About Tina
Health and weight have been important topics to me for most of my life. It started in childhood where I was blessed to grow up in a family that was well fed, with fresh fruits and vegetables from the garden and grass-fed beef, goats, and chickens. My family knew how to cook very well, and we always enjoyed food.
I loved sports and was very active, but despite my healthy foundation, I struggled with my weight from a fairly young age. The typical frustrations of wanting to be competitive at my sports but sometimes being made fun of for my weight led me to an off and on relationship with dieting and diet failures. As a teenager playing sports, much of the culture around the sport revolved around stopping to celebrate or commiserate on the way home from games over a meal. These were rarely healthy choices. Those counterproductive choices combined with injury to my L4 and L5 discs, set off a chain of inflammation that has impacted my health throughout my life.
The subtle changes in the body from inflammation and the emotional turmoil of always putting in effort to look my best, but not being able to maintain a weight I felt was optimal for my physical and mental health, slowly began to take their toll. As I moved into adulthood, work responsibilities and school further impacted my food choices, and as typically happens, for a time, those choices became convenience oriented: eating out and taking advantage of processed or junky foods.
I loved sports and was very active, but despite my healthy foundation, I struggled with my weight from a fairly young age. The typical frustrations of wanting to be competitive at my sports but sometimes being made fun of for my weight led me to an off and on relationship with dieting and diet failures. As a teenager playing sports, much of the culture around the sport revolved around stopping to celebrate or commiserate on the way home from games over a meal. These were rarely healthy choices. Those counterproductive choices combined with injury to my L4 and L5 discs, set off a chain of inflammation that has impacted my health throughout my life.
The subtle changes in the body from inflammation and the emotional turmoil of always putting in effort to look my best, but not being able to maintain a weight I felt was optimal for my physical and mental health, slowly began to take their toll. As I moved into adulthood, work responsibilities and school further impacted my food choices, and as typically happens, for a time, those choices became convenience oriented: eating out and taking advantage of processed or junky foods.
This was a wonderful time in many ways. As I was working my way through college, I met my soulmate, friend, and eventual husband. He has always been my rock. Together we kept ourselves active but still, pounds continued to creep on. And over the course of our growing family life, the injury I had sustained in high school resurfaced.
By 2012, now with two growing children, I began to experience sciatica (I thought) but the pain was not just shooting down my legs to my feet, it felt as though knives were being jabbed into my knees. The pain became non-stop; it impacted me while I was sleeping, sitting, standing or walking. I lived with this pain until 2019 when I sought relief in Physical Therapy and Airrosti (link below). No amount of stretching or these therapies was helping so I saw two doctors who diagnosed a herniated disc at S1. Both recommended major surgeries, neither of which seemed like good options for me.
As life would have it, one day after school my son Zachary suggested we all watch a documentary together. It was "The Game Changer" on Netflix. He wanted to see the documentary to help him work on losing some weight. Of course, we as a family wanted to support him, but in the process, he ended up changing our lives. As a family, we decided to give whole food plant based living a try.
It was not long before I began to notice major changes in my pain level, and overall well-being. I was able to attribute the change in diet, cutting out sugar and all meat products, just to name some of the early changes, to feeling great healing and huge improvements in all of us. We were sleeping better, had more consistent energy and little daytime fatigue, and we were all losing weight! As a family, we have lost ofover 200 pounds. I now have no back pain. And, all of these changes happened, but we were not on a diet. We were on a health journey. The great bonus is that this journey has been delicious.
By 2012, now with two growing children, I began to experience sciatica (I thought) but the pain was not just shooting down my legs to my feet, it felt as though knives were being jabbed into my knees. The pain became non-stop; it impacted me while I was sleeping, sitting, standing or walking. I lived with this pain until 2019 when I sought relief in Physical Therapy and Airrosti (link below). No amount of stretching or these therapies was helping so I saw two doctors who diagnosed a herniated disc at S1. Both recommended major surgeries, neither of which seemed like good options for me.
As life would have it, one day after school my son Zachary suggested we all watch a documentary together. It was "The Game Changer" on Netflix. He wanted to see the documentary to help him work on losing some weight. Of course, we as a family wanted to support him, but in the process, he ended up changing our lives. As a family, we decided to give whole food plant based living a try.
It was not long before I began to notice major changes in my pain level, and overall well-being. I was able to attribute the change in diet, cutting out sugar and all meat products, just to name some of the early changes, to feeling great healing and huge improvements in all of us. We were sleeping better, had more consistent energy and little daytime fatigue, and we were all losing weight! As a family, we have lost ofover 200 pounds. I now have no back pain. And, all of these changes happened, but we were not on a diet. We were on a health journey. The great bonus is that this journey has been delicious.
Our society is dealing with sickness and disease, fueled by poor quality of food with genetically modified ingredients, drenched in chemicals. This impacts every cell in our bodies! We are what we eat. And the wonderful thing is, we get to choose what we want to eat and what we want to make of our bodies.
Unfortunately, the health care system is treating our symptoms rather than looking for the underlying causes of our chronic diseases. How each of us choses to eat should be based on our unique bio-individuality. My family does best off of dairy, sugar and meat. But not all bodies are the same, so what works for us, may not be the exact solution for you.
We have the power and wisdom to heal our bodies and the good news, there is help out there. I have the experience of my own health, my family’s health and the certificate I have earned from the largest nutrition school in the world, The Institute for Integrative Nutrition, behind me to increase my expertise about nutrition and lifestyle. I can help guide you through the process of how to make these aspects of life work better in your very individual body.
If you are ready to start improving your health contact me for a FREE Discovery Call HERE. I would love to share my knowledge with you and cheer you on and help to keep you accountable for reaching towards your goals for health. Your path may not be exactly the same as mine, but I would be privileged to help you find what works for you. We will start simply, and with a little effort together you will be able to make small steps towards reaching great outcomes.
(Airrosti link)
Wishing you a life full of good health,
Tina Valdez
Unfortunately, the health care system is treating our symptoms rather than looking for the underlying causes of our chronic diseases. How each of us choses to eat should be based on our unique bio-individuality. My family does best off of dairy, sugar and meat. But not all bodies are the same, so what works for us, may not be the exact solution for you.
We have the power and wisdom to heal our bodies and the good news, there is help out there. I have the experience of my own health, my family’s health and the certificate I have earned from the largest nutrition school in the world, The Institute for Integrative Nutrition, behind me to increase my expertise about nutrition and lifestyle. I can help guide you through the process of how to make these aspects of life work better in your very individual body.
If you are ready to start improving your health contact me for a FREE Discovery Call HERE. I would love to share my knowledge with you and cheer you on and help to keep you accountable for reaching towards your goals for health. Your path may not be exactly the same as mine, but I would be privileged to help you find what works for you. We will start simply, and with a little effort together you will be able to make small steps towards reaching great outcomes.
(Airrosti link)
Wishing you a life full of good health,
Tina Valdez