About Teri Rose, MS, LN, OblSB

Teri Rose_Founder_Benedictine Wellness Services

Benedictine Oblate, Founder of Benedictine Wellness Services, and CARE Program Director

Master of Science, Clinical Nutrition (MS) | Licensed Nutritionist (LN) | Oblate of St. Benedict (OblSB)

Member of the American Society of Nutrition and Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

My History

Thank you for being curious with me about how a 1500-year-old monastic tradition has the ability to influence our health and wellness crisis of today. My curiosity for how quality of life is influenced by individual behavior choices started when I was very young. I saw how relationships were directly impacted by the choices made by the individuals within them. As I aged, my own life became a process of trying to get to the someday when everything would finally feel aligned, when my own relationships would reflect the perfectly made choices of each individual within them.

Fortunately, my life and career are serving their purpose of exposing the vulnerabilities in my thinking. They present piercingly clear lines of sight into my own internal sources of disconnection that no amount of eating perfectly could fix. Here is a short timeline of how my career in nutrition evolved into a vocation within Benedictine wellness.

My interest in nutrition started in high school, but my absolute hopefulness that ordinary life can feel creative, joyful, and purposeful started when I was so very young. I am grateful to now have experienced both the reduction in physiological static as a result of stewarding my physical health through lifestyle choices and the increased interior stillness that only my contemplative spirituality could open the ceiling to.

2022: The Benedictine Sisters of St. Paul’s Monastery, through an extensive discernment and review process, agreed to a collaboration that allowed my training and experience in behavior modification programming to integrate with our beloved 1500-year-old monastic tradition, thereby creating a new model of Benedictine wellness formation.

Onward: Benedictine CARE Wellness Program has become a living, continuously evolving, active process for making changes, together in community. It is a process that companions each of us as we nurture our hopefulness that ordinary life can, indeed, feel creative, joyful, and purposeful. Furthermore, And… as this process has continued to unfold for me, I still have those healthy lab values and health indicators.

2018: Despite my strong training and experience in nutritional diagnosis and prescribing Lifestyle as Medicine, and despite the proven physiological benefit of Lifestyle as Medicine, there remained a ceiling that I, and others I worked with, couldn’t get beyond.

2018 con’t: I could hear the near unanimous voice that we all formed together; we were experiencing greater health but life didn’t feel as different as it was supposed to. I personally had more physical ability but still felt the exhaustion stored somewhere in my body. The more I could control my lifestyle, the less tolerance and strength I had for engaging. I withdrew more, lost interest in finding hobbies, and thought the idea of being more playful felt overwhelming rather than rejuvenating.

2018 (still) con’t: I saw with that same piercing clarity I had when very young that I was at my inherited crossroads. I had a most important decision to make… which internal voice was I going to listen to?

2019-2021: Truly, these years turned me inside out and upside down, and finally, right-side up. My experiences here are shared with program members as I walk beside them as they navigate their own inherited crossroads.

My curiosity for nutrition formed during high school while running cross-country and track. I didn’t formalize that interest until working in publishing for several years after college. As I entered my 30’s, this interest was reignited as a way to fix the physical issues I was already experiencing from high physical and psychological stress.

College: I stopped running competitively and gained 25 pounds; my experimentation began: I started yoga, became lacto-ovo vegetarian, progressed to vegan, and began eating for my dosha (Ayurvedic Indian medicine). Yet, my triglycerides spiked to 700 (yikes!) even though I was young and highly active (this was my introduction to how vegetarian shouldn’t = ‘starchetarian’).

1997-1998: I worked as a store manager for Starbucks in Chicago; my diet was simple: incredible amounts of caffeine plus broken pastries 6 days a week. I gained 20 lbs; this was my introduction to blood sugar control (and what it feels like when it isn’t!).

1998-2003: I was in “The Zone” (most of the time), but my weight still fluctuated.

2003-2005: I integrated the Blood Type Diet with the Zone; I’m Type O so was essentially Paleo and gluten-free, but I still felt anxious and unable to adapt to stress; my weight continued to fluctuate. Amidst all of this “failure,” I gained an insatiable appetite to solve the puzzle. Why wasn’t anything working? So I enrolled in graduate school.

2005-2008 (Graduate School): I completed my clinical nutrition and research graduate program; I was awarded funding to lead research studying the various factors that affect chronic inflammation in our bodies; I elected to go through more extensive culinary training, which included classes such as “The Therapeutic Use of Whole Foods” and “Whole Foods Culinary Design”;  through these classes, I learned how to use whole, real foods to heal the body (culinary medicine) without sacrificing taste.

2009-2010: I completed my 900 internship hours (required for licensure) and started Perfectly Produce Nutrition Services out my desire to make a whole foods, produce-based diet doable; I evolved to the beautiful simplicity of eating whole foods (all of them), in the right amounts, at the right time; I stabilized my weight and increased my adaptability to stress. I learned why and how to use lifestyle as medicine.

2011: Perfectly Produce was awarded Best Nutritionist in the Twin Cities by Minnesota Monthly Magazine 

2012-2017: Attention increased for what I was doing with Lifestyle and Food as Medicine. The core clinic version of CARE Weight Loss and Lifestyle Program became the focus of my private practice. Clients were losing weight and improving lab values. My health was impeccable on paper. There seemed to be proof accumulating that eating perfectly does, indeed, fix everything.

Professional Affiliations

www.nutrition.org

Member of Medical Nutrition Council and following Research Interest Sections:

 Aging and Chronic Disease

  Obesity

 Nutrition Education

www.eatright.org

Member in the following Dietetic Practice Groups:

  Weight Management

  Sports, Cardiovascular, and Wellness Nutrition

Licensure

Education

Master’s Degree: Master of  Science, Clinical Nutrition, Bastyr University, Seattle, Washington

Bachelor’s Degree: Bachelor of Arts, Psychology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Media 

"Best Nutritionist in the Twin Cities" - Minnesota Monthly Magazine

Come Experience Benedictine Wellness Formation Yourself

“I have felt a disconnect between my body and mind all my life. Biospiritual focusing has taught me to listen to my body, and to appreciate everything it does for me…food prepping becomes less of a chore when I consider it a way to nurture my body. Such a mind shift! The community aspects of Benedictine CARE are always present and caring. Teri has helped to create a safe space for everyone to be themselves without any judgment.”