Close friendships sometimes begin with misjudged first impressions. When Carmen Albișteanu first me, she thought I’m „too weird-ish”, and I thought she’s just another superficial marketing girl. Thankfully, we had the opportunity and patience to get over that initial phase and, in time, became really good friends.
Carmen’s professional side is rooted in marketing, with a zoom in on CRO (conversion rate optimization – a side that’s used by online businesses to increase the percentage of people who become customers).
At the same time, as her newfound passion for running evolved into something serious and she started competing and winning mountain trail marathons, she found herself attracted to nutrition. She wanted to learn more on the subject, to satisfy her curiosity of better understanding how it affects her performance. Gradually, those around her started requesting her to help with their own food goals and, after completing a few courses, including Precision Nutrition, the best one there is in the world, she became a certified food coach.
Most people today just expect to be told what to eat and when to eat. They want shortcuts. They don’t want the burden of responsibility of actually understanding the whole context, how our bodies and minds and various other factors are correlated. They’re searching for the latest „hacks”, „tips” and „superfoods”.
Well, don’t expect to get that from Carmen. You know the saying „Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”? That’s kinda what she does.
She doesn’t give other people meal plans that they *should* follow religiously for the next months, without caring if they’re fit for their lifestyles and goals. Instead, she teaches them to put things into perspective, make decisions that are healthy for them over the long term and understand why extreme measures aren’t sustainable.
Technical information aside, it’s also a whole lot of psychology work involved. Most people are already aware that sugar is bad, but that doesn’t mean that they’ll just stop eating. It’s not that easy. Or perhaps they don’t really grasp what does „sugar” mean exactly, how much is too much, and where there’s hidden sugar.
Carmen will cut through noise and help you clarify how our bodies function and how you can achieve your long term goals. Not just in food related matters, but also in terms of what we drink (or don’t drink), sleep, timing those meals, and other small habits and routines that are nutrition related.
Oh, and she does that without any of the technical words that don’t really help anyone (besides those „experts” who are insecure and just want to signal how much they know).
Since she’s extremely passionate, she stays up to date with the recent myths that were busted in the nutrition world. This is something I noticed (and annoyed me) in the past years in my interactions with dietitians: most of them don’t keep up with what’s going on in their industry at an international level. I’m not talking about the noise and small details, such as „x ingredient is a superfood”, but about the big things. They missed the memo that „fat is bad for us” and „cereals are the best thing humans should eat” aren’t „common knowledge” anymore. But I diverged.
My relationship with Carmen only grew stronger as the distance between us increased. A few months ago, I visited her in Barcelona and lived together for a short time. While there, I encouraged her to take the leap and start her own mailing list about nutrition. And she did. 
So this is what today’s email is about. It’s about a newsletter written and sent every two Mondays by a dear friend of mine, who questions everything when it comes to one of the most important factors that impact our life. She helps you become aware and reconsider important decision making factors behind what we throw into ourselves.
But perhaps I should let words speak for themselves. Here’s one of the recent emails she sent, so you can form your own opinion if this is the kind of newsletter that’s fit for your needs: „So what should I eat? | Fit Tales #3” (and go here and subscribe afterwards, if you enjoyed it).
Putting a face to a name, below you’ll see a (bad) bathroom selfie of me and Carmen, wearing matching hip bags – it’s the only recent photo we got. 
Happy weekend!
– Cristina
[sum-up: this is the beginning of the end 
as closure for Friday Read, I’m writing a series of emails about a few people who changed my life & I’m grateful for the opportunity to learn from them. I’m hoping that at the end of this series we’ll get the chance to celebrate in real life – a small friends get-together in Bucharest – TBA]
