About Aloha Nutrition

Aloha: Hawaiian for Love and Affection.

Nutrition: the process of providing the food necessary for health and growth

Meet the Team

Allegra Gast, Founder, RDN, IBCLC

Aloha Nutrition was founded by Christine “Allegra” Gast, while living in Hawaii, however she currently resides in San Angelo, TX where her husband works at the US Air Force base.

Allegra has a degree in Nutrition and Food Science from Drexel University in Philadelphia. She completed an extensive 1,200 hour internship program, then sat for her boards for her RDN accreditation in 2014. She’s worked in a variety of settings including a hospital, long term care facility, a fitness center, rehab center, then Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) in Hawaii, which is where she found her passion helping mothers with their health during pregnancy and postpartum.

After working with many mothers who were struggling to breastfeed, she realized she wasn’t fully qualified to help them with more serious breastfeeding issues, so she decided to become certified as an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC), which is the highest credential for a breastfeeding professional. She completed 90 hours of breastfeeding education, 1,000 hours of supervised practice, then sat for her boards to get her IBCLC credential.

After she had her first baby in 2019 and saw the huge lack of support for postpartum moms, she decided to become a postpartum doula, where she could better support families and support them in that vulnerable postpartum period.

She currently has a 4 year old, and two year old and had breastfeeding difficulties with both of them – yes even lactation consultants encounter hardships.

Mari McClenney, RDN, IBCLC

Mari McClenney was born and raised in Hawai’i. She currently resides in Kaneohe, located on the windward side of the island of Oahu. Mari is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC). She has her master’s degree in dietetics and is a registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN). Mari is a La Leche League Leader and has provided breastfeeding support throughout the state of Hawai’i for the past two years. Mari is a proud mom of an 11-year-old, 2-year-old, and 9-year-old stepdaughter. In her free time, Mari enjoys family picnics on the beach, hiking, museums, testing new recipes, grilling, and baking.

Mari’s journey towards becoming an IBCLC began when she encountered numerous breastfeeding challenges after the birth of her first child. Despite having zero breastfeeding support at the time, Mari was determined to provide breast milk to her infant and began to research breastfeeding online. Mari discovered a lactation consultant and a breastfeeding peer group, who all helped her overcome many breastfeeding issues. Their encouragement helped Mari feel very comfortable and during a vulnerable time in her life. The amazing lactation care that Mari received inspired her to pursue a career as a lactation consultant. Flash-forward to present day, Mari is now an IBCLC and RDN and is ready to share the warm aloha spirit working at Aloha Nutrition to support families in their feeding journeys!

Christina Paxton, MS, RDN

Christina Paxton is a born and raised Southern California native turned Arizonian. Christina became a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) in 2011 where she completed 1200 hours of supervised practice and sat for the board exam for her RDN while completing her master’s degree in dietetics from Cal State University, Northridge in the greater Los Angeles area. Shortly after graduation she became certified by the Commission on Dietetic Registration in Weight Management while working with the bariatric population.

Christina has worked in many settings as an RDN from acute and long term hospital care, outpatient diabetes and weight management clinics and federally funded grants for school districts and county office of education where she provided nutrition and physical activity training to administrative staff, teachers, parents and caregivers across the county. During her grant work she developed a love for educating the parents and children in early education.

Her passion for helping mothers and women developed even deeper after the birth of her children in 2016 and 2019. After health and breastfeeding struggles after each child she realized there was a big lack of care for women after going through such a depleting time in life. In 2021 Christina received comprehensive training in functional medicine to help women on an even deeper level with functional labs and a root cause approach to their nutrition and health struggles.

Christina has a 7 year old boy (breastfed for two and half years) and 4 year old daughter (just weaned on her fourth birthday!) and is honored to educate, support and encourage mothers at Aloha Nutrition on their postpartum health journey.

Rhoda Chee, MS, RDN

Rhoda Chee grew up in Hawaii on the island of Maui. Rhoda has a Food Science and Human Nutrition degree from the University of Hawaii. She completed a 1200-hr distance dietetic internship program through Marywood University and then sat for the board exam for her RDN accreditation in 2013. Rhoda also has a Master’s in applied exercise science from Concordia University Chicago. She has worked in various settings including Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) in Hawaii where her passion for helping mothers optimize their health grew.

Rhoda‘s enthusiasm for supporting women and mothers strengthened after going through her own pregnancy and having her first baby in 2022. She noticed the guidance and recommendations for pregnancy, breastfeeding, and postpartum were inadequate and outdated, particularly for female athletes. Rhoda (currently breastfeeding her 15-month-old daughter) is excited to be part of the Aloha Nutrition team to educate and encourage women during their fertility, pregnancy, and postpartum journeys.

Nutrition Philosophy

At Aloha Nutrition, we believe nutrition is a lifestyle, and not a one size fits all approach. What works for one person, may not work for you. All of the nutrition care plans are customized individually depending on the client’s health goals, medical history, fitness level, nutrition knowledge and lifestyle.

As functional dietitians, we order specialty labs like the DUTCH test, GI Map, HTMA test, full thyroid panel, mycotoxin etc, to really dig deeper into people’s symptoms so we can come up with a more customized plan.

Aloha Nutrition guides and teaches clients how to eat instead of having you follow a strict diet plan (like fad diets). Since proper nutrition should be a lifestyle, accountability is initially very important to set you up for success. We will be there to guide you and encourage you every step of the way. We will help you establish realistic and sustainable goals that you can keep as well as the whole family.

Although we primarily specialize in maternal nutrition, we have worked in a variety of settings that have helped us address all types of nutrition related issues including weight loss, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc. At Aloha Nutrition, we strive to empower confidence in each person to be able to make healthy food choices wherever they are that they can keep for the rest of their lives. We provide a unique level of care, personalizing strategies to meet each client where they’re at. It is our life mission to live and promote health and wellness.

Breastfeeding Philosophy

Our breastfeeding philosophy is similar to the nutrition philosophy in that every mom and every baby is different. What worked for one mom and baby may not work for you. Although breastfeeding is supposed to be natural, that doesn’t mean it’s easy. By breastfeeding, you’re providing your baby the best nutrition possible; but breastfeeding can also be difficult, stressful, and painful. Every mother’s breastfeeding journey is different. Allegra and Mari are there to help you with tips, tricks and suggestions to make breastfeeding work for you. We are here to support you and encourage you throughout this journey, because it really does take a village.