I grew up in a small town in southern Minnesota, about an hour from the Iowa border.
I had an amazing childhood and a family (mother, father and brother) that I wouldn’t trade for the world.
Physically, there is nothing major that stands out to me from my early childhood, except for the fact that I was always tired.
I was the child who would be sleeping on the couch at family gatherings (I have a huge extended family – mostly boys – which rocks by the way) while the rest of the cousins were running around into the wee hours.
My Godfather, Jack, used to always say, “Sleepin’ again?!”
In junior high I was a gymnast; in high school an ice hockey goalie. I was good, not great, at both.
Back then, I ran a 14-minute mile.
I enjoyed “sport,” but being physically active was a chore.
It always drained me of my energy too much, and thus, I was never highly athletic.
Looking back, a lot of my story started in high school, though I’d never be able to see and acknowledge it until much later in life.
Listen, this is a long story, so you might want to grab some coffee or bone broth before we continue on 🙂
College
Once college came, things took a sharp turn and headed south.
Early in my freshman year, I got very ill.
I got the flu and tonsillitis so badly that I was out for nearly two weeks, unable to get myself to the doctor, answer Mother’s calls or anything. I eventually found myself in urgent care, took a round of antibiotics and life continued on.
At this point in my life, the vicious cycle really began.
That first year of college I lived alone in a dorm room. In hindsight, I am so thankful for that. I struggled for the first major time in my life with digestive issues.
Most days, my dorm room would smell of rotten eggs to a degree that even I became depressed living in it.
I would alternate between bloat/gas and everything running straight through me. I also gained 10-15 pounds that year, and I struggled with a whole host of other things (physically and emotionally).
After my freshman year, I went home for the summer and went on Weight Watchers (but by this time, I was no stranger to disordered eating).
I was eating low calorie, low-fat foods like they were going out of style.
I was sure I had found my “cure.”
Lost Weight
After all, I lost all the weight I had gained, and I returned to my sophomore year of college hearing,
Wow, you’re so skinny.
Throughout my sophomore and junior years of college, I continued on the yo-yo road and an unhealthy lifestyle. Simultaneously, my gut began getting worse.
I was sick more and more often with tonsillitis, pharyngitis or strep throat chronically during my junior year.
I was always at the hospital and was, literally, on antibiotics every single month.
The doctors decided a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy was necessary.
By the time my tonsils and adenoids came out (the summer before my senior year of college), they were rotted. The surgeon told my mom that there were so many scars and infections that I barely had either one of them anymore.
It took me awhile to recover, but once I did, yet again, I was sure I had found my “cure.”
Turns out that just because you fix one thing, doesn’t mean the underlying issues go away. In fact, in many ways I got worse.
It was only a couple weeks after my surgery when I drove back to Minneapolis to live a new “healthier lifestyle.”
On the drive up, I noticed my tongue started feeling off.
I called my mom and told her, “It feels like something is pulling my tongue and scraping it against my teeth.”
I began to see new doctors and even more doctors for this newly-developed mouth problem. They had no idea since everything looked completely normal. Without having any clue, they put me on Nystatin, which is an antibiotic to clear thrush.
It didn’t get better. In fact, it got worse – much worse. Several months later, while at the dentist, he mentioned,
Perhaps you simply have an intolerance to food.
I gave up hope that any doctor or dentist could help my mouth.
And yet, I never forgot what that dentist said.
That dentist changed my world.
And yet still, old habits die hard.
Post-College
Life continued. My senior year of college ended. I was offered a job right out of college with a division of News Corporation in Los Angeles, California. I moved in August of 2005.
At this point, my tonsils and adenoids were gone, but I was a mess. I was stressed 24/7, and broke.
I missed home; hated LA (so many people can’t understand this, but it’s true – hated it).
And of course, I ate. And then I didn’t eat.
I worked out. And then I didn’t work out.
I was miserable in my corporate suit and nylon hose each day.
My stomach pain was horrendous. Sometimes the bathroom wasn’t close enough; other times I could only wish a bathroom break would hit. All along, my mouth was on fire; even talking became a chore. (Don’t worry, I didn’t let it stop me from the gift of gab.)
But all of this, I never let anyone see.
Maybe I was embarrassed or maybe I thought it was normal; I’m not really sure.
I “met” Ryan (my husband) in December of 2005, and moved back to Minnesota in 2006.
I struggled all along, but was happy by then so fixing myself didn’t seem as imminent any longer.
Later in life (at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition) I would learn that healthy relationships like the one I had found with Ryan can make all the difference in healing or a lack thereof.
Early in our relationship
I decided to start taking some sort of action for me.
Something in me provoked a 21-day detox in January of 2007.
From January 1 – January 21, I did the first “detox” I had ever done in my life.
On days 1- 18, I was on autopilot.
Day 19, I felt worse than ever before.
On day 21, every single “problem” I ever had was gone.
Then, on day 22, post detox, I went back to my “old life.”
On day 23, I was back to misery.
I knew then that there must be more to everything going on inside my body.
A few short months after that, Ryan found out that his job would move him to Northern California.
He asked me to go with him, and for me, there was no other option, and together we went.
Almost as soon as we moved, I began digging into the mess that was, and I started a journey that would actually begin to change my life. (Because of this, California changed my life forever.)
