About Me

Who am I?  What a difficult question to sit and ask oneself…  Simple words seem useless, so how about a little history instead?

I grew up in Vermont, on one of those idyllic looking farms you see scattered across the state.  One difference was that we had horses, not cows.  My parents moved there in the early 70’s to start a boarding and training facility with a summer camp for serious horseback riders.  It was a chaotic but healthy and pretty happy upbringing.

I left Vermont (though didn’t go far) for college, heading to the Boston area.  It was during school that I first learned about health, fitness and cooking.  Going from a life of daily physical labor to the sedentary (and partying!) life of college was a HUGE surprise.  I gained weight(ugh), suffered from bouts of crippling exhaustion and generally battled the ‘blahs’.  This prompted me to start exercising a little more, studying up on nutrition and eventually going to see a Holistic, Naturopathic doctor who diagnosed me with the dreaded ‘Yuppie Disease’: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.  But more importantly, he taught me even more about how to eat and nourish my body correctly, cleaning up my diet and introducing me to the concept of whole foods.

This all came in handy four years later when back in Vermont a friend decided to open a health club – and after helping him with the business plan and the construction, I decided to join him in running it.  I got certified to teach Johnny G Spinning, became a personal trainer and Pilates instructor and embarked on a really fun (but stressful!!) three years of running this amazing small business.  My interest in nutrition, meanwhile, blossomed even more (although cooking went to the back burner, literally — I just had NO TIME.  Ever.)

Everything changed again when I met the man who would become my husband…  We’re talking a big change – because he lived in New York City!  After a year of dating long distance, I decided it was time to jump in or get out, so I moved down to join him.  I sold my part of the health club and threw myself full time into my Pilates and personal training career, earning new certifications and developing an extremely successful private teaching business.  My cooking blossomed again, now that I had the time and the amazing availability of food around the city; not only the gourmet stores but the year-round farmers markets as well.  Oh happiness, oh joy!

One more big change came five years later, when my now husband accepted a new job in Boston, where we now reside.  In the lagtime while rebuilding my Pilates practice, I decided it was high time to get some sort of ‘real’ nutritional training, given my lifelong interest.  So I completed an intensive certification as a Nutrition Educator through the National Institute of Whole Health.   I also joined Slow Food USA, throwing myself into volunteering for the local chapter, championing small, local farms and food producers, and eating locally and seasonally.

So, who am I?  Pilates Instructor, Nutritionist, super volunteer, wife, friend, giver of kick-butt dinner parties (if I say so myself), lover of long walks and the sunshine, eater of kale, and, oh yes – a numero uno pizza devotee!