Let me tell you about the first parasite cleanse I ever did (before I knew anything about parasite cleansing) and how it went horribly wrong.

It was 2019, I was knee deep in my Functional Nutrition program, and despite all of my new knowledge I was still dealing with insane bloating that I could not figure out.

I removed gluten, dairy, cut way down on sugar, tried every gut healing supplement, balanced my blood sugar, slept 9 hours a night, hydrated like hell, did the Whole30, Keto, Paleo, you name it. My foundations were solid but I still looked pregnant after eating anything.

I was uncomfortable every day and desperate for answers. The gut healing supplements weren’t working so I started exploring more herbal options.

My mom (the OG holistic member of my family) told me about parasite cleansing, so I decided to jump in blind with some strong anti-parasitic herbs and gut scrubbers just to see what would happen.

And oh my god I made myself SO sick. Like, emergency-running-to-the-bathroom-and-barely-making-it sick. I basically had emergent diarrhea all day for 2 straight weeks.

Safe to say that cleanse didn’t last very long. I did pass some parasites but it wasn’t sustainable because I felt terrible and I was literally afraid to go to work.

I backed off the herbs and my bloating didn’t get better, but I was still really intrigued by parasite cleansing so I decided to actually do a little research before starting again.

I quickly learned that you cannot just jump into a parasite cleanse, you HAVE to prep your body first.

There’s a very important order of operations when it comes to detoxing and if you don’t follow it correctly, you’ll pay the price (like nearly shitting my pants on multiple occasions).

Detoxing is like kicking up the dust at a construction site. You’re pulling toxins out of the woodwork to be funneled through your detox pathways and removed from your body.

But if the pathways are clogged, those toxins have nowhere to go. They recirculate, reabsorb, and cause even worse symptoms of toxicity.

This is why people often say that detoxing made them worse.

It wasn’t the detox’s fault, it was their clogged pathways (or they simply went too fast for what their pathways could handle).

So I decided to begin again, but this time I did the foundational work of opening up my detox pathways before starting the actual cleansing. Not only did I feel so much better throughout the whole process, but I started passing these MONSTERS regularly.

After a few months of pathway work and parasite cleansing, my bloating was GONE. Years of gut issues and constant bloating finally resolved. Now I can eat my previous “trigger foods” without issues and I can’t even remember the last time I felt uncomfortably bloated.

Now we’re gonna get to the good stuff. This is Part 1 of my Parasite Cleanse Series where I’m going to show you step by step how I prepped my body before I successfully parasite cleansed, how I help clients do the same, and how to know when your detox pathways are open and ready for parasite cleansing.

Read more

When it first popped up around 6 months old, my first thought was “what the hell.”

I didn’t want to believe it was actually eczema. Was he allergic to my dogs? What was he wearing earlier? Did he touch something outside? Is it just the dry desert air? Did I give him a new lotion or soap?

No girl, it’s eczema.

So I started the tallow balm and the calendula cream paid close attention to anything he ate or came in contact with. He’d get better, and then he’d get worse again with no obvious triggers. Rinse and repeat.

Being in the line of work that I am, I knew deep down we had a lot more work to do than just buying the next magical cream or supplement that I got a targeted ad for on Instagram (looking at you, Tubby Todd).

I honestly never considered for a second going to a dermatologist or getting him on a steroid cream. No judgement for the moms who go that route, ultimately we all just want our kids to be comfortable.

But after a career of working with clients through other skin issues like acne and psoriasis, I knew those medications wouldn’t do shit to fix the problem.

Eczema is not a skin problem. It’s a signal coming from somewhere else in the body that something is off.

I’ve come to learn that treating the skin with creams and steroids is like taking the batteries out of the smoke alarm. The fire is still burning, you just can’t hear the signal anymore.

One of my BIGGEST pet peeves is when doctors say “kids will just grow out of their eczema.” First of all, a lot of them don’t. I know adults who still deal with eczema flares.

Second of all, if you don’t address the root of whatever is causing the eczema, maybe they’ll grow out of the skin issues but they’ll grow into new issues like hormonal imbalances or autoimmune conditions.

Ultimately, eczema is an immune system issue.

But you need to keep peeling back the onion — what’s causing the immune issue in the first place? Hidden infections? Poor diet? Parasites? Mold? Environmental toxins? Leaky gut? Food sensitivities? Heavy metal toxicity? Stress?

And to make it even more fun — it’s not usually just one of the above, it some sort of combination. AND the root cause is not going to be the same for every kid which means the fix isn’t going to be the same for every kid.

This is why “miracle supplements” might work great for one kid and do absolutely nothing for another.

For my son, I believe it was a combination of being born via c-section with a gut microbiome starting from zero, stress being held in his body from a traumatic birth, parasites from being ALL up in my dogs’ business, and mold exposure from our house.

This is the perfect storm for an overburdened immune system, leaky gut driving food sensitivities, a sluggish liver, and then his little body manifesting it all as eczema.

Hot take: I’m grateful for my son’s eczema.

Even though healing took a lot of time. It wasn’t one supplement or a quick fix to get his skin looking clear again. It took a lot of trial and error, figuring out his exact triggers, and gently detoxing his little body to get rid of the burden.

But I’m grateful for the eczema for a number of reasons.

1 — It was the signal I needed to know there was something wrong. I’m so grateful that I acted quickly, got to the root of his issues, and addressed them before it became a bigger problem.

2 — I can now help other people going though the same thing. I used what I learned from healing his skin to help tons of other families and continue to do so with my nutrition clients. By far the most common issue kids are seeing me for is for eczema. Without my son’s experience, I don’t know that I’d have the same knowledge (and empathy) to draw from.

The Takeaway

Eczema isn’t a life sentence and it doesn’t have to require harsh creams and pharmaceuticals. You can heal eczema at its root with natural remedies, you just have to dig deep to figure out exactly where it’s coming from.

Unfortunately you won’t find support on that journey from the dermatologist’s office but I’d love to be the support you need. Stop managing their symptoms and start asking why they’re there in the first place!

Free posts tell you what’s true. Paid posts tell you what to do. If you’re past needing convincing and you’re ready to act, that’s where you go.

I’m raising my son in the best way that I know how and that includes some things that people would see as being unconventional. But here are my favorites — you tell me if they’re unorthodox or not.

I give my toddler (at least) triple the recommended amount of protein per day.

Did you know that toddlers ages 1-3 are recommended to have 13 grams of protein per day? And the same people recommend they have around 130 grams of carbs per day? 130 grams of carbs with only 13 grams of protein is going to send a toddler on a blood sugar rollercoaster. Think meltdowns, constantly wanting snacks, heightened emotions. That is not flying in my house.

My toddler gets protein with every single meal and snack he eats. If he wants pasta, he eats chicken sausage with it. If he wants tortilla chips, he’s dipping them in taco skillet. If we’re on the go and he wants a fruit bar, no problem! Eat a meat stick first.

I don’t deprive him of the things that he wants but I’m ALWAYS making sure his blood sugar is balanced and the best way to do that is by giving him protein. His digestion is great, he doesn’t have belly pain, he’s not a gassy kid, and his kidneys are working optimally. Toddlers can handle more than 13 grams of protein, I promise.

I don’t treat fevers (at least not right away).

My son is 2 and has had two fevers in his life. I won’t lie, they did initially make me nervous because we’ve been taught that fevers = danger. But I also know that fevers serve an intentional purpose in the body — raise the body temperature to help kill off whatever infection is going on.

Using fever reducers like Tylenol at the first sign of a fever can drastically increase the length of time that your child is sick. You’re basically sending your kids immune system into war but taking their guns first.

As long as he doesn’t seem uncomfortable (outside of being tired or sluggish), eating okay, and drinking water, I wait. I continually monitor his temperature and if it continued to climb into a dangerous range, I would reach for the fever reducers. I’m not crazy enough to write off all conventional medicine but I’m certainly reaching for other things first.

My go-to’s at the first sign of illness are Earthley Wellness Feel Better Fast (code UNFILTERED for a discount), Bioray Kids NDF Immune, and electrolytes to prevent dehydration. I haven’t had to use a fever reducer yet and my son has recovered super quick every time he’s gotten sick!

I don’t wash his hands with soap when we’re in public.

He will not be touching any antibacterial soap or hand sanitizer. Both of those options have chemicals that soak into your skin and can wreck your gut microbiome when used frequently.

Instead, I carry around a travel bottle of Branch Basics. I spray his hands with the all purpose spray and have him rinse them off. I feel so much better about that touching his skin than I do about any other option you’re gonna find in a public bathroom.

At home he uses the nontoxic soaps that we keep at our sinks. Lately my favorite is Koala Eco (smells so good it’s actually insane that it’s nontoxic).

My toddler doesn’t eat vegetables and I don’t care.

