My gut health story starts in childhood.  As far back as I can remember I have had gut issues. As a child, I was the picky eater who ate three things…mac & cheese, pizza, and ice cream.  Yes, I cringe thinking about it but that was the reality.  It wasn’t because that was all that was available, quite the contrary.  I simply didn’t have the taste buds for anything else.  Can you relate?

When I was in high school my dad was diagnosed with heart disease, which could have been fatal.  Thankfully, he pulled through and made a complete change in his health & wellness routine….and I followed suit. I started branching out and eating all kinds of things…including veggies and I liked them!  However, down the line I developed an unhealthy obsession with food and fitness, leading me to become anorexic for a period of time. I also was taking birth control to manage PMS, which I will forever regret.  Fortunately I recovered from anorexia just in time to learn I had a nodule on the side of my thyroid (which was benign).  I didn’t know better, so I allowed my ENT to remove part of my thyroid, instead of continuing to monitor the situation.  This led me to developing Hashimoto’s, an autoimmune condition, at 18 years old. 

It is important for me to mention that my gut was put under a lot of stress throughout my life based on my own personal life choices.  When I entered my first job as an elementary school teacher in 2013, I was still feeling off in the gut department.  Given all that it had been through by that time (age 22), it makes sense.  So, fast forward through 7 years worth of trying to figure out how to heal my gut on my own, with little success, and with little help from conventional doctors who said I was “fine”, I finally considered the holistic route. I took a course offered by a holistic nutritionist on hormonal health in 2021 and quickly realized that becoming certified as one myself was my next step. Not only did I learn so much along my journey that helped me heal my gut and develop a positive relationship with food, movement, mindset, and my inner self (soul), but I realized that I could help others do the same.  And that my friend is where this story ends, because that realization is now my reality!