About Me
Hey friend!
I'm Dawn, a certified Integrative Nutrition Health Coach.
My mission is to be a guiding hand for you and provide you with actionable steps to overcome chronic digestive health challenges, even when it may seem like you’ve already tried everything under the sun.
I endured my own chronic health issues including Fibromyalgia, Candida, Leaky Gut, SIBO, IBS, Chronic Fatigue, Adrenal Fatigue, Histamine Intolerance, multiple food intolerances, pancreatic insufficiency, anxiety, and panic. It felt like I was hit by a truck every day.
I was fed up hearing I’d be sick for the rest of my life and I was determined to prove wrong everyone who said I’d be stuck like that. So I did and now is your chance to do the same.
Let me ask you a few questions...
Have you tried eating healthier, but no diet or food plan has worked to relieve your symptoms for long?
Do you get stressed/anxious easily?
Do you have unexplained symptoms that you worry may never get better?
Do you wonder why this happened to you, and secretly envy people who don’t seem to have your health challenges?
Do you want to enjoy food again - having it taste delicious and be nourishing?
Are your challenges affecting school, work, or relationships?
Are you sick of not getting answers and nobody truly listening to you/understanding your situation?
I’ve been there, and I am so grateful today to say that I have made it to the other side.
Now, I am going to ask you to do a brief exercise. Imagine what it would look like to feel better. Picture your biggest digestive health symptoms being reduced to a point where you could live your life with more joy and less discomfort and worry. What does that look like to you?
I asked you to envision this future self of yours so you can believe that healing is tangible and possible - because it is! I’ve seen it with myself and my clients! Now let me ask you, are you willing to take the steps to get there? Are you open to new ideas if you could overcome those challenges? Because let me tell you, once you finally experience healing, it is one of the most amazing things in the world!
How did I get here?
In college, seemingly out of nowhere, I developed intense sinus pressure and debilitating body pain. I couldn't understand how I went from a collegiate athlete to someone who struggled to function normally every day. I saw a few conventional doctors who meant well but failed to address the root cause of my problems, simply prescribing more and more drugs without considering nutrition or lifestyle factors. They were treating my symptoms, not underlying issues.
After college, I moved 500 miles from home and found myself in a new city with a demanding job I didn't like. Symptoms got worse until I started developing intense panic episodes and migraine headaches. My sister came to visit me once and I remember having to pull over on my way to the airport as I was having intense head pressure and nausea. I asked them if we could go to the ER on arrival as I was sure something was horribly wrong. Yet all tests came back normal and I was told it was likely just another panic attack.
That was my turning point. I spent the next few months researching all I could. I went to a specialist at the Cleveland Clinic who tested me for MS and ultimately diagnosed me with Fibromyalgia. Not satisfied with the thought of a lifelong medication for the pain, I went to a Neurologist who thought I might need exploratory brain surgery! That was not an option. On a whim, I went to a Chinese Medicine Practitioner. She was my saving grace. She thought I should consider an Elimination Diet after seeing my food diary, hearing my symptoms, and a thorough examination. That's where I discovered a food intolerance to gluten and tomatoes. She explained that I had undigested food particles seeping into my bloodstream, causing my immune system to attack itself and my gut lining to become permeable, a condition known as leaky gut, which provokes food sensitivities and chronic inflammation.
My brain function suffered too. Because I wasn’t digesting anything, I wasn’t absorbing the nutrients we need for a healthy mental state, and pathogens in my body were releasing toxins that made my brain foggy (I literally felt drunk - and not in the giddy way).
I now see my journey as a blessing. My conditions were a wake-up call that my body was out of balance and that I was not honoring its limits and needs.
I am confident that we can get you feeling amazing too. In a culture of diet fads and skyrocketing disease rates, there is a lot of fear around food and health. Instead of seeing food as nourishing, it is seen as calorie-inducing or a symptom-trigger. Instead of seeing nutrients as therapeutic, the connection between nutritional status and disease is buried.