Marina Kotova - Health & Wellness Coach, Nutritionist Serving DMV: District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, & Surrounding Areas
Meet Marina Kotova
Health & Wellness Coach
Integrative Nutrition Certified Health Coach
Currently at School of Applied Functional Medicine
Learning about health, wellness and natural healing in a traditional European way from my grandmother started as soon as I could walk. To me, she was a miracle woman. Every day she made time to be outside. Nature was her pharmacy, peace and church. She taught me that the natural elements — the sun, water, plants and fresh air — are as important for optimal health as nutrition and exercise.
By showing me how the world outside nourishes the world within, my grandmother left a legacy that I continue to share. Today, my holistic approach to health and wellness coaching is rooted in this enduring wisdom of nature and backed by the science of integrative nutrition. I partner with clients to help them make lifestyle changes, reach personal goals, and enjoy the vitality of a healthier lifestyle.
If you’re ready to see positive changes, dream bigger and lead a more fulfilling life, I’d like to help you unlock your potential for personal growth!
My Thesis
What is health? Is it really the absence of disease? Or is it simply a willingness? A willingness to make healthy choices and take appropriate actions to achieve the results you desire. I truly believe the latter.
The main pillars of my philosophy on health are:
Stress Management
Value and pursue the things that make us happy and fulfilled.
Nutrition
The critical importance of a whole-food diet for our health cannot be overstated.
Detoxification
We are constantly exposed to dozens of toxins in our air, water, food and much more. They have damaging effects on our health.
My relationship with you is about discovering what feeds you, nourishes you, and what makes your life extraordinary. It is crucial to remember that there is no one single diet that is the perfect diet for everyone. To best determine what is important for your unique body and lifestyle, I will guide you through experimenting with new foods and learning to listen to and identify your body’s responses. There is no one size fits all approach and no magic pill either together we will go on a journey of discovery into who the best version of you is. Together we will go on a journey of discovering the healthiest version of you.
Nutrition
From my perspective everything revolves around the food we eat. It is a known fact that ‘we are what we eat’, however, for some reason no one knows what to eat. The good news is that there is a lifestyle that makes your immune system and all other systems in the body stronger. How you eat, how much you sleep, and the type of exercise you get, all can either establish the foundation of your immune system or can simply destroy it. It all depends on the choices you make and the consistency which you implement in your day-to-day life.
I will help you create the best nutritional plan and provide advice which will force you to become the healthiest version of yourself. A version which is stripped of the anxiety which comes from considering food. I will teach you how to free your body and mind by incorporating a better diet, moderate exercise, and good quality sleep; a primary cluster of factors which reduce stress and leave drug treatment to be the last resort. Unfortunately, many people struggle to realize the consequences of pills and that drugs treatments are only a temporary fix. Pills create an imbalance in your systems and cause side effects which can be long lasting.
Additionally, I will teach you and guide you to experience a connection between food, spirituality, relationships, and work. I will help you recognize and appreciate home cooking and the ways it can boost your health. To accomplish this, I will provide you with reliable and delicious recipes to kick start your journey.
Stress
A huge contributor of illness, which is often overlooked, is stress. Stress is best defined as the perception of physical or psychological threat. To prevent illness, we must learn to reduce and control our stress response.
Sleep is absolutely essential to both body and mind. Impaired sleep and sleep deprivation wreak havoc on mental and physical function. Nutrition is a secondary source of energy. Primary food, or nonfood sources of nourishment, are what really fuel us. As children, we all lived on primary food. Lovers thrive on the pure bliss and peace they are experiencing, while passionate entrepreneurs are fueled by their work.
The excitement and rapture of daily life feeds us more completely than any food. Primary food goes beyond the plat, nurturing us on a deeper level. The four main primary food are: relationships, carrier, spirituality, physical activity.
Optimal health begins with a positive mental attitude. The thoughts and emotions we experience on a regular basis, day to day determine to a very large extent the level of health you experience as well as the quality of your life.
Our thoughts, emotions and experience send message to the immune system that either enhances or impairs its ability to function. Positive emotions as joy, happiness and optimism tend to boost immune functions.
Toxins
I've never met a person who's only exposed to one toxin. We are constantly exposed, not even to just two, but to dozens of different toxins. Especially living in the modern Western world with contamination in our air, contamination in our water, in our food, in our cleaning products, our textiles, our personal hygiene products. They have absolutely harmful and unpredictably damaging effect on our health and well-being. This makes toxin avoidance a really important priority, we're exposed to all sorts of different dynamics in our day-to-day experience from both known and obvious, as well as hidden and not so obvious sources of toxins.
I am focusing to teach my clients on recognition and avoidance of toxins in their Live : using good patient handouts and inventories, teaching them about some of the awesome databases and informational resources that are available to the public, where they can learn about the toxicity of some of their particular choices.
We want to be focused on the quality of our air, the most common thing we're bringing into the body. Our water. Toxicity of food matters . I teach my clients to think about their skin as being a giant mouth and that we should not apply anything on our skin that we would not be willing to eat.