Do I still offer them? Yes. Does he eat them? Almost never. I know that he’ll eat vegetables eventually but honestly I’m not that concerned about it right now. He eats organic grass fed meat, tons of organic fruit, high quality organic/raw dairy, and starchy carbs. He’s getting enough nutrients and fiber from other food sources in his diet that I just can’t care about him not eating broccoli.

I do think it’s important to expand children’s palates which is why I still offer him vegetables every time I make them. Sometimes he’ll take a bite of something but most of the time it sits on his plate until the end of the meal. I don’t stress about it because I know that vegetables are not going to make or break his health at this point.

Could I blend them up and hide them in his food? Yeah I guess but I’m confident enough that he’s getting the nutrition he needs from the rest of his diet so I’m not gonna bend over backwards to be sneaky.

I don’t give my kid vitamins.

He just eats real food. I think the multivitamin industry has preyed on people for decades and it’s just insane how brainwashed we are to think that we can give our kids a gummy vitamin and they’ll grow big and strong.

Just give them real, nutrient dense foods. If your kid is eating a whole-food based diet, they don’t need a multivitamin. If you have a supremely picky eater then you can supplement them in other ways, but a kids multivitamin isn’t even the first place I would start.

Most kids multivitamins have TINY amounts of vitamins because it has to be packaged in a kid-friendly way (i.e. gummies or chewables). You can’t pack much nutrition into a gummy bear that a kid will actually eat.

If you’re worried about your kid getting enough vitamins and minerals, audit their diet rather than spending money on glorified candy.

I don’t believe something is safe just because it’s FDA approved.

I read the ingredient labels on EVERYTHING, even medications. People are shocked to find out that most medications (this goes for adults and children) have dyes, added sugar, preservatives, flavorings, stabilizers, and common allergens like gluten and dairy. And this isn’t even just the medicines that are obviously made for kids.

My son had reflux when he was an infant and we put him on famotidine out of desperation. I have a lot of regrets about this decision but I can’t change the past, so it is what it is. When I finally read the actual ingredients of famotidine, I started weaning him off of it immediately.

It’s a white liquid medication that is not formulated specifically for kids. It has talc (possibly carcinogenic), titanium dioxide (possibly carcinogenic), sodium benzoate (preservative), confectioner’s sugar, and cellulose gum (gut irritant). And I was giving this to my INFANT to help with his reflux???

People assume that because something is “FDA approved” it means it’s automatically safe, but these ingredients tell a different story.

I parasite cleansed my 2 year old.

Let’s end this one with a bang. I cannot even begin to tell you the amount of times I’ve had parents of my kid clients tell me that their pediatrician told them there was no way their kid had parasites.

And then we cleanse their kids and guess what? Parasites.

EVERYONE has parasites and for some reason doctors just refuse to believe this. I chose to parasite cleanse my son at age 2 because he was showing classic signs of parasitic overgrowth. He had extreme emotions/behavior out of nowhere, his sleep was really poor, and he was itching his booty.

We have 2 dogs and my son is all up in their business 24/7. They lick his face, he rolls around in their beds, and he uses our Aussie as his pillow when he’s watching a movie. His face is literally inches away from her butthole. It’s widely accepted and encouraged to de-worm our pets, but for some reason controversial to de-worm our kids.

After 6 weeks of cleansing with kid-friendly herbs and tinctures, his mood stabilized, he stopped itching his booty, and his sleep improved. That’s all the data I need even though the proof was in the pudding (the pudding being his poop and the proof being parasite eggs).

This is just scratching the surface.

Trust me, I could go DEEP into more controversial topics on my motherhood choices but I’m also deeply protective of my son’s privacy. There are certain topics I will discuss at large that will allow you to assume the choices I’ve made for him, but I won’t openly discuss his medical history for the world to read.

I am incredibly lucky that I have a naturopath that I take my son to for his well visits who is not only super cool, but also totally open to all of my antics. She has never pressured me to give my son anything I wasn’t comfortable with and was totally on board when I wanted to stop medicating him for the reflux.

These providers DO exist, you just usually have to pay out of pocket for them. Maybe one day the good ones will be covered by insurance but until then, I’ll happily pay for my own peace of mind that my son is getting the best care possible without having to go to war over it.

Tell me all the controversial decisions you make for your kids in the comments!

It came with a lot of trauma. Going from “let’s check you to see if you’re ready to push” to “we need to get baby out right now” and then being rolled to the OR, jostled around on the table, and then meeting your baby all in under 10 minutes is an experience you just can’t quite comprehend.

I don’t want that to be my story this time around. While I still really wish my son’s birth had gone differently, I learned SO much from that experience that I’m taking with me into the birth of my second child.

Why I want a VBAC

If you aren’t familiar with the term VBAC, it means “vaginal birth after cesarean”. I want my next birth to be redemptive. I’m realistic enough to acknowledge that you can’t plan how your birth is going to go and some things are out of my hands, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to do EVERYTHING in my power to prep for the kind of birth I wish I had the first time around.

My son had a really rough entry into this world. Not only physically (he was quite literally ripped from my womb — the doctor had to work extremely hard to get him out even with a c-section), but he was put into the arms of parents who were in complete shock and just experienced trauma. Not exactly the warm welcoming he deserved.

He dealt with reflux, gut issues, and allergies in his first year that I absolutely attribute to being a c-section baby. When babies don’t go through the vaginal canal, their microbiome doesn’t get seeded with all the healthy bacteria they’re exposed to on their way out. This can cause a lot of issues in that first year that are hard to catch up with.

I know plenty of people who have great experiences with c-sections and I’m not here to tell anyone that they’re bad, it’s just not what I want for myself and my next baby.

Choosing the right provider

I’m still working through feelings of blame and resentment when it comes to the care team I had during my son’s birth. I switched care teams at 33 weeks pregnant because I didn’t feel comfortable with the first team, only to end up with a new team that I didn’t feel comfortable with either.

Without getting into the nitty gritty details of that trauma, I learned that the team you have around you when giving birth matters WAY MORE than I realized. I think a big reason why my labor was stalled was because I didn’t fully trust the people in the room with me. To be frank, I didn’t even like some of them. Your body can feel that, your baby can feel that.

This time around, I ended up choosing the team that actually wound up delivering my son in the hospital. I opted for a hospital birth this time around because I know there are risks with VBACs and I’d rather be somewhere that can swiftly take care of us if something were to go wrong.

The OB that delivered my son was so warm, so kind, and reiterated to me 100 times that just because I had a c-section this time doesn’t mean I’ll need one again. That’s the kind of provider I want on my team for my VBAC.

Even if it means delivering at an old hospital that’s kind of far and isn’t in the greatest part of town. The team matters more to me than being picky about location.

I am not being a potato this pregnancy

I think it’s easy to fall into the trap of “I’m pregnant, I can eat whatever I want and lounge around because I’m growing a human.” You can certainly have days like that, but that was my mentality for way too much of my last pregnancy.

Last time, I was super sick my first trimester and then ended up with placenta previa which limited my ability to exercise. The previa ended up resolving around 28 weeks, but my will to workout did not return that deep into pregnancy.

People say “you can’t train for birth” and I call bullshit on that. You absolutely can and I absolutely am.

Not only do I think I burned out quicker during labor because I was physically and mentally weaker than I needed to be, but my postpartum recovery was ROUGH with the amount of muscle I lost during pregnancy.

This time around I refuse to let that happen regardless if I get my VBAC or not. Starting around 12 weeks I started seeing an amazing pelvic floor PT to start getting my body in shape for birth. She’s helping me with some pelvic floor weakness I had after my son was born and I’m doing daily exercises to work on diaphragmatic breathing, core engagement, mobility, and strengthening to optimize my body for birth.

As we get closer to the end of my pregnancy, we’ll start working on optimal positions for pushing and getting baby in a good position. I SO wish I had done this the first time around.

It’s also nearly impossible to be sedentary with a 2 year old, so I’m up and moving a lot more than last time. On top of that, I’ve been doing Mind Body Core workouts from Doc Lizzie which are amazing 30-40 min pregnancy specific workouts to keep the body in shape (admittedly I need to be more consistent with these, but still).

I want my body to be strong, but I want my mind to be stronger

This is an area that I didn’t work on enough the first time around. Labor is INTENSE and I don’t think I took that seriously enough. I have a pretty high pain tolerance so I just assumed I would handle it fine. Nothing can prepare you for 22 hours of unmedicated back labor with 8 seconds of rest between contractions.

Now that I’ve experienced what it can be like, I’m leaning much more into mental prep work this time around.

Mental prep looks different for everyone. I’ve been listening to pregnancy and birth prep affirmations on the Activations app to get my mind into the right state for the birth I want to have. After a traumatic experience the first time around, it’s really easy for my brain to follow the path of fear rather than believing it can and will work out the way I want it to. Activations help center me and remind me that what I want is possible.

I also plan to lean in to hypnobirthing this time around. Learning to control your breath and your thoughts during times of stress is an invaluable skill. I have an online course that I’ll be doing through the Built to Birth course and I’m looking forward to diving in to that soon.

