My Story

My nutrition interest started when I was in high school. My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was 13 years old. Through her determination to be cured, my mother adopted holistic approaches and nutritional approaches to healing, as well as medical. I joined her in some of her nutritional approaches. My mom died when I was 16 years old. Over the next years, my dad continued to push healthy foods on me - "broccoli helps prevent cancer...watercress helps prevent cancer, etc." From a young age, healthy foods were definitely instilled into my mind.

Even before I was 16, I wanted to become a nurse. I think part of that was watching my mom go through all her treatments and stages in cancer. The other part was due to all my amazing friends' parents who were also nurses. They were all extremely respectable people, whom I very much looked up to.

After 5 years of nursing, I decided to go back to school to become a nurse practitioner. My current main job is a neonatal nurse practitioner. My job is very meaningful to me and allows me to help the tiniest patients in the very best way that I can. I have been a neonatal nurse practitioner for almost 5 years and have been in the healthcare industry for over 14 years.

Eight months after I graduated with my MSN, I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. I felt like the list of stresses just kept coming. The cancer had spread to my lymph nodes. My thyroid and 30-50 lymph nodes were removed from my neck. Between the time of graduation and my diagnosis, I fell in love with CrossFit. My motivation for overcoming cancer and hypothyroidism was my family, my faith, and excelling in CrossFit.

Due to lack of having a thyroid, I will be hypothyroid for the rest of my life. What do you think of when you hear hypothyroid? I heard weight gain, chronic fatigue, low energy, insomnia, fibromyalgia, depression, the list went on, but I was not going to let hypothyroid define me. I researched, trialed, and continued to research and trial the best avenues for nutrition, hormone balance, recovery, sleep, de-stressing, and just finding that life balance. I am happy to say that I am satisfied with my current outcome. Stress still arises, poor recovery and lack of sleep still arises, but I work through those obstacles by first recognizing them, and then by discovering ways to overcome them.

I have been an athlete since I could walk and have continued to be involved in athletics throughout my life. I am currently a coach at a CrossFit box that I co-own with my husband and one other couple. I have worked with clients on personal training, programming, and nutrition.

**My nutrition background was gained through nursing school, being in the healthcare field for over 14 years, lots of research on health, health foods, and hypothyroidism. I have been working with clients on nutrition for about 2 years, but have unofficially worked with people and nutrition since I have joined CrossFit 5 years ago.

My athletic training experience was gained through my experience as an athlete, as well as research and interest in physical therapy, healing pain, and as a CrossFit instructor and gym owner.