Triana Alonso, CPT, RYT 200, LN

Hi, my name is Triana Alonso and I am the creator of The Trinity Cat. I have a BSc in Nutrition (Licenciada en Nutricion) and I hold an ISAK (International Society for the Advancement of Kinanthropometry) level 1 Anthropometrist certification as well as a Coach in Habits certification. I have been practicing Kundalini yoga (as taught by Yogi Bhajan) for fifteen years and I have been teaching yoga for twelve years as a certified Kundalini Yoga Teacher (Level 1, RYT 200).  I am also an ISSA (International Sports Sciences Association) Certified Personal Trainer (CPT).  And currently, my Leap Therapist and Ayurvedic nutrition certifications are in progress.

I have also done (and continue to do) extensive research on Alternative Medicine and I have developed my opinion based on research, practice (I ALWAYS try things out first, whether that be mantras, yoga sets, meditations, new diets, or recipes) and results.

Everything I recommend is based on my own experience.

My Journey

For as long as I can remember, I have struggled with some variation of acne. Acne can be very stressful with long-lasting effects to your self-esteem. When you are young, it is a generally accepted nuisance, but as you get older, acne begins to eat away at you. As I am sure some of you can relate, I developed the world’s most elaborate skin care regime—different soaps at different times of the day for different purposes (I think I got up to nine different soaps!). I used cotton for this, loofas for that and I had dozens of moisturizers. Eventually, all the creams and balms stopped working and I came to the realization that I was simply managing the symptoms. Solving the riddle of my acne became my life’s work.

After studying Reflexology, Shiatsu massage and Abhyanga (Ayurvedic massage), I began to see the tremendous interconnectedness of the body and how if one area or part is off, the rest of the body will compensate. This ignited my passion for understanding the body. Soon, I was researching in every area I could, and ultimately I came to nutrition and the study of how food impacted your health. Could food be a factor in my acne?

Backing up a bit, let me lay some food foundation. I am Mexican with family heritages going back to both Cuba and Spain, so you can imagine that my childhood was filled with tradition, old family recipes and a lot of beans and rice! I ate how many Mexicans eat, until I went off to an Indian boarding school that centered around Yoga, meditation and Vegetarianism. I said goodbye to Sunday morning conchas, quesadillas and hibiscus tea, and said hello to samosas, chana masala, and yogi tea. When I returned home from India, I was a full-blown vegetarian and my family did not know what to do with me. Isn’t funny how when you eat differently, everyone suddenly becomes an expert on nutrition? Well, that is another reason why I became a dietitian—I was tired of having people tell me I was going to die because of my food choices.

After years of eating vegetarian I decided to go vegan; first I cut dairy off and then my beloved eggs. I wanted to clean up my diet and see how it would affect the largest organ in the body—your skin (after all, I believe acne is a telling sign that something is not right or is unbalanced). Sadly, I saw no drastic change and returned back to dairy and eggs. For the next few years I made modifications here and there (went back to meat, and then off meat again) and always took periodic blood tests. I wanted empirical evidence with lab results to get an inside measure of how food was affecting my body to go along with my subjective feelings (did this make me feel better?).

I learned a tremendous amount of information in becoming a dietitian (nutrióloga) and I used myself as a test subject to obtain firsthand knowledge and experience.

I learned that no two people are alike and there is no one-size-fits-all. And most of all, I learned that nutrition and your diet serve as the foundation of your health—you are, in fact, what you eat! Inexplicably, my acne still remained despite my efforts and four years of University study (plus one additional internship year split between a community clinic and a hospital). I am not too proud to admit that I was feeling hopeless. I retraced my steps and found myself back in India.

In high school at Miri Piri Academy in India, we studied yoga and meditation on a daily basis; the school centered around Kundalini Yoga, as taught by Yogi Bhajan (I highly recommend everyone to look up Yogi Bhajan and his methods of self-empowerment). In addition to our academic studies, we practiced a lot of yoga and meditated for hours and hours in order to bring the subconscious forward and heal past traumas. Kundalini Yoga is extremely powerful and its results cannot be understated! And I had been neglecting it in finding the root cause of my acne! Have you ever heard the phrase: “the body follows the mind?” What if my own thoughts were working against me and contributing to my acne?  I felt renewed in my quest to heal my acne.

Nutrition is food for your physical body, particularly for the inner workings, and it is just one part of the equation. Yoga, specifically meditation, is food for your mental and spiritual bodies, and it is another part of the equation. The final piece of the recipe? Fitness, or movement.

From 2009 to 2012, I was honored to be part of the USA National Kabbadi team, before leaving to create and captain the Mexican National Kabbadi team. Kabbadi is a hugely popular sport in India and throughout South Asia combining elements of touch football, rugby and even everyone’s favorite childhood game of “tag.” Kabbadi requires strength, agility and force, and unfortunately like all contact sports, carries the risk of injury. At the Kabbadi World Cup in Ludhiana, India, I suffered a devastating knee injury that would forever change my relationship with my physical body.

I will save you all the cringe-worthy details—let’s just say I tore a lot of things. With more than one-hundred physical therapy sessions, I learned how to walk again. It made me really appreciate something that we all take for granted: the ability to walk and of course, personal freedom. Another two years passed before I lost my very noticeable limp and I was cleared to return to practicing yoga. Throughout my recovery, I heard my doctor’s grave warning, “In order to live a ‘normal’ life, you have to exercise at least two hours everyday for the rest of your life.” While this was a fear-based message, I used it to fuel my motivation, my knowledge and my execution.

My injury took away my flexibility, strength, agility, balance and freedom, and my recovery gave it all back.

I know what it is like to be weak, out-of-shape and helpless. And I know what it is like to be strong, fine-tuned and full of optimism.

Additionally, movement of the body is critical for healing and for continued health; movement is the key to detoxification of your body. Did you know your lymph glands only work by moving? In other words, if you are not moving, your lymph glands are struggling to remove waste from your body (this is why mini-trampolines are often part of major illness recovery).

Putting everything together, my acne, my low self-esteem and my knee injury, I have come to realize that I was just training for my dream job—to help others overcome their diets, thoughts and movement through preventative medicine. Everything has a cause and an effect. You are either feeding your body, mind and spirit, or you are neglecting it. As Hippocrates stated, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” I would just expand food to include meditation and movement.

I offer Nutrition, Yoga and Fitness to balance the Mind, Body and Spirit.

You cannot neglect one for the other. For example, proper nutrition gives rise to proper digestion which allows for proper chemicals to be released which directly influence your mind and how you feel (serotonin among others); proper digestion only works when you are moving the body and keeping the body’s many systems (skeletal, muscle, circulatory, etc.) in shape through fitness; and when you feel better you become more active and aware. Balance is the key! And balancing all three requires someone who has walked the walk. The Trinity Cat has walked that walk.