When you’re in the thick of labor and your mind is in “labor land” it’s really hard to implement these strategies if they aren’t practiced ahead of time. I want positive affirmations burned into my brain and my breath control to come as naturally as possible so labor can be a much smoother experience this time around.

Creating a solid birth plan

I was naive the first time around believing that because I chose a home birth that my baby would absolutely be born at home (LOL)

Well that didn’t happen and let me tell ya, it’s chaotic to try to communicate your desires to a brand new team in the thick of labor. This time around I will have a very clear birth plan that my whole team will understand so I can just focus on labor when the time comes. Removing this stress will hopefully allow my body to relax into the experience rather than tense up and prevent that baby from coming out.

I’m happy to share my birth plan after my babe is born but for now I’m keeping that closer to my heart.

Planning for it all, going in with zero expectations

If my last labor taught me anything, it’s that you can plan all you want but ultimately it’s these little babies who run the show. I will do everything in my power to facilitate the best birth possible but I’m realistic enough to understand that interventions are sometimes necessary.

This is where having a team that you fully trust becomes PARAMOUNT. When you’re in the throes of labor, you don’t want to be weighing pros and cons and making decisions on interventions that may be necessary. I trust my midwife to give me her honest opinion on whether something like a repeat c-section needs to happen due to xyz complication.

I’m not going to put myself or my baby in danger by refusing the birth that I don’t desire simply because I don’t desire it. I know better than that. So I’ll plan everything I can so I can be mentally and physically prepared but I’ll be entering birth with the mindset of “whatever happens, happens.”

If you’ve had a successful VBAC, share your story with me!! I want to hear all the positive VBAC stories going into this next labor.

If you had a traumatic or unsuccessful VBAC story, my heart goes out to you but please don’t share that with me right now. Mindset, remember???

I love running comprehensive bloodwork for my clients. I recommend it to all of my adult clients so we can see where their baseline is and use that info to dig into the root causes of their symptoms. But you have to be trained in how to interpret labs from a functional perspective to actually get the full scope of what’s going on in someone’s body, and most practitioners aren’t.

So let’s chat about all the reasons why your labs might appear to be normal when your symptoms definitely aren’t.

How reference ranges are calculated

Reference ranges are usually to the right of your lab results and tell you what range is considered normal for each marker. If your lab values fall outside of this range, they’ll be flagged as high or low.

These reference ranges are arguably the biggest problem with lab work. Most practitioners will scan through labs and only look for results that are flagged when in reality, to be TRULY healthy, you need to work off of much tighter ranges than what the lab provides for you.

The reference intervals above are determined by taking the AVERAGE results of a group of “healthy” people. Here’s my beef with that: how do you determine that they’re healthy? Is the average person actually healthy deep down? Isn’t it a bit of a catch 22 to identify someone as “healthy” before actually running their labs to let them participate in the determination of the reference range?

They’re also taking the average of the central 95% of results, meaning they’ll exclude 2.5% of people who are on the way low end and 2.5% of people that are on the high end of each lab value. That’s a massive bell curve to take the average of! You’re likely including several people who are not actually healthy into those averages leading to reference ranges that are way too wide to actually determine what’s normal.

This is why so many people fall into the “average” range when in reality, the range is too big to begin with.

I work off of very tight ranges for what I consider to be optimal for blood labs. I’ve never, and I mean NEVER, had a client’s labs done that come back perfectly normal. There’s always some sort of pattern of dysfunction, even if lab values are just slightly off.

Doctors never run full bloodwork panels

This is the second biggest factor in why your labs are “normal” — your doctor probably isn’t looking at a ton of data. The standard practitioner will run a CBC (complete blood count) to look at your blood cells, a CMP (comprehensive metabolic panel) to look at your organ function, and then MAYBE throw in some markers like vitamin D or a cholesterol panel.

If you ask for thyroid markers, you’re most likely getting TSH and T4 only which tells you virtually nothing about how the thyroid is actually functioning.

When I run labs for clients, we offer to order them at wholesale cost for our clients to pay out of pocket for a FULL comprehensive blood panel. Most clients opt for this, but some choose to take our requested markers and run it through their doctor to see if they can get insurance to cover it.

Not one time have I had a client come back with the full results that we request from their doctor. Apparently doctors don’t see the value in running full panels if patients aren’t having GLARING symptoms of dysfunction in specific areas. It’s such a battle to get them to even order the labs that (mind you) costs them nothing to order.

Of course your labs look normal if you’re only looking at a small subset of markers. When you dig deeper is when you uncover the real problems.

Trends tell you a lot more than single values

Running labs once is helpful, but running labs regularly and comparing them to each other is FAR more helpful.

The biggest drawback of bloodwork is that you’re getting results from one snapshot in time. Maybe you were more dehydrated that day and your CBC comes back abnormal because of it. Maybe you got shitty sleep the night before so your cortisol and glucose are higher. Maybe you recently had a cold that your immune system was still fighting off so your blood cells look a little wonky.

There are so many factors that can alter blood values so tracking trends over time is so much more helpful that a single spot of bloodwork.

This is especially true for any sort of hormonal testing. I work with a lot of thyroid clients and I’m always recommending 3-6 month intervals of checking thyroid hormones to track trends. You might fall into the optimal range on your labs today but could be on a downward trajectory that hasn’t shown up in bloodwork yet. Even if you fall in the normal range, a downward trend could still explain your fatigue and weight gain.

Watching trends over time will give you a lot more info on what’s happening in your body than spot checking once and being dismissed as “normal.”

You must look for patterns within the panels

Taking each individual blood marker for what it is won’t help determine the root cause of your symptoms. Everything is connected!

If your cholesterol comes back really low, it might not be a cholesterol problem, it could be a thyroid problem.

Low platelets might be passed off as anemia but when paired with high protein, low triglycerides, and high CRP, you might be looking at an autoimmune issue.

Maybe your cholesterol is low, your estrogen is high, and your uric acid is elevated. Those could be looked at as 3 separate problems, but they all point to mold toxicity.

Learning how to find patterns of dysfunction gives you a well rounded idea of what’s going on internally in your body or externally in your environment.

Bloodwork doesn’t always give the full picture

I don’t actually use bloodwork to determine every root cause I’m curious about when it comes to my clients’ symptoms. If someone comes to me with glaring hormonal issues, I’ll recommend a DUTCH test alongside routine bloodwork. Hormones just aren’t as reliable through blood panels as they are through urine panels.

There are patterns that I’m looking for in blood labs to see if someone may have an issue with mold or heavy metals, but if I suspect a real issue with them I’m going to recommend a urine toxin panel or a Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA) test.

Always remember — bloodwork is ONE SNAPSHOT IN TIME. Sometimes problems are super obvious when lab markers are way off, but other times when labs are “normal” you might have to dig deeper with other forms of testing. Just because your labs are normal doesn’t mean your symptoms are.

Being diagnosed with Celiac at the ripe age of 18 was both a blessing and a curse. A curse for obvious reasons (good bread) but a blessing for SO many other reasons.

That diagnosis was the kickstart to my health journey. It was a slow burn at first since I still spent the next 3.5 years as a college student at the #1 party school in the nation, but it shifted my mindset in the smallest way to start paying attention to what my body needed.

I often wonder what my life would look like if I was never diagnosed with Celiac and I wasn’t forced to put my health on the forefront from such a young age. I’ve learned an incredible amount in the 15 years since that diagnosis and I’m grateful for where my health is at today, but what would I tell my 33 year old self to do if I hadn’t prioritized my health over the last decade and a half?

Before we dive into that, let me preface this with the fact that NONE of this is going to be a quick fix and absolutely none of it is sexy. But it’s the truth that a lot of people need to hear when it comes to fixing their health.

Priority 1: Audit your life.

Before adding in a bunch of supplements, dietary changes, and lifestyle habits, take a long, hard look at your life.

• What are you eating that doesn’t make you feel your best?

• What stressors are you allowing into your day to day?

• Do you feel constantly rushed?

• Who are you allowing into your life that leave you feeling drained after spending time with?

• Do you wake up feeling refreshed?

• Are you constantly snacking throughout the day?

• Does your environment support you feeling calm or overstimulated?

• Are you building time into your schedule to do things that bring you joy?

I think a lot of times when health becomes an issue, people know deep down what they need to change. But sometimes doing a life audit and really facing the music can be a catalyst to get you to actually make those changes.

Priority 2: Eat real food.

You cannot out-supplement or out-exercise a bad diet. You simply need to start eating real food. I don’t care who you are, a whole-food based diet is going to make you feel better in every single way.

This means shopping the perimeter of the grocery store. Fresh produce, quality meats, and ideally eating seasonally. Take it 1 step further and get your groceries from the farmer’s market. It’s fresher and will last longer in your fridge.

