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

Tara, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What was your school or training experience like? Share an anecdote or two that you feel illustrate important aspects or the overall nature of your schooling/training experience.

In my training to become a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner, I learned that one of the most important concepts to understand about overcoming chronic symptoms is that symptoms are not the problem, they are the result of the problem. And as long as you continue to chase your symptoms, you will never get to the true root of the problem, which are the metabolic imbalances hidden beneath the surface. Hidden imbalances in the area of the gut, hormones, thyroid, and immune system are responsible for most chronic health complaints. In order to get to the root of your symptoms, you need to look beyond symptom-suppressing interventions.

Tara, 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 am a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner and Holistic Nutritionist and I help ambitious women overcome their chronic gut & hormones symptoms so that they can thrive in all areas of their lives again.

I work closely with each of my clients to uncover the root cause imbalances that are driving their chronic symptoms with functional lab work and in-depth assessments of their health history. Once the imbalances are identified, I provide my clients with customized, holistic protocols that are designed to target and correct the specific imbalances present on their lab results. We work closely together over the course of several months to dial-in multiple areas of their diet & lifestyle practices and to ensure that their protocols are performed successfully.

I’ve helped countless clients go from daily, uncontrollable bloating, digestive issues, hormone imbalances & fatigue – to normal digestion, dramatic reduction in bloating, and more stable energy & hormones with my approach. By the end of our time working together, not only do my clients experience radical improvements in their health, but they have the knowledge and tools to maintain their results long-term.

For the majority of my 20’s, I struggled with a host of chronic symptoms – daily gut issues (bloating, stomach pains, constipation, & food sensitivities), constant anxiety and mood swings, mental & physical fatigue, severe PMS, and debilitating menstrual pain. No matter how healthy I ate, my symptoms never seemed to go away. My doctors had no solutions for me and I felt confused, overwhelmed, and worried for my future.

After spending many years and thousands of dollars trying to figure it out on my own, I decided to end the guessing game and became my own functional practitioner. This approach finally gave me the answers and solutions I needed to overcome my symptoms and now I help other women do the same.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

In my personal health journey to overcome my chronic symptoms, I faced a lot of obstacles in my attempts to find relief.

As an aspiring nutritionist at the time, I had tried every diet in the book. No matter how healthy I ate, my symptoms never improved, and they steadily got worse and worse.

As a result, I sought out help from my doctors to see if there was something else going on causing my symptoms. Since my doctor’s lab work always came back “normal”, I was always dismissed without any solutions or answers, despite struggling with daily symptoms.

Fed up with the western medicine approach, I sought out help from a naturopathic doctor. This doctor ran some functional lab work on me that helped me to find some answers as to what was actually wrong, but his recommendations fell short when it came to fully healing my body. There was an overemphasis on supplements, but very little guidance on diet and lifestyle. While my symptoms improved a little bit, most of them came back once I finished the protocol.

Fed up with all the time and money spent on doctors, I decided to take my healing into my own hands and become my own practitioner. I knew that overcoming these symptoms were possible with the right approach, and I wanted to empower myself to have the knowledge and skills that were going to help me overcome my symptoms once and for all.

Training to become a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner provided me with the tools I needed to finally heal myself and maintain my improvements long-term. And I created my 1:1 program to help women who are struggling with similar health issues and roadblocks to achieve the same.

Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?

One of the most helpful skills for succeeding as a functional health practitioner is to have a deep understanding of the different types of personal struggles people go through on their health journey. Even if you have the perfect program and protocol, it’s not going to work the same way for every single person. Getting to know each client on a personal level is important in being able to create recommendations that are going to work with their lifestyle and background. This means listening to and addressing their concerns, understanding their personal goals, and providing a space for support, encouragement and understanding during all the ups and downs that can happen during the healing process.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.taramichellehealth.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taramichellehealth/