About me
I'm Maria Quintana-Pilling, certified functional nutritionist & lifestyle practitioner, and natural chef, but really what I do is help women, like you who have digestive and hormone imbalances, find the right foods to help you heal so you can live pain-free, be productive, and have enough energy left to do what you love.
For most of my life, I absolutely hated and dreaded everything about my period. They were long, painful, and heavy. As a teen, I spent hours curled up in a ball. I feared big social events or vacations when "Maggie was in town-. I started taking the pill, I took it continuously so I could go on these vacations without having to worry about my cycle.
It should have been no surprise to me that by the time I was 30 I had developed fibroids.
It started with one the size of a pea. But that little pea grew. And grew. And grew. Soon it morphed into a full fruit basket. I ended with 12. One was the size of a grapefruit, another the size of an orange. Some were the size of strawberries and grapes…and of course, peas.
During that time, I was not sure when my periods started or ended. And other little things kept popping up. I was exhausted. I developed adult acne and seasonal allergies. I had night sweats. My digestion went completely haywire. My bowel movements were erratic and I had embarrassing gas.
And through all of that, I did nothing.
That is really hard and embarrassing for me to admit. Because I was not lazy or dumb - I was a senior portfolio manager at prestigious wealth management & mutual fund company. I earned an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. I ran 5/10Ks, I took spinning and yoga classes 3-4 times a week.
I just didn't understand what I could do. I just didn't know.
It wasn't until my GYN told me I needed surgery if I wanted to even consider having kids that I started asking questions, not to mention freaking out. I had to have a myomectomy and because of that a c-section to have my baby. .
That started my discovery period.
I quit my amazing finance job to study nutrition to get my own answers.
And then I saw that how and what I ate and how I showed up in the world mattered to my cycle and my health. That how I felt emotionally affected my cycle. How my constipation and gas affected my cycle. How things like acne and allergies were giving me clues. And how little things - good and bad - add up over time. And most importantly, how I had the power to make changes that could make my life better.
And now I help women understand that there is a lot within their power that they can change so they live pain-free, be productive, and have enough energy to do what they love.