About
Patrick Hopkins
I began my career as a SLO nutrition and fitness educator while completing my undergraduate degree in Nutritional Science from Cal Poly. After nearly five years in SLO and Goleta, CA as a Corporate Fitness and Nutrition Educator at ABC-CLIO, I moved to the Texas Hill Country and spent the next six years running a private nutrition and fitness studio.
I later relocated to El Paso, TX and completed my Master’s of Public Health (MPH) and my doctoral studies (PhD) in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), while concurrently credentialing for my Master Certified Health Education Specialist (MCHES®).
In 2022, I moved back to my home turf on the Central Coast and completed a didactic dietetics program with Iowa State University’s Individualized Supervised Practice Pathways (ISPP), completing clinical rotations at both Fresno Heart and Surgical Hospital and Saint Agnes Medical Center.
In my career spanning over two decades of nutrition and health education, I now specialize in adolescent obesity and behavior therapy, adult overweight and obesity research and treatment, diabetes education, and health education. I continue to be fascinated by the miracle of the human body and its condition and am ever more passionate to educate and motivate my clients toward success.
Philosophy
I am a ‘baby-steps’ type of guy – largely because changing behaviors is a process, but also because it likely took a while for you to become unhappy or unhealthy in your behaviors, and we do not undo what has been done overnight! I find truth in science and its process and use it as a platform to deliver all my professional work. Simply put, my guidance will always be evidence-based. It is my job to help people find truth in healthy eating and active living using science to deliver evidence and efficacy. It is my job to help instill trust in me and a belief that the process we create together will work. It is my job to show you the results and outcomes you have set as goals. And, it is my job to continue to guide and empower you when plateaus arise. It is your job to commit yourself to your process, be patient, be honest about your dietary behaviors, and keep yourself aware of the small adaptations and associations that you create along the way. If you are ready for this, reach out to me and let’s ride your fit wave together!
“A healthy outside starts from the inside.”
Patrick V. Hopkins
PhD, RD, MPH, MCHES®
“Prevention is better than cure.”
“When diet is wrong, medicine is of no use.”
Beliefs
Thinking back to the early years of my career, I remember being able to consult my clients with basic nutrition ideas and principles, believing that a refresher of the basics would likely do the trick in directing and empowering them toward change. It was a different time. It all made sense. It was clear and it was trusted, and really my only roadblocks were the unhealthy fad diets that I had to dispel. Today, navigating the efforts to be fit is confusing and contradictory. Anyone can have a voice and a platform to speak about health and fitness, and it is my concern that most of these people are creating the confusion for the rest of us. People need their path to change to be uncluttered, and Central Coast Dietetics can make that happen!