The harmful effect of toxic load is undeniable: oxidative stress, interfere with metabolism and cause of weight gain, hormonal imbalances, mood disorders and many more. So much experience with COVID disease. How many of us are still recovering from long-haul COVID. We exited from it with much, much lowered protection against the chronic disease which many of us have had for decades. I help my clients to identify the functional imbalance that's probably been at play in their body for decades. But once they have COVID, it basically is pulling down the veil, pulling down the curtain of a false sense of wellness many of us had been given. COVID has exposed our vulnerability.
We thought we were fine. We thought we were well. We thought we were healthy, even though many of us had seven diagnoses and we were taking six medications to manage those chronic diseases. I am there to support people struggling with long-haul COVID. I don't focus on the disease, I focus on who this person is and what is the unique cluster of functional imbalances that are creating its unique experience.
Enjoy the vitality of a healthier lifestyle
After I moved to the United States from Russia twenty-eight years ago, my lifestyle changed dramatically. With the new way of living, young children, and being away from my family, my health began to deteriorate. Asthma took control of my life with trips to the ER, inhalers, and constant steroid treatments. I was also at risk for heart disease, high blood pressure, and a host of other ailments. I had to find answers quickly. Below, I'd love to share my health journey with you. This is how The Roots Of Vitality came to life. This is how I found my true passion.
Taking charge of your lifestyle can be health-changing
My grandmother inspired me to become a doctor. However, I chose a different educational path and earned a master’s degree in economics. As I soon discovered, economics was not my true passion.
After I moved to the United States from Russia twenty-eight years ago, my lifestyle changed dramatically. With the new way of living, young children, and being away from my family my health began to deteriorate again as it had in childhood. Strangely, this was the time that my parents were diagnosed with heart disease, high blood pressure, and prediabetes. I was the rock of my family, but as my parents struggled, so did I. Falling into severe depression, I was diagnosed with asthma. Caring for myself and my three young children, marriage, work travel, and not sleeping enough all started to take its toll on me. Asthma took control of my life with trips to the ER, inhalers, and constant steroid treatments. I was also at risk for heart disease, high blood pressure, and a host of other ailments in my new environment. The stress of it all triggered other health issues, and I was losing the ability to care for my family and myself. I was in a health emergency and needed to find answers quickly.
Changing your health works from the inside out
I started to make changes toward a healthier lifestyle — from the inside out. My strong critical thinking and data analysis tools came full circle when I began researching chronic diseases and autoimmune disorders. I looked to Grandmother’s enduring wisdom of nature and my early lessons — the sun, water, plants, fresh air, and strong relationships were as important for optimal health as nutrition and exercise. And I used the latest research from health studies in medical journals and publications to develop an overall plan.
I focused first on nutrition and detoxification and experimented with juice cleanses, vegan and vegetarian diets, gluten-free food, intermittent fasting, and time-restrictive eating. I used the power of nutrition to strengthen my body and learned how everyday toxins like plastics, pesticides, and other chemicals can affect health and well-being. At the same time, I reduced stress and focused on the mind and body connection.
Looking back, I can see that my health problems started when my life was out of balance. It’s a scientific fact that stress left unchecked can contribute to many health problems. Inadequate nutrition and toxins can also wreak havoc on wellness. While I was busy being a caregiver to my parents, children, and husband, I neglected to check in on myself. While I was working hard to manage a busy lifestyle with lots of work and travel, I hadn’t given myself any nourishment. Thankfully at my breaking point, all my health research and early years with my grandmother came back to me. I began to focus on the same three pillars that I share with all my clients: stress management, abundant nutrition, and the elimination of toxins. My parents joined me on this path toward a healthier lifestyle, and it worked!
I’m so proud to have been a part of so many amazing transformations and look forward to helping many more people enjoy the vitality of a healthier lifestyle. I am perhaps most pleased with the health benefits my parents have experienced from following my path to optimal health. Today, in their late 70s, they are healthier than when they were in their 40s and walk five miles a day. They travel the world and are looking forward to many more active years fueled by this healthy lifestyle.
Health and well-being are gifts I want to share with others
When I started to feel the changes, I continued learning with courses to further my education and fuel my passion to live a healthier lifestyle. My studies in health, wellness, and integrative medicine include Martin Seligman’s Positive Psychology course at the University of Pennsylvania, I graduated from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition (IIN) and became a licensed Health and Wellness practitioner. Through IIN, I learned that the only path to success is to put your body and spirit at the center — and that by nourishing yourself, you’re able to nurture everyone around you. Currently, I continue my education at The School of Applied Functional Medicine and hope to make an impact through a more novel approach: prevention and reversal of the disease.
Everyone’s journey to wellness is unique, and I continue to help my clients take charge of their health every step of the way. With a holistic approach to health and wellness, my coaching is rooted in the enduring wisdom of nature and backed by the science of integrative nutrition. I’m so proud to have been a part of so many amazing transformations and look forward to helping many more people enjoy the vitality of a healthier lifestyle.
Every day you have a choice to follow a path toward
health and wellness
We all have a choice to continue along in the same direction or to take a new path toward optimum health and wellness. I encourage you to check in on yourself today — you're worth it. I’m here to share the journey with you, to help you unlock your potential for personal growth, to encourage you to seek positive changes, and to guide you toward a more fulfilling and abundantly healthy lifestyle.