Today I am going to dive into the story that lead to Four Corners Health. I have shared my own personal health story several times, but it continues to be evolve. As years go on and I continue to learn and make small adjustments, I realize it is all information that will help in whatever I end up building here!

I grew up like many children in middle-class America in the 90s having little to no day-to-day connection with food. However, some of my earliest and fondest memories involve summers spent in my Grandpa’s garden (which he still has to this day!) and tasting the sweet berries and veggies that he grew. I knew there was something different about what he grew and ate and what we could find in the grocery store, but I didn’t know how.

Luckily, I have always been a voracious eater and one to try most things!

Fast-forward to high school— I made my first conscious eating decision. I gave up meat for the next 8 years! I didn’t have a ton of great resources to make this transition happen but I sure tried. Looking back I still made really poor teenage eating decisions, they just involved more cheese and less fried meats.

Heading into college, I very quickly realized one of the profound tragedies of our generation: we don’t teach our children how to eat. It’s not taught in schools, the government guidelines are terrible, and there is a reason the “freshman fifteen” is a real phenomenon (not just the food but also dealing with the stress of academics and living away from home for the first time!)

I also learned how deeply contagious and common disordered eating is and experienced it first-hand. Food became a source of control and I tested my body’s limits to restricting intake. In the aftermath, I had some serious repercussions to face. Because of such restriction, I later dealt with some binge/stress-eating tendencies and all of this culminated in my study abroad experience where a lot of control was taken away from me again. I was pretty broke throughout the four months I was in Italy and without access to a kitchen, my meals consisted of the pasta and “vegetarian entrees” at my home hostel; and a lot of pasta dishes when out to restaurants (side note — I can’t wait to return to Italy and try the food experience over again with fresh eyes! And it was still some of the best months of my life)

By the time I got back from Italy, I was nearly 20 pounds heavier than I had ever been and just felt off. My mental and emotional state was not at its finest either.

Meanwhile, as I was having this personal experience over the course of about a year and a half, the political science student in me was exposed to the modern industrial food system: the way in which food is grown, created, transported and eventually on to our plates, and all of the political and economic interests involved. I was introduced to a movement called The Real Food Challenge and was blown away that my personal experiences with food were tied to much larger issues; issues that also aligned with my passion for environmentalism and human rights. I pioneered a large effort at my university to commit to our dining halls buying higher quality food and I got known around campus as the “food girl.”

With this experience, I made a promise to myself to a) learn all that I could about what was happening and how to improve the food system b) use my own food choices as a guide to make a change for myself and others.

I wish I could say I woke up the next day and immediately overhauled everything in my life to meet these goals, but truthfully it took several years. I graduated from college, grappled with financial and careers challenges (in this time I worked for the Real Food Challenge, Whole Foods and an online farmer’s market that was so ahead of its time and later went under), met the love of my life, moved several times, built a fitness habit, a regular yoga practice, and finally took my own nutrition seriously. I realized firsthand the challenges to taking care of yourself if your basic sense of security is not met. I also experienced temptation and pushback when I didn’t surround myself with a likeminded and supportive community. I committed to learning basic cooking skills so that I could quickly make healthy and delicious food — I credit Tone It Up a lot here for sharing my values and providing me with tools and a community to stick to my goals.

As I became more able to, I also shifted much of my budget to buying local, sustainable and fair trade food. Somewhere in this journey I started eating meat again (it was because I was preparing to travel to Poland with my now fiancée and his family for the first time) and I felt that pull for human connection to food — that it’s so much more than calories, and macros; it’s stories, history, culture and conversation.

Food is truly such a complex issue and topic that I will never get tired of it. I’ve considered going back to study it more formally so many times but I also got myself on a career path that I find so fulfilling and learn entirely different and amazing skills from. That said, it’s truly my passion to help others take control of their health (nutrition being one massive component) and then use their choices to make their larger impact on the world. You also vote with your dollar with every purchase, and I will continue to advocate that those who are able, help vote on behalf of those who cannot.

In the years since I first picked up The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan, and Food Politics by Marion Nestle, watched Food Inc. and every other documentary I could get my hands on, I have seen the rise of organic food, the condemnation of certain chemicals and additives, a plant-based revolution, limiting junk food campaigns to children, a return of fat in exchange for the demonization of sugar, and an ongoing dialogue regarding diet culture.

While this is a lot of progress in a decade or so, there is still so much work to be done around access to healthy food, education, farmworkers’ rights, supply chain issues (seen today in wake of COVID-19), the ongoing debate around required food labeling, the aging farmer population, continued subsidies of processed food, the interplay with the medical industrial complex, degradation of our soil and other natural resources and so much more. It sounds daunting, but I truly believe that in order to face these challenges and all others facing us at this time, we have to be caring for ourselves first.

What impressed me about Precision Nutrition and why I decided to go with their certification program is that they helped me close the gap on fundamental nutrition science that I didn’t cover in my political science studies (I ended up concentrating my own research on food systems), and they recognize that none of your nutrition choices are made in a vacuum. You are influenced by this system, as well as by your heritage, family, traditions and values. Speaking from personal experience, there is also a huge difference between knowing what you should eat, and actually setting up a behavior and lifestyle that supports you doing so.

I’m not here to invent new recipes, take pictures of supplements, or help you lose 10 pounds in a month! I’m here to help you analyze what it is you want out of life and make lifestyle changes to get there. In doing so, you will come to see how you are actively changing the world around you — for good.

How we get there is unique to you (Individuality is my first Pillar), but if my story tells you anything about the experience, it’s that you’ll find more purpose and success than you could have ever imagined. You don’t have to become obsessed with food and nutrition, but you should become obsessed with living your best life. <3