10 Years of Diet Yumm: One Conversation, Ten Years of Showing Up

In March 2016, I arrived in Australia from India with years of experience as a dietitian but no plan to start a business.

I had previously led a dietetics department and worked as part of a bariatric surgery team at a large private hospital. I believed I would find a hospital position in Australia and continue along the professional path I had already built.

Diet Yumm was never part of the plan.

Two months after I arrived, while I was applying for jobs and trying to find my feet in a new country, I met a physiotherapist who would become a mentor and a very dear friend. We met by chance at a market stall. When she asked what I did, I told her I was a dietitian looking for work.

Her response was simple:

“Purva, start your private practice.”

I had never seriously considered it. I knew how to be a dietitian, but I knew very little about starting or running a business in Australia. Still, that conversation stayed with me.

By July 2016, Diet Yumm had begun.

There was no perfect business plan, established network or detailed roadmap. I started with my clinical experience, faith in my ability, a desire to serve the community and a willingness to work hard and keep learning.

Building without a roadmap

Registering the business was the easy part. The real challenge was building everything that came afterwards: finding clinics, introducing myself to health professionals, developing referral relationships and earning people’s trust.

So, I started showing up.

I visited medical centres and asked whether they needed a dietitian. I cold-called clinics, introduced myself to GPs and attended community events. One conversation led to one opportunity. One opportunity led to a patient, a referral or another connection.

For almost three years, I did much of this using public transport because I did not know how to drive. While building the practice, marketing my services and seeing patients, I was also learning to drive in a new country.

It was exhausting at times and occasionally chaotic but it taught me that progress rarely arrives as one dramatic breakthrough. More often, it is built through small actions repeated consistently.

Many of the experiences that felt hardest at the time are now among the memories I value most.

Why Diet Yumm needed to exist

Very quickly, I realised that private practice gave me an opportunity to work differently. I could spend more time listening to people, understand the realities of their lives and make nutrition advice genuinely relevant to them.

I also saw an important gap.

Too often, nutrition advice was technically correct but difficult to apply. It did not always reflect people’s culture, traditional foods, family structures, health beliefs, finances or everyday routines. This was particularly evident among South Asian communities, where familiar foods were sometimes treated as problems instead of being understood and adapted.

I did not want Diet Yumm to tell people to abandon the food they loved or follow a generic plan that did not fit their lives. I wanted us to provide evidence-based care that respected culture, preferences and circumstances.

I also wanted people to see nutrition as more than something to think about after a diagnosis. Prevention matters. Small, realistic changes made earlier can be powerful, and people deserve support that helps them care for their health without fear, shame or unnecessary restriction.

That purpose continues to guide Diet Yumm today: making nutrition practical, culturally inclusive and centred on the person not simply the condition.

Small wins became meaningful milestones

In the early years, the milestones were modest but deeply important.

A clinic offering me a room. A GP referring another patient. A positive comment about the quality of my clinical letters. A patient returning because they felt understood rather than judged.

These moments reassured me that I was building something worthwhile.

Community education also became an important part of the journey. I have continued to volunteer my time at community events because reliable health information should not be limited to people who already know where to find it or can afford individual support.

Over time, those small beginnings grew. Diet Yumm expanded across multiple locations and Telehealth, developed relationships with more than 1,100 referrers and grew from one dietitian into a team of committed health professionals.

Together, the Diet Yumm team has now supported more than 16,000 patients.

After being named a finalist for three consecutive years, receiving the Hume Award was another very special milestone. I had not expected to win, and the recognition felt bigger than an award. It represented years of persistence, learning, community support and belief in what Diet Yumm could become.

Not every lesson came from success

Building a business also brought difficult lessons.

Because I remembered how hard it was to begin without clear guidance, I often invested significant time in mentoring and supporting other dietitians, including overseas-trained professionals preparing for their Accredited Practising Dietitian examinations.

Not every experience ended as I hoped. There were moments that challenged my trust and forced me to become more thoughtful about where I invested my time and energy.

But I eventually understood that other people’s decisions could not be allowed to change my values. I could develop clearer boundaries without becoming less generous. I could be more careful without becoming closed.

Those experiences also shaped how I built the Diet Yumm team. Clinical skills can be developed, but compassion, integrity and a genuine commitment to people must be present from the beginning.

Some wonderful dietitians have been part of Diet Yumm over the years, and many have remained friends even after moving into new chapters of their careers. Their contributions are part of this ten-year story too.

Growing the practice and the impact

A major turning point came when my husband, Anshuman, joined Diet Yumm and took responsibility for its financial, administrative and operational foundations.

At the time, I was managing the practice while undertaking my PhD. Having someone I trusted looking after these essential parts of the business gave me more capacity to support our team, care for patients, continue learning and contribute beyond private practice.

That next chapter has included specialist hospital work, research and health-service improvement. My clinical work continues to show me what individuals and families need, while my research allows me to examine the gaps in our systems and work towards solutions that could benefit many more people.

These parts of my professional life are not separate from Diet Yumm. They strengthen one another. Clinical practice keeps the research grounded in real life; research improves the care we provide; and community engagement reminds us who the work is ultimately for.

Ten years later

Reaching ten years feels surreal.

When Diet Yumm began, I did not have a ten-year plan. I had an idea, a desire to help people and a willingness to keep showing up.

That is still what matters most.

The future is not necessarily about opening more clinics or building the biggest possible team. Growth should not be measured by size alone. The goal is to serve people better, keep learning, improve the quality and accessibility of our care and honour the trust people place in us.

I would love to see Diet Yumm contribute more to philanthropic work and support organisations helping people who may otherwise struggle to access nutrition care. I also see an opportunity to develop evidence-informed products and resources that are genuinely suitable for South Asian communities something I hope we can explore in the years ahead.

When I look back, Diet Yumm did not begin with a polished business plan.

It began with one conversation:

“Purva, start your private practice.”

After that, it was one step at a time: finding clinics, making phone calls, travelling on public transport, meeting people, seeing patients, attending community events, building a team, making mistakes, learning, being disappointed, getting back up—and continuing to show up.

Showing up for our patients.

Showing up for our community.

Showing up for our profession.

The next ten years do not simply need to be bigger. They need to be better: better care, better access, better learning and greater impact.

Even as Diet Yumm evolves, our purpose remains the same: to help people improve their health through nutrition care that respects their culture, circumstances and real life.

Thank you to every patient, referrer, team member, mentor, friend and family member who has been part of our first ten years. Diet Yumm exists because you trusted us, supported us and continued to show up alongside us.