MY STORY

I am a Registered Dietitian with a Master's degree in nutrition science as well as a culinary arts certificate. I have been practicing professionally for nearly 20 years.  I completed my under-graduate and graduate degree at California State University, Long Beach and began my career as a medical research Dietitian at the General Clinical Research Center at Harbor UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, CA.  In 2010 my family had an opportunity to move to Ghent, Belgium for 3 years.  This was an amazing adventure to share with my family and I was able to expand my culinary knowledge by taking cooking classes in different countries including France, Belgium and Turkey.  I was also able to explore my passion for food by tasting many of the wonderful flavors and dishes that Europe has to offer.  Our next move brought us to Texas where I worked in School Nutrition. Six years later we were given an opportunity to move back to the beautiful Pacific Northwest!  We couldn’t be happier as my husband and 2 kids both LOVE all things outdoors and everything that the Pacific Northwest has to offer!

In 2019, I experienced my own health struggle.  I was suffering from extreme fatigue and brain fog so I went to my primary care practitioner who ordered a TSH test which came back above normal limits indicating hypothyroidism. It was a 4 month wait to see an endocrinologist, so in the meantime, I read every journal article I could get my hands on about diet, lifestyle, and the thyroid.  I made small changes to my diet, added a few supplements and within 2 weeks of these changes my energy levels increased dramatically and my brain fog (mostly) disappeared.  Four months later, my TSH and all other thyroid lab values were within normal limits and my energy levels were still up.  This cemented my belief in using food as medicine and is the genesis of my “food first" approach.

While diet alone is not always "the fix" and pharmaceuticals certainly have their place, simple diet and exercise modifications are a great place to start!  Many biomarkers of health can be influenced by our diet including cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood glucose.   Let's work together and get to the root cause of your symptoms!