We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alanna DeSalvo a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alanna, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear the story behind how you got your first job in field that you currently practice in.

Well, simply put, I love food. I always have. In fact my education and career has also been driven by my love for food. I received my bachelors degree from the University of San Francisco in Hospitality and Business.

My passions led me towards a dream of executing celebratory events, inspired to bring joy into people’s lives. I love how events bring people together to experience community and entertainment, usually centered around good food.

My first job was an internship at a large catering company in San Francisco. Then after graduating, I found myself managing the events department of a large restaurant in San Francisco actually executing the events that allowed people to enjoy themselves and socialize over really delicious meals.

But after working in the hospitality industry for nearly seven plus years I felt the stress load add up and my health and lifestyle unfortunately could not sustain it for much longer.

With a curiosity to learn more about food from a different perspective, I was inspired by my constant desire to learn, especially to learn more about how food works to nourish your body. I found myself excited about a new passion, to help people enjoy each day, by using the power of delicious, nutritious food.

But what I didn’t expect was how much this new passion for food would transform my own health.

Personally, my own health has taken many more twists and turns.

For most of my early 20’s I experienced excruciating heartburn and painful bloating after a majority of meals. Out of fear it was something more, I went to the ER and told it was “just heartburn”. As if that was normal. I can tell you now that it definitely isn’t.

Over time I slowly became more anxious and more depressed than ever before. I felt like my memory and mental clarity took a quick downturn as I started to experience constant brain fog and fatigue that made it extremely difficult to focus at work and contributed to a major lack of motivation.

On top of all of this, I was living with a spinal cord injury, after breaking my neck in 2007; where for the first five years of this adjustment I turned to food more than ever. To deal with the trauma and stress, food was my only constant; a source of comfort and pleasure when I was so unsure of everything else.

When I started looking for support my primary doctors weren’t equipped to provide any proactive advice that I was so desperately looking for. All they could offer were antacids, and that’s not what I was looking for. I felt so alone, confused and disheartened.

Then, the itchy eczema patches that started in my teens came back, but this time on my face. I felt like there had to be an answer to why my body felt like it was slowly crumbling in my early 20’s.

It wasn’t until this time that I started to discover the role of food as more than just a source of fuel and comfort. I wanted to go to a deeper level with my relationship with food. Simultaneously, my hospitality career stressors majorly began to disrupt my personal health and wellbeing.

Through the fatigue, brain fog and lack of clarity, I was in search of more. I wanted to find a different way that I could reignite my passion for food and desire to support others.

That’s when I was drawn to pursue food from a more functional perspective and found Bauman College’s Nutrition program in Berkeley, California. I’ve always known that food plays an influential role in our health, but I found myself being pulled to understand what that truly meant.

After graduating from Bauman College I realized I’d already helped my first client: myself. With what I had learned, all my digestive pains went away as did my skin issues, fatigue, cravings, depression and a majority of anxieties. Even more importantly, my relationship with food changed and I understood that it didn’t need to be something that was limited or feared, but it can and should be celebrated and enjoyed to bring health.

As soon as I was Board Certified, I immediately created my first job in the nutrition and wellness field and opened my own Nutrition Coaching practice in 2018, to help people who have struggled with their health and relationship with food in the same ways that I have. This job/business has grown and evolved over the last 5 years to help nearly 100 women in personalized nutrition coaching and hundreds-thousands more within the community to understand their body and how nutrition impacts their health and daily wellbeing.

I am so happy that my journey has brought me to this place. As a nutritionist, my mission is to help women live a vibrant and health life, by understanding their body so that you can start working with it, not against it. I use a personalized nutrition approach to help women struggling with fatigue, cravings, food sensitivities and bloat discover how to balance their hormones and eat for consistent energy; while enjoying their favorite foods and feeling confident in their body.

Through this mission it is possible to make a healthy lifestyle more accessible so that people have the gumption to take on their life, implement a joyful lifestyle and create memories daily. I was able to find healing because I learned how and why my own body operates and reacts to certain foods. By teaching others how food affects the physiology of their body, they’re able to understand how to best fill their own plate.

I’m so excited to offer more opportunities and resources to help more women understand their body and build their own healthy and vibrant life.

Since cooking is nutrition in action I’m always inspired to share easy, and nutrient dense recipes that make healthy eating more accessible.
I’m also excited to create a space where people can come together, to socialize and build community while also prioritizing their health, through events, dinners and retreats.

Alanna, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m a Board Certified Holistic Nutritionist, Functional Nutrition Practitioner and Recipe Developer.

I use a personalized nutrition approach to help women struggling with fatigue, cravings, food sensitivities and bloat discover how to balance their metabolism and eat for consistent energy; while enjoying their favorite foods and feeling confident in their body.

