Thinking about food is necessary. Stressing about food isn't.

Hi, I’m Meg––and I am so glad that you are here.

Nourished + Strong offers inclusive, compassionate nutrition counseling in Lake Norman and beyond. Along with fellow Registered Dietitians, Taryn Cullen and Kendall Farr, it is our privilege to support clients as they improve their relationship with food and deepen mind-body connection through counseling sessions, group education, metabolism testing and more.

As a Registered Dietitian with a clinical background, I founded Nourished + Strong in 2018 to serve clients with evidence-based, anti-diet, trauma-informed nutrition counseling. What does that mean?

  • We recognize that while we bring over a decade of experience to the table and may be the experts in nutrition, only you are the expert in you.
  • We don’t believe in restrictive diets, adding food rules or being seen as the food police.
  • We help you reconnect with and trust your body, building confidence and strength along the way.
  • We are fully committed to providing an inclusive, safe, and collaborative experience.

While evidence-based nutrition counseling is one thing you always can expect from us, our clients often tell us they get so much more than that. I believe this is because our unique three pillar approach looks at the whole picture and you, as a whole human. You’ll improve physical, mental and spiritual health in ways you didn’t imagine possible as you feel at home again in your body.

Today, I am proud to say that we have walked alongside thousands of folks as they have learned to reconnect with their body’s innate wisdom. 
 
If you are ready for a radically new approach to health, the first step is booking a free, no-obligation discovery call.

Our Pillars of Health

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Our Team

Meg Carber Headshot

Meg Carber, RD LDN (she/her)

  • Registered Dietitian, Founder of Nourished + Strong
  • Somatic Experiencing Student (Intermediate)
  • Student of the Embodied Recovery Institute for Eating Disorders (level 2)

…far more personal healing than I could have imagined. I was initially drawn to the field of dietetics to help people– and while that has remained a constant for the last 12+ years, how I help people has dramatically shifted.

My personal trauma healing journey was filled with synchronicities that paralleled my work as a Dietitian and Founder of Nourished + Strong. For all of the personal growth, I still felt stuck and like something was missing from my healing. As a clinician, despite following all of the ‘gold standard’ conventional eating disorder treatments, many of my clients felt like their healing was ‘incomplete’ as well.

These personal and professional experiences highlighted for me the importance of trauma-informed mind-body modalities, often absent from conventional treatments and Dietitian training. Recognizing this gap and deepening my own embodiment, inspired me to grow professionally, bringing the same wisdom to Nourished + Strong.

I have come to appreciate that true healing extends beyond individual behavior change. Deep transformation involves community, connection, authentic self-expression, and feeling safe with food, your body, and your needs.

The short answer is: My approach includes an eclectic mix of education, nervous system support, collaboration and curiosity– all informed by my advanced training, decade + of nutrition counseling, innate curiosity, and lived experiences.

The long answer: I start by building trust and safety in our relationship. Many clients I’ve worked with have experienced relational ruptures that impact their ability to trust others, themselves and their bodies. By prioritizing a collaborative relationship built on trust and safety, we are nurturing the neural networks in your brain that lay the groundwork for meaningful work and lasting change.

Beyond that, I include the ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ of nourishing yourself. While conventional nutrition counseling primarily focuses on ‘what’ to eat, we’ll also explore the ‘why’ behind your beliefs and behaviors, uncovering your authentic relationship with food underneath.

My advanced training in trauma-informed care and Somatic Experiencing allows us to deeply examine the ‘how’ of your eating habits, considering factors like your nervous system responses, attachment style, sensory preferences, and unique physiology.

  • Humans who feel like their current relationship with food and their body has roots in childhood experiences (what did or didn’t happen)
  • Neurodivergent individuals, especially those diagnosed later in life and/or interested in exploring how their neurotype has influenced their eating habits, sensory preferences, movement, regulation, and sense of self
  • Anyone who wants to learn about how nervous system support and somatic experiencing could improve digestion, health and wellbeing
  • Athletes (current or former) and active individuals seeking to understand how to nourish their bodies without following a diet
  • Mothers, caregivers and healers who are learning to identify and prioritize their own needs
  • Those who feel that despite investing significant time, money, and energy into healing, something is still missing
  • Those who have primarily approached their healing journey ‘from their mind’ (intellectually) and are interested in exploring an embodiment approach
  • Use my own neurodivergent superpowers of pattern recognition and problem-solving to help bring clarity to previously confusing situations
  • Support them in developing compassion, understanding nuance, and realizing that their body is not a problem to be fixed
  • Show up authentically, which encourages them to show up authentically themselves
  • Spending time with my husband and our two young kids
  • CrossFit, spending time outdoors and moving my body joyfully
  • Learning and reading– I’m currently enjoying diving into Human Design and Neuroscience
  • Acting as a driver coach and sports Dietitian for my 6 year old as he begins racing
  • Honestly, I’m at the point in my own journey where I continue to (re)discover what Meg actually enjoys– not just ‘mom Meg’ or ‘Dietitian Meg’

Ready to see how I can support you? Request a discovery call to discover how we can work together to empower your relationship with food and self.

