Hey! My name is Shawn.
I help people build strength, consistency, and confidence with food — without shame, obsession, or starting over every Monday.
Whether you're trying to improve performance, repair your relationship with eating, or finally break out of the all-or-nothing cycle, you don't need another plan that only works when life is perfect. You need support that holds up in the real world.
What you can expect when we work together
This isn't coaching built on guilt or rigid rules. It's practical, evidence-based support designed for real life.
Real-life strategy
Stress, cravings, travel, and messy weeks included.
Long-term skills
We build habits that last, not quick fixes.
Structure without obsession
Clear direction, flexible execution.
No shame, no food moralizing
Food has no “moral compass.”
Shawn's Story
Taken in 2023 while volunteering in Arusha, Tanzania, Africa — on a hike on Mt. Kilimanjaro.
I didn't get here through privilege, luck, or a smooth path.
I grew up in poverty in a single-parent home after escaping an abusive, alcoholic father. I learned what survival mode feels like early — the kind of survival where you don't get to “find yourself,” you just figure out how to keep going. That experience doesn't make me special. But it does mean I will never look at someone struggling and reduce it to willpower, discipline, or laziness.
I served in the United States Marine Corps, and then several years later after I got out of the military, I made a decision that changed my life: I walked away from a high-paying career in economics and finance to start over and become a dietitian after my mom died. I didn't pivot because it was convenient. I pivoted because I needed my work to mean something.
Starting over in my 30s meant grinding through 18-credit-hour semesters while working multiple jobs, learning an entirely new language called science from scratch, and earning every inch of the road in front of me. No shortcuts. No safety net.
Since then, I've earned my Master's degree in Public Health Nutrition, taught college-level nutrition courses, trained in research exploring the gut-brain connection and its relationship with inflammation, and worked in international communities where “healthy choices” aren't a trendy lifestyle — they're a daily act of resilience.
And now? This is what I do:
- I help people stop fighting their bodies.
- I help people build strength without obsession.
- I help people create nutrition habits that actually survive stress, cravings, schedules, trauma histories, and real life.
Because your life doesn't need another plan that only works when everything is perfect. You need a plan that holds up when it's not. If you're ready to build something sustainable, I'm here to help.
Work With UsTraining & Background
I bring both lived experience and deep technical training into the room with me.
Doctoral Level Research
Almost three years of doctoral research training deepened my scientific rigor — how to evaluate evidence, understand mechanisms, and think critically about health claims. It keeps my work grounded in physiology and data while staying human, practical, and client-centered.
Waisman LEND Fellowship
An interdisciplinary fellowship that trained me to work within integrated care teams and think beyond “nutrition only” — strengthening how I collaborate, communicate, and support clients with complex, layered needs using a whole-person lens.
RDN Board Exam — Passed
More than a test — proof of professional competency and responsibility in clinical nutrition practice. It marked the transition from training into fully stepping into the role of Registered Dietitian Nutritionist.
10-Month Clinical Dietetic Internship
Intense, hands-on clinical training with complex medical cases — learning to deliver nutrition care inside real healthcare systems. It built my confidence in assessment, clinical decision-making, and patient-centered counseling under pressure.
International Nutrition Volunteer Experience
A month in-country at a pediatric malnutrition clinic — physical exams, charting, diagnosing malnutrition, education — plus funding and building campus gardens with area schools. Sustainable change only happens when support respects the lived reality of the person in front of you.
International Nutrition & Health Volunteer Experience
Facilitated physical education for rural elementary students, provided community nutrition education, and led adult fitness seminars. Working in an underserved community made health inequity impossible to ignore — and changed how I practice forever.
University-Level Nutrition Teaching
Taught medical nutrition therapy seminars to medical students, and MNT I & II and Lifecycle Nutrition to undergraduate Dietetics students — bridging academic nutrition science with real-world application.
University-Level Nutrition Teaching
Taught food science fundamentals and intro to nutrition for nursing and non-majors, and built curriculum for an SPH nutrition first-year seminar. It forced me to communicate clearly — no fluff, no jargon, no hiding behind complexity.
MSc Public Health Nutrition
Expanded nutrition beyond the individual into the systems that shape health — access, environment, culture, equity — sharpening how I think about behavior change and sustainability when “perfect conditions” aren't available.
BSc Clinical Nutrition & Dietetics
Where my clinical foundation was built: evidence-based nutrition science, medical nutrition therapy, and the skills to support people with real health conditions — and where I learned to translate complex science into action a client can actually use.
The models I've created
Nutrition Counseling
Support for relationship with food, binge/restrict patterns, body-image stress, and long-term behavior change — grounded in evidence and built with compassion.
Explore AnchorStrength & Fitness Coaching
Performance-focused strength & nutrition strategy for lifting, endurance, hybrid athletes, and goal-driven humans who want results without burnout or obsession.
Explore Apex