Nutrition & Strength

Food and strength are not separate from the rest of your life.

You can know what protein is.

You can know you should strength train.

You can know you probably need to eat differently, move more, sleep better, drink more water, stop skipping meals, stop grazing all day, or stop relying on whatever random thing you can find at 4:00pm because you forgot to eat lunch.

Knowing is useful.

But knowing isn’t the same thing as being able to do it consistently in real life.

And that’s where I come in.

My background is in biology and health education, and I’m a NASM Certified Personal Trainer and Certified Nutrition Coach. I’ve spent years coaching people around food, fitness, strength, and the behaviors that shape all of it.

I want this stuff to work in the life you actually have.

Not the life where you meal prep perfectly every Sunday, hit every workout, never get tired, never get busy, never travel, never get invited anywhere, and somehow always have exactly the right food in the refrigerator.

Actual life.

Because food and fitness decisions do not happen in a vacuum even though it would seem that way on social media.

No, they happen when you’re tired.

When you’re stressed.

When your schedule changes.

When your hormones are changing.

When you’re in menopause and your body suddenly feels like it has a whole new set of rules.

When you’re taking a GLP-1 and your appetite is different.

When you know you need protein but you’re barely hungry.

When you want to lift weights but have no idea where to begin.

When you’re Orthodox Christian and it’s Wednesday or Friday and half the nutrition advice you find assumes you’re eating chicken, eggs, and Greek yogurt.

All of that matters.

And I think it makes a lot more sense to start with the reality of your life than to hand you some perfect plan you’re supposed to follow.

So what do we actually work on?

It depends on you.

Maybe you need help eating enough protein.

Maybe you want to get stronger and you have no idea what you should actually be doing in the gym.

Maybe you’ve spent years dieting and you are tired of thinking about food all day.

Maybe menopause changed your appetite, your energy, your recovery, your body composition, or the way your body responds to what used to work.

Maybe you’re using a GLP-1 medication and you want support around food, strength, muscle, habits, and taking care of yourself while your appetite is different.

Maybe you’ve been told to “eat healthy” so many times that the phrase doesn’t even mean anything anymore.

We can work with all of that.

We look at what you’re eating now.

What you like.

What you hate.

What feels easy.

What feels impossible.

What happens when you get busy.

What happens when you’re hungry.

What happens when you’re not hungry.

What you’re doing for strength now, if anything.

What you want your body to be able to do.

And then we build from there.

I care a lot more about what you can practice than what looks perfect on paper.

You may need more structure.

You may need less.

You may need to stop trying to change twelve things at once.

You may need a better breakfast.

You may need a few meals you can make without having to think about them.

You may need a strength program that doesn’t assume you want to train six days a week.

You may need someone to look at what you’re doing and say, “Okay. This part is working. This part probably isn’t. Let’s figure out why.”

That’s the kind of coaching I like.

Practical.

Specific.

Based on what is actually happening.

And because behavioral change is part of how I work, I’m not only looking at the food or the workout.

I’m also interested in what happens around it.

What are you telling yourself?

What happens when the plan gets disrupted?

What do you make one meal mean?

What happens when you miss a workout?

Do you adjust?

Or do you decide the whole week is ruined?

Do you keep waiting for motivation?

Do you keep making plans that require a version of you who apparently has no job, no family, no fatigue, and no other responsibilities?

Those things matter too.

If you’re an Orthodox Christian, I understand fasting.

You do not need to explain to me why you’re not eating meat on Wednesdays and Fridays.

You do not need to explain why Great Lent changes the way you eat every day, not just Friday.

It’s part of my life too.

As an Orthodox Christian, I understand the importance of learning about fasting and figuring out how to incorporate this part of our faith into our lives.

And I’m not going to treat fasting like an inconvenience that needs to be worked around or fixed.

From a nutrition standpoint, this is also very much in my wheelhouse.

In addition to being a NASM Certified Nutrition Coach, I hold Rouxbe’s Plant-Based Professional Certification and have also completed Culinary Rx, the plant-based cooking and nutrition program from Rouxbe and The Plantrician Project.

So we can talk practically about protein, meal structure, strength, energy, recovery, and making sure your nutritional needs are being supported during fasting seasons.

We can talk about feast days too.

How do you participate in the feast and enjoy it when you’re also working toward nutrition or strength goals?

How do you return to your normal routine afterward without guilt, overcorrecting, or deciding everything has gone off the rails?

Because these practices are about more than simply doing without meat and dairy.

There is a nutritional side to fasting.

But there is also a spiritual purpose to it.

I think both deserve to be respected.

That does not mean this coaching is only for Orthodox Christians.

It simply means that if you are Orthodox, I understand that part of your life too.

Strength matters to me.

Not because everybody needs to become a gym bro.

And not because strength training needs to take over your life.

I care about strength because I want you to be able to use your body.

Carry things.

Get up off the floor.

Run with your kids.

Pick up your grandkids.

Walk.

Travel.

Do the things you want to do.

Stay capable.

Stay independent.

Feel strong.

And maybe get stronger than you thought you could.

You do not have to already be strong to start.

You do not have to know what you’re doing.

You do not have to look like somebody who belongs in a gym.

You just have to be willing to learn.

This is not about doing everything perfectly.

We try things.

We see what happens.

We adjust.

Your appetite changes? We work with that.

Your schedule changes? We work with that.

You hate the meal plan? Good information.

A workout is too much? Good information.

You thought something would work and it didn’t?

Also information.

The goal is not to make you excellent at following my plan.

The goal is to help you become more capable of making decisions about food, strength, and your health in the life you are actually living.

Ready to get started?

Click the button below and fill out the form.

Tell me what you’re working on, what feels difficult right now, and what you’d like to change.