I grew up with a complicated relationship with food and body dysmorphia, where my early love of cooking was overshadowed by the belief that enjoying food was inherently wrong. In junior high, I began restricting my diet, even spending a week consuming only fruits and vegetables. Competitive sports became my outlet, but during that time, I experienced irregular periods or hypothalamic amenorrhea. When I sought medical advice, birth control pills were prescribed without consideration of my eating and exercise habits or hypothalamic amenorrhea.

In college, after leaving sports behind, I struggled with weight gain in my first year. Unsure about my field of study, a nutrition class ignited my interest, and running became both a weight management tool and a competitive outlet. However, I continued to struggle with hypothalamic amenorrhea, a condition where intense exercise and restrictive eating habits disrupt hormone signals in the brain, causing menstrual periods to cease. As my knowledge of nutrition grew, my diet became increasingly restrictive in an attempt to control my body. At one point, I adopted vegetarianism, believing it was the healthiest choice. My restrictive diet was framed as "healthy living," but during this time I started to experience bouts of binge eating.

After graduation, I pursued an internship to become a Registered Dietitian while getting engaged and moving in with my husband. We trained intensely for running and biking events, but my period remained irregular due to under-eating. This relentless regimen led to my first major injury and burnout, leaving me constantly fatigued and unable to recover from workouts. I struggled with feelings of failure, never allowing myself to rest, and feeling emotionally depleted. I turned to food for comfort, shaming myself afterward, then justifying my eating with excessive exercise. It was a vicious cycle that left me at rock bottom. 

At this point, a preceptor from my internship introduced me to the book Intuitive Eating, which shifted my perception of food and began a multi-year journey to heal my relationship with eating. When we moved to Midland, I faced challenges in my relationships with exercise that resulted in me needing to step back from running for my mental health. My husband struggled to understand my need for this break because this was always something we shared together. After taking a year to find joy in movement again, I was able to approach running in a more balanced manner. Although this time was challenging, I found the joy in being active and have continued to this day. 

 Becoming pregnant with my first son solidified my gratitude for embracing food freedom. Motherhood has profoundly changed my approach to exercise and food, teaching me to balance self-care with joy.

With 10 years of experience as a dietitian specializing in marketing and wellness, my journey has empowered me to offer compassionate, evidence-based guidance to others striving for balanced and healthy relationships with food.