Nutrition is the loudest corner of Instagram, which is a problem if you are one of the people who actually trained. Your feed sits between an account selling a cleanse, an account promising ten pounds in three weeks, and an account built entirely on photographs of somebody else's stomach. All three out-post you, and none of them will still be there in a year.
You cannot compete on promises, so compete on the room. What a first consultation actually asks about, what a seven-day food diary shows, why the follow-up is three weeks later, what happens when a change does not stick. That content is scarce, it is genuinely useful, and it is exactly what somebody burned by a previous program is looking for.
The ideas below use the vocabulary of the consultation room: food diaries, habit stacking, energy availability, the follow-up, the referral. Each gives you a first slide, the sequence and a caption starter, so the post is written before you open the app.
What actually performs for nutritionists
Describing the consultation. Seventy-five minutes, a history, a food diary and two changes: people have no idea what they are buying until somebody spells it out.
Teaching one small skill per post. How to read a nutrition panel, what to look for in an ingredient list, how to spread protein across a day: things somebody can use on the next grocery run.
Process over meal plans. What a seven-day food diary reveals, why you ask about sleep and shift patterns, how a habit gets built: this is what people cannot get from a free PDF.
Redefining progress. The four o'clock slump going, cooking twice in a week you would have ordered, sleeping through: these are what clients notice first, and no transformation photograph can show any of them.
Referral content. Saying plainly which things you send to a doctor or a specialist service, and why, is the clearest possible sign that you know where your work stops.
30 Instagram post ideas for nutritionists
Every idea below includes the first slide, the full slide sequence, and a caption starter. Swipe each preview to read the slides.
1.What to bring to your first consultation
Educational
First slide
“Four things to bring to a first nutrition consultation”
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Four things to bring to a first nutrition consultation
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A photo of your fridge and one cupboard shelf.
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Everything you are currently taking, boxes included.
4/6
Any recent blood work, even from two years ago.
5/6
Your actual working week, not an idealized version.
6/6
Message me and I will send the intake form.
Caption starter
The fridge photograph is the thing people are most reluctant to send and the most useful item in the whole appointment. Nothing gets judged, it just saves twenty minutes of describing. Message me for the intake form and the full list.
Why it works: Preparation content reaches people in the gap between booking and attending, and it produces a first session that is worth what it costs.
“The first consultation is not about food. Not really.”
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The first consultation is not about food. Not really.
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Seventy-five minutes, and most of it is history.
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Sleep, shift patterns, who cooks, what the budget is, medical background.
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Then a seven-day food diary, sent afterwards rather than filled in from memory.
5/6
You will not leave with a meal plan. You will leave with two changes.
6/6
Message me and I will send the intake form and the fee.
Caption starter
People expect a printed plan in the first hour and are surprised when they get questions instead. Nothing useful can be written before I know how your week actually runs. Message me for the intake form.
Why it works: Setting expectations away from meal plans up front prevents the mismatch that produces a one-session client and a bad review.
Sleep, shifts, commute, budget, and who does the cooking.
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Five hours of sleep changes what you want at four.
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A ninety-minute commute decides what dinner can realistically be.
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The food is downstream of the week around it.
6/6
Book a consultation and we will map the week first.
Caption starter
Nothing useful can be written about your meals until I know what the week around them looks like. That is why the first half of a consultation sounds like it has very little to do with food. Book one and we will start there.
Why it works: It explains why the consultation is longer and more personal than a downloadable plan, which is the entire justification for the fee.
Most people are not short of it. Some genuinely are.
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Older adults, people training hard, and anyone eating very little.
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Spreading it across the day matters more than the daily total.
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Most people eat almost none at breakfast, then a mountain at dinner.
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Fix breakfast first. That is usually the whole intervention.
Caption starter
The protein conversation online is aimed at people who lift heavily. The distribution problem is far more common than the total. Book a consultation and we will look at your actual week.
Why it works: It corrects a nutrient obsession the audience already has, which earns attention while pointing at a fix only a proper assessment can identify.
