I'm Abbie and I believe knowing how to heal and optimize ourselves with food, plant medicine and lifestyle quality is not only a priority, it's a birthright.
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We all have to begin somewhere.
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My work as a functional nutrition practitioner is both passion and purpose to be a guide for clients from wherever their starting point is, to a healthy, vibrant existence.
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Adaptogenesis is a concept that makes space for each individual's beginning on their journey of vitality and wellbeing and allows the freedom to shift and adapt within each new beginning.
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As a practitioner, I feel it is important to live the walk and prioritize optimal wellness.
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I prioritize my health and wellbeing by:
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1. Eating a balanced diet of whole foods from either organic or wild food sources. Regular quality dietary choices does allow for the occasional warm flour tortilla (fresh fish tacos!) or piece of dulce de leche! Being adaptive means maintaining a healthy relationship with food.
2. I do take supplements. Unfortunately our soil health just isn't what it was 100 years ago and even organic foods don't always give us full spectrum nutrients. For this reason I seek wild food when it is available, since it is more nutrient dense.
3. Daily movement and exercise: Daily squats are always on tap to refresh the lymph system. Dog walks, hiking, HIIT workouts, yoga, running, swimming, climbing, wild and urban foraging, archery and spearfishing are some of my favorite movement forms.
4. Hydration, hydration, hydration! Did you know there is a gel form of water? One of the best ways to hydrate is to eat an apple with a glass of clean, filtered water.
5. Quality rest and sleep. Zzzzzzzz.
6. Keeping my mind curious and stimulated through constant learning--reading, travel, writing ( I love to wordsmith), personal growth and time in nature.
7. Connection & Oxytocin, the "love" hormone. That's the hormone that is produced when we connect, when we hug our people and our pets, tell people we love them and spend quality time in meaningful connection. Oxytocin comes from feeling a true bond with another and it is crucial to maintaining many systems in the body. I get as many daily doses of oxytocin as possible!
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I look forward to meeting you and learning what your goals for health prioritization are!
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Hello & Welcome!
To listen to your whole person and help you tune in to listen to your body. When we truly listen to our body, we know ourselves better than anyone else.
To empower you to turn on your adaptive ability, reclaim your body's terrain and take charge of your own health quiver. Remember, you are the captain of your vessel.
To bring balance to your body's systems and your lifestyle choices. Together we are a team that works towards establishing healthy habits created in an atmosphere of balance supported by science, your inherent wisdom and compassion for the individual journey.
To re-establish your innate capacity for resilience. When the body and lifestyle are in balance, we possess a much more resilient space and are more able to be present and work productively with what life brings our way.
MY PERSONAL JOURNEY
I know what it is to be in decline.
I now know what it is to reclaim my terrain.
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Despite having been raised on whole organic foods, we didn't know much of what we now know. I was not breast fed. I was raised on copious amounts of gluten containing products. Because we were a vegetarian family, I wasn't eating best for my metabolic type and I experienced extreme stress in childhood. None of this set my gut and my microbiome up for success. We now know, based on establishd studies and emerging science, that all of these factors can lead to a dysbiotic (unhealthy, unbalanced) gut. When I look back, one of my biggest memories from high school was always feeling bloated and constantly having to excuse myself to the bathroom because I was so gassy. Blegh.
Despite being highly athletic and still eating really well (as far as I knew), one day I woke up at 37 and realized I had been on a subtle but steady downhill slide for about 5 years and recalled, with dismay and confusion, having once felt much smarter, more energized and vibrant. Something was off and after being diagnosed with adrenal burnout, I decided that it was from more than just two decades of exuberant rock climbing and skiing in concert with personal stress.
Between SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) and candida (systemic fungal overgrowth), my gut was a mess.
And so was my head.
I decided I wasn't going out like this and began to understand the gut through a lot of independent self-study. I began an 8 month long cleanse that turned into the backbone for new food and lifestyle choices that I still maintain to this day. Because of these regular healthy habits, I feel absolute freedom and joy (never guilt) for savoring that occasional tres leches gelato or a pile of warm handmade flour tortillas accompanying a plate of rancho made carne asada.
And so began both my personal and professional health journey. I went to school for Functional Nutrition and started making botanical formulas that support digestion and stress management.
I have learned a tremendous amount about healing protocols, diet and lifestyle shifts, herbal therapies and supplementation, but the most valuable lesson taken since the inception of this personal and professional wellness journey has been ADAPTATION.
With the ability to ADAPT in our quiver, a universe of possibility opens up to us in our bodies and in our minds.
Today I am not only an advocate of, but also LIVE the Adaptogenic Lifestyle. My approach includes incorporation of evidence based functional nutrition, herbal medicine, yoga/movement, breath work and practical, healthy stocking and organization of home kitchen ingredients to cultivate a successful and nourishing formula for YOUR wellbeing.
I currently reside for 7 months of the year in the revoked treaty land of the Tabeguache Band of the Ute Tribe now known as Grand Junction, Colorado, which is a valley situated below the sacred former Ute land of Thiguanawat (The Land of Departed Spirits) and is today called The Grand Mesa by white settlers. The other 5 months I live in the small pueblo of El Chorro in the Sierra de la Laguna mountains of Baja.
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I am available for in person nutritional consulting or movement therapy sessions in Grand Junction or via Zoom/phone.
EDUCATION
Certified Functional Nutrition Practitioner through Josh Gitalis' Functional Nutrition Program
Certified Functional Medicine Health Coach via Functional Medicine Coaching Academy
Certified Quicksilver Scientific Institute Practitioner
Studied herbalism through the East West School of Planetary Herbology
(No longer affiliated) Anusara Inspired Yoga teacher from 2006-2012 with a focus on movement therapeutics and biomechanics
Following an E-RYT 200 certification was maintained
Extensive study in the culinary arts and with work both as a pastry chef and personal chef
BS in Cultural Anthropology with studies at both UNC-Chapel Hill (Physical Anthropology/Primatology)
and Appalachian State University
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