My Health Journey

My journey to becoming a holistic nutritional counselor started like many other holistic practitioners… with my own health crisis.

I started having an interest in a healthy diet in highschool. It started with a spiritual evolution which led me to want to eat in a way that connected me more with nature. However, like many other people on a holistic path, I had a large learning curve. There’s a reason why we call this a health “journey” because that’s what it is. It takes trial and error, twists and turns, stumbling and picking yourself back up, before you land in a place that really works for your body. My journey started with what, at the time, I viewed as a healthy diet. I ate mostly vegan food, including a lot of soy, whole grains, whole wheat, no red meat and no dairy. I ate a lot of vegan prepared meals. A lot of meat and dairy replacements. I thought I was doing amazing. I considered myself a very healthy person. 

I started this diet when I was 17 years old. It is truly amazing the damage you can inflict on a young body before getting any real symptoms. Being that young I still had a lot of energy. However, through the ages of 17 to around 25, symptoms started creeping in. I started having some digestion issues. I would feel very bloated. My stomach was always extended. I would experience bad gas and a burning sensation in my stomach. I also had horrible cavities in my teeth. Everytime I went to the dentist, I had a mouthful of cavities. It was extremely confusing because I did not eat a lot of sugar and as far as I knew I was eating a very healthy diet. 

I saw multiple Doctors and Naturopaths. Spent thousands of dollars on supplements and truly felt no improvements. In fact as the years went on I started feeling worse and worse. My hair started thinning, I had irregular periods, experienced brain fog, and fatigue. I started having extreme blood sugar issues. I would get dizzy, tired, and moody if I didn’t eat. It got so bad that I started to have periods where I would actually black out for a second. I took out gluten, hoping that would fix my health problems, but it didn't. 

Then in my early 30’s I woke up with an extreme pain in my abdomen, which radiated all the way up my back and into my shoulders. It was so intense that I went to the emergency room. Finally, the doctors discovered that I had a cyst rupture in one of my ovaries. I was diagnosed with PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome). I was told that I would probably have more cysts develop in my ovaries and would have a very hard time having children. There wasn’t much the Doctors could do, they explained that it was just something I would have to live with.

Finally I was fed up, I found a new Naturopath who had amazing reviews and scheduled an appointment. Little did I know, that appointment would change my life forever. For the first time, this naturopath did not just offer me expensive supplements, he looked at me and said, we are going to completely change your diet. He told me he wanted me to  add back in red meat, and take out all grains. He told me to stay away from vegan processed foods, and eat a diet that consisted of whole foods including: meat, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds.  When I say that this changed my life, I mean it really changed my life. This dietary change affected every aspect of my life. 

The minute I started eating red meat, I immediately felt better. I felt satiated in a way I hadn’t in years. I started having more energy, I could think more clearly. After implementing the diet for a while, I started to lose weight, feel stronger, my moods lifted, my periods became regular, my hair became full again, my skin looked better, and the singular most important thing, my blood sugar stabilized. I learned then that there is nothing and I mean nothing, more important for your health and overall quality of life than the food that’s on your plate. 

I never did have another cyst in my ovaries and about 3 years after this point when my husband and I decided to start trying to have a baby, I truly didn’t know how easily it would go. Well… the first month we tried we got pregnant. We were over the moon excited. About two years later we decided to try for baby number 2. We got pregnant the first month we tried. Two years after that we decided to go for baby number 3 and once again we got pregnant the first month that we tried. My husband and I have never had to try more than one month to get pregnant. This coming from a woman who was diagnosed with PCOS and was told she would have a very uphill battle with fertility. In fact, on the third pregnancy we ended up having twins. I was able to carry them to full term, have a vaginal birth, and was told by many doctors that this was the easiest twin case they had ever seen. 

Seeing that Naturopath that day literally worked miracles in my life. I absolutely fell in love with the power of food. I knew that all I wanted to do in life was help others discover the power of food in their own lives. Today, my biggest passion is to help other people learn to listen to their own bodies, help them tailor a whole foods diet that works best for them, and watch as their own miracles unfold.