Hey! My name is Shawn Portwood, MS, RD
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.
Choose the lane that fits you best: nutrition counseling (ANCHOR) or performance coaching (APEX).
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 in Africa. This is while 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 it’s 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 you with this.
Training & Background
I bring both lived experience and deep technical training into the room with me.
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Doctoral Level Research
2023-2025 UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN MADISON
DEPARTMENT OF NUTRITIONAL SCIENCES
Spending almost 3 years in the trenches, doing doctoral research training deepened my scientific rigor, taught me how to evaluate evidence, understand mechanisms, and think critically about health claims. That background keeps my work grounded in physiology and data while still staying human, practical, and client-centered.
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Waisman LEND Fellowship
2023 WAISMAN CENTER, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN MADISON
This interdisciplinary fellowship trained me to work within integrated care teams and think beyond “nutrition only,” especially in complex, real-life cases. It strengthened my ability to collaborate, communicate, and support clients with very complex, layered needs using a whole-person lens.
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RDN Board Exam
2023 PASSED (MADISON, WISCONSIN)
Passing the RDN credentialing exam represents more than a test, it’s proof of professional competency and responsibility in clinical nutrition practice. It marked the transition from training to fully stepping into the role of being a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist.
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10-Month Clinical Dietetic Internship
2022 MINNEAPOLIS VA MEDICAL CENTER
This was intense, hands-on clinical training where I worked with complex medical cases and learned how to deliver nutrition care inside real healthcare systems. It built my confidence in assessment, clinical decision-making, and patient-centered counseling under pressure. -
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International Nutrition Volunteer Experience
2023 ARUSHA, TANZANIA, AFRICA
Spending 1 month in-country, working at a pediatric malnutrition clinic performing physical examinations, charting, diagnosing malnutrition and providing education, also, working with area schools to fund and build campus gardens and teaching nutrition education and food stewardship.This work deepened my understanding of how nutrition, education, and community health intersect across different contexts. It reinforced a simple truth: sustainable change only happens when support respects the lived reality of the person in front of you.
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International Nutrition & Health Volunteer Experience
2014 Mitchell’s Plain, Cape Town, South Africa
Facilitated physical education classes for rural elementary age students, provided basic nutrition education to the community, led adult physical fitness seminars.
Working in an underserved community made the realities of health inequity impossible to ignore and it changed how I practice forever. It taught me to build interventions around people’s actual resources, culture, and daily stressors, not idealized textbook scenarios.
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University-Level Nutrition Teaching
2023-2024 UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN MADISON
Teaching medical nutrition therapy seminars to medical students, teaching medical nutrition therapy I and II and Lifecycle Nutrition to undergraduate level Dietetics students.
This experience strengthened my ability to bridge academic nutrition science with real-world application. It also reinforced my commitment to evidence-based practice by forcing me to stay current on the literature, think critically, and help students understand the “why” behind what we’re doing.
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University-level nutrition teaching experience
2020-2022 UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS; SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
Teaching food science fundamentals, teaching intro to nutrition to the school of nursing and other non-nutrition major sections, creating curriculum for and teaching a school of public health nutrition first year seminar.
Teaching forced me to master the material at a deeper level and communicate it clearly to others with no fluff, no jargon, no hiding behind complexity. That same skill shows up in sessions: clear education, practical strategy, and answers grounded in real science.
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MSc Public Health Nutrition
2020-2022 UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST
My master’s training expanded nutrition beyond the individual and into the systems that shape health, including access, environment, culture, and equity. It sharpened how I think about behavior change and sustainability, especially when “perfect conditions” aren’t available. -
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BSc Clinical Nutrition & Dietetics
2014-2019 METROPOLITAN STATE UNIVERSITY OF DENVER
This is where my clinical foundation was built: evidence-based nutrition science, medical nutrition therapy, and the skills required to support people with real health conditions, not just “wellness goals.” It’s also where I learned how to translate complex science into practical action a client or patient can actually use.
The Models
ANCHOR vs APEX
ANCHOR
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.
Performance-focused strength & nutrition strategy for lifting, endurance, hybrid athletes, and goal-driven humans who want results without burnout or obsession.
Strength & Fitness Coaching