I’m a 20-something living in Toronto with my boyfriend of 5 years and 2 mini dachshund puppies.  I moved to “the big smoke,” as my uncle still calls it, back in 2001 for University.  I grew up in a small town of 1,000 people, so you can see why I never went back.  I can’t believe it’s been 8 years!

I dream of living in France someday. The French countryside just screams my name.  I’m thinking of going back to University to take a few more language classes at the moment, and wish I’d just majored in French the first time around.  Although the desire to learn has never been as bright as it is at this moment, likely due to the “now or never” mindset that creeps in as you near 30.

I went to UofT for psychology and poli sci and then discovered the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition.  I really enjoy being a holistic nutritionist.  It’s quite amazing that I’m even alive today, considering the crap I used to think of as food.  Kraft dinner and hot dogs were a staple in my teen years, as were Diet Coke, bread and milk.

I haven’t had a hot dog in almost 4 years.  I’ve had exactly half of one Diet Coke in the past 3 years (I decided to experiment with aspartame for some reason in Paris – horrible stuff btw!), and milk products occupy the top of my “not fit for consumption” list.  I love to discuss nutrition and help anyone who wants to learn the connection between the foods they eat and the way they feel.

I used to blog about nutrition-related topics, but I accidentally deleted my blog in June, 2009, and I’ve decided since to write a more personable blog. I hope you find it entertaining and no doubt there will be some nutritional blogging somewhere throughout.  I love to write, tell stories, and keep the mood light, and rather that market myself as a nutrition expert (which I am), I’d like to leave all areas up for discussion in my comments box.

My mission is to inspire people to take control of their weight and health by creating healthy eating habits and a healthy relationship with food.  We eat every day, and what we eat can either bring our bodies into balance and closer to optimal health or it can shift the balance toward illness.  The choice is ours.  My philosophy revolves around whole foods, exercise, and a positive attitude.  My approach to nutrition emphasizes education, guidance, and on-going support.  A steady, gradual change from your current diet toward a more health-supportive way of eating will provide you with more energy than you’ve ever experienced.  I know.  I’ve done it!

My nutritional counseling services include preventative nutrition, weight management, eradicating digestive issues, detoxification and cleansing programs, food allergies and sensitivities, immune system support, as well as chronic health issues such as diabetes and hypertension.  You can either improve or even completely eradicate disease if you simply improve your diet!

I want to share my knowledge with others so I can help them achieve their true health and energy potential.  My personal experience with constant allergies and a compromised immune system perpetuated my passion for nutrition, helped turn my shyness into confidence, and gave me the endless energy I have today…and energy is contagious!  I am fascinated by nutrition and the starring role it plays in our body chemistry.  Studying psychology made me eager to find out more about what makes people act as they do, so I turned to the body’s fuel and started looking at food and its effects on the body. I have discovered many fundamental laws of nutrition that have driven me to make drastic changes in my own life, and I desperately want to help others make similar life altering changes in their health through healing with food.

Writing as a nutrition expert gets me emails such as “where are your scientific sources to back this up?” The problem with scientific studies is that they are funded by people with a vested interest in the outcome, which means most studies are one-sided and intended to prove something like how good their product is for you to consume.  For example: the dairy industry funds studies to prove that you should drink milk.  The truth: drinking milk actually causes most of the problems the dairy industry says it cures – think obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis.  Studies are used as a marketing tool.  I learned that back in my psychology days at UofT.  I.  Everyone has an angle, and it’s not hard to find an angle in a study.  Give me any milk study that “proves” milk is good for us, and I’ll find you a confounding variable or two which will render that study irrelevant, even though the dairy industry touts it as fact.

My favourite piece of nutritional advice is this: How does what you eat make you feel? For instance, milk makes me feel like throwing up – but it took me years to actually realize it.  Through years of (unfortunately successful) marketing by the dairy industry, I had been brainwashed into thinking I HAD to drink it!  Once I started thinking about the cycle of life – how cow’s milk is for baby cows, and how even adult cows do not drink cows milk – my mind was blown wide open.  I want this blog to blow your mind wide open too.  Please do enjoy it