Is your diet making you feel rundown?

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- "I was having migraines. I was fatigued. I was bloated."

Nine months ago, Katherine Stern -- a busy mom of three boys -- was under a doctor's care for an auto immune disease, but still felt terrible.

"Headaches, I'd be on the couch laying there, not able to do anything because my head hurt so bad," she said.

It's a story familiar to registered dietitian nutritionist Nicole Fennell.

"Usually people will say something along the lines of - I've tried everything and I have no idea what to do. The only thing I haven't tried is fixing my diet, so tell me what to do."

Fennell says many of her clients believe they have a healthy diet.

"It's so common to wake up and have a bowl of cereal at breakfast or a bowl of oatmeal, and then go out for lunch and have a soup and a sandwich, and then for dinner we have pasta," she said.

Fennell says to trade that cereal and oatmeal for better options like eggs and veggies.

"In terms of managing fatigue and bloating, it's really important that we focus on vegetables and proteins," Fennell said.

She says the quick boost provided by processed carbs just won't sustain you.

"Focusing also on vegetables and proteins are going to help give our body a lot of B-complex vitamins, which helps metabolically digest food which means we get more sustained energy throughout the day," she said.

You don't have to ditch carbs, just choose the right ones.

"Moving beyond bread and pasta, and cereal and focusing more on sweet potatoes and other root vegetables," she added.

Make sure you're reading the ingredients on labels. They should be recognizable, something you'd keep in your kitchen. Also, you may want to limit some forms of dairy, soy, and gluten. This is just the tip of the iceberg though, as Fennell recommends a close evaluation of your individual profile including stress levels, sleep patterns, food sensitivities and health history.

Stern says it only took weeks to feel an improvement in her health.

"It's just really made me feel a whole lot better. The bloating is gone. It's made a huge difference," Stern said.

For more information you can check out Chews Food Wisely website.