Taryn Cullen, MPH RD LDN (she/her/hers)

  • Registered Dietitian, Team Lead
  • Student of the Embodied Recovery Institute for Eating Disorders

Growing up as a science & biology nerd, understanding why & how things work is very important to me (and it seems to be important to many of the people I work with as well). While in graduate school, pursuing a master’s degree in public health with a specialty in nutrition, we were exposed to non-diet work and weight inclusive care. It is an approach that has always made sense to me, especially through the lens of behavior change and the social determinants of health [the key factors that shape our well-being]. Though I originally went into sports dietetics, the overlap between the athlete world and disordered eating & body image became apparent; and I joined N&S in 2020 to begin more specific work in the disordered eating and eating disorder space.

Rapport through collaboration, education, authenticity, and building attunement. Understanding the why behind but also the how for the individual considering their personal life circumstances. In addition to sports dietetics work, much of the continuing education I seek out now covers various populations within disordered eating and feeding difficulties, particularly neurodivergent groups.

  • People who tend to enjoy learning and want to better understand themselves and their needs.
  • Adults who may or may not have experienced the following – late in life neurodivergent diagnoses, emotionally immature parents, been called a “picky eater”.
  • Practicing vegan / vegetarian or interested in learning more
  • Interested in athlete nutrition, endurance activity-focused or movement-focused care
  • Don’t mind expletives
  • Bring out the nuance in conversations around health and nutrition over the black and white thinking society prefers. 
  • Focus on individual circumstances & preferences as well as the systems we live in. 
  • Lay out situations directly, bringing a mix of straightforwardness & gentleness to our work
  • Bravo TV
  • Running and being outside
  • Nesting / organizing
  • Spending time with my four-legged wild child, Murphy

Would you like to work with Taryn? Request a discovery call here, be sure to select her when booking!

Kendall Farr, MS RD LDN (she/her/hers)

  • Registered Dietitian
  • Student of the Embodied Recovery Institute for Eating Disorders

A lot of learning and unlearning – just as my clients’ journeys always do. I received all three of my degrees from the University of Georgia (WOOF! Go Dawgs!). After majoring in both Dietetics and Psychology, I went on to get my Master’s in Foods and Nutrition, with a thesis in sports nutrition. Unfortunately, while starting off my collegiate career, I still subscribed to the bogus narratives of diet culture (i.e. “true health can be found in six pack abs”). It was only through working with athletes during grad school and unraveling my own toxic relationship with food that I began to realize just how disordered (and applauded) many individuals’ view on food and fitness really is.

I began to learn that true sustainable health and wellbeing lies in a balanced, nuanced, gray area – in how you feel, not in what your body looks like. After unlearning, dismantling, and rebuilding my own personal relationship with food, I felt called to show people there IS a way to align their minds and bodies – to get them to work together again. That’s the root of what I work towards with my clients day in and day out.

A weight-neutral, inclusive framework that functions at the intersection of evidence-based practice and your own body’s natural intuition. The numbers and labs are helpful – but not more helpful than what you can tell me about your own lived experience. You always have been and always will be more than a chart.

I also practice from a trauma-informed perspective, trained through the Embodied Recovery Institute. In session, we will use both bottom-up (more “somatic”) and top-down (more “cognitive”) approaches because healing your relationship with food also means healing your relationship with self and body, too. That being said, at the end of the day, I work for YOU. I encourage clients to tap into their nervous system and felt sense of safety often throughout sessions to give me feedback about what is resonating for them (and what isn’t!).

Moving forward, I plan to pursue further trainings related to providing optimal healthcare for minority groups and further exploration of the gut-brain connection.

  • Those that are willing to explore how all of their “parts” show up in their relationship with food and body. As we work together, clients inevitably begin to realize that their relationship with food was always about so much more than just “the food” itself. When this happens, some clients shy away (“I really just wanted a meal plan. This is too much.”), but some clients lean in. The latter are my clients.
  • Typically, I work with adolescents and young adults that are similar to me – people that “bought in” to diet culture in the name of health before they realized it was more of a detriment than an aid.
  • I also enjoy and receive a lot of fulfillment from working with marginalized populations – LGBTQIA+ and African American populations specifically.
  • These are the groups I feel most called to. That being said, if you are willing to come to session and show up for yourself, you can bet I will show up for you, too.
  • Connect with them on a human to human level and embrace all parts of them – not just the ones they wear as a mask for the outside world. And to always make an inappropriate joke to break any tension!
  • In my sessions, there is 1) no BS and 2) no judgment. I show up every day as my full self so clients can do the same and learn to lead with curiosity over critique for their own behavior patterns.
  • When the food and size shaming is taken out of the equation, clients are able to foster a new sense of compassion for themselves.
  • My aim is for clients to feel empowered and comfortable enough to show up as their true, authentic selves (even if they haven’t quite met that version of themselves…yet).
  • Coloring
  • Lifting weights
  • Eating peanut butter
  • Dancing (poorly!) 🙂

Would you like to work with Kendall? Request a discovery call here, be sure to select her when booking!

