Kristina Allen

Healing with Diet and Exercise

Empowering Resilience

Kristina Allen is the Director of Golf Operations in the Ottawa Area. She is also a part-time personal trainer. Those two things tell you something about how she approaches her life — structured, active, and always moving toward something.

Health Problems

A year before her son’s wedding, Kristina lost the feeling in her legs. It started as numbness. Then paralysis came from the knees down. The diagnosis took nine months to arrive — a rare autoimmune disorder causing demyelination in her peripheral nerves. Meanwhile, she was preparing for her son’s wedding and had set a goal of losing 156 pounds. The timing was brutal. She pushed through anyway.

Exercise

Kristina found her way back through her trainer, Jordan Verdone — a former professional football player. Together, they built a programme that combined rehabilitation with serious strength training. Powerlifting, Olympic lifts, sprinting, boxing. It was not a gentle recovery. In fact, it was the opposite. The approach worked. She recovered her mobility and built a level of strength she didn’t have before the illness.

Furthermore, balance and mobility work became the foundation of everything. Foundational movements, stability, consistency. That focus allowed her to compete in the Commander’s Challenge — a 5K and a half-marathon. She runs them now.

Diet

Kristina follows a plant-based diet. No meat, no dairy. She incorporates eggs for iron and B12. The goal is to reduce inflammation — directly connected to managing her condition. Additionally, she follows the 80/20 rule: 80% clean, 20% flexible. It’s sustainable because it’s honest about how people actually eat.

She also draws on Blue Zone principles — the research around communities where people live longest. Community, purpose, and mindful eating all factor in.

Healing via Exercise

The message is straightforward. Fitness builds resilience. A good support system matters. Kristina went from nine months of uncertainty about whether she would walk properly again to competing in distance events. Overall, that’s the story — not inspiration for its own sake, but proof that the work actually works.