Functional nutrition by Maria Quintana Pilling

Your most important asset is your health.  The best way to protect it is through functional nutrition and exercise.  Learn more from our resident expert, Maria Quintana Pilling.

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Everyone needs to have a Maria Quintana-Pilling in their life.  Why?  The most important asset we have is our health.  It just makes sense to have a functional nutrition expert who helps us become healthier, feel better, and experience a higher quality of life. 

Functional nutrition looks at the whole person in a systematic way.  It methodically maps and accesses each person’s health and lifestyle history to capture information which is then used to develop a personalized approach to finding a resolution. Functional nutrition provides a framework that goes beyond just chasing symptoms.  

Maria works closely with women experiencing the frustrating, intrusive, and sometimes painful symptoms of peri- and post-menopause.  She also guides those navigating the scary path of debilitating conditions like Hashimoto’s, endometriosis, and fibroids.  How did she choose this path?

Prior to becoming a functional nutrition expert, Maria spent 17 years in institutional finance.  With her CFA as well as her MBA from the University of Chicago she worked as a portfolio manager for Northern Trust.   As she was completing her studies for the CFA in 2000, Maria was diagnosed with a fibroid tumor.  Her doctor told her there was nothing she could do but watch it.  By 2007, the tumor grew to the point where she needed to have surgery.  At the advice of her sister, she started researching food and nutrition as an 11th-hour attempt to avoid surgery.  It turned out that surgery was inevitable; however, the silver lining was a new passion for nutrition and its positive effect on the quality of life for people.
 
In 2009 Maria enrolled at Bauman College, the leading provider of integrative nutrition and culinary arts in Berkley, CA.  Her goal then and now is to help women through better and more thoughtful nutrition.  She expanded her knowledge by registering for additional specialized education from the Functional Nutrition Lab, the BioIndividual Nutrition Institute, as well as her current participation with the Integrative Women’s Health Institute.

Maria started her business, Urbanspice Nutrition, in 2010.  At Urbanspice Maria works closely with women to discover why they are experiencing symptoms by searching their life story and their intersection with food, physiology, and psychology to find resolutions.  She performs a thorough health intake and plots a functional timeline to better identify the context of when symptoms first occurred and when they flare.  From this information, Maria is able to prepare a personalized plan by starting to remove obstacles and introduce healthy routines. Once a healing foundation is established, she works with clients to address nutrient deficiencies.  This is all supported with personal coaching by Maria.  By the time Maria’s clients complete their turnaround they feel better, have more energy, and in most cases lose weight.  

Maria’s food plans are easily followed. They are meant for busy households. Her recipes are proven, and her shopping lists are designed for people like us. She also offers great group cooking classes over Zoom. 
 
Have you ever thought about a detox program?  For those interested, Urbanspice has two levels of detox to clean up your digestion and to learn new eating habits.  There is the 5-day food reset and a 6-week deep-dive that builds on the 5-day reset.  Both plans include recipes and shopping lists, training calls, and personal time to chat with Maria.

Maria lives her practice, so she knows it works.  She is a busy entrepreneur with a family.  She makes sure to take care of herself with quiet “me” time in the mornings for meditation or yoga, sometimes both.  As women and caregivers, we know we have to take care of ourselves first so we can better care for our loved ones!  Talk to Maria and learn how you can feel better and gain more health benefits.  Maria can be reached at maria@urbanspicenutrition.com.

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