Alli has had a passion for food, nutrition, and fitness since she was a young girl. She took her first health class in fourth grade and fell in love with the science of nutrition chapter. This was back when the four food groups were taught, before the food pyramid, and she strove to eat the correct amounts of each food group each day. That love of science and food influenced her in college and graduate school where she studied nutrition for both degrees. She worked in restaurants, cafés, volunteered for food-based organizations, and read as much about alternative ways of approaching nutrition and food.