MEET MARIA
I wasn’t looking for a new career. I was looking for better answers.
I earned my biology degree nearly 30 years before becoming an FDNP. In between, I built a successful bakery from the ground up and spent 13 years as an entrepreneur. I loved what I created, but eventually I wanted something more meaningful from this chapter of my life.
At the same time, my own health had become harder to ignore. Finding Functional Diagnostic Nutrition brought me back to where I started, asking better questions about how the body works and why we can be doing so many “healthy” things and still not feel well.
THE PART I COULDN’T IGNORE
For more than a decade, my gut dictated far too much of my life.
Constipation wasn’t an occasional inconvenience. There were times when days would pass without a comfortable bowel movement, followed by bloating, straining, pain, and more than a few nights curled up on the bathroom floor wondering how something so basic could become so difficult.
The frustrating part was that I cared about my health. I ate well. I exercised. I paid attention to what I put into my body. From the outside, I looked like someone doing all the “right” things. My body was telling a different story.
Then midlife added another layer. Menopause, stubborn changes around my waist, disrupted sleep, and other changes that are so often brushed off as part of getting older made me wonder how much we quietly normalize simply because we’ve reached a certain age.
None of these things looked like an emergency on their own. But together, they were telling me something.
I wanted to understand what.
WHEN THE STAKES CHANGED
Watching my mother decline changed what “getting older” meant to me.
My mom lived with Parkinson’s, and as her health became more complicated, I watched one issue after another get managed as it appeared. What I kept wanting was for someone to step back and look at the whole picture.
One moment has stayed with me. When she was struggling with dizzy spells, the advice she received was essentially to eat some potato chips. I remember thinking, Is this really the best we can do?
It wasn’t about one doctor or one recommendation. It was watching symptoms accumulate while her health and independence continued to decline. She died before 70, and I knew I didn’t want to wait until my own warning signs became impossible to ignore.
HEALTHSPAN BECAME PERSONAL
I want to catch the red flags while they’re still yellow.
Feeling progressively worse should not automatically become the price of getting older.
COMING FULL CIRCLE
Thirty years later, biology became part of my life again.
FDN gave me the framework I had been looking for: a way to consider symptoms, health history, lifestyle, and functional lab findings together and look for the patterns connecting them.
Today, I help women in midlife notice the yellow flags earlier, make informed changes, and build the strength, energy, confidence, and resilience to feel good through the decades ahead.
TRAINING + BACKGROUND
MARIA NICOLETTI, FDNP
BA, Biology
AFPA Certified Health Coach
AFPA Holistic Nutrition Coach
Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner
BEYOND THE LABS
A few things that still make me, me.
Fashion will always have my heart, and I will never pretend a great pastry isn’t worth enjoying. Thirteen years as a pastry chef made sure of that. These days, I’m just as happy at Pilates, playing mahjong with local friends, planning my next trip, or hoping another Boston terrier finds its way into my life.
YOUR HEALTH IS WORTH LISTENING TO
You don’t have to wait until your body is shouting.
If something feels off, your complimentary consultation gives us a chance to talk through what you’re experiencing and whether working together feels like the right next step.