Story Time: How I Got Here

It’s story time.

Picture a young woman in college. She is going to class during the day and trying to manage her stress spending time with friends in the evenings and weekends. 

Her friends all drink beer, eat pizza and ice cream and put other things into their bodies that college students consider food. They probably don’t sleep enough and they watch too much TV. 

One day she finds herself at the campus health center. 

I’ll spare you the graphic details, but let’s just say this young woman is experiencing some very uncomfortable and NOT fun symptoms all throughout her body. 

Good news, this young woman and her doctor know what is causing her symptoms and how to treat it.

Her doctor (who the young woman likes very much) has already tried the standard course of treatment. 1 dose of Diflucan and another dose for good measure a few days later. 

The thing is, it’s not working. The young woman’s doctor has even tried 5x-ing the dose and it’s not touching the young woman’s symptoms. 

After trying a few other medications that are used for the same problem, the young woman’s doctor tells her that she is at a loss and she regrets to inform the young woman that she feels conventional medicine has failed the young woman and the doctor doesn’t know what else to do.

There is a happy ending to this story, I promise. 

First you should know that the young woman is ME.

After thinking for a minute, my doctor told me she had heard of a woman in town who specialized in this sort of thing and that she used functional nutrition to help people who were out of options, (like I was).

My doctor thought she knew her name and told me that I could probably Google her. She made it clear that didn’t have her contact info and she could lose her job for even telling me that nutrition might be able to help me. 

That was the last time I saw that doctor, but to this day I am still grateful that she gave me the name of the woman who was able to help me. 

The woman who helped me did so by telling me what to eat and what not to eat. She also gave me a whole boatload of supplements to take. I worked with her for over a year and she FIXED ME. 

This experience was so challenging and life changing for me, that 10 years later when I came across someone who used the same Nutritional Assessment tools in her work as the life saving woman, I about lost it. 

I had to work with this second person and I had to learn how she became a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner or an NTP.

After working with the second woman for a few months I knew this is what I was put on this planet to do. Because FOOD IS MEDICINE. 

I don’t say it lightly as I feel it literally saved my life. 

When conventional medicine had nothing else to offer me, functional medicine and functional nutrition turned it all around.

I wouldn’t be here today without these three women, honestly I plan to send them all thank yous in the near future. 

But for now, you can be sure that when I say that I believe in the work that I do, I mean it. 

I’m proud to now be on the other side of the desk and hold the certification of Nutritional Therapy Practitioner as well as a Level 1 Restorative Wellness Practitioner.

If you or someone you know is struggling with their health don’t give up, there are other options out there. 

If you or someone you know is struggling specifically with gut health issues like bacterial overgrowth, candida or parasites, I want you to know that you are not alone and I can help you.