Chrissy Dow

Christin “Chrissy” Dow, MS RD LDN CSSD (she/her/hers)

  • Registered Dietitian, Certified Sports Dietitian
  • Somatic Experiencing Student (Intermediate)
  • Student of the Embodied Recovery Institute for Eating Disorders (level 2)

This is a three part answer as I have been a dietitian since 2008. Originally I became a dietitian because I was “really good” at losing weight and exercising compulsively. My eating disorder was welcomed in the field of dietetics where o*****y is pathologized and willpower is over celebrated. I became a weight neutral dietitian as my oldest child was entering puberty, I noticed I wanted to support our relationship around food and body in a more nurturing manner. Simultaneously, I decided that intentional weight loss was not giving me the safety in life I craved. In addition, I was consulting with college athletics. In my role as a Sports RD and an adjunct professor I was able to connect with young adults about what shaped their experiences with food and body. I quickly noticed the untruths that many had been told about their body and how it functioned. When COVID hit I went into private practice with eating disorders and found my home.

Relationship first approach. Most eating disorder behaviors are used to facilitate a faux window of safety in this world when relationships have failed. I use somatic experiencing techniques to feel into the body and explore. We might dance, stretch, color, explore textures of fabric, connect with a yoga strap or feel into our feet as we stand/sit.

  • Clients who want to try something different and need relational safety as the foundation to our work together.
  • Clients who feel they have not been seen/heard/supported in other treatment modalities or life.
  • Clients who have trauma, neurodiversity, larger bodies, pelvic floor issues, athletes, celiac disease are all interests of mine due to personal experience and training.
  • Clients who are triggered by talking about food and body so they might need someone skilled at seeing how the narrative around these behaviors can be explored in multiple different lenses.
  • Clients have felt less overwhelmed by my ability to weave in what they are working on in therapy with how it presents in their relationship with food and body.
  • Clients appreciate my ability to see the wound below the food and body behavior.
  • Spending time with my partner and three kids.
  • I love to dance, read, stretch and learn.

Would you like to work with Chrissy? Request a discovery call here, be sure to select her when booking!

Ally Lods, RD LDN (she/her/hers)

  • Registered Dietitian

Wanting to try and stay involved in sports. I played sports through college but knew that was the end of the road for me. I got very lucky and a close family friend is a RD and taught an introduction to nutrition course at the community college I attended before transferring to Howard University to finish my degree. I took her course and she encouraged me to explore nutrition and dietetics. She became my mentor and explained all the possible opportunities that a degree in nutrition would open up for me, including working in sports. Shout out to Ann!

I didn’t end up as a sports RD but found I really enjoyed teaching group classes and 1:1 counseling as an outpatient RD. I got to see a wide variety of clients and spend more time with clients who were looking to make sustainable behavior change. I didn’t find my way to the weight neutral space until after several years working as a RD. I am grateful to the other dietitians that I work with who introduced me to this type of practice. After diving into the research, books, and podcasts I found this approach aligned more with my values as a provider and has given me the opportunity to connect with clients in a more positive way as we explore all the variables that impact our habits and behaviors and how to make changes to the areas they want to work on.

My approach to nutrition counseling is weight neutral and client centered. My clients are in the driver’s seat and I am their co-pilot helping them navigate. Nutrition information can feel overwhelming and confusing. I help translate evidenced based information so clients are able to make sense of nutrition recommendations and understand how it applies (or might not) based on their needs and past experiences. Things in the world of nutrition can feel very black and white but in practice, I encourage clients to explore the grey and experience the benefits of a more individualized approach. Building trust with clients sets the foundation for these conversations. Allowing for an open dialogue during sessions and respecting client autonomy are key to this. I am also not shy about letting clients know when I don’t have the answer to a question and need to look into the research for an answer. I am always growing and learning.

I am interested in learning more about supporting those in ED recovery and have several trainings on the books for this year. Also interested in learning more about somatic experiencing and how it can support healing.

  • Chronic dieters or those who have “yo-yo” dieted over the years
  • Clients who are looking to ditch the scale and work on their relationship with food/body after being bombarded by the weight focused messages of diet culture
  • Create a judgment free space that allows them to feel comfortable sharing their experiences
  • Help them see the positive. So often clients find it easier to criticize themselves vs give themselves kudos for the efforts they are making.
  • Help them understand their food choices on a deeper level based on their experiences
  • Adult league sports (kickball, volleyball, also want to try pickleball!)
  • Reading psychological thrillers
  • Hanging out with my two rescue pitbulls, Walter and Nora
  • DIY projects, crochet, sewing or any other craft
  • Thrift shopping

Would you like to work with Ally? Request a discovery call here, be sure to select her when booking!

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Our Specialties:

Eating Disorder
Recovery

Intuitive Eating & Mindfulness

Nutrition Programs for High Performance Athletes

Motorsports Nutrition

Medical Nutrition
Therapy

Group
Workshops