As long as I can remember, I have always had a passion for being active – hiking in the mountains, participating in a variety of sports, or simply enjoying walks with family and friends. I believe it is that, along with the anatomy class I took in high school, that primarily led me to focus my studies on wellness and physical activity specifically. Despite growing up with a mom who worked as a dietitian, it wasn’t until after I got married and had my own kitchen filled with cooking tools and appliances that my deeper interest in culinary arts combined with nutrition began to blossom. I started to recognize more fully the power of nutrition and its wide-reaching influence on daily life, as well as longevity. From there, I continued on a journey that has led me to focus on plant-based eating, sustainability, and nutrition as it relates to overall health. These now deeply seeded interests have helped me see the bigger picture and influenced my nutrition philosophy – how a meal is a part of eating patterns, how eating patterns influence wellbeing, and how community and global food systems impact the environment. It is evident that the way we understand and practice nutrition habits, along with attitudes about nutrition, can have powerful effects on individual, community, and planetary levels.

 

Through my business, I hope to raise awareness of the centrality of food in daily living for everyone. I am encouraged to help others discover the enjoyment of healthful eating as well as the capability they have to customize and integrate nutrition into their lifestyle (without it feeling like a chore!). I recognize how food is a core part of cultures, traditions, and everyday life and because of this, it is tied to emotions and memories. These characteristics make food and overall diet highly personal, and my approach to nutrition coaching and education reflects this. I believe it should be holistic, balanced, gradual, empowering, and individualized. Our bodies and experiences are unique, and therefore what we put in them should be specific to individual needs, which complements adoption of a healthy eating pattern (rather than a specific “diet”) that is sustainable in the long run.