Kick the processed foods. Even the “healthy” ones for the time being. If you want to get back on track, you must learn to cook healthy meals from scratch. It’s not that hard, I promise. It’s a skill that will serve you well for your entire life so if you suck at cooking, find someone close to you who doesn’t and let them teach you the basics.

No fast food. No frozen pizzas. No processed snacks. Just eat real food.

Priority 3: Sleep.

I can’t tell you how many clients come to me with all kinds of symptoms that would likely go away if they just started prioritizing their sleep. I warned you that this wasn’t going to be sexy.

As a mom of a toddler, I understand that sometimes you might feel like you have zero time to yourself and after the kids go to sleep is your only time to do what you want. But if your health isn’t on track, staying up late to scroll social media or zone out on the couch will perpetuate your health issues and make you feel worse in the long run.

Circadian rhythm matters SO much when it comes to your hormonal health. Staring at blue light into all hours of the night is messing with your hormones.

I had a client recently tell me she’s getting the same amount of sleep but shifted her sleep window from going to bed at midnight and waking up at 8 to going to bed at 9 and waking up at 5. She couldn’t believe that she felt so much better waking up at 5am than she did sleeping in until 8. That’s the beauty of circadian syncing.

Priority 4: Get off social media.

Social media is a huge problem when it comes to nervous system regulation.

Are you tired of me talking about the nervous system yet? Because I’ll never stop.

Nervous system dysregulation is the NUMBER ONE problem I see with my clients. People are coming to us wanting to detox and get their energy back and feel less anxious.

Detoxing is a big part of feeling good, I’ll never say otherwise. But how many of us feel tired and anxious because we spend half our days scrolling and consuming content of other people’s “perfect” lives?

I bought a Brick about a month ago and the change in my nervous system on days that I’m Bricked out of social media compared to the days when I’m not is palpable. When I stay off social, I’m more productive, calmer, and a better mom. I feel better in my body and I’m able to feel more gratitude for my life versus comparing myself to strangers on the internet.

Your body will not heal if it’s constantly in a state of stress. Ditch social media and tell me how much better you feel — mind, body, and spirit.

It’s also amazing how much time you find yourself having to do things that you actually enjoy. Take your life back!

Priority 5: Ditch the toxins.

While I would love for all of my recommendations to be easy and foundational, sadly we live in a country where they’re slowly poisoning us from every possible angle.

You must pay attention to the chemicals in the products you’re using. Cleaning products, personal care products, foods you’re buying, everything.

Your toxin load matters. I look at toxin panels for clients all the time and you’d be shocked at the levels of pesticides, mold, heavy metals, phthalates, and other toxins come up on their panels.

Pay attention to what you’re using in your home and control what you can control.

Priority 6: Work with someone who knows what they’re doing.

If you aren’t well versed in the health world, PLEASE find someone who is and let them help you.

When it comes to overall improvement of your health and preventative medicine, you’re going to need a functional practitioner. Your PCP simply does not know how to help you when it comes to optimizing your health, they just know how to bandaid you when your health goes to shit.

Let me tell ya, it’s HARD to find someone good to work on your health. I’ve hired and fired doctors repeatedly until I found one that I aligned with. So let that also be your reminder that your doctor/practitioner works for you, not the other way around. You can shop around to find someone who will support your health in a way that feels good to you.

Find someone good, get comprehensive bloodwork done, and see what’s going on under the hood. It’s the best way to streamline your healing if you actually know what’s going on internally.

I told you none of it was sexy.

The reality is that to achieve optimal health, you really just need to go back to the basics. Live like we lived back in the 90’s when social media and constant stimulation weren’t a thing.

Getting your health back on track feels daunting but the reality is that it’s not actually hard. It just feels hard because you’ll be going against the grain.

You know what IS hard? Feeling like shit day in and day out.

I’m so glad that I’ve prioritized my health over the last 15 years and that I don’t have to start from scratch. But if you do, that’s perfectly fine. Starting today is better than never starting.

Where do you want to be in a year from now? An entirely better version of yourself or exactly the same? Don’t stop yourself from doing something just because it will take time, the time will pass anyway.

Always rooting for you,
Steph

Let me be the first to say, I don’t have it all together. In fact quite the opposite of that right now. But I know I’m not the only one in the trenches so I wanted to share my best tips for keeping my sanity (and my child’s) so we don’t all break down in tears every day.

Read more

I still feel that way sometimes if I’m being honest but I can also acknowledge that reading is such an incredible outlet for me to regulate my nervous system. Sometimes you have to put your troubles aside and immerse yourself into someone else’s life for a little while.

If you follow me on instagram, you’ve probably seen my book rating system. All books are rated out of 5 stars — most books are 3 stars. This is a good rating! It means I enjoyed the book but it didn’t move me in a way that would deserve a higher rating. Four star books are ones I will think about for a while, but didn’t change me.

Five star books are rare. They don’t come around often but when they do, whew. I get emotional hangovers from these books. They are books that I will think about forever. Books that had twists so good I never saw them coming. Books that moved me in a way that brought me to tears. These are the books I’m sharing with you today.

Reading is subjective so I can’t guarantee these will be the best books YOU ever read in your life, but they are the books that have changed me on a soul level and that I will recommend until the end of time.

Without further ado, and in no particular order, with chatGPT generated summaries…here are the best books I have ever read.

Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah

This novel is about two sisters who reunite when their father becomes ill. They have an emotionally distant mother who has always kept her past locked away. At their father’s dying request, their mother finally tells them the full version of a mysterious fairy tale that she once shared with them when they were children. As the sisters listen, they uncover the truth of her life during World War II, a story so heartbreaking and powerful that it reshapes their understanding of family, identity, and forgiveness.

I struggle to even find the words for how I felt reading this book. Kristin Hannah is such a beautiful writer and the story will rip your heart right out of your chest. It’s so beautiful, so gut wrenching, and made me sob over my sleeping child while I read it during his contact naps.

Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough

This book is a psychological thriller about Louise, a single mother who unexpectedly becomes entangled with her new boss, David, after a chance meeting leads to an affair. Even more startling, David’s seemingly perfect wife, Adele, befriends Louise — drawing her deeper into a tangled web of secrets, manipulation, and obsession. As Louise grows closer to both David and Adele, eerie questions arise about their marriage and motivations, leading to a shocking twist that redefines everything you thought you knew.

This book became a Netflix mini series that I will admit was done really well, but please read the book instead. It’s rare that a mystery book has an ending that I hadn’t considered at least at some point throughout reading it, but this one takes the cake. I sat with my mouth gaping open for a full 10 minutes after I read this book. Incredible writing. I’ve been chasing that high ever since.

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

This book is a powerful novel about the Allbright family, who move to the remote Alaskan wilderness in the 1970s seeking a fresh start. As they confront the breathtaking yet unforgiving landscape, they must also face their own internal struggles—Ernt, a volatile Vietnam War veteran, grapples with PTSD, and his wife Cora and daughter Leni are pushed to their limits. Amid harsh winters and isolation, Leni comes of age, discovering resilience, love, and what it truly means to survive both nature and family turmoil.

Kristin Hannah can do no wrong. I read this book shortly after going through one of the darkest times in my life. I actually almost stopped reading it because I felt like I should be reading something more lighthearted, but something in me told me to keep going and I’m so glad I did. This book is such an incredible story that covers the full spectrum of the human experience. It will slowly break your heart and then put it back together again.

All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker

This book is an epic, emotionally charged thriller and mystery spanning decades. Set in 1975 in a small Missouri town where girls are disappearing, the story follows Patch Macauley, a one-eyed boy who intervenes in an abduction and is kidnapped himself. After escaping a dark cellar with only the voice of another captive, Grace, in his memory, Patch dedicates his life to finding her and uncovering what happened to the missing girls. The novel weaves together suspense, love, loss, and obsession as Patch and those around him grapple with trauma, justice, and the search for hope across time.

This might be the best book I’ve ever read. It’s long, it spans so much time, and it’s dark, I won’t lie. But holy shit it’s such an incredible story with so many interwoven parts. I couldn’t stop reading it and I didn’t read another book for almost a month after I finished it. 100 stars.

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Atmosphere is a 2025 historical fiction romance set in the early 1980s against the backdrop of NASA’s Space Shuttle program. It follows Joan Goodwin, an astronomer turned astronaut trainee, as she pursues her dream of reaching space, forms deep bonds with her fellow trainees, and discovers a powerful, unexpected love with another woman in the program, Vanessa Ford. The story weaves together ambition, romance, danger, and self-discovery as Joan navigates life on Earth and in orbit while confronting both professional challenges and personal transformation.

I have never sobbed at the end of a book the way I sobbed at the end of this book. I enjoyed every single page. TJR is a great author, I’ve really enjoyed several of her books but this one felt different to me. The NASA aspect was so interesting to read but I also gained so much perspective on how different it was for same sex relationships back in the 80’s compared to today. It doesn’t feel like it was that long ago, but what a different world it was.

