I spent some time pondering what had happened, where did I go wrong, what was going to be solutions? I felt very alone, misunderstood and was losing part of my soul. A few times over the next few years, I would go from learning to become very centered, feeling all the feelings, peaceful cross country skiing or walking as my workouts, and eating lots of colorful veggies and a range of high quality meats and proteins. To extreme fitness, anxiety driven, overwhelming time filled days, with processed proteins and foods. I started to realize that the problem was in the fast paced, stressful, lifestyle choices, over consuming alcohol and sugar, chemical filled foods life. I found a program that I wanted to dive into, I saved, and decided to become a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner. This program took a year, and I learned to take a step back and look at health in a bigger way, at all parts of life and stress was a leading cause to many things. I loved it so much that when I finished, I wanted more. I then found a program called Restorative Wellness Solutions and it was all about lab work and helping clients heal naturally as much as possible. My anxiety went away, my depression was gone, my plantar fasciitis healed, the aches and pains I felt almost totally gone. My skin was aging in reverse. I quit hard workouts and focused on mellow walks with the dogs, finding time each day to let the stress float away, and I nourished myself. In the end of 2020 my husband was in a roll over truck accident. He walked away with minimal injuries, but just a few weeks later, wild fires surrounded my childhood home in Southern Oregon. It was very hard to watch from a distance as people I knew lost everything. Then just a few weeks after that my mom was hit head on as she drove to work. She was life flighted and broke many bones in her body, she had 3 arterial bleeds. Those last 3 months of 2020 brought me back into a depression and an anxiety that I have never experienced before. I was also trying to juggle being a supportive wife to a man that works many hours, and raise two boys with ethics and morals. I felt like my life was falling apart. I flew back to Oregon multiple times and helped my mom start to recover, she had a long road ahead of time stuck in a hospital bed and physical therapy. Over the next year or so, I put on the most weight I ever had in my life. I didn’t recognize myself. I pulled at my clothes, nothing felt comfortable. I felt like everyone noticed my weight and I was losing my self esteem and my confidence. I felt like my marriage wasn’t that great, I was more snippy with my kids, that spark I once had was gone. I was sad. I felt like everything that once worked, had the opposite effect and no matter what I did, I felt worse and gained even more weight. I would go to bed and try to think of ways to get healthy, “tomorrow will be a new day, I will eat better, I will move more.” Many times I would, many times I was successful with a routine, but the weight was not budging. I did 5 day water fasts. I tracked my blood sugars and they were always high. As I type this for this website, it brought tears to my eyes. I know many people that feel this way. There is hope and it may not be what you are thinking.

I continued my education with Restorative Wellness, adding on Gastrointestinal Healing, Hormone Balancing, Comprehensive Blood Panels. I was trying so many things, that when I did start to feel better, I wasn’t sure what was the actual solution. It would be short lived and if I would lose 20 lbs in a few months I would then be back up 30. It was a never ending cycle. During testing I did have some solid answers on a couple things, I had H. pylori and overgrowth of bad bacteria’s in my gut. I learned this from lab work that I did on myself. I also then learned I was actually malnourished, not absorbing proteins correctly, iron deficient, extremely low vitamin D, and wouldn’t you know, I had some autoimmune markers show up. Specifically Hashimotos. I also was hanging onto estrogens and my blood sugars were high and not balanced. During this same time my mom started to recover from her car wreck and was walking again. As a present I sent her a kit to do her blood work, she was battling with a few things, and I wanted to see if I could help. She had been to numerous doctors, had so much blood work done, but I was the one that discovered she had an autoimmune Hashimotos. She had been told she had a thyroid issue, they had never tested the autoimmune markers, and she was told to take a prescription. What wasn’t told to her is that she will never fix her thyroid if her body is constantly fighting because of that autoimmune. We both started working on things together, the two biggest things to do with any autoimmune is to go grain and sugar free and eliminate stress. We both struggled with all of this. My main concern was my weight and her main concern was inflammation. My weight did not improve. However the next time I ran blood work my autoimmune markers were so minimal I was very happy, I did have more energy again, my skin looked more youthful, my joint pain had improved, and my nutrient panels improved 10 fold. My moms autoimmune markers had went from 10,000+ to now around 3000, and currently she has them around 1000+. We had both improved tremendously through holistic/natural ways. We both also sought out medical help as well. She changed from that original prescription and now takes a natural desiccated thyroid prescription and a range of vitamins and supplements. I do not take any prescriptions because my autoimmune is now in remission, but it is something I will work at my entire life and will continue routine blood work to check my levels at least once a year. My weight was taking a mental toll and I ran into an old friend, she looked fantastic, she shared with me her journey and after years of contemplation, concern, and stress, I decided to have a surgery that ended up being pretty minor and changed everything for me. I am happy to share more about this if you become a client and we work together. It wasn’t the answers to all the problems, but it helped me in a major way with one big concern for me and that was my weight. Through this journey I dove further into holistic nutrition and try very hard to be gluten free. I take supplements daily to support a healthy gut and give my body the nutrition it needs. I focus on healthy proteins daily and at every meal. I am now at a healthy weight. I also have spent time to learn the best ways to combat stress, and for me that is a range of creative hobbies. I make western leather purses, silver/turquoise jewelry, and paint mandalas. Something that looks so complicated and detailed, all just starts with a few dots of paint, and with time, they turn into a very detailed and mind blowing peace of art. I believe anyone can paint these and make them turn out mesmerizing and beautiful. This key step alone has helped heal me. I no longer do crazy extreme workouts, but I do walk or do a short 20-30 minute workouts, mainly lifting weights. I then went back and finished my final step to the Restorative Wellness degree and I am now a Master Practitioner. I dove into autoimmunity, myotoxins, mold, neurotoxins, heavy metals, and neuroligical diseases. Our bodies want to heal, they want to feel good, our worlds are filled with stress, poor food choices, and overabundance of everything. My mission is to help woman that have felt just like me, they lost a spark and they want it back. I will be real about what it takes, what I did, and how I can help you along the way. Everyone deserves to live a life they feel good in and love.

Now 7 years into this holistic journey, I love the body I am in, I have more energy than ever, I handle stress well. I feel like my marriage is thriving and my kids are as well. I see a bright future at 40 and many years to keep learning and growing, and dang it I want to feel good doing it and be as happy as possible. This is the end of 2024 when I wrote this and look forward to the coming year, as our oldest graduates high school and will go off and start pursuing what he really wants in life. I will end with a favorite simple quote, “the mountain is you.”

Look forward to meeting you either over the phone, through email, or maybe even in real life soon.

Randi