Welcome

I decided to become a registered dietitian to help people improve their health. I was frustrated with our medical system that shoved medicine at family members to manage their diabetes and heart disease, while they just kept getting sicker. I knew that there had to be a better way. I learned that if you used food as medicine, you could reverse these diseases and could feel better along the way. I had to help. I wanted people to feel better, to have more energy and to improve their health.

I graduated from North Carolina State University with a Bachelors of Arts degree in Psychology.  Later I switched allegiances to earn my Masters degree in Public Health Nutrition from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  I've been a practicing registered dietitian for over sixteen years now.  

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I am a member of the group, Healthy at Every Size, and am getting certified in Intuitive Eating. Diets don't work. Hating your body doesn't work. Shame doesn't work. Trusting your body, learning to listen to hunger cues and rejecting the diet culture does work. Helping people break the diet cycle is my passion. 

I specialize in diabetes management and reversal, GI health and weight acceptance/management.  For 5 years, I was the lead dietitian in a NIH funded study, the Diabetes Family Project, which researched the impact of diabetes education in diabetes self management.  While I love helping with all nutritional needs, my real passion lies in women's health, helping women achieve better outcomes and thrive in every life chapter.

When I'm not working, I love spending time outdoors with my family.  You can often find me biking, running or kayaking enjoying North Carolina weather year round.  

I recall my intense interest in nutrition taking root back when I began racing mountain bikes “seriously” nearly 20 years ago. What started as a curiosity to improve my own performance in those events ended up leading me into a career that I would never have imagined!  

As a registered dietitian I am able to dramatically impact the lives of clients and those around me to a degree that I never knew was possible. 

What will likely remain one of the proudest and most poignant client stories I’ll ever experience was working with my own father. He was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer and advised to have surgery immediately. Instead, being six months from retirement, he decided to put off the operation until then and see what diet and lifestyle could do in the interim. Both of his doctors strongly advised against this and told him that diet doesn’t impact prostate cancer. How advise like that isn’t considered malpractice, I’ll never know.

So we dove in, headfirst, and changed almost everything. Thankfully the recommendations on diet and prostate cancer are clear and well established so we charted a path.  

Fast forward six months and his PSA levels and tumor size had shrunk so much that only a light round of radiation was required. No surgery needed.  Weight was down, energy way up, and many other nagging health issues resolved or improved as well. It wasn’t magic, just science. Published, publicly available, thirty year old science.

Both of his doctors shrugged their shoulders and said they didn’t know why he improved and that he was just “lucky”. We respectfully disagree ;-)

Outcomes like that and many others with clients improving their lives, getting off medications, and improve their health, when they think or were told there was no other way out, are what drive me every day. There is far too much needless suffering and lack of awareness of the power of food for us to sit idly by.

I specialize in Sports nutrition, diabetes reversal, weight management, IBS/Crohn’s/intestinal health, hypertension, hypercholestemia, and overall plant based nutrition. 

When I’m not working or researching the latest and greatest in nutrition you can find me cycling, kayaking, hiking, or attempting ridiculous house projects.