Wellness Within Reach
You want your body to work the way it should, and you want to feel better, and believe me when I say - I GET it. I know from years of personal experience (and trying ALL the supplements and diets) how discouraging it is to feel like your body isn’t working the way it should be or making progress in the right direction quickly enough. I lived in that state for years, because I didn’t know what to ask my doctors, how to support my body, what foods were making it worse, and what to eat to help make it better. I HAD to do things differently.
I didn’t have anyone in my life who really knew what I was going through, and I certainly didn’t have someone like me to guide me in the right direction and help me along the way. That’s why, when I turned the corner, I decided I wanted to go back to school so that I would be able to help others do the same.
My personal decade-long experience with a handful of digestive conditions and resulting health issues led me to a true understanding of how our bodies work, the digestive system and how inter-dependent it is with the other organs in our body, and what it takes to feel well.
Now, I am extremely dedicated to and passionate about guiding people into better health and wellness. I do this by both teaching them how their bodies actually work and providing effective solutions.
This combo has been a winning strategy for myself and nearly 200 clients.
Maybe my story sounds like yours, maybe it sounds very different, either way, I’d like to share a bit about how I ended up where I did. If nothing else, I hope it inspires you to regain confidence that with the right help, you too can find wellness again.
My health started taking a turn for the worse in a pretty common way. I first noticed bloating after eating 🚩. I’d undo a button on my pants and think nothing of it. So many people complain about it, so it must be normal, right? (Sigh, if only I’d known this wasn’t the case.) And after ignoring that initial sign of an unbalanced gut microbiome (I hadn’t even heard that term in 2013), my symptoms started getting worse and worse over time. I ended up feeling bloated and tired after eating and the list of foods my body could tolerate dwindled.
I started noticing that I felt like I had so little energy throughout the day 🚩. I chalked it up to having a lot on my plate at home and at work. I was definitely stressed as well 🚩. I didn’t even think of these as red flags for my gut at first. Little did I know that they were my body’s way of telling me something was very wrong. I wish I had someone like me in my corner back then - someone to listen to what was going on, to put the puzzle pieces together, offer solutions, and give me some reassurance.
In 2015 things really took a turn. If I was uncomfortable and confused before, I was 10x more so by this point. I could only eat a handful of foods without feeling terrible, and my list of symptoms became very long. I had massive brain fog, was severely bloated, was craving sugar like I was The Hulk, had bad gas, and I was even experiencing constipation like you couldn’t believe. I turned to coffee and laxatives for relief, but they wouldn’t always work. I ended up getting a colonoscopy and was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis (U.C.) - in layman’s terms, the gut lining was allowing toxins and other particles into my blood so my immune system was “attacking” my gut (more or less). I was suffering from ulcers on the walls of my colons, causing bleeding and excruciating pain, and my digestive system was extremely inflamed so anything I ate was essentially scratching at an open wound. This was all because my gut microbiome was out of balance, spiraled into an auto-immune condition (U.C) and my body wasn’t getting what it needed to heal.
Fast forward to 2018 and I had been on medication for U.C. for a few years. My U.C. Symptoms (bleeding, stabbing pain, cramping, urgency, sleepless nights) were mostly under control, but the root of the issue wasn’t addressed. So symptoms like bloating, low energy, nutrient deficiencies, irritability, unbalanced hormones, immune system, and nervous system dysregulation, all still needed to be fixed. I knew that taking a pill wasn’t the answer to all my problems and this is when I REALLY dove head first into learning everything I could, taking courses, reading medical journals and clinical studies, meeting with practitioners of all types, and dedicated my time to finding the solution.
At the time, I was 12 years into my marketing career and both my work and my personal life became really stressful. My gut issues, obviously affected by my stress and emotional state, spiraled out of control. I kept thinking “This isn’t me. This isn’t how my body should work. I have to figure this out for myself.”
I took to the books and began studying everything I could about the body and specifically the different functions of the gut and its delicate ecosystem of organisms that are responsible for it’s function and health. I studied everything from ayurveda and plant medicine to allopathic medicine. I took a job at a wellness brand dedicated to promoting longevity and health through supplements and biohacking.
I eventually enrolled in a program specifically to help myself with the goal of one day taking the leap from my marketing career to a more purpose-driven life helping others heal.
For nearly 10 years I watched my overall health decline, becoming extremely thin, pale, weak, exhausted, depressed, malnurished, frustrated, and desperate for solutions. Health coaches weren’t easy to find then, and ones you did find didn’t have the kind of in-depth knowledge I needed. It took years of trying diets, different types of doctors, and just about every option I could find, only to be told that I’d have to take pills, cut out foods, and live with symptoms for the rest of my life.
And here we are today. I just finished eating a piece of birthday cake and don’t have to worry about the repercussions. With my cleints, I have seen incredible transformations in the body, mind, and spirit of those whom I’ve been lucky enough to guide and collaborate with on their health. I’ve recently started a Yelp page, where clients are beginning to leave their own stories for others to read. Take a look here.
Each day, I wake up knowing that I can help people feel better and live happier, healthier, longer lives. It’s truly a gift that my years of suffering has helped me find my calling.
I hope my story inspires you to know that your wellness is within reach. I hope we can be partners in that endeavor.
Be well,
Mia
Areas of Focus:
Guiding and inspiring growth and change in areas of your life that affect overall health and wellness.
Seeing the body as whole to pinpoint issues and provide strategies for improving general wellness.
The digestive system is directly responsible for so many other areas of our body. It controls 70% of our immune system, runs the course of our entire body, is considered the Second Brain, and has the ability to affect things like:
Digestive health and symptom management
Nervous system regulation (calming anxiety and stress, etc.)
Mental wellness and lifestyle fulfillment
Nutrient and Mineral Supplementation
Immune function (unexplained illnesses, allergies, sinus infections, etc)
Which nutrients in your food are provided to your body
Bloodwork review
Acne and skin conditions
…so much more
Your body’s organs are interconnected, and many researchers believe the digestive system is the hub. For that reason, I’ve spent a majority of my studies focussed on how to improve digestive/gut health as a means to eliminating other health concerns.