My Story:

I have experienced firsthand how nutritional therapy can genuinely change your life. From an early age (2 years), vomiting, hives, and migraines that seemed to come from no-where plagued my daily life. Fortunately, my mother was working with a nutritionist. She had learned how to keep a food journal to uncover the likely cause of a food reaction. Within a few days, it was clear that artificial food coloring was the culprit. With one simple change, I went from being a sick toddler to a happy and healthy little girl. Instead of a childhood reliant on prescription pain medications, which had been my pediatrician’s recommendation, I was able to live a happy childhood. 

I was able to excel in school and performed particularly well in mathematics and foreign language. My successes culminated in my acceptance at MIT to study Environmental Engineering. I know this accomplishment would not have been possible if I had spent my childhood battling chronic migraines. 

Of course, MIT brought new challenges. (They joke during the tours that going to MIT is like trying to take a drink of water from a fire hose) The stress, dining hall food, late-night problem sets, took their toll. Even though I was eating was what is considered a healthy diet (organic, mostly vegetarian, gluten, and dairy-free), I began to have debilitating PMS. I struggled with extreme anxiety, depression, mood swings, insomnia, terrible menstrual cramps, and nearly uncontrollable bleeding for almost two weeks out of every month. My hormonal imbalance affected my academic performance and my personal life. I was overwhelmed, frustrated, and tired of not being myself half of the time.

Again, nutritional therapy came to my rescue. I had heard about Dr. Mark Hyman from his signature book, The Blood Sugar Solution.  I went to his website looking for answers, and I found an article about how to end PMS in five easy steps. I began a targeted hormone balancing diet and supplement protocol. In my next cycle, I was surprised by my period for the first time. No cramps, no calling my mom to cry hysterically about how the world was falling apart, no need to wake up in the middle of the night to prevent my sheets from getting stained. It was no big deal. I could keep living my life, study for an exam, go to ballroom dance practice or spend time with friends instead of curled up in bed with a bar of dark chocolate and my cat, sad and alone. For the first time, I understood the power of nutrition was so much more than staying thin and having clear skin. I realized that proper nutritional support could change a person’s quality of life profoundly. 

During this same period, by God’s grace, I came to know Jesus Christ as my savior and Lord of my life, just before my sophomore year at MIT. Through the faithful preaching of my boyfriend at the time, and now husband, and his family, I came to realize while reading the Bible that God’s word was true. I knew that no matter how hard I tried, there was nothing I could do to redeem my brokenness and that I need to surrender my life to Jesus Christ. Receiving the Holy Spirit and a new heart drastically changed my outlook on life. I knew that all of the idols in my life, my intelligence, my successes, my beauty, my selfish dreams, and ambitions, could never provide the eternal satisfaction and rest my soul could find in serving the one true Lord, the God of the Bible. I truly owe my life to Christ for the sacrifice he made for my sins on the cross. With this work, He paid the price for my sins. As a result, by faith, I can live in harmony with God, who is perfect and loving and has given me so many blessings by His grace. 

My change in belief led me to be open to marriage and children at a much younger age than I had before I was a Christian. I also realized that a conventional career in engineering was not my true calling. I loved being a feminine woman and wanted my work to reflect that energy. I graduated one whole year early from MIT because I am a bit crazy about finishing lists of things and was beyond ready to have the freedom to live a healthy lifestyle. Such a lifestyle was difficult to achieve as an overworked college student with a tiny hall kitchen that was always a mess, or the basement kitchen infested with cat-sized rats. (I wish I was joking). 

I married the man I had met just a few months into my freshman year the weekend before Graduation, and we had our son within a year. Being pregnant so early in our marriage, and soon after finishing school brought new challenges. I spent the majority of my pregnancy traveling internationally, renovating our new home (we had a bathtub as our only sink for nearly two months), or living alone. My husband had to finish up his last semester of school on the other side of the country. The stress and inability to cook my food again took its toll. By the end of my second trimester, I had severe back pain and pelvic pain, which would leave me in tears spending hours on hands and knees desperate for some relief. Chiropractic treatment brought some relief, but not nearly enough. 