2007 through 2009
In the beginning, I:
saw an allergist who confirmed via scratch tests that I was not “allergic” to anything
attempted to work with that allergist on food intolerance, but was unsuccessful because she had no clue on elimination diets
went to a GI specialist who ordered an endoscopy and colonoscopy
through the colonoscopy, it was determined that I had Proctitis, which is a form of Colitis that affects the lowest part of the colon -> the rectum
took the GI’s advice that “food didn’t matter,” but suppositories and medication would help
quickly realized that suppositories and medication didn’t help, in fact, they made me worse so I QUIT all suppositories forever
In 2009, I found a nutritionist and I worked with her for several months.
She gave me a lot of great tips, thoughts, and ideas, but my stomach was still a mess.
After a few months of working with her, I stumbled upon the GAPS Diet.
I brought it to her attention. She said it made sense, so we completely changed our direction.
Finally, it was the direction that would begin my real healing journey forever. (I stopped working with her shortly after because I was rapidly healing and she was moving.)
My world got turned upside down at that point.
I became obsessed with healing myself via food and lifestyle vs. drugs and medication.
I became obsessed with the gut and the entire digestive system, along with knowing everything possible so I could heal myself for good this time.
2010 – 2012
I had another endoscopy in late spring of 2010. I was not really consuming gluten at the time and even still, the endoscopy showed that I still had inflammation in my upper digestive system.
This told me that it wasn’t just the Colitis and lowest part affected, but everything.
I already knew so much about the digestive system, but I didn’t know enough about how the “lifestyle” component could help (or hurt) me.
I was confident that a holistic school would show me the path.
And it did.
I graduated from the school in 2012 and began a Health Coaching business (and a damn good one at that > I know what I’m talking about and I am the face of everyone I work with, not just another nutritionist, doctor or blogger spewing information they once heard).
[It’s also important to make note here that I went through several infertility treatments during this time with the culmination of a (failed) IVF cycle in 2012. All of the drugs and medications during this time did a number on my body. Because of it, and the pre-existing conditions, we decided that one IVF cycle would be it. This is a whole other story I could talk about for days…..I’ll spare you – for now!]
After a bumpy, lumpy infertility road, she made our lives complete, filling it with love and hope and all that is beautiful in this world.
But because she was a Preemie, and because we were totally unprepared, my health suffered.
I spent the better portion of her first year with us running on 3-4 hours of sleep, caffeine and high stress.
Ultimately, I reversed most of the progress I had made.
2014
In late 2014, I put my foot down because I reached the point where I was the worst I had maybe ever been in my entire life.
I have my face to prove it.
By this time, and due to my utter desperation, I sought the best of the best that I could find in California.
Dr. Schweig from The California Institute for Functional Medicine was highly recommended, so I drove over 2 hours that first visit to see him. This was also the very first time I’d venture to a doctor outside of Western/traditional medicine.
He could instantly tell that something was very off. And he was the first person to treat me as a WHOLE person vs. symptomatic of one “problem.”
We went through all the testing, and within a short amount of time, I was diagnosed with a sluggish thyroid, severe adrenal fatigue, and advanced SIBO.
From that moment on, my life began to change (yet again, health wise) in brand new ways, and I got a new lease on life.
2014-2018
2014-2018 proved to be long and intense, deep and explorative years.
The years have been very well documented on agutsygirl.com, so go explore!
In a nutshell:
finalized three adoptions in three years
had three SIBO relapses
studied (took even more courses!), researched, and devoted every last extra second to answering the question, “What is gut health and healing?!“
moved across the country back to our small hometown in Southern Minnesota after 11 years in Northern California
At the end of 2018, it all became very clear.
There was a key hidden to a door I’d been waiting to open for years; I began to slowly unlock it.
It was then that I realized, “Heal your gut. Heal your life.”
And that’s EXACTLY what happened.
I healed my gut!
Ahhhh, but wait – it didn’t end there.
(These years will also go more into depth when my full book comes out someday – see below.)
2019
Just as I healed my gut, I LOST my Father to Colon Cancer.
To Dad: Thank you for loving me as is and for never giving up your fight. I smile when I think about your life, I thank you for pushing me to finally finish this book, and I miss you in ways you’ll never know. Love always, Your Girl.
And, Day 19 in the book is titled, “Letting Go.” —
…..today is August 13, 2019 – the day Dad went to be with the Lord.
Listen, friend, the irony that I’d lose my Father to Colon Cancer was not lost on me.
I could share with you a million things during those 18 months from when he was diagnosed up until his final breaths.
Each year, about 150,000 Americans are diagnosed with colorectal cancer. More than 50,000 people will die from colorectal cancer this year. One in 24 people will be diagnosed with colorectal cancer in their lifetime.
My dad was one.
And because I have this platform and because I have this passion — I know that losing him only gave me more motivation to hang in here for the long haul — for you; your mom, sister, dad, spouse, brother, friend, cousin, coworker…….
Today
It is now almost 2025, and I am STILL here.
But you want the truth?
At the beginning of 2024, I actually had A Gutsy Girl ***UP FOR SALE.***
But then something in me said,
No. Your work is not done here yet.
I recently had a call with a guy I’ve only sort of “known” for years. Finally getting the chance to speak with him was incredible validation when he said,