With functional nutrition, you can solve hormone imbalances and irritating digestive issues so you can eliminate food sensitivities, cravings and bloating, to revive your energy and feel in control of your body again.

Unlike fad diets I use personalized nutrition, food as fuel, one-on-one support and accountability, plus functional lab testing to uncover the root cause and lead you to the healthy, vibrant life you desire.

I use this approach in 1:1 nutrition coaching and group coaching programs, as well as the meal plans and recipes I share.

My approach is different from the standard diet approach to nutrition and health for 3 reasons.

1 – I take a holistic approach to consider a person’s whole body, health history and lifestyle, and lead clients through a personally successful yet manageable protocol.

2 – Food and cooking is a big part of building a healthy lifestyle. Beyond meal prepping, I want my clients to enjoy cooking and eating food. This is often a large piece that gets overlooked.

3 – I use functional lab testing to help clients get to the root cause of their symptoms. This work especially helps clients that haven’t gotten the answers or direction they wanted from their doctors, where there is nothing to diagnose, however there are clear imbalances that we can address and achieve big results from.

I am most proud of the mindset shifts I’ve watched clients go through. Many clients have expressed similar stories, but one specific client shared so eloquently “I found myself in an upward spiral as the weeks went by: better sleep, waking up easier, larger attention span, more patience, balanced energy. I just felt better. [This program] really brought me into myself to take care of myself in so many different ways. If good nutrition isn’t the highest form of self-care and self-love, then I don’t know what is.”

Nutrition information can get so confusing and overwhelming, which is a big part of what drew me to this line of work in the first place. I wanted to learn more for myself. Helping clients clear though the noise and figure out what their body needs, and realizing it’s often more simple than they thought, brings me great joy.

Women have been pressured by standards of society to eat less, weigh less and fit into unrealistic body ideals that perpetuate diet culture.

And as women, we’re led to believe our symptoms are ‘normal’. That pms, cramps, extreme irritability, depression and anxiety are normal. While they are common, they’re not normal. By understanding basic nutrition and being more mindful of how your body feels, we can unwrite these misconceptions, feel deeply nourished, and have more confidence in your body.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

If nothing else, my life has taught me resilience and our bodies can withstand a lot.

In 2007 I broke my neck, injuring my spinal cord and have used a wheelchair ever since. At 15 years old I didn’t know what exactly this would mean for me and decided I would continue to pursue my passions. The resilience to keep following those dreams in a world that doesn’t prioritize accessibility has been a challenge, but somehow I’ve found the will to keep pushing through.

Just as I’ve navigated the physical challenges in my life, I think it mirrors similar physical, mental and emotional challenges that my clients experience as well. While my injury didn’t directly cause any diseases, a sedentary lifestyle and limited movement can make one susceptible to other conditions like diabetes, ibs and heart conditions.

Looking back, I’m grateful I found my way into this line of work because it’s helped me understand how I can support my body and not fall victim to this injury. There is so much of my life that is out of my control, but understanding nutrition and food has helped me build resilience so that I can see what I do have control of. That has been very empowering.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Asking for help has been hard for me. As an independent spirited person I’ve always challenged myself to figure things out. Then when I was injured I had to start asking for help for seemingly simple tasks, like getting a glass of water, tying my hair in a ponytail, or reaching for the box on the top shelf at the grocery store. Because I had to ask for help so much, I unconsciously limited what I asked for help with.

It took 2 instances for me to realize it’s okay to ask for help.

The first, was as simple as dropping my keys. I asked a friend to pick them up for me and found myself apologizing profusely, “I’m so sorry.” They turned to me and said, “you never have to say you’re sorry.” It hit me, I didn’t have to apologize for something that doesn’t warrant an apology. What’s more aligned is to say thank you and show my gratitude.

The second instance – I was speaking with a client and she was expressing how lonely it felt to be searching for answers to her symptoms without results and why it felt so difficult. I found myself saying, “it’s okay to ask for help. We’re not meant to do everything ourselves.”

Whether it’s in a personal or professional manner, we’re meant to have community to rely on in times of need. We don’t need to do everything ourselves, in fact we won’t get far if we do. We’ll end up frustrated, lonely and exhausted.

While this mindset to figure things out on my own has led me to the work that I do, allowed me to learn more about health and nutrition for myself, I have no problem reminding my clients that they don’t have to be alone in their nutrition journey.

It’s a work in progress and constant reminder to unlearn this mindset, but it’s a constant lesson for me that it’s good to ask for help. There are often people who want to help and sometimes you just have to ask.

Contact Info:

• Website: withthymenutrition.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/withthymenutrition/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/withthymenutrition
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alannadesalvo/
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/withthymenutrition/

Image Credits
Hillary Jeanne for portraits Alanna DeSalvo (With Thyme Nutrition) for food photos