This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub

This Time Tomorrow is a heart-felt novel with a time-travel twist. On the eve of her 40th birthday, Alice Stern is comfortable but unsettled with her life—and deeply worried about her ailing father. After a night out, she mysteriously wakes up back in 1996 on her 16th birthday, with the chance to relive moments of her youth, see her vibrant young dad again, and reconsider the choices that shaped her life. Blending nostalgia, family love, and self-discovery, the book uses its fantastical premise to explore how we reckon with the past and the meaning of time, memory, and regret.

I recommend this book to so many people. It’s so sweet and in case you haven’t sensed a pattern in my favorite books yet, this one will also warm your heart while also breaking it a little. I loved this book so much I feel like I need to go read it again.

I’m always down for new book recommendations, so leave a comment or send me an email and let me know the best book you’ve ever read!

We’re going to cover what vitamin D actually is (is it a vitamin or a hormone?), why it’s important, how to test for it, why everyone is deficient, and how to decide whether or not you should supplement.

Let’s clarify what vitamin D really is.

Vitamin D supplementation has come under fire in recent years because many are saying that it’s not a vitamin and that it’s actually a hormone. We definitely don’t want to blindly supplement any hormone without understanding where our body is at, so people started sounding the alarms against vitamin D supplementation.

So is it a vitamin or is it a hormone?

After my extensive research, I can honestly say it’s both.

When it was first discovered in the early 1900’s that cod liver oil could prevent rickets, vitamin D was born. It was labeled as a vitamin back then because it was thought of as something the body cannot make in sufficient quantities and must be obtained from food. That’s the definition of a vitamin.

Vitamin D got lumped in with the fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K), and to this day it’s sold as a supplement alongside all the other vitamins.

But as science progressed we realized that vitamin D doesn’t behave the same in the body as a traditional vitamin would.

Read more

Some things were flipped in a good way — I’m seeing more clients right now than I’ve ever seen at one time in my career. I’m getting to help so many kids and adults rediscover their health by digging into the root cause of their symptoms and helping them heal. It’s true what they say — people are really ready to start prioritizing their health in January.

I’m also still getting to work as an OT, but on my own time. I really never thought of that as a possibility but I truly think I manifested it after my son was born. I didn’t want to fully give up my OT career but I definitely didn’t want to go back to in-person treating. Now I get to do evaluations whenever it works for my schedule and I oversee OT assistants from the comfort of my own home. It’s the dream.

Work is going well but not everything is sunshine and rainbows.

I’m also spending a lot of time helping a close family member who is going through cancer treatment. You hear stories of other people getting cancer and you think to yourself, “I can’t imagine.” And you really can’t imagine until you’re in it. You pray it won't touch your family and it’s a gut punch when it does.

So between squeezing in my work hours wherever I can fit them to spending my free hours researching cancer treatments, cooking healthy meals, and tending to my family, it would be really easy to let myself go.

But I know better than that. I want to show up for my family in the best way that I can. They have taken care of me my entire life and it is not my “duty” to show up for them now, it’s my honor to do so.

To show up as my best self, I have to put my oxygen mask on first. So here are the things I’ve been doing to prioritize my health and my peace during this season.

Read more

Over the years, I’ve noticed a massive shift in how kids function in their daily life. Kids went from being young, wild, and free to asking for help to do the simplest of tasks. I know the mental load it takes to be a mom and I only have one kid. Now imagine a world where your kids problem solve, think for themselves, and independently try things without saying “mom” “mom help” “mom can you do this for me” 1000 times per day.

Here’s my unsolicited advice on how to foster confidence and independence in your kids.

Start ‘em young

I really think the problem is starting when these kids are toddlers. As a toddler mom myself, I know how hard it can be to navigate this stage. They’re strong willed and sometimes you want to just throw your hands in the air and let them do whatever they want so you can get a minute of damn peace.

I beg of you, don’t do that. Kids NEED structure in this stage. They need boundaries. They need you to be the grown up. If you want fewer power struggles, pay close attention.

Gentle parenting just won’t do it for them. You can be firm without being mean. Getting on the floor with your child and asking them how they’re feeling while they’re mid-tantrum isn’t going to make them feel safe, it’s going to make them feel more out of control because you aren’t modeling how they’re supposed to behave. You’re going to end up with a kid who thinks they’re in charge.

But the thing is — kids don’t know how to be in charge. They don’t have the executive functioning abilities to know how to be in charge. That’s how they become tiny dictators with raging emotions.

Set the boundary for their expected behavior and when they have emotions about it, you can acknowledge that they feel sad and comfort them as you please but you do. not. break. the. boundary.

This sets you up for so much success in the later stages. Your child will be much more complaint once they’ve learned you are the one in charge.

Let them do dangerous things safely

I know that’s an oxymoron, but hear me out. A huge part of independence is learning how to trust yourself. Part of that comes from trying out dangerous things but as a parent, you get to control the danger.

I have a RAMBUNCTIOUS toddler. He wants to be throwing his body on mine and body slamming our couch cushions. Rather than telling him “that’s not safe” and stopping the behavior, I set up the environment so he can crash all he wants without hurting himself.

I’ve seen families with boys have entire romp rooms in their house to allow for this exact thing. It teaches kids how to try new things, how to move their bodies in different ways, and how to build trust in themselves.

I want my kid to be tough. I want him to be able to handle hardship without breaking down or becoming a nervous wreck. This means letting him try things like climbing trees (and monitoring how high he goes), riding his bike fast (with a helmet), or climbing up and down the ladder (spotting him but not intervening). Don’t project your anxieties onto your kids!

Include them in everything

From a young age, most kids just want to be included in whatever you’re doing. So include them! It might take twice the amount of time to do your laundry with them “folding” but they’ll never learn if they don’t have the chance to practice.

This is also such a good time to have open conversations with your kids about life and whatever they’re going through in that season. Some of the best conversations happen over mundane tasks.

Fostering independence can be done in the home, but it’s really reinforced outside of the home. Bring them out into the world with you from a young age!

Rather than putting a screen in front of them at a restaurant, include them in dinner conversation, have them learn how to explore a menu and order their own food, and encourage them to ask waiters for what they need. If your kids are really little, you can bring activities for them to do with their siblings or with you so they’re still engaged. It helps to build their confidence in public places rather than teaching them to tune out of the world around them.

Stop solving their problems

If you gather anything from this post, let it be this. PLEASE stop doing everything for them. When you jump in at the first sign of hardship, they will never learn how to solve problems on their own. I get it, it’s hard to see kids struggle but it’s necessary for their brains to figure out how to problem solve.

When I was working in the school system, it was glaring how hard kids were struggling with problem solving. And I don’t mean math problems or solving problems in an academic sense, I mean solving basic problems in a real world sense.

Kids would come up to me and say “my pencil broke.” Okay??? There is a pencil sharpener in every classroom. It was almost like they needed to be told to do every step of their day.

This was also a huge issue with peer relationships (especially in the post-COVID era). If any sort of conflict arose, they immediately run to their teacher. In all my years of working in the schools, I’ve only worked with ONE teacher who did an incredible job at fostering kids independence with conflict. For the most part, the teachers would intervene or remove one student from the situation. This doesn’t help anyone.

In my opinion, the best approach is to keep asking them questions. If they come to you with a problem, ask them what they think they could do about it. If someone says something mean to them, ask “what do you think you could say back to them?” If they come to you and say their shirt got all dirty, ask them “how do you think you could solve that problem?”

Get them thinking outside the box on how to solve problems and before you know it, they’ll be solving them without your help.

LET THEM FAIL

One of the biggest and most frustrating changes I’ve seen in kids in recent years is they don’t know how to fail. So many kids won't even try something if they think they’re going to fail at it, and a lot of times it’s because they weren’t given a chance to fail safely at a young age. But don’t fear! You can still break this habit even with older kids, it just might take some more time.

Similar to the previous section, if your kid is building a tower that keeps falling down, don’t go in and build them a sturdy base. Let them try to figure it out on their own. If they ask for your help — turn it back on them. “It seems like your tower keeps falling over at the bottom. What do you think you could do to make the bottom stronger?” Gently guide them to the answer, but don’t give it to them outright.

The best way for kids to learn how to fail is to let them see YOU fail and watch how you react to it.

Try something you’ve never done before and let them watch you figure it out. This doesn’t have to be staged, you can simply notice the language you use around your mistakes and model how it’s not a big deal. If you blow up and talk down on yourself every time you make a mistake, your kid will absorb that as “oh man it’s really bad to fail.”

Being afraid to fail = afraid to try anything new = dependent on you or others to help them.

