My Story

My story, like yours, is one of growth through challenges—a story I am grateful for, as it reveals the purpose and plan woven through life’s unfolding journey.

I’ve struggled with some health issues for much of my life- as a kid I would get strep throat multiple times a year and was often put on antibiotics. Not surprisingly, I also had constant gut issues. I would often wake up in the middle of the night and throw up, would get really car sick, often had gut pain, struggled with anxiety, and had headaches almost every day. I didn’t realize it until later but gluten and mold played a big part in this!

As a young teenager I battled a severe eating disorder that nearly took my life. At the age of 14 I had dropped down to just 87 pounds at 5 ft 7 inches tall. I ended up in the hospital multiple times and I struggled with depression and not wanting to be alive anymore. It was a scary time. I had hit rock bottom — mentally, physically, and emotionally.

But it was in that place of brokenness that I met Jesus. His presence became the foundation of my healing, and my faith has guided me ever since. He gave me the strength to begin the long process of recovery and revealed a purpose for my life that I could cling to. I remember feeling a distinct calling to help people with their health and that God would use my story for good even as I was still in the thick of my own healing.

Recovery wasn’t always linear- I continued to struggle some with restrictive eating, over exercising, binging, and a dysregulated nervous system. But God continued to meet me with grace. Later in high school, I was able to rebuild my strength and return to the sports I loved— running cross country, playing soccer and basketball, and eventually earning a spot on a University Division II NCAA cross country team.

I loved training and racing, and it was such a testament to God’s grace. He gave me strength and healing and joy in running and being a part of a team working towards a common goal. However, I still struggled with not listening to my body, overtraining, and didn’t quite understand how to nourish my body properly. My metabolism had slowed down considerably due to the stress I had put my body under so I struggled with gaining weight easily despite often working out two hours a day. I was puffy and had what they call the “cortisol face”. I also had many overuse injuries over the years, and never felt fully recovered. Then, during my last semester of college, I suffered a mild traumatic brain injury that lasted four months and caused me to miss out on my last season of distance track. Over the past decade since then, I’ve experienced a series of seven additional minor concussions which has made brain health, gut health, and nervous system support a major part of my journey.

When I started college, I was majoring in Exercise and Health Sciences, but I realized that focusing on nutrition and fitness so closely felt a little too triggering because of my struggles as a teenager so I switched to Outdoor Leadership — and I’m so grateful I did. God used nature, community, and time in the wilderness to bring deep healing. After graduating, I worked in wilderness therapy, outdoor expeditions, NCOBS, behavior therapy, raft guiding, and leading trips for adventure camps. These jobs were powerful but also physically demanding, with long hours, little sleep, and high adrenaline.

By my mid-twenties, my health was suffering. I was exhausted, hormonally imbalanced, dealing with major PMS, low resilience to stress, major gut issues, emotional fragility, panic attacks, ovarian cysts, and a difficult time calming my nervous system. I also developed squamous cell carcinoma that had to be removed. I was over-exercising, undernourished, inflamed, and depleted.

I eventually switched my career goals to have a better work-life balance and to get more rest. I started teaching at a Forest School and enjoyed it but really struggled with sensory overload and exhaustion as a result of the concussions and other health issues I was having. I was also still long-distance running and often working out twice a day which I didn’t realize was contributing to my health issues. During this time a friend of mine introduced me to a Functional Health Podcast about the importance of minerals by Amanda Montalvo. I listened to every episode, applied what I learned, and pretty quickly started feeling a little better! I found out that part of why I felt so rough was because I was super depleted in almost all my vitamins and minerals. I learned that working out twice a day was increasing my cortisol and causing my body to not be able to heal and recover- and was ultimately counter-productive. This was a hard one to let go of because I still loved distance running and felt like I had to keep up the athlete life even though I was no longer competing other than racing for fun. But once I cut back I started to feel better and had much more energy for other aspects of my life.

These simple learnings and experiences began a deep desire in me to learn everything I could about how to heal my body naturally and nourish my body properly. I began researching and listening to many different functional health podcasts and learned that though I thought I was living a healthy lifestyle there was so much I didn’t know. Functional health gave me the answers I was searching for. After a couple of years of spending much of my free-time learning and applying what I learned I decided I wanted to be able to help others with their health. I decided to enroll in schooling to become a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner (FDN-P), a type of Functional Health Practitioner that uses Functional Labs to get to the root of people’s health issues and focusses on healing the body naturally through nutrition and lifestyle adjustments.

Through this program I was able to do many lab tests on myself and work with mentors through my own healing journey. I discovered I was deficient in nearly every mineral, had two types of parasites, H. pylori, low stomach acid, leaky gut/intestinal permeability, histamine intolerance, low DAO production, low estrogen and high progesterone, high cortisol and HPA axis dysregulation, low thyroid function, iron and calcium deficiencies, and underlying inflammation. I learned about how all this dysfunction can occur when your body has been in survival mode for too long. I learned the importance of testing and not just guessing when it comes to your health. I learned how to help my body heal naturally and I now truly feel the best I have ever felt-nourished, steady, and resilient. Functional Health has been so empowering and I finally have the knowledge to live in-tune with how my body was designed.

Now, as a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner I support women and teens walking through their own valleys — whether you’re facing hormone chaos, chronic fatigue, gut issues, histamine reactions, sleep issues, dysautonomia, thyroid issues, nutrient deficiencies, mold sickness, anxiety, or nervous system dysregulation, I’m here for you. And if you’re feeling exhausted, unheard, or overwhelmed — I see you. You’re not crazy, and your symptoms are not just in your head. Your body is wise. It’s speaking. You’re wonderfully made. And you’re capable of healing.

Let’s get to the root, together.