It’s no secret that the accounting profession presents unique challenges for maintaining our daily health and nutrition habits. After a decade working in Big-4 public accounting, I know what it feels like to pour everything into your job and leave nothing for yourself. Long hours, high-stakes deadlines, and non-stop client demands mean nutrition often takes a backseat—sometimes without you even realizing it.

But the truth is, your energy is your greatest asset, and because your body is not a robot, as a CPA you must develop intentional nutrition strategies to protect it. The good news is you don’t need a complicated diet or perfect routine to achieve measurable results. With just a few strategic tweaks, you can create year-round nutrition habits that fuel mental clarity, stable moods, and lasting focus—even during the most demanding seasons of your career and life. Let’s dive in!

Why Most CPAs Struggle with Nutrition

When I speak to CPA teams today, the patterns are nearly universal:

• Scarfing down lunch or entirely skipping meals,
• Caffeine for energy, wine to wind down,
• A cycle of health goals pushed off “until after busy season”, and
• Making short-term progress, only to regain the weight (and more).

The result is smart, driven professionals who can solve complex accounting problems, but struggle with maintaining consistent energy throughout their demanding workdays. There are three common nutrition traps:

• Trap #1: The All-or-Nothing Mindset - Only sticking to a nutrition plan if you can do it perfectly and consistently each week, followed by complete abandonment when you can't.
• Trap #2: The Trend Hopping Cycle - Cycling through trendy diets such as keto or strict macro counting —each working temporarily before collapsing under professional demands.
• Trap #3: The "I'll Start After Busy Season" Perpetual Delay - Health becomes perpetually postponed until "after this deadline," creating a pattern where you never get around to prioritizing your wellness.

These traps create the phenomenon I call "trading your health for your wealth"—where professional success comes at the cost of physical and mental health. Can you relate? As CPAs we can (and must) avoid this tradeoff. Further, we can leverage our daily habits to uplevel our professional success while we’re at it.

Your Daily Habits Are Your Performance Strategy

When implemented, simple strategic nutrition approaches can provide valuable professional benefits, such as:

• Improved client relationship management through enhanced mood stability,
• More effective team leadership through consistent energy,
• Higher quality analytical work through optimized cognitive function,
• Reduced recovery time between intense work periods, and
• Improved stress resilience and long-term career sustainability.

It's important to remember that small changes add up to big differences in your daily performance, metabolic health, and longevity.

Nutrition Non-Negotiables for CPAs

Strategic nutrition isn’t about rules or diets, it’s about giving your body what it needs to sustain the energy, focus, and mental clarity your job demands.

Let’s look at 3 non-negotiables that make the biggest impact:

1. Prioritize Protein to Stabilize Energy: Protein is the foundation of mental clarity, metabolism, and blood sugar balance. Target about 1 gram per pound of your ideal body weight per day. If your goal weight is 150-pounds, then your daily protein goal would be 150 grams of protein, spread out over the meals you eat each day.

Simple strategies:

• Start strong: Eat 30–40g of protein within an hour of waking and before caffeine.
• Plan ahead: If you know the lunch menu is carb-heavy, have a protein snack beforehand to stabilize blood sugar.
• Track your current intake. It’s been proven that increased awareness alone leads to better nutrition choices.

2. Balance Blood Sugar for Better Focus: Blood sugar spikes and dips trigger fatigue, brain fog, and anxiety, especially during high-pressure work, impacting performance during critical client presentations and detailed analysis work.

Try these tweaks:

• Eat for your DIP: When filling your plate - Double up on the veggies, Increase the protein (see Step #1), and Pull back on the carbs.
• Go for a short 5-10 min walk after a meal to curb the blood sugar response.
• Use a CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitor) to see how your daily blood sugar levels.

3. Set Up Your Environment for Success: It’s not your willpower that’s the problem, it’s your environment. If the first thing you see when you go to the pantry is Oreos, it’s going to be really hard not to want to eat them! The key is to engineer your environment to make your good habits easy and your bad habits hard.

Here are 3 super easy ways to do this:

• Move the Oreos / chips / crackers to the back of your pantry, or better yet don’t buy them in the first place.
• Schedule time once a week to plan for your week ahead, grocery shopping and meal prepping to ensure you have fresh options available.
• During the busiest weeks, schedule a meal delivery service for several of your lunches and dinners.
• Bonus: Have water with you at your desk, no matter what. Buy a bigger water bottle (30+ oz) or bring two with you.

The most successful accounting professionals recognize that nutrition isn't separate from professional performance—it's fundamental to it. By implementing strategic systems rather than relying on willpower or perfect compliance, you can optimize both health and performance outcomes within the unique demands of the accounting profession

Be sure to register for the upcoming For ME Series: Account for Your Health events to learn directly from Kaitlin, presented by the COCPA DE&I Committee . The next one is scheduled for Jun 26, 2025, is free for members, and includes CPE.

Kaitlin Borncamp is a former CPA turned Nutritional Therapist and High-Achiever Health Coach. As founder of Feel Great with Kait, she has helped over 4,000 professionals improve their energy, performance, and stress resilience. Kaitlin has been praised by C-Suite Executives from top companies for her ability to deliver impactful results through her speaking, team workshops, and coaching for high-achievers.

Grab free resources including the free guide on 5 Mistakes Busy Professionals Make With Their Daily Nutrition Choices at www.feelgreatwithkait.com.