I was born in Hong Kong and raised in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I attended college in the US, where my interest in health and the human body led me to enroll in the nursing program at Southwestern Adventist University, and to become a Registered Nurse. My nursing career led to positions at teaching and private hospitals in Texas, Massachusetts and Vermont in units including Surgical, Medical, Cardiac and Critical Care.

On my very first night in the ICU, an unconscious middle aged man was wheeled in after having open heart surgery to bypass three blocked arteries. This man had gone through a surgery that has become all too familiar to us, and now had more tubes, needles and devices in and around his body than I could begin to explain, or would want to describe. Yet 24 hours later this man WALKED out of the ICU to another unit where he spent a few more days recovering before returning to, what I hope continues to be today, a happy life. Medicine can be powerful and deserves respect.

Unfortunately hospitals over time can become dehumanizing. Most people do not go to hospitals because they WANT to – they go because they HAVE to due to illness or injury. Most hospitals are cold, sterile, places and are staffed by over-worked, under-appreciated people. Medical professionals deal with people at their most vulnerable, day in and day out in an environment where they are taught never to admit that they don’t know an answer or are capable of mistakes or human weaknesses. The hospital environment was wearing on my soul..

Mainstream medicine has become like other large scale industries – reduced to standardized methods and an assembly line mentality. Medical professionals are being coerced in to treating symptoms, not people. I speak from personal experience when I say that patients are referred to as ‘the diabetic leg amputation in room 2’, rather than as Mrs. Myers, the woman with a family and real hopes for the future. It is not because medical professionals are uncaring - the mainstream medical establishment forces them to operate this way.

I needed change.

I returned to school, attending the International MBA program at Boston University. Talk about a culture change. Though medicine is a business, it is not a well run business. B-school gave me the chance to think about medicine critically for the first time. This was both a positive and negative experience for me. On the positive side, I realized that there were some recent positive changes in healthcare, mostly in niche areas like holistic and preventative care. The negative realization was that it is probably too late to turn back the clock on mainstream medicine in a way that would allow doctors and their clients to spend the sort of time together that allows bonds of understanding and trust to form.

After graduation I was recruited to the marketing department of Le Creuset, the maker of premium, colorful, cast iron cookware. I’ll be honest and tell you that I was never much of a cook before I moved to Charleston, the location of their US Headquarters. It is next to impossible though to work in a food-centered environment and not become passionate about cooking. I discovered that I LOVED cooking and that people didn’t seem to mind when I brought meals to the office to share with them.

I spent the past 2 years working on the business side of the health care industry in New York City, specifically with older people who want to leave the hospital but need home nursing care to ensure that they regain their health after an illness. I have become more convinced than ever through this experience that our health and well-being are determined by what we eat, how we live and our own attitudes towards life. Eat some chicken soup if you have a cold, but make sure you have some fruit, vegetables and a lot of fresh water with it.

I’m not one of those people who considers a side salad to be a satisfying meal. I cook substantial, healthy, meals using simple ingredients in not much more time than it takes to make spaghetti and sauce from a jar. I’m not going to tell you to sacrifice taste. Believe me, once you taste my lime-red onion-olive salsa, you will never again think that healthy equals bland.

I have become a Health Counselor, certified by the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, because this path allows me to combine my expertise in mainstream medicine with my belief that we must take steps to maintain health and wellness so that we can take fewer trips to the hospital. As a Health Counselor, I can spend one-on-one time with you so that I can understand YOUR needs. You CANNOT get this level of attention from overworked doctors.

Mainstream medicine will be there for you when you need it, for emergencies, check-ups, etc. I am here for you to help with other, equally important, areas of wellness, like nutrition and stress relief, so that you can live the healthy life that you want.

You get one shot at life - invest in your health like it's your biggest asset - because it is!