I help ambitious women struggling with chronic gut health imbalances overcome their symptoms.

Give me the details

I believe that most gut health imbalances are reversible, medical doctors don’t receive enough nutrition training and that the statement, “there’s nothing I can do for you” is an answer that no one should have to hear from their practitioner.

My approach to nutrition and gut health is against the grain and evidence based. If you’re ready for something different that feels right at your core, then I’m glad to have you here.

I’m Roslyn

Gut health expert, Registered Holistic Nutritionist and founder at Plants First Nutrition. 

I’m nowhere near perfect. In fact, I break my own rules from time to time. Why? Because that’s life, and the whole goal of my practice is to get you to a point where you have a framework in place that allows you to feel your best, most energetic self, but also allows you flexibility. And if we’re being honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that we all need some flexibility.

A glass of wine, take out for dinner, beers with friends, fast food on the road. None of it should feel punishing, and none of it should make you feel guilty or in physical pain. It’s about what you do consistently, not occasionally.

I am not a perfect nutritionist.

Let me be clear about one thing right off the bat: 

I was under a significant amount of stress: university applications were due, I was hoping to land multiple scholarships due to financial stress, I would be leaving behind a world of familiarity and comfort, and my family life was in shambles. To put it bluntly, I was stressed, overwhelmed, and was even dealing with minor disordered eating.

At the time, I was eating your average western diet consisting of meat, dairy, eggs, seafood, refined carbohydrates, processed foods, and everything in between. I ate white toast and eggs for breakfast, turkey sandwiches for lunch, saltine crackers with cheese for a snack, and creamy pasta for dinner.

I ate the way my family did, but I never stopped to question whether what I was eating was helping or hindering my problem. And my problem was not one that let me go about life easily.

Grade 12 to be exact. 

It all started in high school.

                                                         More often than I’d like to admit, to be honest. I don’t think there was a single day where I wasn’t uncomfortable after eating. Bloating, constipation, diarrhea, constant gas, and abdominal cramping. These were just some of the symptoms I experienced daily. Practitioners used to tell me that I was worrying myself sick, and sadly, I believed them.

My life was different because of my symptoms. I said ‘no’ to a lot of foods, I was always worried about where the closest toilet was, and I was often forced to leave social gatherings early because I was wildly uncomfortable. I had lost all control of my body and any sense of normalcy. I felt like my symptoms dictated where I was able to go, who I was able to spend time with, and what I was able to do.

After hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars of researching and seeking out help I had learned:

* I had IBS—a diagnosis of exclusion
* I needed to reduce my stress—no information on how to do so
* There is no cure for IBS, except managing stress
* Switching to lactose free dairy products may help
* Taking a fibre supplement (Metamucil) may help
* Trying medications may help—I denied them
* I needed to take an expensive probiotic that a practitioner was paid to sell me

Out of all of the practitioners I had seen, including nutritionists, naturopaths, dieticians, therapists, homeopaths, and a GI specialist, not one mentioned the microbiome or how it plays a role in IBS. How could all of these practitioners, who were supposed to be my best options for a solution, leave out the most important component of any gut healing journey?

I was always in pain. . .

  • I had IBS—a diagnosis of exclusion
  • I needed to reduce my stress—no information on how to do so
  • There is no cure for IBS, except managing stress
  • Switching to lactose free dairy products may help
  • Taking a fibre supplement (Metamucil) may help
  • Trying medications may help—I denied them
  • I needed to take an expensive probiotic that a practitioner was paid to sell me

even though. . .

I understand that GI specialists get next to zero training in nutrition. I understand that my symptoms were absolutely not in my head, nor my fault. I understand that IBS is a blanket solution, given to those who experience unexplained inflammation in the gut as well as an imbalance of bacteria in their microbiome, resulting in harsh GI symptoms such as bloating, gas, constipation and diarrhea.

I understand what parts of my health history, diet, and lifestyle brought me here. I understand that I have the power and the tools to take control of my personal health, and the health of countless other women who are in the same boat: through up-to-date nutrition research, specific diet strategies, approachable lifestyle habits, and evidence based supplements and herbs. I understand that it’s not just my passion, but my purpose to do so

Today, I understand:

I didn’t understand, but now I do.

And even though I was failed by conventional health care (there were multiple practitioners involved in my journey beyond GI specialists) and neglected the information I needed to reach optimal health for over 10 years, that doesn’t mean you have to take that same path, too.

In fact, I feel as though it’s my calling to stop this mad circle of confusion, pain, and frustration—a circle that far too many women end up in—and revolutionize the way we understand poor microbiome health and the physical, emotional, and mental pain that goes along with it.

I have over 600 hours of nutrition training to date, and I continue to expand this knowledge on a daily basis so I can better serve you in eradicating the uncertainty surrounding your gut health symptoms. I actively seek out up-to-date nutrition and microbiome research so I provide the best strategies to my clients.

Everything I went through—all of the evenings spent curled up in a ball on my bed in severe pain, all of the doctors visits, all of the emergency toilet visits, all of the guilt and shame as a result of believing that I was worrying myself sick, all of the expensive probiotics, all of the Dr. Google searches, and all of the stress from living with such an ambiguous diagnosis—could have been prevented had I known what I know today about the microbiome and gut health. All of it. And the same is true for you too. 

If you’ve had enough—enough of the pain, the unexplained symptoms, the wishy washy diagnosis, the expensive (and not evidence based) testing, the lack of answers and concrete recommendations—then you’ve come to the right place and I’m so stoked you’ve found me.

Today, I’m on a mission to help women who have been failed by the conventional medicine model take control of their gut health symptoms at a microbiome level so they can get their life back and level up from their comfort zone of discomfort. 

25

Drank a cup of coffee

Buying myself flowers

Backcountry skiing

The mountains

Squamish, BC

Favourite place: 

Couldn’t live without: 

Current hobby: 

Obsessed with: 

Never have I ever:

Countries traveled to:

not about

Elimination diets, supplement lists, low FODMAPs, GI Map or food sensitivity testing, people who want overnight results, working harder

I'm NOT about

all about

Following the science, achieving balance, resting more, trusting the process, nature as therapy, and guiding women out of their comfort zone of discomfort

I'm all about

Let's chat

Let's get you on the path to a healthy gut

 Did we just become best friends?