After being diagnosed with Celiac Disease and sugar levels heading to pre-diabetic, I was faced with having to face an enormous and overwhelming challenge to my diet. I sought help and became acquainted with Cindy Crowninshield. From day 1, she patiently listened and reviewed medications; finding dangerous overages in O.T.C. vitamins I was taking; encouraged me to begin logging everything I put in my mouth to better evaluate what needed changing.  This woman would gently recommend removing a food and giving a better substitute. My sugar levels dropped; weight began to drop with a total of 25 pounds, and my intestinal track began to have peace. Cindy has been an “answer to prayer” for me. She is brilliant and investigates until she finds what kind of change would be best to help you. Keeping a food diary will be my life pattern, because from it I have learned what foods my body is “sensitive” to in addition to gluten free. I have recommended several people to Cindy because of the help she has given me.

Cindy knows her stuff!  Plus, her helpful suggestions are not complicated.  I am indebted to her for helping to straighten out my digestive system.  Also, ask her about ALCAT!

Overweight and stuck in a rut with minimal weight loss, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and boarder line diabetic. That is where I was nearly two years ago. I was working out daily and tracking my food intake but my weight loss was stalled.  Then someone at work suggested I seek professional help. I contacted my insurance provider for a licensed registered dietitian referral and found Cindy’s name on the list. I met with her and she analyzed what I was doing and made some simple suggestions. I remember having the discussion with her about “needing to eat to lose weight” and reluctantly, I said I would follow her advice. Her advice meant being strategic with my food intake on my exercise and non-exercise days. Bottomline, I needed to increase my calorie intake by 300 calories. Then on my exercise days, I needed to add 500-700 calories more to match my nutrition intake with exercise activity. Eating to lose weight was a concept that felt counter intuitive to what I thought; however, I was willing to listen to Cindy, as the professional, since what I tried wasn’t successful.

Fast forward, it worked. My weight loss picked up and I began averaging 1 to 1.5 pounds a week and it stayed constant for over a year and a half until I settled into a maintenance schedule where I again increase my food intake to balance with the exercise I was engaged in. Today, if I find I can’t exercise as much I simply cut back on the calories, if I find I have a business dinner or family event, I increase the exercise a little.

Cindy helped me focus on a plan that was achievable without making me feel like I was dieting (I hate dieting). She helped me realize the importance of documenting what I was doing both in my exercise and food intake and pointed me to tools that made it easy (and fun). Through Cindy’s assistance today I have lost nearly 80 pounds and my health is great – no high blood pressure, no longer boarder line diabetic and my cholesterol is well within the normal range.

I found Cindy on a Google search looking for help with weight loss and I am so glad I did. As a professional single woman who is relatively fit, I struggled with a high stress corporate job, no skills in the kitchen and really bad food choices. My diet was relatively unchanged for many years, despite food sensitivities. Cindy and I put together a step wise approach which included expanding the variety of my meals, increasing calories (yes, I did say increase) and creatively adding more nutrients which I lacked, such as protein. We then reduced high histamine sourced foods to decrease chronic inflammation stemming from over exercise throughout the years. Cindy took a holistic approach with me and not only taught me about food, but also mechanisms to deal with stress so that I wasn’t reaching for the nearest candy bar or running the next marathon every time I was faced with a stressor. In that sense, she was more than a dietitian to me, but a lifestyle coach. Another mechanism used to relieve stress and change eating patterns was to identify my interests outside of my high stress workplace. She provided guidance on starting a small business which gave me courage to overcome my corporate challenges knowing I was building something more satisfying that I will ultimately end up reaching for when the time is right. I work on this second plan almost every day and that brings me peace. Cindy and I have been on a 3 month journey together and I have learned a great deal from her. I am living a much healthier lifestyle since I met Cindy. She is warm, loving and really cares about helping her clients. She sees the big picture and that matters to me.

Cindy is fantastic!  She is very easy to talk to, and very accommodating when it comes to scheduling appointments. She is a wealth of nutrition information! Every time I have an appointment I leave learning something new!  Great suggestions on foods to eat so you don’t get bored!  She can help in many areas, if you need a diet that specializes in being gluten free, dairy free etc.  She explains everything thoroughly so you can’t be confused.

I met with Cindy in preparation for a planned spinal surgery as I wanted to insure I was in the best possible physical shape for the surgery and recovery. I found Cindy to be extremely knowledgeable and experienced as well as warm and easy to talk to. I felt strong going into the surgery and believe that my recovery was significantly expedited by the personalized nutrition plan Cindy developed. I highly recommend Cindy!