Hi, I’m Stephanie Dalton. Welcome to Chia & Chocolate!

My passion: help you get your groove back

I’m a Certified Functional Medicine & Nutrition practitioner dedicated to helping women like you heal — from root causes. I focus on using food as medicine, targeted supplementation and herbs, and lifestyle changes to start the healing process so you can come home to your body and live your best life. As a practitioner, I love to help women figure out how to make small changes that make a BIG impact. My favorite quote is, “Small hinges swing big doors!”.

My specialty is healing issues related to adrenal and thyroid, period, perimenopause/menopause, autoimmune disease, and chronic digestive disorders, but I also help you plan simple, healthy meals, make healthy habits stick, and discover mind-body routines that’s just right for you and your unique lifestyle.

I help women feel vibrant and whole through small, actionable, daily steps that are attainable and measurable.

A bit about my past: In 2002 I founded Maya, a Seattle based whole health studio that integrated physical mind/body exercise with holistic wellness methods, including nutrition, acupuncture, and massage. After years of working in a software industry that didn’t bring much joy to my life, I pined to circle back to my first love of health, and was passionate about bringing people together under one roof to address all of their physical and spiritual wellness goals.

Ultimately, Maya won multiple People’s Choice Awards, and my Yoga/Pilates instructional videos were named “Best DVD Box Set” by the Seattle Times.

Running that business was wonderful, but I felt a longing to go deeper into women’s health, so I went back to school to become a health coach, then became certified as a holistic nutritionist. A couple years later I becamse a Certified Functional Nutrition & Medicine practitioner, learning from preeminent functional MD’s with a focus on hormones, digestive health, and much, much more.

As a practitioner, I look back at your life’s health history using a functional timeline to connect the dots of how you arrived where you currently are, and then provide you with regular doses of high-quality, research-backed information specific to your health issues, so you can begin your journey back to wellness.

On a more formal note, my credentials

Certified Functional Nutrition Coach (Functional Nutrition Alliance)
Functional & Integrative Medicine Professional Training Program (Dr. Aviva Romm, MD)
AADP Certified Health Coach (IIN)
Holistic Nutrition Professional Transformational Coaching Method practitioner (Health Coach Institute)
Pilates (Stott Pilates), Barre and Yoga Instructor (200 RYT)

getTING healthy, sane, and regular

I struggled with digestion problems for 25 years. Yes—it took a quarter of a century before I finally figured out how to cure the misery of constant constipation. I was a teenager when it started, but I had no idea it was even a health issue. “Normal” bathroom behavior wasn’t discussed in my family, and I had no idea what a normal bathroom pattern was!

It wasn’t until I was in my 20’s that I started to realized I had a serious problem. I was bloated and miserable much of the time, and years later when I became pregnant with my first child, it got really ugly (yes, I could go DAYS without having a BM). That’s when I began my quest to find help—I went to every type of doctor, both ND’s and MD’s. Traditional medical doctors told me to take laxatives because I had irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), which is an umbrella term for many kinds of digestive distress, including diarrhea, constipation, bloating, gas, and abdominal discomfort. I was told on more than one occasion to use a particular brand of laxative for the REST OF MY LIFE. In my heart I knew that this approach was absolutely wrong; ingesting engineered chemicals to accomplish something my body should just naturally do didn’t seem right. I knew deep down there had to be a better way.

A family history of cancer

My maternal grandmother had colon cancer. And as the years went by, I became increasingly desperate to get my digestive problem under control before I possibly suffered the same fate. I knew that my system was under extreme duress and that I was building toxicity by the day. I now know that 80% of your immune system lies within your gut, and if it isn’t functioning properly, then illness may take hold. One of the biggest side effects of my condition was being fatigued all the time; I wasn’t my vibrant self, and I began taking “natural” laxatives, which worked to a small degree. But again, there was no way I could rely on them forever.