My midwife mentioned that I might be struggling with pain in my gallbladder, but made it seem like it was merely a typical pregnancy symptom. She also didn’t give me any guidance on ways to support my gallbladder other than avoiding fats. (If you are struggling with biliary pain, get access to read my free guide here) I discovered that eliminating many triggering foods such as nuts, seeds, avocado, dairy, pork, canola and vegetable oil, olive oil, chicken, and limiting my added fats to about a teaspoon of coconut oil, would keep the pain at bay. I was nutritionally woke enough at this point to know the importance of dietary fats during pregnancy and was very anxious that I could not provide these essential nutrients to my growing baby as well as myself. My diet consisted of heaps of salads, and raw vegetables, fruits, mostly gluten-free grains, eggs, and red meat. All organic and all home-cooked. Despite eating tons of “healthy” food, I did not gain a single pound during all of my third trimester, causing concern for my midwives. I could feel the rest of my body wasting away as my belly grew. Despite these challenges, I loved being pregnant, went on long hikes in the Sonoran Desert several times a week, and did my best to prepare my body for labor. (You can read the full story of my pregnancy and birth in a free-standing birth center here and here)  What this struggle with my gallbladder made me realize is that nutrition isn’t only about what foods you are eating, but if your body can break down those foods and absorb their nutrients. 

Postpartum brought significant relief to my gallbladder pain, and I began to gorge myself on raw coconut macaroons, coconut ice cream, nut and date butter, and avocados. Unfortunately, the relief was short-lived, and by three months postpartum, the pain had returned in my right upper back. I knew I needed to learn more about digestion, and began again to do research, and came across a book by Andreas Moritz, on the liver and gallbladder. Reading his book exposed me to how the digestive system works for the first time, as well as all the numerous functions of the liver, which I found to be fascinating. How could I have spent three years at MIT and studied so much, but never learned the underlying mechanisms of what my body was doing to keep me alive? I also was amazed by how any sign or symptoms from the body is highly effective communication about what may be out of balance. I also adopted a plant-based diet for about a year, to attempt to prevent future problems with my gallbladder (Read more here about my experience with a plant-based diet, and why I don’t recommend it to my clients) 

What frustrated me the most was that even my super hippie holistic midwives didn’t tell me anything about the importance of digestion or have the knowledge to recommend any of the various ways I could have found relief from my gallbladder pain. I knew there must be other women out there that were struggling as I had who didn’t think they had any options, whom I could help. I realized that holistic nutrition was my true calling, not just as a hobby but a profession. 

Even though I already had a bachelor’s degree, I decided to begin working on the requirements to become a Registered Dietician. I spent a semester at ASU, as I though becoming an RD was the only way I could enter the nutrition field. Even though I excelled in my coursework, I knew I wasn’t on the right path. I felt like I needed to continually hold my tongue or try not to be exasperated by the information that I knew simply was not valid. My breaking point was when a guest speaker was going on about how there is no difference between GMO foods and non-GMO, which I knew was scientifically inaccurate from my Environmental Engineering days. Despite this, I did not speak up in the class, even though I easily could have, due to fear of losing standing with my instructor, who could potentially decide future internship opportunities. I regret this cowardice. I had the chance to stop a class of at least 50 future RD’s from having no concerns about GMO’s, but I didn’t because of my obsession with getting gold stars. I knew that I couldn’t remain in a broken system and just play along. I didn’t want to waste another five years studying harmful falsities while people were suffering that I knew I could help. 

Fortunately, not long after, I heard about the NTA’s program on a Facebook interview. I began to look into the program more, and I couldn’t believe that it was real. Digestion was their primary foundation! Holistic but not plant-based, appreciating Bio-individuality, valuing ancestral wisdom, and all in a remote learning environment that was accessible to a stay at home mom, but still had in-person class time. It seemed great. I looked at the reading list for the course, and I was sold. After signing up, I read Dr. Weston A. Price’s classic work, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, and I truly changed my outlook on the value of nutrition. This work made me understand that prenatal and childhood nutrition, going back three generations, could determine a child’s facial structure and attractiveness, disposition, ability to give birth without difficulty, and so much more. I couldn’t wait to begin my classes. Little did I know that the program would far exceed my expectations. Jumping off the conventional track takes guts, has risks, but can also reap great rewards. The NTA’s program exposed me to information, valuable skills, and lifelong friends and connections in the wellness field that I would never have found had I stayed on my original path. I also made great strides in my health during my program. If you want to learn more about my education with the Nutritional Therapy Association, please read here.  

About halfway through my program, my struggle with pain came to a head yet again.

