While not always necessary, labs are incredibly valuable in our work together. In our initial assessment, we will review any previous labs you have completed and discuss ones that could be important to explore. This might involve some basic bloodwork to assess metabolism/blood sugar, hormones, nutrient status and inflammation, or more functional lab testing. The functional labs I run most frequently include:

• DUTCH hormone test to dive deeper into your sex and stress hormones

• stool test to better understand your gut microbiome and the overall functioning of your gut

• hair tissue mineral analysis to see how your mineral status might be impacting your overall health

You are probably here because you want to start making changes to your food choices, which is great, because nutrition impacts every aspect of our health. When it comes to food recommendations for my clients, my approach is very personalized and collaborative. I want you to be a part of the decision-making process and learn how to lean into your intuition. While I firmly believe there is a time and a place to remove or limit certain foods, my general philosophy is to focus as much as possible on the foods to ADD into your daily food choices versus solely focusing on what foods to take out.

In my work I am focusing heavily on food plans that will help balance blood sugars, manage inflammation, create a healthy gut environment and microbiome, and support hormones.

To ensure that my clients have a good understanding of nutrition while working together, I created the ROOTS program, which contains a variety of videos of me walking you through the foundations of nutrition. This is a resource included in the 1-on-1 package that hundreds of previous clients have found incredibly valuable as they work on making changes to their food choices!

We can talk all day about the foods you might want to add in to improve your specific health concerns, but if you don’t have a solid meal planning process in place to help get that food ready to eat in front of you, making food changes will be difficult. Meal planning looks different for every client of mine, and I enjoy taking the time to explore what kind of structure around planning works best for you!

To be very clear, I do not write meal plans for clients. Instead, I help you figure out a system that helps you be more consistent with picking meals/snacks, grocery shopping, cooking/prepping, and getting food on the table!

Have you ever finished eating a meal and you don’t even remember how you got there because you ate so quickly? Do you let emotions, boredom, or even routine drive your eating habits rather than your hunger? Were you taught to clean your plate no matter how full you are? These are all signs you could use more mindfulness in your eating habits. Mindful eating is a daily practice that lets your hunger be the driver of when and how much you eat. It helps you become a more intuitive eater and become confident in creating meals that are balanced and allow you to savor and enjoy your food.

I never treat supplements as a magic pill. I truly see them as what they are literally called - a supplement to a balanced lifestyle. You can’t out-supplement a poor diet. You can’t out-supplement lack of movement or sleep. You can’t out-supplement excess stress. However, I have seen tremendous value in using supplements in my practice, and I will help you identify the most valuable ones to take, if that is something you are interested in.

As a holistic dietitian, it is essential for us to have conversations around movement, sleep, nervous system support, and environmental toxin exposure. All of these factors significantly impact our health and hormones. While you are on your journey to better menstrual cycles, we will create goals in these areas as well!