Ever since high school I can remember eating horribly. I ate very few vegetables and if there was a tray of brownies I wouldn’t eat just 1, I would eat 5 or more. My regular lunch was fried cheese sticks and cookies, after which I would experience abdominal discomfort and embarrassing gastric noises in the class that followed. I was the “lucky” individual to be inhabiting a body that hid the evidence of my poor choices. On the outside I appeared “skinny”, yet on the inside I was on a runaway train heading towards my family history of diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

These habits continued into adulthood and my nursing career. I knew that loads of sugar and fast foods were not ideal, and I knew I was supposed to eat more vegetables. However, willpower and knowledge alone were not enough to change my behavior. The stress of a high-paced critical care nursing job only kept me leaning on food as a temporary comfort to ease the pain.

Through a series of events - having my first child, reading some timely books and a Whole 30 challenge - I began to see that there was a better way. Being deeply entrenched in the healthcare system I trusted the drugs and the policies, and believed that genetics likely determined my destiny. Yet, my new experience was telling a different story. Simple diet and lifestyle changes showed me a path towards a brighter future.

I no longer had to live with abdominal pain or the fear of diabetes or a heart transplant, both of which my father has. I found that food could be my friend and support the health and vitality of my future. By partnering with our God-given foods, reducing toxic exposure, practicing mindfulness and other gut healing modalities, I am now able to fully engage in life and role model health to my family. I started setting my kids on a path towards a bright future that we are still on today.

It wasn’t until I transitioned to working as a nurse in the emergency room that I recognized this wasn’t a solution only for my family. It was something I needed to share with the world. In the ER I saw countless patients come in with vague symptoms like belly pain, tingling, headaches, shortness of breath, anxiety and more. Many of these visits resulted in "normal labs" and the reassurance that “everything was fine". But it wasn’t.

At the same time I was also hearing from friends and family about their struggles with weight gain, brain fog, low energy and depression which their doctors told them was just "a normal part of aging". But it isn’t.

Have you been told that your brain fog and low energy are just a normal part of aging? Are you expecting to gain 3 pounds per year for the next decade because you are over 40? Are you waiting for the day when you will get a diagnosis of diabetes or heart disease because your parents or grandparents had it? What if life wasn’t designed to be this way? What if there is a better way?

If you are interested in starting your path towards a better way, click on the link for my Metabolic Jumpstart Kit.