My Story

After overcoming infertility through a healthy, balanced lifestyle at the age of 29, I discovered a passion for wellness. Over the years, I’ve accumulated a mountain of knowledge through continuing education. I’ve completed a Raw Food Chef certification and Yoga Teacher training, and soon will complete nationally accredited courses in personal training and nutrition.

My experience has taught me that a person can appear extremely fit and healthy, yet be incredibly sick. In my early to mid twenties, I was working as a model and competing in fitness competitions when my health completely deteriorated. I looked like the picture of health on stage, but I was crash dieting, taking water pills to dehydrate myself, spending hours doing cardio to punish myself after a night of drinking or eating more than I thought I deserved, even starving myself at times. I was miserable, my mental health in the toilet, barely functioning from exhaustion, but I pretended to be happy. After a bodybuilding competition in 2010, the wheels fell off. I gained 15 pounds in a couple of weeks and couldn’t get it off no matter how little I ate and how much I exercised. My hair was falling out, my skin was flaking, I was ravenous all the time, and I could barely stay awake for an entire work day. I lost my menstrual cycle for over 2 years, and realizing my husband and I wanted to start a family soon, I finally reached out for help. While my gynecologist helped me to discover what was wrong with my body; I had stopped producing estrogen thanks to my ultra-low fat diet and overexercising; her suggested remedy didn’t sit well with me. She wanted me to go on birth control pills, which could help regulate my hormones, but that definitely wasn’t going to assist me in getting pregnant. I thanked her for her help and let her know I’d be doing more research before going that route. I never went back to her office.

I began googling and spending hours every day looking for answers. I discovered that what my body needed was a reset. I needed to stop the intense exercise and focus on slow, intentional movement, getting to know my body and appreciate it again; something I’d lost along my way in pursuing aesthetic perfection. I needed to go back to basics with my diet, eating simple whole foods in their natural form. No more Frankenfoods and cheap protein powders with highly questionable ingredients. I cleared out my pantry and began focusing on a raw plant-based diet featuring green juices and smoothies daily. I started taking yoga and tai chi classes at my gym instead of hitting the weights and stairclimber. I had to basically shift my entire mindset from “Go and Do” to “Rest and Recover.” It wasn’t easy by any means, but I had a very strong WHY. I knew I needed to stick to the plan.

Ten months later, my cycles returned. Five months after that, I got pregnant. My daughter was born in 2013. I maintained a whole-food diet during that pregnancy, also incorporating animal foods, since I didn’t have much guidance at the time for pregnancy nutrition. However, I returned to eating only plants by the time my daughter was 6-7 months old, and I’ve never looked back, even having another baby in 2019 after a completely plant-powered pregnancy.

I’ve managed to return to weightlifting since my health crisis, but these days I’m much more mindful of what my body wants. I honor my body with rest days and good nutrition. Gone are the days of restriction and punishment. I truly believe that veganism helped to heal my relationship to food, as well. I’ve become a much more adventurous eater and a far more talented cook throughout this journey. I’ve learned to replicate flavors from my childhood in healthier ways, and I feel like I can eat anything I want now without worry.

I’ve learned so much about women’s health over the past 15 years, and my goal with this blog is to help others who might be struggling and wondering where to begin to reclaim their wellness. I hope I can be a resource along your journey to becoming your best self.

Health:  (noun)

A state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.