In 2012, I attempted  to help my best friend’s daughter, a 19-year-old girl with paraplegia experiencing gastrointestinal issues. I researched and created an anti-inflammatory diet I hoped would help. I embarked upon this diet myself for 30 days, just to ensure its usability. To my surprise, it was the first month in 20+ years that I did not experience a migraine. My shoulder pain, which had been diagnosed after an MRI as untreatable without surgery, started to get better. It’s no surprise I had to take a look at my own lifestyle and diet choices—which I thought were healthy! It had never occurred to me to attempt anything other than what my doctors, who had no training in nutrition or root cause medicine, suggested. Prescriptions and surgeries can truly be effective at easing symptoms, but I now knew there were ways to do much more. The light began to pour in and the reality that I could affect change with regard to my health was exciting.

I retired early from my career as a middle school science educator to pursue a business that would allow me to help as many people as possible find their own optimal health. After completing a program with the Functional Medicine Coaching Academy to obtain my health coaching certification, I continued on to become one of the few nationally board certified health and wellness coaches. Wanting to offer even more benefit to my clients, I then completed a 2- year Master’s program in Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine at the University of Western States. My desire to learn and engage and be an integral part of this approach to healing inspires me every single day—right along with the privilege of witnessing my clients’ incredible health journeys. 

The long list of chronic illnesses suffered by so many can be mitigated and many times reversed or even prevented when addressed early. Personally, my latter years are going to be some of my BEST years and yours can be, too.