My approach
1. Personalized nutrition
Understanding the right approach for *you* will depend on multiple factors such as age, gender, lifestyle, health history, symptoms, personal preferences, labs and more. Personalization is KEY to both short term healing and long term health!
2. health as self care MINDSET
I teach my clients how to pursue health from a place of self-care and kindness, instead of judgement and restriction. Only then do your healthy choices and behaviors become sustainable, enjoyable and truly a lifestyle.
3. A HOLISTIC PERSPECTIVE
A holistic health assessment is essential to understand your complete health picture. Diet is an important piece, but we’ll also assess your lifestyle, health history, sleep, stress, symptoms and much more.
4. science & data
I utilize an individualized, science-based approach to identify root imbalances in the body. Data provided by advanced lab testing can be an essential aspect of healing and is recommended to clients when clinically applicable.
5. emphasis on sustainability
You won’t find any rigid diets, point systems or calorie counting here. Instead, we’ll tackle your goals while also considering what’s realistic, practical and sustainable for you long term.
credentials
Natalie Betzer, MS, CNS
Functional Nutritionist & Founder of Natalie Betzer Wellness
I received my Master’s degree in Clinical Nutrition from Maryland University of Integrative Health. I am a Certified Nutrition Specialist®, credentialed by the American Nutrition Association® through its Board for Certification of Nutrition Specialists™. I completed my Functional Nutrition residency with the practice of Dr. Kara Fitzgerald.
Certified Nutrition Specialists (CNSs) are advanced nutrition professionals and engage in science-based medical nutrition therapy, research, education, and more. CNSs have fulfilled the most rigorous advanced-degree, education, experience, examination, and continuing education requirements.
I am educated and trained within the functional medicine model. Functional medicine is an individualized, patient-centered, science-based approach that empowers patients and practitioners to work together to address the underlying causes of disease and promote optimal wellness.
You can learn more about Functional Medicine here.
My story
Growing up, you might have considered me a “healthy person.” I did all the things they say a healthy person should do - I watched what I ate and I stayed active. But as I reflect back on my teenage/young adult self, I recognize that every effort I made to be “healthy” stemmed from the sole desire to change the way my body looked. The motivation behind my pursuit of health was rooted in self-judgement. If I didn’t like something about my body, it meant I needed to restrict calories or certain foods so that I could fix what was making me feel insecure. I lived in a mindset of restriction and would often create rigid food rules or hold myself to unrealistic expectations. The irony was that the more I tried to restrict the foods I labeled as off limits, the more I craved those foods and the less self control I felt around them.
After years of struggling with this disordered relationship with food, I finally started to understand what true health meant. I started to mindfully foster a healthier relationship with food and my body. I shifted my intention away from how I wanted to look and instead, towards how I wanted to feel. I began to make choices from a place of self-awareness and self-care instead of self-judgement. Food was no longer just a way to manipulate the way body looked but rather an opportunity to nourish myself and my health. This small but powerful shift changed everything.
This journey and the transformation I’ve experienced in my own life has uniquely shaped my approach as a nutritionist. Here at NBW, I believe the mind is your most powerful tool to achieve your health goals. For that reason, I place a specific emphasis on mindset and promoting a healthy relationship with food in all that I do.
