Hello, welcome …whether you were referred to me by someone or have found me by divine intervention, I hope what I share gives you value.

If you have made it this far, you know I am a NTP (Nutritional Therapy Practitioner). The road to get here has been anything but a straight line.  I have a degree in exercise physiology from The University of Tampa (2001) with a double minor in cardiac rehab and nutrition. After graduation, I didn’t do much with my degree except for some personal training and teaching aerobics classes.  I went back to school to become a certified elementary school teacher. I taught kindergarten and first grade for three years.  During this time, I met my husband, Luis. We married in 2005, and after the birth of my first daughter, I became a stay-at-home mom. I have 2 fantastic bonus children and 2 daughters. I feel blessed and beyond grateful to have a full house.  At this point, I should begin writing a book about my anxiety and health journey, and maybe one day I will, but for now, here is my story in a nutshell.

In 2014, I took a cruise with my sister, and when I got off the cruise, I could not stop rocking. I was diagnosed with a disorder called Mal de Debarquement Syndrome (MdDS). During that time, I began to see an acupuncturist to help with my symptoms of MdDS, and he reminded me how important my nutrition was in healing my body from the inside out.  I was so desperate and motivated to try to help heal myself that I started taking online classes (Precision Nutrition) about nutrition since it had been a minute since graduating college. I also began working out from home and fell in love with the accountability of a community that I signed up to become an online health and fitness coach with Beachbody. A couple of years into my journey, I started experiencing a lot of joint pain, dry mouth, dry eyes, fatigue, and severe bloating. No matter how clean I ate ( by society’s standards), I still felt like crap. It became increasingly hard to be an authentic health and fitness coach when I myself was suffering. After one too many doctor’s visits, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. After starting medication, I felt a little like myself again despite still having horrible bloating. Over the course of 9 years, I tried every nutrition plan I had ever heard of to try and feel better. I tried portion fix, Whole 30, Keto, went Vegan, and tried Paleo, all while running my health straight into the ground.  I was constantly sick and had horrible migraines, and developed food sensitivities. I was struggling with anxiety, continued digestive issues, and IBS. For years I felt like I was under attack by my own body. I saw a GI doctor who ran a million tests, including an endoscopy and a colonoscopy.  The results were cloudy and not specific; I was given medication and told to follow up in a few weeks. I was fed up with the runaround with no definitive answers. “Just take this and see how you feel.” To me, that was not the answer I was looking for. I wanted to know ‘why” I felt the way I felt. I started following an NTP online and was blown away by the simple realization that what works for one may not work for someone else… Bio Individuality! Bio-individuality – “the idea that there's no one-size-fits-all approach to health and nutrition. Instead, we're all unique in our biological makeup and requirements. Each person has their own specific nutritive and health needs, as well as routines, practices, and preferences that work for them.” In short, our bodies react differently to various foods, stress, environmental factors, and habits. This is the key that was missing! I needed to figure out what my body needed. In doing so, I fell in love with the process of tuning out what society believed to be healthy and started focusing on what my body needed to feel healthy!

I became certified through the Nutritional Therapy Association (NTA) to help others make sense of the overload of information out there. I want people to know they don’t have to settle or be defined by a diagnosis. And it is more than okay to understand why you feel the way you do.  As a certified nutritional therapy practitioner, I use a foundations-based approach to support the health of my clients. I don't just provide a temporary solution, a quick-fix diet, or a Band-Aid approach to Wellness.  Instead, I use detailed assessments to help my clients understand why they might not be feeling their best, and I use a food-focused approach with a personalized plan to help them reach their health goals. I am a complete science geek, I love to learn, and I love to teach. While I have made a million mistakes along my journey, I wouldn’t trade one because it brought me full circle to this moment. My experience has taught me what I need to be able to be here with and for you.

I can’t wait to connect.

~Much Love~

Allison