided that I was going to use my nutrition and training knowledge to help myself heal, optimize my diet for recovery, improve the outcome of surgery, regain maximum muscle, and heal my gut issues and relationship with food, yet again. 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 being an athlete and health conscious persona.
This time, the surgery was a success, and the healing process went smoothly.
The absence of nutrition support along surgery recovery showed a clear gap in the healing process that needed to be filled.
So here I am, playing volleyball again, surfing, personal training, and…
Helping others meet their performance potential or recover from surgery, heal their gut issues & relationship with food.
The truth is, overcoming adversity 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?
Eating less and burning more isn’t the way to recover, heal or reach your performance potential!
What I will guide you through is a sustainable approach to nutritionally support your active lifestyle or recovery, fueling performance while supporting your gut health and relationship with food.
to achieve a state of equilibrium.
Here’s what I’ve learned— both in theory & in (personal) practice.
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 meet your performance potential!
Book a call
Book a FREE intro call and let’s get you the guidance you’ve needed all along.
Education, Credentials, & Experience
I am a Registered Dietitian and Certified Personal Trainer with sports nutrition experience working with olympians of USA Volleyball, professional lacrosse, Sled Hockey, and independent athletes. I plan to sit for the Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics (CSSD) exam in 2026.
Beyond my learnings from my personal gut health journey, I am en route to receive my Microbiome Clinical Science Certificate (MCSC), to provide my clients with the latest, and most superior gut health supportive tools and research.
I worked in an eating disorder rehabilitation clinic for years which founded the way I approach nutrition care. Although most people do not have an eating disorder, I found a repeating pattern that a lot of us have some sort of rocky relationship with food, dieting, or their body image. I make it a point to incorporate strengthening the relationships with food and body image as a vital piece of the treatment plan..
Tatum’s Fast Facts
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.