About Me
It started with food
Pasta & pastry starchatarian
In my 20s, I was a vegetarian who didn’t eat many vegetables.
For ethical and environmental reasons, I avoided meat—but my diet was mostly pasta, bread, pastries, and vegan fake meat. Even with a Stanford degree in human biology and a job at a medical school, I assumed that way of eating would keep me healthy. I was young, and it was the height of the low-fat era—when cutting fat usually meant eating more carbs.
Immersed in food culture
In my 30s, I worked on the entertainment side of the culinary industry: as a food writer and cooking teacher, and at a culinary school where I shaped curriculum and curated the celebrity chef lineup.
My freelance writing and my job at the culinary school were closely intertwined—I would invite a food artisan I’d profiled to teach or write about a chef after they appeared at the school. I also explored food as culture, from regional Mexican cuisine to Persian New Year meal traditions.
In the professional kitchens and culinary circles I moved in, cooking from scratch was the norm. Processed food wasn’t.
I ate like a Michelin restaurant inspector and got spoiled in the best possible way.
Looking beyond the plate
In my 40s, I moved from the glamorous side of the culinary industry into large-scale food systems at Stanford Dining and a healthy food service for Google.
I also started questioning the assumption that vegetarian diets built on industrial monoculture were automatically healthier for people or better for the planet than regenerative farms raising both plants and animals.
By the time I became a certified health coach and lifestyle medicine educator, I had stopped making pasta and desserts regularly and had given away most of my baking equipment.
I also prioritized sleep.
My blood pressure and triglycerides dropped, and I stopped a genetic disease in its tracks.
More than food
My work evolved beyond food to place more emphasis on sleep and stress. I teach various forms of meditation, including some covered in my book on meditation.
I've also been a professional dancer and still dance several hours a week. That background continues to influence how I think about movement—not just as calorie-burning exercise, but as posture, awareness, and mobility in everyday life. It also led me to pay attention to fascia, the connective tissue that holds everything together.
As a dancer and athlete, I've been practicing myofascial release for years. Yet it's only in recent years that I’ve really gotten deeper (no pun intended!) into aspects of fascia, such as its role in immunity and the overlap between fascial trigger points and acupuncture points. I've also been geeking out on sunlight and quantum biology.
Following my curiosity
I've traveled to over 30 countries and speak some Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, and Japanese. My Romance language skills really took off when I started connecting shared word roots with English. That same perspective now helps when I'm coaching Romance-language speakers in English
For years, I also worked in corporate communication. I enjoyed practicing languages with foreign-born colleagues and talking about their foods, customs, and places they recommended visiting. Because I was the communications manager, many also came to me with questions about English or for help with their writing. Over time, that led me to get certified to teach English as a Second Language (ESL). Today, I coach English communication in addition to my health practice.
Dance has been another way I've explored culture. Tahitian ori and Brazilian samba share some of the same hip movements. Spanish flamenco has upper body moves that remind me of Hawaiian hula. A lot of Brazilian samba footwork transfers naturally to Dominican bachata and Colombian salsa.
My curiosity has taken me in many directions.
