Director and Principal Dietitian
Accredited Practising Dietitian (APD)
Accredited Nutritionist (AN)
I have been working within the health and fitness industry since 1992 when I started working as a personal trainer and nutritionist in Adelaide for health clubs and the Centre for Physical Activity and the Ageing (CPAA) at Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre.
Wanting to help my clients to achieve their weight loss goals and seeing the array of health conditions come through to the gym environment I bit the bullet and started my journey to becoming a dietitian. Once qualified I did a stint in the hospital setting working with the Calvary Health Care group at Wakefield, North Adelaide and Central Districts Private hospitals.
Those who know me know that would not be enough for me, helping people past their hospital admissions was important so I established my first private practice in 2006, specialising in weight loss surgery outcomes and diabetes care and have continually grown since that time to specialise in the management of both pre-operative and post-operative weight loss surgery patient care and support, non-surgical weight loss and chronic disease management. I also have a specialised interest in appetite regulation, food cravings and working on long-term strategies to maintain motivation.
Again, reaching a threshold of “there is more to learn” in 2008 I joined CSIRO as the Senior Research Dietitian and the leader of the CSIRO Food and Nutrition Clinical Research Dietetics capability. Here I gained substantial expertise in the design and delivery of dietary interventions for complex clinical trials in the fields of weight management and metabolic disease. My role also lead to developing the foods, meals and complex dietary patterns for both short- and longer-term trials, and also for identifying and implementing new dietary intake methodologies relevant to each trail. I have authored more than 10 publication in leading scientific journals and numerous industry reports; a number of the reports utilising my skills in conducting Systematic Scientific literature reviews for which she holds an accreditation from the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI). I have also been privileged to co-author and design the meal plans and author several chapters for the CSIRO and Baker IDI Diabetes Diet and Lifestyle and contributed significantly to the Impromy™ program.
At EvolvME I have also worked with Professor Jennie Brand-Miller, Amanda Clarke and Dorinder Hafner in establishing recipe benchmarks to suit the direction of their books and analysing the recipes to ensure they meet the needs of the reader.
World’s Best Diet
Honey I Shrunk The Chef
Portion Perfection – 4 Week Weight Loss Menu Plan
Again reaching my learning threshold I am continually striving to gain a further understanding of the nutritional and lifestyle patterns and the individual needs associated with weight loss and weight loss surgery and work with individuals, groups and health professionals to provide education on diet quality, food tolerance, appetite, and long-term weight management. This is a field in which I have developed a real passion, specifically being able to provide easily accessible and truly affordable weight loss surgery support and nutritional advice and education for every body. So yes, I have embarked on a PhD with the University of Adelaide, School of Medicine & CSIRO to apply my clinical knowledge to identify novel behavioural strategies to optimise glucose variability, appetite responses and feeding behaviour for controlling metabolic health.
My husband, Paul, and I have developed the EvolvME concept to provide professional services in a non-threatening, non-medicalised environment that supports the individuals exercise, support and nutritional needs to effectively assist them to work towards long-term change and positive self-management. I truly believe that services must support the individual’s needs when they need it most, which is what EvolvME is designed to do.
I work with my team to establish a process that endeavours that we all support our clients in similar ways knowing that each individual has their own wonderful personality!
We aim to support your needs with up to date and scientific based knowledge and work with your doctor, surgeon, specialists and other health care team members to assist them helping you to achieve sustainable lifestyle changes. These changes must suit YOUR needs and work within the environment in which YOU live, whether you are a busy mum or dad, truck driver, traveller or recovering for an injury or surgery.
So don’t forget if the tools for weight loss don’t suit your lifestyle, and you are not ready to change your weight loss is less likely to be sustainable!
Everyone has different needs and it’s not a one size fits all – so enjoy the change.