Who is Lisa?

My name is Lisa, and I am a 30-something wellness and nutrition professional working in online education, corporate wellness coaching, and lifestyle consulting. I teach for several colleges and universities online in the area of wellness, nutrition, and cultural awareness in health. My primary area of interest in working with individuals is enhancing their quality of life and health through making better food and lifestyle choices.

My educational background is in exercise science, public health management, and community health promotion. I’m a yoga instructor, I have attended multiple trainings in Mind-Body Medicine and Food as Medicine, and I have a certificate in nutrition.

At the end of August 2012, I packed up my belongings and moved across the country from NY to LA. I lived in Santa Monica for a year, and used that time as my “California Sabbatical.” When I made this leap, I wasn’t sure what I’d do or where I’d end up next. Honestly, I spent a lot of that year wandering around at the beach feeling lost. I had a lot of fun too! I met my husband and also married him in 2013… and we got pregnant. We’re very excited! I’ve been researching and coaching on the topic of pregnancy nutrition and lifestyle for quite some time, and now I have the opportunity to share what I learn from an experiential perspective too.

I feel very lucky that I chose to work in a profession that has a foundation in teaching people useful information that will help them to become happier, healthier, and live longer and better!

My journey toward wellness began quite early in my life, but I didn’t make a lot of headway until I went outside the Western paradigm and into a more functional approach to health. This opened a whole new world to me, allowed me to see what my own special nutritional needs are, and helped me to assist others even more effectively in their own journeys.

I believe in finding the root of a health problem, and treating causes instead of using a band-aid approach to health. Food truly is medicine, and real food can heal and enhance health in immeasurable ways.

I’ve worked with people of all ages on improving their health, nutrition, fitness, wellness, and stress levels. My favorite memories of this work involve people being empowered to be responsible for and take control of their own quality of life through their lifestyle choices.

In my own life, and for my friends and clients, I emphasize the importance of eating Real Food from Quality Sources. I like to keep the details simple and enjoyable, and to see food as nourishment, medicine, a medium for expression and sharing, and a source of great enjoyment.

In the beginning of my career, I worked as a civilian employee of the Air Force (at Hanscom Air Force Base) in the Fitness Program. I learned that fitness is amazing and revolutionary in quality of life, and also that it would be important for me to learn more about food if I really wanted to help people reach their health and weight goals.

I moved back home to Upstate NY in 2003, to assist my brother-in-law in caring for my newborn nephew. His mother, my sister, had unexpectedly passed away from complications during childbirth. Ultimately, I was lucky to be a mother and auntie at the same time, and my nephew, now age 10, and I have a very special relationship and friendship.

In my free time, you’ll find me with the people I care about, making messes in the kitchen, chatting with friends over coffee, and reading as much as possible about how to use food to improve health and quality of life. I do not practice any specific diet, such as Paleo, veganism, or the Raw Food Diet. Rather, I have taken all the pearls of wisdom I’ve found that resonate with my needs, and melded them together into my own way of eating. It is, and I expect it will continue forever to be, evolving as I grow and change and learn more.

My dissertation provided me with an enlightening experience in which I focused on women who were very healthy, and I studied their stories to find out how and why they made wellness a priority and sustained it.  I learned so many things from conducting this study, a primary finding being that we live our lives in stories, and we evolve and improve our lives by hearing about and interacting with the stories of others.

Regardless of the valuable things scientific studies say, the qualitative aspect of wellness will always be ranked number one in my book.

I hope you’ll stick around to read and to share your experiences too. If you want to receive my newsletter each week (or less), please Sign Up Here!

Thanks for stopping by.

-Lisa

lisa@thrive-style.com