Most of my life, I have been interested in health and nutrition. I grew up in the country, surrounded by family members who believed that what you eat has a lot to do with your health. My grandmother grew fruits and vegetables in her garden, and nutrition books were always around our home. This created the interest, knowledge, and passion in why I decided to become a holistic nutrition coach. My grandmother was a coach by hobby. She deeply cared about the health and well-being of her family, relatives, and friends.

My interest in holistic nutrition began with my family. I grew up around people who believed deeply in the connection between food and health, and I learned about nutrition from them at a very young age.

But having access to healthy food didn’t mean I always had a healthy relationship with food.

Learning from My Food and Health Struggles

I loved sugar, candy, chocolate, and simple carbohydrates as a child. By the time I was 10, I was weighing myself, and at 11, I started counting calories. Between the ages of 11 and 13, I severely restricted my food intake and became obsessed with my weight. As a teenager, I wanted to be thin and compared myself to other girls and the models I saw in magazines.

Eventually, the restriction went in the opposite direction. I began eating enormous amounts of food and developed what felt like a compulsive relationship with sugar and refined carbohydrates. This cycle continued for years.

When I moved to Boston at 19, I discovered the Mediterranean diet. It included a variety of foods instead of requiring me to eliminate entire categories. I began eating more fish, fatty fish, meat, vegetables, herbs and spices, roasted red peppers, grape leaves and tabbouleh. And, I could enjoy my food.

I had always been active, and exercise helped me lose weight. I could only get down to a size 8 by exercising extensively and eliminating carbohydrates such as bread and potatoes. I wasn’t willing to give those foods up forever, and I couldn’t maintain that size.

For years, I went up and down with my weight.

In my late thirties, while I was caring for my grandmother, my own eating habits became increasingly excessive. I was eating large amounts of carbohydrates and refined sugar, and my weight eventually reached 250 pounds—the highest it had ever been.

How Real Change Began

By this time, I knew I needed to make some real changes.

I started walking more and continued learning about nutrition. I read about the importance of protein and began incorporating more protein-rich foods, including Greek yogurt, into my diet.

Eventually, after experiencing my own health struggles, I made a decision in my early forties to take my health much more seriously. I began stepping away from refined sugar and foods containing it and became much more intentional about what I was putting into my body.

My interest in nutrition continued to grow. Also, I discovered that nutrition is about much more than just weight.

I didn’t become interested in nutrition because I had all the answers. I became interested because I spent years searching for answers for myself.

Why I Believe Nutrition Matters

Health has many components, and nutrition is only one of them. Sleep, stress, relationships, movement, environment and many other factors can influence how we feel and function.

Yet nutrition is often undervalued and overlooked.

Nutrition is about giving your body a variety of nutrients through the foods you eat. Highly processed foods can provide relatively little nutritional value compared with nutrient-dense foods. When our diets are dominated by foods that don’t provide much nourishment, we’re missing an opportunity to give our bodies what they need.

I don’t believe food guarantees that someone will live past 100 or that they will never develop an illness. That’s not how health works.

What I do believe is that the right kinds of foods can make a difference in our quality of life and how we feel every day.

Food can provide energy and important nutrients that support our body. And when we nourish ourselves consistently, we can build habits that support our overall well-being.

My own experience taught me that restriction wasn’t the answer. The more I restricted, the more I wanted to eat. I don’t want to put another woman through that cycle.

Why I Became a holistic nutrition Coach

I became interested in holistic nutrition because I wanted to understand food and health on a deeper level—and because I know what it feels like to struggle with weight fluctuations for years.

I don’t believe there is one perfect diet that works for everyone.

For me, holistic nutrition isn’t about following a strict diet for 30 days and then returning to your old habits. It’s about looking at the bigger picture and learning how to build healthy habits that can become part of your lifestyle.

The Bigger Picture

If I work with someone, I want to learn about her. What is she eating? What foods does she enjoy? How does she feel? What does her daily life look like? How much sleep is she getting? Is she under a lot of stress? What challenges are making healthy eating difficult?

From there, we can look for small, consistent changes.

Rather than immediately taking foods away, my philosophy is to look at what we can add: more protein, more fiber, healthy fats, and a greater variety of nutrient-dense foods. We can also find ways to include foods she genuinely enjoys so healthy eating doesn’t feel like punishment.

My goal isn’t to put you on another restrictive diet.

It’s to help you understand nutrition, discover what works for you, and make small, consistent changes that you can maintain over time.

It’s to help you become more knowledgeable and confident about the food you eat and create habits that can actually fit into your life.

Choose progress over perfection. Always!

This post is for educational and informational purposes only and is based on personal experience and general wellness principles. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, nor replace professional medical or nutritional advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional regarding your individual needs, or any question you have regarding a medical condition. Or before implementing any information from this blog. Reliance on any information in this post is solely at your own discretion.

Are You Ready to Stop Starting Over?

If you’ve spent years going from one diet to another, you may feel like you’ve tried everything.

I understand that feeling because I’ve been there.

You don’t have to change everything overnight. Sometimes the most meaningful changes begin with one small decision, repeated consistently.

If you’re ready to talk about your nutrition, your goals, and where you’d like to make changes, I invite you to schedule a free Holistic Nutrition Coaching Discovery Call with me. You can book your call through my Contact page.

We’ll start with a conversation—not another diet.

You don’t have to become a different person to change your health. You can start by learning how to nourish the person you already are.

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