The Takeaway

Ultimately, the only way to foster independence in your kids is by giving them independence. They have to be given opportunities to try things on their own at every stage. For toddlers, this might mean letting them explore toys or household objects without you hovering over them. For younger kids, this could be letting them order at a restaurant or check out and pay at the store. For teenagers, this means not micromanaging, guiding them when it’s appropriate, but ultimately allowing them to make mistakes (parents of teenagers, are you okay out there??)

It’s HARD to do this because we all just want to protect our babies from failure but I promise you, you’re doing them a huge disservice if you don’t allow them to fail.

Let me know your thoughts or experiences with this!

Always rooting for you,
Steph

Why They’re So Popular

Humans loooooove data. We want to tap into our watch to see our resting heart rate, we want to know how many calories we burned during a fitness class, how many hours of REM sleep we got, and dear god we are OBSESSED with knowing how many steps we get each day. We have an innate desire for control that the numerical data from fitness trackers give us.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I think it can be used to fuel yourself to get moving if you see you’ve only walked 500 steps and it’s already noon. Data is also valuable if you’re an athlete with specific goals in mind or you’re on a weight loss journey that relies on tracking how many calories you’re burning in a day. The trackers give us valuable information about our health that we wouldn’t get otherwise.

We also have a deep desire to pinpoint a specific reason we aren’t feeling our best. If you’re having an off day, it’s easy to check your Oura sleep score to possibly explain why you’re more irritable. We live in a health obsessed society (well, a lot of us do) and we want information about our health to help explain why we feel how we feel.

Read more

The Hormone Narrative We’ve Been Sold

For so long, hormones have been a hot topic especially among women. Companies are marketing their supplements or products as “hormone balancing” when in reality, they aren’t balancing anything at all. Women are dealing with major PMS symptoms, infertility is skyrocketing, and women are constantly pursuing “balance.” I get why they want to find the balance, but they’re attempting to solve the wrong problem.

Doctors are a major part of the problem. If you went to a traditional doctor right now and complained of terrible PMS, you’d be lucky if they actually ran a hormone panel before suggesting birth control as a “solution.” I know this happens because my clients tell me all the time. Sometimes they come to me because their doctors straight up refused to run a hormone panel on them.

If they do run tests and discover a hormonal imbalance, rarely are they peeling back the layers to figure out why the imbalance is there in the first place. They’re quick to prescribe creams, supplements, or hormonal replacement therapies to “fix” the problem. But it doesn’t fix the problem, because soon you’re going to need higher doses of hormonal therapies to achieve the same effects and if you come off of the hormonal supports, you’re going to crash right back to where you were before. These solutions may help you feel better in the short term but if you don’t dig in to find the root cause, your body will never achieve natural balance.

Hormones Are Internal Signals

Hormones don’t decide what happens in your body, they report on what’s happening in your body. For example if you’re chronically stressed, your hormones will respond by increasing cortisol, which then lowers progesterone and leads to estrogen dominance and PMS. If you have an overload of toxins in your body, your liver will struggle to convert your inactive thyroid hormone to active thyroid hormone in order for your metabolism to run smoothly.

Hormones are heavily influenced by stress, blood sugar regulation, inflammation, toxins like mold, heavy metals, phthalates, parabens, and artificial fragrance, as well as your nutrient stores. This is why addressing hormonal imbalances isn’t getting to the root of the issue. It’s like ordering a new shirt, receiving pants instead, and then blaming the mail carrier.

What’s Actually Causing Hormonal Imbalances

Now let’s get into the most common root causes of hormonal imbalances. These are different areas you should explore if you’re dealing with any kind of hormonal issues!

• Nervous system dysregulation. Are you tired of me talking about the nervous system yet??? If you’re chronically stressed, you’re going to have elevated cortisol which will then cause disruption in your thyroid hormones, sex hormones, and can mess with your blood sugar. Speaking of blood sugar…

• Blood sugar imbalances. Blood sugar alone can be the root cause of your hormonal issues. Insulin resistance disrupts ovulation, testosterone levels, fertility, and is strongly linked to conditions like PCOS.

• Nutrient deficiencies. Your body needs co-factors to produce hormones effectively. If you’re deficient in zinc, magnesium, iodine, selenium, or B vitamins, your body doesn’t have the “raw materials” it needs for proper hormone production. This doesn’t mean you should go out and get a multivitamin — most multivitamins are crap. Dial in your diet, make sure your digestion is on point, and then evaluate if you need to supplement.

• Gut inflammation. Your gut plays a big role in hormone production. Some hormones, like serotonin, are primarily produced in the gut! Inflammation will get in the way of this production while causing a whole host of other issues. Gut inflammation may stem from parasites, toxins, poor digestion, gluten, or stress to name a few.

• Sluggish detox pathways. This is a huge one! Your liver is responsible for detoxing excess estrogen. Estrogen dominance is a clearance issue, not an overproduction issue! The liver also converts your inactive thyroid hormone into its active form so oftentimes thyroid issues are actually stemming from an overburdened liver.

• Endocrine disrupting chemicals. Sometimes your external environment is actually causing your hormone issues. If you’re using products that contain PFAs, phthalates, parabens, BPA, or dioxins, you’re throwing off your body’s natural hormonal signals. Some of these toxins mimic hormones like estrogen or thyroid hormones and confuse the body making it difficult for your actual hormones to do their jobs. Other toxins actually block your hormones from binding to their receptors making it seem like you have low hormones when really your body is just struggling to use them.

Why Hormone Panels Don’t Really Matter

This might be an unpopular opinion, but big extensive (and expensive) hormone panels don’t really matter that much. I think they’re super interesting to read and give you information about your body, but they don’t address the root cause of what’s going on in your body. With the exception of thyroid hormone panels (which aren’t big or expensive), I rarely recommend hormone tests like the DUTCH test to my clients.

Another reason I don’t think they’re helpful is that a lot of times labs might look “normal” and doctors will be quick to dismiss your symptoms as something else entirely. I think this happens for a few different reasons — one being the ranges of what is considered “normal” these days is way too wide. Optimal is not the same as normal. Another reason is that the body is really good at compensating when things are off. Hormones aren’t root cause, so if your levels are normal it doesn’t mean your body is functioning optimally.

Rather than spending hundreds of dollars on hormone testing, I have my clients follow the order of operations of healing that I’ve seen work time and time again. It’s the same approach whether your hormones are low, high, or normal. When you address the foundations of health like stress, digestion, detox pathways, mineral status, and blood sugar regulation, you can often fix the root of your issues without having to worry about balancing each and every hormone.

Your Body Isn’t Broken

Just because your hormones are off doesn’t mean your body is broken. Your body has an innate healing capacity but when things like toxins and stress get in the way, the body can’t do its job. Hormonal imbalances are signals that something deeper is off in your body and if you address it with hormonal replacement therapy or try to out-supplement it, you’ll be chasing your tail trying to get the body back in balance. Figure out what is disrupting your hormones, fix that, and harmony will return to your body.

When I started my nutrition journey, I swore I would never touch detox. It scared me because I knew people could have extreme reactions and I didn’t want to touch that. Now the bulk of my job is helping people detox, and the bulk of my clients are actually children. Talk about a 180 from where I thought my career would go.

Parents are often scared to detox their kids because they don’t want them to have extreme reactions or be uncomfortable. The sad reality is that we live in such a toxic world, kids are building up levels of toxicity at a much more rapid pace. Kids are covered in eczema, having behavioral struggles, gut issues, and getting diagnosed with ADHD, autism, asthma, and anxiety on a level we’ve never seen before. Toxins are absolutely a player in all of those conditions, so detoxing is becoming necessary to keep our kids healthy.

Let’s dig into what works, what doesn’t, and how to gently support your kids’ bodies to let go of what isn’t serving them.

This post is purely informational and is not intended to replace medical advice. Always consult your child’s pediatrician or a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your child’s diet, supplements, or health routine.

Read more

Microwaves weren’t even a thing until the late 1960’s and didn’t become a household staple until the 1990’s. Relatively speaking, microwaves are a fairly new contraption in the kitchen. I get why they exploded — the convenience of a microwave is unmatched. But let’s dive into what they’re actually doing to your food and why it’s healthier to keep it out of your routine.

How Microwaves Work

Microwaves work by creating electromagnetic energy that bounces off the walls inside your microwave. This energy gets absorbed by water, fat, and sugar molecules in your food. When they absorb the energy, they start to vibrate which creates friction to produce heat and warm up your food. They work by moving from the outside in — which is why you might find that the outside of your food is scalding hot and the middle is still frozen.

This type of radiation is non-ionizing, meaning it’s enough energy to excite the electrons in the food molecules but not strong enough to alter the DNA inside the molecule. It’s the same type of radiation coming from our phones, radios, WiFi, and power lines. Non-ionizing radiation is “generally considered safe” even though it’s harmful at high intensities. The scientific community is pretty divided on the safety of consistent low-grade exposure, like our phones being glued to our bodies 24/7.

