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About Me
I am a functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner (FDNP) and educator. My journey to become an
FDNP started with my own health crisis. During my first pregnancy, I started passing out about an hour or two
after meals at 20 weeks pregnant. The doctors ran a ton of tests to see what was causing these episodes from
bloodwork, to seeing a cardiologist, to seeing a nutritionist. The nutritionist guessed I was experiencing
hypoglycemia after meals due to increased insulin resistance and my pancreas was dumping a ton of insulin into my blood stream. The result of the insulin dump was an over correction of my blood glucose levels causing them to drop too low. The nutritionist said you may be in the early stages of developing gestational diabetes. I
brushed her off and was like no way. Well, sure enough at 30 weeks pregnant it was confirmed that I had
gestational diabetes. I was quickly thrown into a world of testing my blood sugars and monitoring what I ate. I
found out pretty quickly that after every meal, my blood sugars were always elevated. The endocrinologist said
if we don’t get this under control, we will have to put you on insulin. I followed the diet provided by the
diabetics educator, a 1500 calorie standard diet given to every pregnant women in the practice, and sure
enough after every meal I would have a full blown anxiety attack due to my sugars being high. At 31 weeks I was
put on insulin.
The struggle didn’t stop there. I was constantly hungry. I asked the dietician are you sure I am getting enough
calories? I work out daily and am pretty active. She said we give all of our patients this diet, so I continued to
follow it. While I would have blood glucose levels in the normal range one hour after eating, two hours after
eating I would drop below 60 and be in a diabetic emergency pumping more sugar into my system. This process was exhausting! At 39 weeks I was relieved to give birth to a healthy baby girl and insulin free! It was confirmed six weeks after birth with another nasty one hour blood glucose test, that I no longer was diabetic! HOORAY! As a new mom, though, I struggled like so many other new moms to find a way to include time to take care of myself like working out or eating healthy. I also struggled to find my pre-baby body as I had gained fifty pounds while pregnant.
When I found out I was pregnant with my second child, I made a promise to myself that this time would be
different, and I would do everything in my power to avoid insulin this pregnancy if I could. I decided to work with
a functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner in order to have greater guidance. It was the best decision I ever
made. She walked alongside of me through my entire pregnancy. She helped me to advocate for myself and
follow my instincts while also helping me to learn more about my body’s unique needs. I learned how to listen to
my body and follow its innate intelligence. I also learned how to properly care for my body and balance my
blood sugar. As a result, I felt healthy throughout my entire pregnancy and had more energy, less swelling, no
complications, and a healthy baby.
My healing journey working alongside an FDN-P made me want to help others in a similar position. Having a health crisis can be a very lonely journey to walk and no one should do it alone! Let me walk with you on your journey to healing and finding health!
