Health Coaching 

You've heard it a hundred times: nutrition matters. You know that what your child eats affects their energy, mood, focus, immune function, and long-term health. But knowing that and actually implementing meaningful dietary changes for your family are two very different things. Between picky eaters, busy schedules, conflicting dietary advice, and the reality of feeding a family day after day, it's easy to feel stuck even when you genuinely want to do better.

That's where nutrition and health coaching come in. At Cedars Functional Medicine, we offer personalized health coaching to help you bridge the gap between knowing what to do and actually doing it. This isn't about perfection or restrictive diets. It's about building sustainable habits, making realistic changes, and giving your family the nutritional foundation they need to thrive.

Maybe Dr. Nahas has recommended dietary changes as part of your child's care plan, removing gluten and dairy, increasing certain nutrients, or following an elimination protocol, but you're struggling with where to start. Perhaps you've tried making changes on your own, but between your child's resistance and the demands of daily life, nothing seems to stick. You might feel overwhelmed by the idea of overhauling your family's diet while still getting dinner on the table every night.

You may have a picky eater who refuses anything green, or a child with sensory sensitivities who has a very limited range of acceptable foods. Perhaps you're dealing with food allergies or sensitivities that make meal planning feel like solving a puzzle with missing pieces. Maybe you simply don't know how to cook healthier meals that your whole family will actually eat, or you're exhausted by the mental load of figuring out what to feed everyone day after day.

If any of this sounds familiar, you're not alone—and you don't have to figure it out by yourself.

Health coaching is the bridge between clinical recommendations and real-life implementation. When Dr. Nahas identifies dietary changes that could support your child's health, our health coach helps you actually make those changes happen, in a way that works for your family, your schedule, and your child's preferences.

This isn't just about handing you a list of foods to avoid or a generic meal plan. It's personalized support that meets you where you are. Your health coach takes the time to understand your family's current eating patterns, your child's specific challenges, your cooking comfort level, and the practical constraints you're working with. From there, she helps you create a realistic plan and provides ongoing accountability and troubleshooting as you implement it.

Whether you need help navigating an elimination diet, finding kid-friendly recipes that meet dietary restrictions, getting a picky eater to try new foods, or simply building healthier family meals into your weekly routine, health coaching provides the guidance and support to make it happen.

Your health coach brings over 10 years of experience as a licensed nurse and health coach, with specialized training in functional medicine and nutritional therapy. She began her nursing career in a functional medicine practice, where she developed a deep appreciation for root-cause care and the profound impact that nutrition and lifestyle can have on health outcomes.

Driven by a passion for whole-person wellness, she expanded her training to include certification as a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, focusing on whole-food, nutrient-dense approaches to healing. She also holds a personal training certification, allowing her to support clients in developing safe, intentional movement plans tailored to their individual abilities.

Her approach is shaped not only by her professional training but also by her personal health journey. After experiencing firsthand how significantly stress and environmental factors like mold exposure can impact health, even in someone doing many of the 'right' things, she developed a deep understanding of how interconnected our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health truly are. This experience reinforced her commitment to caring for the whole person and addressing root causes rather than symptoms alone.

She is especially skilled at working with children, including those with sensory sensitivities and complex health needs. Her warm, supportive approach helps families feel empowered rather than overwhelmed, and she's passionate about building trusting relationships with the parents and children she serves. Whether you're new to a root-cause approach or navigating chronic and complex conditions, she meets you where you are and partners with you to create sustainable, lasting improvements.

Health and Nutrition coaching at Cedar Functional Medicine is designed to complement the clinical care your child receives from Dr. Nahas. Here's how it typically works.

For families enrolled in the Natural Brain Reset Program, health and nutrition coaching is included as part of your membership. Your health coach is available to connect with you between your visits with Dr. Nahas, helping you implement dietary recommendations, troubleshoot challenges, and stay on track. You can use this support as much or as little as you need. Some families find regular check-ins invaluable, while others touch base only when specific questions arise.

During your sessions, your coach will help you understand the "why" behind dietary recommendations, create practical meal plans that work for your family, identify kid-friendly recipes and food swaps, navigate elimination diets and food reintroductions, address picky eating and food resistance, build sustainable habits that don't require perfection, and problem-solve the real-life challenges that come up along the way.

The goal isn't to add more stress to your life. It's to make nutrition and health changes feel doable. Your coach understands that you're juggling a lot, and she works with you to find solutions that fit your reality.

One of the biggest barriers to healthier eating is simply not knowing what to cook. Meal planning can feel like an enormous mental load, especially when you're trying to accommodate dietary restrictions, feed picky eaters, and get food on the table quickly on busy weeknights.

Our nutrition coaching includes access to family-friendly, kid-approved meal planning resources. These aren't complicated gourmet recipes. They're practical, nutritious meals that real families can actually make. You'll have access to gluten-free and dairy-free options, shopping lists that take the guesswork out of grocery trips, and strategies for batch cooking and meal prep that save time during the week.

Your coach can also help you create customized meal plans if extra help is needed, based on your child's specific dietary needs, whether that means working around food sensitivities, increasing certain nutrients, or adapting recipes for a child with limited food acceptance. The goal is to make healthy eating sustainable for your whole family, not just your child with specific health needs.

Nutrition coaching can support your family with a wide range of challenges. Many families seek coaching when implementing elimination diets, removing gluten, dairy, or other potential trigger foods as part of their child's functional medicine protocol. Others need help with transitioning to whole foods and reducing processed foods in their family's diet, or addressing nutrient deficiencies through food-first strategies.

Coaching is especially valuable for families dealing with picky eating and food resistance, navigating food allergies or sensitivities, supporting gut health through diet, balancing blood sugar for better mood and focus, and building healthy eating habits that stick. Whatever your specific challenge, your nutrition coach works with you to create a plan that addresses your family's unique needs.

At Cedars Functional Medicine, we believe the body is designed to heal itself when given the right environment. Nutrition is a foundational piece of that environment, but it's not the only piece. Your nutrition coach understands that food choices don't exist in a vacuum. They're influenced by stress, sleep, family dynamics, sensory preferences, and countless other factors.

This whole-person perspective means your coach won't just hand you a meal plan and send you on your way. She takes the time to understand what's really going on in your family and helps you address the barriers (whether practical, emotional, or relational) that might be getting in the way of healthier eating. Sometimes the issue isn't knowing what to cook; it's having the bandwidth to do it. Sometimes a child's food resistance is connected to sensory processing or anxiety. Your coach sees the bigger picture and helps you navigate it.

Health and Nutrition coaching at Cedars Functional Medicine is fully integrated with your child's clinical care. Your nutrition coach works closely with Dr. Nahas to ensure that the dietary guidance you receive aligns with your child's overall treatment plan. When Dr. Nahas identifies specific nutritional interventions, whether that's an elimination diet, targeted nutrients, or gut-healing foods, your coach helps you implement them effectively.

This collaborative approach means you're never getting conflicting advice or trying to piece together recommendations from multiple sources. Your child's functional medicine care and nutrition support work hand in hand, creating a cohesive path forward for your family.