“You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody”

-Maya Angelou

My Journey to Gentleness

Throughout my childhood and teenage years I had very normal eating habits. For as long as I can remember I’ve always **LOVED** good food and cooking with others. My best friend and I would make up crazy recipes while narrating for our wildly successful cooking show and laughing till we cried (totally unprofessional for the show).
Things changed when my dad and I went vegan together in my senior year of high school and I got my first taste of restriction. I remember that was the first time I felt guilty for secretly eating a Twix candy bar one night, because I was breaking my vegan rules. I ended up being a vegan for a year but the distrust of animal byproducts lingered throughout college.
When I got to college, I started feeling the pressure to fit the “image” of my titles. I was a nutrition student, marathon runner, on the club crew team, and a cycling instructor. I ate healthy and cared a lot about nutrition (part of why I got into my major) but struggled to feel like I “looked the part.”
The solution, I thought, was to eat as healthy as possible, restrict carbs despite my endurance sports, and cut out all fun foods & drinks. What I didn’t know at the time was that diets don’t work and that this was a recipe for disaster.

After five years cycling through restriction, overeating, and extreme guilt, I found myself sitting in front of a counselor saying, “I’m just tired and frustrated of being in this cycle...I wish I could just be a normal person who eats without overthinking it, without feeling guilty or disappointed if I mess up. I’m self-disciplined in other ways, why can’t I figure this out?”

My counselor looked at me and said, “I want you to focus on being gentle with yourself...try to make peace with your thoughts as they occur and instead of judging them and being frustrated that you’re not where you want to be.” I knew she was right, but I had no idea how right and how transformative this journey to gentleness would be.

When I stopped judging my thoughts around food, and started focusing on nourishing my body AND mind, I became the healthiest version of myself. It was and sometimes still feels unbelievable and SO counter-intuitive that the best thing I could do was give myself grace and stop trying so hard.

Now I create an environment of abundance, with fruits and vegetables as well as chocolate and peanut butter. I slowly started remembering that I actually LOVE salty foods, BBQ flavor, and other random things that got bumped off my preference list when sugar was the only thing worth “splurging” on. I now have more space in my mind to think and care about OTHER THINGS than myself, what I look like, and what I’m going to eat.

It’s not always easy and perfect, but that’s the point…the end goal isn’t perfection.

My Nutrition Philosophy

I believe food is powerful. It has the power to build you up or tear you down. As a registered dietitian I want to help you embark on your own journey to discover an eating pattern that is both nourishing for your body and mind; a sustainable and joyful lifestyle rather than a restrictive and fear-based diet.

Through my programs I provide practical steps to help YOU in your journey towards gentleness with food and yourself. You will create a sustainable & balanced relationship with food where you feel your best without restriction, food rules, and dieting.