“Almost nobody is hitting the fiber recommendation”
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Almost nobody is hitting the fiber recommendation
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Thirty grams a day is the adult target. Most people manage half.
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It is not only digestion. It is the whole gut environment.
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Beans, pulses, oats, skins left on, nuts, and any wholegrain swap.
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Increase it slowly or you will regret it for a week.
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Add water at the same rate. That part gets skipped.
Caption starter
The least fashionable target in nutrition and the one that changes the most. Increase it gradually and drink more while you do. Message me if you want the swap list I give clients.
Why it works: A specific public guideline with a clear gap between target and reality makes for a post people measure themselves against, which drives saves.
“Check the servings per container before anything else”
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Check the servings per container before anything else
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A single bottle is often two and a half servings.
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Every number on the panel is for one of them.
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So the calories you read are not the calories you drank.
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Then look at where sugar sits in the ingredient list.
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Two products, same serving size, side by side. Compare then.
Caption starter
The oldest trick on a nutrition panel is the serving size and almost nobody checks it. A bottle that looks like one drink is frequently two and a half. Send me a label you cannot make sense of and I will talk you through it.
Why it works: It gives a skill people can use on the next grocery run, which makes the post immediately practical rather than aspirational.
Then a late meeting, a birthday, or a poor night's sleep happens.
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The plan has no answer for that, so it gets abandoned entirely.
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Habits survive a bad week. A plan does not.
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Two changes at a time. A third only when they stick.
Caption starter
If a meal plan was going to work for you, one of the previous four would have. Message me if you would rather build something that survives a difficult month.
Why it works: Naming the failure pattern of every previous attempt makes the reader feel understood, which is what converts someone who has already paid for three programs.
“Seven days of writing it down changes everything”
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Seven days of writing it down changes everything
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Not for judgment. For pattern. They are entirely different things.
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Recording as you go, not from memory at bedtime.
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I am looking at timing, gaps, and what happens after four in the afternoon.
5/6
The interesting entries are always the ones you nearly did not write.
6/6
Include the weekend. That is where the answer usually is.
Caption starter
Nobody enjoys keeping a food diary and it remains the most informative week of the whole process. Write it as you go, include the weekend, and be honest with yourself rather than with me.
Why it works: Explaining what you are looking for removes the shame that makes clients under-report, which materially improves the quality of the work.
Frozen peas are processed. So is bagged salad and canned fish.
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Chopping, freezing and canning are processes. Useful ones.
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The concern is a narrower category built from unfamiliar ingredients.
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Cutting all processed food out is neither possible nor sensible.
6/6
Judge the item, not the word attached to it.
Caption starter
The word has become so broad it has stopped meaning anything useful, and it makes people feel guilty about frozen vegetables. Ask me about any specific product and I will give you a straight answer.
Why it works: Rescuing convenience foods from a moral panic is reassuring to time-poor readers and separates you from the purity-based accounts around you.
“The clients I do not work with, and where they go”
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The clients I do not work with, and where they go
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Anything that looks like a clinical eating disorder goes to a specialist service.
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That is not a judgment on you. It is not my area.
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Unexplained weight loss, blood in stool, trouble swallowing: doctor, that week.
5/6
Anything needing medication or a diagnosis belongs with your doctor.
6/6
If something surfaces later, I will say so and help.
Caption starter
Knowing what you cannot do is most of professional practice. If any of this describes you, message me anyway and I will point you towards the right service.
Why it works: Publicly declining work that others accept is the clearest signal of professional competence, and it protects both parties.
Your food diary, read twice, once for content and once for timing.
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Cross-checked against your working week and your budget.
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Two changes chosen. Not eight. Two is what people actually do.
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A written summary, so you are not reconstructing it from memory.
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That is why the follow-up is a week later, not the next day.
Caption starter
The consultation is the shorter half of the work. Everything gets read properly before anything is recommended. Ask me for the written summary format if you want to see one first.
Why it works: Showing unbilled work justifies the fee and explains a gap between appointments that clients might otherwise read as disinterest.
That eating late at night mattered in itself. It does not.