Why Microwaving Food Is Problematic

Your food contains nutrients, many of which are heat sensitive like vitamin C, B vitamins, antioxidants, and naturally occurring enzymes. When you microwave food, these nutrients are heated quickly, to high temperatures, and unevenly due to the nature of how microwaves work. The nutrients degrade, the enzymes get denatured, and you’ve now made your food less nutritious. This is especially true if you’re microwaving food more than once!

This doesn’t happen when you reheat your food in an oven or on the stove because heat is distributed evenly, your food heats up at a slower pace, and you don’t get hot spots like in a microwave. Your food retains its nutrients and they typically taste better compared to the soggy food that comes out of the microwave.

Please Stop Putting Plastic In The Microwave

This is a whole other rabbit hole I could go down, but I’ll keep it short. “Microwave safe” does not mean something is safe for your health. Heating food in plastic containers or putting plastic lids in the microwave is one of the absolute worst things you can do for your health. Plastic contains endocrine disrupting compounds like PFAs, BPA, and phthalates that are getting directly absorbed into your food. Eating out of plastic is problematic to begin with, but microwaving it is drastically accelerating the release of microplastics and chemicals into your food.

I also want to address the “BPA free” debacle. BPA stands for bisphenol-A — it’s a chemical used to create plastic that came under fire because of its harmful effects on human health. So now everything is labeled BPA free. Great right??? Wrong. There are over 50 different types of bisphenols (some say there are closer to 200 different types), all harmful to your health. So just because something is “BPA free” doesn’t mean it’s health to use. It probably has BPS, BPF, or any of the other dozen chemicals in it.

What To Do Instead

It takes some getting used to because I understand how convenient microwaves are, but it doesn’t take long before you don’t even miss it anymore. My favorite ways to reheat food are in the toaster oven or on the stove. You can get fancy with putting leftovers in an instant pot on a trivet with water in the bottom to steam it, but honestly I think throwing it in a pan or the toaster oven is quicker and easier. Just reheat your food on low heat, give it time, and your food will not only be more delicious but also more nutritious.

The Takeaway

You don’t have to go and throw your microwave away, but just unplug it for a week and see how you feel. That’s how I started and I never plugged it back in. To some, this might feel extreme and like something you just don't need to worry about but small changes compound over time. Our food is already SO depleted of nutrients, the last thing you want to do is zap away any of the nutrients it still has left. Not to mention the radiation exposure — I know they say it’s safe, but they used to think cigarettes were healthy and look where that got us.

Always rooting for you,
Steph

Healing Doesn’t Happen in Survival Mode

This is a concept that I’ve wrestled with for a long time. It feels like the chicken or the egg — my nervous system is whacked out because of toxins but I have to calm the nervous system before getting rid of the toxins. For a long time I really believed the nervous system would calm down once the body was less toxic. And to an extent, that’s true. A lot of people experience symptoms like anxiety and panic attacks due to underlying toxicity issues from mold, metals, and parasites, but the reality is that toxins are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to nervous system dysfunction. They’re often the straw that breaks the camels back, but rarely are they the ONLY issue.

This is why there are so many people out there who feel like they’ve done EVERYTHING to heal their body from xyz condition or symptom. I hear this from clients every day. They spend thousands of dollars on doctors, protocols, supplements, and therapies that might move the needle a bit but never bring them into full remission.

It’s because their nervous system is so dysregulated that their body does not feel safe to heal and let go. It’s like trying to remodel a house that’s still on fire. Before you can upgrade the kitchen, you have to put out the fire.

Read more

What Is Ozone?

Let’s first make a quick distinction — when you think of “ozone” you might be thinking about environmental ozone pollution from VOCs and fuel exhaust that determines your air quality alerts on your phone. This type of ozone is uncontrolled and damaging to the lungs. That’s not what we’re talking about here.

We’re talking about medical grade oxygen. Therapeutic ozone is a precise mixture of oxygen (O2) with ozone (O3) created by specific equipment. It’s used as a therapeutic tool to trigger adaptive cellular responses in the body. In medical settings, it’s often used as blood exposure (autohemotherapy), rectal insufflations, ozonated water or oils, and used topically for skin conditions. In the home setting, it can be used for air purification, deodorizing, washing produce, cleaning surfaces or cutting boards, and for skin/wound healing and oral health. We’ll get into all of these uses at the end, but first let’s chat about what it does in the body and why it works.

What Ozone Does To The Body

Think of ozone as a precisely controlled oxidative signal. It’s intended to be a short, controlled exposure to stimulate the immune system to heal the body. You could compare it to the sauna or cold plunge — it’s a short term exposure to an extreme condition designed to provoke the body to adapt and respond. It has strong antimicrobial effects against bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites which is why it’s widely used for treating conditions like Lyme, cancer, and other conditions with infectious connections.

Ozone works as an immune modulator — an important distinction from immune stimulators. Sometimes you don’t want to stimulate the immune system. If you’re dealing with an autoimmune condition, your immune system is already working in overdrive. The last thing you want to do is add something that will stimulate it even more! Rather than stimulating the immune system, ozone modulates the immune system which means it adapts to ramp up OR tamp down the immune system to create balance based on what your body needs.

Exposure to ozone improves your cell’s ability to utilize oxygen, improves circulation, helps the body eliminate pathogens, supports cellular detox by reducing oxidative stress, lowers inflammation, improves skin conditions when used topically, and neutralizes odors and environmental toxins in closed spaces.

How It Works

Let’s get science-y for a second. Ozone works via hormesis, which is when you briefly expose the body to an extreme condition to purposefully create oxidative stress in order to trigger a healing response. Essentially you’re telling your immune system “hey, pay attention.” For reference, in this section we’re talking about when ozone is used medically via insufflation, blood exposure, or ingested via ozonated water or oils.

Ozone triggers a stress response that sends out signals to your antioxidant pathways. When your cells detect these signals, they initiate a cellular response that leads to the increased production of antioxidants like glutathione, superoxide dismutase, catalase, and phase 2 detox enzymes. To summarize, ozone isn’t an antioxidant itself but it signals to the body to make its own antioxidants.

It also affects your mitochondria in positive ways. The low-dose stress response helps mitochondria repair and turnover quickly and makes your mitochondria more resilient. It also increases oxygen release into tissues which is helpful for tissue repair and inflammation control.

Ozone is an incredible tool for detoxing and healing from toxin related illnesses. By increasing production of glutathione, you reduce oxidative damage. Detoxing can be inflammatory if your body isn’t prepared for it, but ozone helps to make your detox pathways more efficient and less inflammatory in the process. Its antimicrobial effects help lower toxic load which unburdens your immune system and allows for it to attend to bigger problems going on in the body.

Practical Uses For Ozone

While the benefits of ozone when used medically are abundant, there are other uses for it that are more practical for use in your home.

• Air purification/deodorizer. Ozone can work as a strong air purifier and can remove odors from your home. You can deodorize a full room, specific items like shoes or clothes, or even your car. This should always be done when you are not in the room or not home since you do not want to inhale ozone directly.

• Sanitization. Since ozone kills off bacteria and pathogens, it’s a great way to sterilize things like cutting boards, kitchen surfaces, or your produce from the store. You can soak your produce in ozonated water and not only does it remove things like parasites, bacteria, and pesticides, but it also helps keep your produce fresh longer.

• Personal care products. You can use ozonated oils for things like skincare, dental care, or for wounds. I use ozonated castor oil to do castor oil packs over my liver and a cyst that I’ve had for a long time. My dentist uses ozonated water during dental cleanings and covers my gums with ozonated oil after a cleaning to kill off any lingering bacteria. You could use ozonated water at home in something like a WaterPik for oral care also!

I use the TheraO3 Bubbler from Therasage (you can use code UNFILTERED for a discount). I use it to wash my produce and to sterilize things like my wood cutting boards, especially after using them for cutting raw meat. I also plan to use it in the bath to soak clothes with mildew smells and if I’m ever fighting any sort of illness or skin condition. This specific machine is intended for water use or in tight closed spaces like your fridge to eliminate odors, so I do not use it in open air. It’s been a great addition to my nontoxic toolkit and I look forward to finding even more uses for it!

But There’s Caveats

Like anything, ozone is a tool in the toolkit to help with healing but it needs to be used properly for it to have its intended benefits. So here are some things to keep in mind if you want to start incorporating ozone into your routine.

You do not want to inhale ozone directly. The lungs are made of very sensitive tissue that doesn’t adapt well to extreme conditions (like ozone creates). You can irritate your lungs and even cause oxidative injury to them if you inhale ozone directly. This is why you should always use ozone in a well ventilated area and ideally in a room where you are not directly hanging out.

You need to support your detox pathways before using therapeutic ozone. If you’re looking to do insufflations or want to drink ozonated water, you must support your detox pathways first. I recommend consulting with a doctor before using therapeutic ozone internally to make sure your body is prepared for it. Ozone is going to kill off bacteria, viruses, and pathogens and if your detox pathways are clogged up, that waste will have nowhere to go. You’ll be left feeling sicker than before as toxins recirculate and reabsorb. Remember, the ozone isn’t detoxing you, it’s supporting your body to detox itself. This requires functional detox pathways to work properly.