My gallbladder pain (which presented in my upper right back), had nearly fully subsided with the targeting nutritional therapy I had begun during my course. However, I was still struggling with sharp pains in my left mid and lower back, which extended into my pelvis and glutes and hadn’t improved since it began during my second trimester of pregnancy (which was almost two years ago at this point). The pain was so severe that I couldn’t carry my one-year-old son for more than a few minutes at a time, would cause me to wake in the middle of the night and not be able to fall back asleep, and was uncomfortable and very distracting during intimacy with my husband. I also suffered with severe fatigue on days that the pain was worse. It was when I saw a friend of mine, swing her 18-month-old onto to her back carrier, while she was six months pregnant with no trouble, I began to feel that something wasn’t right. I couldn’t figure out why I was in so much pain, and why I couldn’t do basic tasks like carrying my child. My husband was convinced that I simply needed to do more strength training and strengthen my glutes. (which had lost significant muscle mass during my pregnancy) While the exercises did help a bit, If I missed doing them for one day, the severe pain would return and never fully abated. My mother was sympathetic to my pain, but dismissed my concerns that something was significantly wrong and said, “my back hurt all the time when you and your brother were little” (read here about why carrying small children shouldn’t and doesn’t need to cause back pain)

I began struggling with new symptoms as well. I struggled with low-level nausea and felt like I had a urinary tract infection all the time. I had to make frequent trips to the bathroom only have a tiny amount of urine pass with significant burning. On a trip to visit family, the discomfort became so severe I was convinced that I had a kidney infection and made a trip to urgent care. The nurse I saw was kind but looked at me like I was completely crazy when I said the pain felt worse consistently about an hour or two after I ate certain foods. When a urine culture for a UTI came back negative, she ordered a blood test to check my kidney function and sent me on my way saying there was nothing they could do. Despite the negative test, I was convinced that I must have a UTI. I began an intensive natural treatment protocol, alkaline diet, celery and ginger juice, heaps of raw garlic, and horseradish a few times a day. My husband makes fun of me because if I think a natural protocol will help me, I will devote everything to it. I did find enough relief to function, and finally made a costly appointment with a Naturopathic Doctor hoping to find some answers. 

 Despite my high hopes for my naturopathic physician, unfortunately, nothing she provided could help me either. I had finally realized after spending years rolling, massaging, and stretching to find relief from my back pain, that muscle tension was not the issue. The pain was organ pain coming from my kidneys. So what the heck was so wrong with my kidneys? Could it be kidney stones? According to the x-ray nope. An infection? Multiple negative urine cultures would indicate no to that as well. My Naturopath began leading toward a diagnosis of interstitial cystitis, doctor speak for you bladder hurts, and we have no idea why here are some painkillers for the rest of your life. Obviously, that was not the path I wanted to take. I had read about oxalate concerning kidney stones, and I remember mentioning to my Naturopath in an appointment out of no-where, “I think oxalates might be the problem.” Which, of course, she ignored. She suggested that I pursue food sensitivity testing because the pain might be in my gut, even though I knew what I was feeling. 

At the time, my favorite foods included dark chocolate, almonds, cashews, beets, chia seeds, superfood smoothies, juices, and rich bone broths. These are all marketing as health foods with incredible nutritional benefits by the mainstream wellness industry. They are all also extremely high in oxalic acid, a sharp glass-like crystal structure that is part of the natural pest defense mechanism of plants, or in the case of bone broth high in collagen, which the body can turn into oxalate when there is a vitamin B6 deficiency. (which I am sure my year on a plant-based diet while breastfeeding contributed to significantly) Oxalate build up in the body can lead to kidney stone formation, kidney pain, bladder pain, and urinary problems, joint pain, fatigue, stimulate autoimmune kidney damage, and all around is bad news. 

I began to lower my oxalate intake, threw in a ten-day raw milk fast, and finally started to feel better. The ache in my back and hips I would have given nearly anything to get rid of was almost completely gone. My intestinal cramping after meals also disappeared (yeah oxalate can damage the gut too). What hadn’t fully healed was the hurt of knowing that this damage was self-inflicted, due to poor guidance. All of the beautiful plant-based food blogs and insta pics, full of nut-butters and dark chocolate, were what had landed me in this position. Again, my passion for traditional nutritional practices was fanned into a burning flame. Quality raw dairy, red meat, eggs, butter, and seafood, became my dietary staples, with small daily low oxalate salads, and limited fruit. I finally felt like I had learned how to nourish my body truly. I am still learning every day and need a consistent supplement and therapeutic support to maintain my healing. Yet, by the Lord’s grace, I can wake up every day with the energy to care for my family and pursue my dreams. I want to help you make that your reality as well.

If you are reading this, then you probably can see some of your story in mine. I have the skills to help you, and I am ready to listen. What you are feeling is real, and there is a root cause to be uncovered. Together we can begin your journey to a vital future.