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That everyone needed to fear saturated fat identically. Too simple.
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That breakfast was non-negotiable for everyone. It is not.
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The evidence moved and so did I. That is the job.
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Ask me to explain the reasoning behind anything I recommend.
Caption starter
Anyone who has been practicing for a decade and has not changed their advice has stopped reading. Ask me why behind any recommendation and I will show you the reasoning.
Why it works: Publicly revising past positions signals that you follow evidence rather than a brand, which is rare enough in this field to be memorable.
“What is in my cupboards, and why copying it fails”
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What is in my cupboards, and why copying it fails
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Canned beans, frozen vegetables, oats, eggs, and a lot of bouillon.
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There is also a cookie jar, and it is not decorative.
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This works for my week, my budget and my cooking ability.
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Copying someone else's kitchen is how most plans start failing.
6/6
Yours should look like your life. That is the whole point.
Caption starter
Posting a picture of my cupboards would be the least useful thing I could do, so here is the caveat alongside it. Book a consultation and we will build one that matches your week, not mine.
Why it works: It satisfies the curiosity that drives engagement while explicitly refusing the copy-my-life framing that makes most nutrition content useless.
“Six signs it is working that never show on a scale”
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Six signs it is working that never show on a scale
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Getting to four in the afternoon without needing something sweet.
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Cooking twice in a week you would previously have ordered.
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Waking up without the crash you had planned your morning around.
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Clothes fitting differently while the number stays the same.
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These are the ones clients report first, every time.
Caption starter
Almost everybody notices these before a scale moves, and almost nobody counts them as progress. They are the things that actually change how a week feels. Tell me which one you would want first.
Why it works: Redefining progress in terms clients can feel keeps people going through the weeks when the obvious measure has not moved at all.
If one did not happen, that is the useful information.
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Usually it was too big, or aimed at the wrong meal.
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We shrink it rather than adding willpower to it.
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Then one new change, if there is room for it.
Caption starter
The follow-up is where the actual work happens, because the first plan is always slightly wrong. A change that did not stick tells me more than one that did. Message me if you want to see how the sessions are structured.
Why it works: Describing the follow-up sells the second appointment before the first one has happened, which is where nutrition work is won or lost.
Two family medicine practices, mostly for weight and blood sugar support.
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Strength coaches, when someone is eating far too little to train.
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A dietitian who takes anything clinical that lands with me.
5/6
None of that is marketing. It is professionals checking each other's work.
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Ask your doctor who they refer to locally. It is fair.
Caption starter
The best evidence about any practitioner comes from other professionals who see the outcomes. Ask your doctor or your coach who they send people to.
Why it works: A referral from somebody who sees the outcome months later carries more weight than any review, and it is the one claim a competitor cannot buy.
“Your liver is not waiting for a juice to help it”
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Your liver is not waiting for a juice to help it
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Detoxification is a continuous process. It does not pause and restart.
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No cleanse has ever been shown to remove a named toxin.
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Ask any seller which toxin. There is never an answer.
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What a three-day juice does is empty you and lower your energy.
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Then you eat normally and it all comes back. Every time.
Caption starter
The one question that ends every detox conversation is: which toxin, specifically. Nobody has ever answered it. Ask it the next time one is sold to you.
Why it works: Giving readers a single question to use against a whole product category is more memorable than any explanation of physiology.
“That $180 intolerance test measured the wrong thing”
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That $180 intolerance test measured the wrong thing
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Most of them measure an antibody that shows exposure, not intolerance.
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Which is why the results are always the food you eat most.
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People then cut out fourteen foods and feel worse.
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The actual method is dull: structured elimination and reintroduction, supervised.
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It takes six weeks and costs less than the test did.
Caption starter
If your results told you to avoid wheat, dairy and eggs, that is what you eat, not what you react to. Message me before you cut anything out and we will do it properly.
Why it works: It targets a specific, expensive product that a large slice of the audience has already bought, which generates strong comment engagement.
Nothing metabolic switches over at eight in the evening.
3/6
Late eating is a marker, not a mechanism.