Be careful around kids and pregnant women. Ozone is potent and effective and can be harmful if it’s used improperly with children and during pregnancy. If you have any sort of lung condition, I’d also be cautious about using ozone or being present when the machine is running.

The Takeaway

Ozone is an incredible therapeutic tool to use when looking to up-level your detox when fighting mold illness, cancer, autoimmune conditions, or any other toxin related illness. It’s powerful and potent which is why I recommend exercising caution when using it, but it can be such a great tool when it comes to healing from and preventing disease.

Shop Ozone Machines

TheraO3 Bubbler from Therasage (discount code UNFILTERED). This model is ideal for use in water and small enclosed spaces.

For breathable ozone, shop TheraO3 Ozone Module (discount code UNFILTERED). This model is ideal for cleaning the air in a sauna, office, hotel room, car, or anywhere you want air purification.

Red light therapy is all the rage these days and I couldn’t be happier about it. I got my first red light for my birthday in 2022 honestly just hoping it would help even a little bit with my thyroid healing journey. Little did I know, it would soon become my number one tool for healing just about anything. Let’s get into how it works, why it’s so helpful, how to buy a legit one, and the many uses I’ve found for it. This one gets science-y!

*This article is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be considered medical advice. Please consult your doctor before implementing red light therapy into your routine.

How It Works

Red light therapy isn’t just a red tinted lightbulb. It’s a specific type of bulb that emits infrared and near-infrared light at specific wavelengths that can penetrate your skin and enter your mitochondria.

Okay but for real, the mitochondria ARE the powerhouses of your cells. Think about your mitochondria like your cell’s energy factory — nothing takes place in your body without cellular energy. The body has between 30-40 TRILLION cells that all need energy to carry out every single function in your body.

When infrared and near infrared light is absorbed into the mitochondria, it increases ATP production (hello energy!), it lowers oxidative stress caused by inflammation, toxins, and infections, it reduces inflammation signaling in the body, and it releases nitric oxide from your oxygen receptors. All of these effects result in your cells repairing and regenerating. How freakin’ cool is that!

Why Releasing Nitric Oxide Is Important

Nitric oxide is a gas that your body naturally produces that serves an important job when working optimally. It’s important for opening up your veins for oxygen delivery and blood flow, it helps with nervous system signaling, kills pathogens, and plays a role in blood pressure regulation.

When things go wrong: toxins, infections, mold, parasites, EMFs, bad sleep, and inflammation all elevate nitric oxide and when it’s chronically elevated, problems occur.

Read more

Detoxing

I breastfed my son for 16 months and was DYING to get back into my detox regimen once he was weaned. For me, this looked like tons of liver support, coffee enemas, sweating, and parasite cleansing. Since I lived in mold for 2+ years during pregnancy and breastfeeding, I wanted to give myself ample time to detox from that exposure after my son was weaned and before getting pregnant again.

I started with majorly supporting my detox pathways with liver/kidney herbs, tons of minerals, and making sure I was pooping every day. Once I felt like I was in a good spot, I started incorporating anti parasitic herbs and binders to clear out any overgrowth in my gut. As I’m writing this, I’m in phase 2 of parasite cleansing utilizing different herbs to tackle different parasites. I plan to incorporate some mold binders in the coming weeks to clean up any lingering mycotoxins from our moldy house.

Eating a lot

Now is not the time for weight loss and trying to get lean. It took awhile for me to find my balance with food intake after weaning since I was eating a LOT while breastfeeding, but I’m still focusing on nourishing my body as much as possible in this season. Your hormones need proper nourishment to function so I’m focusing on getting as much protein and nutrient dense foods as possible.

I’m still getting a good amount of carbs, but I’m also focusing on lowering my sugar intake. I found myself eating whatever I wanted while I was breastfeeding because I actually had a hard time keeping weight on in that season. Now that I don’t need those extra calories, I’m trying to cut back on sugar intake to optimize my blood sugar and give my liver a break.

In the first trimester, your baby is primarily relying on your nutrient reserves for nourishment. This is why I tell moms not to stress about trying to pack in nutrition in the first trimester if they’re experiencing sickness — your nutrient reserves are there for a reason! Taking a prenatal before getting pregnant can help but eating an abundance of nutrient dense foods is going to be the best way to build up those reserves.

Building muscle

I was quite strong before getting pregnant with my son and pregnancy and postpartum just completely ate up every ounce of muscle I had. I was SO skinny once the baby weight came off, and not in a good way. I truly think my recovery from his birth was way harder than it needed to be because of my lack of exercise while I was pregnant.

So now that I’m looking at getting pregnant again in the next year, I’m trying my best to build that muscle back so it will be easier to maintain while I’m pregnant the next time. It’s SO important to me to prioritize strength and movement during my next pregnancy because being a potato during my last one didn’t do me any favors.

Nourishing my nervous system

The past year has been incredibly stressful in a lot of different ways, so getting my nervous system in check before getting pregnant is really important to me. Stressors will always come up but figuring out what works for me when it comes to nervous system regulation is so important so I can lean into those strategies when needed.

Pregnancy is a massive stress on the body so being able to implement strategies when times get hard is incredibly important. For me, that looks like listening to the Activations app, reading fiction books, prioritizing sleep, and cutting back on caffeine.

Monitoring my thyroid

Having a previous bout with hypothyroid/Hashimoto’s, keeping an eye on my thyroid hormone levels is critical before getting pregnant. Your thyroid drives ovulation and implantation so making sure the thyroid isn’t stressed and hormone levels are in optimal ranges (not just “normal” ranges) is key.

I pulled my labs a few months ago and plan to do so again soon to make sure everything is staying stable. Once I do get pregnant, I’ll continue to pull thyroid labs every trimester to monitor hormone levels since the thyroid plays such a huge role in having a healthy pregnancy.

Tracking my cycle

I use Natural Cycles to track my cycle using basal body temperature. As I’m writing this, my cycle is pretty regular but my ovulation is all over the board, likely because of the parasite cleansing that I’m doing. For that reason I’ll continue to track my cycle but start implementing ovulation sticks when I get closer to trying so I can really get a grip on when my body is ovulating.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to learn how to track your cycle. If you’re taking birth control, you will not have a cycle to track! This only applies if you’re not using any sort of hormonal contraceptive like the pill or an IUD. Learning your cycle and your body’s cues throughout the month is such valuable information whether you’re wanting to get pregnant soon or not. You can use your symptoms throughout the month as signals to determine if your hormones are working properly and guide your healing if they aren’t. Knowing your body is far more valuable than any hormone test or lab work.

Making space for another soul

This is arguably the most important work I’ll be doing as I prepare for another pregnancy and it’s work that is often overlooked. I’m mentally preparing for how to physically make space for another baby to enter our home but also making space in my mind and heart. Having another baby is something I don’t take lightly and I want to make sure that my life is set up for this new soul to thrive. This means making sure my work setup is going to work with another baby, making sure my son is in a good place to share mom and dad, and setting ourselves up financially so we don’t have to stress about money when the time comes.

I want to make sure that we’re bringing another soul into an environment where we’ll ALL be safe, healthy, and happy. This also means making sure I’m physically and mentally ready for another pregnancy, postpartum, and breastfeeding journey. It’s a lot on a woman’s body to go through everything it takes to bring a life into this world and nourish a baby for the first year. I want to make sure I’m not only physically ready for it, but also excited for the sacred work that is motherhood.

I’ll take you along for the ride as I enter this season of life again, but for now I’m just grateful to have a healthy body all to myself!

January-March: We started the year by moving out.

In December of last year we discovered our house had high levels of mold. It was a painfully long process to get a plan in place for fixing that so the first two months of this year were mostly us living in limbo waiting to get out of our unhealthy home.

January was mostly uneventful, but come February we were packing up our entire house, moving it into our garage, and moving into a rental house for 3 months while our house was remediated for mold. Packing up everything you own and moving it into your garage while taking care of a 9 month old full time was crazy work but we did it.

This is obviously a shitty situation to be in, but it had many silver linings. I feel unbelievably blessed that we were in the position to remediate our home with financial help from my parents so we could make sure our son healed from his immune issues and live in a healthy home. My parents were also remediating their house at the same time, so we got to live with them in a rental house for 3 months.

There are a lot of people who would probably be horrified to have to live with their parents for 3 months but I see it as a huge blessing that we got to spend that close time with them. I don’t look back on the remediation with fond memories but I do look back on the time we spent in that rental house together with a lot of gratitude. We got to be together while we all healed physically and emotionally from the toll the mold took on us all. My son took his first steps in that rental house, so it will forever be part of our story and (our home videos).

You can read about the whole moldy home story in the post below:

Read more