LIFES CHALLENGES ALLOW US TO LEARN AND GROW

I’m a first-generation Australian with Italian parents who influenced my love of food and all things wellness.  With my family in the produce business for over 50 years, my childhood memories are of my father coming home at the end of his workday, with a box of fresh produce on his shoulders. My mom was always cooking up delicious home-cooked meals and we always sat around the table together to eat. 

Our backyard was an edible garden with the biggest lemon tree you’d ever see, garden beds edged in with herbs, tomato plants lettuce, and even our Calabrian Chili’s growing. It was through my parents that I learned that food is medicine. Now, growing up I did not love to cook but I was always watching and I knew there was never a recipe to follow. It was a pinch of this a small handful of that.  Those were the recipes that we were taught as children and to this day the way I love to cook, with my intuition.

Even though I was surrounded by a loving family, I never really felt like I fit in, never quite comfortable in my own skin.  One thing that was missing was self-confidence.  In my eyes I was never thin enough, tall enough, I didn't look 'Australian' enough.  My earliest memory of a diet was going to Weight Watchers at 16 years of age. My weight didn't qualify to be there, but in my eyes I did.  As a young adult, I had tried every diet out there, but nothing stuck. Nothing had lasting results or was sustainable. I also suffered from severe PMS every month, which I thought was normal, popping NSAIDs to relieve the pain.

In 2001 I moved to New York where my husband lived, it was an extremely stressful time. Once we began a family I decided to leave my demanding job as a retail buyer to stay at home with my children, I found myself even more overwhelmed with the busy life of a full-time mom (I know most mothers can relate).  At that time in my life, I truly believed self-care was selfish and that I needed to put everyone else first. Along the way of being a wife and mother, I somehow lost myself and all the things that I learned from my parents growing up. 

In 2015, I really didn't recognize myself, I hit my heaviest weight, had no energy, and my confidence at an all-time low. Thankfully I was introduced to a nutritional system that gave me what my body was craving and it helped propel me back to my roots and added in a new holistic approach, which meant looking at how all areas of my life were connected. What started as a weight loss goal, catapulted into a transformation of my mind, body, and spirit. I know now, self-care is a necessity. I was finally comfortable in my own skin, listening to my own intuition to balance my body. 

A year later my PMS symptoms worsened that would send me to bed in severe pain, this I knew was not normal. I was diagnosed with uterine fibroid and the recommendation was a partial hysterectomy. This is when I took my health into my own hands and sought another opinion.  My new OBGYN surgically removed the fibroid with a full recovery, but one year later to the surprise of my doctor, I could feel it was growing back. This time I didn't want to have surgery but instead looked at diet and lifestyle to subside the growth and I continually work on my hormone health.

Culinary Nutrition Certification, Academy of Culinary Nutrition

Hormone Health Course Certification, Institute of Integrative Nutrition (IIN)

Holistic Health Coach Certification, Institute of Integrative Nutrition (IIN)