Why I Became A Health Coach

The Roots

I have been passionate about home-cooking, natural movement, and sharing the two with others for as long as I can remember. I grew up with a mom and little Italian Nonna who cooked every meal at home, and spent nearly eighteen years of my life on a stage as a dancer. The Food Network was my after-school program of choice (rivaled only by The Ellen Show). I’d spend hours in the kitchen chopping, tossing, and swirling ingredients into pots on the stove like Giada De Laurentiis and Barefoot Contessa.

Eating at restaurants was saved for special occasions in my family, and I didn’t lace up a pair of running shoes until I attempted* joining the track team my freshman year of high school! Eighth grade Home Economics was my jam and, in high school, I sought out classes like Biology, Anatomy & Physiology and read PubMed in my free time to explore how the human body functioned. My interest in nutrition and cooking was light-hearted, full of curiosity and genuine interest.

*Bought a pair of fluorescent Nikes, mistook the warm-up for the workout, ran the 100m in a few meets, and unlaced aforementioned foot highlighters soon after.


The Weeds

As I began to “learn” more about health and nutrition using the “new” social media platforms of Pinterest and Instagram (this was 2010), my passion for cooking and interests in health became skewed by infographics, recipes, and bloggers posting content that was riddled with what I now recognize to be diet culture.

Ideas about what “healthy” looked like were promoted by magazines, news articles, TV stations, and other media. In the 2000’s, low fat was all the rage and there were now “skinny” versions of every recipe you could think of. “Healthy” meant abs and cardio machines. Powdered peanut butter was on my grocery list. My impressionable, high school-aged self followed suit because I genuinely believed the information I was reading was true. That to count your calories and “eat less, move more” was exactly what it took to live a healthy life…Umm… what?!


The Rise

After a few years of being influenced by the content I was consuming online, I finally became aware that something had to change. I was feeling uprooted and disconnected from my true self because the lifestyle I was living didn’t light me up or inspire me—it didn’t support my rise. In college, I began the journey of letting go of everything I thought I knew to get back to the root of who I was. In the process, I healed my relationship with my body, as well as a wholeeee lot more.

That was then, but diet culture is still NOW. Some people who laugh at the low-fat craze now vilify carbohydrates. A lot of people think that think long-duration cardio was a sad trend for weight loss, but are also the ones dragging themselves through five-days-a-week High Intensity Interval Training.

The fact that misinformation, over-generalizations, and “fake news” can be spread to the masses in just a matter of seconds is a scary reality. This happens with all types of topics, but we live in a time in which we are particularly over-saturated with information and studies regarding our health and well-being. Confusion regarding conflicting claims and overwhelm in the midst of health information promoted on the web has pervaded the minds of not just teenage girls but also grown men and even kids! ”What exactly IS healthy?” is a question many of you reading have likely asked yourselves.

The widespread confusion I noticed and personally felt is the reason I decided to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Strategic Communication. In my classes, I was able to closely dissect how the media influences our thoughts, behaviors, and relationships. My coursework was heavily focused on how messages are framed, as well as the psychological and sociological impact of media production and consumption. My minor in Holistic Approaches to Health and Wellness allowed me to take all that I was learning and begin to look at how health organizations diffuse knowledge and shape studies about the efficacy of different pharmaceutical, surgical, and nutritional interventions.

After graduating from college, I decided to further my nutrition education and become a Certified Health Coach because I want to educate and empower individuals to make lifestyle choices which feel sustainable and supportive in their bodies. Through my year long program, I became educated on over 100 different dietary theories that incorporated knowledge of cutting-edge, modern, traditional, and holistic nutrition concepts.


Rising Rooted Health Coaching

My holistic health coaching practice is intended to help you sift through the weeds of today’s societal landscape and help you get back to your roots—rising each day feeling satisfied, calm, and confident. I don’t believe in one set diet or a rigid routine, but I whole-heartedly believe in giving my clients the resources to create individualized and sustainable rituals to gently nourish and heal their bodies and minds.

As your coach, I blend ancestral wisdom, science-backed research, and consideration of your unique needs to provide you with the support you need to reach your holistic health and wellness goals. This includes, but is not limited to…
-Shopping healthily on a budget
-Cleaning out your pantry
-Cooking simple, tasty, nourishing recipes
-Reducing cravings
-Incorporating more movement in your life
-Improving sleep quality
-Balancing hormones
-Refreshing your home and beauty products
-Finally accepting your body…

I’m here for it all, y’all!

My practice works because we collaborate to identify lifestyle behaviors that have you moving with, rather than against, your body’s unique rhythms and your life’s unique demands.

No deprivation. No calculations or points. No detoxes. Just a bit of goal-setting and a lot of self-love ♥


Are you ready to rise as your most radiant you?
Head to my Coaching page to learn more about my practice offerings!