ABOUT

Growing up, I struggled a lot with anxiety and later depression. As I became an adult, I was eventually prescribed an anti-depressant, however continued my sedentary, unhealthy lifestyle and diet. A couple of years after that, my doctor added more anti-depressants as my mental health was not improving. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in marketing, I pursued a normal 8 to 5 office job and continued to feel worse even though I was now on a cocktail of different prescription medications. After listening to a Joe Rogan podcast with Kelly Brogan, MD, I learnt that I needed to make better lifestyle choices if I wanted to improve my mental health. When you are in a very low low, the idea of changing your lifestyle seemed daunting and would that even help? I needed to eat healthy, begin exercising, take supplements, sleep more, and find a therapist. However, I figured why not give this a shot.

Fast forward a few months of researching everything about nutrition and dietary programs, I learnt just how confusing the nutrition world is. Should I go vegan, should I do a juice cleanse, should I go carnivore? What was the best and healthiest diet? It was confusing as hell. Amid my confusion, I decided to go back to school and truly learn everything there is to learn about nutrition and healing myself.

At the time, the only nutrition program in my area (Orlando, Florida) was a master’s degree in Sports Nutrition from the University of Central Florida. I decided to quit my job and dedicate myself full-

time to this new career path – destination unknown. In my very first class in exercise physiology, I fell in love with exercise science. It was fascinating to learn the impact physical activity had on a cellular level, health, and longevity. I quickly changed my focus to exercise physiology and decided to pursue nutrition afterwards.