Press and Features

Meet Media Nutritionist, Melissa Boufounos

Melissa Boufounos is a certified holistic nutritionist in the Ottawa area who helps teen and adolescent hockey players optimize their health so they can maximize their performance potential on and off the ice.

Melissa has been an athlete her entire life – she learned to skate the same year she started walking and has played hockey for over 17 years. She hung up her skates from 2015 to 2022 due to Post Concussion Syndrome. As of 2023, Melissa is back playing Senior A women’s hockey. She has been an OCR athlete since 2013.

As a hockey player, Melissa was drafted to the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (2011), represented Greece at the ISBHF World Ball Hockey Championships (2013) and was a member of the gold-medal-winning Canadian National Ball Hockey Championships team (2014).

As an OCR athlete, Melissa has competed in over 60 races, including the 2016 and 2018 OCR World Championships and the 2019 North American OCR Championships. Some of her top finishes include a 2nd place age group podium finish at a Spartan Super in 2018, a 3rd place age group podium finish at a Savage Race in 2018, and a 6th place elite and 1st place age category finish at DeadEnd Race Subzero 2018. She has also completed two Spartan Trifectas (2014, 2015).

Melissa was the Official Nutritionist of OCRWC 2018 and NORAM 2019 and was named one of Canada’s Top 100 Health Leaders by OptiMYz Magazine four years in a row (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021).

Along with her education in Natural Nutrition from the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition, Melissa has earned Precision Nutrition Level 1 and Level 2 nutrition coaching certifications. She has a diploma in Broadcast Journalism from Seneca College and a post-graduate diploma in Sports Journalism from Centennial College.