Hey, I’m Chiara.

Your anti-diet climbing dietitian bestie.

Changing the narrative about fueling for climbing

Dialing in your nutrition is about so much than trying to eat “clean” and tracking your macros. The real magic happens when you unlearn diet culture, relearn how to eat intuitively and have a healthy relationship with food, and are free to fuel without limits or rules (and live your best life without feeling stressed or guilty about food).

***Because, sure, a large follower count is validating and fun. But an engaged following that sees you as an authority and no-brainer buys what you’re offering? That’s the good stuff—and I’m here to help you have more of that.

My Story

Content warning: disordered eating

Back to 1995

I was born in Rhinebeck, NY.

(this is the earliest baby picture I can find and I'm on the left with my big sister on the right)

It was the era of fat-free everything, 100-calorie snack packs, Jane Fonda workouts, Slim Fast, and the “heroin chic” trend.

The weight loss industry was already valued at $51 billion in the US.

(in case you're wondering it hit $143 billion in 2022)

Fast forward to 2007

I’m starting my first diet at the ripe old age of 12.

Little did baby Chiara know that trying to “eat healthy” and “lose 10 lbs” would be the gateway to a decade of disordered eating (bulimia to be exact).

I’ll spare you all of the miserable details but being at war with food and my body was all-consuming.

Jump ahead 10 years

It’s January, 2017 and I’m in the junior year of my dietetics program.

The purging has just reached a new level and I’m suddenly realizing that if I don’t try to change course now, I may start down a path I can’t make it back from.

I sit on my bed on a snowy Saturday, google my symptoms, and realize that I’m not about to develop an eating disorder—I’ve been living with one. For a the better part of a decade.

(that’s just how normalized disordered eating is!)

It’s a relief to finally understand that there isn’t something inherently wrong with me or my body and I don’t just need to “have more willpower.” But at the same time I’m at a total loss with what to do next.

The next few years

With no idea what I’m doing and no support (I’d never even heard of intuitive eating at the time) I embark on a journey to stop dieting. Because out of everything I didn’t know, I knew that dieting didn’t work. More than that, all of the restricting and controlling and measuring and depriving that went along with dieting was the reason I started bingeing. It had always been the problem; not me.

So I decided to try to do the opposite of diet. It got worse before it started to get better, but little by little as I ate more and restricted less all of the food obsession I fought with before slowly melted away. I was pleasantly shocked to find that my body did actually work (ditching all the restriction and rules didn’t result in me wanting donuts and pizza 24/7 like I thought it would) and I gained some confidence that I was on the right track.

The birth of BBN

It’s now January, 2020.

I’m at a really good spot with my relationship with food and it’s kind of hard to fathom how things used to be. It feels like I’ve hit the absolute jackpot: being able to eat with no rules or guilt AND live my happiest, healthiest, strongest life and I’m so freaking grateful.

At this point I’ve also graduated summa cum laude, completed a year of supervised practice at Yale New Haven Hospital, passed the credentialing exam to become a registered dietitian, and am in my first year of practice in an outpatient nutrition clinic at YNHH.

Before undergrad I knew that practicing in a traditional setting wasn’t my cup of tea and had been dreaming and scheming about starting my own practice for over a year. I finally took the leap and filed to become an LLC and get the rest of my business ducks in a row. I’d launch a pilot 1:1 nutrition coaching program in March and start taking clients in the summer.

Where I’m at today!

BBN turned 4 this year!

Along the way I’ve worked with climbers from 22 states and 5 countries, facilitated team workshops locally and abroad, been a guest speaker for numerous podcasts and national climbing organizations, and created an arsenal of free resources that have been downloaded 580+ times.

In 2022 I achieved my all-time dream of quitting my clinical job to stay home after my daughter Haven was born and became a momtrepeneur. Balancing business and motherhood is definitely harder than business + full time job + grad school but it’s also way better. I’m constantly adapting to the changing seasons of motherhood and learning as I go.

And today I’m here! Still incredibly passionate about how strategic nutrition can transform your climbing AND how healing your relationship with food and body image can change your entire life.

A few things I feel strongly about:

  • Yes strength to weight ratio is a thing. And sure, getting lighter can *temporarily* influence the weight side of that ratio. But it’s SO much more effective long-term (plus healthier, safer and more sustainable) to focus on getting STRONGER.

    (besides focusing on strength, there are also SO many other things you can do to become a better climber that don't involve underfueling/shrinking)

    And I know it feels like body image is a body problem. I used to think that it was too! But it's really about our brains and how we percieve our bodies. That's why you can tweak and tweak and tweak and still feel unhappy with your body. Or look back at and old picture and think "how was I not happy with that?!" Beauty standards are a moving target too which means there's always a new level of "perfection" to chase.

  • It almost always fails (which is not your fault!) and is more likely to harm your health/performance than help it.

  • Disordered eating is the social norm thanks to diet culture and when you’re stuck in a negative relationship with food, it’s impossible to be your healthiest, strongest, freest self. BUT you can unlearn diet culture, relearn inutivie eating, and reclaim a healthy, easy, peaceful relationship with food.

  • Guilt is not a food group. Everything fits in a truly healthful lifestyle. Unconditional permission + intuition leads to effortless balance. And food is SO much more than fuel too.

  • Compasion + curiosity where it’s at!

  • I don’t just want you to see a positive change for a few weeks or months. I want that change to be evidence YEARS from now and to have continued in an exponential way. That’s why I don’t just tell you what to do but instead help you gain knowledge and build skills and teach you how to make sustainable, powerful tweaks over time so that loooooong after we’ve worked together amazing things are still happening.

Beyond the biz

Currently stoked about…

Kind of obsessed with…

Bet you wouldn’t guess…

  • Chronic dieter turned food freedom dietitian and body image coach

  • Originally from rural upstate NY and continually in denial of city life in southern CT

  • Married to the first guy I ever dated with a toddler, baby #2 on the way, a rescued pup, and ten chickens

  • Beyond obsessed with houseplants

The rest of the team -

The rest of the team -

Zach

Toby

Role: proof reader, sounding board, biggest supporter

Superpower: helping me remember that I can take things off my plate when I’m feeling maxed out (because I’m my own boss!)

Role: kitchen supervisor, expert snuggler

Superpower: squeezing onto any seemingly available lap he can find

Haven

Role: recipe tester, co-content creator, soon to be big sister

Superpower: consuming shocking volumes of fruit