Catherine Wilbert, ND is a doctor of naturopathic medicine, a nutrition consultant, a culinary nutritionist and a nationally recognized wellness expert. Yet, Catherine feels her greatest achievements are in what she does everyday…helping people change their lives.

Everyone knows the saying, that if it’s good for you, it can’t possibly taste good, and if it taste good, it certainly can’t be good for you. Well, Catherine has changed that. “Experience has taught me that you can always teach people how to make better food and supplement choices. The fact is, even with that knowledge, people simply don’t want to give up their indulgences. So, I combined my passion for formulating and cooking to make over every indulgence you can think of, not to make it less bad for you, but to actually make it good for you. Creating new nutritional opportunities allows people to not only see results, but to actually enjoy the experience.”

The importance of health and fitness first caught Catherine’s interest at the age of nine. “While on the swim team, I noticed that the boys were always lifting weights and were therefore stronger and faster in the water. Back then women didn’t lift weights. Fortunately, I had an older male cousin who was interested in body building, so I began working out with him. When I wasn’t swimming, running or lifting weights, I was reading Muscle and Fitness magazine and learning the importance nutrition played in both health and fitness.”

Whenever Catherine had a question about something, her dad always encouraged her to write a letter to find out the answer. Catherine recently found an envelope from the FDA in her mother’s attic. In it was a response to one of those letters she had written when she was in the eighth grade. She would have never guessed at the time, that the question and the response she received would one day become her destiny. Her question—“What are the health benefits of soy?”

Catherine’s studies and her career path took many twists and turns in the years that followed. Her first two degrees in broadcast production and political science led her to own multiple businesses in the advertising and television production industry and become the first woman-owned Sony distributor. From there she worked in television production, graphic design and soon after, as a steady cam operator for clients such as MTV and Entertainment Tonight. While doing all of this, she became a personal trainer and began taking certifications in nutrition, which eventually led her to a masters in nutrition. Although it took her a while to figure it out, she finally realized she really needed to be doing what she loved, and she was soon on her way to becoming a doctor of naturopathic medicine.
Winston Churchill’s motto, “Never, never, never give up,” can be found hanging in Catherine’s office and is one of the reasons she continues to be successful. This simple quote has led her to the many accomplishments in her life including three national body building championships and the development of four nutrition-based companies: Wellness Innovations, PhytoCeutical Formulations, the Nutrition Company and Vitality Juice, Java and Smoothie Bar®. Each company was developed with the goal to create new and easier ways to achieve vitality, health and wellness. “I believe that if I can get people to change one or two little things that fit within their lifestyle and that produce results—that equals motivation,” Catherine said. “By taking those baby steps and building on that success, you begin motivating yourself to succeed. If you celebrate those little successes, the results are exponential.”

To help her patients see those successes more easily was precisely the reason Catherine formulated the PhytoCeutical Formulations line of nutritional supplements and later the Wellness Innovations line. Wilbert explained, “I formulated these products as tools to help people see results more quickly, and to make it easy for them to make the first step.” Because of the tremendous success people have experienced with the PhytoCeutical Formulations products, they are in distribution across the country, and the Wellness Innovations line is now being offered to select retail outlets and practitioners.

One of Catherine’s latest and most exciting successes is called Swerve™, the perfect sugar alternative. Swerve™ is a remarkable, great-tasting all natural sweetener, which has zero calories and a zero glycemic index. It tastes and measures like sugar, is perfect for cooking and baking, is safe for diabetics, results in no digestive discomfort and it will not cause tooth decay. It is the hope that it will soon be one of the ingredients found in many products we buy in our grocery stores.

Not only is Catherine a successful doctor and business woman, she is also an accomplished artist and photographer. She loves  photography and would like to eventually get back to welding metal sculptures and furniture. Many of her photographs adorn the walls of her office and many feature her favorite subject, the Southwest, which also happens to be one of her favorite travel destinations. Catherine is also an avid animal lover. She is the one you see on the side of the Causeway rescuing a frightened kitten or rounding up a lost dog. She loves rescuing animals and finding homes for them. Today, she shares her home with her two Border Collies, Rudy and Chance, and a menagerie of rescue cats.

Catherine believes there is no such thing as failure, only the opportunity to learn from the experience. “It’s not what happens that matters; it’s all about what you do with it.”

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