We’re not taught in high school how our bodies actually work as a requirement to graduate. Even after being diagnosed with chronic illness, it’s up to us to learn what our diagnosis really means and how best to care for ourselves.

Thank goodness for the internet, right? It’s a double-edged sword. New advice is coming out all the time regarding best health practices, but we have to filter out what is and isn’t right for us. That can be incredibly risky. Take the fitness industry, for example, workout programs are typically marketed as “suitable for all ages and abilities” when really they aren’t. The average person has no idea how to properly modify exercises or intensity for their abilities and health concerns. New diet plans are regularly released but the people giving that advice may have no business doing so. They never took a nutrition course but they personally got results and started to market the route they took to get there.

Maybe I know too much

Looking back, I realize that if it wasn’t for Type 1 Diabetes, I never would have been in the sciences. Naturally, I’m a dancer. I’m intuitive. I’m an empath. I feel truth in my body. I haven’t fit in with the athletes and scientists that have surrounded me. I’ve studied personalities, feminine mysticism, manifestation, and many nonconventional practices.

I’m so thankful that I had a passion to help others with diabetes, and now chronic illness overall, and chose to study exercise science and human physiology in my undergraduate and graduate studies. It has helped me through some incredibly difficult times of my health when doctors and health coaches couldn’t help me. Sometimes I feel that I know too much. I can’t unsee what is wrong with the fitness, nutrition, or weight loss industries and be blissfully unaware like the general public. I can’t unsee where we are falling short in serving people with chronic illness in traditional medicine and new age practices. On the other hand, I can pass this knowledge on to you so you can make your own informed decisions for your health. I have the bachelor’s and master’s degree in exercise science, sports medicine, and clinical exercise physiology so you don’t have to.

I blend science and woo to get results.

I straddle many worlds. I’m a fitness professional, but I’ll never tell you to just do it. I live with chronic illness and know that sometimes pushing through it is the worst thing you can do for your body. I’m spiritual, intuitive, and empathic, but I don’t expect you to be. I’m a researcher and scientist, but sometimes you just need to follow your intuition more than data. Your body knows best, let it be your guide.

Take your meds.

Living with chronic illness means that we need our medicines, but it is also an opportunity to use nonconventional practices to understand what our bodies need us to know. So often our symptoms flareup because there is some kind of truth that we’ve been in denial about because it’s safer and less scary that way. For example, we may be constantly getting sick because we are in a situation (work, unhealthy relationship, family) that is burning us out but we don’t know how we can get out of it. There are phsyiological explanations for what goes on in our body. There are also emotional ones.

Self-care is more than a bubble bath and face mask.

There are tools from the woo world that can be used for practical purposes, such as relieving anxiety or physical tension. I help translate what’s going on in your body in a scientific and poetic sense so we can find a way for you to love, honor, and nurture you body in a way that makes sense to you.

I encourage you to be human.

Be honest. Be vulnerable. Don’t pretend everything’s alright when it’s not. Don’t add more obligations to your plate when your world is falling apart. Bring me your hot mess and the mask you put on so no one sees your struggle. I want to live in a world where our messy moments are celebrated and we don’t have to wait until it’s all cleaned up to show back up in the world. I’ve built my life up from the rubble of a near-death experience. It’s been fabulous because I learned that I had nothing else to lose. That’s where the magic happens.

I’m here to help you find your magic and put the hot back in hot mess.

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