Our September spotlight opener belongs to Taylor Fury, MS, CNS, LDN, RYT-200, an Integrative Nutritionist, Yoga Instructor and a Meditative Life Guide of the Original Nourishment (her personal practice) and The Spring Yoga & Natural Health Center (her wellness center)
Taylor has always been a foodie and she always knew she wanted to work with people. It wasn’t until she took some time off after her undergrad that she realized the obvious: nutritionist! She found an integrative school right near her house and she never looked back! She loves what she does and she is very grateful that she can do what she loves.
Taylor's focus is on thyroid health and women’s health. She finds it so fascinating that we as women have this amazing monthly tool that helps us learn so much about how our bodies function. As she did more research into menstrual cycles and its relation to the thyroid and the adrenals, she realized just how much could go wrong and how easy it was to fix with diet and lifestyle. She was inspired every day by her clients, the women in her life and the little ones that make up our future generation. "It is so important to make sure that our bodies are optimal before, during, and after pregnancy so that we can provide the best environments for the future while still feeling full of life ourselves!"
As a Nutritionist, Taylor believes that one of the best gifts any practitioner in any field can give is compassion. She explains, "Only the client knows how they are feeling and no one will ever be able to understand their experience better. All we can hope to do as a practitioner is hear them, ask questions that help them understand their body a bit more clearly, and guide them to the best of your ability on their individual path."
Taylor also tells us about her greatest achievement as a Nutritionist:
"It was a Friday and I was about to leave for the week. I got a call from a stressed out new mommy to be asking me if I could see her that day. She expressed that her midwives were about to kick her out of their program because she was refusing to take medication for blood sugar. She wanted to do it naturally, she had one week to get her glucose back in a healthy range, and she was leaving for vacation the next day. Not more than 20 minutes later she was in my office telling me the details of her story and medical history. We left our meeting and I must have spent 2-3 hours working late into the night laying out an entire meal plan that she was to follow religiously for the next week. A week later she went to see her midwives and all of her numbers had dropped back to normal! She continued to see me all the way through the birth. She never took medication and her and her baby are both happy and healthy!"
We asked her what's the biggest misconception she sees parents make with regards to their children’s nutrition and Taylor expressed that the biggest issue she sees is that parents are afraid to tell their kids no. "They have started them on a Standard American Diet and the kids are addicted. They are literally addicted to the combination of ingredients in the processed foods and are starving so severely on a cellular level that when they come off of it, they are in withdrawal and the parents can’t handle it. What is missing here is that it is likely that the kids are already hard to handle and the parents probably have a short fuse. This is because everyone’s cells are starving! This is the symptom/teacher that tells you something is not right!" The key in her opinion is to start educating yourself and your kids. "Get curious about whole foods. Get your hands dirty and involve them in every step. Ask them to pick out one veggie or fruit at the store every week and then go home and make something with it together! Let go of the fear of making something disgusting and just have fun!"
This year has already been a big year for Taylor and it’s only half over. She just took over a natural health center, 
she teaches 7-9 nutrition, yoga, and/or meditation classes each week, and she, of course, has her private practice for all three of those as well. She believes that the combination of these three practices is a recipe for a happy, healthy life. Her fiancé is an acupuncturist so they are working together on a group and individual support using both of their skill sets. They hope to help people learn how to help themselves by listening to their body and learning from their symptoms or as she likes to refer to them, their teachers.Taylor and her business partner just launched their prenatal and mommy classes and they are developing after-school programs for kids to come and do yoga, learn how to cook, and learn how to self-calm. All of this is done in The Spring Yoga & Natural Health Center in Sandy Spring, MD.
Taylor gives her best nutritional tips:
- Keep it simple
- Eat real food
- Be curious
- Aim for 2-3 servings of leafy greens a day
- ½ your body weight in oz of water a day (add fruit to make it fun)
- Berries are your friend
- Keep healthy snacks on hand at all times (dried fruit, nuts and seeds, homemade granola/granola bars, etc.)
- Make smoothies into fast, healthy popsicle breakfasts
Some other things about Taylor are that she never follow protocols. She treats each person as a brand new case. No one is put in a box because life is always changing. She loves what she does and her team is composed of some of the best practitioners of integrative health in the area. They all believe that the body is wise and if we open up all possibilities and listen closely and honestly, they will be able to support everyone who walks through their doors.
To learn more about Taylor Fury , Original Nourishment or The Spring Yoga and Natural Health Center, you may visit the website www.originalnourishment.com and/or www.thespringnaturalhealth.com or you may email her at [email protected]
