Always having been a person interested in staying fit and eating well, I lived my 20’s and my early 30’s working out – hard – in a gym, and eating what I thought was a perfect diet of a lot of whole grains, fruit and some vegetables. I had a stress-filled job that kept me feeling tired and unfulfilled. And I was often tired midday, always seemed to crave something or was hungry right after eating.  And like most, I chalked it up to it being normal.  Most people I knew had mid-day crashes of energy and were hungry often.  Most people I knew had stress at work. So I continued to work out, count calories, and feed my body bursts of sugar masked as yogurt or a granola bar to get me through the day.  My weight fluctuated from time to time, as did my energy. And my stress levels seemed to coincide with these fluctuations as well.

In 2010 at the ripe old age of 40, after years of trying to get pregnant and realizing how unwell I was feeling overall, I decided to dig deeper to find the root cause of what was going on. I saw a Functional Medicine Practitioner who tested me for and diagnosed me with severe Non Celiac Gluten Sensitivity. This diagnosis was in fact a bright spot because it answered a lot of what was going wrong and had been for most of my life – anemia, hypoglycemia, osteoarthritis, fatigue, aching joints, an irritated gut, and a seaming inability to get pregnant.

Over the course of the next 3 years I not only went gluten free, I looked into, read about and embraced living Paleo. It started with diet – eating whole foods void of gluten, dairy, refined sugar, and grains – and morphed into a more holistic way of being well – learning about all the ways we find balance and wellness in our life that have nothing to do with food, but rather the nourishment we get from good sleep, adequate movement and meaningful relationships.

And at the age of 43, I did get pregnant! It resulted in a miscarriage but the experience sent a clear message to my body that it can do it, that I am healthy and strong enough to get pregnant. In fact, it made me realize that given half the chance, the body knows how to heal itself. Something we aren’t really taught, but something that really resonated with me.

Today, my blood sugar and pressure are low and in control. I have no back pain – and haven’t since one month into being gluten free. My energy is sustained through the day. I do workouts that are harder than those I did in my 20’s. And I have a better, more holistic view of health and wellness.

My quest to feel better in my day-to-day physically and mentally not only led me to feeling incredibly healthy and well, it led me to an evolution in my career as well. I was learning so much about myself and was so sure of how beneficial my new lifestyle was that I decided to learn more about how I could help others believe in their ability to be well.

I believe when we are conscious about what we own and think, move and sleep adequately, create meaningful relationships and work, and eat so we are nourished, we will have the physical energy, and mental clarity to make positive lifestyle choices, and create a life we truly love.