After the birth of my second child, I began to have terrible PMS, which is now diagnosed as premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD)—terrible and scary. Those few days a month when my hormones were out of control were not only awful for me, but for those around me (my poor husband and kids!). The first month it hit me I had a moment when I thought I might actually be losing my mind (this coming from a person who has always been happy and balanced). I knew I had to do something to get my body under control, and when I began my schooling in integrative and functional medicine and health coaching, things began to change for me in a big way.

Hope for a healthy future

One of the popular remedies in our culture right now is a low dose of anti-depressants for PMDD. I was given a prescription and told it would work wonders, and while I’m sure it would have helped me to feel better, I just couldn’t get around the fact that taking anti-depressants wouldn’t actually solve the fundamental problem: hormone imbalance. Instead of taking the drugs, I made my own way, and through my holistic nutritional studies, worked my way through the PMDD. I’m happy to say that I am now free and clear of the dark spells previously brought on by PMS—most months I don’t have any symptoms at all!

Best of all, I no longer have chronic constipation, and can honestly say that my life has changed completely. And when my digestion was healed my hormones became more balanced too, because these two systems are interconnected. I’m living proof that with diligence, knowledge, and targeted focus, we can all transform our bodies and become our most vibrant, healthy selves!

There are times when I fall off the wagon and eat too many cookies, or get too stressed out and forget to be mindful about what I put in my body or to take time to relax. But those days come up less and less often, and when they do, I just get back on course and keep going, knowing that I’m a work in progress and that good health is a lifelong process.

That’s why I love, love, love my job—working with people like YOU. I know that together we can create a plan to help you nourish your body, enjoy healthy foods, and choose a path to wellness and equanimity. I know that every time I help a client heal their body, I’m also healing myself a little more as well.

Fun Facts About Me

I like to get to know the personal side of my health counselors, so I thought you might want to know a bit more about me.

Fun Facts

In 2002, my son Aidan was born. He’s smart–as-a-whip, deeply sensitive and intuitive, imaginative, loves games, mazes, and anything involving strategy (he’s already better than me at pretty much any game!), and is showing an incredible talent for water-polo!

We welcomed our second baby boy, Roan, in 2005. He came out of the shoot singing and playing music on anything he could find, loves any sports he plays (and by that, I mean LOVES), is very funny, and has a crazy good head for numbers.

I’m extremely lucky because I’m married to Rob Dalton. He loves to play music, write poetry, play basketball, fly fish, create art, hike, ski, and is an incredible father. He also puts up with all of my ‘nutty’ ideas and is game to try absolutely anything I make for him. And usually likes it!

In college I was a psychology major and went on to work for children’s shelters and did a one year stint at the Crisis Clinic in Seattle. Doing that gave me great insight into much of humanity and I’m deeply honored to have had that experience.

I love teens! A friend/partner and I do a few retreats a year that focus on teaching compassionate listening, stress management skills and how to be a good friend (among other things). We always have a blast. Hoping to add boys to the work soon, too.

I love to dance. Love, love. I grew up dancing and took lots of contemporary and jazz classes. I was also in my college dance troupe and then went on to certify in pilates. I now take my choreography skills and put them to use in my BarreFusion classes.

Adventure travel is a deep passion of mine. I’ve trekked to Machu Picchu and through the Annapurna circuit in Nepal (got to 18,000 feet!), and also been to Thailand, Europe, Mexico, and more. In another life, I’d go on all kinds of expeditions to little corners of the world.

Claim to fame: my great, great, great grandfather is a man named Walter Camp. He is known at the “Father of American Football” (yep, it’s actually true. And weird.). I didn’t grow up loving football, but I’m embracing it more these days since I have a house full of boys.

I’m tall. 5’11” tall! I didn’t play basketball or volleyball but if I could go back and do it again, I’d go for it.

Although I was a psychology and pre-med major in college, I went on to work in the high tech business and landed my first professional job at Microsoft. I worked there for almost 5 years as a website producer for MSN and then as producer for an adventure travel magazine. It was a great experience, but it didn’t feed my soul. Hence…full circle back into the health and wellness realm!

Red is my favorite color. Always has been.

I secretly (well, I guess not too secretly) want to be in a rock band.