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People who eat late often skipped lunch, or are tired, or are stressed.
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That is the thing worth fixing, not the clock.
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If your evenings are hard, that is where we would start.
Caption starter
The rule is wrong and the pattern behind it is real. Late eating usually points at something earlier in the day. Message me if your evenings are the difficult part.
Why it works: Reframing a familiar rule as a symptom rather than a cause shows the thinking that separates a practitioner from a downloadable plan.
Nothing you eat changes that distribution. Nothing at all.
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Sit-ups build the muscle underneath. That is all they do.
5/6
Change happens everywhere, in an order you do not pick.
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Anything sold as a belly fat food is fiction.
Caption starter
Spot reduction is not an open question, it is a settled one, and it is still the single most sold idea in this industry. Where you lose from was never up to you. Message me if you want to talk about what actually is.
Why it works: Naming a claim the audience has already paid for is memorable, and it positions you as the account that will not sell them the same thing again.
Nothing gets banned. Restriction is what makes people quit.
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We usually add before we take anything away.
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More fiber, more protein at breakfast, more of what is missing.
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Most of the removals happen on their own, quietly, later.
6/6
Tell me the food you are afraid I will ban. That one stays.
Caption starter
The question everyone asks in the first five minutes. Nothing is banned here and we add before we subtract. Message me with the food you are worried about and I will put your mind at rest.
Why it works: It removes the fear of going without that stops people booking, and it directly contradicts the restriction-based programs they have tried before.
Plenty of clients never step on them and do very well.
3/6
Weight moves with hydration, salt, hormones and the previous evening.
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Weekly averages tell you something. A single Tuesday morning does not.
5/6
Energy, sleep, digestion and clothes are perfectly good measures.
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You decide what we track. That is genuinely your choice.
Caption starter
Nobody gets weighed here without agreeing to it first, and plenty of clients never do. Tell me at the intake stage what you would rather we track.
Why it works: Making measurement optional welcomes clients with a difficult history around weighing, a large group that most nutrition marketing actively repels.
Built for night shifts, long drives and unpredictable breaks.
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What to keep in a locker. What to eat at 4am.
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No selling from the front. No supplements. No plans.
5/6
Delivered on site, or online for a distributed team.
6/6
Message me your team size and I will send the outline.
Caption starter
A practical hour built for people whose working pattern makes normal advice useless. Message me your team size and shift pattern and I will send the outline.
Why it works: Corporate work is higher-value and less price-sensitive than one-to-one, and shift work is a specific brief that almost nobody offers.
“Nobody ever gained ten pounds over Christmas dinner”
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Nobody ever gained ten pounds over Christmas dinner
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It is four days. Four days does not undo four months.
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The problem is the six weeks of "I will start in January".
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That is when a normal week stops happening at all.
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Keep one ordinary day a week and the whole thing holds.
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Enjoy the four days properly. That was never the issue.
Caption starter
The damage is never the dinner, it is writing off six weeks in advance. Keep one normal day a week through December. Message me in the new year if you want help doing that.
Why it works: Permission-giving seasonal content is shared widely and it positions you as the only nutrition account not making people anxious in December.
“I trained because of a leaflet that made things worse”
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I trained because of a leaflet that made things worse
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A family member was handed a photocopied sheet and sent home.
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No questions about their shifts, their budget, or who cooked.
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It failed within two weeks, and they blamed themselves for it.
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Nearly every plan that fails, failed because nobody asked first.
6/6
So I ask for seventy-five minutes before I say anything.
Caption starter
The short version of why my consultations are longer than most and why I will not send a plan before we talk. Message me if that is the sort of help you have been looking for.
Why it works: A personal origin story that explains a specific service decision is far more persuasive than a biography, and it names the failure the reader has lived.
Two or three posts a week is realistic: one carousel explaining a rule, a claim or a process, one myth or FAQ answered plainly, and one availability or personal post. Batch two weeks of them in a single afternoon between clients.
Hashtags for nutritionists
Mix these with location tags for your own area. Put them in the first comment so the caption stays readable.